Club Activities

Civy Boy Shapes Up

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 20:53:31 -0400

Kit Bays recently reported in about his Civy Boy project. I wish my hobby room looked that nice...

“I'm attaching a pic of a Civy Boy I started in November. Can't believe I built one in about 2 1/2 weeks when I was 14. I hope to finish the tip panels this week and put these parts together, then I'll tackle that round fuselage. I have a Johnson .29 and a .32 for B/C NOS and just got a Johnson .35 Combat Special if it's not scary enough with those two. Also have a K&B .32 I got as a backup and some Holland Hornets for a planned but unbuilt A/2 NOS. The amount I've spent so far on eBay exceeds the GDP of Madagascar!”

Barkalow’s Model Class

Sun, 4 Mar 2012 19:08:03 -0500

Tom Barkalow, one of our members from Nashville, NC, recently held a model building class at the High School where he teaches.

“I cut out the parts for 12 gliders. The cost for each glider came to about 70 cents each. Each glider will have a wingspan of 12". Wings are 1/16" balsa. The fuselage is 12.5" and is made out of 3/32" balsa. Tail parts are made from 1/32" balsa.”

The photos speak volumes about the fun had in constructing and flying some basic all-balsa gliders. One photo shows the test flying from a nearby hill. Tom reports they had a great time and he hopes to be able to do this again soon. We do too!

Fun news from Wilmington

Wed, 8 Feb 2012 20:40:49 -0500

During the 2011 season we were contacted by Jimmy Jordan of Wilmington, NC. He was interested in visiting and having his grandson, Matthew, see more free flight action in person. After visiting one of our Fun-Fly events, they both joined CAFFA. More recently, we got the good news of Matthew’s results in a science competition. I’ll let Jimmy tell the story...

“Remember the Wilmington gang? Well granddaddy has to brag a little bit.

Matthew's science project was the demonstration of Bernoulli's Principle and how an airplane flies. He built two Peck ROGs (cheap, quick to build, and fly well) as nearly alike as possible, per the plan and instructions. One wing was built with the flat ribs (no airfoil) option and the other was built with the curved ribs (air foil) option as provided in the kit.

He flew both models 10 flights each late one afternoon, in very still air, at a soccer field near home. Each flight was made ROG from a card table with the same (as nearly as possible)number of turns in the rubber and timed with a stop watch. Each model was very consistent in its flight times, varying only a few seconds from shortest to longest. The flat plate wing averaged 12 seconds and the air foil wing averaged 18 seconds. Longer flights could have been attained with more turns because both models were still making a climbing circle when the motor ran down, but that was not the purpose of test.

The flight data, photos, and written report were submitted as his science project. Granddaddy was listed as photographer and technical adviser. As the attached photos show, he won three ribbons including first place for the fourth grade at his school. The county competition is next. Need less to say, I am very proud and he is very excited.

We hope to see you and the CAFFA gang again soon.

Best regards, Jimmy Jordan and Matthew”

Dave Rees passes

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 21:22:09 -0400

We received the sad news that Dave Rees passed away this week. Dave had battled with Parkinson’s Disease for some time, but still managed to visit and fly at some of the contests over the past year or two. Dave was an expert designer, builder, and flyer of all types of model airplanes, but especially scale free-flight. He was a founding member of the Kudzu Squadron of the Flying Aces here in NC. Please keep Marie, his wife, and the rest of his family and friends in your prayers during this time.

Fall fun-fly cancelled

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 18:45:30 -0400

Just a quick update that the Fun-Fly has been cancelled due to the forecasted winds more than rain, but both are expected to be a problem. Don’t forget the October 15th Fall Contest!