Secretary's Report | Field News | The Model Shop

Winter Project | Coming Events | Club Website

Winter Project
Night Results!

BMF's "Bermuda Triangle"
Claims Another Victim


I've heard comments over the past couple of years that Winter Project Night, "Isn't what it used to be, not enough participants" and "Too many ARFs, nobody builds anymore." One member this year said he was actually embarrassed to have brought an ARF to compete. While I understand why some folks might feel this way, I happen to think that our annual springtime coming-out party was very successful this year.
... When I first joined MMAC, Winter Project Night was held at the Millis High School cafeteria due to the large number of models that were offered up for display. The fee for the use of the facility was nominal, and there were plenty of long and wide lunch tables that could be pulled together in rows. With 80+ members at the time, it was not uncommon to see 20 or more aircraft competing. Many members made attempts at scale models...and there were few ARFs to be seen because they did not represent "the builder's art" and were discouraged. I would attend out of curiosity, but wouldn't dream of competing as I didn't think my efforts would be up to standard.
... As our membership ebbed for several reasons and the cost to rent the cafeteria tripled, it was decided to begin holding the event at the Legion Hall as part of a regular meeting. As a new face on the MMAC steering committee at the time, I became keenly interested in reinventing Winter Project Night to keep people coming. Clearly, the club wanted to keep it a competitive event, but we really needed to encourage newer members to participate or risk dropping the long-held tradition from our schedule.
... We all come to this wonderful hobby for different reasons. Some of us love to build, some love to fly. There's the technically minded among us, the hot shots, the Sunday flyers. Some of us really enjoy both the building and flying sides of the hobby, but cannot invest the shop-time necessary to create all the models that we want. My hangar has a mixture of kit-built and almost-ready-to-fly planes, and I look forward to the day that I have the time to scratch build some ambitious golden-age project.
... Over the past few years, Winter Project Night has been tweaked to entice every member to aspire to be involved. To include ARFs and the basic sport plane, as well as the quarter-scale beauties whittled out of a single piece of balsa. Whatever model happened to proudly come out of a member's workshop was just fine...and that's what I saw this year, a little bit of everything. And, although the number of entrants was not at the level of seven or eight years ago, we had more members attending the meeting than we've seen in recent history! There was good conversation, exchange of ideas and assistance, plus lots of laughter. I'd call that successful by any measure.
... As for "the builder's art" being valued, our members have consistently awarded the coveted Best of Show honor to the participant who brought a scale project that was either a traditional kit or built from plans...and this year was no exception with two beautiful aircraft vying for the title.
... Congratulations to members that brought a project to display and thanks to all that attended. A personal wing-waggle to everyone that helped with set-up...especially Charlie Neville for facilitating the trophies and Bill O'Donnell, Dave Seale and Roger Gilman for helping to run the evening and tally votes.

Keep up your airspeed!
Jim McCoy

EDITOR'S NOTE: Our 21st Annual Club Banquet has been confirmed for Sunday, October 29. Ray Smith will once again entertain us with live music on keyboard and vocals.

Club president Jim McCoy brought the meeting to order at 8:00PM. A motion to accept the March secretary's report as stated in the March 2006 Yankee Flyer was made and seconded. The motion passed unanimously. The treasurer's report was read by Dave Seale. A motion to accept the treasurer's report was made and seconded. The motion passed unanimously. As of April 25th the 2006 membership count stands at 47 members.
... Jim informed all present that the AMA has recognized MMAC as a Silver Leader Club.
... A big thanks goes out to Ted Zaborski, Charlie Neville, Dave Seale, and Bill Costello for putting in the sweat equity to get the field into shape. Between the four of them they got the new sign installed, rolled the field, applied fertilizer and applied grub control.
... Bill O'Donnell will now sell the tickets for the Saito 72 Golden Knight engine raffle outside the club. Only 100 tickets will be sold. A winner will be picked after the 100 tickets are sold. A chance will cost you $5.00. Contact Bill at 508-473-4441 if you are interested in purchasing a ticket. You do not have to be present at the drawing to win. The meeting was adjourned at 8:17 and followed by the monthly raffle and Winter Project Night.

Winter Project Night Results

Best of Show
Stinson Reliant - Bill Costello

Scale
1st Corby Starlet - Dave O'Hanian

Sport
1st Four Star 60 - Bill Lloyd
2nd Freedom 20 Trainer - Kurt Hinkle
3rd Mambo Special - Peter Jordan

ARF
1st Decathlon - Bill O'Donnell
2nd Giles 202 - John Holcomb
3rd Hobbistar 60 - Dave Seale

Regards,
Roger Gilman
MMAC Secretary

TOP OF PAGE

Welcome Aboard !

