VOL. 2014, Issue 11
The Monthly Newsletter of the Liverm ore Flying Electrons RC Club
Everyone is Welcome to LFE Meetings!
Membership meetings are held at the Livermore airport
terminal on the second Wednesday of each month at 7
PM. Feel Free to bring in your latest project for Show-ntell! All guests are welcome.
Next Meeting: At the Livermore Airport terminal,
Wed. November 12th at 7pm
2014 LFE Board of Directors
Lenny Farin
(925)736-0610
Tom Bilotti
(925)820-3347
Dick Locke
(925)516-0325
Jerry Crans
(510)582-1559
Ed Becker
(925)292-5886
Jeff Stern
(925)606-8861
Mark Isozaki
(925)447-8868
2014 LFE Club Officers & Flight Instructors
President
Lenny Farin
Vice President
Jerry Crans
Secretary
Dick Locke
Treasurer
Tom Bilotti
Field Maintenance Chairman
Membership Chairman
Librarian
Safety Officers
Fuel Sales Chairman
Roger Tobeck
Johnnie Johnson
Chris Keith
Bill Long
Mark Isozaki
Flight Instruction Coordinator
Jeff Stern
Flight Instructor (Fixed Wing)
Chris Keith
Flight Instructor (Fixed Wing)
Eric Schellenberger
Flight Instructor (Fixed Wing)
Sebastian Boeticher
Flight Instructor (Fixed Wing)
Mike O’Can
Flight Instructor (Fixed Wing)
Chris Larsen
Flight Instructor (Fixed Wing)
Chris Orsini
Flight Instructor (Fixed Wing)
Craig Wissman
Flight Instructor (Helicopters/Fixed Wing)
Jim Thompson
November 2014
Newsletter Editor and Web Master: Edward Becker
Email: [email protected]
Newsletter Deadline: Any information to be included in
The Flyer should be submitted to the email listed above
no later than the 25th of the month for inclusion in the next
newsletter. All submissions should be in plain text or
Microsoft Word format. Ariel font 10 point is strongly
preferred. Permission is hereby granted to reproduce any
part of “The Flyer” provided source credit is given.
WEATHER INFORMATION
LFE Field Weather Station
(925) 371-0720
Or
Visit the club’s Website at
www.LFERC.com and select Weather
from the main menu
Submit all Club correspondence via e-mail to
[email protected] or by mail to:
Livermore Flying Electrons RC Club, Inc.
P.O. Box 2182
Livermore, Ca. 94551
Page 2
The Flyer
From
The Editor
They have a nice covered pits area to provide shade for
the club mascot:
By Ed Becker
LFE Newsletter Editor
I hope that all of you and your families had a Happy
Halloween. Fall has arrived and with the fall season
comes a low sun in the sky, so consider using the sun
spot poles that our members have graciously constructed.
They are very effective at blocking the sun while flying.
Yesterday the club had a fall work party to perform some
maintenance at the field, including repairing the Petromat
at the end of the pits, filling in squirrel holes and hauling a
load to the dump. With the large turnout, all the tasks
were done by about 10am, leaving plenty of time for
members to fly. Thanks to all the members who came
out to help. Our club has always had a high level of
participation from members at work parties to maintain
our beautiful flying facility for all of us to enjoy.
As well as a large asphalt runway maintained by the city:
The club has one remaining event for the year:
Saturday, December 6, 2014 -- Toys for Tots
For the “Toys for Tots” event, club members are asked to
bring an unwrapped toy or game to the field to fly. The
toys will be donated to Toys for Tots organization. Coffee
and donuts will be provided.
Gary Oehrle has graciously agreed to be the club’s event
coordinator for 2015. On behalf of the club, I’d like to
thank Kevin Switzer for coordinating the club’s events in
2014, and also to all the club members who helped out at
the events.
During recent travels. I decided to stop at a few r/c clubs
along the way. The first stop was the Maloof Airpark in
Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Another stop was the “Rocky Mountain Flying Machine”:
Page 3
They have two
runways:
with unobstructed approaches:
And a nice pits area:
I was warmly welcomed at these clubs far away from
home and was even offered the opportunity to fly an
airplane or two. I let them all know that if they are ever in
our area, they are welcome to visit our club, fly as a
guest, and enjoy our friendly hospitality.
Airspace Boundaries
The club is fortunate to have good relationships with our
neighbors. We must, nevertheless, always be careful to
not fly too close to the houses to the East (to the left
when facing the runway) and the ranch to the West (to
the right when facing the runway). All club members are
reminded that when flying towards the West (to the right
The Flyer
when facing the runway) to stay left (South) of the large
yellow sign on the berm. For those of you who may not
know, when standing at any of the flight stations, due
North is generally directly behind your back, South is in
front of you, East is left and West is right. So, when flying
to the right, please stay left of the large yellow sign.
