These pictures were taken by Peter Smith and Craig Knight on the weekend of May 24th and 25th – both beautiful sunny spring days, and only a week after the opening of our flying site for the season. The field is still very wet and too soft for the lawn tractors, and the grass is growing like crazy!
The start of another flying season! View the Soo Modellers galleries.
Club Night Thursday – May 29th
This year (2014), the club initiated “Club Night Thursdays” – to be held each week from 6:30 pm until dusk (weather permitting). Originally intended as a get-together for instructors and students, the “event’ quickly grew into much more than this – as many members planned their R/C flying activity around Thursday evenings. What a great success! We had so much more participation this year than ever before, with members knowing that on Thursday evenings, the club’s flying site was the place to be!
For our first session, the flying weather was absolutely perfect. There was an excellent turnout and a wide variety of flying machines – as seen in this superb set of photos by Peter Smith.
Click on the photos to enlarge and read the captions…
First Flight of the Apprentice – June 1st
A regular at the gym during the indoor season, Terry Bariciak completed his first outdoor training session at the field on Sunday morning with his all foam E-flite Apprentice 15e. I had my doubts about a light foam trainer with the wind we get and the longer grass, but after today, I’m a believer! This plane has lots of power and handles the wind quite well (see wind sock in the photos below!)
We did all the preliminary checks and buddy box set-up, then I took it up for the “maiden” flight. It only needed a couple of clicks of down trim to have it flying hands off.
Club Night Thursday – July 3rd
A steady breeze from the West persisted during our first session of the month on July 3rd – but it wasn’t enough to keep the Soo Modellers on the ground!
This first photo (right) shows Craig and Terry M. testing out the dual controls (buddy box) in preparation for flight of Brad’s 10cc powered Hangar 9 Meridian.
So will it fly? Click on the pictures below to enlarge and read the captions…
(photos by Mark Primavera)
Saturday, July 5th
It was a fine morning at the flying field, albeit a tad cloudy! We had a total of five experienced pilots and three students that spent 3 hours of enjoyment – flying model airplanes!
Cecil’s “trainee” Terry B. (photo left) had two 15 minute flights on his Apprentice 15E and another 10 minutes of “ground handling” on the Twist. It won’t be long before he has his Wings! In this photo notice his use of the “pinch” technique on the control sticks.
Our “chief instructor” Terry M. has word to the wise: “When flying an electric seaplane, set your timer two minutes less than when flying on land!”
And now… the rest of the story… Terry was flying his Neptune and the timer went off, so he set it gently back down on the water. Before he could taxi back to the dock, the motor lost power due to the low battery!
The good news was the slight on-shore breeze, and he only had to wait 20 minutes or so, before wading out to retrieve the unharmed Neptune.
Click on the images below to enlarge the photos and read the captions.
Club Night Thursday – July 10th
A beautiful night at the field!
We had two of our newer members, Larry Greco with his Hobbistar 60 Mk III trainer and Brad Newstead with his 10cc gas powered Hanger 9 Meridian, out for some training. Larry had multiple successful flights, but Brad was plagued with a low ignition battery and was grounded for the rest of the night!
Tom Thompson (right) dropped in straight from work to take advantage of the good weather and get some “air time” while Pat Leonard (behind Tom) drove in from “Red Rock” to fly his hot Saito powered profile
I made the first flights this year with my Cherokee 140 and Saito 45 powered Eindecker. Craig had his electric T33 and Terry M. brought out an older H9 Ultra stick. That thing had to do 100 kph! Dave Derbyshire wowed us with his ZDZ 50cc powered Extra 300 especially the one wheel landing! Nice job, Dave!
The weather was perfect and the company was even better! I can hardly wait “till next Thursday!
Cecil
Saturday – July 12th
The crew was out early this morning to get some air-time. The sky was overcast with patches of sun poking through here and there making it difficult to see your plane at times!
Fred Morin and Larry Greco got lots of “stick time”, flying with instructor Terry Mortimore. See the photo in the Buddy Box gallery. Terry says they are coming along quite fine. On another note, because the Instructor was so busy instructing, his SuperStick sat idle all morning!!!
Craig could not get his new plane’s engine to keep running, so no flying today! Rino put in a few flights with his HobbiStar 60. That plane thinks it’s a “pylon racer”!
And the Terminator? (photo right) Be afraid… Be very afraid!
‘Till next time… See you at the field!
