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Flying High With Electric Power!
The Ampeer ON-LINE!
Fly the Future - Fly Electric! |
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Site Table of Contents
| President: | Vice-President: | Secretary-Treasurer: |
| Ken Myers | Richard Utkan | Rick Sawicki |
| 1911 Bradshaw Ct. | 240 Cabinet | 5089 Ledgewood Ct. W. |
| Commerce Twp., MI 48390 | Milford, MI 48381 | Commerce Twp., MI 48382 |
| (248) 669-8124 | (248) 685-1705 | (2480 685-7056 |
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| Board of Directors: | Board of Directors: | Ampeer Editor |
| David Stacer | Arthur Deane | Ken Myers |
| 16575 Brooklane Blvd. | 21690 Bedford Dr. | 1911 Bradshaw Ct. |
| Northville, MI 48168 | Northville, MI 48167 | Commerce Twp., MI 48390 |
| (248) 924-2324 | (248) 348-2058 | (248) 669-8124 |
| The Next Meeting: Date: Saturday, August 5 Time: 10 a.m.
Place: Midwest RC Society 7 Mile Rd. Flying Field | ||
| Reminder About EFO Flying Season Meetings Ken shares that EFO Flying meeting dates are tentative. | Mid-America Electric Flies 2017 - The 33rd Annual The report on this event. |
| Upcoming Electrics Over White Lake Upcoming electric meet announcement. | CARDS 7th Annual Electric Fly In Event Announcement |
Dates given for the flying season EFO flying meetings are tentative. The date depends on the weather and may change from the one noted in the monthly Ampeer. The EFO Web site has the most current information posted. Also, emails are sent to EFO members if a date change is required. |
The 33rd Annual By Ken Myers A Beautiful Michigan July Weather Weekend Again this year, Southeastern Michigan had had no appreciable rain in June and through the first week of July. Many cities had fireworks bans. The flying field was in good shape, with close cropped, dry grass. The Midwest RC Society's mowing team had done a great job on Wednesday. Even though it was quite hot and humid on Friday, the set up went quite smoothly. Denny Sumner, Roger Wilfong, Pete Foss, Keith Shaw, CJ Wysocki and myself set up the field for the upcoming meet. The signs were set out along the road, as well as other small details at the field. Keith Shaw's two large canopies were also erected. One of Keith's canopies is used to house the registration and the other is where Keith parks his fantastic models. The dining canopy, tables and chairs, from Kenny & Company (Party Rentals), had arrived late Friday afternoon. The dining canopy was set up. The tables and chairs were also set up. By mid to late afternoon on Friday, many of our out of town guests started arriving. Mark Wolf (Brownsburg, IN), Don Belfort (West Chester, OH), John Kauk (Topeka, KS), Martin Irvine (Kingston, Ont., Canada), Jim Ryan (Cincinnati, OH), along with local fliers, set up their E-Z UP canopies and started some evening flying. It was a beautiful evening, but there were showers in the area around the flying, but the field only received a few drops. Friday afternoon and evening is always fun. There is a lot of relaxed flying and "catching up" with our many friends. Friday, and Friday evening, is a great experience at the Mid-Am. On the way home from the flying field that evening, I drove under some pretty heavy rain showers and thought, "I wonder if it doing this at the field?" It didn't, so there was no problem. While the EFO and Ann Arbor Falcons members were setting up the field for the Electric event, there was also set-up for the Price-less sale and the open air swap being set up by Pete Waters of the Midwest RC Society, whose field was being used for the meet. Many folks may remember Pete as the owner of Kraft Midwest, an RC repair business specializing in Kraft radios, but repairing almost any brand. You do remember Kraft radios, right? Saturday's weather was sunny and reasonably cool for southeast Michigan in July. The skies had some clouds, but it was sunny and the high temperature was only somewhere in the mid-70s. Nice. Unfortunately, there was a bit of a crosswind, off and on, all day. The excellent weather held through the whole day, including the Saturday evening steak sandwich and pot-luck dinner. Sunday was warmer and sunny with lightly shifting breezes. It was a great day for flying. This year, our thirty-seven registered pilots came from all over Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Kansas, and Ontario, Canada. It was a lot of fun catching up with our "old friends" and making new friends. That is what this meet is really about. Okay, the really "cool" planes are a very nice bonus. A lot of folks captured the images used to illustrate this article and more are posted online in RC Groups Events section for the Mid-Am 2017. Even more photos, by Rick Sawicki can be found here.
John Kauk's can be found here. I am sincerely indebted to C.J. Wysocki, Steve Labuta, Rick Sawicki and Hong, of RC Groups, for their great photos. 
Ken Myers photo Don Belfort, of West Chester, OH flew a beautiful Convair 240 in Mohawk airlines livery. It received the Best Scale Award. It weighs in at 12 lb., has a span of 83" and 1000 sq.in. of wing area. 
C.J. Wysocki photo Mark Rittinger, of Roseville, MI, brought an impressive little Me-262 electric ducted fan (EDF) and was awarded Best Ducted Fan. It is extremely impressive in flight for such a 'tiny' fellow. It is scratch built and uses the electronics from a UMX A-10. 
