San Gabriel Valley Radio Control League

Well December the 7th is a Club important day this year, 2008. As a group we spend a lot of money on our own toys and now is the time to share what we spend. So we really need to consider doing just a little of the same for the other younger kids in the area that may not be as fortunate. We have upwards of three hundred guys flying at Whittier during the course of a year. Is there any reason we shouldn’t collect upwards of three hundred toys?

Not a one! But only about half of the Whittier users read this or the ad’s we place at the field. Too many will ignore the occasion– unless. Unless each one is individually approached and asked to come down to the field, Sunday Dec the 7th. So if you are friendly with any modeler that flies at Whittier, speak up. Let’s get a huge turn out. This year most or maybe all of the toys we collect will be turned over to the Park for distribution during the course of the following year. And the Park gang is one group we sure want to empress!

A toy donated is better than cash–but we will sure take cash if offered! Try to come down to the Field before 1 or 2 PM, that’s when we usually conclude the planned operation. Operation? Well, actually it’s just a normal Sunday of flying with the only difference is the toy donation requirement to fly. There may be some special interruptions for demo flying–will see. So remember Dec the 7th, this year it’s kind’a special special!

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This has been a very fast year; here we are at the end of October. We have had 4 very successful contests and made a few bucks for the club. The runway got a new top coat and looks good. All we need to do is have fun at Toys-for-Kids in December to close out the year. Next year you will have a new president and I will become the past president, and I’m looking forward to that. The best partis you will not have to suffer through my newsletter articles next year.

The last big racing contest has been completed with good results. The club will have made about $1000 or so. The pilots who flew in the race were happy. It was three days of lots of work, thanks to all you members, we had enough workers to man all the flight stations and we got it done. Lee has a number of items that were donated to him to give to you guys who worked the contests. For every day you worked during the three contests a ticket with your name on it will be in the raffle. Lee will have a drawing at the October club meeting, good luck to all the workers. You don’t need to be present to win.

Toys-for-Kids is coming up on Sunday, December 7th. This is a fun day and we hope to get lots of toys to give to kids who are down on their luck. Pick up a $10.00 toy for boy or girl, unwrapped, and bring to the Toys-for Kids. We will also accept your $10.00 bill.

If you have been to the El Monte airport you have seen the signs about the construction work that is going on from Oct. 26th to Nov 6th. They will be replacing all the flooring in the terminal building. As our club meeting is on the 28th we will be meeting on the patio of the restaurant. If there is any change we will pass it on to you via the club “E” group and club web site (sgvrcl.org). There will be someone at the terminal building the night of the meeting to direct you where to go.

The plans for the 2009 AMA show are coming along. Your show team is Ted Holdredge, Steve Lopez, Skip Adams, and Zak Caldwell. They are working on the booth layout, and making a list of workers for the show. If you would like to work in the club booth see one of these guys.

The Club Christmas party will be at the Covina Bowl on Friday night December 5th. The cost is $25.00 per ticket. Get your ticket from Larry Chapman, Ken Meade at the field or any board member. The dinner will be at 6:30 PM with Happy Hour before that. Take part in the gift game by bring a wrapped gift worth about $10.00, and put your name in the pick box. The game is very simple. If you want to play bring a wrapped gift put it on the gift table. Put your dinner ticket stub with your name on it in the pick box. I hope Carl Balmer will be the game host again this year. Carl will pick a stub from the box. When your name is called you will come to the gift table and select a gift, open it and show it to everyone. Carl will call the next name from the box. That person can either pick a gift from the gift table and open it, or take one that has already been opened. If you lose your gift you will go to the gift table and select and open a new one. This goes on till all the gifts have been open. It is great fun, with lots of gifts moving around the room.