Sohail Sarwar of Canton and Masood Aslam of Norwood joined us
in the month of April.

This Month's Fuel Winner

Look at that smiling face will ya! Finally we have a new fuel winner for the April raffle drawing. Bill Lloyd! Bill is known for happily stretching his season's fuel budget by flying other folks' planes. He is known by all as the official MMAC Chief Flight Instructor. Unofficially, to many of us, he is our Chief Test Pilot. So, between teaching and flight testing, that gallon should last a long time.

Congratulations Bill!

Tom Howland

Tom Howland, MMAC's oldest member, was awarded a Lifetime Membership on May 10th at his home in Framingham. The presentation was made by Jim McCoy, Bill Costello and Dave Seale. Although Tom no longer flys, he is still involved in building; his current model nearing completion is a Sig 4-Star 60.
... In younger days Tom was an avid biker for many years. This tradition has been passed down to his sons and daughters and to their children.
... During WWII, Tom rose to the rank of Lt. Commander and skippered several ships. He has "sea stories" to tell and displays a number of medals and service ribbons on his workshop wall.
... We wish him well and expect to see him visiting down at the field this season as he did last year.

TOP OF PAGE

Support Your Local Hobby Shop

Bob Rice, (center) proprietor of Hobby USA in Ashland received a one-year's MMAC honorary membership on April 10th at his store. The club's members had voted unanimously at March's meeting to present Bob with a membership card and key to the field. In addition, he received a plaque acknowledging his generosity to MMAC and long time support of the area's RC hobby over the years. Making the presentation (left to right) were Roger Gilman, Bill O'Donnell, Jim McCoy and Dave Seale.

Note: Hobby USA's telephone number in Ashland is now 508-881-1700.

TOP OF PAGE

On Friday April 14, a perfect spring day, our new field sign was erected by Ted Zaborski, Charlie Neville and Bill Costello. Ed Deveroux, long time Natick politician and Charles River's BMF charge d'affaires, was on hand to oversee the work and pronounce the project "Well done". In the meantime, during the erection, bare areas were re-seeded and the field, pilot stations and pit areas were double-rolled. A special thanks goes to Vinny Marinucci for the use of his truck in transporting the roller.
... Ted designed and fabricated the new sign over the winter. In his prior life he was a professional sign maker and it certainly shows. He used aluminum sheet with baked on enamel which should give a very long life. The legs were mounted in concrete so the sign will stand up to the winter winds. A decorative flower box is planned to be installed at the base.
... The next day we fertilized the field and support areas and then spread Grub-X over the entire runway. Bill Lloyd, John Markinac and Kevin Lowe joined Bill C and I with this aerobic exercise. And finally, the orange netting on the left side of the left-hand pilot station was replaced. After the work was done and flying resumed, it seemed as though the field allowed for better takeoffs and landings and was definitely a brighter shade of green.

The Bermuda Triangle of Medfield Strikes Again
The area over the river bounded by the RR trestle, Lookout Rock and Beaver Stump Meadow took another victim this month. As a favor, Bill Lloyd was piloting Ed Deveroux's Great Planes Big Stik 40 when it mysteriously fell from the sky, having lost all control. This plane, flying on channel 13 had gone down in the same area 18 months ago. A number of planes have gone down in the Triangle while operating on channel 12 or channel 13. A check of my flight logs show that my #25 plane went down into the Beaver Meadow Area on October 5 last year due to "Inexplicable loss of control." Also, last year my #12 Fleet bipe "was unable to recover" and went down in the same area. Both of these planes were operating on channel 12. And finally, my #7 Spacewalker flying on channel 12 lost control and went into the trees next to the RR trestle last year. Others have complained over the years of channel 12 & 13 radio "hits" resulting in unaccountable loss of control.
... Caution: In addition to possible radio interference, all pilots should be aware of erratic up and down air currents in the Triangle, especially over the river on breezy days.

TOP OF PAGE

The Model Shop: Day 1 "Imitation is the highest form of flattery" - anon.

Web Sites to Check Out

www.carcmc.org Humorous home-spun airborne videos from the Cape Ann RC Club

www.bassfiles.net/parachute.swf Don't miss this skydiver game! (sound & pix)

http://n.ethz.ch/student/mkos/pinguin.swf Smack the penguin game

www.ssrcc.org/home.htm Haute-Voltige videos on the home page

www.twoplaneguys.com/gavids1.htm 8 Unusual Aviation Videos

www.flightzone.co.za/media/harvards.wmv Water-Skiing AT-6s