The Radio Control Club of Detroit

IMPORTANT: State of Michigan Recreation Passport required for RCCD flying field access.

A term of our new lease with the State of Michigan, is that a Recreation Passport is required for access to Wetzel State Park, just like any other State park in Michigan. The new lease is effective from January 2014. If you already have the Passport tab on your licence plate you already comply. If not please go to the Michigan DNR website for details.
http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,4570,7-153-10365_55798---,00.html

Note that this is a State of Michigan requirement.

It's that time of year again . . . . .

The Sopwith Single (My Model Airplane News contest plane) on skis, shooting touch-and-go's. I guess I know why the guys gave me the call sign: "Iceman"

On behalf of RCCD, a big Thank You to our 2013 club officers for a great year. At the Christmas dinner, Mike and John were presented with tokens of appreciation as they step down from their roles.

Club officer election results: At the December 5th club meeting, the 2014 oficers were elected:
President - Peter VaHeusden
V.P. - Gordon Gibbons
Treasurer - John Gronowski
Secretary - Phil Laperriere

Thanks to John McCormick (President) and Mike Pavlock (Treasurer) for their service as officers to RCCD.

Ground School - Thursday, September 26th:

The RCCD club ground school scheduled for Thursday 9-26-13 will be a tour of the Army National Guard hanger located within the Selfridge Base instead. This is the Army National Guard group who in the past has flown onto our field and set up a static display of the Chinook helicopter. There were additional static displays scheduled for our field, but were cancelled due to their multiple deployments; to fight the Michigan Northern forest fires, their deployment to Iraq, and their deployment to Afghanistan. They have recently returned from additional training for the new Chinook helicopters.

We have visited their facility in the past, and was again invited to review their facility and their brand new and latest version of the Chinook helicopters. There will be a static display of one of the new helicopters in the hanger . You will be able to climb aboard for a personal tour of the aircraft. Thursday is also a flying night for the group. Hopefully we will be able to see some of the flight operation.

For those who didn't sign up at the last club meeting and want to join in on the tour, you must sign up by Tuesday 9-24-13. Contact Pete Mlinarcik (Rattlesnake) either by phone
(586) 463-2249 or by email forpetesnake@att.net We will meet at the Selfridge Welcoming Center parking lot located on Jefferson just outside the main gate at 6:30. We will group into a few vans /cars and proceed through the main gate security. We will then follow the lead car to the Army National Guard hanger.

Note: a list of names must be supplied and all the drivers who will be driving on the base must have a valid drivers license, vehicle registration, and proof of insurance ready and make sure all safety belts are fastened. These are base security requirements.

Hope to see you there,

Pete M...........Rattlesnake

13th Annual Camp & Fly Weekend
Saturday August 31, and September 1st
RCCD Flying Field in Wetzel State Park

Dinner for Members and Families
Saturday Evening August 31:

The Club dinner this year will be a repeat of the successful BBQ Event last year. Dinner will be served at 5:00 pm., will cost $12.50 per person, and will be as follows:

Your choice of meat either B.B.Q. Pulled Pork orTexas Beef Brisket,
Vegetables will be a selection of Potato Salad, Baked Beans, Cole Slaw and Corn on the Cob.
Garlic Bread Sticks with butter.

A Selection of Deserts will also be available.

Soft drinks and Coffee will be served.

Please make your reservations no later than August 23 by e-mail to……

jplaperriere@wowway.com or by phone at (248) 701-7888; my cell phone, and leave a message.

Members who fly electrics, may find the following links of interest. They will also be added to our Links page:

From the first, you can subscribe to a newsletter. http://www.gibbsguides.com/mailinglist.htm

The second has useful articles: http://www.gibbsguides.com/free-articles.htm

RCCD's - The Kool Kat:

In recent years, the art of flying “U Control” has taken a backseat in model aviation. Most of us older R/C flyers were introduced to model aviation by building and flying “U control” models. It seems a lot of us older R/C flyers have forgotten the enjoyment of building and flying U control. Thanks to the few remaining “U control” flyers, the sport has managed to continue today. I think it is time for the club to give those few flyers a hand to promote this segment of the hobby. Our flying field already has a well maintained U control circle, and sadly it is not being used to its full potential. As a club, we all should join in, by helping to publish, celebrate and re-introduce this almost forgotten part of our hobby. Yes, we are an R/C club, but the vast majority of us had our start in model aviation in the U control circle.

Fortunately our club still has a number of “U control” flyers actively flying the circle. Thanks to those few club members, who are willing to instruct and promote this segment of our hobby, we now have some new young members learning to fly U control. All of this was accomplished by those few, with little effort by the club in general. As shown in the past, this is probably the least expensive way to start in model aviation. Currently, we are going through some rough economic times, placing R/C flying beyond the means of a lot of new comers. Maybe U control is the way to entice more of the newcomers into the hobby.

We all know, our hobby needs an influx of new blood. This new blood is the only way this great hobby of model aviation is to continue. It may take an all-out effort by the club to promote U control as a way to join in the fun and enter the realm of model aviation. As a suggestion, maybe, the way to promote or introduce U control to the public, is if we can hold flying demonstrations flown by the experienced circle flyers at some of our R/C events, or at our kids’ nights, or at the DNR events, or just promote a U control event with the same effort we put in our R/C events. Another recruitment suggestion is to offer (at cost) a club designed short kit of a club project U control plane.

Having said the above, we now have an U control project plane in the works. The tentative name for the project plane is "The Kool Kat". It is already past the design stage, past the prototype laser cutting stage, and now into the prototype build stage. The instruction manual is currently being written. The project plane is a gentle trainer for the beginner and can be quickly transformed into a stunt plane with minor modifications for the more advanced flyer. The 27-3/8" long profile fuselage is a three piece laminated construction with the center lamination made from 1/8" lite ply that includes the vertical fin and rudder. The 41"wing span, 390 sq.in. main wing is a balsa wood built up wing. The 17"x5-3/4" horizontal stab and elevator is 3/16" balsa wood. The plane can handle engine sizes from a .19  through .35. The construction manual will be posted on the club website. The short kit will contain all the wood to build the plane. All the critical dimensional parts will be laser cut. A list of hardware and additional material needed will be posted on the website.
 
The Prop Shop is willing to participate in this program. There are experienced club members that currently fly U control willing to help with flying instructions for those who are joining in for the first time flying U control and for the flyers who haven't flown for years and may be a little rusty.

We need to compile a list of club members that are interested in joining in the build of the new U control project plane so we can more accurately project a cost for the short kit. The cost will be dictated by the amount of wood needed based on the participation of the club members. As in the past club projects, all the laser cutting, designing and labor costs will be donated and only the material costs involved will be included in the cost of the short kits.

Please, send an email to.......Rattlesnake (forpetesnake@att.net) 0r notify by phone (586) 463-2249. If there is no answer, please leave a message with your name and phone number and with the number of kits that you want to order. For those members that already verbally stated your interest in the kit/s please also reply to this email so you will not be missed in the official tally. 

Thanks,

Pete M............Rattlesnake

A couple of videos taken with a GoPro camera on board a Hangar 9 Sopwith Camel, over RCCD.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oGJWjQm-No
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZcIZtnjukI

"Hello my flying friends, very hot 85 deg. with wind but very sunny. We have to adjust to the heat to fly down here. all of you guys stay warm. Richard "

Don't we feel so sorry for Richard? While he suffers, we are comfortable at our 30 F, windy and raining. We are SO fortunate not to suffer like him!!!!!