Cecil…
Click on the images below to enlarge the photos and read the captions.
(photos by Cec Marshall)
Club Night Thursday – July 17th
A beautiful day and a perfect evening for our club night!
Larry Greco got in a slew of flights under the watchful eye of Instructor Terry Mortimore. He is getting more confident with each flight and it shows in his flying… Good job Larry! Terry even had time to get in a few flights with his “Super Stick” while Larry was “calming his nerves”.
Craig Knight finally got his 35% Extra 260,powered by a DL 100,in the air for the first time this year after being plagued by “carb” problems. What a sweet flyer! Rino brought out his “Kadet Senior” on floats, so we could set up and “tweek” the engine in preparation for Jeannes’ float fly next week!
Zone Director, and MAAC VP, Kevin McGrath was out for the evening. He has been so busy with his MAAC duties that he has not been able to get any “stick time”. We put him up on the “Club Trainer” and “Buddy Box” under the watchful eye of Craig, just in case!
Nathaniel Tyson was out with his electric “Addiction” as well as his LED lit “Tricopter” – what a smooth flyer!
As the sun went down it was the end of a perfect day of flying!
‘Till next time, see ya at the field!
Cecil…
(photos by Cec Marshall)
Saturday – July 19th
With a slight on-shore breeze and just enough “chop” to make take offs and landings interesting, three of us brave souls – Terry M., Rino, and I decided we should do some float flying.
Terry was up first with his Neptune while Rino and I readied our planes. I went up next with my quarter scale J3 Cub. There was enough chop to get the prop wet before it got on step and lifted off. Terry and I took turns flying “the old girl”, while the other took pictures. The landing wasn’t “picture perfect” due to the chop, but she made it back to shore on her own power.
I took up Rino’s Senior Kadet to give him time for his knees to stop shaking! Once in the air, I handed Rino the controls and he did a superb job of guiding it through the wild blue yonder. We all took turns flying it while we shot some pics. I landed it, as by now the wind was increasing and getting a little too gusty. Again not “picture perfect” but it got back to dock on it’s own – and no-one got wet!
See you at the dock!
Cecil….
Click on photos below to enlarge and read the captions.
Sunday – July 20th
The Soo Modellers were out at the field on Sunday morning enjoying the summer sun – as recorded through the camera lens of Mark Primavera!
Click on photos below to enlarge and read the captions.
Monday – July 21st
Next day (Monday morning) Steve Daly, Clarence, and Peter took advantage of the calm morning air at the field. Everyone did some flying – including Peter, who made two dead stick… errr… dead Stik landings – as well as snapping a few more world class photos.
Click on photos below to enlarge and read the captions.
Club Night Thursday – July 24th
We had an excellent turnout again this week – including two welcome out-of-town guests: Gary from Windsor and Ken Leonard (Pat’s brother) from Sudbury. Chief Instructor Terry M. was kept busy non-stop until the sun went down, with students Fred, Joe, and Brad getting lots of stick time. Brad had a new Electric Kadet – a very slow flyer – almost a powered glider.
And our photographer this week – Mark Primavera (photo right) – was awarded his Wings. Bravo!
Click on the pictures below to enlarge and read the captions…
(photos by Mark Primavera)
Club Night Thursday – July 31st
Another Club Night – complete with warm weather, no wind, and lots of mosquitos, has come and gone. It was a perfect evening except for those dang mosquitos!!
Steve Daly and I were the instructors present, whie Brad Newstead and Fred Morin were the students this evening. Also “gracing us with their presence” were Pat Leonard, Mark Primavera, Rino Zorzi, Steve Morin, and Nathan Tyson.
Brad flew three flights on his electric Kadet Sr. with Steve Daly instructing, while Fred got in two 15 min. flights on his nitro powered trainer with Cecil. Mark had two or three flights with his glider, Rino flew his Hobbistar, and Pat wowed us with his Saito 82 powered profile.
Nathan flew his “Addiction” electric and his Tri-copter. Steve Morin had problems with his Citabria and didn’t quite get airborne (see photo below!), while Steve Daly (photo above) put on a superb display of aerobatic manoeuvres with his 150cc twin 42% Sukhoi aerobat!
A trip to the coffee shop after the “shades of darkness” overtook us, put an end to another great club night!
Come-on Thursdays!!
Cecil
(photos by Cec Marshall & Mark Primaera)
