First Weedwacker Aero Squadron P.O. Box 2044 Lakeside, CA 92040 Web: http://www.weedwackers.org Club Officers Email: info.weedwackers@gmail.com Newsletter Email: news.weedwackers@gmail.com

President: Ben Newkirk 619-698-4766 bennewkirk@cox.net V-P: Ron Smith 619-562-2594 Secretary: Keith Miller 619-449-7347 Treas: Scott Graupmann 858-945-6969 5364 Rim View San Diego, CA 92124 Fun Fly Chairman Keith Miller Race Chairman Ron Kriege Safety Officer Keith Miller

Field Marshals: Bill Hutchins Lee Main Glen Merritt Keith Miller Ben Newkirk Cory Peterson Ron Smith (lead)

CAF Liaison Howard Merritt

Editor: Don Westergren 619-660-1137 3942 Calavo Dr La Mesa CA 91941

Webmaster: Ron Kriege webmaster@weedwackers.org

Instructors: Ron Smith * 619-562-2594 AMA Introductory Pilot Program Instructors

Electrical Aircraft Safety Technicians: Scott Graupmann, Glen Merritt and Joe Stutzman HANGAR NEWS is printed for the members of the FIRST WEED WACKER AEROSQUADRON and its contents do not necessarily reflect the policies of the club. Editorial deadline is the 15th of each month. Articles, news items and classified ads should be sent to Don Westergren, 3942 Calavo Dr., La Mesa, CA 91941. Articles originally published in this newsletter may be reprinted and published by modelers and club newsletters. We ask that credit to the author and this newsletter be acknowledged in the reprint. We will do the same. CLUB FIELD: Cactus Park (East), Ashwood St. (1/4 mile N-E of El Capitan High School) in Lakeside, CA. Please be sure the last flyer to leave locks the pin box and the gate..

NEWSLETTER FOR THE FIRST WEED WACKER AEROSQUADRON

AMA CHARTER # 1651 August 2010

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HANGAR NEWS

R/C Schedule 2010

Sept 18 Sat Pylon Race—Cactus Park Oct 1-3 Miramar Airshow, Miramar MCAS

Club News Thanks to Bob Muhleman, the fence top east of our runway has a colorful top to highlight where it is. Bob’s model was on approach when the fence jumped up and grabbed it. Bob didn’t see it until his model was demolished, so he bought the colorful tubing and installed it at the field. The color helps, but is not perfect. After the installation, Gary Rold flew into the fence. Gary saw it, but thought he was this side of it.

Dymond

Mdels has moved to Florida

Helmut has moved his business to Homestead FL. He will be able to sell mail order without CA taxes. Helmut has been a good friend to the club for many years. See his Ad in this issue.

NEXT MEETING: Tues. Aug. 3, 7:00 Renette Park

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SAN DIEGO RIVER

LAKESIDE

Beginning Balance: 6,601.61$  Income: 60.00$        Expenses: 156.04$      Ending Balance: 6,505.57$  

Beginning Balance: 6,966.41$  Income: 775.00$      Expenses: 1,139.80$  Ending Balance: 6,601.61$  

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Minutes of the July Meeting Keith Miller

The Meeting was called to order with the Pledge of Allegiance at 7:01. Board members present were the President, Vice President, Treasurer and Secretary. There were a total of 19 members present.

There were no new members at this month’s meeting. M/S/P to accept the meeting minutes as published in the last newsletter. Thank you, Lee Main, for filling in for Keith. Corrections to the report—Gregg Skoglund was also a huge help with Wings over Gillespie! Treasury Report: Scott Graupmann

M/S/P to approve the Treasurer’s Report without discussion. Two months were reported at this meeting—

May

June

Safe and Sound When an electric powered model is connected to its battery, it must be treated as if it were a gas powered model with the engine running. When on a work bench in the pits, it is required to be positively restrained (i.e., by the standard bench pegs, or by a rope or line). When not restrained on the bench, it must be held and controlled by the pilot or a helper until it is at the flight station awaiting takeoff. At no time can any model be taxied in the pit area. On that same note, e-powered models that are “plugged in” should be approached and handled such that no body part ever crosses through the prop arc. The runway centerline is the absolute flight boundary for all models, regardless of size and weight. We still have pilots flying low (fast and

slow) over the runway, teasing the centerline. Our normal flight pattern is north of the runway, so please do your maneuvers there. We have reports of some pilots still insisting that they can fly electric powered models without being certified for electric flight. As we reminded the club in May:

“Any pilot wishing to fly electric powered airplanes shall be a Weedwacker club member in good standing and will have attended a "Proper Electric Airplane Protocol" seminar to become a certified and safe electric airplane pilot. Guests may fly electric powered models under the direct supervision of a certified electric pilot.”

