First Weedwacker Aero Squadron P.O. Box 2044 Lakeside, CA 92040

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President: Ben Newkirk 619-698-4766 bennewkirk@cox.net V-P: Ron Smith 619-562-2594 Secretary: Keith Miller 619-449-7347 Treas: Scott Graupmann 858-945-6969 5364 Rim View San Diego, CA 92124 Fun Fly Chairman Keith Miller Race Chairman Ron Kriege Safety Officer Keith Miller

Field Marshals: Bill Hutchins Lee Main Glen Merritt Keith Miller Ben Newkirk Cory Peterson Ron Smith (lead)

Wings Over Gillespie Liason: Bob Muhleman 619-322-6968

Editor: Don Westergren 619-660-1137 3942 Calavo Dr La Mesa CA 91941

Webmaster: Ron Kriege webmaster@weedwackers.org

Instructors: Ron Smith * 619-562-2594 AMA Introductory Pilot Program Instructors

Electrical Aircraft Safety Technicians: Scott Graupmann, Glen Merritt and Joe Stutzman

HANGAR NEWS is printed for the members of the FIRST WEED WACKER AEROSQUADRON and its contents do not necessarily reflect the policies of the club. Editorial deadline is the 15th of each month. Articles, news items and classified ads should be sent to Don Westergren, 3942 Calavo Dr., La Mesa, CA 91941.

Articles originally published in this newsletter may be reprinted and published by modelers and club newsletters. We ask that credit to the author and this newsletter be acknowledged in the reprint. We will do the same.

CLUB FIELD: Cactus Park (East), Ashwood St. (1/4 mile N-E of El Capitan High School) in Lakeside, CA. Please be sure the last flyer to leave locks the pin box and the gate..

NEWSLETTER FOR THE FIRST WEEDWACKER AEROSQUADRON

AMA CHARTER # 1651 April 2011

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HANGAR NEWS

R/C Schedule 2011

Apr 2 Swap Meet, Weedwackers May 7 Scale Fly-In, Weedwackers Jun 3-5 FSS Wings over Gillespie Jun 19 Fathers' Day Swap Meet (DHW - Pending) Jul 16 SDAM Swap Meet at Chula Vista (confirmed via their web site) Oct 8 Fundraising Auction and Raffle - Crime Victims Fund (w/BBQ and Fun-Fly) , Weedwackers

Cactus Park Still Open Sat-Sun-Mon

Field Work to be Finished Soon Please read the Message from your President on page 5. It tells about the latest situation with the County work at Cactus Park, and the behind-the-scenes activities your club officers accomplished since the last club meeting. Also, thank them when you see them next. When the field is ready to be open every day, we will send out email notices to all the club members we have addresses for. Of course, notice will also be posted at the field. The field will be open soon!

NEXT MEETING: Tues. Apr. 5, 7:00 Renette Park

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Minutes of the February Meeting Keith Miller

Minutes of the March Meeting

Keith Miller The Meeting was called to order with the Pledge of Allegiance at 7:00. Board members present were the President, Vice President, Treasurer and Secretary. There were a total of 33 members present. New Members and Guests: Welcome to our newest member —Tim Peterson. See you at the field! Dr. Ray was a guest from Canada. Approval of Meeting Minutes: M/S/P to approve the minutes from last month’s meeting. Treasury Report: M/S/P to approve the Treasurer’s Report.

[Treasurer’s note: The beginning balance reported this month is $60 higher than the closing balance last month. This occurred due to a $60 error in January deposits that is accounted for in the checkbook. One membership check was rejected for lack of a signature.] Safe and Sound: No news this month. Old Business: -At the Feb meeting, the board took an action to conduct a budgetary review. Based on that review, the board formulated five key strategies to balance the budget: 1. Cancel the trash service: This provides an

immediate savings of $1350 per year. 2. All special events must be self supporting:

Entry fees must offset the cost of food and prizes.

3. Reduce the clubs subsidy for the annual Awards Banquet: Rather than significantly reduce the raffle allotment (the key attractor,

which generally runs at a fairly large loss), each member’s entry fee would go up by some amount.

4. Special Assessment for runway resurfacing: When the time comes, funding for runway maintenance will be acquired through a special assessment on each member.

