District X Report - 2004/12
District coverage
Arizona / California / Hawaii / Guam / Nevada / Utah
Contact
Richard Hanson Vice President
PO Box 3312 Scottsdale, AZ 85271 Voice/Fax: (888) 899-3548 E-mail: richh@ama10.org District X web site: www.ama10.org
Associate Vice Presidents
- Darwin Barrie — Scottsdale, AZ — (480) 946-8955
- Don Goeschel — Lancaster, CA — (661) 940-6066
- Don Gulihur — Santee, CA — (619) 449-8397
- Marc Karpowich — Logan, UT — (435) 752-3639
- Dave Pinyu — Las Vegas, NV — (702) 656-1772
Frequency Coordinators
- Eloy Marez — Santa Ana, CA — (714) 540-4935
(See last month's column for additional AVPs and Coordinators)
First Weedwacker Aero Squadron Fun-Fly
The First Weedwacker Aero Squadron of Santee, California, held its fun-fly on July 17, 2004. It turned out to be one of the best fun-fly turnouts the Weedwackers have ever had.
Gold Country Flyers — Amador High School Kids College
Bill Kosenski of the Gold Country Flyers in Northern California submitted this information about his club’s participation in a school-sponsored project.
The Gold Country Flyers R/C club of Amador County participated in the Amador High School Kids College held in March 2004. Seventy children attended the club-sponsored class to learn about model airplane building, flying, and careers in aviation.
After the kit-building session, R/C operation, and engine demonstrations were completed, all of the kids were given hand gliders to fly on the football field. Several members of the Gold Country Flyers helped build the gliders so each student was able to take one home.
Harbor Soaring Society — Casey Adamczyk
The following report was submitted by newsletter editor Fred Hesse of the Harbor Soaring Society of Costa Mesa, California. The report includes an account by Chris Adamczyk, father of Casey Adamczyk, who is a member of the 2004 US F3J Junior Team (R/C glider).
“I have been flying with the Harbor Soaring Society for 9 or 10 years. My son Casey expressed an interest in coming to the field with me when he was eight. He will be 15 on May 14 so, as you can see, he has been flying longer than some of our members. We both have had a lot of help from other members throughout the years and we’ve met many other modelers in contests from Visalia to Poway, and Phoenix to Colorado.
“Roughly two years ago at a fun-fly contest in Laguna Niguel, Larry Jolly asked if Casey would be interested in going to Colorado to try out for the USA F3J team. Without much thought, we agreed and our adventure began. At that stage Casey had transitioned from his Sapphire to a Graphite and we were having fun. We then found out that our Graphite was not the right type of airplane for the launching technique and the task required.
“We now have two Zeniths for light air and one Starlite for heavy air, since the ultimate task is to return to the field after you have gone all out to get the time part of the task completed. We practice as much as we can along with school and youth-group activities.
“We like to launch on a high start as it saves taxing the winch, especially if we are doing landing practice when we only want one-to-two minutes of air time. It’s also fun to thermal out from a 50-foot launch. We practice flying 10- and 15-minute flights to push the envelope and build Casey’s concentration. Hand launch is very important. It’s fun and you get to read the air better. Generally you are flying close to yourself so your control inputs are easy to read and you learn more from your mistakes.”
Since this report, Casey has gone on to qualify for the F3J Junior Team which ultimately took second place at the World Championships in Canada. More photos and details can be found on the Harbor Soaring Society’s web site at www.hss.org.
The Harbor Soaring Society is particularly proud of club member Casey Adamczyk who competed his way onto the United States’ F3J Junior team, which won second place at the 2004 F3J World Championships in Canada. The front row includes Casey Adamczyk (L), Paul Griebenow, and Joe Newcomb.
JR-SCAT Aerobatic Competition — Crystal Wilson (Morgan)
“I am Crystal Wilson (Morgan), a member of the Channel Islands Condors in Camarillo, California, and the first female to enter in the JR-SCAT aerobatic competition. I’ve been flying for approximately five years with different types of aircraft and have a Goldberg Ultimate 10-300 with an O.S. .120 Surpass II engine with pump.
“I am happy to report that our JR-SCAT event, August 28–29, went well. We did have a midair collision on Saturday which sent two of the pilots home a day early. All in all, I really enjoyed it. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to fly in the event as planned as my Goldberg Ultimate crashed two days before the event during practice. Instead, I judged the aerobatic portion of the contest and got to see the various performance flights. I hope to participate in next year’s contest.
“I’m not doing very well financially and need help obtaining a great aircraft for this sport. But it’s making me more interested each day in being able to fly R/C aircraft with precision and consistency. I’m semi-homeless and underemployed working part-time, but I still fly because it is my passion.”
Thanks, Crystal, and best wishes in your R/C aerobatic endeavors. And thanks to all for the great submissions to this month’s column.
Till next time... Keep 'em safe and keep 'em fly'n. RH
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