A Weedwacker club member, who has NOT completed the seminar, may NOT fly electric powered models at the field, even under the supervision of a CEAP club member. Our agreement with the county requires that members be certified, and that certified members may supervise guests. The Electrical Aircraft Safety Technicians designated to conduct the seminars are listed on the front of the newsletter, and if you can’t make it to one of the monthly meetings, we’ll be glad to make other arrangements.

Old Business: Disposal of LiPo batteries: At the June meeting, it was pointed out that we don’t have a clearly defined set of procedures for disposal of LiPo’s that are obviously swollen or damaged. Please see the article in this issue. Badges—Remember that members flying at the field are required to wear their club badge.

Wings over Gillespie Thanks again to the folks who dedicated their time to the event. There was some discussion on the unfortunate positioning of the Weedwackers’ booth this year, which was out of the beaten path. There were other logistical lessons learned with respect to any type of flight demonstration schedule, and the distance the

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models had to be moved for safe overnight storage. For next year’s event, Bob Muhleman is appointed as the WOG 2011 Task Force Leader. Bob will gather lessons learned from this year, and apply them early in the planning stages for next year. Members wishing to assist Bob with next WOG 2011 should contact him at Serflizard@yahoo.com, or 619-322-6968.

Wings Across America The Club President extended a special thanks to Chris Madsen for bringing WAA to San Diego and the Weedwackers field. Email Distribution Had more people provided email addresses for club notifications, we may have had a better turn-out at the Wings Across America flight last month. Additionally, postage will soon go up an additional 2¢. The club continues to spend $70 per month to mail hard copies of the Hangar News. Two proposals were made for consideration to reduce cost to the club: 1. The club may simply stop mailing the

newsletter altogether, which most clubs have adopted. For those few special individuals not so fortunate to have a computer, hard copies would be provided.

2. Annual dues may include a $12 surcharge for those who don’t receive an e-copy of the Hangar News.

No motions were made on this topic. New Business: Don Gulihur and the Spirit of St. Louis Ron Smith reports that Don Gulihur is working on a serious scale project of the Spirit of St. Louis. He’s looking for some serious senior scale modelers to assist in the project, willing to spend some time to complete the project. Interested scale builders should contact Ron Smith (Vice Pres—number on the cover page). San Diego Hospice Greg Carter (619-229-0739) is a member of Sand Diego Hospice and offered to help anyone in the

club who may have the need to discuss hospice care.

100th Anniversary of Naval Aviation May 8, 2011 is the 100th anniversary of Naval Aviation. Ben Newkirk, our President, polled the members to see if the club wishes to stage an event at our field to honor the anniversary. Don Madison recommends we consider linking this to a fundraiser, which is one of our functions as a Gold Leader Club. Funds could be raised to benefit the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society, as Ted O’Fallin has done in the past. Ben also offered that the club could host a fund-raiser for the Crime Victims Fund (provides short-term, emergency financial assistance to low- and fixed-income crime victims). The anniversary falls in the approximate time frame of our annual Scale Fly-in. No motions were made on this topic. Drawing for free membership: Tom Heim - Sorry – must be present to win. Calendar Events 2010: Model Sharing: Keith Miller shared his Slow-Survivable combat Battle Axe, identical to the one his dad presented last month. The Miller clan (Fred, Keith and Jeramy) each have one, and duked it out this month in a screaming little swarm of streamers. Greg Carter showed off a Super Decathlon ARF from Tower Hobbies which he dressed up with some pin-striping. He uses a Futaba 2.4 GHz system and an OS .52 four-stroke. By Phoenix Models, Greg is very impressed by the quality of the ARF, which is a high complement coming from a real builder. Scott Graupmann presented his SR71 EDF RTF jet. The original equipment provided proved too little power, and when you’re fighting just to see a stealth profile against the hills, he didn’t like fighting with lack of power either. He’s upgraded the power systems, and it flies with much better authority now. He added 50W of power to the propulsion system, and choked down the ducted fan exhaust to increase the nozzle velocity, giving better thrust. With it’s stealth profile he says he

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“really needs to pay attention and have good eyesight”. Don Westergren showed us his Stork STOL park flyer ARF, which weighs only 1.5 lbs. The first few flights were terrible, he reports. He discovered that the wings had wash-in, which resulted in some slow-speed stalls in the opposite direction of his turns. It has operable flaps and slats, which differs from the full-scale version on which the slats are fixed. He’s since fixed the wash-in, and hopes the next flights will be better. Lee Main brought in the framework beginnings of his Piper Cub fuselage. He showed all the ARF guys what kit construction really looks like. The SIG kit spans 105”, and will be powered by a Magnum 120 2-stroke.

Demonstrations: Bob Muhleman brought in a laptop and ran a slide show of some club pylon races he recently watched (in Ohio, was it?). For the Good of the Order: None this month. Story Time: None this month Electric Seminar: None this month

Raffle:

Ted says we came out a few $$ ahead this month just a few. The widow of Paul Babcock kindly donated several items to the raffle, including a Bind and Fly Sparc Ptero Scout indoor flyer and some iron-on covering tools. Thanks Mrs. Babcock—they’ll be put to good use!

