President: Graeme Beagley 54472789 Vice-president: Andy Thomas 54473291

Secretary: Alan Uren 54418528 Treasurer: Barry Thomas 54417916

Aloft Newsletter BRCAC Inc.

April 2011 Digital version. Vol. 1 Issue 4

Secretary Report post 28 March 2011 Meeting Well this meeting was longer and a number of items and issues were discussed and

abbreviated for this overview. Our 60th Anniversary Club Badges have been received and

these will be held until later in the year when we get the majority of members together to

celebrate. A new bungee should be on its way shortly to replace the deteriorated one –

members may make use of 15 new chairs in the clubhouse while they wait for it, or just relax a

bit more and socialise.

The Red Bull style racing is still under consideration but an offer by Red Bull to send the Red

Bull ladies with handouts at the competition caused the discussion to get a little off track if not

lively. Details and format of the racing still need to be worked on, ongoing.

The Leichardt Glider Field has the paddocks freshly ploughed ready for a crop so the

availability of the field will be monitored, but probably un-useable for the next 6 months.

The Duration Competition was a great day and covered in the Newsletter – Next year the fuel

quantity will be reduced from 150 to 100 ml per flight for the seasoned fliers due to the long

flight times being achieved. Congratulations to both duration first timers in picking up 2nd and

3rd spots. Air cadets at Bendigo Airport asked for 1 or 2 people for a ‘show and tell’ with a

model at their monthly meeting on 7th April. Alan R & Barry offered to go.

Please note that Fridays are primarily a training and general flying day.

Safety issues and operating areas are still being assessed and discussed. These are car park,

pits, starting and spectator areas (New starting stands, fences, gates, signage etc.)

Amendments are also under consideration to ensure that all flight operations are carried out

in accordance with the Club By-Laws and under cover of the Insurer – simply put, it is

NO INSURANCE - NO FLY. Note Early than usual Monthly Meeting Next Mon day night.. see calendar

Alan Uren Secretary

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Member Profile Mike Fields Q: How long have you been into flying? It’s around 18 years now, most of them with BRCAC.

Q: What was your first model? Ah, yes. A Brolga glider… with a daggy little Cox Pod attached

above. It was not a great performer but I love it ‘cause I was flying!

Q: Current flight preferences? Electric Fun Fly, Depron profiles, Semi-scale Warbirds ARF, I

really like the ME109 as a model but there’s not many arf’s of those around and they seem to

underperform. Also gliders of all kinds. I like foam that bounces. Custom builds and

experimentation, mostly in electric is always good fun.

Q: What was your worst incident? After two months building a

Scimitar (from Darwin) and in less than 2 minutes of flight, no

control, with full throttle and an aileron roll, in augured into the

creek loam on the other side of the trees. Because it was up a

good height it took those painful...long... seconds for it to

disappear head down behind the trees. Worse even though I

had seen it go in, due to the distance delay, I was still hearing

the roar of full throttle going faster and faster, followed by that

THUMP! The pic to side is all that was left.

Q: Best Times..? Best site: Slope soaring on Mt Manganui in New Zealand with an obscene

amount of powerful lift ALL day, just doing trick after trick… Best Save: Losing radio range

after 20 feet with a Depron Space Shuttle (electric) which as chance had it was on perfectly

level flight with a slight left turn. It performed a slow graceful circuit over the fence, just

cleared the trees and continued back me at 15 feet up, where I regained radio range and was

able to bring it in a classic Shuttle High Alpha landing.. Truly amazing... Truly bloomin’ lucky!

Q: If money was no option, what would you buy? Oh, one of every large electric EPO warbird,

like, 1.4 metre plus wingspan. P38, Spitty, P51 and some bombers... Hang the expense...

Q: Where do you see our hobby heading ? Definitely lots more electrics everywhere. They are

affordable, no sticky oils and you don’t need acres and acres to fly in. Plus there are SO many

to choose from... As well the EPO and EPP foam are easy on the learning curve... On top of all

that they look GREAT.

Q: What’s the best display or contest you’ve seen? .Have to say the early Laverton Air Shows,

when you could go right out on the grass behind the rope and security was almost invisible.

Planes took off seemingly only metres away... I remember vividly going into a RAAF display

where they had an early flight sim you could try. I got on it and had a bunch of ‘brass’ amazed

to see this kid doing stuff they couldn’t. Truth was it was driven by a Commodore Amiga and...

Yes... Dad sold them and we had two at home..!

Q: What are you currently building? An electric glider for the Climb & Glide comps. And

finishing of an Alula hand launch EPP glider... Amazing little suckers.