Membership Badges
As most of you know, the current field rules require that
club members wear their membership badges at the field.
At the last meeting, several club members mentioned that
they observed some club members not wearing their
membership badges at the field. Wearing your
membership badge is important for several reasons. It
lets others know that you are a current member of the
club, whether you are signed off to fly, and also your
name. The club has several new members, so if you see
someone that you don’t know at the field, please
introduce yourself and welcome them to the club, just as
you would like to be welcomed if you were a new
member. Members at the meeting agreed that the
current field rule that requires club members to wear their
membership badges at the field should be enforced. This
means that effectively immediately, all club members
must wear their membership badges at the field, and club
members who do not wear their membership badges will
not be allowed to fly. That’s right, no membership badge,
no flying.
Board Openings
Current Board members Mark Isozaki and Jeff Stern have
their two year terms ending on December 31st. Mark and
Jeff have made many valuable contributions to the club
over the years and they are often found at the field flying.
On behalf of the club, I’d like to thank Mark and Jeff for all
that they have done and continue to do for the club. The
two open Board positions will be filled at the December
club meeting by nomination and vote. Any club member
who has been a member of the club for at least one year
is eligible to serve on the Board. Club members may
nominate themselves or other club members and current
Board members may be re-elected.
Online Forum
The club now has its own online forum! To access the
forum, go to the club’s Website at www.lferc.com and
select “Forum” from the main menu. Select “Home” in the
upper left corner to see all the forum topics. If you are a
new member, you can join by selecting “Register” from
the upper left corner. The club’s forum is for club
members only. There are some good threads going on
topics of interest to members, so I encourage you to
check it out. Lynn Branum has graciously agreed to be
an administrator/moderator and is he is doing a great job.
On behalf of the club, thank you Lynn. The forum is for
the benefit of club members, so feel free to leave your
Page 4
suggestions in a post or contact either Lynn at
[email protected] or me at
[email protected]
The LFE Field is Now on RealFlight
This from club member Brett Junell:
“In case you missed the email, our wonderful flying field is
now available on RealFlight – and it’s pretty realistic.
Using RealFlight with our airfield is a great way to
practice when you can’t make it out to the field.
For example, if you are wanting to practice those landing
approaches in either direction, you can set the wind
direction and wind speed accordingly, including cross
winds for those crab landings.
Or perhaps you have been wanting to hover your plane in
the pits? This is your chance. Just be warned, in this
latest version, Lenny is in the pits watching!
To download the Photofield file for RealFlight, visit
www.TeamJunell.com/lfe and follow the directions.
By the way, we’ve now had over 600 downloads of our
airfield – that’s a lot of virtual flyers at LFE.
Anyone interested in a virtual Fun Fly?
Enjoy,
Brett Junell
[email protected]”
Membership Application/Renewal Forms
The membership application/renewal form has been
updated for 2015 to include some changes to streamline
processing. Please be aware that the club no longer has
a January 15th grace period for renewing memberships
and all LFE renewal applications should be postmarked
no later than December 31st.
Next Club Meeting Wednesday November 12th
The next club meeting is Wednesday, November 12th at
7pm at the Livermore Airport terminal building. All
members and guests are invited to attend.
See you at the next meeting and at the field.
-Ed Becker
The Flyer
Landing
by Walt Gerfen
“Flying is the second most thrilling thing known to man—
landing is the first!”
“Takeoffs are optional—landings are mandatory.”
“Flying is hours of boredom punctuated by moments of
pure terror.”
These old cliches all have a basis in truth, but landings
need not be that intimidating. I have noticed that some
pilots land by forcing the airplane down to the runway with
down-elevator stick, while the airplane still has too much
airspeed. The airplane then bounces one or more times
while it continues to fly, before finally slowing down
enough to stay on the runway.
The optimum landing is achieved by running out of flying
airspeed and touching the runway at the same time. To
achieve good landings, the pilot must know his airplane.
Each different airplane will have different flight
characteristics that relate to the size of the airplane, the
airfoil of the wing, the wing loading (i.e. the ounces of
weight per square foot of wing area), the geometry of the
flying surfaces, location of the center of gravity (CG), etc.
Most airplanes are power-trim sensitive—as power is
increased, airspeed increase produces more lift. So in
order to maintain level flight, elevator trim must be
adjusted for each power setting. Higher power settings
require down-trim, and conversely lower power settings
require up-trim. Aerobatic airplanes with symmetrical
airfoils and zero incidence settings are less sensitive to
speed changes.
When you are done boring holes in the sky and it is time
for landing, use a low power setting and enough up-trim
to maintain level flight as you enter the landing pattern.
The altitude of your downwind leg should be determined
by the low speed glide ratio of your aircraft. The flatter the
glide, the lower the downwind leg altitude should be.
