Airflow
the official newsletter of the
Radio Control Club of Rochester 

August 21, 1999 Bolling Field

  by Jim Sonnenmeier, from the Clarence Silent Flyair, editor Marty Timm (photos by Airflow)
With the seeming demise of the Radio  Control  Club  of Rochester's  annual  sailplane contest, they sought to replace it with something with more appeal to the rest of their membership. CD Jerry Joseph wanted to find out what kind of electric activity was out there and therefore sanctioned an electric fun fly. The word was to come and see what electric is all about.

Now of course 'we' know all about this topic but we also support any attempts to increase the activities in the area so it was an opportunity to see what other people were doing.  Several conversations during the week prior with various CSS members suggested that perhaps 5 or 6 of us would trek down route 31 to the Redman Rd field. Having been afflicted with the Zagi 400 virus on Wednesday and having three evenings for it to run it's stage-1 course (building) I was in a feverish stupor. Waking on Saturday feeling somewhat more in control, Tim Krystaf and I loaded two Zagi's, a Cessna Cardinal, Skat, arid Tim's large Quaker in our vehicles under cloudy skies. Following Tim's red turbo Toyota speeding ticket generator, we arrived at about 9:00am to see Jerry and crew setting up a flight line and equipment. We had driven out of the cloudy weather and it was sunny and warming up nicely. Unfortunately the rest of the CSS crew decided that the weather was too ~~ Oh well, you all missed a very laid back and enjoyable day.

While it was an AMA sanctioned event (had to show your AMA card and sign in etc.) it was officially a fun fly. There were no events, just relaxed flying as you wanted. There were maybe 40 people total present with spectators.  The planes were in all shapes, sizes, and manner of electrics. There was everything from the powered sailplane types (Gentle Ladies, Spectra's and the like including a very nice Electric Hawk from Mark Allen/Slegers) to old timers (a Playboy and a very large New Ruler) to fun fly types, electric Hots and the Zagi's [very popular with the ohh and ahh crowd) a couple of electric ducted fans (A Kyosho T-33 foam job and a Bill Grigg's small fan) and some of the most impressive scale planes I've seen with electric power. There was a married couple (Wayne and Rita Wilson of the RAFC) there with 7 or 8 planes. She had a PT-Electric and a very nicely covered (Pink and white - with butterfly trim) Piper Cub. He had a Morrisey Bravo (with MAXCim power), a Beech Staggerwing, and a very large (maybe 80" span) Cessna 310 twin! (with 28 cells and two Astro 25's!) He flew the planes very realistically, the twin even had retracts!  As the sky improved the air got more buoyant. Tim had to force the Quaker out of a large thermal that had sucked a couple of gliders up to specks. The first flight with my new Zagi was exciting with too much throw but after adjustment, the ohhs and ahhs were fun to listen to. There were no mishaps with quite a lot of flying being done and only one faux pas when Tim and I pondered over why the servos on my Zagi wouldn't move when Tim's youngest son David who came along with us noticed that we had taken the wrong HiTec 3 channel transmitter from the impound table!

There were hot dogs for sale at noon, a very large canopy with tables, and a porta-john over by the maintenance sheds so it was quite comfortable at the site. The official flying lasted until 3 PM and everyone was invited to continue to fly afterward. There was a raffle for the registered participants with some nice prizes (an Astroflight Watt Meter, Astroflight Discharger, gift certificates from Tower Hobbies, Master Airscrew, Hobby Lobby, and Sig). David was chosen to pick the tickets and he almost managed to skunk his father (he picked Tim's number on the very last drawing) Everyone enjoyed themselves and agreed that the first RCCR Electric Funfly was a great success.

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