Flying High With Electric Power! The Ampeer ON-LINE! September 2010 The Club Newsletter of the Electric Flyers Only, Inc AMA Charter 2354 Walled Lake, MI, USA Editor: Ken Myers Fly the Future - Fly Electric!

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	Jack Lemon	Ken Myers
16575 Brookland Blvd.	8908 Sandy Ridge Dr.	1911 Bradshaw Ct.
Northville, MI 48167	White Lake, MI 48386	Walled Lake, MI 48390
248.924.2324	248.698.4683	248.669.8124
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The Next Flying Meeting: Date: September 11 Time: 10:00 a.m. Place: Midwest RC Society 7 Mile Rd. Flying Field, Salem Twp., MI

What's In This Issue?
Mid America Electric Flies 2010	Upcoming E-vents	Send Ken email

Important Notice!      You can contact Bob Kopski regarding the BDM information in the August Ampeer at kopskib@gmail.com. I would appreciate a CC when you do - Ken Mid America Electric Flies 2010 The 26th Edition      By Friday, July 9, Jim Lapham and Rich Sievert had the Midwest RC Society field grass close-cropped and swept. They were determined to have the field in the best possible conditions for all of our guests. They succeeded! The field was in great shape! Thanks Jim and Rich and Midwest mowing crew. We really appreciated your work and allowing us to use this very nice field for our meet.      Many EFO members were out early and helped with the field set up. Keith Shaw came out about one with the Ann Arbor Falcons helping him with the final set up of the large sun shades for transmitter impound and the housing of some of Keith's great fleet. By early afternoon, we were ready for our guest fliers, and they started appearing and flying. Friday afternoon is always a fun day with a lot of relaxed flying and "catching up" with our many friends. Thanks to the wonderful weather this year, many, many great planes took to the air through the afternoon and into the evening. While this is officially a two-day meet, lots of folks get a lot of flying in on Friday. The Weather      Friday's great weather was just a preview of the absolutely perfect flying weather for the whole weekend. The event was blessed with sunshine, low winds and mid-80 temperatures for the whole weekend.      When I arrived at the field on Saturday at about 7:15 a.m., Phil Alvirez of Windsor, Ontario, had already flown all of his planes once in the perfect conditions. By 8:00 many pilots were taking to the air using the field's frequency control pins. By the pilots' meeting at 10:00 the majority of the folks attending had at least one flight.      2.4 GHz transmitters were not impounded this year. There appeared to be no problem doing this and it did reduce the workload of our volunteers in the impound tent.      Registration was also handled at the impound tent with Denny Sumner handling the lion's share of the responsibility for this operation. The Pilots      This year, our sixty-three registered pilots came from all over Michigan, Ohio, Iowa, Indiana, 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 Word About the Photos      A lot of folks captured the images used to illustrate this article. Ken Myers captured a few shots, Greg Cardillo captured many great images, and Mark Wolf, Rick Sawicki, C.J. Wysocki and Bill Curtindale also captured images used here. Greg Cardillo has even more great photos of the 2010 event on his Web photo page found at greggallery.gmcdesign.com. Greg's great photos also cover the Mid-Am from 2004 through 2009. Rick Sawicki's photos can be on the Web found at picasaweb.google.com Bill Curtindale has almost 300 photos at picasaweb.google.com      Many of the photos were taken from here: www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1254120 The Awards      We give out some simple plaque awards on each flying day to recognize some of the great planes and pilots flying at the Mid-Am. To receive an award the model must fly at the event. Saturday's Awards C.J. Wysocki photo      Joe Rubinstein of Lake Orion, MI had a very nice Bloch 210 bomber. It received the Best Scale Award on Saturday. It is powered by two Astro Flight 020 motors and a 3S 5000mAh Li-Poly. It looks great and flies wonderfully! Photo by Rick Sawicki      Mark Rittinger of Roseville, MI brought the beautiful