Conference vmszoo::rc

Having given you a general overview of the intent and flavor of our 1/8 Air 
Force, Fall R/C Scale Fly-In, lemme' now give you a little detail and, maybe,
an impression or two.

New planes at the meet included:  a giant-scale, beautifully executed, Great
Lakes bipe; a gorgeous giant-scale Monocoupe (by the same fellow who had the
Great Lakes), powered by a Saito, 5-cylinder radial, 4-cycle engine; a giant
Diabolo, powered by a Sachs-Dolmer 4.7; a 50% complete Byron F-15; a simply out-
standing FW-190A (from the Don Lien kit) newly completed but not quite ready for
flight---this bird was one of the finest scale models I've ever seen...it had
"every" last infinite detail on it including the bolt-on external armor plate 
used by a special squadron formed for the purpose of "ramming" enemy bombers...
I've had the pleasure of seeing many of Dave Platt's magnificent models, but 
this one even surpassed Dave's efforts. My favorite part of any scale model, 
the cockpit, was so realistic you felt you could climb in, fire up and takeoff!
No detail was overlooked including fully detailed wheel wells.  Only problem
with this bird is all that gingerbread adds weight and finished weight, depen-
ding on how much nose-ballast is required, is estimated at 27-to-30 pounds. 
This definitely gets my attention as there's a better than even chance I may
be called upon to do the test flights (the plane was built by a close friend in
Sedona, AZ).

Some impressions:  the Saito, 5-cylinder radial was a really strange sounding 
mill...not anything like I might've expected and nothing like a full size radial
sounds either.  But it WAS a strong running engine, unlike many radials I've 
seen in the past; I've never seen the equal of Frank Noll's flying skills except
from full scale airshow pilots like Leo Loudenslager, Paul Poberezny and others;
A Bert Baker P-47, powered by a modified S.T. 3000 is a joy to fly, even at the
elevated weight of 28 pounds...I had 3-complete flights on this bird, from take-
off through landing, over the weekend and enjoyed it to the hilt!  It was solid
as rock, smooth and precise on the controls and may have been one of the most
realistic flying ships at the meet (gives me "some" comfort if I'm called on to
test-hop the FW)...it had to be one of the most flown, logging 8 flights on Fri-
day alone and at least 8 more during the official meet;  Dan Parsons' MB-5 was
the fastest non-jet airplane at the meet, clocked by a police radar gun at just
over 120 mph...power is an old "original," small shaft, small carb O.S. .60 FSR
like the one I use in the MiG-3 (Gawd! I wish you could still get that engine);
the Violett Sport Shark makes me verrry uncomfortable...it was clocked at over
160 mph and every time the pilot lined it up for a pass, I realized that, if 
"anything" at all was to fail, there'd be no place to hide!...just too d**n fast
for my taste.

New "gadget" seen:  a fellow, just spectating at the meet, displayed a simply
magnificent, hand-made, 9-cylinder, radial engine intended for use in a giant-
scale Corsair.  The engine was expertly machined around 9 Saito .80, 4-cycle 
cylinders, giving it a total displacement of 7.2 cu. in.  The gearing behind the
crankcase cover was a work of art.

Observation:  while the concept of a scale fun-fly (originated, we think, by the
1/8 Air Force almost 12 years ago) is no longer a new thing, it seems to be as
alive and well as ever.  Where a local scale "contest" will draw 20-24 entries,
the fun-fly continues to attract non-contest minded scale enthusiasts in droves
and the master-scalers still enjoy flying their Masters-class models for the 
pure, unadulterated fun of it with no marbles at stake!  Final tally for this
meet was 87 aircraft registered, several of which will be flown in next week-
end's QSAA 1/4 scale meet and the following weekend's U.S. Scale Masters Cham-
pionships in Las Vegas...and virtually all of these flew in our humble fun-fly.

Adios,	Al (I RC AV8)

    At this writing, the annual Spring version of our One-Eighth Air
    Force R/C Scale Fly-In is barely a month away.  Things are shaping
    up well and we expect to easily equal and most probably increase
    the attendance of past years.  Scheduled for March 19th/20th, the
    bash will be held this year at the Arizona Model Aviators' field
    on the east side of the valley near Mesa, AZ.  This is one of the
    4-paved public fields developed and hosted by local clubs and is
    one of the most scenic/picturesque being surrounded by beautiful
    mountainscapes including the forboding escarpment of the Supersti-
    tion Mountains.  Tall Saguaro cacti abound, adding to the grandeur
    of this uniquely Arizona site.  (It is, of course, adviseable to
    avoid these [upwards of 35' tall] hazards to aerial navigation as 
    they'll do a real number on yer' model, not to mention yer' pride.)
    
    Saturday night's banquet will be held "in" the Champlin Fighter
    Museum, a mere 5-miles west of the AMA field.  Champlin's is the
    home of some of the finest [mostly flyable] fighter aircraft from
    WW-i thru Korean war in the world, what better location for a
    banquet, eh?                     
    
    Many "name" scale modelers you may be familiar with have already
    committed to attend, including: Dennis Crooks (from Chicago with
    his folding-wing TBM Avenger, 2nd @ `87 Masters), Charlie Chambers 
    (from Florida with his "Contrary Mary" metal covered P-51), Frank
    Tiano (from Florida with a great Kawasaki Hein [Tony]), Dan Parsons
    (of course, from ABQ with his de Havilland Hornet), Bert Baker, Diego
    Lopez and Gene Barton (from California with 3, count `em, 3 Baker
    P-38's), Don Lien (from Riverside, CA with [we hope] his new Hellcat),
    Dave Platt [maybe] (with a new 92" Hurricane he's been secretely
    working on), Jim Van Loo (one of Byron's 1/5 AF boys from Ida Grove,
    IA), Lary Wolfe (of Jet Hangar Hobbies with his new F4 Phantom) and 
    many, many more.  Attendance should equal or exceed 175 pilots flying 
    over 225 scale ships, mannnny of Masters quality!  
    
    I'll be writing a report for you after the meet, of course, but
    better yet, if any of you have an opportunity to be in the Phoenix
    area next month, be sure to set some time aside to attend the original
    and, we humbly believe, the best R/C scale fly-in in the country.
    
    Adios amigos,	Al

    holy cow, sounds like the scale all-star game.  i wanna go and
    spectate!  how open is it to the general public?
    
    drooling in ma.
    kevin

    Dear "Drooling,"
    
    How does WIDE OPEN to the public sound??  Historically, we'll entertain
    as many as 8,000+ spectators over the 2-day weekend.  The only charge
    is a $1.00 per car "donation" and, if a person doesn't feel like
    he wants to "donate," he gets is free.  We make operating funds
    from parking donations, refreshments and raffles which is split
    50-50 with the hosting club.  Extensive PR is done locally in the
    newspapers, radio and TV to get as many spectators as possible as
    that's where we get the funding to operate the meet; there being NO
    ENTRY FEES for participants, the money has to come from the foremen-
    tioned sources.                                                       
    
    I couldn't have described the meet better, it truly "is" a scale all-star
    game and many notables of the scale world attend regularly, frequently
    debuting their newest competition models.  It's really gratifying
    to see so many top-drawer models flown for the pure, unadulterated
    fun of it...this is NOT a contest and nothing's at stake, save for
    a few handmade trophies which we award for such things as "Infidelity
    to Scale," "Smacked-Ass," and 3 or 4 "Best of Show" type categories. 
    Incidentally, the banquet is "not" restricted to participants...the
    public is welcome and spectators frequently join us to get a further
    look at the fun we have with our hobby/sport/recreation.   
    
    Man, Kevin, if there's some way you could pay us a visit, I'd sure
    love ta' meet ya' and show ya' a little good ol' Arizona hospitality.
    Lemme' know if ya' need specific details, I'll be tickled to oblige. 
    Maybe you could convince Kay and a coupla' others to make a "busman's
    holiday" out of it and fly out together.
    
    Adios,	Al

well here's the beginning of my trip report.  i'll skip the weather/
traffic reports and get right to the meat (meet).

friday was sunny but a bit windy.  we showed up around 10am and didnt
take long to find al.  we just followed a trail of empty beer cans
to his camper.  with each a colorado koolaid in hand, we inspected al's
mig.  nice.  most impressive was the paint, panel lines, and rivets;
very subtle as was gun/exhaust residue and paint chipping.
as al mentioned, i was surprised at how simple the internal construction
was, no big formers, seemingly no plywood.  the retract system was also
somewhat unconventional.  instead of just pressurized air, the system is
partially hydraulic.  help me al, i can't remember all the details.
servo operates a standard airvalve, forced air from valve via tube goes
to crazy bladder assembly which forces oil out other end to slave cylinders
on retracts to lower gear.  to close, air forces bladder in opposite
direction which sucks oil which retracts gear, no need for lock in up
position?  probably more sop stuff i've never heard of.
oh yeah, the landing gear doors for the mig were also bizaar.  it was in
i think 3 pieces, connected end to end and to the fuse with piano hinge.
when landing gear is down, the covers bend in all kinds of directions.
al says it took lots of head scratching and a few rough prototypes to
get it to work but was pretty simple and reliable after that.  could've
fooled me.  sure wish the mig flew but we saw it on video tape later in
the week.

al walked us around the first day and introduced us to lots of people.
many i had read about.  the parsons were real nice.  betty i'd talked to
on the phone a few months back when ordering cloth.  she tried to convince
me i was getting a sunburn but i refused to believe her - she doesnt
understand kamikazee suntanning methods!  wild man dan parsons is a nut.
he talks fast and flies with a death wish, pushing is reputed depth-
perception to the limit.  he had a dumb little not-very-scale sport model
that was as entertaining to watch as any jet, well almost.  at one point
he put the thing in a spin and didnt pull out till after the plane was
below the cactus line and almost of sight behind the hill.  i mean he came
within inches of slamming into several obstacles.  the crowd hollered, then
groaned, while dan pretended it was business as usual.  2 people asked me
later if i had that one on tape.  wish i did.  also met chuck collier,
pilot of the staggerwing that looked just like the one that crashed on
sunday (what a sight, we watched the death spiral with broken elevator
flapping).  i was convinced it was chuck's to the point of having kay
(smacked ass judge) write down chuck's name in his notebook.  we couldnt
understand it when 5 minutes later we saw chuck yukking it up with al,
dennis crooks, et all.  for a while we thot he was taking it real well
or was delerious with anger till be finally figured it was someone elses
plane.

to be continued.

    Re: .-1
    
    What Kevin requested help in describing was once a common adjunct
    to Rhom-air retracts [when used in scale applications] called a 
    Hydra-Lok.  
    