Rick Matthews Sparc Ptero Scout

Chuck Cassity Dead Center marking tool Don Madison 12v starter battery Chuck Cassity Top Flite prop balancer Ron Smith 21st Century covering iron Greg Skoglund Gal of Cool Power fuel Ted O’Fallin 12v starter battery Ron Smith Global covering heat gun Joel Blodgett 30 min epoxy Ron Smith CA accelerator, 2 oz Leroy Brooks 30 min epoxy Hervey Langevin Café 67 meal ticket x 2 Don Westergren Café 67 meal ticket Don Madison Vintage Midwest Cardinal

ARF The meeting adjourned at 8:34 _________________________________________From the Safety Officer

Disposal of LiPo Batteries Scott Graupmann and Keith Miller

The following is a recommended method for disposing of LiPo batteries. DO NOT intentionally puncture a charged cell, ever. If a cell has swollen or ballooned during charging or normal use, place it in a fire safe place (sand, metal box, LiPo Sac), especially if you were charging it when it ballooned. We have four buckets of sand in the pits specifically for this purpose. Observe the battery for at least twenty minutes after a crash. During transportation, take extra handling precautions since a crashed battery m a y b e c o m p r o m i s e d a n d m a y fail catastrophically even after the crash. Discharge the cell/pack slowly. This can be done by wiring an automotive (12v) or flashlight bulb of appropriate voltage (higher voltage is ok, lower voltage is not) up to your batteries connector type and attaching the bulb to the battery. For example, a 3-cell 11.1v LiPo pack can be discharged through a normal 12v automotive bulb, whereas a 3v flashlight bulb would immediately pop. However, a 3v flashlight bulb could be used for a single 3.7v LiPo cell. Wait until the light is completely off, and better yet for at least 24 hours. You can also discharge the LiPo pack using your LiPo discharger set at its lowest cutoff voltage, and setting the

the battery slowly and watch it carefully – it may be just fine. If swelling occurs after a crash, or if the foil covering is split, torn or punctured in any way, do NOT attempt to discharge the

batteries, as the physical damage may have caused internal shorts which may lead to thermal run-away during discharge. Instead, use the salt water method described above. You may see the pack swell considerably while submerged, as the salt water will in fact discharge the punctured cells while in a submerged cooling medium. The disadvantage here is that any cells that were NOT punctured or shorted in the crash and retained their foil seal may not discharge if the salt water cannot penetrate into the laminations. Remember, the goal is to avoid intentionally puncturing cells with a charge. Check each cell voltage. If any cells indicate > 1v, these cells may never have been damaged, and had no punctures through which the salt bath could penetrate. Discharge these cells slowly with the light bulb or discharger method used above, in a fire safe place. Re-verify the cell(s) are less than 1v, then slit that cell and soak in salt water for a few more hours, then discard the battery.

Other batteries used in our hobby that contain hazardous chemicals such as mercury, cadmium and lead don't require such special treatment, but they cannot be thrown in regular trash. They must be recycled. The Rechargeable Battery Recycling Act (AB 1125), which went into effect in CA on July 1, 2006, requires retailers that sell rechargeable batteries to take back and recycle batteries of the same type or make. Modeled after the same take-back concept of the cell phone bill, this legislation creates convenience and incentive for consumers.

See http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/05-06/bill/asm/ab_1101-1150/ab_1125_bill_20051006_chaptered.html Radio Shack is reportedly good at taking back batteries of all types.

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current to C/10 (1/10th of the “C”apacity of the battery). Check the pack to ensure its voltage is less than 1v per cell (measure the pack and divide the voltage by the number of cells, or measure each cell individually using the balance connector). Once the cells have been confirmed as discharged (< 1v), carefully make a small slit in the envelope of each cell, and soak the battery in a covered plastic container of salt water (1/2 cup per gallon) for a few hours. This step is not meant to discharge the battery. Rather, this step introduces the ionic liquid into punctures in the foil seals around and between the cells, and shorts the anode and cathode laminations through the porous separator membrane, thus neutralizing the battery. If left in the salt bath for too long, galvanic corrosion of the positive foil leads may eat them away, preventing any means of safely measuring or further discharging the battery.

The battery can now be discarded in regular trash. Lithium-ion polymer (LiPo) batteries contain lithium, cobalt and manganese, none of which are considered heavy or toxic metals, and none of which are listed as hazardous banned from trash in California or in the Code of Federal Regulations, Title 40.

After a CRASH, lithium cells may be damaged such that they a r e sho r t ed inside. The cells may look just fine. After ANY crash, carefully r e mo v e t h e battery pack from the aircraft, put it in a fire safe place and w a t c h i t carefully for at least 20 minutes. If NO swelling occurs, charge

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Planes I’ve Never Heard Of These are data and 3-views from April 1935 issue of Aero Digest. There are 90 aircraft described in this issue, most are good candidates for scale RC models.

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