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Flying High With Electric Power!
The Ampeer ON-LINE!
Fly the Future - Fly Electric! |
Site Table of Contents
| President: | Vice-President: | Secretary/Treasurer: |
| Ken Myers | Richard Utkan | Rick Sawicki |
| 1911 Bradshaw Ct. | 240 Cabinet | 5089 Ledgewood Ct. W. |
| Commerce Twp., MI 48390 | Milford, MI 48381 | Commerce Twp., MI 48382 |
| (248) 669-8124 | (248) 685-1705 | 248.685.7056 |
 | ||
| Board of Directors: | Board of Directors: | Ampeer Editor |
| David Stacer | Arthur Deane | Ken Myers |
| 16575 Brookland Blvd. | 21690 Bedford Dr. | 1911 Bradshaw Ct. |
| Northville, MI 48167 | Northville, MI 48167 | Commerce Twp., MI 48390 |
| 248.924.2324 | 248.348.2058 | 248.669.8124 |
| Mailed Ampeer printed subscriptions are no longer available.
The Ampeer is FREE on-line in Acrobat .pdf format and HTML with active links! | ||
| The Next Meeting:
Date: Saturday, August 4 Time: 10 a.m. Place: Midwest RC Society 7 Mile Rd. Flying Field | ||
| What's In This Issue? | |
| Mid-America Electric Flies 2012 - The 28th Edition, highlights of the 2012 Mid-Am with lots of photos and Ken Myers induction into the Academy of Model Aeronautics Hall of Fame. | |
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The 28th Edition By Ken Myers By Friday, July 6, Jim Lapham and Rich Sievert had the Midwest RC Society field grass close-cropped and rolled. They were determined to have the field in the best possible conditions for all of guest fliers, even though this was one of the hottest and driest weeks ever in southeastern Michigan. They succeeded! The field was in great shape! Thanks Jim and Rich and the Midwest mowing crew. We really appreciated your work and allowing us to use this very nice field for our meet. Many EFO and Midwest members were out early on Friday and helped with the field set up. This was especially important, as Ken was without power and had to run back and forth between the flying field, a 32 mile round trip, and his house. They really picked up the slack and their hard work was very, very much appreciated. Keith Shaw came out about one to do the final set up of the large sunshades for transmitter impound and to provide additional shade for the pilots. By mid-morning on Friday, we were ready for our guest fliers, and they started appearing and flying. Actually, some folks camped at the field starting Thursday evening. Friday afternoon is always fun with relaxed flying and "catching up" with our many friends. Despite the EXTREMELY HOT weather this year, some great planes took to the air through the afternoon and into the evening. While this is officially a two-day meet, several folks got in some flying on Friday. Friday's weather was a preview of the Extremely HOT flying weather for Saturday. While blessed with sunshine and light winds, the temperature soared to over 100 degrees with very high humidity! Saturday was a brutal day to be at the flying field. Sunday proved to be the better weather day of the two. The temperature only rose to the mid to high 80s, and the humidity was down a bit, and there was a nice breeze. This year, our forty-one registered pilots came from all over Michigan, Ohio, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas and several places in Ontario, Canada. As always, it was great fun catching up with our "old friends" and making new friends. That is what this meet is really about. Okay, the really "cool" planes are a very nice bonus. A lot of folks captured the images used to illustrate this article. I am sincerely indebted to Denny Sumner, Joe Hass, Mark Wolf, Paul Goelz and C.J. Wysocki for their great photos. Simple plaque awards are presented after each day of flying. The plaques recognize some of the great planes and pilots flying at the Mid-Am. To receive an award the model must fly at the event.
Don Belfort, of West Chester, OH, had a very nice 89" span, 12 lb. Piper PA-22 Tri-Pacer. It received the Best Scale Award on Saturday. It looks great and flies every bit as good as it looks! Dennis (Denny) Sumner, of Canton, MI brought his LoPresti Fury. Although it could have 'won' many of the awards, the Fury and Denny took home the Most Beautiful award on Saturday. To learn even more about this beautiful, great flying plane, visit www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1511865 
Denny's LoPresti on a flyby C.J. Wysocki photo Don Belfort, of West Chester, OH, flew his neat, little F-6 Skyray ducted fan and won the Best Ducted Fan award. It is impressive in both looks and flight for such a demure model. Roger Wilfong of Novi, MI flew his scratch-built version of a 4-Star that he calls the 4-Star 380. It has 380 sq.in. of wing area and is 80% of the size of the Sig 4-Star 40. The plans were reduced from a Sig 4-Star 40. It is similar in size to the Sig 4-Star 20, but appeared at the flying field long before the kit was available. He received the Best Sport Plane award for his efforts. 