    As some of you may be aware, the Rhom-air gear have no up-locks, de-
    pending instead upon system air-pressure to hold the gear in the re-
    tracted position. This works fine in pattern applications where a short
    strut with a small, light wheel is used but two disadvantages become
    immediately apparent in in scale applications: 1.)  retraction speed
    may be too fast to _look_ right and, 2.) the longer, heavier gear
    strut/wheel and associated door(s) will sag out of the wells in
    any positive-G maneuver, i.e. the bottom of a loop, split-S, etc.
    
    To overcome these undesireable side effects, the Hydra-Lok came
    onto the market.  The principle is simple, not unlike the master-
    cylinder in an automotive brake-system.  The Hydra-Lok is a small 
    metal cannister, about half the size of a 35mm film can with one
    nipple on the air side and 2-nipples on the oil side.  Inside the
    cannister, a rubberlike bladder separates the two sides of the unit.
    
    The single [air-side] nipple is connected directly to the air tank,
    via the air switch valve.  Each of the nipples on the oil side are
    connected to the _up_ side of the each retract unit's piston/cylinder
    assy.  The oil-side of the system is then filled with air-conditioner
    compressor oil, bled of as much air as possible and is then ready
    for use.
    
    Now, we have an air-over-oil [pneumatic/hydraulic] system which
    works as follows:  when the retract switch on the Tx is placed in
    the retract position, the retract servo places the air switch in
    the retract position, allowing air-pressure to be fed to the air-
    side of the Hydra-Lok; the air-pressure expands the internal bladder,
    forcing oil out of the Hydra-Lok, through the lines to each gear
    units' piston/cylinder assy., driving the piston to the _up_ position
    and retracting the gear.  Because of the high viscosity of the oil,
    the retraction speed is much slower and more realistic, plus, once
    retracted, the incompressibility of the oil serves as an up-lock
    and prevents the gear from sagging out of the wells.
    
    OK, still with me?  With gear up, all the system's oil has been
    forced out of the Hydra-Lok, into the retract units' cylinders and
    [barring pressure loss] the gear will remain in this condition in-
    definitely...a healthy system will remain in this condition for
    weeks.
    
    Now, let's extend the gear: upon placing the Tx switch in the extend
    position, the retract servo moves the air-switch to the extend
    position, re-routing airpressure to the extend side of the gear
    units' piston/cylinder assy.'s; this pressure begins moving the pistons,
    forcing the oil back through the lines, back into the Hydra-Lok;
    when the piston has completed its travel, all the oil has been forced
    back into the Hydra-Lok, the cam-over-center down-lock engages in
    the gear units and yer' ready to land.  Because the denser oil still
    has to be forced back through the system, the extend cycle is also
    slowed to a more realistic speed but not quite as much as in the
    retract cycle.
    
    Hope that explains things for ya's.  The unfortunate part is that
    the Hydra-Lok is no longer available.  It was discontinued several
    years ago and, unless you just happen to find one languishing on
    the back shelf of some hobby shop, you can't get one anymore.  For-
    tunately [for me], Bob and I located and bought up several of these
    units as soon as we heard of their demise so I still have 1-or-2
    of them in bench-stock that I won't part with for the world... a
    nifty little gadget!  Some modelers are making their own units by
    adapting a Rhom-air piston to a suitably sized aluminum tube with
    end-caps soldered or threaded on and they work as well [or better]
    as the Hydra-Lok unit.
    
    BTW, I'm sure Kevin meant to say that MiG-3's gear doors are hinged 
    to the under-surface of the wing, not to the fuse.  Just thought
    I should clarify that point rather than have y'all wondering what
    kinda' weird landing gear setup the MiG's got.  The doors _are_
    strange, but not _that_ strange.

      :
      | |      00	 Adios,      Al
    |_|_|      ( >o
      |    Z__(O_\_	(The Desert Rat)

    thanks al for the usual good description of how the hydra-lock works.
    yup, i meant wing, not fuse.  but those gear doors are still very
    bizarre.
    
    lets see, other people i met.  gene barton was there.  i vaguely
    recognized the name and asked "are you the gene that makes retracts
    for bert baker?"  his immediate reply was "...oh no, don't tell
    me i owe you a set of retracts too?!".  itsa small world alright.
    gene game me the true poop as to when i can expect them, and of
    course its a few weeks later, not earlier, than i'd thot.  gene 
    says he makes enough money making retracts to "break even in the
    hobby".  wish i could tell atilla the wife the same.
    
    another great contact was diego lopez.  diego seems to have built
    all the baker kits at least once.  i've seen pictures of his
    yippee, a pylon racer, in bright red.  one funny story he told was
    that at the masters,  the judges said the bright red paint wasnt
    shinny enough - he'd waxed it and everything.  he also said the
    judges thot it was too plain, he maintains thats the way the real
    p38 was.  diego was one of the friendliest/funniest people i met.
    oh, he also told me how he doubles up servos for elevators.  he
    uses a single pushrod connected to two s131 type servos connected
    together via a pair of brass tubes, one sliding inside the other.
    this sliding action compensates for the fact that the distance
    between the servo horn connection points may change slightly as
    both servos move, especially if one servo fails, the other can
    still get some throw.  diego says this redundancy has saved him
    twice, and both times the failing servo sort of locked itself up
    near its center position, so he hardly noticed there was a problem.
    another interesting thing he and brian o'meara (another baker p47
    pilot) preached was to beef up the wings and landing gear blocks
    on the 47.  bert baker recommended 8oz cloth in a 4inch wide strip
    for the center section top and bottom, .6oz cloth over everything,
    and 2oz cloth patch over landing gear blocks top and bottom.  diego
    says thats not enough, he used 2oz cloth over entire wing!  and
    still beefed up around the landing gear blocks.  his experience
    is that the 47 can take the weight and and 1/2" long screws going
    into the hardwood landing gear blocks will pull out before the
    wing fails.  he's even damaged pins in retracts themselves and the
    blocks didnt tear out.
    as i mentioned brian o'meara was another p47 pilot.  it took a bit
    longer for me to get to know him, but on the last day he spent much
    time talking with me for which i'm grateful.  not by coincidence
    he didnt fly that day.  he's from denver and had some colorful
    stories about flying in high altitude thin air.  i guess you need
    more runway and better end your loops higher till you get the feel
    of the air.
    shailesh patel had his own version of little chief.  it was 5th
    at this last masters.  you can imagine how helpful and exciting
    it was to walk up to and kick the tires on a baker p47 that was
    definately masters quality.  it was really nice, but ya know, it
    wasnt perfect.  from 5 feet even this premo scale ship looked like
    it had been built by a mere mortal.  i mean it was damn good, but
    not PERFECT.  i guess after looking at all those famous scale ships
    i was encouraged, not discouraged.  my building skills aint far
    away as i had previously thot.
    
    again to be continued...

Guess I owe everybody a trip report also.

Well - the weather was nice and the planes were OK.

              _!_      
Bye        ----O----   
Kay R. Fisher / \     

================================================================================

    You stink Fisher :8^),
    
    You'd better have more than that or I'll have ta' tear the epaulets
    off'n that shiny new 1/8 AF T-shirt you bought.    

      :
      | |      00	 Adios,      Al
    |_|_|      ( >o
      |    Z__(O_\_	(The Desert Rat)

re .3

Just kidding.

1.  The food on the flight to Phenix was the pits.

Speaking of Pitts the only lady flyer there was logged in my notes
keeping tract of the worst crash.

She was taking off and started veering off the runway to the port
towards the desert.  She kept on the throttle and after leaving the
runway at about a 60 degree angle she managed to actually take off
from the sand sideways.  Then she climbed to about 20 feet up and
center punched a saquaro (or saguaro (pronounced Sa-War-Row) cactus.
Now you gotta understand these cactus grow to be up to 60 feet tall
(this one was only about 30) and around 200 years old and weight tons.
Imagine how much a two story water melon would weigh!  Well the
Pitts dropped straight down - the cactus didn't shake - but amazingly
when they recovered the plane you had to look close to see damage.
She flew like she looked - the cactus won.

2.  When the plane landed in Phenix we were all dreading the thought
    of renting a car and driving all the way to the hotels.  Well the
    TWA terminal and Avis couldn't have been better and the trip to the
    hotel was wimpy.  Guess I've been in Mass too long.  I couldn't 
    believe how so many folks could all drive so civilized.  Of course
    things will change when the Duke gets elected.  The entire country
    well become Tax-A-chusetts and starting ignoring right of way rules.

3.  First thing we noticed was that in Arizona there are lots and lots
    and lots of old cars that are in cherry condition - no rust - didn't
    see a rusty bottom on any car anyplace.

4.  Friday morning Al gave me one of those Colorado Kool-Aids.  
    Just seemed like cheap beer to me.  Also I noticed that in the
    dry heat of Arizona I can drink more without feeling anything.
    All the local 24 hours stores (Circle Ks there) sell 32 oz thirst
    busters for 59 cents (any soda or lemonade).  It passed 90 degrees
    on two days and I never got uncomfortably hot.  I did buy a 1/8
    Air Force T-shirt and coffee mug.  Dan - eat your heart out.

5.  Al introduced me to more folks than I can recall Friday and there
    was quite a crowd at the field and some fun flying going on.  In 
    three days of intense flying I didn't know of any radio interference
    problems - even when they were on the honor system (not being
    supervised by 1/8 Air Force volunteers).  

The favorite person that I met was Eldon Wilson.  He was the oldest flyer
there (I would guess about 65-70).  Eldon was from Texas (but I forgave him)
and owned a hobby shop for over 30 years.  He brought a very old Grumman
Wildcat.  If you don't recall Wildcats they have fat little fuselages
that the wheels retract up into the side of just aft of the cowl.  There
is probably only to build these retracts.  Eldon machined his own in scale
following the Grumman original mechanical drawings - WOW!  I thought he
flew pretty good but Kevin said his take offs and landings left a lot
to be desired - and he has them on video to show us all.

6. Friday evening Al and the crew were staying at the field in there campers
   and we were invited to sing at the moon with them.  We went back to the
   hotels to eat out with our spouses and were all so tired that we aborted
   and didn't make it back till the next morning - even late at that.

7. Saturday was one intense "Wow - look at that, Wow did you see that, etc.".
   Buy the end of the day my eyes were burning from staring up in the bright
   sun all day.  Lotsa jets made a lot of noise but didn't fly too well.