Rick Sawicki photo Denny Sumner, of Canton, MI, was awarded Most Beautiful for his Monocoupe 90A. The plane not only looks great, but it flies very nicely.Details of Denny's Monocoupe build can be found on RC Groups. 
John Kauk photo Denny Sumner, of Canton, MI, flew his plans built AcroStar Biplane. Denny was awarded CD's Choice for his fine effort.
CJ Wysocki photo of the Trishula Mark Rittinger, of Roseville, MI, flew his new Trishula sport plane. It is a great flying plane and Mark was awarded Best Sport Plane for it on Saturday.
Tim Young won the Foam Flurry Event. The event was new to the Mid-Am this year. It was an all up/last down type of event for Not Conventional Materials aircraft. Tim flew a Flite Test Spitfire for approximately 25 minutes. Great job Tim. Here is a link to a build and video of a build for a Flite Test DTFB (Dollar Tree Foam Board) Spitfire. 
Rick Sawicki photo Tim's Spitfire can be seen in the middle of this group of not conventional materials aircraft, towards the top. 
CJ Wysocki photo Martin Irvine, of Kingston, Ont. Canada, flew a beautiful Nieuport 11. It received the Best Scale Award. It looks great in its Italian livery and flies extremely well! 
CJ Wysocki photo Mark Rittinger, of Roseville, MI, flew his small, Me 262. It was awarded Best Mini-Electric.
Steve Labuta photo Jim Young, of Brighton, MI, flew his beautiful, self-designed and built Monocoupe 90A. It received the Most Beautiful Award on Sunday.
CJ Wysocki photo Tom Bacsanyi, of Farmington Hills, MI, received the Best Multi-Motor Award on Sunday for his VQ Legend P-38. 
Rick Sawicki photo There was a new award this year for the Most Unique Not Conventional Materials Aircraft. Pete Foss of Oxford, MI won for his Snoopy on a skateboard, complete with flapping ears. 
Dennis Sumner photo Sunday's CD's Choice award was given to Denny Sumner of Canton, MI for his WACO SRE.
Rick Sawicki photo Denny Sumner receives an award from Ken and Keith on Saturday. Awards are presented both days. Once the awards were presented, and the pilots' raffle held, it was time for the Annual Steak Sandwich and potluck dinner. Unfortunately, Dave Hares, our head chef, had was just out of the hospital and recovering. Fortunately for us, he was still able to bring all the steak sandwich supplies and oversee the dinner. Dave Stacer and Christine Myers prepared the steaks and onions and got everything set up under Dave's direction. Dave Stacer had already worked pilot registration and then helped out with the potluck. He provided the much needed help in preparation and clean up. A HUGE thanks go to both Daves and my Chris. 
Ken Myers photo As usual, Don Belfort, from West Chester, OH, brought his "traditional" Mid-Am cake. This year's cake celebrated the 33rd Mid-Am. The cake tradition has been going on for almost as long as the Mid-America Electric Flies. Unfortunately, it had been cut before I got a photo of it this year, but it does say, "Mid Am 33", and it was as delicious as ever. Thanks AGAIN Don!!! During, and after, the potluck is a wonderful time to be at this meet. This is the time when folks continue to get in more flights as well as 'sit around' and "catch up", talk planes, family, and politics and just relax. It is simply a marvelous time to be at the Mid-Am. This great tradition WILL BE CONTINUED! It is just too great to let go! We would like to thank our sponsors for providing some "goodies" for our participating pilots each day. Mark Rittinger provided two sets of plans for his Pharaoh sport plane.
A very special thanks goes to Joe Hass for making the great donations from Hobbico and Beacon Adhesives happen! Hobbico: Tactic DroneView FPV Wi-Fi Mini Camera Beacon Adhesives: Beacon Adhesives: several 1 oz. FOAM-TAC Adhesive FOAM-TAC Adhesive Retro RC/Mark Freeland:
Roger Wilfong a small, complete ARF Spitfire Keith Shaw - many vintage, full-scale aircraft books (Again they proved to be a HUGE hit this year! KM) Keith and I thank all of our sponsors very much. We know that the registered pilots, who received items from our sponsors, are very grateful as well. Keith and I cannot thank enough all of the folks from the EFO, Ann Arbor Falcons, and Midwest RC Society who helped to make this meet the success it is. It is pretty easy to go to a "meet" and enjoy the facilities and forget that it takes a lot of dedicated and hard working people to pull it all together. The physical field needs to be in the best possible condition, the dining facilities, registration, concessions, potluck picnic grilling and a myriad of other details need to be taken care of. Our behind the scenes folks are the best! Guys, Keith and I cannot be more sincere when we say thank you, and we really couldnÕt have done it all these years without you! Keith Shaw handled the flight line beautifully on Saturday and Sunday as the flight line coordinator. He also put on noon demonstration flights both days. Parking and parking directions were handled by the Midwest RC Society members Barb and Bob Weak and Arthur Deane. Denny Sumner and Dave Stacer handled registration. Gotta love these guys. They are there all of the time to do anything and everything asked of them and more. Thanks so much! Keith and I sincerely thank Denny Sumner, David Stacer, Dave Hares, Arthur Deane, Roger Wilfong, Barb and Bob Weak, C.J. Wysocki, Pete Waters, Charlie Dochenetz, Jim Ouillette, Mel Berent, and Greg Eilers for all of their super help and support. There were more members of the EFO, Ann Arbor Falcons and the Midwest RC Society who pitched in with other spur of the moment jobs. Thanks to you folks as well! Also, a special thanks goes out to the Midwest RC Society for allowing us to use their field and flying time for the majority of our Mid-Am meets. You guys and gals are the very best! Many folks attending the Mid-Am know Dave as THE MAN attending to the grilling at the Saturday evening potluck. For more than 20 years he's filled this extremely important position. Besides cooking the steaks and sauteing the onions, he has been the organizer of the potluck and chief wrangler to see that everything is there for our guests. That is no small feat, especially this year after just getting out of the hospital. Thanks again Dave for another special year at the traditional Saturday evening potluck. Also, a huge thanks to Dave Stacer for pitching in after working a full day at registration. Dave Stacer was also able to give a helping hand this year during the potluck setup and clean up. Thanks to my wife, Chris, for also stepping up and filling in this year. There are all kinds of flying vehicles that take to the air at the Mid-Am. 
