EVENT REPORT

Scale Squadron Scale Fly-in

Prado Airpark, Chino, June7- 8, 2008

By Oscar Weingart

(Please note that these event reports were originally prepared for use in the Riverside RC Club monthly newsletter, Prop Talk, and are not intended to be comprehensive coverage of the event. Rather they are reports, for our club members, of my personal experiences and perceptions.)

  The Scale Squadron of Southern California sponsored a Scale Fly-In at the Pomona Valley Club’s Prado Field in Chino.  About 40 flyers attended. I flew my Ercoupe, assisted by Mel Santmeyers and Adam Gelbart. Over 60 lovely scale models were in attendance and the weather was breezy, but sunny and flyable in the mornings.  The field is outstanding, with a 800 ft. paved runway and a park-like setting.  The runway has huge, smooth earth overruns at both ends and along the far side.  There were many electric powered aircraft and many, many ARF's.

The Nieuport 17 and Fokker Eindecker fought it out over the

Western Front during the early days of World War I.

I had a few unnerving things happen just prior to the event. Three days before the Fly-in, after a change-out of the Ercoupe’s radio equipment from a Futaba 9CAP to a JR 8103, Dale Yaney and I spent a couple of hours re-trimming the Coupe at our field. At that time, I discovered that one of the two 12 volt gel cells in my 24 volt geared Miller/Sullivan "convincer" starter had gone bad, so I stopped in at Hobby People and picked up a new gel cell.

Then, for various reasons, none of my usual friends or expert pilot coaches that I had counted on, could help me at the fly-in, and I was a bit leery of flying the Coupe "cold turkey" in such a public and potentially very windy environment. After a few frantic calls, Ken Nutt suggested Mel Santmeyers, who was going to be at the event with his Long Easy, and Mel agreed to help me.

The new electric ARF fan jet Grumman Panther from Hobby People flew beautifully. Retract Gear, Flaps, etc.

We flew one uneventful flight with the Ercoupe before the gales began on Saturday. Mel unfortunately was a victim of the afternoon winds, when his Long Easy got caught low and slow on landing, and was upset by a gust. Despite severe damage, Mel says he will repair the unusual canard aircraft, which flies very nicely.

Mel's Long Easy ARF before the crash -- flies great!

 

This lovely Jungmeister won Second in Civilian Scale

The following day, Sunday, I was getting the Coupe ready, when Adam Gelbart pulled into the space next to me. Adam is the fellow whose gorgeous Spitfire was shot down by a vendor in the Parking lot at the Sepulveda Dam Scale Masters Qualifier last year. He is a professional model builder and his models are to die for. Adam was admiring the Ercoupe and said that he planned to build one, so I asked him if he would like to fly it. He jumped at the chance, and flew two nice flights. After this, Adam seemed even surer that he would build a coupe.

Coupe low pass

Adam Gelbart’s winning 1/3 Scale Sopwith Pup has a geared G62,

a Pilot whose head turns, and a very effective smoke system.

(Oscar's Ercoupe in the background)

At the end of the meet, it was announced that Adam’s 1/3 Scale Balsa USA Sopwith Pup had won First in Military Scale, as well as First in People’s Choice. My Ercoupe won First in Civilian Scale. Brent Peterson, a friend of Carl Lindou’s from the Corona Club, dropped in for a few moments during the event, and he must have bought some raffle tickets, as he won two beautiful ARFs: an electric Cub and the new electric Mosquito Bomber from Hobby People. I accepted the ARFs for Brent, and he picked them up at my house later in the day.

Larry Klingberg brought a new Autogiro to sell. Not flown yet

Navy version of the P-6 was the first to fly off an aircraft carrier.

This model won First in modified ARF

Another WWI plane, the SE-5, was very effective later in the war