Q: What do you think our club would benefit from? We have a lot of great gear so it leaves...

secure ownership of the field and then provide some hardtop strips.

Q: Other hobbies and interests? Photography, designing and building website, Desktop

Publishing, palaeontology (fossils), model r.c. sailboating and model rocketry.

Q: Any other comments? It’s been great to see our club using our fees over the years to

continuously improve of facilities and equipment from those early days (for me) of just the

clubhouse and a tin dunny, no shade, stands, school room, container etc.

Glider Competition Sunday April 3rd. The Sunday was not looking very promising at all early up,

but as the morning progressed it seemed quite improved.

On arrival it was clear that the weather out there was

different than back home. With four starters we decide to

give it ago. Mal went CD for the day and due wind loops

were dropped making a simple duration event. Although

plenty of wind there was only the odd lift to be found which

Mike seemed able to find throughout. We found 4 minutes

the pace and so a couple of rounds progressed until Ian,

away on bungee untangling duty (it has to go), model, in the

pits, was hit by a great gust and flipped with terminal fin

damage. Mal’s Fling was next to run afoul of the conditions

and augured in from 20 feet up effectively writing it off, for

the day. He was able to continue with his spare Fling. The bungee caused extreme problems in

the long grass, breaking and generally being a P.I.A.. The kept increasing so that the edge of

the safe glider envelope was approaching and it was decided to finish the completion at round

3. During pack up Brian, collecting the bungee, had his glider, on the ground, was also flipped

by a great gust and some minor nose separation was a mild concern. Overall a reasonable day

but lack of numbers, poor bungee and less than favourable conditions made it quite eventful,

if not a tad short in term. Regardless, Mike took out first place with an excellent set of times,

followed in 2nd

by Brian who also had very good flights. Third was Mal with good, but not good

enough flights and 4th

was Ian . Thanks to those who came along, especially to Alan and John

for flight support Mal

Sunday April 3 Beautiful day! , the Echuca air show was on, what a great show.

Sponsored by Echuca Aero Club and Antique Aeroplane Association of Australia

Show started at 11 am precisely with a formation

display by Southern Knights aerobatic team using

North American T6 Harvards The noise of 6 rotaries

was a joy to hear, flying was impeccable. Next up

was the Vintage Fly By with 1934 gullwing Stinson

Reliant Late 30"s Beech Staggerwing 17 D 1948

Cessna 195 , 1946 Globe swift , 1942 Ryan STM ,

1947 Cessna 140 . Also a beautiful Dragon Rapide , De Haviland Dragon, Tigermoths and a

1934 Avro Cadet

The handling display by Gleaming Lockheed12 1937 airliner and the Lockheed Hudson was

closely followed by Boeing Steerman open cockpit in US Navy Colours. The Russian L39 jet

trainer (only jet powered aircraft there) and Yak 9 put on a great show of aerobatics.

Highlight of show was the formation flyby of WW2 War birds including three Kitty hawks,

Mustang, Spitfire, Yak and Lockheed Hudson. An exciting feature was close formation flying

with the Spitfire, Mustang and Kittyhawk. The WW2 display went on for an incredible 20 mins.

lots of fuel and airtime Thanks to Judy Pay for Spitfire and other aircraft.

High adrenalin time! Matt Hall, our Red Bull Air Race Pilot, with no preset routine except

(Music) stunned the crowd with his low level flying, never above a thousand feet. First Pilot to

finish on podium during first season.

Other displays were from Robinson 22Helicopter.formation flyby of Australian built Winjeel,

RAAF trainers Australian built Airtourers. Aerobatic display by Spitfire ( MK 8 )

The RAAF Roulettes finished the show with full 6

aircraft precision display. It was amazing to behold.

Their starburst is incredible, as are all other

manoeuvres. The Fly Out is well worth waiting for.

An endless mixture of aircraft waiting in line to

depart and turn on to their headings for home.

Nice Things ! meeting other BRCAC Members

including Graeme Beagley club president, there with his family. Display pilot taking young

vision impaired boy from crowd and walking him and touching his Kittyhawk all over ( aviation

is for all) Bill Hughes contemplating the Victa Air Tourers( he used to own one) and his

knowledge of the aircraft . Bill is a licensed airframe maintenance engineer .

Relaxed logistic attitude of day unlike Avalon. Normal food prices , admission $20 and $50 for

car with family .Thanks to Neil, Bill and David for their consideration and invitation to a truly

wonderful day Remember two years time it's on again. Bill M.

