Flying High With Electric Power! The Ampeer ON-LINE! September 2009 The Club Newsletter of the Electric Flyers Only, Inc AMA Charter 2354 Walled Lake, MI, USA Editor: Ken Myers Fly the Future - Fly Electric!

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The Next Flying Meeting: Date: September 12 Time: 10:00 a.m. Place: Midwest RC Society 7 Mile Rd. Flying Field, Salem Twp., MI

What's In This Issue?
Mid America Electric Flies 2009	Upcoming E-vents	Send Ken email

Ampeer Paper Subscriber Reminder      When subscribing to or renewing the paper version of the Ampeer, please make the check payable to Ken Myers. We do not have a DBA for the Ampeer or EFO. Thanks, Ken Mid America Electric Flies 2009 A 25th Anniversary Celebration      Friday, July 10, found the Midwest RC Society members Jim Lapham and Rich Sievert out at the field early giving it a close-cropped trim and sweeping up some of the long, cut grass from previous cuttings. They were determined to have the field in the best possible conditions for all of our guests. They succeeded! The field was in great shape! Thanks Jim and Rich and Midwest. We really appreciate your work and allowing us to use this very nice field for our meet.      Many EFO members were out early and helped with the field set up. Keith Shaw came out about noon with the Ann Arbor Falcons helping him with the final set up of the large sun shades for transmitter impound and the housing of some of Keith's great fleet. By early afternoon, we were ready for our guest fliers, and they started appearing and flying. Friday afternoon is always a fun day with a lot of relaxed flying and "catching up" with our many friends. The Weather      While Friday was a beautiful July summer day for Michigan, the predictions for Saturday were not good. A front was coming through, and rain was predicted overnight and continuing into the morning. As I drove down to the field early Saturday morning, the sky was dark and threatening and some sprinkles were falling on my windshield, but the winds were not too bad. Some areas of the road were very wet, indicating that a fairly heavy rain had recently fallen, while other parts of the road were dry.      When I got there at about 7:15, Phil Alvirez of Windsor, Ontario was already flying. There was only a slight mist in the air. It continued to drizzle for a couple of hours, but that did not stop the early arrivals from getting in a few flights. There was only about ten to fifteen minutes of "significant" rain, and things started to clear as 10:00 approached. By the pilot's meeting at 10:30, it was blue sky and fair weather.      The winds remained moderate through the day until just before the Awards Presentation and Potluck Dinner.      The high winds during the potluck dinner made it very difficult for our great cook, Dave Hares, and his volunteers to keep things from flying away while the preparations were under way. The Pilots      This year, our fifty registered pilots came from all over Michigan, Ohio, Iowa, Indiana, Maryland, Florida, Pennsylvania and several places in Ontario, Canada. As always, it was great 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 Word About the Photos      A lot of folks captured the images used to illustrate this article. Ken Myers captured a few shots, Greg Cardillo captured many great images, and James Maughan, Mark Wolf and Rick Sawicki also captured images used here. Greg Cardillo has even more great photos of the 2009 event on his Web photo page found at greggallery.gmcdesign.com. Greg's great photos also cover the Mid-Am from 2004 through 2008. Another source of good photos is Matt, aka Esprit440, on RC Groups. Here's the URL rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1078360#post12640671      We give out some simple plaque awards on each flying day to recognize some of the great planes and pilots flying at the Mid-Am. Saturday's Awards Photo by Matt      Jim Beagle of Manchester, MI had a very fast, very nice looking and flying plane. He modified the GWS Corsair into a Super Corsair racing plane by extending the nose, clipping the wing and glassing the whole plane. This plane won the CD Choice award.      Bob Livin of Marion, IA had many beautiful old-timers at the meet. His Thermalleer old-timer was presented with the Most Beautiful award. It was gorgeous and flew as "good" as it looks. The transmitter gives a good idea of the size of this beauty. Photo by Matt Photo by Mark Wolf      Chris True of Great Mills, MD had several impressive ducted fans at the meet. His Jet Model Products Starfire won the Best Ducted Fan award. A Neu 1527-1.5Y in a DS-94 fan powers it. It uses a Castle Creations HV-110 ESC with a 12S 5000mAh Li-Poly. This 13.5 lb. plane also has flaps and retracts and was one of the fastest planes at the meet.      