prototype of his Super Sportwin. Although it could have 'won' many of our awards, the Super Sportwin and Mark took home the Most Beautiful award on Saturday. To learn even more about this great flying sport twin and when plans will be available his build thread can be found here: www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1075719 Bill Curtindale photo      Jim Young of Brighton, MI had his very impressive ducted fan at the meet. His self-designed Gloster Meteor won the Best Ducted Fan award. It is very impressive in both looks and flight. You can find out even more about it in his thread on RC Groups as well as leaning when the plans and short kits will be released. You'll also find video here. www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1161755 Ken Myers photo      Walt Thyng of St. Charles, IL flew his Eyeball and received the Best Sport Plane award. The pilot of the Eyeball is indeed an eyeball, which turns with the rudder movement. Full details of Walt's model can be found on RC Universe at www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_8478975/mpage_1/key_Eyeball/tm.htm      It was built from a Eureka Models Art Schroeder Eyeball short kit. RC Universe photo by Walt C.J. Wysocki photo      Mark Wolf of Brownsburg, IN brought along his fleet of beautiful planes, which included his prototype build of the T&J Models (Jim Young) 45-inch WACO YMF. It took to the air several times during the meet and always garnered a lot of interest. Watch for the construction article and short kit soon. Mark received the CD's Choice (Ken Myers) for his fine work and great flying plane. More info on Mark's plane can be found in the build thread on RC Groups. www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=973394 The Saturday Potluck      Once the awards were presented and the pilots' raffle held, it was time for Dave Hares and his volunteers to get the steaks and onions going for the potluck. Thanks Pam for pitching in on the potluck too. (She'd been helping in the concession stand all day as well!)      The pilots, friends and families provided a wide selection of foods to go with the steak sandwiches.      As usual, Don Belfort, Flying Models columnist from Westchester, OH, brought his "traditional" Mid-Am cake. The cake tradition has been going on for almost as long as the Mid-America Electric Flies.      After the potluck is a wonderful time to be at this meet. It is when folks continued to get in more flights in the beautiful weather as well as set around and "catch up", talk planes, family, and politics and just relax. The flying and gab sessions lasted well into the evening hours. It is simply a marvelous time to be at the Mid-Am. Sunday      The weather cooperated on Sunday with clear skies, low winds and a high temperature in the middle 80-degree range. There was a lot of flying taking place with many, many beautiful planes in the air for most of the day.      Several 'new' pilots registered on Sunday and brought some exceptional planes with them!      Again, Keith Shaw handled the flight line beautifully as flight line coordinator. Sunday's Awards Bill Curtindale photo      Jim Young had many of his fine models, most of which are available as plans or kits from T&J Models. www.tnjmodels.rchomepage.com      His Big Wedell-Williams Model 44 took home the Best Scale award. It flies very well and has several very interesting design features. It has taken awhile to get it flying as well as it is now, but it was certainly all worth it! Rick Sawicki photo      On Saturday, Jim Young took home the Best Ducted Fan award for his Gloster Meteor. On Sunday it was awarded again, this time as the Most Beautiful. The painted finish has to be seen to be believed. Denny Sumner photo      C.J. Wysocki of Saline, MI scratch-built a beautiful mini-Sopwith Triplane. It is powered by a single Li-Poly cell and took quite a bit of effort to select the correct motor to power it. All of his effort paid off when he took home the Best Mini-Electric award. Denny Sumner photo Mark Wolf photo      Noel Hunt had his beautiful Handley-Page WWI bomber up and flying very well. His scratch-built foam project received the Best Multi-motor award. C.J. Wysocki photo      Ken Myers was