Flying High With Electric Power!

The Ampeer ON-LINE!
September 2011
The Club Newsletter of the Electric Flyers Only, Inc
AMA Charter 2354
Commerce Twp., MI, USA

Editor: Ken Myers

Fly the Future - Fly Electric!

What's On This Site:
Site Table of Contents

President:Vice-President:Secretary/Treasurer:
Ken MyersRichard UtkanRick Sawicki
1911 Bradshaw Ct.240 Cabinet5089 Ledgewood Ct. W.
Commerce Twp., MI 48390Milford, MI 48381Commerce Twp., MI 48382
(248) 669-8124(248) 685-1705248.685.7056
Board of Directors:Board of Directors:Ampeer Editor
David StacerArthur DeaneKen Myers
16575 Brookland Blvd.21690 Bedford Dr.1911 Bradshaw Ct.
Northville, MI 48167Northville, MI 48167Commerce Twp., MI 48390
248.924.2324248.348.2058248.669.8124
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The Next EFO Flying Meeting: Date: Sept. 10 Time: 10 a.m. Place: Midwest RC Society 7 Mi. Rd. field

What's In This Issue?
The 2011 Mid-America Electric Flies
Upcoming E-vents
Send Ken email

Mid-America Electric Flies 2011
The 27th Edition

     By Friday, July 8, 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 on Friday and helped with the field set up. Keith Shaw came out about one to do the final set up of the large sunshades for transmitter impound and the housing for some of Keith's great fleet. By early afternoon on Friday, 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 weather was a preview of the good flying weather for the whole weekend. The event was blessed with sunshine, but with temperatures in the low-90's for the whole weekend.
     When I arrived at the field on Saturday at about 7:15 a.m., Phil Alvirez of Windsor, Ontario, was already flying his slow fliers 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 Dave Stacer handling the lion's share of the responsibility for this operation on Saturday with Denny Sumner help out then and on Sunday.

The Pilots

     This year, our fifty-one registered pilots came from all over Michigan, Ohio, Iowa, and several places in Ontario, Canada. As always, it was great fun catching up with our "old friends" and making new friends. The Radio Control Club of Detroit (RCCD) had a large contingent of flyers present with some very nice planes. 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. Greg Cardillo captured many great images, and Plenny Bates, Willie McMath, Rick Sawicki, and Wade Wiley also captured images used here. Greg Cardillo has even more great photos of the 2011 event on his Web photo page found at http://greggallery.gmcdesign.com/index.php?cat=8. Greg's great photos also cover the Mid-Am from 2004 through 2011. Rick Sawicki's photos can be found on the Web at July92011MIDAMERICAELECTRICFLY

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


Plenny Bates photo

     Don Belfort of Westchester, OH had a very nice Nesmith Cougar. It received the Best Scale Award on Saturday. It looks great and flies wonderfully!

     Jim Young of Brighton, MI brought the beautiful second prototype of his 1/8-scale WACO YMF-5. Although it could have 'won' many of our awards, the WACO and Jim took home the Most Beautiful award on Saturday. To learn even more about this great flying biplane and order a kit for yourself, visit www.tnjmodels.rchomepage.com


Photo by G. Cardillo


Photo by G. Cardillo


     Jim Young of Brighton, MI had his very impressive ducted fan at the meet again this year. 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.


Mark Rittinger Photo

     Mark Rittinger of Roseville, MI flew his self-designed version of Ken Willard's classic and received the Best Sport Plane award. Mark has plans available and there is a build thread on RC Groups.


W. McMath photo

     Willie McMath of Mt. Clemens, MI took this photo of his Loving's Love with CD Keith Shaw standing by it. This 1/3-scale beauty by Willie received the CD's Choice (Ken Myers) for his fine work on this scratch-built plane. That HUGE spinner is something to see!

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 go again to 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 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. Several Midwest RC Society pilots joined us to enjoy the festive atmosphere.

