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SkyWriter

Chartered Club #970
Skymasters R/C Club Newsletter - November 1998
See Skymasters on the Web at www.geocities.com/~skymasters

President's Message
Hi All,

Fall flying has now descended upon us and the long lazy days of summer are distant now. I traditionally stop flying after top gun and start figuring out what to build in the winter months. As I had mentioned last month, I've started my building season by repairing my Super Stinker and might actually have it done by end of November. This one is taking me longer than I originally thought due to my slow engineering process. I have to redesign the bottom wing mount and landing gear bracing due to the way I ripped them out. It has been a challenge for me to figure out how to do it without adding a lot more weight to the ship, as the original way is no longer possible (now I understand why someone told me long ago to keep all the pieces after a crash!). I hope to actually have something for show for the November meeting, but at least I should finish it by spring.

I went with Randy and Carl to our first swap meet (Taylor) last weekend and saw about a dozen Skymasters. I always enjoy the hell out of swap meets and actually got through another one without buying a ship (I think that makes 4 in a row now). I almost did bite, but decided to take one trip down the row to mull it over and some one bought it out from under me. I did however keep up my streak of loaning money to a fellow Skymaster to buy a ship and now have partial ownership in about ½ dozen planes that I never fly! I spent a fair amount of time talking to several guys selling stuff and asked them about how they decided upon pricing. I noticed several people priced their wares as a percentage of what they paid for it, and this mode of thinking still puzzles me. One of the fundamental things about this wonderful "open" economy we have is that the value of something is really set by the buyers and I would argue has no bearing on what the seller paid for it. I am sure we have all seen the $XXX invested, sacrifice for $YYY adds and such. When I approach the owner of this mentality and ask them are they aware of the trivial fact that several people around them are selling the same thing at less than their $YYY, the almost universal reaction I get is either disbelief or sometimes even anger. I then get a long explanation of how they originally put in so much into it and have to get so much out. While I agree it is human nature to try to maximize intake for your sale and minimize purchase price of anything you buy, I would suggest that you keep in mind the price is really set by the buyer, not the seller. If you dig in your heels and set a price above what anyone is willing to pay, I really wonder if the item is for sale! Of course I have seen buyers trying to get things way below what is considered "fair", but again, the definition of "fair" is wide open. I have seen many people set very high initial asking prices, only to either walk home with all of their stuff, or finally give in at the end and sell for a price much below asking. I have usually pursued a mode of setting a price very near what I am willing to take, and usually in the "great deal" range. While I may be out a few dollars for not holding out, I have never really had a problem selling my stuff and use the money right away. We have a few individuals at our swap meet each year that appear to be always selling the same thing every year. I stop and chat with them, believing the fun of the event is what brings them back and that's O.K. I still think that several masters and Ph.D. theses in economics or psychology could be researched at any given swap meet. This built in conflict is always fun to watch (even more fun than watching Randy stop at every table with an Astro Hog for sale). Last year, for fun, I set an absolutely ridiculous price on one item at our swap meet just to get reactions, and it was entertaining. One fellow Skymaster, who shall remain nameless, knew my plan and offered me $50 more than my asking price to see my reaction. He got me good, because I could not sell the item (no replacement was easily available) - so I had to grit my teeth and say no, which caused him endless amusement. I guess the only thing I can say is strive to keep your sense of humor and sense of human nature. Don't get mad and enjoy the chase!

The field closing party will have happened by the time you read this. Hopefully, things will go well and someone will join Graham and I to make sure the fire actually goes out around midnight. I have several remains of various ships that perhaps could make good kindling.

I would also ask all of you to consider giving a little back to the club and consider running for one of the BOD positions. Please contact me, or any other BOD member, to get in the running.

Time to get back to the Stinker!
Joe Finkelstine

From the Editor…
Welcome to the November issue of Skywriter.
We have a packed issue this month… Several issues to note for the November 11 meeting, a lot of items for sale (I included as many as I could), and another editorial challenge from your President on how to buy a PC. (Seriously, Joe has provided a number of articles this year in addition to his President's letter. Your input is appreciated Joe!)

It is getting to the time of the year when Mother Nature may affect our meetings. If weather is questionable, please watch the local news. If Troy schools cancel after school activities (or are closed), we are cancelled as well! Hopefully this can save many last minute phone calls!