Denny Sumner of Canton, MI had several different planes at the meet on Saturday and Sunday. His Ryan's Daughter won the Best Sport Plane award. While it looks scale, it is really a great flying sport plane. It is shown here with a couple of Denny's other planes that he flew on Saturday, a 4-Star 40 and Polaris. Photo by Matt Greg Cardillo photo      Martin Irvine of Kingston, Ontario brought along his fleet of beautiful scratch-built planes. His 10 lb. French Dewoitine D.500 won the Best Scale award. It flies like a "sport plane" and is a unique scale subject. The Saturday Potluck      Once the awards were presented and the pilots' raffle held, it was time for Dave Hares and his volunteers to get the steaks and onions going for the potluck. As I mentioned previously, it was a difficult and trying task this year because of the very high winds blowing everything all over the place. Their persistence paid off with a wonderful meal.      The pilots, friends and families provided a wide selection of foods to go with the steak sandwiches.      Bill Brown, EFO and Midwest member, provided some great, homemade chili that disappeared quickly, even on this 80-degree day!      Don Belfort, Flying Models columnist from Westchester, OH, brought his "traditional" Mid-Am cake. The cake tradition has been going on for almost as long as the Mid-America Electric Flies. This year the Mid-Am celebrated its 25th year. Greg Cardillo photo      After the potluck is a wonderful time to be at this meet. It is when folks set around and "catch up", talk planes, family, politics and just relax. The gab sessions lasted well into the evening hours. It is simply a marvelous time to be at the Mid-Am.      Even though the high winds continued through the evening, many folks continued to fly wings and other things that handle the wind well. Sunday      The weather cooperated on Sunday with moderate winds and a high temperature in the low 80-degree range. There was a lot of flying taking place with three planes in the air at once for most of the day. Several pilots registered on Sunday and brought some exceptional planes with them!      Again, Keith Shaw handled the flight line beautifully as flight line coordinator. Sunday's Awards Greg Cardillo photo      Jim Young of Brighton, MI brought several of his beautifully built, self-designed models to fly. Jim kits many of these models as T&J Models. tnjmodels.rchomepage.com      His Wedell-Williams Model 44 took home the Best Scale award. It flies very well and has several very interesting design features. Great work Jim. Photo from RC Groups thread rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1002432      Mark Rittinger brought several of his famous designs to fly and donated a Quadzilla plan set for the pilot raffle. His Curare won the Best Mini-Electric.      A good way to check out Mark's other designs and contact him is to do a search on RC Groups for his name. Greg Cardillo photo      Denny Sumner built one of Mark Rittenger's Sportwin designs. He powered it with two Speed 400 7.2v brushed motors and a 3S Li-Poly. It flew well, flew fast and proved to everyone there that the Speed 400 brushed motor is not "dead". Denny received the Most Beautiful award for his effort. Photo by James Maughan      Jim Beagle had his big, beautiful Staaken R.XIVa 5-motor WWI bomber up and flying at the meet again this year. He received the Best Multi-motor award for his effort. Photo by James Maughan      Bob Livin was awarded the CD's Choice for his Thermalleer. Actually, Bob had two of these beautifully finished planes at the meet. The other is owned and flown by his flying buddy, Plenny Bates. Speaking of Awards Greg Cardillo photo      Keith Shaw and I were very surprised when Joe Hass wanted to speak at the pilots' meeting on Saturday morning. He presented us with some very nice plaques that read, "25th Anniversary Mid-America Electric Flies 2009 The Aero Modeling Community Thanks Ken Myers-Keith Shaw For Their Dedication To The R/C Community July 11th - 12th 2009".      We also received Applebee gift certificates. Thanks you very much Joe and the Aero Modeling Community! It has been our great passion and pleasure to contribute to the growth of electric power.      