Reduce power again as you make your base leg turn to
start your descent. Be sure that the nose doesn’t drop in
the turns, as this will cause the speed to increase and
your final approach will be too fast and too low at the
threshold.
As you turn to final, reduce power to idle, keep the
airplane level with just enough up-elevator to maintain a
slow glide to the runway. When you are several feet
above the runway, add a little more up-elevator to keep it
off the ground as long as you can. It will then run out of
flying speed and touch down at the same time.
To summarize—know your aircraft, learn how slow it will
fly without stalling. Practice low speed stalls at altitude to
learn what the stall speed is. When it stalls does it fall off
on one wing (tip stall), or does it just mush straight ahead
Page 5
The Flyer
and drop the nose until flying speed is regained? Practice
gliding with the engine at idle to learn the low speed
characteristics and trim required to glide hands off. Set
the engine to the lowest maintainable rpm.
Fly a consistent landing pattern. This pattern altitude may
vary for each different airplane you fly, but try to keep the
rest of the pattern the same.
Practice touch-and-goes holding the airplane off the
runway as long as you can. If it won’t settle, then you are
going too fast. Remember, airspeed is controlled with the
elevator trim. You will probably be surprised how slowly
your airplane will continue to fly without stalling.
This all sounds simple, but takes a lot of practice to do it
right every time. Flying the landing pattern consistently
the same way will result in good approaches and good
landings. I like to burn a tankful at each flying session
doing dozens of touch-and-goes to keep current on my
landings.
from the newsletter of the Skagit R/C Club
Jerry Odell, editor
Burlington WA
Spiral Propwash
Additional information incorporated into the article was
supplied by Technical Editor Ed McCollough.
The prop does not throw the propwash straight
back—there’s some drag on the prop, and that
tends to make the wash behind it come off in a
spiral fashion. And the problem comes when that spiral
flow meets the rudder. If the rudder/fin is mounted high,
the airplane will turn (yaw) left because only the top part
of the spiral hits it. See Fig. 1. On a taildragger at rest, tail
down, this may not be the case, and even the reverse
may be true because the propwash must be mostly
parallel to the ground. See Fig. 2.
Torque. As the engine runs, the crankshaft turns and
since the propeller is attached to the crankshaft, it also
turns. This is an action, and according to Sir Isaac, for
every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The
turning of the propeller in one direction causes the engine
and everything it’s attached to try and turn in the opposite
direction. Since all our props turn to the right, that means
there is a force trying to twist (roll) the airplane to the left.
Note that this force is about the roll axis—the torque
forces do not by themselves turn or yaw the airplane as
do the previous two effects. We automatically take care of
this with ailerons in keeping the wings level, and it really
doesn’t take much force from the ailerons to do it. On the
ground, most torque forces are countered by the wheels.
Gyroscopic effect. The weight of the fast-turning prop
creates a gyroscope, which will resist any change in the
direction of its rotating axis. This is easily overcome by
the airplane’s controls, but the more detectable
gyroscopic effect comes as the direction is changing. As
the airplane’s direction is changing, as in a sudden pullup, gyroscopic forces try to rotate the plane about an axis
90 degrees to the axis you’re forcing it. In the example of
a sudden pitch up, the gyro action from the prop will try to
force the airplane to turn (yaw) to the right. Dont believe
it? Try it—the next time you’re holding your airplane nose
up at full power to check your mixture, rotate the airplane
sharply nose up and down. You’ll feel the sideways
pressure from this force. In flight, its effects are minimized
by the forces on flight surfaces. They can show up at near
zero airspeed if you do a very quick stall turn or flopover..
So what to do? Answer—know, what your airplane’s
characteristics are, and compensate with the rudder! Let’s
take an example: the Piper Cub, well known for its
tendency to ground loop on take off. Here’s what
happens: you gas the engine, and immediately have to
put in some right rudder to keep it from turning to the left.
With the tail down, the tail wheel gets more effective as
you begin to roll, and you have to let up on the rudder.
But then the tail comes up, while the fin and rudder, which
were low and were getting equal right and left yaw from
the spiral effect, now pop up into only the top portion of
the spiral propwash. The Cub will now sharply turn left
unless you are quick to shove on the right rudder. As the
Cub accelerates, the fin/rudder get more straight airflow
and again you must let up on the right rudder to keep it
straight! Whoo! And we’re not even airborne yet!
One method to tame the initial gyrations is to hold the tail
down for part or all of the takeoff run. This keeps the tail
wheel firmly in contact with the runway, stabilizing
directional control considerably. A touch of up-elevator
does wonders here; just remember to slack off the
elevator at lift off to keep from climbing too steeply.
Suppose you pull the airplane off early, while very slow.