To end this month, we would like to pass along condolences from Skymasters to Fred Johnston and his family. Fred's wife Jerry was diagnosed with cancer a month ago, and passed away on October 29. Several club members attended the services, and flowers were sent on behalf of Skymasters. One of her last comments was that she was going to look down on us next summer on Wednesday nights and wants to see Fred flying on his own!

Please send me any input you may have for the newsletter. Note my Email has changed! Please send mail to GMCardillo@att.net, or to my address on the back cover…

Upcoming Programs/Events
Wednesday, November 11* Skymasters Meeting, Larson Middle School
Monday, November 16* Skymasters Retiree Breakfast, Dennys in Rochester
Monday, December 7* Skymasters Retiree Breakfast, Dennys in Rochester
Wednesday, December 9* Skymasters Christmas Party, Larson Middle School
Monday, December 21* Skymasters Retiree Breakfast, Dennys in Rochester
Sunday, December 27 Skymasters Krazy Snow Fly
Thursday, December 31 DAM Red Eye Night Flight (11:50 pm), Stan Spiewak 313-534-3300
Sunday, January 10 DAM Swap Meet, Farmington, Tom Weedon 313-697-0875
*See additional information for these events in this issue of Skywriter!
Event info from mailings received, AMRCC, and Michigan RC Flying Times

Skymasters Events
Note that due to holidays, there is only one meeting in November and December!
November 11, 1998 Skymasters Meeting - Larson Middle School, 7:30 PM.
See additional information on discussions for this meeting. Program to be determined as of publishing date.

November 16, 1998 Skymasters Retiree (and Wanna Be) Breakfast - Denny's in Rochester
Over the winter months, retirees (and wanna bee's) meet for breakfast the first and third Monday of the month. Denny's is located on Rochester Road ¼ mile north of downtown Rochester. Breakfast is at 9am. Contact Bob Burns at 248-628-4666 for more information.

December 7, 1998 Skymasters Retiree (and Wanna Be) Breakfast - Dennys in Rochester

December 9, 1998 Skymasters Christmas Party - Larson Middle School, 7:30 PM.
Plan to bring your families and planes to our annual Christmas Party. There will be prizes for members bringing planes, and we have given the North Pole our date for Santa to plan on coming as well!
All food and drink is provided by Skymasters. Joe Finkelstine is looking for some people to help out bringing dishes for the party. Please let Joe know if you can help!

For Sale
P.A.W. .049 Diesel Engine with 3 gallons fuel; refueling pump and manual. $85. 92 dB. Runs cool. Call Howard at 248-608-0473.

I have the following items for sale. Prices include shipping costs.
ENGINES ~
Thunder Tiger Pro .61 NIB (I have 3) $105 ea; Thunder Tiger Pro .61 used but excellent condition ~ $75; ASP.61 ABC BB used but ex. cond. $70; ASP.80 4 cycle used but ex. cond. $115; ASP 1.08 ABC BB NIB $130; ASP 1.08 ABC BB used but ex. cond. (I have 4) $105 ea.; Webra .50 Speed (one hour on it) $100; O.S. 46FX NIB $105; ASP .80 4 cycle NIB (I have 2) $155 ea.; Thunder Tiger .91 4 cycle used but only 1 hour ex. cond. $175; Saito .80 4 cycle NIB $190; Saito .91 4 cycle NIB $215; Saito 1.20 4 cycle (I have 2) NIB $300 ea. or $575 for both.
KITS (all are NIB)~
Sig 4 Star 60 72" span sport $70; Hobby Lobby Telemaster 72" span sport/trainer $70; Great Planes Easy Sport 68" span sport $65; Great Planes Super Sportster 120 (I have 3) 72" span aerobatic/sport $110 ea.; Great Planes Cub .40 $80; Great Planes Cub .60 $110; Aeroplane Works Ziroli P-47 (70" span) machine and laser cut, sanded NIB scale kit. Beautiful plane with Fiberglass Masters cowl and canopy ~ $295.00; Top Flite P-47 (68" span" Gold Edition NIB kit ~ $110.00.
PLANES ~ (all with servos, but no engine or receiver)
Sig 4 Star 120 (81" span) with about 3 flights on it ~ $175.00; Sig 4 Star 60 (72" span) excellent condition, with about 20 flights on it ~ $150.00; Nor Cal Dauntless scale/sport (72" span) sheeted wings and fuse (about 95% built) ~ $175.00; Sig 1/4 scale Cub (full wing span 108") built and ready to cover ~ $295.00; ACE 4-60 sport (72" span) excellent condition with about 20 flights ~ $135.00.
OTHER ITEMS ~
J.R. retract servos 66oz. NIB $40 ea. or both for $75; Hitec Ultra receiver for JR NIB $45; Perry oscillating pump NIB $25; Perry regulating pumps (I have 2) NIB $25 ea. or both for $45; O.S. 7D carburetor NIB $40; Perry carburetors for ASP .61's or similar engines (I have 4) all NIB $30 ea. or all 4 for $100; I also have many new props, mufflers, canopies, cowls, spinners, fuel tanks, etc. Let me know what you might be looking for. If anyone wants to make a deal on a plane and kit I will be happy to talk to them. Contact MDRCHEF @ aol.com or call Mike Russell, 248-852-7413 before 10 pm EDT.

Wanted
Eagle 63 Kit
.40 to .45 2 stroke sized aircraft engine
Call Dave at 248-584-1940

Found
Winter jacket found at field weekend of 10/24-25. Contact Chris Leppard at 248-693-2415 to identify and claim.

November 11 Meeting - Important Votes
Election of Officers
Elections for the Skymasters Board will be held in November. If you are interested in giving back to the club, contact a BOD member for more information. Elections will be held for the positions of President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer.

Sound Levels - 95 or 94
History - In November 1993, Skymasters approved a plan to lower the dB level by 4 dB in 4 years. This would bring our sound level down to 94dB at 10 feet in 1997. This was published in the January 1994 issue of Skywriter. The noise limit for 1994 was 97dB; and for 1995 was 96dB. At the end of 1995, the club voted to delay the reduction to 95dB by a year. The noise limit for 1996 remained at 96dB. In 1997 the limit became 95dB. At the end of 1997, the club voted to delay the reduction to 94dBa by a year. The noise level for 1998 remained at 95dBa.
Today - That brings us to today, with the noise limit scheduled to reduce to 94dBa for 1999, completing the current plan. The question for the November 11 meeting is to reduce or not to reduce. There was some discussion at our October 14 meeting with opinions expressed on both sides.

Editorial comment - Please remember that whatever our decision may be, our noise limit must be strictly enforced. The club owns some dB meters, and many members have their own. Please be sure your plane is checked before you attempt to fly it. If you see a plane flying that sounds loud, ask the pilot if it has been checked, or check it again. If you are asked about one of your planes, understand that club members are just trying to protect our field. This limit also represents our maximum; it should never be our target. We should look for ways to make our planes as quiet as possible. Noise is the primary reason for flying site loss today. Skymasters has one of the lowest noise limits in the area today. Much of this is achieved with minor changes to propeller brands and sizes. In taking with a member of another club recently that is facing possible loss of a field, I mentioned how quiet the OS FX engines have been. He indicated several of his club members owned them, and they were near 98dBa. (Ours are at 88-91dBa). The difference here was twofold - removing the muffler baffle in some cases, and selecting a prop for maximum RPM (14000+). With the baffle in place, and a prop allowing 11000 - 12000 RPM, flight performance is excellent, I would expect a longer life from the engine, and happier neighbors.
I still have the database of our sound level measurements if anyone would like a copy. I can email (Excel spreadsheet) or provide a printed copy. If you have new readings you would like me to add, pass them along as well.

Constitution Changes - Officers
In preparing to print our club booklet, a discrepancy between our Constitution and actual practice was uncovered. Our Constitution currently defines a President-Elect position. The President-Elect becomes the following years President. The following proposal aligns our Constitution with actual practice.

Article VI - Officers, Section 1 and 3: Changes indicated in Italics (References to President Elect removed)
ARTICLE VI - OFFICERS
1. The officers of the Club are: President, Vice-President, Secretary, and Treasurer.
2. The term of office is one year.
3. The duties of the Officers are:
(delete subsection e describing President Elect duties)

Article VII - Election of Officers, Section 2: Changes indicated in Italics (References to President Elect changed to President)
ARTICLE VII - ELECTION OF OFFICERS
1. The nomination and election of Officers takes place at the first regularly scheduled meeting in November.
2. The officers to be elected are: President, Vice-President, Secretary, and Treasurer.

In accordance with Article X (Amendments), this provides notice to the club of a vote affecting the Constitution. A two-thirds majority is required to approve this change

Selecting a Computer
Whilst bored out of my mind on a long flight to Seattle, I decided to write an article on how to pick out a PC since you will be reading this near Christmas time.
Answering the basic question of which PC to buy is very similar to the question of when someone approaches you at the field and asks which plane/radio you recommend. Both questions have several correct answers and you'll get a couple of thousand opinions which as always (especially with me), are often worth what you pay for them.

I'll try not to go into a long explanation of what the stuff I would recommend is about, but I hope to impart enough knowledge on you to become dangerous when you go to Best Buy to talk with that elusive salesperson in computers who knows all, but is never around. You all know that I always provide disclaimers with my articles and this one is no different.

1) No one PC is right for all, just like our R/C equipment. I will attempt to take into account two types of buyers. (1) The R/C'er looking for a home system that handles game playing (R/C flight simulators, WWII flight games, etc.) some home apps like word processing, and ability to surf the net in reasonable speed. (2) is the person who wants to do all of the same in (1) above , but is a bit more constrained financially, and wants to know what is the minimum to buy reasonably (kind of like the argument to get a 4 channel or 6 channel first radio)

2) Understand the bias of your author. I usually never tend to the minimum on my engines for R/C flying, I tend to the high side on equipment needs for PC's - If you are really going to buy one of these contraptions, do your homework beyond my article and feel free to call me an idiot.

3) If you are looking for a top of the line system or a special need (like a laptop) my article will be of minimum value to you, unless you want to understand some of the acronyms used. If, however you do not already know this stuff, hold off buying that monster machine until you do!

4) I will list things out also for those of you considering upgrading your current PC.

5) Get your focus off of Processor Clock speed! - Much like my soap box article on the mis-use of horsepower ratings, Processor clock speed tends to get all of the attention of many buyers. Processor clock speed actually has much smaller impact on your system's performance than you may be lead to believe from all of the ads.

6) To further complicate things, there are multiple ways to buy a PC as well as a million or so manufacturers.

7) PC technology is changing at a much faster rate than our R/C technology and incompatibilities abound. Even though we can easily use 15-year-old engines in our ships (my 15-year-old Como is still running strong!), 5-7 years is the absolute limit of most PC hardware you buy. The second you buy a system you will see it (or another more powerful system) advertised cheaper. The enormous competition in the PC business demands this and we get better systems all of the time because of it. Don't fret about waiting for the right time to buy a system. These market dynamics have been around over 10 years and will continue another 10. Just because Intel releases a faster Pentium II is not reason to run out and buy one. When the system you have cannot run what you want it too, then and only then is it time to think about upgrading. Just because GM comes out with a new car each year is not cause to trade in is it? - The year old car works just fine for hauling ships to the field!

8) Most of the members of our club represent the transitional generation as far as PC's go. PC's were invented in our lifetime and most of us learned our skills without them. PC's are still a bit foreign to many of us, but in the final analysis, they are just a tool. They don't think, they don't have feelings and they will always be lot less capable than the human mind! - That being said, If you have children I would strongly recommend getting a PC. PC's will be essential to their lives and work and the sooner you get them acclimated, the easier it will be for them.

Ways to buy a PC.

Most of us see the weekly flyers from Best Buy, Comp USA, etc. on computers in stock ready to be given away to us at great prices. This mode of selling PC's is called retail and has it's pro's and cons. The retail mode sells complete systems that you take home, plug in, fumble with a bunch of cords and turn it on. Typically, these systems also bundle software that is very useful. The benefit of this approach is that the integration work of putting all of the pieces together is done for you and you have one place to go to if things don't work. They retail outlet takes on this work and you do pay for it. There is also an alternative to big retail outlets and it is the small PC shops. Some of these shops will make you up a system or let you buy the pieces to roll your own. Being a smaller shop, they typically can answer more of your questions and often have more time to listen to you. I have the following recommendations for you though. (1) If you are new and/or a bit nervous about this whole thing, then absolutely go buy a complete system at on of the retail shops. The savings that you will see from piecing together your own system are miniscule compared to the headaches you will encounter not being familiar with the technology. (2) Pay a visit to the smaller shops, even if you want to buy a complete integrated system. These guys can also provide one stop shopping and take full responsibility. If and when you get more comfortable with the technology and such would I ever recommend that you attempt to build your own system. By the way, I recently purchased a system for home and went the full retail route. Even though I am comfortable enough to build my own, my time has value (I need a few hundred hours fix my crashed Ultimate Bipe L). (3) If you go to a store, particularly a bigger one, do not go on the weekend or after 6PM. Comp USA, Best Buy, etc. are incredibly understaffed in the computer departments and you will wait an unbelievable amount of time to even talk to anyone. I would seriously recommend taking a few hours in the morning or go to the store right at 5PM in the middle of the week.

