Hello and greetings,

Plan now to attend the Skymasters' Holiday party. This will take the place of our normal Larson School Meeting on Wednesday, December 13^th, starting at 7:30 PM. Food, fun, and flying machines! Bring a plane to display and get entered into our raffle. Four kits will be given away that night. Be sure to bring the whole family, there will be gifts for them as well. Take a break from the holiday shopping for some Skymasters fun.

Wow, it's hard to believe that it has been a whole year already. This is my twelfth and final president's letter for this term. I must admit that I have learned a lot about the club over the last year. I am so impressed with the energy that this club has for promoting our hobby, especially when it comes to introducing new people to radio controlled modeling. We all should feel proud each time a new pilot get "signed off" because we all helped in that achievement in some way. Instructing, maintaining the field, or just welcoming visitors to our club, it all adds to our goal of promoting the hobby.

It would be impossible for me to thank all of those who put their time and money into the club over the past year. But I would like to recognize and thank the 2000 board members which includes Bill Wood, vice president, Ross hardy, Treasurer, Steve Patterson, secretary, Greg Cardillo, newsletter editor, and Greg Brausa, chief flight instructor. Many of these folks will have positions on the 2001 board, which is a good sign of the value and commitment each has for the Skymasters. Our club is 27 years old now and with our current membership the future sure looks bright.

Believe it or not we still have one more flying event this year! Call us crazy, but in the past few years this event has had surprising participation. Our Krazy Snow Fly is Sunday, December 31. Flying starts at 10:00 AM. Sometimes we need to exchange wheels for skis on the planes, and sometimes we get just enough snow that you can go either way. Snow or not the fun will be there, so will Steve Fredericks' famous chili!

And since this year's event falls on New Years Eve we need someone to show up in a tux. Any takers? Come out and enjoy the fun.

Remember that we have a full schedule of winter meetings. We meet at Larson Middle School, Troy on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month. (with the exception of February 14^th this year). Meetings start at 7:30 and include a guest speaker or R/C "how to" discussion as well as show and tell, 50/50 and much more. Don't be a hermit this winter, come out and find out what your club is up to.

That's all for this month. Fly safe and happy landings.

Gary Weaks

Welcome to the December issue of Skywriter! Hard to believe this is the end of my third year as editor of Skywriter! I have offered my services for another year to our new President. I am working on converting to a new software package for 2001. Comments, suggestions, or articles are welcome anytime! My thanks to those of you that have sent in items for inclusion - I hope I haven't missed any!

I would like to extend my thanks to the 2000 Board of Directors, including many of the Past President's and others that offer their help, guidance, and time to the club. I would also like to welcome the 2001 Officers aboard - several new faces joining the BOD for the new year.

Other clubs, please send me flyers/schedules for your 2001 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 2001 schedule should be set in late January or early February depending on the schedule of the AMRCC meeting.

The web site has been brought up to date with past Newsletters and upcoming events. Look for more event reports and photos from the past years events in the near future. The members only section contains up to date rosters and email distribution lists as well.

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: Ross Hardy

Vice President: Mark Smith

Secretary: Gary Weaks

Treasurer: Bob Donohue

They join the Past Presidents in forming our BOD for 2001.

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!

Date: October 25^th, 2000

Location: Larson Middle School

• David Goshgarian
• Harry Goshgarian
• John Hakala

• Bob Burns stated that the Retiree Breakfast starts on the first and third Mondays of November at 9:00 am at Denny's Restaurant in Rochester.
• January 24^th, 2001 will be a scale symposium at the Larsen Meeting. Mark your calendars!

• November 8^th – Paper Airplane contest. ELECTION NIGHT
• December 13^th – Christmas Party
• December 31^st – Krazy Snow Fly

• Mark Smith gave a demonstration on the fine art of Foam Cutting. Mark showed many examples of foam cutting with several jigs he has created.

• Rich Ludwig brought in his 400 Razor.
• Joe Hass bought in his Hobby Lobby Tiny, an indoor flyer, which weighed 4.8 ounces. It has a 16:1 gear ratio with a 7 amp Castle Creations speed controller.
• Dick Freiwald brought in his Something Extra by Sig.
• Dave Shea shared his Balsa Nova equipped with an on-board camera system.
• Mark Smith brought in his home built "Fat Cat", powered by a 160 FX with a 65-inch wing span.