Mark Rittinger with his FSW P-51 Hybrid Denny Sumner photo Mark Rittinger, of Roseville, MI, created a forward swept wing (FSW) hybrid P-51 based on a wind tunnel model created by North American Aviation. While NA never flew a version, Mark's flies great and has a very unique 'presentation' in the air with the swept forward wing. The full scale was to have had a Merlin engine up front and jet engine buried in the fuselage. Mark received the CD's Choice Award for this unique model. More information can be found at: www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1664516 Don Belfort received a special award. Keith Shaw made up a fantastic plaque that said, "Retired Worker, Full-time Modeler". The plaque even had a "brand-new" tube of Ambroid attached. If anyone has a photo of this award, could you please send it to Ken Myers so that he can share it in The Ampeer?
Once the awards were presented and the pilots' raffle held, it was time for the Mid-Am Gals (Chris Myers, Pam Sockow and Jane Sumner), along with Mike Russell (Midwest RC Society) to get the steaks and onions going for the potluck. Both Mike and Pam worked the Midwest concession stand and then helped out with the potluck. On this brutally hot day, this was amazing. Thanks to you all very, very much! 
Chris Myers, Jane Sumner and Pam Sockow the Mid-Am Gals Joe Hass photo The pilots, friends and families provided other great foods to go with the steak sandwiches. 
Chef Mike Russell (really he is a chef!) As usual, Don Belfort, Flying Models columnist from West Chester, OH, brought his "traditional" Mid-Am cake. The cake tradition has been going on for almost as long as the Mid-America Electric Flies. Carolyn Foss and Joe Hass also provided cakes! More on the Joe Hass cake later. We have a bunch of sweet folks attending this event! 
Ken with the annual Don Belfort Mid-Am Cake Denny Sumner photo During and after the potluck is a wonderful time to be at this meet. This is the time when folks continue to get in more flights as well as set around and "catch up", talk planes, family, and politics and just relax. It is simply a marvelous time to be at the Mid-Am. Several Midwest RC Society pilots, special guests and folks representing the AMA joined us to enjoy the festive atmosphere. More on that later. As noted earlier, the weather was somewhat cooler on Sunday with clear skies and gentle winds. With a high temperature ONLY in the mid-80's and lower humidity, the day was much more bearable. There were nine new registrants on Sunday and a lot of flying took place with many, many beautiful planes in the air for most of the day. Again this year, Keith Shaw handled the flight line beautifully on Saturday and Sunday as the flight line coordinator. He also put on a demonstration flight of his Horton twin-ducted fan flying wing.
Mark Rittinger of Roseville, MI took Best Scale top honors with his P-63 Tucker clipped wing racing plane. More information can be found at: www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1273688 
C.J. Wysocki photo Jim Young of Brighton, MI took home the Most Beautiful award for his gorgeous, twin ducted fan Gloster Meteor. Jim kits this plane and more information can be found at: www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1161755 Denny Sumner of Canton, MI flew his Aerocommander Shrike very well with two 370 brushed motors and took home the Best Mini-Electric award. It flies great and proves that you don't need to go brushless to have a great flying twin. 
C.J. Wysocki photo Joe Rubenstein of Lake Orion received the Best Multi-Motor award for his Messerschmitt Me 109Z. The Me 109Z prototype incorporated two Bf 109F-4 fuselages, joined with a constant chord wing center section and parallel chord tailplane. It was a very unique aircraft. 
Denny Sumner photo Dave Thacker of Dayton, OH and Mr. Radical RC, was awarded the CD's Choice (Keith Shaw) for his 1905 Wright Flyer. Dave is offering it as a kit through Radical RC.
