Genesee Valley Aero Modelers

At The Field
By Glenn Crocker

Well we passed Labor Day which means a good portion of the flying season is behind us. Notice I did not say summer! Even though it was rainy and windy there were spots of good weather that most of us took advantage of.

We had reasonable weather for the club picnic. I didn’t rain but the wind was a little feisty. The turnout was thin this year but the members that attended seemed to enjoy themselves and had more than enough to eat.

It looks like the spring mowing problem may be a thing of the past. We settled on a Kubota Lawn Tractor. This unit is a three cylinder Diesel. It is three years old but the appeal is that being a Diesel and a Kubota it should serve us well for many years. The offer was accepted so now we have a new-to-us mower. The mower can be used anytime of the season but primarily in the spring when it has historically been too wet to get the Farmall on the field. I would like to thank Ned, Lou and Dave for their work in researching potential mowers.

I would also like to thank Joe Prato for obtaining a replacement seat for the Farmall. Joe even put a nice coat of red paint on it. The old seat was becoming a potential safety hazard.

Congratulations to Joshua Bergwall. He is a new member this year and has already soloed. Charlie Vogel was his instructor. You see Charlie still has it in him.

The Titusville Terror has been threatening to head South early due to the cool summer. We passed the hat for gas money but I don’t think 22 cents will get him very far.

Tuesdays at Canadice have been well attended. Tex made the maiden voyage of his ¼ scale Taylor Craft I wasn’t there but I bet it was Tan and Brown. If you see Tex tell him you heard it makes wonderfully smooth landings. We think he has his elevator set up to Charlie specifications (LOTS of throw).

Tex also made the maiden flight of his 1.20 size Seamaster. The flight went well until after landing when the engine backfired and kicked the prop loose. So there was Tex in the boat rowing and me not there with my camera to document the moment.

Take advantage of the rest of the flying season because you know what comes next.




Thank You 2004 Mowing Volunteers

I would like to thank the mowing volunteers for their efforts this year. It was a challenging year to keep the field in good shape but you came thru with flying colors.

Think you know everything?

Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.
Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.
There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.
The average person’s left hand does 56% of the typing.
A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.
There are more chickens than people in the world.

From the newsletter of the Mississinewa Skyhawks Inc.
Dave Hecker, editor Somerset IN

F2A Mighty Buffalo
Supplied by Max Wright
Reprinted from October 2004 "FLY RC" magazine.

Mike Selby, an American living in Bangkok, Thailand has been competing in Top Gun for the past couple of years, and he likes to bring big, unusual aircraft. Last year, Mike brought a massive F7F Tigercat in a drone director version, and for 2004 he was busy scratch building this gorgeous 1/4 scale Brewster F2A Buffalo. The plane is built from modified Jerry Bates plans and is built entirely from balsa and ply, with a fiberglass cowl.

When you build a plane this unusual, there really aren't standard parts available, so everything has to be made from scratch. Mike designed the landing gear and teamed up with Darrell Tenney from Sierra Giant Scale to develop a set of retracts that would not only be 100% scale, but would also be able to hold up to the 49 pounds of weight the plane puts on them.

The plane has a sliding cockpit that reveals instruments and plaques with tiny laser-engraved lettering, and the overall level of detail is excellent. A 3W twin cylinder engine of 150cc provides plenty of power for the model. The sound of the big twin cylinder with its homemade scale exhausts and huge carbon fiber propeller is very impressive. The plane not only looks good in flight, it has a very scale sound also. A JR 1OX radio controls the plane in flight.

Mike competed in Top Gun in Team Scale this year, and the plane was flown by the capable hands of Brigadier General Ray Johns, USAF. Ray was competing at Top Gun for the first time in 2004. He did an excellent job of presenting the plane, and some of his flight scores were in the 97-point range, which is outstanding. It seems as though the USAF flight training paid off when flying the 1/4 scale model!

The judges also liked the Buffalo a lot. Mike took home both the prestigious "Critics Choice Award" and the "Engineering Excellence Award."


GVAM End of Season Dinner aka Ladies Nite Out

We are changing the location for this year’s dinner.

Location: Raymonds Valley Inn
Honeoye NY
Corner of Rt 20A and C R 37
Date: October 30^th
Time: Cocktails 6:30 PM Dinner at 7:00 PM

This year we will be having a Buffet with sliced roast beef and roasted chicken with salads and other good stuff.

Price: $15.00 per person. Includes tax and gratuity

We will be in the lower area which is separate from the main dining area and has its own ground level entrance on the East side of the building. It should be very nice.

Plan to attend and have an enjoyable evening.


Removing glue

To remove parts that were glued with epoxy, use a heat gun along with a scraper, knife blade, or screwdriver to carefully pry them apart.

Bill Kegel saying morning prayers prior to the first flight.	Dave Cook recently returned from touring the US for some flying
Ed Bond says he is ready for some fun.	Joe Somers completing a successful flight. He is having trouble with the rough water.
Lou with his very easy to fly plane and the two stick transmitter he feels very comfortable with.	The master (Tex) getting the 11 pounder ready for the lake.
Ray Edmonds Memorial Fun Fly	Spectators at the Ray Edmonds Memorial Fun Fly
More Ray Edmonds Fun Fly	Flight Line at Fun Fly.
Canadice Tuesday Morning. Can you tell who is holding the transmitter.	Max and Jim Thursday night at the Field

Items for Sale

Harry Braunlich

¼ scale Balsa USA Taube kit. Tail built $80.00
Ace Bingo (40 size) kit 70% built. $69.00
Flair (English kit) Fokker DVII NIB. It’s a rare kit (60/80 size). $60.00
Super Tiger .23R/C engine NIB. $95.00
McCoy .09 glow (excellent shape). $35.00

Harry will consider best offers He can be reached at 585-924-5532

Ralph Durbin

15 to 20 gallons of Red Max Fuel for sale. The fuel is 10% Nitro and is unopened and in the shipping boxes.