The time has come to start thinking about the 2009 board of directors. Some of the present board members may chose to remain on the board for 2009. They will ask you to reinstall them on the 2009 board and you as members must by simple majority vote do that. Any present board member may be rejected by a vote of the membership. The board openings that are vacant will be filled by nomination from the club membership in the October or November general club meeting. These nominees and the returning board members will be voted in at the November general club meeting. That will make up your 2009 board of directors. The new
board will meet with the 2008 Board at December board meeting and select the 2009 President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer along with all the remaining club officers. Most of the returning board members will remain in their 2008 jobs.

By now you have seen the 2009 pilots ID information that is in this newsletter. I hope you find it okay.

Ken Meade posted on the forums that we have a new member, Frank Gonzales, who has a trainer and got in three flights on Saturday making his first take offs! Congratulations Frank. Ain’t this hobby a kick in the pants?

Norman Louie soloed last Thursday. I’ve added a couple of pictures below. Congratulations to you Norman. Soloing is a big step. I can’t wait until I get to do so myself. It wasn’t that long ago that I posted pictures of Norman’s Evolution Right 60’s maiden flight.

Norman Louie preps for his solo.	Norman Louie and Ken Meade head out.
The big moment. I bet his heart is pounding about now.

Here’s a some pictures of the freshly slurried and striped runway. The consensus seems to be very positive about the improvements that have been made. Thank you Jim Riccio for all the work that you did to make this happen.

One of the outstanding characteristics of the A123 type cell is its ability to be fast charged. Very fast! A good street charger can typically charge at 10 ampere (A), 4 times its capacity or “4C” for 2300 mAh cells. Do-It-Yourself (DIY) chargers can often hit 20A or 8C.

At market, there are several chargers that are designed to charge A123 up to 12A. They are rated by the maximum voltage, in volts (V), maximum current, in amperes (A), and maximum power, in watts (W). Pay special attention to the maximum power, it is often the limitation for the charging speed!

How to charge A123 packs at 20A? One of alternatives is a laboratory type DC power supply. It supplies adjustable both current (A) and maximum voltage (3.6V per cell of A123, remember!). A popular good one is capable to supply 50V at 20A. That’s 1000W of charging power! It charges up to 13 A123 cells, in series (13s1p), in less than 7 min!

Looking for more affordable power sources? How about an old computer power supply (ATX)? Or even a 12V deep cycle battery? Just use them to charge A123s through 18 gauge 2-wire regular lamp cord. The wire functions as resistor in series. The right length of cord limits the current to 20A while brings down the voltage to the needed 10.8V (Ohm’s law).

A quick voltage check while charging with a $10 Digital Voltage Meter (DVM) will confirm the exact length of the cord to be used. One deep cycle battery, 20 feet of 18 gauge lamp cord and one DVM are all you need to fast charge 3-cell A123 packs. Really cheap!

Don’t have deep cycle battery? No problem. A vehicle starter battery is good for 1 or 2 charges. Just run the engine for a while between charges so the crank starter battery won’t get damaged by a deep discharge. Don’t run the vehicle engine while charging, unless more than 3 packs of 3-cell A123s, connected in parallel (3s3p), are charging though long 10 gauge wires. This setup will charge at almost 60A of peak current!

Before fast charge A123, remember to charge balancing A123 packs for the first 15 cycles. It is called break in process. Once every 15 cycles, it is a good practice to monitor the imbalance between cells in the pack. This way, A123 can last several hundred of service cycles without noticeable loss of capacity.

If there is DC power available greater than 3.6V, it can be used to charge A123s. Search, learn and be creative, you will find your preferred way to fast charge A123s cheaply and safely.

Tai Liao
tai.liao@gmail.com

Wow! The runway renovation is done. Following are video and a few pictures of the activities that have taken place in the last two days to give us a new beautifully refinished runway, taxiways, and pits.

Here’s a brief video look at the work being done by the paving crew on Monday and Tuesday

Following are some pictures showing the process they followed to complete the job.

