Genesee Valley Aero Modelers

Editor: Glenn Crocker
21 Highview Trail
Pittsford, NY 14534

It seems the last two years we took the shelters down, the weather warmed up and we had some spectacular flying at the end of the season.

We also plan to move the benches John Woodruff made into the hanger with the appropriate bird protection. We also will move the mowing reels into the hanger also. If you happen to get to the field and see the stuff missing, we haven’t been ripped off.

Well we are in the wind down phase of 2002 flying. There are still a number of good flying days left before the wimps head south for the winter and the macho guys put the skies on for some winter flying.

This flying season has been outstanding after a cold wet start. Most of the guys managed to stay out of the trees and landed with the wheels on the bottom.

I thought for a while one morning we were going to have an altercation. Tom Brown managed to find the top branches of a tree. This was not any old tree. This was the tree that Ned Holmes had ended up in about 4 times over the years. After so many arrivals in this tree we were afraid Ned would claim ownership and take exception to anyone else using it for a landing field. Fortunately Ned was not too attached to this tree and did not charge Tom a landing fee. I did overhear them mentioning something about a chainsaw as they went to their cars.

Float flying had more smooth water days this year than I can remember. Everyone had an enjoyable season. Rumor has it that Tom Brown is trying to find a wing kit for an ARF Seamaster. It seems it was something like a stall a tight turn a spin …. you can surmise the rest. We are not intentionally picking on Tom this month but you have to admit it’s a lot of fun.

Ned is trying to find cast Iron straps for the struts on his New Cub. It seems the straps have been failing (probably due to vibration). He thinks he has the situation under control and has had a number of successful flights.

Abe Sickles had a new plane up for its first flight. It is one of those slow close in does everything planes. The first flight was exciting. The initial roll rate was about 4000 revs. per second with a foot and a half elevator throw. Once we tamed down the control surfaces the plane flew very well.

Remember the GVAM Dinner on the 12^th of October. See you at the field. Watch for the plane eating trees (and Walt).

The GVAM Annual Dinner is planned for October 12^th at the Holloway House in Bloomfield, NY.
We have set up a call system to contact the membership to see if they are interested in attending.

If for some reason you are not called and want to attend just show up at 7pm on the 12^th. The meal is $18.25 per person and includes tax & gratuity. The club will pay for the junior member’s dinner.

This time of year you do not have to worry about slippery roads. Plan on joining us for an enjoyable evening.

The short answer is... DON'T! Now for the why. When you connect a pack to a charger, you connect the plus positive from the charger to the plus positive, of the pack.

If you run a pack all the way down and one of the cells reaches zero before the rest of the cells in the pack (and it will most of the time), how is it connected in the circuit? It's connected plus to minus because the cells are wired in series in the pack. The result is that the rest of the cells in the pack will now start to charge the zero cell backwards because it's connected plus to minus rather than plus to plus as it should be for charging. The end result is that you reverse the polarity of that one poor cell and ruin it.

Now this can't happen if you just put a pack on

the shelf and let it self-discharge over a long period of time because there's no complete circuit. The pack isn't plugged into anything.

Likewise, it can't happen to a single cell that you run all the way down because it isn't running down to zero that does the damage age. It's the remaining cells in a multi-cell pack that turn into a backwards charger if one cell is run all the way down that does the damage.

I’ve been telling people this for 20 years but I still see people running their packs down after every flight. I've given up trying to explain it to them because the attitude usually is "Everyone else is doing it." I was happy to see that Bob Kopski in his Model Aviation column a few months ago told people that he finally came to the conclusion that you should 't run a pack down after flying.

When you’re done flying, let the pack cool off until it's just barely warm to the touch and then either put it back on charger or go home.

(Author and publication unknown)

"Is that a dog you got back there?" he asked.

"It sure is," I replied.

Puzzled, the boy looked at me and then towards the back of the van. Finally he said, "What’d he do?"

From The Pilots Log
Fort Worth Thunderbirds RC Club
Charles Osborne, editor
Fort Worth, TX