Sunday

     The weather somewhat cooperated on Sunday with clear skies. The winds were pretty much out of the south making landing a challenge. A high temperature in the mid-90's and high humidity presented some challenges as well. Again, a lot of flying took place with many, many beautiful planes in the air for most of the day, until the heat caused an early wrap up of the event about 1:30.

     Again, Keith Shaw handled the flight line beautifully on Saturday and Sunday as the flight line coordinator.

Sunday's Awards


G. Cardillo photo

     Mark Rittinger took Best Scale top honors with his P-63 Tucker clipped wing racing plane. It was not a pleasure to fly on Saturday, but with added nose weight on Sunday, it flew quite nicely.
More Info Here

     Roger Wilfong took home the Most Beautiful award for his very uniquely covered Tiger Kitten.

     Mark Rittinger's scratch-built 1/2A Curare took home the Best Mini-Electric award.
More Info Here


Plenny Bates photo

     Jim Young was awarded the CD's Choice (Keith Shaw) for his WACO. Part of the active flight line can also be seen in this photo.

     Denny Sumner had his beautiful Mark Rittinger designed Super Sportwin flying very well. His scratch-built project, from Mark's plans, received the Best Multi-motor award.


G. Cardillo photo

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, Carsten's Publications/Flying Models, Horizon Hobby, Inc./E-flite, and Sig Manufacturing Company, Inc. Plenny Bats and Ken Myers also donated to the pilots' raffle.
     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!
     Keith and I sincerely thank Denny Sumner, Paul and Pam Sockow, Dave Stacer, Arthur Deane, Jim Lapham, Roger Wilfong, Mark Lambert, Michael Benjamin, Walt Trancygier, Rich Sievert Frank Thibeau and Don Wilke for all their super help.

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!


Wade Wiley photo

     Wade Wiley sent along a photo he captured on Sunday from his impressive aerial photo plane.


Wade's plane on a pass
G. Cardillo photo


G. Cardillo photos

     Keith Shaw shown in top photo and Ken Myers in lower photo.

In the Pits


Some of the RCCD folks enjoying the day.
W. McMath photo


Martin Irvine of Kingston, Ont. heads to the flight line.


Ken Myers' Super Stearman & Flite 40


Tom Bacsanyi's Big, Powerful EDF
Power to weight ratio was awesome!


Keith Shaw getting ready to launch his Horten IX EDF


Some of the planes ready to take flight.


Plenny & Bob rest between searching for thermals with their gliders and old timers.


Wade did not make the local birds happy with his giant, soaring eagle!


One of the more unusual creations at the meet.
This one by Le Phan.


Keith Shaw's planes ready for the demo flights.
Dave Grife's Mystery Ship on the far right.
Plenny Bates photo


Getting ready and seeking shade
Denny Sumner photo

In the Air

     There were a lot of different types of flying machines that took to the air at the Mid-Am this year.


Wade Wiley's Eagle scaring the heck out of the local birds
Plenny Bates photo


The tilt-wing takes off


Al Murok's Curtiss-Wright Ð G. Cardillo photo


Dave Grife's Me-163 - G. Cardillo photo


Me-163 gear drop - G. Cardillo photo


Keith Shaw's Bugatti - G. Cardillo photo


Keith Shaw's Czechmate - G. Cardillo photo


Ken Sulkowski E-flite PT-17


Keith Shaw's Yak UT-1 - G. Cardillo photo


Old Timer Thermaler - P. Bates photo


Ray Foley's Glider - G. Cardillo photo


Roger Wilfong's oops with the Super Sportster
Flew in just fine - G. Cardillo photo


Parkzone BF-109


A Quadcopter in flight


Flite 40 Takes flight


Impromptu Combat on Saturday afternoon


Bill Brown's Radical RC Wright Flyer

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, 27 years after its very humble beginning.
     To my flying buddy, Keith Shaw, thanks, you've really made this "electric thing" all happen!

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/