just wondeing if we are going to get a pit report this week alvin

Don't know for sure, have not received the raw data from Frits.

Till we get a new one, here is a Pits Report from a few years ago.

Sunday, October 22, 2000

I was not able to make it to the field on Saturday at all, so I was ready to go there earlier than usual today! When I arrived, there were several people already there...

Buddy Steiner had his little all-foam "Mirage" pusher 'jet' with him and he was ready to fly it. It had come with an electric motor, and Buddy had flown it several times before, but he thought it could use some more power. So he had replaced the motor with a more-powerful .049 engine! No throttle control — this one would run wide open as long as fuel was being provided! And it took off from the runway just great, rotating after only about 20 ft. Buddy flew it for a good while until he ran out of fuel, and he landed it okay...

Tom Barrett flew his SIG "Somethin' Extra", doing his "somethin' wild" routine at close range... And Roger Hagler did his own wild thing with his Morris Hobbies "Spinsation", at one point almost making the crazy thing spin upward ... A previous Spinsation model Roger had before this one could actually do just that!...

Harold Dillon had brought three planes; an "Astro Hog" and two "Ultimate" bipes. Frits Jetten and Harold flew the bipe that used to belong to Fred Hemphill, and during the second flight Harold thought the bipe flew "funny". Frits took it over and agreed, so he brought it down. Well, one of the cabanes that connect the upper and lower wings together had separated from the upper wing! Good thing Frits didn't do one of those wild snapping maneuvers after it broke... (Come to think of it, Frits had just done one of those on the previous flight... Hmmmm...)

Jeff Foster had brought out his colorful SIG "Four Star 40". No helicopter this time. Jeff also talked about joining the pylon racing group soon. He's working on a racer now. Great! We need more!

Andy Anderson got ready to take up his ducted fan 'jet', the F-15 "Regal Eagle", but the plane wandered off during the taxi run, rolled off of the runway, and ended up in the ditch next to the south end of the runway near the taxi lane. It looked bad from where I was standing, but Andy got the still-running jet out of the ditch, bent the nose gear a bit, and made another run! This time the jet rotated and climbed, but I didn't think the power was peaked out. However, the engine picking up some RPM in the air. Then suddenly the engine quit, and Andy was left with a short approach to the runway. He banked steeply to the left to set up for a runway landing, but the descent rate was too great. He didn't quite make the north end of the runway, and the jet went in hard in the dirt... Looked bad, but by dark, Andy had most of it pieced together again! He said that the little excursion into the ditch had probably jammed the clunks forward in the two fuel tanks, causing the engine to quit. It'll fly again...

Another member who doesn't fly often but looks as if he's ready to start racing is Bill Culberson, who showed up with a "Doddger" Quickie 500 racer. It's really FAST, and the bright pink fluorescent color shows up great against the blue sky. Rob Baker told me it's even faster than Tom Barrett's racer... Don't tell Tom — those are fighting words!...

Charles Dortch flew his powerful "Giant Hots" a couple of times, and Carl Broughton flew his "Astro Hog"... Charles pulled the Hots straight up during takeoff, showing off the power that big Webra "Bully" engine has...

Justin Peacock flew his trusty ol' trainer in a wild sort of way, repeatedly doing touch-'n-gos until dark. Still no progress on the "Wonder" and "Shuttle", I guess...

Beginner Mike Payne has been coming along fine, and actually got a chance at taking off his trainer today, with Frits standing by on the buddy box. But he fish-tailed badly. The main gear was just bent up too much for a smooth taxi run. So Frits went ahead and got the plane up. Mike was flying nicely when it happened! Whack! Mike's trainer mid-aired with Jeff's Four Star. The trainer lost one half of the wing, and as Frits desperately tried to fly it down, it spiraled into the ground hard... Jeff's plane didn't look too damaged at first. One half of the horizontal stabilizer was missing, and it looked as if Jeff had control over it. But then the plane went into a death spiral and hit the ground... Mike was stunned. "Oh well, these things happen", Frits told him. He should know — he's had seven of them!...

Roger Geil flew his "Epic" sport plane, and almost got in trouble went he 'lost it' and he ended up flying the plane behind him. He brought it back around okay... Then later Roger flew his Century "Hawk" chopper, repainted in a bright-red fluorescent color. Roger wanted it to be visible, and is it ever! All was well for a while until the chopper suddenly moved erratically and crashed, according to Roger and a couple of eyewitnesses. He thought he'd been "hit" electronically. Oh well!... Roger said he had not crashed in 400 flights, so he didn't think that was too bad!...