   One of the Jet jocks was Col. Thacker (hope I spelled that right) that
   Al has previously talked about.  Now he used to really fly P38s and has
   been in modeling for years and earned the respect of his peers.  But Kevin
   and I never saw this guy before.  He would have his crew chief start the
   engines.  Then he fiddled with the transmitter and killed an engine.  He
   would shutdown the other engine and allow his crew chief to get them both
   running again and tweek them up.  Then he would taxi down to the far end
   of the runway with his F4 Phantom with his crew chief dutifully following
   behind the plane.  Then he would fiddle with the throttle and kill an engine.
   Then his crew chief would pick up the big jet and hustle it back to the
   Colonel.  Then his crew chief would start the engines and tweek some more.
   Etc... Eventually the plane would take off.  Then Col. Thacker would land
   and over shoot the runway and rip the landing gear off.  Then the crew
   chief would take the plane back to a trailer and start up the Dremel
   tools and remove and replace the Rom-Air retract with a new one.

   Well this was all very interesting to watch cause I'm hoping next year
   to be able to take a Berliner-Joyce to Phenix and I'm further hoping that
   Al will be my crew chief.

   At noon they opened the field up for static display to the public
   and gave them ballots to vote for their favorite.  After that
   they had someone take up an aerobatic smoke plane and do some 
   fancy stuff.  Real nice smoke system.  This guy Jerry Kitchen was
   flying every bodies planes.  He was a real hot shot - but he managed
   to get on my crash list when he was doing low passes with a Christan
   Eagle inverted and - you guessed it - he banged it down hard on the
   runway and it slid for about 1/2 the runway off the end into the sand.
   The tar was approximately 650 feet long and 75 feet wide.  There was a
   safety net on the flight line side which several planes hit and it
   prevented any injury or damage.  After the Smoke show there was a simulated
   pylon race with about 6 planes of which 3 were Jugs.  Kevin was in heaven
   and after the race was over they started making low passes over the runway.
   After each pass the crowd (of fellow RCers) would shout "LOWER".
   So next pass was lower until Brian Omera (I think) lost an engine
   in his Jug at an altitude of about 1 foot.  So he sit it on the Belly
   and slid down the runway all the way into the sand at the end.  Not
   really much damage except scratches and it ripped his cowl loose but
   a very nice landing which Kevin has on tape.

8. Saturday ended so we went back to the hotels to meet our spouses (it was
   their job to get sun tans at the pools) and clean up for the banquet in
   the Fighter Museum.  Of course we were late arriving at the Museum.
   It was Kevin's fault cause he kept talking to all the RCers at the field
   until it was impossible to drive to the hotel and back in time.

   Supper was OK - they sure like steak a lot in cowboy country.  Sure
   enjoyed my view of a recreated Foker Tri-Plane done up with a neat
   Black and White paint job.  All the planes here are maintained in
   flying condition.  After eating we roamed the museum until the security
   folks made Kevin leave the WW2 hanger and they kicked me out of the
   WW1 hanger.

9. Sunday was almost like Saturday only different folks showed up with
   more planes.  Frequently there were 5 in the air at a time.
   After my eyes burned out we quit for the day.
   Finally Al stopped passing out Colorado Cool-Aid and put the MiG
   together for the Noon show to the public.  After noon they did
   another aerobatic smoke show then another simulated pylon race.
   This time it was with smaller planes (some mustangs).  Later that
   day they launched a real pylon racer.  Wow - what a speed demon.
   It made the jets look like jokes.  That afternoon they gave out
   the prizes and left the field open for open flying.

10. Monday Pat and I visited with her parents all day.  They were staying
    in Mesa with a relative.  Boy they sure play SCAT (31) with strange rules
    in Arizona).

11. Tuesday Pat and I drove north of Phenix to take an ride in a glider.
    My pilot was a jerk - but my wife really enjoyed her ride.  I was
    up 35 minutes riding a thermal that was only strong enough that
    we were not losing altitude.  She was up 20 minutes but her pilot
    talked.

12. Wednesday at 6:00 AM Pat and I went for a ride in a Hot Air balloon.
    Technically very interesting.  There were several other balloons
    up in the air with us.  I got scared when we were at 3,000 feet
    and there were twin engine planes flying way below us.  Pat didn't
    get nervous at all.

13. Wednesday afternoon (after Kevin and Sue got up) the four of us
    took a desert Jeep tour with a genuine Arizona cowboy.  It was
    kinda neat and I learned a lot about cactus, floods, hawks, Indians,
    and desert survival.

    Buy the way - I noticed that most Arizonians don't seem to have much
    respect for the Indians.  They buy there jewelry but they don't
    seem to think much of their heritage and now little about them.  
    Our cowboy was an exception.  He knew alot about Indians and there
    lives.  The hot air balloon pilot pointed out a reservation and when
    I asked what kind of Indians lived there he didn't know and he has
    lived there all his life.

14.  Thursday we met Al at the DEC Phenix plant and went to his local
     flying site (after he stopped for some more Colorado Kool-Aid).
     Kevin flew the Yellar-Peril first.  He knew that the top wing
     was not fastened on securely so was nervous.  Al said no problem
     and that simple rolls couldn't hurt it.  So Kevin did a roll and it
     sort of snapped around the 2nd half of it.  Al got nervous then.
     But all subsequent rolls were OK.  After I got the sticks I showed
     them what real rolls look like :-)

15.  Thursday evening after flying we took Al and his wife Kathy out
     to there local Mexican restaurant.  After that we retired to Al's
     house and saw his work shop and trophies.  But I forgot to ask to
     see his MiG 3 documentation - rats.

16.  Friday we loafed around and flew home.

17.  Friday evening in Mass it rained.  Saturday it rained all day.
     Sunday it rained all day.  And I still have snow and ice on my lawn.

================================================================================
Q. Would I go back?
A. In a second!

Q. Is Al cool?
A. You betcha.

Q. Was the fun fly fun?
A. Is the Pope a Polock?

              _!_      
Bye        ----O----   
Kay R. Fisher / \     

================================================================================

    Kay,
    
    Great report...I loved it!   BTW, a double-RATZ! about the MiG-3
    documentation; I started to walk over and pick it up a coupla' times
    but always got distracted and, yer' right, we never did get to it...
    sorry `bout that.
    
    About Col. Thacker; you got him pegged pretty well but, in his defense,
    lest anyone think he's a real prima-donna, I gotta' explain that
    the good Col. got his right hand sucked into a ducted-fan a little
    less than a year ago and he got all his fingers mangled pretty bad.
    If you noticed, he constantly wears a glove on his right hand as
    the pads of his fingers have yet to grow back and, being verrry
    tender, he has to be careful what he does and protect them at all
    times.
    
    While the glove can't be helping any, I must confess the Col.'s flying
    looked pretty typical.  He does pretty fair when everything's working
    just right but I can't remember the last time that was.  Bob likes
    to innovate and, as a result, he seems plagued, more than the average
    modeler, with equipment/hardware failures.  It took me awhile to
    to cut through the BS and get to know the Col. but he's really quite
    a neat guy.  (Oh, and I don't "crew-chief" for anyone.)  :8^)  

    You obviously asked the wrong feller about Indians.  _This_ cowboy coulda'
    told ya' about `em and I'm not even a native, close but not quite. I think
    you said you took yer' balloon ride in Chandler so the only reservation 
    you coulda' seen from there was the Pima/Papago reservation.  (WW-II Iwo-
    Jima flag-raising hero, Ira Hayes, was a Papago and lived on this reserva-
    tion.)  It's like we discussed, that sorta' thing's not everybody's bag,
    like you mentioned not being overly taken with the Revolutionary War his-
    tory you live in the middle of.  Just happens I'm a history nut [among 
    other things] so I dig into stuff like that.  I can tell you nearly all 
    the tribes in Arizona, where their reservations are located and frequently
    identify their jewelry by the design work, not to mention essay their 
    roles in western history indigenous to Arizona.  No brag, I'm just inter-
    ested in that sort of thing.  Too bad we didn't have a chance to go
    prowling through some ghost-towns, another of my passions.
    
    Gotta' run,

      |
      | |      00	 Adios,      Al
    |_|_|      ( >o
      |    Z__(O_\_	(The Desert Rat)

>    ested in that sort of thing.  Too bad we didn't have a chance to go
>    prowling through some ghost-towns, another of my passions.

Next year!

              _!_      
Bye        ----O----   
Kay R. Fisher / \     

================================================================================

    Kevin & Kay,
    
    Mi esposa, Kathi, asked me to convey to you that she really enjoyed
    meeting all of you and to say Hi to Pat and Sue.
    
    Oh, and Kay...Kathi also asked me to say "Oink-oink!" to the M.C.P.
    Pat Fisher's married to. :8^}
    
    Kevin..., I hope yer' not done with yer' report yet; yer' part-2
    _did_ end with "to be continued."  I only mention it as I'd like
    to encourage you to finish yer' report before going back to the
    Acton Field where you might be center-punched by some inconsider-
    ate, undisciplined yahoo!    

      |
      | |      00	 Adios,      Al
    |_|_|      ( >o
      |    Z__(O_\_	(The Desert Rat)

    and still it goes on.
    i havent even finished talking about the people i met.  by now my
    memory is fading fast and i'm sure to miss people.
    as kay mentioned, aldin williams was a cool old cat flying a wildcat
    with scale landing gear.  it was neat, but landings looked hairy,
    much like my pee-47 which i'm still debugging.
    dennis crooks has an sr71 (i think thats right) blackbird.  what
    a monster.  unfortunately he had a scarely but not very damaging
    test flight a few days before the meet, and opted not to fly it
    again till he could bring it home and tweak some more.  i guess
    on landing it started porpoising and mushed down kinda hard.  when
    debugged its going to be something.
    
    oh, i also met the desert rat and his family.  mrs rat (cathy)was
    really nice and we had a good time out at dinner our last night in az.
    i also met daughter rat (shawn was it?) who definately gets her
    good looks from her mother.  the rat himself is a laid back dude,
    often seen holding a colorado cooler.  he's definately a prolific
    flyer and talker.  the yeller peril we've all heard so much about
    is just that, perilous.  i didnt do so well when i had the sticks,
    but the session was too short to be conclusive.  al could sure make
    it perform tho, i especially liked the cuban-8's.  the os .61 does
    amazingly well pulling that big bipe, course it does have a humungous
    carb (7d) on it.  ground handling of the yeller peril was a sight.
    even the landings that were perfect, you could just see that al
    was fighting it all the way to the end.  course, lots of landings
    were in a crosswind.  it will be a sad day if ever al looses ole
    yeller peril.
                 
    flying sites were gorgeous.  the sight that the fun fly was at had
    tar 650ft by 75ft and was flawless.  there are 5 flight stations
    which each consist of a starting area, complete with high saftey
    net between plane and crowd, and an entrance to the runway, and
    a spot for the pilot to stand in.  most stood behind it.  1ft
    high saftey nets line much of the pit side of the runway, and they
    even angle in towards the starting stations for about 8ft at each
    entrance, so the odds of a errant plane taxiing into some pit crew
    is highly remote.  theres yellow lines painted on the runway parallel
    to the pits.  pilots are supposed to taxi straight out of the pits
    until they are across this line.  this prevents the model from getting
    swamped by some other flyers transmitter.  3im was never once a
    problem as people have mentioned.   coordination between pilots
    was incredibly tight.  pilots who were flying were in constant verbal
    contact with a flight coordinator who was in constant wireless mike
    contact with someone else.  kay or al can give you more details,
    all i know is that there were often 5 planes in the air at the same
    time and never were there close calls with planes colliding with
    other planes on the ground or humans retrieving planes on  the ground.
    it was impressive.  these guys have put this event on before.
    besides the tar runway, there was relatively smooth dirt all around
    the runway, especially at the ends.   countless planes overshot
    the runway and rolled in the dirt.  others just plain missed the
    runway.  except for the biplane that went straight into a cactus,
    there were no geography related damage (oh i just remembered the
    spit that flew thru some vegetation, he deserved damage and he got
    it big time).  i think flying at a site like that compared to most
    of the sites here in the east will prolong the life of the average
    model by a lot.  i was amazed at how little damage the asphalt caused
    when someone deadsticked with landing gear up or had the gear collapse
    on them.  i figured the tar would "sand" right thru models, but
    it didnt.  the saftey net also saved multiple people tens of hours
    of repairs.  i can think of at least 2 cases where planes really
    screamed into the nets.  no damage other than pride and maybe some
    paint.
    the downside of the tar was that many planes had trouble with it.
    yeller peril desease was quite prevelent.  perhaps the people having
    trouble were out-of-towners not experienced with asphalt.  i know
    trying to land the yeller peril on that stuff would have eaten me
    up.
    
    to be continued yet again
    k

    Kevin,
    
    C'mon now, let's have the next chapter...it's been almost 2-weeks
    (OK, 12-days) since yer' last installment.  If ya' don't get with
    it, you'll have forgotten everything y'know.  :8^)   

      |
      | |      00	 Adios,      Al
    |_|_|      ( >o
      |    Z__(O_\_	(The Desert Rat)

    ok al, but my head is still reeling from reading kay's and others
    replies about the dec club thing, and i'm still recovering from
    a wicked cold no doubt induced from that balmy funfly last week,
    so it may be cough medicine talking...
    
    last weekend i condensed about 2-1/2 hours of 8mm video into a
    i hour vhs tape.  i wish the quality had been better, what do i
    expect from a $900 camcorder.  anyway, after watching the whole
    thing a couple of times i realized how almost all the crashes
    occured on sunday.  maybe cause people were getting tired, or
    maybe the good flyers showed up friday and packed up early sunday.
    i'm glad i showed up friday, cause the heavy hitters (p47's,
    hellcat, p38, 190's, spit) flew friday and saturday and not on
    sunday.  again the jets looked awful finicky, and as someone
    already said, "i still want one".
    
    one of the best flights was with diego's bert baker p38 on friday.
    the plane is in testflight mode (in primer only).  yet it is a
    real sight.  friday he had a smoke system going on 1 engine only
    (he says hes got 15 servos in the thing!) and was doing relatively
    low passes and slow rolls with the thing smoking.  really looked
    net in the air, that fork-tailed devil did.  then it seemed to
    lose power, and gene barton could be heard yelling to diego,
    "left one!, left one", and diego is calmly applying correct trim
    to compensate for only one engine running.  everyone held their
    breath as it limped in for landing, and it was an absolute greaser.
    crowed roared.  its on the tape.  incidently, diego flew again
    saturday, didnt have any engine problems, and missed the runway
    on landing.  maybe its the size of the crowd that provokes crashes...
    one beautiful plane was a dave platt spitfire (ok, so i'm biased
    towards warbirds, i admit it).  88" wingspan i think.  i never
    picked it up but could tell it was light from a takeoff after only
    about 30' rollout into wind.  the baker 47's were using over a
    100'.  course the spit also had trouble with a crosswind landing.
    the wind was real brisk friday and early saturday, and lots of
    planes aborted landing attempts.  it was fun to watch the colonel
    run up the engines on his f4 on the ground cause sometimes you
    could see the sides of the fuse at the inlet suck in a little!
    
    jerry kitchen crashed a plane real good!  you could see it coming,
    he was flying a christian eagle and made some unbelievable low
    slow rolls, with the wing just missing the ground coming around.
    after a couple of those he pulled out of a dive and i swear the
    wheels must have kissed the ground.  then he did same thing
    inverted and slid the plane on its back for 100 ft on the tar - 
    smoke system still belching smoke.  i got the end of the slide
    on video, i moved the camera as soon as i heard the whack...

    well, i'm running out of things to talk about.  the film and
    pictures will be sent to anker first.  from there i'll let him
    forward to whoever he knows will be interested.
    
    i'll omit the "to be continued"
    kevin

    Kevin,
    
    I think you may be a little confused; Diego didn't bring _his_ P-38.
    He was flying a new, still in gray-primer, Lien F-6-F Hellcat, having
    decided to hang his -38 up for awhile due to chronic problems with
    the retracts.  (His -38 is painted bright red with enormous white
    letters spelling "Yippee" from tip-to-tip on the bottom of the wing.)
     
    The P-38 at the Fly-In belonged to Gene Barton, though he may have
    had Diego flying it when the engine problem occurred.  Gene's had
    _much_ better luck with his retracts, having custom-made them himself,
    utilizing commercial pneumatic valves, switches and cylinders in
    the process.  Even at that, he pranged the Lightning pretty good
    about 6-weeks before the Fly-In by failing to respond correctly
    with the rudder when he lost an engine...had to order several new
    glass moldings from Baker to repair the damage.
    
    Incidentally, the smoke systems are scale to the prototype Gene's
    modeling.  I've managed to forget the pilot and the story behind
    it but he had smoke systems installed on both engines (to out-fox
    the enemy, maybe?).
    
    We expect to see all three of the "gray-primer Air Force" ships;
    Diego's Hellcat, Gene's P-38 and Denny DeWeese's Lien Focke-Wulf
    at the Tucson qualifier next month, in full color and detail of
    course.  Those Californians are real masters of the building/
    detailing art!  It continues to amaze me that I've beaten them in
    competition regularly with the MiG-3 as they fly quite well also.
    At the '86 Tucson meet, I was 1st, Gene 2nd and Diego 3rd; in '87,
    I was again 1st, Diego was 2nd and Gene was 3rd.  Frankly, I'm not
    sure enough luck exists for me to make it a hat-trick this year
    but we'll have fun in the attempt. 
    
    This season, I intended to soft-peddle the competition bit but here
    I am with the most ambitious qualifier schedule yet: Tucson - May
    28/29; Colorado Springs - June 4/5; Riverside, CA - July 8/9/10.
    Ironically, I have no intention whatever of attending the Masters this
    year as I have neither the time, the money nor the inclination to
    drive  to Fort, Knox Kentucky.  
    
    On the other hand, I have every intention to fly, sans the MiG-3,
    to the Nashville R/C Tradeshow being hosted by Roy Orbison and his
    good friend and R/C buddy, Benny Birchfield.  When Roy was here
    last week, he finalized the decision for me when he suggested that,
    if we'd stay over a few days, we'd have a flying session and he
    and Benny'd give us the red carpet, personally guided tour of
    Nashville...such a deal! 

      |
      | |      00	 Adios,      Al
    |_|_|      ( >o
      |    Z__(O_\_	(The Desert Rat)

    yes, i got gene's and diego's planes mixed up.  my memory is vanishing
    faster than i imagined.
    
    today at lunch kay and i and a number of non-flyer friends watched
    the video from arizona.  lots of thrills and chills and laughs for
    everyone.  i swear its going in the mail to anker right now.  i've
    heard al yell that he wants to see it.  insert your yells here...
    
    flew the pee47 the other day.  elevator and aileron throws were reduced
    yet again and its behaving better.  with minor surgury also removed
    aileron droop per tom t's suggestion and its not ballooning on
    landing approaches any more.  still lands fast.  i had to quit
    flying early that day cause half the monocote under the left wing
    ripped off during a high-speed pass.  landed ok, oh well.
    
    kevin

    For those who might be interested, ther's an 11-page article on
    the 1/8 AF Spring Scale Fly-In in the latest (July) issue of Scale
    R/C Modeler magazine by Richard Wright.  There aren't as many pix
    as I'd liked to have seen but the text reads well and gives the
    reader a pretty good feel for the meet.

      |
      | |      00	 Adios,      Al
    |_|_|      ( >o
      |    Z__(O_\_	(The Desert Rat)

    
    	I just watched the tape.....boy, I've never seen so many planes
    in one area!  They look super too!
    
    	There was some pretty good fly'n going on along with a couple
    of good "ditches"!  The best one was the inverted landing with the
    smoke still on. 
    
    	I watched it late at night and for some reason I don't remember
    seeing Al on the tape....was he?  I think I remember seeing the
    "Yeller Peril".....did I?   Like I said, it was late!
    
    	Well, it'll be passed around a few hands here in BTO before
    its back in the mail again.  Speaking of this, where is the next
    best route from BTO? (In othere words, who wants it next?)
    
    Ken

    Without a lot of pre-event hype from me as this is the smaller,
    more laid back of the two annual scale fly-in's we host, the Fall
    edition of the One-Eighth Air Force R/C Scale Fly-In occurs this
    coming weekend.  
    
    This is always a more localized meet with only a few out-of-towners
    in attendance so it's a lot more relaxed with a lot more opportunity
    to fly.  Frankly, because of the lack of hassle, I actually enjoy
    this meet more than the monster Spring event.  Typically, we'll
    register about half the Spring turnout; approximately 85-90 pilots
    and 125 aircraft or so.
    
    This year we're putting on our own steak-fry right at the field
    Saturday night with a complete 12-oz. New York dinner including 
    all the trimmings and dessert for $8.00 a plate.
    
    We figger' to have a dusk model rocket show which, I'm told, takes
    on some of the appearance of fireworks followed by a night-flying
    demo by several of the more daring souls who attach cyalume chemical
    light sticks to their ships and fly in the pitch black night.  At
    least one guy has a regular light system in his bird but most of
    the guys use the cyalume sticks.  (I had the opportunity to try
    this on a friend's powered glider last year in Sedona and it's a
    blast!)  I hear one of the fliers' specialty is a rolling circle
    IN-THE-DARK!  Should be something to see.
    
    While all this is going on, we'll be setting up the 1/8 A.F. D&D
    (Drunk & Disorderly) Band right in the paved pit area adjacent to
    the ramada.  We've been practicing quite a bit of late and have
    about 2-hours worth of 50's-60's rock 'n roll on tap with dancing
    taking place right on the runway.  We've done this in the past and
    it's been accepted very well, brought back this year by popular 
    demand.  Now, if only my fingers'll hold out for two hours (I play
    lead guitar) we got 'er made.  :B^o  
    
    Should be a great time; I'll post a full report next Tuesday (taking
    Monday off to recuperate). 

      |
      | |      00	 Adios,      Al
    |_|_|      ( >o
      |    Z__(O_\_	(The Desert Rat)

    Just a quick note on the scale fly-in last weekend...I'll post a
    little more detail later after I get caught up with the job.
    
    A number of unique things occurred at this meet: first, it rained/
    stormed/hailed ALL DAY Friday before the meet and the forecasters
    weren't too optimistic about the outlook for Saturday.  I got soaked
    Friday after work pulling the motorhome out and getting it ready
    to go.  However, the rain stopped late Friday afternoon and we had
    two of the most gorgeous days you could ever hope for.  We went
    out Friday evening, set up and were ready to go bright and early 
    Saturday AM.  Second, and most significant, during the noontime
    demo period on Saturday, we got to see the FIRST AMERICAN (MODELER
    BUILT) TURBINE-JET ENGINED MODEL AIRCRAFT TO FLY SUCCESSFULLY!  This
    important achievemenet is documented in the current issue of Scale
    R/C Modeler.  A British team flew a true jet powered model for some
    57 second back around 1983 but _this_ engine has now flown more
    than a dozen completely successful, [on the average] 8-minute flights
    with no problems/failures whatever.  The flights aren't terribly
    spectacular in the visual sense, that is the test-bed plane isn't
    horribly fast or maneuverable (though they _did_ do some minor
    aerobatics with it; roll/loop/etc.).  But what _IS_ very special
    is theknowledge that yer' watching miniature airplane history in
    the making!!  All-in-all, I was verrrry impressed, as were all the
    modelers on the field.  It had the unmistakeable whine of a turbojet
    engine but was MUCH quieter that I'd have ever expected; just a
    gentle whoosh sound as the plane passes...you can't hear it at all
    a short distance away from the runway.  Check the latest SR/CM for
    more details and tech. data on this momentous accomplishment.
    
    The third unique happening, for me at least, was that, even though
    I'm busier than a one-legged man at a butt-kicking contest working
    these meets, I actually found/made time to put one flight in on
    the MiG-3, late Saturday afternoon, and what a flight it was!  I've
    never had a prettier takeoff in my life and the rest of the flight
    followed suit; I did 8-points, smoldering low passess, upright and
    inverted, and just had a ball with it with no pressure and nothing
    to gain (in the contest sense).  Evidently, the "Phantom Judge"
    assigned to pick the 3-best military flights was watching and liked
    the flight as much as I did 'cause, even though I never found the
    chance to fly again, I got 2nd-place for Best Military Flight! 
    And was I tickled?  I seldom find the time to even fly in the events
    we host and this is the _first_ time I've ever won _anything_ in
    the 24 or more of these events we've hosted.  Incidentally, 1st
    place went to Bob Frances of California flying a _huge_, Masters
    quality Ju-87B Stuka with which he competed at the '86 Masters in
    Vegas.  Seemed like Bob was in the air constantly and flying the
    pants off the big dive-bomber...he truly deserved the recognition.
    
    More to follow............

      |
      | |      00	 Adios,      Al
    |_|_|      ( >o
      |    Z__(O_\_	(The Desert Rat)

    Ken, Boy, I have seen some bad choppers. Luckey thing with choppers
    is however that most bad choppers won't get off of the ground. If
    they do they usually shake themselves apart. Not like most bad planes.
    
    The chopper pictured on the cover was actually the second or third
    place winner. I heard it was well detailed but poorly presented
    during the flying portion of the contest. It's sad however that
    only three ships were entered in scale. Are there some rules in scale
    that prohibit the use of kits as a basis for a scale chopper?
    I wonder why so few scale choppers are entered?
    
    
    Tom

>    only three ships were entered in scale. Are there some rules in scale
>    that prohibit the use of kits as a basis for a scale chopper?
>    I wonder why so few scale choppers are entered?

I would guess it is because they ask 200-300 dollars for a fiberglass
fuselage kit.  This after you've just spend several hundred and that 
included a functional (maybe even nice looking) non scale fuselage.

When GMP, Shuetler(sp) offers a Huey kit for prices comparable to
existing non scale kits they may just find a BIG market.

Side note - at the DECRCM meeting Tuesday - Dan Eaton show pictures of
his scratch build Ranger fuselage.  If this works out to be practical
in terms of crash resistance to work ratio Dan may publish the plans.

We just need to encourage him.

Hmmmmmmmmm

Wonder how a real Apache with just cannons (no fancy missiles) would
fare against a real MiG 3?

Bye          --+--
Kay R. Fisher  |
---------------O---------------
================================================================================

    Well, here we are again, little more than a month from the Spring
    version of the 1/8 AF R/C Scale Fly-In.  This is the larger of our
    two meets, attracting upwards of 200 scale aircraft from all over
    the country and, occasionally, from a foreign country or two.  This
    year's meet is shaping up well and most of the regular attendees
    are already committed to be here.  A highlight should be Dennis
    Crooks who's bringing, among other things, his [now] well proven
    SR-71 Blackbird and his prototype F-14 Tomcat, complete with in-flight
    swing-wing feature.
    
    While the meet itself is pretty much a turn-key operation and is
    coming together nicely, the banquet program is quite another thing
    entirely.  Bob Frey and I've been tapped again (as usual) to put
    the program together and I think we've come up with some craziness
    that everyone'll find entertaining, repleat with another installmenet
    of the coveted [dreaded?] "Al Awards."  Also, the 1/8 AF D&D (Drunk
    & Disorderly) Dance band is tuning up and rehearsing to do about
    an hour or so of our imitation of music.  I, personally, have been
    burning the midnight oil learning a coupla' the new songs off Roy
    Orbison's new (and last) album, "Mystery Girl."  So far, these new
    tunes are working out well and I think we'll be able to do a fairly
    decent job on them.  I sincerely hope so as Roy's closest R/C buddy,
    Benny Birchfield and his wife, country singer Jeannie Shepherd,
    are coming and I'd like our treatment of Roy's music to come off
    as a reasonable token of our feelings for him and something of a
    tribute.
    
    Future reports, as developments occur, will follow..........    

      |
      | |      00	 Adios,      Al
    |_|_|      ( >o
      |    Z__(O_\_	(The Desert Rat)

Well, the 1/8 AF Spring R/C Scale Fly-in is history; and gratefully so, I gotta'
admit...this ol' Rat's outa' gas!  The fun began Thursday evening when we went
out for a late dinner with Dan and Bette Parsons, Frank Gray and Jerry Pitzel
(whose Dago Red converted Byron P-51 has been well publicized).

Friday AM I trekked to the flying site early and set up the motorhome alongside
Chuck's with the awnings together; this would be the base of operations for the
remainder of the weekend. Kay Fisher showed up shortly after I did and I thought
the Berliner-Joyce looked quite nice, especially considering it's a long way 
from being done...markings and detailing will really bring it to life.

Kay was nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs about the
test hop but, in time, all excuses had been used up and it was time to try it.
I had Kay retrim the ailerons, checked the CG and prepared to start the engine.
As soon aas the O.S. 45FSR came to life, it was obvious that all was not well;
A horrible metallic whirring sound was emanating from the engine which I deter-
mined to be a dry/damaged fron main bearing.  But, Kay was determined not to 
have wasted all his efforts to get the plane out for the fly-in, so we proceded.
The engine ran fine but wouldnt idle (due, I'm sure to the drag of the bad bear-
ing) so, after several abortive attempts to taxi out, Kay carried the plane to
runway-center, I cobbed the throttle and away we went.

The BJ answered rudder and kept a straight roll to rotation but it was instantly
apparent we had way too much up-elevator.  I dialed in full down-elevator trim
and got the ailerons (which were _much_ too sensitive) sorted out just in time 
for the engine to quit.  So, dead-stick and having to hold half-down elevator,
I shot a successful dead-stick landing.  Taking the plane back to the pits, I
found the engine to be bound  up _tight_ and it looked like Kay's weekend was
already over.  But, Kay _really_ wanted to fly so he pulled the head off the 
engine; we noted at once that the combustion chamber and the top of the piston
were well beaten as if sand-blasted with _very_ coarse sand.  Then we turned
the plane over and something(?) fell out onto the ground...we picked up a small
3-48 x 1/4" screw (which Kay still has) and decided it had been rattling around
inside the head.  (Kay still doubts this but _something_ caused all that damage
inside.)  Anyway, we filled the engine with after-run oil and spun it good with
a starter, then reassembled it.  It didn't feel any better/different than before
and the front bearing still felt like it had square balls in it. As we were fid-
dling with the engine, Kevin Ladd walked up, having taken a red-eye outa' Boston
and surprising Kay.  (Kevin'd called Thursday night for directions to the field
just in case he could get out so I was kinda' looking for him.)

Firing the wounded engine up, it sounded the same but Kay wanted to try it again
so away we went again.  This time, with the plane in slightly better trim, the 
engine held long enough for Kay to get some stick-time (we were buddy-boxing) 
but, again, the engine quit and another dead-stick was in order.  To complete
the B_J saga, I'll jump ahead to Sunday when, determined to get one flight at
the 1/8 AF meet, we once again fired up the poor, nearly gutted O.S. and, with
Kay at the sticks I ran the B-J out onto the runway and released at full throt-
tle.  Kay made a fine takeoff and was turning out of the pattern as I ran back 
to assist if needed.  "Need any trims?" I asked, just as the engine quit _again_
just as Kay'd completed the turn to downwind after takeoff.  "Bring it to you," 
I coached as the ship was out over the pucker-brush.  "I'm tryin'," Kay replied
but the B-J went down in the bushes at the edge of the bladed dirt area that
parallels the runway.  Damage was _VERY_ slight and the B-J will fly again after
a mere evening's worth of minor repairs.  It was probably just as well as, if
we'd continued to push that engine, it'd probably have quit in a much worse po-
sition, perhaps causing much more damage or totalling the airplane entirely.

I, personally, wouldn't have risked the airplane after first discovering the 
engine trouble but I can completely understand Kay's wanting to persevere as 
he'd worked so hard to get the plane ready and get it here.  In any event, the
bird now has 3-flights on it and, while quite protracted in duration, Kay DID
get to fly in the 1/8 meet.

