Hi All,

It's hard to believe but is has been 24 months since I wrote my first President's message, and now it is time for my last one of my 2 terms. Like the first one, I must start with thanking all of those around me who helped out through my two years. To name all those that helped me out would be to repeat the club roster – to all of you a big, big thank you!

Also, I must also thank the patience of all of those who I have some fun poking at in my column. I also have a long list of those who I picked on, and what goes around comes around, I am sure I will discover, as your new President was the recipient of a few of my jibes. I must say that I had lots of fun poking at your newsletter editor, but I found out he always gets the last word before this goes to the printer. (The power of the pen! Ed. – you didn't think I could let that one go, did you?)

Your new BOD has a new VP, Bill Wood, and I am sure he will help out the active and busy BOD this coming year. Bill will soon discover, as I did, the large number of helpful and committed individuals that keep Skymasters running along.

I am not going away in any way, as I have rebuilt my personal airforce up to at least 2 months worth of ships (how many planes does that take! Ed.) I must admit though, that as my second of four children enters CYO sports, I will be missing more club activities as I taxi them all around creation. I can hardly wait until I have all 4 in sports at once. I will be lucky to even watch at the field let alone fly.

I have been on an interesting build up of my Staudecker recently. For the first time in a very long time, I have been hesitant to make the engineering commitments necessary to complete the ship. By this I mean that I have been sitting and looking and tinkering around for almost two weeks before making the commitment to epoxy in my firewall on the Staudecker. I had to make sure everything was in place, including fuel lines, fuel tanks (2) on board glow, fill lines, throttle, etc. All of this stuff had to be in place before I could lock that thing down, because it would have been impossible. I just sat there for several nights before I got up the gumption to lock it down. That big Saito 300 with those mufflers and 6 fuel lines had a hypnotic effect on me. Finally, I snapped out of it and said my usual "well if I get it wrong, I can always trust my Dremel to get me out of trouble". I still have no idea where I am going to mount the 5 cell pack and 2 cell glow pack, but that will be determined soon as I will put them in place to balance out my CG. The latest interesting one to solve is the on board glow setup. According to my research, a good glow plug draws slightly over 1 amp. Since I will be lighting two plugs, my 2 cell, 2000Mah pack will have to supply 2+ amps every time I put my throttle below about Ό (there are also 2 more plugs that I will never supply power to, as he 300 has 2 per cylinder, and they light up by themselves after you get the first set going). My problem is voltage drop. That big Saito weighs in at 64 Oz. And will require most moveable weight (i.e. battery packs) well back of the CG. Problem is that at 1 amp, it does not take much wire resistance at all to drop the voltage to below optimum 1.3-1.5 needed to get the fire going. The longer I make the wire run, the more resistance I introduce into the circuit. This is one of the last compromises I have to make before I am ready to start covering this bird. Should be fun, and I hope to complete things soon enough to start on one of them there Slow Pokes. I also hope to start back into building a few plastic airplane models. I have been collecting plastic WWII model kits up for several years and it is time to begin building them, so after the Slow poke this year, I think I'll take a break from building balsa planes.

Keep the balsa dust flying and I'll see you all at the field!

Joe Finkelstine

Welcome to the December 1999 issue of Skywriter.

First off, as you saw on the front cover, the date of our Christmas Party has changed to Wednesday, December 15! There was a conflict at the school for the 8^th, and they were unable to accommodate us. So, we'll see you on the 15^th. We sent word to the North Pole, so he knows about the new date too!

Other clubs, please send me flyers/schedules for your 2000 events as they are decided (on white paper if possible to aid scanning, or email an electronic version). I will include as many as I can! Skymasters 2000 schedule should be set in late January or early February depending on the schedule of the AMRCC meeting. We should have another full year of activities. AS we discussed at our meetings, 1999 will have marked the last Chet Brady Memorial Mammoth event. In 2000, this will be replaced by a Small Fry, Electric, and Sailplane combined event. If you are interested in helping out with an event or two, let us know.

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!

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

The officers for 2000 are:

President: Gary Weaks

Vice President: Bill Wood

Secretary: Steve Patterson

Treasurer: Ross Hardy

They join the Past Presidents in forming our BOD for 2000.

Thanks to you for volunteering to help out the club. Please continue to give these folks your support and help as they lead our club!