THE 1951 ED RACER 2.46 BB Diesel Series 2 Being the Clubs 60th Anniversary year I just happened to notice

it was also one of my old favourites 60th as well – its not that I

am old as I was 10 when it was made and I have only had it for

55 odd years having bought it second hand. Like all good engines

it was fitted to a F4U Corsair C/L which was last flown in the

early 1970’s and has sat on the top shelf until this year when it

finally came down for a check. Typically the spun aluminium

press fit cowl had attached itself to the old enamel paint and

would not budge – it was just as tight as the prop was – locked solid after 37 years and maybe I

should have cleaned it after its last flight, but I was obviously too busy or something at that

time. Well, the fuselage and the cowl suffered a great deal but finally I had it out and into the

Kero for a good soak, quite a bit of heat and it was finally free to turn again. A strip-down and

cleanup was next, then back together again and into the test stand

and mounted on the garage work bench with the anticipation of

getting it running. I knew there was a reason for buying that $30 litre

tin of Diesel last year as I knew it would come in handy one day and

this was it – no need to feel guilty anymore. It took about 5 flicks

before the first sound and a bruised finger, really brought back the

memories, another couple and it was running. Let it settle down for a

while then leaned it out to peak. I had forgotten the smell and the

sound of an un-muffled diesel at full rpm in the garage, lucky my wife was not home at the

time. This time it was cleaned up properly after running and mounted on its little stand in the

new cabinet. It was later that evening when my wife commented about the awful stink in the

bedroom which just happens to be above my garage workbench, oops, said I would go

downstairs and check, a quick apology about the ‘spill’ in the garage and a promise to air it out

tomorrow. That’s the great thing about modelling, she only complained for three days and

every complaint brought back some great memories, especially being its 60th anniversary.

Still wondering what to do with the rest of the diesel – maybe get some more engines out??

Neru nala.

Golden Era Racing ---- Adelaide 1-3 April 2011 Golden Era racing only comes around every two years, so Steve and Les have had quite a long wait for their chance to attend the competition held in Adelaide. Five different classes are run at the Golden Era Racing event they are, Formula One races, Reno races, Golden Era- in line races, Golden Era- Radial races, and AT-6 Texan races. Entries this year were total of 72 for the five events, with only 20 allowed to enter in the Texan class, and in the new class of Formula One it attracted 14 entries. Previous years they had 32 entries in the Texan Class, but it’s restricted to stop the Texan class from dominating the whole event. Leaving home on Thursday morning the 31st of March, we travelled through to Adelaide arriving at the field at 3pm, just in time for the days processing and noise checks, and enough time to get a test flight in. Friday morning came with beautiful weather for flying, but the flies were awful,(the little black shits) in ears, mouth and your eyes, and yes ,we had been warned about them, bring some fly repellent was the message. Flying started mid morning with the Texans up first with same problem as last time we were there," the lights", even the same colour, the white light. Steve and myself had to fly 4 flights, hoping the light would work enough to get two scores in, this created quite a bit of displeasure amongst the other flyers as well as ourselves. The problem was found later, a broken wire in the button switch on white light, they fixed it by cutting the wires, and so two bare wires were touched together every time the aircraft came up to the pylon for the light indication. Saturday morning the lights had been rewired, everything started to run smoothly, so did our racing, with a lot better times on the scoreboard, we were now putting the pressure on. Especially on the Turna's, Steve and Garry who had won this event six times in a row over past 12 years, their engine kept running slightly off tune and the pressure was causing them to cut pylons to try and stay in front. Our Steve had them were he wanted, with the pressure on he had only to keep flying safely without any mishaps to win. I wasn't that lucky, on the sixth lap of the 4th heat, I encountered another aircraft, yes a mid air, the best that I've seen. It was on pylon one with all four aircraft fighting for the best position then it happened, a loud explosion then two aircraft disappeared off the radar, all that was left was the rubbish floating around in the air, with a light thermal breeze keeping what looked like flak in the sky. As the two remaining aircraft were still racing, they had to fly through this flak as they passed around number one pylon on the next lap. On Sunday morning the Texan scores were posted on the board, Steve had a good lead and only need to finish the last race to win. As they say, the rest is now history, Bendigo has won the AT-6 Texan Race at the Golden Era Racing for 2011. The flying skills that Steve has, and used at this event has been exceptional, and this has been shown through by winning this event. We would like to thank everybody that has helped us along the way to get to the top in our class, AT-6 Texan. Bendigo, the team with Go! Steve and Les.