awarded the CD's Choice (Keith Shaw) for his 450hp Super Stearman. Ken had converted his model from the E-flite PT-17 ARF. He had been flying it throughout the summer and it had suffered a crash in mid-June. It was back and better than ever at the Mid-Am. Ken could not have been more surprised, pleased and proud than when Keith honored him with the award. It only took Ken 26 years to come up with a plane that Keith felt worthy to award at the Mid-Am. Conversion info here: www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1222582 Our Sponsors      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, Air Hobby, Retro RC, T&J Models, Dan Schwartz and Mark Rittinger.      Other very welcome donations came from Tower Hobbies, CarstenŐs Publications/Flying Models, Horizon Hobby, Inc./E-flite, Sig Manufacturing Company, Inc., Rider's Hobby Shop, Monsoon RC and Hobby Lobby.      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. A HUGE thanks to all who helped Registration and Impound (KM)      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! The Flavor of the Mid-Am      It is very hard to describe what the Mid-Am is. It is friends, family, planes, camaraderie and just "plane" fun! C.J. Wysocki photo      Both days begin with a pilots' meeting and briefing by Ken Myers and Keith Shaw, the contest directors for the weekend. C.J. Wysocki photo Ken Myers on the left, Keith Shaw on the right Getting Ready Putting the 'Big 'ens' together takes awhile! Don Belfort, Jim Ryan and Mark Wolf pitted together Denny Sumner's Sportwin and Super Sportwin Keith Shaw readies the Gee Bee, Bugatti, Crosby, Czechmate and Phantom Fury Martin Irvine readies the D.500 and Nieuport 11 Denny Sumner's pit area with his CMP Spitfire. Ken's planes on right. Roger Wilfong and Paul Sockow provided some interesting planes Paul Sockow's planes mix in with Rick Sawicki's as well Plenny Bates and Bob Livin bring out their old-timers and sailplanes Dave Grife readies his models Jim and Tim Young, father and son, pit together And then Into the Air      There were a lot of different types of flying machines that took to the air at the Mid-Am this year. Keith Shaw's Bugatti with cloud reflections in the wings Bill Curtindale photo Big, beautiful Boeing 314 - Rick Sawicki photo Dave Grife's 17-year-old Mosquito - C.J. Wysocki photo Jim Ryan's great flying Chinook - Mark Wolf photo Walt Thyng's Flying Witch - C.J. Wysocki photo Martin Irvine's French Dewoitine D.500 - Mark Wolf photo Tom Bacsanyi's Big Sukhoi 27 EDF - Bill Curtindale photo Dave Grife's Komet ME-163 - C.J. Wysocki photo Denny Sumner's CMP Spitfire - C.J. Wysocki photo Mark Freeland's new babe' moth - C.J. Wysocki photo Martin Irvine's rebuilt Nieuport 11 in the air again C.J. Wysocki photo A Highlight for Me      I don't usually fly during the "official" flying times of the meet. Most of my flying is done on Friday afternoon and evening, Saturday morning and evening and Sunday morning, although I did fly the Super Stearman on Sunday afternoon during the meet this year. Denny Sumner photo      Mark Rittinger was kind enough to let me take one of his "classic" pattern designs around the patch a few times. It flies great! But what else would you expect from Mark.      The model is complete with a dummy 2-stroke engine with a detailed carb with carburetor arm and real glow plug in the top. Best thing about this one is that there is no "goo" to clean off after the flight!      Another highlight was finally being able to get a photo of Ken Sulkowski's stock E-flite Stearman PT-17 Kaydet with my Super Stearman. The Mid-Am, Final Thoughts, Until Next Year      Thanks to everyone that came, everyone that helped and everyone that has ever helped to make the Mid-Am what it is today, 26 years after its very humble beginning.      To my flying buddy, Keith Shaw, thanks, you've really made this "electric thing" all happen! A couple of Bonus Photos Not in the .pdf version Will Walker's F-4 C.J. Wysocki photo Ken Sulkowski's Stock E-Flite Stearman C.J. Wysocki photo Return to "What's In This Issue"

To Reach Ken Myers, you can land mail to the address at the top of the page. My E-mail address is: KMyersEFO@mac.com
EFO WEBsite: http://homepage.mac.com/KMyersEFO/