We would like to thank all of our sponsors for providing some very nice "goodies" for our participating pilots. At the field we had Radical RC, T&J Models, Dan Schwartz and Mark Rittinger. Other very welcome donations came from Tower Hobbies, Carsten's Publications/Flying Models, Sig Manufacturing Company, Inc., Retro RC, RTL Fasteners, Eagle Tree Systems, Castle Creations, Ken Myers and a 'ton' of goodies from Innov8tive Designs (Lucien Miller). Keith and I thank all of our sponsors very much. We know that the registered pilots who received items from our sponsors are very grateful as well. Ken was very disappointed when Horizon Hobby refused even a small donation to the longest, continuously running electric meet in the country because their budget didn't allow it this year. Really? 
Denny Sumner photo A HUGE thanks to all who helped Keith and I cannot even begin to thank all of the folks enough from the EFO, Ann Arbor Falcons and Midwest RC Society who helped to make this meet the success it is. It is pretty easy to go to a "meet" and enjoy the facilities and forget that it takes a lot of dedicated and hard working folks to pull it all together. From the physical field being in the best possible condition, the special parking set up, dining facilities, porta johns, registration, impound, concessions, potluck picnic grilling and myriad of other details, these behind the scenes folks are the best. Guys and gals, Keith and I cannot be more sincere when we say thank you, and we really couldn't have done it all these years without you! Also, a special thanks goes out to the Midwest RC Society for allowing us to use their field and flying time for the majority of our Mid-Am meets. You guys and gals are the very best!
Pilots' Meeting and Registration Denny Sumner photo And Where Was Dave Hares? Many folks attending the Mid-Am know Dave as THE MAN manning the grill at the Saturday evening potluck. For more than 20 years he's filled this extremely important position. Besides cooking the steaks and sauteing the onions, he has been the organizer of the potluck and chief wrangler to see that everything was there for our guests. Unfortunately, Ken applied for the sanction for the wrong dates! This year's Mid-Am should have been the weekend of July 14 and 15. Dave was, unfortunately for us, still on vacation on the weekend of July 7 and 8. The Mid-Am Gals, Jane Sumner, Pam Sockow and Chris Myers, and Midwest RC Society member, Mike Russell, stepped in at the last minute and 'pulled it all off' very well. A huge, huge thank you to you folks! 
Denny Sumner photo
Unbeknownst to Ken, Joe Hass, Skymasters' member and local super RC community spark plug had nominated him for the Hall of Fame for his work on the Ampeer for 23 years and the promotion of electric flight. Ken was accepted and inducted into the Hall of Fame with a presentation of his Hall of Fame plaque by AMA District VII V.P. Tim Jesky. 
Tim presents Ken with his HOF plaque Joe Hass photo
Joe Hass also presented Ken with a framed letter of his induction from AMA President, Bob Brown. Joe also provided a very special cake and photo of it. 
Joe Hass photo
Art Adamisin, another great local area Hall of Fame Member was also there to wish Ken well. Ken felt proud and awed to be inducted. Besides being president of the Electric Fliers Only, Ken is also vice-president of the Midwest RC Society. The Midwest RC Society now has three Hall of Fame members; Keith Shaw, Peter Waters and Ken. Now that is cool! 
Joe Hass photo Ken's letter reads: June 21, 2012 Dear Ken Myers, Congratulations! A noteworthy panel of past AMA presidents and representatives from ten AMA Districts has selected you as a recipient of the 2012 Model Aviation Hall of Fame award. This award is given each year to a select few modelers who have, over the years, contributed outstandingly to the promotion, development, and advancement of aeromodeling in the United States. Inductees receive a plaque, patch, and a lifetime AMA membership. Their names are also added to a perpetual plaque held at the AMA headquarters in Muncie, Indiana. Again, our sincere congratulations to you and thank you for all you have accomplished in helping make aeromodeling the wonderful activity that it is today. Sincerely,
Joe Hass photo The plaque reads: Since 1936 BY THE AUTHORITY OF
Academy of Model Aeronautics Ken Myers IS HEREBY ELECTED TO MEMBERSHIP IN THE Model Aviation Hall of Fame SUCH HIGH HONOR IS BEING ACCORDED
and it is signed by Bob Brown, President, Academy of Model Aeronautics.
This year's Mid-Am, although very hot, showed off many outstanding aircraft and pilots. Keith and I hope to see you next year at the 29th Annual Mid-America Electric Flies. |
To Reach Ken Myers, you can land mail to the address at the top of the page. My E-mail
address is:
kmyersefo@theampeer.org
EFO WEB site: http://www.theampeer.org