The next major way to buy a PC is through mail order and it also has pros'and cons. You can often see the exact system you are eyeing at a retail shop for less in mail order, but I generally do not recommend this route for first time buyers for several reasons. (1) Shipping charges are non-trivial and often make up for price savings. Guess who gets the fun (and expense) of shipping the thing back if things are a bit wrong? There is much to be said of a person to person contact with your provider when things go wrong. This is analogous to the argument of using mail order for R/C. Sometimes mail order is your only route if no local store exists, but we all know how more of a hassle R/C would be without our local store. Now that I left no doubt as to how you buy the darn thing, lets discuss the system as a whole and some of the important pieces.

For home, I would recommend that you buy a system with windows 98. Windows 95 is still alive and well, but I doubt you will find a new system with it loaded. Windows 98 is really a minor upgrade to 95, but has a few new features that make it more useful than 95. The third operating system from Bill Gates is Windows NT, and even though you could buy it for home, I would not recommend it. Many vendors of home focused software do not yet support NT, as it is targeted at corporate use. Without further ado, lets look at my recommended home system and explanation of why I chose these. As you will see, I will list several alternatives for some of my choices, so read it all before you argue with me!

System #1 for home use:

1) Well built tower case with lots of expansion slots, minimum 300W power supply
2) 15" color monitor
3) 64Meg of ram minimum on the Mother Board.
4) 8Gig Hard disk
5) 56K Modem
6) 32X CD-ROM
7) 4 MEG ram AGP graphics card
8) Sound card that comes with speakers!
9) 3.5" floppy drive (sneaker net is still alive and well!)
10) Joystick! - sorry guys, but a joystick is mandatory for flying games on the PC
11) 350Mhz Pentium II motherboard, with 100Mhz. System bus speed (this one will get me all kinds of hate mail!)

Explanations of each recommendation are detailed below

Tower case
There are a few types PC enclosures available and the tower case offers several advantages in my opinion. The first being that the darn thing fits well on the floor out of the way! - If you don't think that is valuable, just take up the entire desk that your significant other uses and you will understand what I am talking about. The other advantages of tower cases are their size allows lots of expansion slots and they do a better job of getting rid of all of the heat the CPU makes. A smaller variation of the tower case is the mini tower. The other primary enclosure is the desktop, which typically you put your monitor on and the combination absolutely takes over a standard size desk in my opinion. To each his own however, and if you like a desktop then get one, this is not a critical decision! - One key factor in expandability is the power supply. Generally, the more watts the better. It is difficult to add more toys and upgrades to any case if the power supply is weak (How about adding floats to that well powered bushing .40 size ship - 'kinda makes for interesting takes offs!)

15" monitor
Many people never pay much attention to the monitor they get with their system and this is a small shame. Your enjoyment of the system can be greatly reduced with a poor monitor choice. If you anticipate playing games or working with graphics at all, I would suggest you see if you can squeeze a 17" monitor into the equation. The bigger monitors also support higher screen resolutions. Resolution refers to the number of dots (pixels) that make up the screen. The more dots usually means a finer (and bigger!) image. This is loosely analogous to the 2 PCM modes in our transmitters. The original resolution of PCM was 512 steps for the full stick throw, which proved to be too low. A second mode (mode S) of 1024 steps was then developed, which made for much finer control. For those of you who are really insane with lots of money to spend, get one of the new LCD monitors, which are wonderful and a huge leap in technology over the CRT we all now use. Be prepared to spend around $5000 alone for a LCD monitor though! For the rest of us mere mortals, two keys to look for in your monitor are dot pitch and refresh rate. Dot pitch refers to the distance between successive dots on the screen and you should never buy a monitor with pitch greater than .28mm. .25mm is considered very good, and anything less than .25mm is excellent. I doubt you will find many monitors at all with a pitch smaller than .25mm or greater than .28mm though. Refresh rate refers to the number of times a second that the CRT refreshes the screen. CRT technology shares this with the TV you and I watch and is necessary because of the way the phosphor on the screen needs to be "reminded" to shine. Refresh rates below 60Hz are unheard of, but do check this on your monitor. The higher the refresh rate, the more comfortable the monitor will be on you eyes. Also make sure you see the monitor work in the refresh rate and resolution it is claiming. Sometimes, things get a little funny looking when you actually try high resolution and high refresh rate.