While Joe had the audience, he also noted that indoor flying begins at the Ultimate Soccer Arena in Pontiac, MI in November. Please check the Skymasters' Web site at skymasters.org for further details. The Flavor of the Mid-Am      It is very hard to describe what the Mid-Am is. It is friends, family, planes, camaraderie and just "plane" fun! Dave Dantonio ("Turbo") and family enjoy the camping (JM) Ray Foley's Crusin' Highly Modified 4-Star 60 (JM) Some of Jim Ryan's Helicopters (Matt) Keith Shaw's Big Ole Bearcat with its new color scheme (MW) Jim Jager's P-51 and Corsair (KM) Plenny & Bob rest in the shade (KM) A Look down the flight line Sunday morning (KM) Chris True's jets and high performance sailplane (KM) Mark Wolf's Swing Wing (Matt) Rick Sawicki & Other EFO members' planes (RS) A Dawn Patrol on Sunday The Dawn patrol awaits word to take to the air at the 2009 Mid-Am Blue sky as the adversaries' circle (MW) Don Belfort's Neiuport (MW) Martin Irvine's Neiuport (MW) Jim Beagle's Fokker D.VII (MW) Dave Grife's D.VII (MW) Even More Flying and Planes One of many Choppers that flew over the weekend (GC)      Al Muroc, ClassicAero.com came with several of his "fly off the water designs." Sikorsky S-39 Single Engine Flying Boat (JM) Loening by Classic Aero (JM)      Dave "Turbo" Dantonio helps Dave Thacker of Radical RC prepare for another flight of Radical RC's Wright Stick. Many folks had a go at the sticks of the Wright Stick all through the weekend. The conversion parts are available from Radical RC at www.radicalrc.com (KM) Dan launches one of many autogyros flown (GC) Jim Beagle's Air Force (KM) Keith Shaw's Crosby racing plane and Vought V-173 / XF5U-1 "Flying Flapjack" or "Flying Pancake" (JM) Probably the largest aerobatic planes at the meet (JM) Dave Grife's Air Force (RS) Martin Irvine's Air force Bob Livin's Caviler Mark Wolf's Little Gee Bee Our Sponsors      We would like to thank all of our sponsors for providing some very nice "goodies" for our participating pilots.      At the field we had Radical RC, RiderŐs Hobby Shop of Ypsilanti, Air, Land & Sea Hobby.com, Retro RC, T&J Models, and Mark Rittinger.      Other very welcome donations came from Tower Hobbies, SR Batteries, Windsor Propeller Company/Master Airscrew, Horizon Hobby, Dremel, Sig Manufacturing, Eagle Tree Systems, Multiplex USA/Hitec and John Mayer of West Bloomfield, MI. Keith Shaw getting ready to pass out a Taylorcraft kit donated by Rider's (GC) A HUGE thanks to all who helped Registration and Impound (KM)      Keith and I cannot even begin to 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 folks to pull it all together. From the physical field being in the best possible condition, the special parking set up, dining facilities, porta johns, registration, impound, concessions, potluck picnic grilling and myriad of other details, these behind the scenes folks are the best. Guys and gals, Keith and I cannot be more sincere when we say thank you, and we really couldn't have done it all these years without you!      Also, a special thanks goes out to the Midwest RC Society for allowing us to use their fields and flying time for the majority of our Mid-Am meets. You guys are the best! A Highlight for Me Rick Sawicki photo      I don't usually fly during the "official" flying times of the meet. Most of my flying is done on Friday afternoon and evening, Saturday morning and evening and Sunday morning.      Merle Davies, long time Ampeer subscriber and attendee of the Mid-Am, approached me and said that he wanted to see me fly, since for all these years he'd never seen me actually with a plane in the air.      I was thrilled when my flying buddy, Dave Stacer, said that he would take his ElectroFlying Models Fusion up with mine on Sunday. While Dave is far past the beginner stage of flying, he's never taken a plane that he likes as much as the Fusion up at the Mid-Am.      Everything went very well, and Merle even got to see me do one of the best landings I've ever made with my ElectroFlying Models Fusion. Whew! :-) Until Next Year      Thanks to everyone that came, everyone that helped and everyone that has ever helped to make the Mid-Am what it is today, 25 years after its very humble beginning.      To my flying buddy, Keith Shaw, thanks, you've really made this "electric thing" all happen! Rick Sawicki photo Return to "What's In This Issue"

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