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I hope you made the June meeting; the 12 inch to the foot AT-6 was great. Stuart McAfee landed and taxied up to the Administration Building at the airport at 6:15 PM. We got a real close up look at that bird. Frank Walther who had won the ride in the AT-6 was there in his orange shirt ready to fly. Stu explained to Frank how to get out if they had any trouble, put him in the parachute and the seat belts. The big radial engine came to life and they were off to the end of the runway. That engine has its own sound and it doesn’t sound like any flat 6. They were gone for a 45 min. flight. |
| Frank said it was great with some easy aerobatics, and he got to take the stick and fly it. When they got back to the airport Frank was one big smile. Stu was not able to stay for the club meeting as a guest speaker. He wanted to get back on the ground at Van Nuys before it got dark. I think we can get Stu to come to a club meeting and tell us more about the AT-6. Thank you to Lee Von Der Hey for making this flight possible. |  |
We have signed the contract with the Paving Co. and the runway resurfacing will take place on July 28th and 29th. The field will be closed for those 2 days to get the work completed. We can be back flying on Wednesday, July 30th. I know it is about time, I have been messing with this project too long. It is my fault; I did my best to have this project done in the correct way. I’m sure it will work out fine, and we will have a good runway for the next couple of years. We know that it will have to be done again in the future. Maybe by the next time we need to resurface it we can move it and get away from the rifle range. I guess we should start now finding a source or sources for money to keep our runway up, it doesn’t look like we can get much help from the park.
Did you get a chance to read the July Model Aviation magazine? Congrats, to our racing C.D. Lee Von Der Hey who was the big winner at the February Phoenix Q-40 classic. He was first place out of 74 pilots from 16 states and 7 countries. They flew 8 rounds in the two days, which is a lot of heats, like one every 5 min. all day long.
In the same magazine was a nice article by Jim Feldmann on flying from the water. If you have never tried this please join us at Legg Lake the second Monday of each month. Thank to Paul Moren’s effort we are able to fly on that Monday morning. Kenny has been watching the frequency control at the field, and there has not been an incident of interference. I know some people have to work on a Monday morning. If you can get a morning off come join us at the lake. The club has a plane on floats and you are welcome to come and fly it. There are a number of pilots at the lake that would be glad to help you get your feet wet. (No pun intended)
Thanks to Earl Haymond for donating two exhaust fans, and Larry Chapman, and Paul Carothers for installing them. The two wind turbines that were removed will be put in the second container. That should drop the temperature in the containers a number of degrees.
The race that is planned for Oct. 4th and 5th has been changed to the NMPRA Q-40 Championship race. It should attract pilots from all over the US and several countries. Lee thinks we could have as many as 70 pilots. This will be the biggest race that has been put on at Whittier Narrows in a long time. Please plan to set time aside to come out and help, we will need you. To run that contest correctly it takes 30 people working each day to make it run smooth. Lee said that he is going to plan a one day Q-500 race to replace the one lost by the Q-40 race. Keep the rubber side down on landing!
