SKYWRITER ONLINE

March, 2002
Next Meeting Time:

Key Exchange Required

The keying of the lock on the field gate will be changed at the end of this year.
The date will be January 5, 2002. Your key should be exchanged for a new key at the time of your 2002 membership application.
Keys may be exchanged at a club meeting by presenting a signed 2002 membership application, your 2002 AMA membership card, payment of dues, and your old key.
Keys may be exchanged by mail by mailing a signed 2002 membership application, your 2002 AMA membership card (or a copy of it), payment of dues, your old key, and a self-addressed stamped envelope to the club secretary. Your AMA card will be returned, and you will receive a 2002 CMRCM membership card and a new key

There's Still Time To Save Yourself $5.00
Members who renew their membership after the March meeting will be charged the initiation fee of $5.00 in addition to their yearly dues. Save yourself $5.00 by mailing in your membership renewal now, or bring your application to the March meeting.


Presidents Corner
Hello everybody. Some random observations and thoughts for this month: For the March meeting, we've asked Harvey Thomasian to give a talk on engine setup and related stuff. Should be interesting as Harvey always puts on a good presentation
Hope to see you there
by Steve Kelley

February Show-n-Tell
Jack Buckley showed a scale F4U-1A Corsair from a Byron kit, modeled after one of the planes featured in the movie Ba Ba Black Sheep.
He replaced the fiberglass wingtips in the kit with ones carved from wood. He also modified the kit to have scale flaps and tailwheel. (Anyone familiar with Corsairs knows that the flap is a three-piece surface that wraps around the "elbow" of the gull wing. The hinging and the actuation of all three pieces is also scale.) He installed working navigation and running lights. He also made spoked wheel rims from aluminum and pressed them into place-just like the real one. Finish is Stits covering sealed with nitrate dope, then Krylon® paint, with about 5000-8000 simulated rivets applied in scale locations while the paint was still wet. The rivets were made from small dots of RC-56 glue applied with a hand-held syringe. After everything dried, he applied Lusterkote® clearcoat over everything, then wiped it off with alcohol to produce a weathered effect.
Power comes from a Moki 2.1 glow engine; weight is 29 lbs.

The club and the board thank Dennis Cherry, Mitch Buckley, and Kevin Schleicher for demon-strating the world of park fliers for our presentation at the meeting.


TREAURER'S REPORT FOR February 2002
Balance as of 1/31/2002 2176.62
 
Deposits:
  2002 membership dues 420.00
  Total 420.00
 
Withdrawals:
  AMA business: 2002 charter/insurance 60.00
  Printing: February newsletter 111.22
  Account service charge 3.00
Total withdrawals 274.22
 
Balance as of 2/28/2002 2422.20


Minutes of Meeting February 4, 2002
Meeting called to order at 7:35 PM.

The Secretary's report for the January meeting was accepted as published in the February newsletter.

The Treasurer's report for January was accepted as published in the February newsletter.

Field Director's Report:The field is more accessible in the winter now that we are using the lower gate and don't have to go up and down the hill. New keys have been given to the Department of Fish and Game in Westborough, the Department of Fish and Game in Boylston, the Westborough Fire Department, and the Westborough Police Department. Mike Girourard will be given a new key before he needs access to mow the field.

Old Business:None.

New Business: Steve Kelley and other members provided information about the flying club at Galeville, NY, facing the loss of their flying field.

Volunteers were solicited for Contest Directors for the club Fun Flies. The dates of the Fun Flies and the Contest Directors are as follows:
May 5, 2002Bob Janak & Steve Kelley
June 2, 2002Kevin Schleicher & Jim Dibb
July 7, 2002Phil Metcalf
August 4, 2002Mike Doucette & Peter Feil
August 31, 2002Jack Hall & Dennis Cherry
October 6, 2002Mitch Dante & Russ Miller


The annual club picnic is planned for Saturday, August 17, 2002, with a rain date of Sunday, August 18, 2002.

Peter Feil reported that the AMA would be reviewing club bylaws starting next year. They have provided some suggestions regarding what should be included in the bylaws, and have provided a sample set of bylaws. The Board of Directors will need to review our current bylaws to determine what changes need to be made. (Per the current bylaws, the bylaws may be altered, amended, deleted, or replaced in part or in whole by a simple majority vote of the membership with 30 days' written notice of proposed changes.)

Meeting adjourned at 8:00 pm.

Minutes of Board of Directors Meeting February 4, 2002
Meeting called to order at 9:00 PM.

The board discussed the need to review our bylaws in view of the AMA recommendations. Peter Feil will distribute the AMA sample club bylaws to the board.

Peter Feil returned the audited books from the past fiscal year to Mike Doucette.

Meeting adjourned at 9:15 PM.

Combat Meet Schedule for 2002
May 19CMRCM Field Westboro
June 23Rocky Hill Flying Circus Field Oxford
August 25CMRCM Field Westboro
Sept 15Rocky Hill Flying Circus Field Oxford

Electric, Electric
by Larry Sribnick
Should you ever discharge a pack all the way down?

The short answer is.DON'T! Now for the why.

When you connect a pack to a charger, you connect the plus (positive) of the charger to the plus (positive) of the pack.

If you run a pack all the way down and one of the cells reaches zero before the rest of the cells in the pack (and it will most of the time), how is it connected in the circuit? It's connected plus to minus because the cells are wired in series in the pack. The result is that the rest of the cells in the pack will now start to charge the zero cell backwards because it's connected plus to minus rather than plus to plus as it should be for charging. The end result is that you reverse the polarity of that one poor cell and ruin it.

Now, this can't happen if you just put a pack on the shelf and let it self-discharge over a long period of time because there's no complete circuit. The pack isn't plugged into anything.

Likewise, it can't happen to a single cell that you run all the way down because it isn't the running down to zero that does the damage. It's the remaining cells in a multi-cell pack that turn into a "backwards charger" if one cell is run all the way down that does the damage.

I've been telling people this for 20 years, but I still see people running their packs down after every flight. I've given up trying to explain it to them because the attitude usually is "Everyone else is doing it." I was happy to see that Bob Kopski in his Model Aviation column a few months ago told people that he finally came to the conclusion that you shouldn't run a pack down after flying.

When you're done flying, let the pack cool off until it's just barely warm to the touch and then either put it back on the charger or go home.
from SR Battery Tech Notes
via The Altimeter
Clarksburg Model Aviation Club
Richard Rader, editor
Bridgeport WV