You are at a high angle of attack, and the torque (and
maybe some spiral effect, too) will try to turn you to the
left again. Assuming that you keep the wings level with
aileron, rudder is the proper way to correct the left drift. If
you only correct with right aileron, the airplane will be in a
skid, in unbalanced flight, and you’re setting yourself up
for a stall/snap/crash, big time!
Just how much prop effects affect your airplane’s
behavior depends on the airplane. A pattern-type airplane
is affected very little. Other aircraft may be affected
considerably. Your airplanes probably fall somewhere in
between those two extremes.
Understand what is happening with your airplane and
learn to make the proper corrections (quite often with right
rudder). You’ll be a better, smoother pilot, and you may
just save an airplane or two.
Page 6
from the WAMS Newsletter
Weatherford Aero Modeling Society
Mike Connally, editor
Mineral Wells TX
The Flyer
Page 7
The Flyer
The Secretary’s
Report
By Dick Locke
LFE Secretary
Minutes of OCT 10, 2014
Meeting called to order at 7:00 PM by Lenny Farin.
Board members present: Lenny Farin, Ed Becker, Jeff
Stern, Mark Isozaki, Jerry Crans and Dick Locke.
Guests: Jerry Hawkins, a former member, and Eric
Birkinbine.
Minutes: September, 2014 minutes approved as noted.*
Membership Report: None.
Treasurer report: Jerry Crans distributed copies of Tom
Bilotti’s report.
Events Chair report: Brian Dethier will conduct the
October 18, 2014 fun fly and BBQ. The program will be
routine. Details will be announced at the meet.
Mark Rhodes questioned the value of AMA sanctioned
LFE club events, and whether it’s worth it. After a brief
discussion, Ed Becker said he will apply for AMA
certification as a Contest Director.
Quartermaster Report: Mark Isozaki will replenish all
necessary items.
Instructors Report: Jeff Stern reports seventeen
students, but only eight or ten are active.
Brett Junell developed a step-by-step R/C flight training
program for LFE instructors and students.
Jeff Stern noted that instructors are not always available.
Jeff said the club website will offer a Great Planes Avistar
Elite, a high wing trainer with receiver for $315. A student
may use the club batteries, transmitter and charger
temporarily, but will be expected to buy their own
eventually.
Safety Officer Report: Chris Keith suggested that LFE
issue student badges that must be worn until they solo.
Students without a current AMA card cannot fly. Jeff will
make signs that say No badge no fly. Students will be
required to bring their LFE Flight Training Handbook to
each lesson.
Chris said guests should also be required to wear guest
badges.
Field Maintenance Report: Chris Orsini said squirrel
holes are a safety problem.
Lenny will schedule a work party the first part of
November to nail down a section of Petromat to keep the
squirrels out.
Unfinished Business: Chris Orsini said there were no
problems or issues with having to wait to fly.
Bill Copeland reports nothing new on LFE meeting room
status.
Tristyn Clark mentioned that there is a possibility that the
Livermore Municipal Airport Administration Building will
either be torn down by the end of the year, or, it may be
used as an airport museum according to the Livermore
City Council.
Lenny Farin and Chris Orsini talked about the yellow sign
establishing flight restrictions at the south end of the field
and exactly what is allowed and what is not. The rule is
not to fly to the right of the sign, beyond the sign. When
past the sign, keep to the left of the sign as viewed from
the flight line. This is to respect the wishes of our
neighbor directly south of the field.
New Business: Lenny said the September 25th float fly
was cancelled due to rain in the forecast.
Chris Orsini will talk to LFE members about another float
fly trip.
Eric Birkinbine wants to “put on a premier” event in 2015
with sponsors, lasting two or three days with as many
seventy entrants. Lenny said he should research it and
consult with LFE members.
Technology Committee Report: LFE Computer
equipment and cameras are operating normally.
Bill Copeland thinks the weak weather phone signal is
due to a bad telephone line.
Show and Tell: None.
Refreshments: courtesy of LFE, delivered by Dr. Joe
Poco.
Meeting adjourned at: 7:43 PM by Lenny Farin.
*Correction: Julius Bertolucci noted that in the
Unfinished Business section, the direction “east” should
Page 8
have been “south” in line one, par. 4 of the September 10,
2014 Minutes.
LFE Secretary’s Report by Dick Locke
Minutes: of Oct. 10, 2014 of Board of Directors meeting.
There was no Board of Directors meeting for the month of
October.
LFE Secretary’s Report by Dick Locke
Minutes: of Sep 10, 2014 of Board of Directors meeting.
There was no Board of Directors meeting for the month of
September.
The Flyer
Page 9
The Flyer
Located conveniently between the N. Livermore Ave and S. Vasco Rd. Exits off of Highway 580
LFE Flying Site
4455 Raymond Rd.
Livermore, Ca.
Livermore Flying Electrons RC Club, Inc.
P.O. Box 2182
Livermore, CA 94551
Web Address: http://www.lferc.com
Email: [email protected]