Evon Smith had two planes with him. He flew his Extra-300, but he didn't put the scimitar flying wing into the air. It stayed in his vehicle. Frits, who used to own that wing, a fine-flying fast model, still misses it...

Frits had Andy Anderson's Lite Machines LMH-100 chopper with him, but only to do some maintenance. He had flown the little chopper on Wednesday, but the brass drive gear that drives the main rotor gear had worn to the point that power was lost. The chopper would not lift off of the ground after a couple of flights. &*¢• §¶! Another part had to be ordered... During the past three months of hovering & crashing and crashing some more, Frits has racked up close to $45 of repair bills on this almost-indestructable chopper... Some of the "big boy" chopper guys — that's what they call themselves — probably cringe as they think about how much they have spent keeping their "real" choppers flying...

Charles Gillespie took advice from Ray Brown and Frits and brought his 60-size trainer out. He got help from ACMA's newest instructor Buddy Steiner on a couple of flights...

After last week's almost disastrous flight, Rob Baker had repaired the broken aileron of his large Hawker "Tempest 2" scale model. He took it up, and it looked great during the climb as the gear slowly retracted. He had a great flight until the engine started making a strange sound, surging repeatedly... Rob slowly glided it in, gear still up. Someone said: "He'd better get that gear down!" "Don't worry", I said, "Rob always waits till the last moment". But as the big plane got close to touching down it became clear that the gear wasn't coming out, and it belly-landed in the dirt just beyond the asphalt runway. Too bad! There was some damage to the bottom, and the engine had come completely loose... But that shouldn't be too hard to fix...

Fred Hemphill flew his scratch-built, high-wing "AUK" close to the vest as usual, doing touch-'n-gos, figure-eights and loops and rolls. Fred really only needs a flying field that's about 30 ft. by 50 ft.!...

New ACMA member Kevin Pickett's family and friends came out to watch Kevin fly his "Super Stick". He had a couple of nice flights... And an "old" member we haven't seen for some time was back. Manny Ruiz showed up with a couple of .60-size trainers, both ready for their first flights. Frits took them both up (no, not at the same time...) and let Manny fly them after trimming them out... Manny also had a helicopter with him (I forget the name, it's not a common model...) and he wanted Jeff test it out, but Jeff declined... Manny also has a four-engine B-17 bomber model...

Surprising all of us, Alvin Reed did some impromptu cooking, grilling hamburgers and hot dogs. It didn't take long for them to disappear... And Alvin flew nothing that I can remember. He spent most of the afternoon spreading topsoil in low spots and around the taxi lanes, something he started a week earlier. Sprinklers were running, and he hand-watered around the pilot stations. The rye grass carpet was getting thicker and greener, as Alvin had promised... He even finished mowing the foot-high grass at the south end of the runway where the U-control circle used to be (...go ahead and say it: "Frits' favorite emergency landing spot"...) The field is beginning to look great! We still need some yellow lines and Xes painted on the asphalt. And Alvin would like to have some sod brought in for the area around the pilot stations...

With a recent death and funeral in the family, and my granddaughter's field trip today, the Pits Report will either be delayed or skipped.

sorry to hear about the death frits the field report is not a big thing just like reading them and was curious if we were getting one no problem family always comes first

RAW data? Hmmm... <_<

Let me clarify this misleading statement... The field report that Alvin gets from me is ALWAYS in its FINAL, FINISHED form... :D

The placement of the little camera icons that link the story to the many photos that I upload to him is Alvin's job...

And he does that VERY WELL... :yes:

Well, to whoever, does whatever, whenever. Just want you to know it is Greatly appreciated. I know it takes a LOTTTT of time, but, the reports, and forum are always fantastic. We can't always seee, or be at the flying field, so the reports kinda keep us "involved" Thanks Again

I secound that! :thumbup:

ALVIN-Old u-control? :o

What Ben said!! :thumbup: :dance: :banana:

Well, thanks for the kind words, guys! The Pits Report is a team effort.

WHAT, you say?! Alvin and Frits on the same team? I know. That's hard to believe, but it's true...

I will start downloading those 250 pictures from my camera to my computer as soon as I get home. (Oh, in case you didn't know — Alvin has a 20-picture limit PER WEEKEND... :P )

And then I'll start putting the words to it... Lots of things happened this weekend, some of which I 'd like to skip and forget...

But I'll "git 'r dun!"... :lol: Probably by Monday night... :thumbup: