PORTLAND PROPSNAPPERS Charter #871

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PRESIDENT VICE PRESIDENT SECRETARY TREASURER LARRY VENTURA CAL HAINES ED RICKER SPIKE ENCK

BOARD OF DIRECTORS NEWSLETTER EDITOR BOB DEXTER MIKE FASULO DAN DeSENA PETER FLANAGAN DAN DeSENA

WEBSITE WEBMASTER CHIEF FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR CLUB FIELD MARSHAL BILL LAIRSEY BILL LAIRSEY BILL REEVE

November, 2020

Hi folks, On Saturday, October 24, at the club field we held our monthly October club meeting and a fun fly with about

twenty- five club members and some guests. The weather was somewhat overcast with light winds. Many of the members had successful multiple flights and no major accidents. However, there were a few times a couple of pilots tested their fall flying skills with unusual aerobatic maneuvers close to terra firma. Special thanks goes to Bill Lairsey holding the Fun Fly and cooking his famous Solar hot dogs. Club Meeting Agenda: 1. Treasurer's Report: Spike informed the members of the current Income and anticipated year end Expenses. The club will again have a positive balance going into 2021. 2. Club Field Status: Spike has been in touch with DirigoSolarLLC about the written agreement that he drafted. Dirigo is reviewing the draft and will be getting back to him in a few weeks. It looks very favorable our club field can coexist with the solar farm. 3. Voles infestation: Bill Lairsey and Spike reported on the progress made on curtailing the Voles infestation. They plan on doing one more treatment and filling in some of the remaining holes some time next week.. 4. New Club Officers: Frank Maguire informed the group that there were no new write ins from the October 15 cut off date or from the emails he received from the membership. I am pleased to an-nounce the new Officers and Board members are: Dan Desena Presi-dent, Cal Haines Vice President, Spike Enck Treasurer, David Wend Secretary and Bill Lairsey, Peter Flanagan, Elliott Randall, Tony Blanchard Board members. As past president, I will serve on the Board as Ex Officio. 5. Cal Haines will be our new Zoom host. The incoming Officers and Board members will be exploring how we can incorporate membership club meetings via Zoom as we currently are doing with our Board meet-ings.

2020 EVENTS NumbThumbs Feb 1 Swap Meet Cancelled Spring Float Cancelled Fun fly + field meeting May 9 Open House June 20 War Birds July 25 Skystreakers Scale TBD Fall Float Cancelled Fun fly+ field meeting Oct 24 Banquet/Party Cancelled Please confirm all dates HERE

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President’s message cont. 6. Congratulations to our two new solo pilots Jake Jeppson and Jim Edwards who were given their certificates at this weekend club meeting. Thanks to Bill Lairsey and Dan Desena for being our club instructors this past year. 7. FAA Memorandum of Understanding: Bill Lairsey has submitted our club updated MOU to the Portland Jet Port manager as required by the FAA . When we receive the MOU back we will inform the membership of any changes. 8. If you have any videos or pictures of activities of our members, please send them to Dave Cyr at treetopflyer2@gmail.com. He would like to put them on the club web site for all our en-joyment. As the outgoing President, I want to thank all our members for their support this past year. Even with the Covid Virus affecting our annual club events and meetings, I was pleasantly surprised how well all our members adopted to the situation. Be Safe! Regards, Larry Ventura

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Propsnapper’s BOD meeting Minutes November 4, 2020

BOD Zoom Meeting Called to order: 18:05 A slight delay while some members found their Zoom un-mute and Start Video options. BOD Members present: Larry Ventura, Bill Lairsey, Spike Enck, Ed Ricker, Bob Dexter, Cal Haines, Dan DeSena and Peter Flanagan. Also in attendance as transitional board members: Tony Blanchard, Elliot Randall and David Wend Business: Treasure’s Report: Spike read the Eleven Months Ending report which was unanimously approved by current BOD members. Spike later mentioned that he would provide a yearend report and possibly have Ed audit our 2020 Finan-cials. Spike is also going to draft a 2021 Budget. Old Business: Dirigo Land Use Permit: Spike reported that Dirigo Solar has been provided with a copy of our current Land Use Agreement though they have not returned an updated version as of yet. Speculation was that they were still working on their own agreement with the paper company. Airport FAA Land Use Agreement: Bill Lairsey reported that he continues his communication with Airport Tower Manager Brian Whitmore in regards to our Land Use Agreement. Bill expressed confidence that Brain was in the pro-cess of drawing up a new agreement that will include updated diagrams and that there shouldn’t be any issues with our receiving the updated agreement. Bill also mentioned that this agreement allows for Sunrise to Sunset flying, yet would require action on our part should we wish to do any twilight flying. Changing of the Guard: Larry handed the meeting over to Dan who congratulated the good work of the departing President Larry Ventura and Secretary Ed Ricker, as well as Board Members Mike Fasulo and Bob Dexter, while wel-coming a new Secretary David Wend along with the two new board members Elliot Randall and Tony Blanchard. Future Events and Meetings Events: Dan said he’d be reaching out to those who have hosted previous Club Events to see if they were amiable to host those events in 2021. So far Tony spoke up for the Warbirds, as long as Bill cooks the hotdogs, Bill Lairsey the Spring Open House, Dan the Numb Thumbs. Other events were to be discussed at the next meeting. Meetings: Dan said that he’ll try holding General Club meetings via Zoom if they cannot be held outside at a sched-uled event. Meeting Adjourned 18:35