Location: Larson Middle School

Minutes read and accepted

• Dave Ditner
• Troy Husk

• November 1^st – Retirees' breakfast
• November 7^th – Northville Swap Meet
• December 31^st -- Y2K Snow Fly

• Elections will be held at the next meeting

• Darrell Watts shared that the money for the Slow Poke kit is needed by November 15^th

• Jim Adams, EAA Chapter 13, gave a presentation on paper airplanes

• Jim Hellbut brought in a Sterling Steerman, which is powered by an OS 91
• Craig White brought in a Ikarus
• Pete Foss brought in his Stealth, which weights in at 20 oz.
• Graham Overton brought in a Staudicker, powered by a Mokie 1.8
• Greg Brausa brought in a 1/5 scale Spitfire, powered by a Tiger 3000

• We are in need of new presentation speakers

Motion to adjourn and second

Location: Larson Middle School

Minutes read and accepted

• None

• December 15^th – Christmas Party – Bring a kit or plane to show to qualify for prizes
• December 31^st – Y2K Snow Fly

• Reminder that when Troy Schools are cancelled due to bad weather, club meetings are also cancelled.

• We are in need of a Web Master for Skymasters Home Page. If you are interested, contact Greg Cardillo at (248) 391-6803

• A vote was held to decide upon an event to replace the Mammoth Fly-In. The club voted for a Small Fry/Small Electric Fly-In. (For I.C. engines .25 or smaller)

• Oakland Yard Athletics Indoor Flying – will be held on Saturdays at 5328 Highland Road in Waterford:

• Election Results:

• Terry Overton led a discussion on Soldering and Brazing Techniques

• Do not solder onto oxidation
• Rough the surface with sand paper and clean with flux

• Always remove flux from mechanical joint
• Terry suggested using WD-40 to soak the joint in after removing flux
• It is very important to remove flux since flux leaves the metal prime for corrosion

• Use silver solder and clean joints thoroughly before soldering

• Vince Pettke brought in a North Star, which uses a .64 engine with a Kline regulator
• Randy MacInnes brought in a Mud Duck, powered by a 91 four stroke Saito
• Greg Cardillo brought in a Bi-Plane, which was a restoration plane. He used corn starch and alcohol for removing the oil-soaked wood.
• Terry Overton brought in a RCM 1 Design for use in his soldering demonstration.

• None

Motion to adjourn and second

December 6, 1999 Skymasters Retirees and Wanna Bees Breakfast – Denny's Rochester

714 Main Street at north end of Rochester. Join us for breakfast the 1^st and 3^rd Monday of each month starting November 1^st! Throw a plane in the car if the weathers nice, the group has been known to migrate to the field after breakfast. Contact Bob Burns for more info at 248-628-4666.

December 15, 1999 Skymasters Christmas Party – Larson Middle School, 7:30 PM

Our annual Christmas party for members and their families. Hors Devours and Desserts will be provided. Bring a plane (or more) for static display and have your name entered in a drawing for an early Christmas present! We've let the North Pole know the date – Santa will be joining us with gifts for the kids!

December 31, 1999 Krazy Snow Fly – Scripps Road Field – 10am

Come say goobye to the millennium with a day of flying (and lots of Chili!) You may need wheels; or skis or floats for snow, but either way this has become one of our more popular events.

January 12, 1999 Skymasters Meeting – Larson Middle School, 7:30 PM

To start out the new year, Skymaster Grey Lane will give a presentation on Ultralights – one of his other hobbies. Should be a fun start for the year.

Saturday, December 11* Oakland Yard Indoor Free Flight and R/C, Waterford 9:30 PM-12:30 AM

Saturday, December 18* Oakland Yard Indoor Free Flight and R/C, Waterford 9:30 PM-12:30 AM

Tuesday, December 21* Oakland Yard Indoor Free Flight and R/C, Waterford 7:00 PM-12:00AM

Friday, December 31 (evening) DAM Red Eye Fly-In, Stan Spiewak 313-534-3300

Sunday, January 9 DAM Swap Meet, Farmington, Tom Weedon 734-697-0875

Saturday, January 15* Oakland Yard Indoor Free Flight and R/C, Waterford 10:00 PM-1:00 AM

Sunday, January 23 MMMA Swap Meet, Larry Dalrymple 734-722-2489

Saturday, January 29* Oakland Yard Indoor Free Flight and R/C, Waterford 10:00 PM-1:00 AM

Sunday, January 30 RCCD Swap Meet, Kenneth Sulkowski 810-751-2525 ksulkowski@home.com

Sunday, February 6 Flying Aces R/C Club Swap Meet, Flint Baker College, 810-635-9392

Saturday, February 19* Oakland Yard Indoor Free Flight and R/C, Waterford 10:00 PM-1:00 AM

Sunday, February 20 GDSHS Sno-Fli, Art Slagle 248-477-2228

Sunday, February 20 Chesaning R/C Swap Meet, Owosso, Paul Binkley 810-639-2711

*See additional information for these events in this issue of Skywriter!