64 Meg of Ram
This is one area where I would spend extra cash if you can. If you do not have enough of this stuff in your PC, then the fastest Pentium in the world comes to a slow crawl. The windows operating system really appreciates 32Meg of ram all to itself, so at 64 Meg you only have 32 Meg left for your stuff (which is not a lot nowadays). I would definitely go higher if you can. Remember that people who develop software work under the axiom that RAM and disk space are free, so they will create that wonderful game assuming you will get the ram and disk needed to accommodate their works of art! - All ram is not created equal, and one of the challenges of upgrading to more ram later is compatibility with the system you have. Those prices you see advertised for adding more ram to your system are sometimes the very slow ram for your needs. More on ram in the mother board section.

8Gig hard disk drive
An old axiom in the PC industry is that users will fill up their hard drive regardless of how big it is! Windows and a few essential apps will eat almost 1Gig off of your drive before you ever see it. The complete system you buy from the store will often have lots of s/w loaded, and I'll bet it will be bigger than 1GIG even before you open the box. 8 Gig will take you a while to fill up, but you will, so buy a bigger disk if you can afford it. You may hear talk about if the drive is IDE, SCSI, etc. I would suggest to you not worry what that stuff means for now. A very small percentage of any of us will notice the difference. For those of you who are willing to spend a little more on your system, consider removable hard drive storage. The most common is the ZIP drive, which is essentially a big floppy disk. It holds about 100Meg per floppy and is handy. If you go this route, consider also the larger of these devices which actually use hard drive platters, whose storage capacities are around 1Gig. They are much faster in their speed and hold a lot more. The downside is that typically each of the removable cartridges are about $80 a pop.

56K baud modem.
Sooner or later, you are going to discover the World Wide Web and email and want to communicate with others from your PC. For most of us this will start with a Modem in our PC. A modem essentially uses your phone line to send data and such to another modem hooked up to another computer that is in the mood to listen. Currently, the fastest modems normally available are 56K, which stands for 56,000 bytes per second possible transfer rate (although you will never see this throughput). Keep in mind that as I write this emerging technologies are about here that will dramatically increase this speed, such as Cable modem, etc., but for now, stick with a regular modem and make sure you get one.

32X CD-ROM.
Actually, I would recommend a 2X DVD drive, but more on that one later. CD-ROMs have been a mainstay for over 5 years on multimedia PC's and offer reasonable storage and playback speeds. Most software vendors ship their stuff on CD and expect you to have one. The CD ROM technology does have somewhat strong limitations though, and the next 5-year standard will almost certainly be DVD. DVD's can hold almost 5Gig vs. 650Meg for CD's. DVD is also targeted for your TV and is the same technology. A DVD disk can hold an entire full-length movie, a fully rich encyclopedia or a whole lot of music. DVD readers also read the standard CD, so you get both if you buy a DVD drive. They are however about $200 more than a standard CD-ROM drive. If you go the DVD route (and if it isn't obvious yet, I suggest that you do) make sure you get the DVD2 standard, which speeds up the regular CD speed to about 24X, and can read home made CD's

Graphics Card
Up in the recommendation section, I suggested a 4 Meg RAM AGP card. 4Meg is actually the minimum I suggest and I would actually recommend 8Meg, as the cost differential is minimal. The important thing to note here is the AGP standard on the graphics card. The newer Pentium chips and motherboards support a "highway" dedicated to graphics. Older technology shared graphics data with all other data on the same "highway" (yes, I know it is called a bus) and often times the single highway looked like I-75 at rush hour. AGP goes a long way to alleviating this problem, and even accelerates the graphics to boot. The AGP card will be most noticeable in games and other graphics intensive things you do (like looking at pictures on the web, although they tend to be 2D rather than 3D). A good graphics card will set you back $100-$200 in your system, but insist on this, you will thank me for it.

Sound Card and Floppy
I combined these two, because if you buy a complete system (like I suggest!) you will get a sound card and floppy as standard equipment. The 3.5-inch floppy is your link to all of your friends who bought PC's a dozen years ago and never upgraded. You will be able to share data with them in very small chunks. The sound card should work well in conjunction with your AGP graphics card and when you buy a complete system, the vendor has worked this out for you. Not long ago, one of the more irritating things to do when setting up for the great game you loaded was figuring out how to get the game to recognize your sound card! - Ahh the good old days of setting IRQ addresses, IO ports, etc. - kind of make you glad someone else has ended most of that headache.