Returning to chronology, Kevin went with Kathi and I over to Chuck Collier's
for the traditional Friday night chili cookout on Chuck's patio.  A coupla'
dozen early arrivals were there and a good, if a little too late, night was
enjoyed by us all.

Early Saturday AM, Kevin and I went out to the field and there ensued a long,
busy day of flying.  The show was opened by a scheduled fly over by a flight of
four T-6's that beat up the field for some 20-minutes or thereabouts.  Then,
the model flying began.  Dennis Crooks' swing-wing F-14 was a real show stopper 
and many other interesting flights were witnessed, among them a huge Ziroli C-47
that dropped a string of paratroopers as it bored over the field.  Many new jets
were on hand but perhaps half were non-scale Violett or Byron types which may 
not be allowed in the future as we, again, need to pare the size of the meet if 
possible to a more manageable number.  When the meet is advertised as a "scale"
fly-in and people who brought "scale" aircraft are held up from the flightline
by non-scale (even though they're 'sorta' scale) planes, it just isn't fair to
them.  Larry Wolfe and Dorian Anderson were flying nice examples of the new Jet
Hangar Hobbies F-4 Phantom and a gaggle of Byron scale jets were present as
well.

Diego Lopez and Shailesh Patel, as well as Bill Mikesell of Chicago, all had new
Don Lien Hellcats which flew great, as did a slightly larger Byron Hellcat.  
Gene Barton, who'd had a great flight Friday, put his immaculate Baker P-38 up,
onlt to lose it immediately when an engine quit on takeoff...the Lightning was a
total loss, a REAL shame!  Brian O'Meara seemed to be in the air constantly with
either his Baker Jug or Baker Zero.

At 3:00 PM, I (and others of the banquet committee) had to leave in the middle 
of the action to clean up and get to the banquet hall to get set up.  We had
hospitality hour at 6:00, a great BB-Q dinner at 7:00 and began the program at
8:00.  Bob (Frey) and I gave out 4-gag awards (we call 'em the "coveted Al's",
Then we had an R/C Fashion Show with various modelers like Parsons, Crooks, Lo-
pez, O'Meara, etc. modeling as bizarre R/C costumes as they could dream up
(picture a judge dressed as Santa Claus) and the D&D Band played for about an
hour, capping the evening with a little tribute to Roy Orbison where we did
"California Blue" and "You Got It" from his latest/last album, "Mystery Girl."
I've deliberately left out a lot of the banquet details since I want Kay and
Kevin, not to overlook Kay's lovely wife, Pat, to fill in the details along
with their impressions.  By night's end, I fell into bed and simulated death
as opposed to sleeping!!

Sunday AM found us at the field again for the final day of the event.  Flying
resumed and continued throughout the day, during which the big C-47 was total-
led owing to radio/battery failure (why does someone build such a large, ex-
pensive, laborious plane then control it with an old, cheap radio...6-year old
Cirrus???). And a real nice jug was lost when the entire engine/cowling fell off
in flight.

Flying was suspended at 3:00 PM and awards given out as selected by our Phantom
judges:

	Best Military Flight...Dennis Crooks, F-14
	Best Gen. Av. Flight...Jim Morrow, de Havilland Tiger Moth
	Peoples' Choice........Curt Thomas, Waco SRE Cabin bipe
	Smacked Ass............Gene Barton, P-38 Lightning

    well, considering i'm supposed to still be on vacation, i'm awefully
    busy at work.  as some of you know, my wife sue (aka atilla the
    wife) took sick just before we were to take a week+ vacation in
    arizona (just by coincidence at the same time as the 1/8th af
    fun fly).  its nothing remotely serious.
    
    anyways, imagine my disappointment the morning we were to leave
    when the trip was cancelled.  by friday i couldnt take it anymore
    and hopped on a plane for a long weekend in az.
    
    i arrived at the flying site fairly late friday pm to find al and
    kay hunched over kay's plane.  seems kay really does have a screw
    loose, at least that was the theory that there was a screw floating
    around inside the combustion chamber.  whatever was going on, the
    engine was in self-destruct mode, destroying plugs and pooping out
    significant pieces of metal.  i watched the 2nd flight, which werent
    bad at all.  the engine died after 5 minutes of flying or so, kay
    got a chance to get a good feel for the bird before al deadsticked
    it in.  we called it a wrap.
    
    al and kathi took me to a chili party at chuck collier's house that
    night.  lots of flyers were there, perhaps 15 or so, and many spouses.
    norm goyer was also there and it was more than a little interesting
    to watch him interact with the flyers...
    
    gene barton (who built my retracts and shaft extension) demonstrated
    his new aluminum wheels which take large dubro wheels.  interesting,
    for the p47 it solves 2 problems, the wheels can be scrunched thinner
    and some air pressure can be released so the weight of the plane
    causes them to bulge in a scale manner.  chuck also reved the monster
    engine in his '34 whatever.  chuck had several interesting toys
    laying around the place.
    
    friday night al and kathi were kind enough to put me up for the
    night.  i really appreciated that.  course i was so tired (and perhaps
    a bit drunk) that i couldve slept in their driveway comfortably.
    
    saturday morning...
    
    to be continued.
    k

    sat am i awoke with not enough sleep in me.  al and i headed in
    my rented muscle car to the flying field.  about when we got there
    4 at6's flew over and proceeded to put on quite a show.  they flew
    in formation and kept buzzing the runway at about 100 feet altitude.
    it was great, those buggers are loud.  soon the national anthem
    was played and then the flying began.
    
    i discovered that both battery packs to my video camera were
    discharged.  a bummer cause there were some great flights and some
    great crashes.  dennis crooks flew his f14 and i got a beautiful
    shot of the takeoff just before the batteries croaked, with the
    lens cap on...
    
    gene barton had flown his newly painted p38 the day before.  its
    the same one he had in primar last year.  anyways, to make a short
    story even shorter, something happened soon after takeoff.  gene
    had good airspeed and was gently climbing out when it started banking
    right till it was on its back careening to ground.  the guess is
    he lost starboard engine and never had time to recover.  as phantom
    judge for the "smacked ass" award, my job was all but done.  too
    bad, i like gene and i liked his p38.
    
    the corsairs had a tough weekend too.  of the 3 i saw fly, all 3
    crashed.  the first didnt crash till it seemed to stall on landing
    approach.  the second i missed but it splashed pretty good.  the
    third was a snap soon after takeoff.  i guess corsairs are not for
    the mild at heart or thumb.  i still have a love-affair with both
    the p38 and corsair, sigh...
    
    i spent some time talking to the wwII guys.  brian omeara had a
    baker jug and a baker zero.  he really likes the way the zero flies,
    says its a couple pounds lighter than the jug and has a much more
    symmetrical wing, its quite aerobatic (the jug is not).  brian put
    i bet at least 10 flights on that zero that weekend.  like last
    year, i took in invaluable information about these birds.  after
    seeing how the pro's do it, i've redecided how to connect my landing
    gear doors.  i noticed diego lopez's big hellcat has a single s131
    servo powering the elevator...
    
    to be continued.
    (al, i'm trying to get to the banquet!!!)
    kevin

    kay and i left early sat afternoon to get ready for the banquet.
    my cap21 was in its box in kay and pat's room.  we removed 30 wood
    screws with kay's pocket knife and the cap had only minimal shipping
    damage.  arg.  i charged both battery packs for the camcorder and
    kay, pat, and the 3rd wheel headed for the banquet.
    
    first part of the "show" was the "allen" awards.  this is where
    al and bob frey shamelessly torture fliers who lost a scale plane
    within the last year.  many names{were mentioned (including al's),
    but the top recepients were diego lopez, kent walters, brian o,
    and dan parsons.  each were awarded a plastic replica of their
    recently departed aircraft which were smashed into bits.  see
    tape at next decrcm meeting.  it was hysterical.  best part was
    bob frey (attempting to) play taps while al tearfully described
    each mishap in graphic detail.
    
    after a few other skits, the drunk and disorderly band fired up.
    i regret to say my camcorder batteries were dead by then (i suspect
    my charger is broken and overcharging) so i have no footage.  i
    bet al can get us a copy of the tape rc video mag made.  anyways
    the band was very good so long as bob was far from the mike.  al
    was lead guitarist, and he played some wicked awesome guitar licks.
    al's guitar playing ability is professional quality.  al's singing
    ability is not pro quality.  head and shoulders above me and bob
    mind you, but not quite the real roy.  sorry al :^).  i enjoyed
    the banquet show and d&d immensly.  by the time it was over however,
    jet lag and excessive sunshine had paid its toll.  i crashed sat
    night in the front room of kay and pat's embassy suite.

    Kevin,
    
    Thanx fer' the kind words about the banquet program.  S'prised you
    didn't mention the fashion show; I though Parsons' outfit was a scream!
    BTW, I admit readily to being no Roy Orbison in the vocal department
    but, like Bruce Springsteen said at Roy's induction into the Rock
    'n Roll Hall of Fame, "...._NOBODY_ sings like Roy Orbison!"    

      |
      | |      00	 Adios,      Al
    |_|_|      ( >o
      |    Z__(O_\_	(The Desert Rat)

    Re: .43, Kevin,
    
    Forgot to mention that I'm pretty sure R/C Video Magazine will be
    happy to sell copies of the banquet program.  Kay's been buying
    these tapes, has he not?  Mayhaps he can make an inquiry.  We're
    supposed to receive 6 copies; one for each member of the Banquet
    Committee but I haven't seen or heard anything as yet.  We're all
    realy anxious to see the tape as, a strange phenomenom occurs when
    yer' MC'ing, performing, taking some part in the program.  Oddly
    enough, you don't actually _see_ (experience) it.  Seeing the tape
    is almost like seeing the program for the first time...I guess it
    really _is_ seeing it for the first time.    

      |
      | |      00	 Adios,      Al
    |_|_|      ( >o
      |    Z__(O_\_	(The Desert Rat)

    al,
    
    i hope the tape does justice to a hilarious program!  by all means
    let kay/us know if you hear a tape becomes available.  i heartily
    recomment decrcm/video buys one if available.  i watched the "allen
    awards" portion i shot last week, will bring to decrcm meeting but
    so much was missed...
    
    kevin
    
    ps.  has anyone seen my cap21 lately?

    Kevin,
    
    Speaking of video-tapes, I can't believe it but I can't seem to
    locate my copy of the tape you shot last year of the Spring 1988
    1/8 AF meet.  RATZ!!  I can't remember loaning or sending it out
    but, just in case, if I sent the tape to anyone out there, please
    return it to me pronto.  Gracias.    

      |
      | |      00	 Adios,      Al
    |_|_|      ( >o
      |    Z__(O_\_	(The Desert Rat)

    oh no.
    to repeat al's request, could whoever has the 1/8th af video tape
    please send it back so we can}imake another copy!
    thanks
    kevin

    Kevin,
    
    I've searched high-and-low to no avail...my copy's missing too 
    AAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!
    