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This in from Spike Enck: “This is my AeroStar 40 that I built last winter and spring from a Midwest kit. It is powered by an Evolu-tion Trainer Power system .455 cu.in. The AeroStar was first available in the 1980’s and discontinued in 2012 when Midwest discontinued their kit business.” Spike, how were you able find a kit that was dis-continued in 2012? “The history of this kit goes back to 2010 when Mike Fasulo recommended I build and learn to fly on the AeroStar 40. My first plane took quite a beating learning to fly so, knowing that the end might be sooner than later, I build a second Aero-Star 40 which I flew 525 flights until 2018 when I really did it in. When I bought the second one, I was told Midwest was getting out of the kit busi-ness but I called the company and yes, they still had a few left, so I bought a third one and it sat in the basement until last winter. Now you have the rest of the story.” In the last BullSheet, I related the story of how I could have lost my home when two batteries ignited in my basement. In talking about the fiasco with various club members, it

was clear there are many ways to take precautions with LiPOs. I hope my close call has prompted you to think about safety when charging and storing your batteries. - Dan Elliott Randall sent these photos of his safety solution. It is called a Bat-Safe. This device has a through-port for the charging wires so batteries can be charged safely inside. It also serves as a “storage bunker” when batteries are not in use. Details as well as some ter-rifying fire videos may be viewed on their website https://www.bat-safe.com/. Looks like a good rig Elliott!

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From Frank Maguire: “Here is my latest "Notforsale" model, a fall project completed. It's about my fifth incarnation of this plane, still using some old parts like aileron and empennage. - Frank.”

It looks like Frank has taken recycling his “old parts” to a new level!

Check this out! Model Airplane News, 1993 has 5 pages dedicated to the Notforsale.” The article shows drawings and re-view of the model.

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Happenings! On October 24, Bill Lairsey hosted our Fall Fun Fly. Twice postponed by foul weather, the event proceeded under cloudy but fairly calm skies with warm temps. Turnout was excellent, Larry convened a general meeting, and Bill Lairsey’s solar Prop-dogs were delicious. Two new members were awarded their wings—Jim Ed-wards and Jake Jeppson. Congratulations guys! Bill Reeve and Frank Maguire submitted their entries for the Bent Prop Award—sorry guys, those were nice planes!

WELCOME JAKE JEPPSON!

WELCOME JIM EDWARDS!

Field meeting

“Air-ating” the field?

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Thank you Vets! November 11, Armistice Day, Veteran's Day In November 1919, one year after the end of WWI, President Wilson proclaimed November 11 as the first com-memoration of Armistice Day with the following words: "To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, …" In 1954, after World War II had required the greatest mobili-zation of soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen in the Nation’s history; after American forces had fought aggression in Ko-rea, the 83rd Congress, at the urging of the veterans service organizations, amended the Act of 1938 by striking out the word "Armistice" and inserting in its place the word "Veterans." With this legislation, on June 1, 1954, November 11th became a day to honor American veterans of all wars. Many aircraft have been instrumental in the US war efforts. The Douglas DC-3 also known as the military C-47/49 “Skytrain” is sure to be on the short list of important planes. Considered one of the world's truly outstanding airplanes, the DC-3 was the outgrowth of the DST sleeper built at the request of American Airlines in 1935. The plane revolution-ized the airline industry and in its military configuration, the C-47/C-49 “Skytrain,” it was called by General Dwight Eisen-hower “one of the four most important weapons of World War II.“ More than 13,000 civilian and military versions were built from 1935 to 1947.

The DC-3 is also one of the most famous airplane in commercial aviation as it was the first airplane to make mon-ey for its operators. It was big enough to carry enough passengers (21) to make flights profitable. Due to its ver-

satility, rugged reliability and economy, several hun-dred are still in service even today, nearly 70 years after it first flew. There is a common say-ing that: “The only re-placement for a DC-3 is another DC-3.“

Click this to see a 95+ year old vet Gerald Parker fly is beloved C-49 once again. This one will get you teary eyed! Read why Popular Mechanics called the C-3 a “Badass Plane.” Who wants to build one? Dare DC-3 balsa kit

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Voles? As you have probably heard, our field is under siege. It seems a battalion of voles has moved in from the surrounding high grass. It is thought they may have been able to advance to our field under cover of high grass as the surrounding hay is no longer mowed regularly. What is a vole you ask? Voles are small rodents that are relatives of lemmings and hamsters, but with a stouter body; a shorter, hairy tail; a slightly rounder head; smaller ears and eyes; and differently formed molars (high-crowned with angular cusps instead of low-crowned with rounded cusps).

They are sometimes known as meadow mice or field mice in North America. Voles are

small rodents that grow to 3–9 in (7.6–22.9 cm), depending on the species. Females can have five

to ten litters per year.

Our field has been significantly impacted by these critters, especially on the alternate runway. Here you can see one of the many holes which are big enough to take out some landing gear.

Bill L. and Spike have it under control……. thanks guys!

After repair

Before