• Doug Riley - $50

• Rich Ludwig

Motion to adjourn and second

------------------------------------------

Date: November 8^th, 2000

Location: Larson Middle School

• None

Meeting run by Treasurer Ross Hardy as the senior (only) officer present (good training for next year!). Minutes taken by Newsletter Editor Greg Cardillo.

• Bill Dzure - presented plaque from Boy Scouts for the event at Romeo Airport. Skymasters and Romeo Skyhawks participated
• Joe Finklestine - Anyone interested in participating in an online game of Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator?? Contact Joe if interested…
• Bob Burns - Retiree and Want a Be's breakfast 1^st and 3^rd Monday of month at Denny's in Rochester.
• Jerry Blumenthal leaves town the 7^th of December. He has a few t-shirts, hats left from his reunion. Contact Jerry if interested.
• Matt and Cathy Rowan had their fourth baby girl last night…

Nominations: President - Ross Hardy

Vice President - Mark Smith

Secretary - Gary Weaks

Treasurer - Bob Donohue

Marv moved to close nominations. Joe Hass moved to accept slate by acclamation. No objections.

Congratulations to 2001 officers!

• Snow Fly
• Christmas Party

• Darrell Watts hosted our paper airplane contest…
• The winners in small duration:
• 3^rd Place Paul Goelz 3.07 seconds
• 2^nd Place Gene Thuringer 3.40 seconds
• 1^st Place Jim Held 4.58 seconds

• The winners in small spot landing:

• Joe Finklestine

• Grey Lane brought in Sig 4-Star .60 "in the bones". Powered by Saito .91 Four Stroke.
  Parachutist (Tarzan) strapped to bottom.
• Joe and Chris Hass brought a Shrike - 1960's design flying wing. 67" wingspan 5'9" with Supertigre .45. Needs rough ground to take off!
• Joe also brought a Northstar 6'10oz. OS .46 FX. Much lighter due to wood selection. (This model available for purchase)
• Poel Goelz brought in an electric Ikarus Piccolo helicopter that he flew in the auditorium. Flys 5 min on charge. 7 AAA cells for power. Can fly in winds up to 5 or 8 mph but it does get squirrelly… Not including tx, approx $400 plus 2 servos. Weighs 240 grams.
• Jerry Blumenthal brought in a converted Free Flight. 2 micro servos; mini receiver and 270mah cells. Plane is a Carl Goldberg design.
• Mark Smith brought in a OK Models Tiger Moth he got from Roy Morgan. ASP .53 4S; Futaba radio. Nice flyer. Covered with fabric and Epoxy paint. Wings glued in place with flying wires.
• Joe Finklestine brought in a Stirling Cycle engine. An external combustion engine. Will turn 400-500 rpm. Built from kit. Next one will be homemade from bar stock. He ran it with Coleman fuel pellets. Got kit at NAMES show last year. Runs at home with alcohol burner. "Doesn't do anything useful, but it's fun to watch!"

December 13, 2000 Skymasters Christmas Party – Larson Middle School, 7:30 PM

Our annual holiday party! Bring the family and a plane or two! Look for more info as we get closer. Santa is planning on flying in with some gifts for the kids! Those bringing planes will be entered in a drawing for some R/C related prizes.

December 18, 2000 Skymasters Retiree Breakfast – Denny's, 714 Main St, Rochester, 9:00 AM

Retiree's and Want A'Bes join us for breakfast and model airplane gossip. 1^st and 3^rd Monday of each month through winter.

December 31, 2000 Skymasters Krazy Snow Fly – Scripps Road Field, 10:00 AM

Our last flying event of the year on the last day of the year! Will we need wheels or skis (or floats)?? Come on out and brave the weather - enjoy some hot chili and hopefully some flying!

January 10, 2001 Skymasters Meeting – Larson Middle School, 7:30 PM

We have several programs already planned for 2001. Look for details in next month's Skywriter!

Indoor Flying:

Oakland Yard is again opening for indoor flying. Dates for this year:

Tuesday December 26 FUN FLY

2001 has 2 days per month through April with a February date in Silverdome being scheduled for a national event!

Dave Shea pointed out a change to the AMA Safety Code for 2001 as published in the membership manual you received with your 2001 AMA card. Under Radio Control section:

This is part of the Safety Code, not competition regulations which means it applies to all combat flying - sanctioned event or not! You certainly can fly your 'combat type' plane with a larger engine/weight for sport flying, but tie on a streamer or otherwise fly air-to-air combat, and these restrictions apply.