    I certainly have no recollection of loaning/sending it out but,
    if that's the case and someone has it, PULLEEEEEEEEZE return it
    to me at PNO/E4.  Gracias.....  

      |
      | |      00	 Adios,      Al
    |_|_|      ( >o
      |    Z__(O_\_	(The Desert Rat)

Well, as the weekend approacheth, we approach the holding of the 26th biannual
(twice a year) 1/8 AF R/C Scale Fly-In.  I've been so low-profile for the past 
year that I know little of the preparations for the Fall bash other than there
hasn't been much turmoil in that area; having done 25 of these previously, one
would expect we'd only have to turn the key and watch it run itself.

The only thing that seems to require constant readjusting is control of the 
flight line; the ever increasing numbers precipitating different approaches to
_try_ to accomplish the impossible task of assuring everyone who wants to fly
fair and equal access to the flight line.  In that vein, we're trying something
a little new again where pilots who want to fly will have to put their planes
physically in line at the appropriate flight line and follow the plane up to
the front of the line.  No other controls (other than safety) will be exercised.

Out-of-town participation, traditionally, is never a big part of the Fall meet.
Still, Dennis and Linda Crooks are on their way with a trailer full of jets in-
cluding the demo F-14 and the SR-71.  Crooks' friends, Don and Carla Canack are
also coming with another SR-71 and a coupla' other jets.

The D&D Band is a go after all.  It took no small amount of acrobatics to get in
touch with everybody and get 'em all talking the same message but that finally
came to pass and, even though we have no time to practice together, the band'll
be there makin' noise Saturday night so's folks can dance on the runway and so
forth.  Our drummer says our 'roughness' is part of the charm of the band and, 
if that's so, I guarantee we'll be plenty "charming!"  However, I'm cheating and
practicing solo to at least rub some of the 'charm' off'n my parts.

Should be fun and I'm looking forward to it.  Wish y'all could be here to take
part but I'm sure Dan Miner will do his best to represent all of you. Of course,
that means Dan'll be expected to drink all of your shares of Colorado Cool-Aid
(or whatever other "ignorant-oil" suits his fancy).

A full, post-even report will be forthcoming...look for it about next Tuesday.

      |
      | |      00	 Adios,      Al
    |_|_|      ( >o
      |    Z__(O_\_	(The Desert Rat)

    Here's a short, hopefully sweet, quickie report on the 1/8 AF Fall
    Scale Fly-In of last weekend.
    
    The turnout was a bit small, even for a fall meet but we still had 40
    or so pilots and over 50 scale ships registered.  The Friday before the
    meet, I went out and picked a place to park the motorhome; Chuck
    Collier showed up a bit later and parked his motorhome awning-to-awning
    with mine so we had a great sun-shade.  Friday's weather was somewhat
    cloudy but mostly, WINDY.  The usual large crew test and fun-flying on
    the Friday before a meet failed to materialize but Garland Hamilton
    literally burned holes in the sky with his Viojett powered F-5.
    
    Saturday morning's forecast was for overcast with widely scattered
    showers in the late afternoon, clearing Sunday morning.  Sure enough,
    as Kathi and I drove to the field, the sky was conspicuous by its
    threatening overcast.  "Where the heck did this little front move in
    from," I wondered aloud.
    
    The wind was very light, however, and much flying commenced, continuing
    through _most_ of the day.  Larry Wolfe was flying the [one surviving]
    F4 Phantom he'd used in the filming of Iron Eagle-II and it looked
    good, though it was greatly overshadowed by Garland's F-5's
    performance.  Dennis Crooks and party had _two_ SR-71 Blackbirds on
    hand in addition to his F-14, an F-16 and an F-4 but only flew the F4
    this day due to crosswind conditions that are unfavorablt to the -71's,
    they having no rudders.
    
    Bob Francis was here from his home 13-miles from the epicenter of the
    big quake up Frisco way; he has his home and 2-rental home there and
    said none of them suffered any damage...amazing!  More amazing was
    Bob's magnificent, metalized Curtiss Falcon (featured in the current
    issue of Scale R/C Modeler).  A large and excellently crafted, museum
    quality model, Bob flew the big silver bird skillfully all weekend.
    
    A fellow from up Holbrook (AZ) way had a huge Byron Corsair with
    Quadra-50 power with which he literally tore up the skies all weekend; I
    was quite impressed with this bird's performance.   
    
    About 2:00PM, the pesky little sprinkle that'd threatened on-and-off
    during the day settled in to stay and intensified, forcing everyone to
    put their planes away.  Dennis Crooks and crew were the last to become
    believers and got soaked in the process.  In a way, it was kinda' neat
    because the rain forced everyone together in little groups under our
    canopy, the ramada or whatever other cover existed and the camaraderie
    that developed was nothing short of terrific.
    
    Dan Miner and his buddy Shawn had shown up by now (dressed in shorts
    which were quickly exchanged for long pants with the temperature drop
    that accompanied the rain) and joined right in the fellowship, having a
    grat time.  (BTW, Kevin [Ladd], Kathi and I received yer' salutations
    from Dan and the same to ya's...Kathi wants to know when the baby's
    due.)
    
    One daring soul put an EZ Mustang up in the rain (while he stood under
    the ramada) and put on a dazzling show of aerobatics, receiving a
    rousing hand from the scattered groups of people observing from
    shelter.
    
    Finally, the rain burned off, the sky cleared and turned a freshly
    washed blue, just in time to get our cook-out started.  After a nice
    porterhouse steak dinner, the D&D Band fired up and howled the best we
    could to a small but appreciative crowd 'til about 9:00PM, whereupon
    the party broke up _EXCEPT_ for a few diehards like myself, Dan, Shawn
    and Duke Crow from up in Kingman; we sat under my awning BS'ing 'til
    much later.  Finally, Duke and I were the last hold-outs so we finally
    gave up and went in to bed
    
    Next/Final entry:  Sunday and the wrap-up.

      |
      | |      00	 Adios,      Al
    |_|_|      ( >o
      |    Z__(O_\_	(The Desert Rat)

Sunday morning we awoke to a gorgeous, fresh blue sky and it was clear that
the day would be a real beaut! Many pilots began flying at 7:00AM and continued 
to do so until the meet officially started at 9:00.  A few puddles stood around
but Saturdays rain served to settle the dust and keep it that way (if a tad hu-
mid) for the remainder of the meet.

A fellow from Mesa was flying up a storm with a brand new Byron Staggerwing [his
third]; he'd lost the two previous ones at our March and October, 1988 Fly-in's,
then skipped last March and showed up _this_ October with yet another Stag.  I'm
pretty sure Kevin and Kay witnessed this fellow losing his first one.  The first
one went in due to a failed elevator linkage and the second one was totalled 
when the left lower wing broke in half in-flight.  

Anyhoo, this luckless fellow is having a ball wringing out his latest Stag, com-
plete with smoke system, when all at once the unmistakeable sound of ffflutterrr
is heard, followed by a deafening WHOMP! You guessed it; apparently not learning
anything from his previous two losses, his third Staggerwing experienced yet 
another elevator failure and creamed itself all over the damp desert.  Nope, I
don't know whether he plans to build yet a fourth Stag...if he does, he might
be wise to consult with Chuck Collier who beefs his Stag up beyond what the di-
rections call for and has never experienced a mechanical failure (unless you 
count the _complete_ structural failure of his first one when he flew it, point
blank, right into Byron's 1/5 scale mountain back in Ida Grove).  BTW, Chuck 
flew twice Sunday and caught the phantom judge's eye well enough to get the 2nd
place award for best General Aviation flight.  I should add that there'd been
no crashes up 'til now and we'd been hoping we wouldn't have a candidate for
the "Smacked Ass" award.

Around noon, Dennis Crooks and his buddy, Don Kanack, prepared their SR-71's to
go up together.  Dennis took off first and it literally rained wheels as all the
wheels fell from the right main gear...hmmmm, landing may be interesting.  Don's
Blackbird required several tries as the right engine kept flaming out on takeoff
but he made it and formed up with Dennis.  What a sight: those two long, black,
flying phallic symbols in close formation was quite a sight.  They did a coupla'
formation maneuvers (rolls and such) and it was time for Dennis to get down so
that, if anything happened, there'd be time to clear the runway before Don's 
fuel became critical.

All eyes were on His Blackbird as Dennis turned base.  But, a resounding WHOMP
accompanied by a loud gasp from the spectators called attention to the fact that
Don had crashed.......and it didn't sound good!  Meanwhile, Dennis approached
on final with just the strut extending from the right main.  I wondered at the 
wisdom of _not_ bellying the bird in but Dennis knew what he was doing.  He 
touched down a bit hot and slid straight ahead, coming to a stop in the dirt 
overrun just off the end of the runway...no additional damage was suffered.

Don and helpers went out to the crash site to find a fiberglass fuse so totally
decomposed from impact as to resemble a shed snakeskin.  Being hidden from view,
Don proceeded to urinate on the wreckage, muttering "There, you rotten S__ of a 
B____, take that!!"  (As you may've guessed, Don's quite a character, coming 
complete with a wild and raucous sense of humor.)

Later inspection revealed that his right aileron servo apparently went south,
split-S'ing the ship straight into the ground from 150' or so, giving us, unfor-
tunately, the winner of the Smacked Ass Award.

Dennis went on to do a fantastic flight with his demo F-14 which was duly noted
and appreciated by all present.  Dan and Shawn had arrived too late for the SR-
71 flight(s) but were compensated by Dennis' flight with the Tomcat.

No other serious crashes occurred as flying continued up 'to awards time.  As
best I recall, the winners, as determined by the phantom judges, were as fol-
lows:

Best Jet:  Dennis Crooks' F-14		

Peoples' Choice:  Bob Francis' Curtiss Falcon

Best Finish:  Steve Tillson's "Huie" Gunship

Best General Aviation:
1. pilot unknown   Extra 260
2. Chuck Collier's Staggerwing
3. Jim Morrow's Tigermoth

Best Military:
1. Garland Hamilton's F5
2. Larry Wolfe's F4
3. pilot unknown  Byron Corsair

Smacked Ass:  Don Kanack's SR-71

That pretty well wraps things up for the 26th 1/8 AF Scale Fly-In.  See ya' in 
March '90.
    
      |
      | |      00	 Adios,      Al
    |_|_|      ( >o
      |    Z__(O_\_	(The Desert Rat)

>    We're still anxiously awaiting reports from messers Fisher and Ladd on
>    their recent [third] pilgrimage to Phoenix and the 1/8 AF R/C Scale 
>    Fly-In, Spring edition.  I know at least "one" of these gents has
>    lots'a [unpredicted] time on his hands and [I think] both have
>    terminals at home so, c'mon youse guys, the ol' Rat's naggin' y'all for
>    a report...... :B^)    

It's me with lots of time on my hands but I don't have a terminal at home.
I used to but got fed up with modems and phone lines and noise and ...