Ralph is asking $10.00 per gallon. If interested contact Ralph at 585-243-0379


Monokote by The Master Mantel
By Glenn Crocker

Any of you that have seen Tex Mantels planes are aware of his building skills. He is so good that you feel like putting a ding in his finish so people know he belongs to the human race.

Well I understand he has outdone himself. He has found a way to put Monokote on his planes without taking the backing off. The trim on his 120 Seamaster (brown of course) was found to be applied in this manner. With skills like this I am sure he will be holding seminars to describe the process.

Just think this past Tuesday I missed a photo op of him towing his Seamaster which would have made the postage page and this awe inspiring method of applying Monokote.

I will make sure my future car maintenance will be done on non float flying days.

How toe-in helps model aircraft
Submitted by Russ O’BrienN

In airplanes, toe-in aids in keeping an airplane going straight during takeoff roll and landing roll-out, particularly with tail-draggers. Airplanes with tricycle gear have the center of gravity (CG) forward of the main gear. This helps straighten out an airplane that has developed a yaw angle between where it is pointed and where it is actually going. A tail-dragger has the CG behind the main gear and a slight yaw angle is not automatically corrected but is made worse and can result in ground loop.
Here is where toe-in of the wheels helps both types. An airplane rolling straight ahead has equal drag from each of the wheels. When it takes an unwanted turn to the left, the drag from the left wheel goes to zero while the drag at the right wheel increases. The net effect is the unbalanced drag exerts a retarding force and turns the airplane back to the desired direction. This wouldn’t happen without toe-in.
From Plane TalkAerobatic Aces
Bob Van Singel, editor Three Rivers MI


Holes for wing dowels

A standard scenario for installing holding dowels in the leading edge of the wing is to put the wing in place on the fuselage, mark it through the pre-drilled holes, remove it, and drill for the dowels. The problem is when you drill, the drill bit "wanders" slightly and the alignment is off.

Solution? Use a piece of brass tubing as a hole saw. Cut teeth in one end and glue into a piece of hardwood for a handle. Now you can start the hold with the wing in place. Pushing and twisting the tubing allows you to cut right through balsa and even light plywood with little effort. Put a small piece of dowel in your first hole so the alignment stays accurate for the second hole. Note: A longer piece of brass tubing, with teeth on the end, can cut nice holes in the aft fuselage for nyrod exits.

From Plane Talk Aerobatic Aces
Bob Van Singel, editorThree Rivers MI

Musings of a former pilot
Author Unknown

Anything that screws itself into the sky flies according to unnatural principles. Consequently, old high-time helicopter pilots are a bundle of tightly screwed nerves.

Never sneak up behind one and clap your hands. He will instantly dive for cover and most likely whimper … then get up and smack you.

There are no old helicopters lying around airports like you see old airplanes. There is a reason for this. Come to think of it, there are no old helicopter pilots either.

You can always tell a helicopter pilot on a train, airliner, or in a car. He is the one who never smiles because he is listening for the significant sound that tells him there is a problem with the engine.

Helicopter pilots fly in a mode of intensity, actually more like "spring loaded," while waiting for pieces of their ships to fall off. Flying a helicopter at any altitude over 500 feet is considered reckless and should be avoided. In fact, flying at any altitude that precludes a landing in less than 20 seconds is downright foolhardy because you have about one second to lower the collective in an engine failure before it becomes unrecoverable. Once you’ve failed this maneuver, the machine flies about as well as a 20-case Coke machine. A perfectly executed autorotation only gives you a glide ratio slightly better than that of a cement building block.

When the blades of your rotor are leading, lagging, flapping, and moving faster than your fuselage, there’s something unnatural going on. While hovering, if you start to sink a bit, you pull up on the collective while twisting the throttle. Simultaneously, you push with your left foot (more torque) and move the stick left to hold your spot. If you now need to stop rising, you do the opposite in that order.

When you feel a sinking sensation in your gut (low "g" pushover), you are instantly reminded that you are flying a two-bladed, under slung, teetering rotor system, and you are about to do a snap roll to the right and crash. As a matter of fact, any aerobatic maneuver should be avoided. Don’t push your luck. It will run out soon enough anyway.

If everything is working fine on your helicopter, consider yourself temporarily lucky; something is about to break.

The thing is helicopters are different from airplanes. An airplane, by its nature, wants to fly, and if not interfered with by unusual conditions or by an incompetent pilot, it will fly. A helicopter does not want to fly. It is maintained in the air by a variety of forces and controls working in opposition to each other, and if there is any disturbance in this delicate balance, the helicopter stops flying There is no such thing as a gliding helicopter.

This is why, in general, airplane pilots are open, clear-eyed, buoyant extroverts and helicopter pilots are brooding, introspective anticipators of trouble. They know that if something bad has not happened, it is about to. Remember the fighter pilot’s prayer: "Lord, I pray for the eyes of an eagle, the heart of a lion, and the balls of a helicopter pilot."

From The Cam Journal
Central Arizona Modelers Inc.
Marvin Hinton, editor
Sedona AZ


Why do engines lean out and quit?

1) The high-speed needle valve is too lean.
2) The muffler pressure line came off.
3) The fuel filter has opened up (the halves are loose).
4) There’s a split in the fuel line, usually at the fuel tank.
5) The fuel tank is foaming, causing air bubbles in the fuel line.

From Flight Lines
St. Croix Valley R/C Club
Lea Rasmussen, editor
Scandia MN