First, there were some really big cracks in the runways that needed special treatment. They trenched it out to a depth of 3″ and sprayed it with oil to help the asphalt to adhere.
	As you can see, there were a number of these big cracks to fill.
The cracks were filled with hot asphalt and then rolled by a roller.
	Before the slurry coat was layed down, all the smaller cracks were filled with a rubber filler.
When all the cracks were filled, the slurry waas applied and spread by this machine.
The first slurry coat. Jim had them lay down a second coat on at least some parts of the runway (maybe even all of it) to make it even smoother.
	Every big job benefits from supervision.
After the slurry coat was applied, Ken Meade walked the entire perimeter of the newly coated surfaces and applied an herbicide to keep the grass and weeds from encroaching.

Now that this big job is done, let’s all get down to the field and fly. You paid for it. Enjoy it!

Our regular monthly meeting for July was held on July 22 at the El Monte Airport Administration building.

As usual the door prize was a gallon of fuel. the price of fuel is going up, so getting a gallon for free is nothing to sneeze at.

Jim Riccio had announced via the SGVRCL Yahoo Group that there would be an auction during the meeting.

One of our member (Bill Beggs) had passed away, and Frank Walther was helping his family dispose of his R.C. stuff. We auctioned it off at the meeting, and half of the money went to the club, and the other half to Chino Air Museum. Kenny also had some stuff that had been left in the container and that was auctioned off as well. Most of that money goes to the club.

As always Skip Adams conducted a spirited and amusing auction. Click on the movie below to see a video of some of the action.

The SGVRCL is a very active club, and its members devote time and energy to the hobby, to the club, and to our flying field. I took some time out of my visit to the field on 7/24 took a few pictures and spent a little time with some of our members and others. Following are some pictures taken that day. For a Thursday morning, there was sure a lot going on.

	Here’s Ken Meade helping Norman Louie get his Evolution “Right 60″ ready for its maiden flight. A few things needed some tweaking, but in the end the flight was made.
Having experienced builders and fliers like Ken available at the field when you’re just getting started or trying a new plane is just one of the reasons to become a member and fly with us.

As you can see, Norm got his plane set up correctly, and he and Ken headed out to the runway. The wire running from Norman’s transmitter to Ken’s is a cable that allows Ken to help out if Norm gets into trouble on his plane’s maiden flight. We want all of our members to enjoy success in the hobby, and we can provide lots of help to make it happen.

Carl Balmer, one of our club’s flight instructors, also flew a maiden flight of a new model. Of course, he didn’t need a buddy box. Here he is getting prepping his new plane.

Look at the closeup of Carl’s model below. The flying surfaces are Mono- Koted, but the fuselage is painted. He matched the colors of the MonoKote incredibly well. Now, that’s masterful modeling.

Another big event for a modeler is their first solo flight. Vince Henderson has been learning to fly under the tutelage of Larry Chapman, another of our outstanding flight instructors. Here they are headed out to the runway for Vince’s first solo flight

Here’s Vince after his first solo flight. Those of us who watched can tell you he did a great job even though he says his mouth was dry and he couldn’t feel his tongue when he was done.

At the other end of the spectrum are the fliers who have been at it for just a little while. Their plances tend to be just a little bigger and more high performance. On the left is a row of big ones ready to go. From closest to farthest they belong to Larry Chapman, Jim Riccio, and Jay Millard. Paul Moren’s big plane is the picture on the right.

	There is also an active helicopter contingent in the club. This is Bonaro Kim. Bonaro is not a member of SGVRCL, but he is an Academy of Model Aeronautics member. That is a REQUIREMENT to fly at our field.NO AMA card, NO FLY!!!
	Here’s Bonaro Kim’s helicopter on the ground. It’s a beautiful piece of machinery.
	Marouf Fadi preps his SE5 for flight. He sure sets this tail dragger down nicely. I just wanted to show you that if you’re into scale modeling, there’s an active group of scale modeler’s in the club too.