Anyway I really don't have a lot to add to your already excellent report
so I'll just ramble a bit.  

I took 5 rolls of film at Phoenix - most of it in the Champlain(sp) Fighter
Museum and most of those were concentrating on the Fokker Dr I and the
Sopwith Pup.  

One interesting thing that happened at the fun fly was:
Norm Goyer was their taking pictures and getting info for Scale Modeler
and he saw my plane and was looking for me.  I saw Norm and went to
talk to him and lost him in the crowd.  Later when I returned to my
plane a lady sitting by it told me he was looking for me and wanted to
take my picture with the plane.  Rats.  But the lady told me that Norm
said he would be back tomorrow.  Problem is I ran out of fuel and dumped
the Berliner-Joyce in the pucker brush Saturday so it wasn't in attendance
Sunday.  As it turned Norm never did come back anyhow.  So when I got
home I mailed some Berliner-Joyce pictures to Norm with a letter.  A couple
of days ago I got a call from Norm Goyer at home.  He explained that he
needed some more info about the plane and asked me about documentation.
He was going to do a feature article on the Berliner-Joyce P16.  Not my
plane but the real aircraft.  In parting I mentioned that "I guess this
means that you received my pictures then" - he hadn't and said he would
stop in the office and check them out.  Norm went on to say how he was flying
the Zero in some movie (forgot which one) and talked about some of his
recent full scale exploits.  Boy for a guy 65 he is not letting any moss
grow under his feet.

Yesterday all my pictures came back and I forwarded a bunch to Norm.  I know
he took several Saturday morning but if you see any of Dan Parsons Hornet
or an inverted Corsair doing low passes - it's mine.  I sent the redundant
pictures to Al.

Speaking of Corsairs - up until the last 1/8 Air Force Fun Fly Kevin and I
had never seen a successful Corsair flight.  We have seen several attempts.
Some crash on take off, some crash in mid flight, and the rest all crashed
on landing.  At the last 1/8 Air Force we say many great flights in
Corsairs.  All I believe the big Bryons and some with the Purr-Power muffler/
engine mount.

I took several pictures of Chuck Collier's new P47 in primer and got one
shot of him and Dan Parson's Hornet coming in head on.  The picture doesn't
look great but you had to be there.  With the sound of Parson's twin and
Chuck's G-62 on a Megaphone - it was awsome!

One of my favorite persons at the fun flys is always Eldon Wilson.  This
year he brought a scale flying wing.  This was a back yard special that
some fool built in the 30s and looked real goofy.  Unfortunately it did
the craziest hop and flop on take off and was damaged to bad to fly again.
Tho Eldon assures me it has had many many flights on it.  Also he had a
high wing "monocoupe type" plane that on take off it pitched up
and went down hard on it's nose.  I remember the crash well because I
was saying to Kevin and Al - where's the justice - didn't look like
any damage from our remote view and it dive bombed the nose on the hard
runway yet my poor BJ was a ball of flying parts as I ever so gently sat
it down dead stick in the pucker brush.  Anyway later Eldon said that
they found a transmitter in the transmitter impound with the switch
turned on.  Maybe - but I never heard it from anybody else and the crowd
watching claimed it was pilot error.  The guys at the transmitter impound
were pretty good.  But mistakes can happen and there certainly isn't
a standard for location and direction of power switches on transmitters.

Brian O'Meara brought a Platt Zero and a Spitfire.  The Spitfire went down
in a flat spin all the way to the ground (pucker brush) - spectacular!

There was one of those interesting German "Bloom-en-voss(sp)" planes with
the unsymetrical fuselages and only one horizontal stab.  Flew great.

A fellow named Buzz (forgot his last name) had several nice planes but
he had a Guillos(sp) P47 with retracts,flaps,and bomb drop.  Jerry Kitchen
flew it and said it was the biggest challenge he ever had.  He was doing
a loop and the little Pee-47 did a wicked snap roll at the top and Jerry
was yelling - "I didn't do that!"  Jerry is there every year and everybody
is pushing a set of sticks at him to have him fly their plane.  He was at
one time a pattern champion but has in recent years taken to scale flying,
mostly Extras and other pattern like giant scale models with smoke systems.

One fellow (forgot another name) was flying the heck out of a 1/4 (or was
it 1/3?) scale Cub on floats with wheels on the floats.  Very realistic
take offs and landings.

Gene Barton was there with his famous AD1 Skyraider and I got a close up
look at his folding wings.  Another Skyraider also came but crashed.

Kent Walters had his new larger Dauntless in the back of his van - WOW!
I believe Kent has won the scale masters more times than anyone - what
is his record Al?

There was a P38 there with a redundant radio system.

There was the nicest little twin Jet (Cessna Citation I think) that you
will ever see.  It was amazingly quite and flew great.

This was the first year that we were actually members of the 1/8 Air Force
and so we got to wear our new Uniforms (actually I got to wear mine,  Kevin
had to wear his!).  Fun stuff.  Our job Saturday was to help pass out and
collect the ballots for the people's choice awards.  Not too difficult but
since I was flying Saturday I was happy to have little to do.  Sunday (since
I was out of airplanes) I was flight line monitor for flight line 5.
Kevin was flight line monitor for flight line 2 and 3.  Later he was
monitoring 2,3, and 4.  Finally after some time he was the flight line
monitor for 1,2,3, and 4.  I was still happy just doing flight line 5.
I helped a bit but actually this was fun and frustrating both.  We kept
one person flying and two in the on-deck circles - or tired too.  
When I moved everybody the guy that was suppose to be in my 2nd on-deck
circle was calling for his buddy on flight line 1.  So I pop down
and tell him that he will be in the on-deck circle for flight line
5 as soon as he is done - but don't worry about it "you have plenty of time".
So after they finish on flight line 1 the guy disappears.  Pretty soon
he is suppose to be in the 1st on-deck circle and I can't find him
so I have him paged "Paul Curley report to flight line 5".  Over comes
Paul from hiding.  He says no problem - he will go and get his airplane.
That's the last I see of him.  Now he is next to fly and never comes back.
The guy in the on-deck circle behind him is moving up and I tell him to
wait.  I page Paul again.  He says the sun is too bright and causing wrinkles
on his plane so he is keeping it in the shade till he is next.  I pass the
word on the the other guy in the 2nd on-deck circle.  The guy flying lands.
We wait.  We wait some more - pretty soon I am having Paul Curley paged again.
He brings his plane out and guess what - he disappears again.  The guy in the
2nd on-deck circle who is now in the 1st on-deck circle is tapping his foot.
I have Paul Curley paged again.  Eventually Paul puts in a flight.

I go looking for someone to fill the 2nd on-deck circle.  I have some fellow
I didn't know paged "so-and-so" report to the on-deck circle for flight
line 5.  This big guy (about the size of Dave Hughes) shows up and says
"What's the emergency - you didn't have to have me paged and keeps griping
and giving me dirty looks for the next 15 minutes".

After the lunch break and voting for peoples choice (Kevin and I help pass
out and collect ballots again) one of the first ones up on my flight line
has this sort of scale PT19 that must have had a 2 gallon fuel tank in it.
I would have given him a hard time but I hadn't looked at my watch when he
started so I only had a gut feel for how long he flew - but he was definitely
the first up and the last down.  Then the guy in flight line 4 and my guy in
flight line 5 decide they will launch together and do some formation flying.
They both had identically Citabria kits and same size engines - different 
colors tho.  Anyway they work out a system where the walkie-talkies that
the callers use to talk to the tower (the guy sitting on the roof) to 
synchronize their maneuvers - it was awful.  One guy would say I'm going to
do a split S and the caller would say were going to do a split S into the
walkie-talkie and the other caller would hear this and say to the second
pilot "Split S".  Then the first pilot would say "Now" and start turning
and the caller would say "Now" into the walkie-talkie and the other caller
would hear this and say "Now" and the second pilot would start.  It was
awful!

As an aside when you checked your transmitters in they had a member of
the frequency committee there and they would check your transmitter on
a spectrum analyzer before putting your transmitter on the shelf.

Anyway when they had time during the lunch time people's choice voting
they were testing and putting stickers on transmitters.  My JR century
7 single stick passed with flying colors and got a gold sticker.  I noticed 
an add last evening for this radio for $699 - so I guess I have to hang on 
to it.  At the present rate that JR thinks their radios appreciate this is 
better than an IRA.  Now if I could just convince myself that ABC&W is
as good as Dual Conversion!

Well like I said this is mostly rambling and not too organized but
since I started bringing airplanes to the fun fly I seem to miss a lot.

Mostly we kicked tires and shot the breeze.  The banquet was in the
Pinnacle(sp) Peak restaurant (famous for cutting your tie off if you
wear one) and they had a very nice country band.  Some members of
our party didn't appreciate the music and food but I Tim and I did!
Tim is Kevin's baby - he slept thru it.

I was a little disappointed that Eric had left Saturday morning before
we even made it to the field.  He missed a lot of action.  

Last year we went 10 days and the motel and rent-a-car ripped us off
by not giving weekly rates for the extra 3 days so this year we went
exactly one week.  That was my great idea and it was a major mistake.

I had a bad cold for the first 5 days and even if I had felt good
1 week is just too short for a vacation when 3 days are already
committed to the fun fly.  So next time it will probably be a two
week vacation.  My youngest daughter Kathy skipped school and came
with us this year and spend all her time in the motel swimming pool.

I can't thing of anything else right now but I'm sure I will as
soon as I post this.  

Bottom line is if you ever want a really nice vacation take a couple
of weeks in Phoenix and do it during one of the 1/8 Air Force Fun Flys.
It is the who's who of scale and they fly their hearts out.  The weather
is great and there is so much to see around Phoenix that you will run
out of time and want to come back to continue site seeing.

Bye          --+--
Kay R. Fisher  |
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I just remembered a memorable happening at the 1/8 Air Force Fun Fly.
This guy had a Bud Nosen P-51.  It was grossly under powered and looked
like it was about to drop a wing tip and snap at any second.  He would 
come across the flight line at a high angle of attack about to stall and
do a slow roll.  This plane was unbelievable.  Everybody thought he was
dead meat when it first went up but he got away with murder.  Must not
be a scale wing is all we could say because you never seen a Mustang
fly like this hulk of balsa.


Bye          --+--
Kay R. Fisher  |
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