Flying Site Assistance
- Joe Beshar
Coordinator, Eastern Region, Districts I–VI 198 Merritt Dr. Oradell, NJ 07649 Tel.: (201) 261-1281 Fax: (201) 261-0223 E-mail: joebeshar@juno.com
- Wes De Cou
Coordinator, Western Region, Districts VII–XI 202 W. Desert Flower Ln. Phoenix, AZ 85045 Voice: (480) 460-9466 Cell: (480) 296-9515 Fax: (480) 460-9434 E-mail: wesdecou@cox.net
Finding—Preserving—Maintaining
LEON'S SPIDER
Leon Shulman gave me an interesting accessory which I have found useful at the flying site and I would like to share it with you. It is an electrical adapter which comes completely assembled with high-quality banana plugs, molded leads, and an insulated junction sleeve to allow charging virtually from any battery plug.
It comes with banana-type plugs for your charger output leads and plugs for Futaba, Airtronics, and Hitec transmitters and receivers, plus three spare leads and a JST female lead. The list price is $24.95 but it is available at a special introductory price of $19.95 from Taisun.com, 1140 Citrus Oaks Run, Winter Springs, FL 32708; (800) 983-7050 or (407) 359-1020.
Fly Before You Buy
A recently opened hobby shop called Lighthouse Hobbies in Lockport, New York, offers a terrific hands-on promotion program that is working extremely well to bring new members to two clubs in the area: the Lake Ontario RC Flyers and the Niagara County RC Flying Club (Balsa Busters). "Fly Before You Buy" is posted clearly at the shop; all anyone has to do to get RC experience is to show up at the field where the hobby shop provides trainers and instruction.
One of the Balsa Busters members is the father of Lockport’s newest mayor, Mike Tucker, who joined his father and learned to fly this season through "Fly Before You Buy." This resulted in political connections in the area. Several city officials were contacted and were able to fly with the store trainers, learning how educational and important the hobby/sport really is. Several members of the local radio station WLVL 1340 AM agreed to come out and learn how to fly RC aircraft. Last year, 20 students from Medaille College came to fly the trainers; college officials liked what they did so well they agreed to bring more students this year.
Joe Bartholomew, owner and operator of Lighthouse Hobbies, states: "As long as we have the community on our side, we won't have to worry about losing our flying site."
Don Ross, an FSA volunteer, has long advocated developing model programs for veterans in government retirement institutions. With the vehicle of indoor flying—through the dramatic growth of micro modeling—Don demonstrated how it can be done and how well it is received and enjoyed. The photos are by Vic Bock.
A Win-Win Club Project
The second annual Teaneck Armory Wheelchair-Bound Veterans' Fly-in was a huge success. On October 15, the Metropolitan Sport Squadron hosted 16 wheelchair-bound veterans from the Paramus Veterans' Home. Our visitors had coffee and cake while they watched demonstrations of Easy Bs, Peanut Scale, Indoor Scale, and electric RC.
The veterans were fascinated by the micro RC models taking off from a card table and usually landing right back there. The really light indoor models seemed to stay up forever and brought out a lot of questions and interest. We assured our visitors that they would be able to build and fly their own models.
The club originally received permission to fly in the armory from Tom White, who rents the space for his soccer league. Tom generously allowed us to fly on Wednesday mornings when they are not playing soccer.
Last year, Major Tom Pitersky helped us organize the first annual fly-in. He put us in touch with Janet Dillon, who supervises armory rental and use. With the Major’s help, we worked with Ms. Petrelli at the Paramus Veterans’ Home to set up the event. Captain Mellen, who now runs the armory battalion, along with Charles Parsons, the Chief Armorer, provided logistic support and enthusiastic supervision.
During last year’s fly-in we found that doing this kind of community service carries big rewards. Many of our members are veterans and the pleasure we all found in showing our visitors a unique kind of good time gave us a glow that lasted all year. Some visitors had even flown in the ships that our scale models portrayed.
After coffee, we started the half-hour building program using the Canarsie Canary that was designed for just this kind of event. The Canary is all sheet balsa, has only six glue joints, and sports an adjustable-wing pylon so balance and incidence can be changed along with rudder and left aileron tabs to control turn.
The Canary was chosen as one of the Ten Best Models of 2003 by the National Free Flight Society and it does well in the hands of any beginner. Plans for the Canary appeared in the August 2001 Model Aviation and are available from AMA.
The other half of the win-win proposition is that we now have a fine flying site where we are treated as equal participants in the armory’s community service program. I believe the same arrangement can be worked out with any indoor club that has access to an armory. Scout a local armory or other potential site.
Instead of wandering in and asking if you can fly there, make up a presentation that can be shown to the person in charge. You might take a copy of this article (and another soon to be published in the National Guard newspaper) and an Alan Abriss Silent Magic video that shows the Canary being built and flown by a group of youngsters. Take a sample AMA insurance certificate and maybe a Minnow, Canary, or Butterfly model.
Offer the program as a community service idea and follow up with letters showing more pictures of indoor flying. Our club is trying to get some sort of national notice that can be shown to any armory commander. We will report on our progress in later months.
In the meantime, please send me notes on what progress you may have made in getting flying sites, perhaps using some of the above information. I can then spread the word to many other clubs. It’s possible that some armories or other military installations have large outdoor areas they use for drilling, etc., which could result in multiuse sites for all types of flying.
Silent Magic is available from Alan Abriss, 94-20 66 Ave., Forest Hills, NY 11374; E-mail: a.abriss@verizon.net.
THE HEARTBEAT OF MODEL AVIATION
Recognizing the critical need for preserving and finding flying sites, congratulations to the AMA members who have taken the initiative to register to join in addressing this important objective. They are the heartbeat of model aviation.
These people comprise a network of volunteers who serve as AMA's eyes and ears by being aware of activities in their area that could negatively impact existing flying sites. They recognize locations that have the potential for future flying sites and they advise the clubs and members in their area.
We invite and welcome all AMA members to get on board and join the team. Please contact one of the Flying Site Assistance Coordinators for registration details.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