5. Attracting new members: We’ve lost about 40 members from 2010. Membership is the only income the club has.

On the first strategy, the Board recommended that the waste collection service be cut immediately. All of the small bins in the pits will be removed (stowed in the shed) to prevent them from filling up. The old policy of “You bring it in, you bring it out” will go into affect. During club events, the receptacles will come out of the shed; event coordinators will be responsible for ensuring the refuse is removed from the field immediately after the event. M/S/P to cancel the trash service effective immediately. The remaining four strategies will be emplaced through the course of the year. To recover some of the 2010 membership base who have not yet renewed, Bob Muhleman recommended cold-calling modelers with elapsed memberships. The general discussion was that the members may be waiting for the field to be fully accessible seven days a week with no construction fencing. The Board took the recommendation under advisement. Ted O’Fallin mentioned that one factor that may be affecting our membership drop-off is the discourteous attitudes that some members display towards others. He’s had feedback from some fellow members that they would much more enjoy their time at the park if members were simply more kind to each other. So BE NICE! -Lead Capping Project and the “Hot Zone”: (Ron Smith) The “Hot Zone” has since been capped and the field was again opened for flying Saturday through Monday. Work

Beginning Balance: $5,100.39Income: $524.00Expenses: $109.27Ending Balance: 5,515.12$  

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field flight activities, and more. The WOG now wants us to provide a flight demonstration. Bob is working the logistics of a close-in 3D demo. -To encourage club member participation at the event (June 3-5), Bob is offering a raffle ticket for each 4-hour time slot worked. The prize is a new .90 size Extra 300 ARF, donated by Bob himself.

-On the Friday of the event, the WOG organizers said that they are working on bussing in up to 250 children for a lecture and demonstration on the theory of flight. To promote the hobby, Bob asked that club members provide old modeling magazines which will be handed to the kids’ parents. This is a great way to provide them with information which shows what the hobby is about. New Business: The Silent Electric Flyers of Sand Diego (SEFSD) approached the Weedwackers board requesting consideration for use of our field for their San Diego Electroglide events. Aircraft flown from SEFSD (Mission Bay) have been tracked above 400 feet by the Lindbergh field tower, and they may soon have a severely limited ceiling. Unfortunately, due to our own limitations based on neighbor proximity, the Board declined the request. Drawing for Free Membership: Wayne Aymar

WINNER! WINNER! WINNER!WINNER! WINNER! WINNER! Congratulations, Wayne! Model Sharing: Larry Kosta brought in his Multiplex Fun-Cub made from CA-safe ELOPAR foam, using an E-

continues through March on a 12” cap on the “grassy” area just north of the runway across from the pit area. Ron provided a detailed report of the progress, and has been in continuous contact with the foreman to ensure that the additional capping in the grassy area doesn’t create a significant lip at the runway boundary.

-The Calendar of Events posted in last month’s minutes was presented to the club for discussion. There were no comments; the schedule will stand pending unforeseen events.

-The San Diego Family Magazine (www.sandiegofamily.com) contacted the club in February asking for information and photos r e l a t e d t o y o u t h involvement. The February issue ran a short article “ T a k e F l i g h t — L o c a l hotspots for your junior aviator”. The article included a snapshot of our own Max Graupmann ( S c o t t ’ s s o n ) . Unfortunately, the article itself made absolutely no mention of the First Weedwacker Aero Squadron. Harrumph! -Lee Main agreed to be the Contest Director for our upcoming May 7th Scale Fly-In. Lee will arrange the AMA sanction. -Wings Over Gillespie (WOG) (Bub Muhleman reports): Bob presented a briefing of his meeting with Bill Pritchett (AMA’s Education Director) and actions taken to date. Current ideas to boast the aeromodeling hobby at WOG include a host greeter, rubber powered model building event for kids, a model display with aircraft and builder biographies, small concessions stand with club logo items (hats, stickers), playing video of our

Max G

raupmann 

Feb 2011 cover page 

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Electric Seminar: Keith held the CEAP seminar with two participants. Raffle: Larry Kosta Voltwatch Richard Crutchfield Accu-throw incidence

meter Lee Main Gal of Cool Power Richard Cructhfield Dead Center hole guide Gareld Rodieck Hangar 9 hand fuel pump Ryan Crutchfield Hangar 9 hand fuel pump Fred Miller 12v gel cell battery Gareld Rodieck CG Balancer Bob Muhleman Hand held fuel pump Ben Newkirk Roll of TowerKote ? Rx Battery Eliminator

*Somewhere in there, the Hangar 9 fuel pump changed hands several times—not sure who it really went home with...

The meeting adjourned at 8:19.

Flite 400 motor and seven servos with flaps. The huge bush wheels are also made form ELAPOR.

Demonstrations: Tim Peterson brought in his hexacopter from which he filmed overhead video

o f

the Cactus Park Airport. The hexacopter, kitted in Germany, is available on-line, but the instructions are in German. It’s purpose built for aerial

photography. The radio runs on 2.4 GHz with an integral satellite receiver. It also has a 900 MHz data link to program GPS waypoints from mouse-clicks on a map. It also has an independent video data link permitting FPV flight. For the Good of the Order: None this month Story Time: None this month.

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knowledge. While Glen was pursuing a legal opinion on behalf of the club, Secretary Keith Miller brought his professional knowledge in Environmental Safety to bear in conducting a detailed analysis of Mr. Ford’s letter. Using Keith’s analysis as a framework, and with the input of the other Board members, I drafted another lengthy written response to the County and emailed it on March 16. In this document we repeated the practical implications of the planned fence on our operations and, in essence, challenged some of the technical interpretations of the engineers. We also repeated our offer to meet with any appropriate officials in order to generate alternatives to the fence. Randy Ford answered back that he had forwarded our letter up the chain. In the meanwhile, we learned from Glen that the strategy and approach we were following was consistent with the advice from his attorney. On March 17 the DPW foreman told Ron Smith in person that the fence was on hold “pending a meeting.” Keith Miller began preparing graphical overlays onto photos of the field to show how the fence would interfere with any normal landing pattern. (We never got the chance to present Keith’s illustrations, but they are real works of art.) We had to wait again, until March 22, when I received an email to call Randy Ford ASAP, which I did. Randy told me that he had just finished a lengthy meeting that he had convened with the DPW supervisors and the environmental engineers to develop alternatives to the fence. They had come up with two ideas that I immediately summarized and sent out to the Board: What the Board came to call “Plan A” – the club would pave with asphalt the capped area north of the runway all the way to the ranch road. We determined that this would cost at least $30,000 and take six to nine months just to complete a new environmental review; or “Plan B” - the county would erect a fence along a line parallel with the edge of the runway and at a distance of 40’ to 60’ north of it. Then a layer of gravel would be spread from the edge of the runway out to the fence, the latter at County expense.

President’s Message By Ben Newkirk

Another Disaster Averted Your club Board of Directors has been busy this month. On Friday, March 4, the DPW foreman for the soils capping project at Cactus Park, Mike Ballard, informed club VP Ron Smith that the environmental engineers had determined that, due to legal requirements, a 4ft. high barbed-wire fence would be erected along the entire length of our runway, right on the edge of the pavement! Ron immediately called me. I asked Ron to email this information to the rest of the Board while I tried to contact the Parks department. I immediately called San Diego Parks District Supervisor Randy Ford but was able only to leave a voice message indicating that any such fence would essentially mean the end of the club. Then began literally dozens of rounds of emails and telephone calls over the next several weeks as the board marshaled resources, evaluated strategies, and developed written responses to the emergency. Over the first week-end we composed our first letter to the County, which laid out the impracticality of conducting flight operations with any kind of fence placed along the edge of the runway. We also offered to meet with any appropriate County or State officials (as we had done with the LiPo issue in 2007) to assist in developing alternatives to the fence. That document was sent to Randy Ford on Monday morning, March 7. We did not hear back officially until the following Monday, March 14, when we received a lengthy and detailed response from Randy Ford, relaying the legal requirements for the fence, as provided to him by the engineering department. At this point it appeared to be a settled decision. With his permission, I forwarded Mr. Ford’s letter to the Board and we engaged in another round of even more intensive internal discussions. I shared these developments with past club president Glen Merritt in order to enlist his experience and

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Spring Prep From AMA Insider Newsletter

It has been a long winter for some of us.

We have cleaned our models and engines and checked all the electronics. But now that the equipment has been sitting for three months, it needs a little late-winter refresh.

What am I talking about? Battery cycling. If you are using Nicad or NiMH cells, you will need to recharge the batteries about now. These batteries tend to self-discharge over time.

This is also a good time to cycle the batteries and ensure that they still have the capacity to be viable for the coming flying season, or order new batteries if they are of diminished capacity.

Now, if you are using Li-Poly cells, you don’t need to charge or cycle the batteries. However, you should check the voltage to make sure they have held the storage charge you gave them. You do bring the cells to the recommended storage voltage, don’t you? Yeah, me neither. Well, I will be doing that soon since I bought a charger that can put a storage charge on a Li-Poly.

Oh, and while you’re at it, go through your field box. Dump everything out and purge stuff you don’t need. Put the paint stirrers (broken propellers) in a container for later use, or just throw them out if you have too many already.

Check your starting and glow batteries and charge them, too. If you have a power panel, remove it and inspect all the wiring. If you keep repair tools in the field box, make sure they are fresh (glue, fuel tubing, rubber bands, band aids, dressings, ointments [for the other guy, of course], etc.) While you’re at it get some fresh cleaning solution and paper towels too.

Now, when the weather turns fair, you are ready to grab your stuff and go flying.

We were told that the County funds would be available only for a very limited time and that we would have to decide quickly in order to prevent erection of the originally planned fence. The Board took little time to decide unanimously on Plan B. On March 23 I sent word of the Board’s preference to Randy Ford. The next day I received a phone call from the County Senior Civil Engineer, Jason Forga, inviting me to meet with him at the field to discuss placement of the pedestrian gates in all of the new fences. I asked Ron Smith to join me. On March 24 Ron and I met with Mr. Forga and with Mike Ballard. We reviewed all of the plans and timelines for completing the revised capping project including the new fence, which will be less than 4’ high and will be of smooth, not barbed, wire. (At the general club meeting on April 5 we will review in detail all of the changes at Cactus Park.) I want to thank publicly my fellow members on your Board of Directors, Ron Smith, Keith Miller and Scott Graupmann, for their expertise, professionalism and sustained effort. These gentlemen are an awesome team to work with. I also want to recognize Glen Merritt and our unofficial historian and “fifth Board member,” Don Westergren, for their valuable assistance and advice during this crisis. Finally, I must say that without the continuing support, guidance, and personal involvement of Randy Ford, the Weedwackers would likely not have a flying field. Happy Skies, Ben Newkirk

Scale Fly In May 7, 2011

Site: Cactus Park First Weed Wacker Flying Field

AMA Sanction: applied for San Diego County Cactus Park,

Ashwood St., Lakeside, CA AMA Sanction 11-1002

Entry Fee: $10 Scale or Semi-Scale Models Welcome

CD: Lee Main

Pilots Check In: 8:00 AM Pilots Briefing 8:45-9:00 AM

Awards Best Military Best Civilian

Peoples Choice

Food & Beverages available Raffles: Open Raffle

For Info contact Lee Main 619-258-0812

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First Weedwacker Aero Squadron

Wings Over Gillespie 2011

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Fellow Club Members,

I have worked out a proposal for our participation in this years “Wings Over Gillespie 2011”.

I need lots of help to make this event a major focus for our community awareness and new member recruiting.

I have divided the event into seven separate Activity Centers to make it easy for us to be successful. I need a lead person for each Activity Center. The lead will be responsible for all logistics and coordination of volunteers. I will assist with anything you need to make your activity successful.

We will have our display set up for Saturday, June 4th and Sunday, June 5th. Friday, June 3rd will only be set up for a twenty-minute presentation on aerodynamics and radio control aircraft. This presentation will be made to small groups of school children ranging from 4th grade to High School. I will be making the presentation as many times as needed that day. So far, 250 students are scheduled. I could use one person to help me.

Each activity can be broken down into two shifts per day. The morning shift, which will include display set-up and the afternoon shift, which will include break down of the display. We will be

Application and Information Form

storing everything overnight in the Administration Building.

Details of each Activity Center will become clearer once the Lead starts to work on what he and his team wants to do. I already have a general plan for each Activity Center to kick off the flow of creative juices.

I have defined the Activity Centers as follows: R/C Aircraft Flying Demonstration (Pending) R/C Aircraft Static Display Host Greeter with Display Board Flight Simulators Small Airplane build for children with member

assistance Fund Raising Center with R/C Airplane Raffle Weedwacker and AMA information center.

I recommend charging a small fee for the airplane build to cover costs but I’m open for other options. We can discuss this at the April club meeting.

There will be lots of fun work for everyone that wants to help. The more people that help, the less work each person will have to do. It can be a BIG Team effort.

Thanks in advance for you help. I look forward to having a fun time and making this event very special for the public and us.

Your Fellow Member, Bob Muhleman Cell: 619-322-6968

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SWAP MEETSWAP MEETSWAP MEET

Sat. April 2, 2011Sat. April 2, 2011Sat. April 2, 2011 Site: Weedwacker Flying Field

(SD County Cactus Park, Lakeside)

Hours: 7:30 am – 11:30 am --Entry Gate Open at 7:30 AM $5 Seller’s Fee ----Buyers Free Rain date: Saturday April 9, 2011

For Information: DON MADISON (619)-296-1510