Joystick
Ladies and gentlemen, if you are an R/C'er and buy a PC, be brave and admit that you are dying to try and fly a flight simulator and not just "buying this for the kids". Flight on the PC needs either your transmitter (for actual R/C simulators) or a Joystick - How can you pilot a P-51 against the fleet of Japanese Zero's (that keep shooting me into the Pacific Ocean) without a Joystick? Keyboard arrow keys to fly a Warbird? Get at least a 2 button Joystick. This will almost certainly not be standard in the PC setup you buy, but trust me; the store that sells you the computer will have joysticks on the shelves. I am having an absolute blast learning to fly an R/C helicopter in my R/C simulator CSM (In which, I use my JR 783 radio) and I have yet to beat this one Japanese Ace in a ZM-6 Zero after about a dozen tries (I tried a low inverted pass, but you can guess how that one worked out!)

350Mhz Motherboard
Alas, I saved the one most people think of initially for last. You may be asking why, after telling you to not focus on clock speed, I recommend one of the fastest ones out there. My reasoning actually stems from not from the Pentium clock speed, but the speed of the data highway I mentioned earlier - i.e. the bus speed. Starting at 350Mhz Pentium systems, the bus clock speed went from 66Mhz to 100Mhz. This may seem subtle, but having a 100Mhz-bus speed will keep your system upgradeable for what I will argue will be a longer time. All of the blazing chips and cards you put in your PC go through the system bus, and in order to get the faster bus, you have to get a 350Mhz or faster chip (at least at time of this writing). Actually, Pentium speeds over 200Mhz will work just fine for many of us, and you can get substantial savings buying PC's in this clock range. Also, a couple of Intel competitors make CPU's in this range and the systems built from them offer even more savings with no compatibility problems. This recommendation will probably cause the most heartburn out of all of them and my opinion is only one of many you should get. Finally, I would strongly recommend that you also stay away from the Intel attempt at a low cost Pentium, which they call the Celeron. Trust me on this one, they should have named it the deceleron.

System cost, upgrading and beyond
If you go out and buy pretty much the system I note above you are looking at between $1500-$2000 (assuming you don't have anything at all that could be reused, like your old monitor). These costs are still falling and what you see in the ads will probably be less near Christmas. The system I recommend is also well positioned to allow you to just go for upgrading pieces for a while, instead of requiring a brand new purchase each time. I have kept my PC's about 6 years between overhauls and you may be able to squeeze out more with this system by upgrading pieces at a time. Remember also, that only when your computer can't run what you need at a speed you can live with is it time to think about upgrading. All the sexy ads about new clock speeds, etc. will never end and you are the best judge as to when you need to move, not Intel.

Heart Walk Thank You!
The following Thank You was received from the American Heart Association:

For those who weren't pilots at the Float Fly, the following cartoon was in the pilot's packets.

Skymasters Information
Skymasters field is located within the Bald Mountain State Park (see map). State Park Permits are required and can be obtained from the Park Headquarters located on Greenshield Road or at club events. Flying is permitted from 10 AM to 8 PM. The noise limit for 1998 is 95dB at 10 feet - this noise rule is strictly enforced.

Wednesday evenings during the summer is Student Night and there are usually instructors around all afternoon. Student night is also 'pot luck' buffet night so that you can fly-n-feed (though not usually at the same time). Students are encouraged on other days and weekends. It is a great idea to come on Wednesday, meet the Instructors and arrange for more instruction time together. Our Chief Flight Instructor is Pete Foss. Assistant Chief Flight Instructor is Graham Overton.

From June to August, Club Meetings are held at the field on the first Saturday of the month at 12 Noon - a great chance to fly and gossip too! Winter meetings (September to May) are held at Larson Middle School (on Long Lake just east of John R - see map) on the second and fourth Wednesday of the month at 7:30 PM. Show and Tell, coffee and donuts, and model-speak are the order of the evening. Come along - they are fun.

The Skywriter newsletter is sent to all members, local hobby shops and other local R/C clubs. Any and all contributions are welcome, please pass any articles to the Editor. If you know of anyone who may be interested in our hobby (friend, relative, neighbor, colleague or acquaintance) - please give them a copy of this newsletter or a copy of an AMA magazine - it may spark their interest and get them into our hobby!

 


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