On Sunday Nov. 12, it was a cold (40's), gray day but there were half a dozen hardy pilots at the field. When I arrived, Greg Brausa was already doing some rough clevis adjustments on Harry and David Goshgarian's ARF trainer 40. David had

purchased the trainer with money he had earned and Dad had helped with the assembly work after bringing the plane to several meetings.

Al Harriman was also giving advice and lending a hand in 'tuning up' the trainer. It was decided that the aileron and elevator throws exceeded the recommendations in the instruction book and so the throws were reduced by moving the pushrods in on the servo arms and adjusting clevis'.

Then came the engine...a brand new ABC Tiger 40...which, when started by Greg, ran... but kept quitting. A new plug was tried and Greg started the engine and adjusted the carburetor many times... the engine finally appeared to run reasonably well after a half hour of trials.

During the engine run, everyone pointed to the tail fin which was shaking like a leaf. Upon inspection, the fin had not been glued to the fuselage and was actually a 1/4" away from it (it was supposed to be done by the manufacturer). The only thing holding the fin on was the fuselage bezel and even the bezel was not properly cemented to the stabilizer. More repairs from Greg's box of goodies! some popsicle sticks, gap filling Cycroacralate and a great deal of patience since the cold weather had its slowing effect on the glue. No 'kicker' was available so the parts had to be squeezed together for the best part of 5 minutes!

The engine was started once again and this time seemed to be OK, it even kept running when pointed straight up and so the plane began its maiden flight. No sooner than it got to the first turn and the engine quit and Greg had to land it dead stick which he did with the grace of a Chief Instructor.

Mark Smith was testing an engine at the far end of the field and volunteered his tank. When attached to Marks tank the engine ran fine. So....the tank in the plane had to come out. Of course, the manufacturer didn't intend for the tank to come out easily but Greg prevailed and out came the tank. The tank had no hole in the pressure side of the system and everyone concluded that the engine was starving as vacuum built up. Greg to the rescue again..he had some drills and the problem was solved. While the tank was out the fuel line pick up tube and clunk were shortened to allow for some movement. Back in the tank went...not without some difficulty and ingenious feeding of too short fuel lines by Greg.

In the meantime, someone discovered a piece of balsa stuck to the stabilizer and tried to get it off. In the process the covering material split for two inches making a rather large hole. Greg to rescue again, he had some scotch tape and the repair was made.

That done, the plane was started once again, ran well and actually performed its 2nd maiden flight with Greg at the controls and David on the buddy box. Both David and Dad were given turns flying the plane and they went home thoroughly cold but happy that after 3 HOURS of frustrating trials and repairs. The systems all worked and they took the plane home in one piece to fly another day. It never would have happened except for the assistance of the Skymasters RC Club.

The dedication, tenacity and ingenuity of Greg Brausa can only be applauded, our thanks to you Greg! and to the other dedicated pilots who helped these two new members.

The video of our Midwest Regional Float Fly from SKS videos is now available. The club will have videos available at our Christmas party as well as our Swap Shop in February. This year's front cover features Skymaster Al Mrock and his beautiful Sikorsky S-39; and the back cover a shot of Steve Frederick's Maule Rocket.

Be sure to get your copy of this video for only $20! (SKS Price $19.95 + $3.95 S/H)
Several other titles will be available as well.

Several of you called Darrell after reading the article in Model Aviation about Camp Jeep. This article was written by an AVP from Virginia that was not aware of the extent of the prep work involved that was performed by Skymasters. Darrell has contacted AMA about running an update in 'Letters to Editor'.

There will be an article in the March 2001 RCM about the event submitted by Skymasters.

As those of you who were in attendance know, at the Float Fly we recognized pilots from other clubs who had flown at all 10 events.

The reason we did not recognize Skymasters who had attended was two fold: 1.) We are the host club and wanted to recognize our guests and 2.) We have kept attendance for mailing purposes. We knew we were going to reach the Skymasters via the newsletter so no records were kept in past.

Please help us bring our records up to date. If you have participated in all 10 of the past Skymasters Midwest Regional Float Flys, call Greg Cardillo (248-391-6803) or Darrell Watts (248-391-4677). The pilots from the visiting clubs who were honored are listed below:

Mike Cisler

Bruce Doll

Bob Hines

Allen Junko

John Krauer

Jeff Landis

Robert Mayhew

Larry McCullen

Kurt Nystrom

My wife found this ad recently… Looks interesting!

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 2000 is 94dBa 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 Greg Brausa.

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!