Rick Sawicki photo This is the first year that we have recognized the model BUILDERS who use Not Conventional Materials to construct their aircraft. These types of aircraft are becoming popular with younger builders and we will continue to encourage this segment of the hobby with recognition for their efforts.
Hong photo Robyn Rissell, of Orion Township, MI, demonstrated electric power control line flying on both Saturday and Sunday. That is Robyn at the controls and Rick Sawicki, a control line expert, hand launching for him. 
Hong photo The Yak UT-1 Bottom View On Saturday, Keith flew his Yak UT-1 and his new Ryder 6 8 Ball. The winds were quite brisk, and shifting. Keith handled both planes well, even though he'd had little time on his new 8 Ball. 
C.J. Wysocki photo Yes, that is an inverted pass. On Sunday, he flew the 8 Ball again, and also brought out a crowd favorite, the Bugatti. Keith flew the 8 Ball even better on Sunday. The twin engine powered Bugatti is thrilling to listen to as Keith flies his precision routine with it. 
C.J. Wysocki photo Gotta love the sound of those two props!
Jim Ryan, designed, published and produced kits for several very successful 'Speed 400' stand-off scale kits. He flew the P-38 once again at this year's Mid-Am. Also in the photo are his P-47 and two of helicopters that he brought. 
Ken Myers photo Wade Wiley of Ferndale, MI, flew this beautiful Blackburn with onboard sound. 
C.J. Wysocki photo Pete Foss, of Oxford, MI, took Wile E Coyote for a drive and then a flight. 
Rick Sawicki photo The start of the NCM Foam Flurry, all up/last down event. 
Rick Sawicki photo Jim and Denny's Monocoupes together. 
C.J. Wysocki photo Mark RittingerÕs P-51B. 
Hong photo Tim Young doing a bit of FPV flying while Jim Young spots. 
Don's Convair on a fly-by with gear up. 
Rick Sawicki Photo Keith and Ken get 'em flying with the pilotsÕ meeting on Saturday morning. 
Rick Sawicki photo This big and beautiful old timer belongs to Gordon Pearson of South Lyon, MI. 
Hong photo Jim Ryan's Cheyenne, which is beautifully crafted, flies as good as it looks. Keith and I cordially invite you to join us for the 34th Annual Mid-America Electric Flies in July, 2018. See you then! Upcoming Electrics Over White Lake
On Saturday, July 22, the Pontiac Miniature Aircraft Club (PMAC) present Electrics Over White Lake at their flying field in White Lake, Mi. AÊmap to their flying field available on the PMAC Web site. "Registration begins at 1 p.m. and flying is from 1:30 p.m. - 6 p.m. "There will be awards for the top two places in each category; Best Scale, Best Ducted Fan, Best Sport Plane, and Pilots' Choice. Planes must fly to be considered for an award. "PMAC wants fliers to join them for a day of fun and relaxed Electric Flying! Even through this is called a contest, the purpose is fun and enjoyment in sharing the electric experience! NO LANDING FEEÊ AMA membership required for all pilotsÊ P.A. AnnouncerÊ Daily/Yearly State Park Pass RequiredÊ 400' maximum altitude Come Look, Listen & LearnÊ Fly Electric - Fly the Future
Upcoming Event
When: Friday August 25 4:00 pm - 9:00pm and Saturday August 26 from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm
Landing Fees: $15 (includes Pilot Pizza & Soda ) CD Marv Thomson 517-8027675 or mthomson@wowway.com Website: www.cardsrc.com Address: 8328 Otto Rd, Grand Ledge, Mi 48837 To Reach Ken Myers, you can land mail to the address at the top of the page. My E-mail address is: KMyersEFO@theampeer.org |
