Warringah Radio Control
Society Incorporated 
(Incorporated under the Association Incorporation Act 1984)

Newsletter - March 2005

George Atkinson giving preliminary training instructions to members of the Belrose Rural Fire Brigade
MEETINGSMEETINGSMEETINGSMEETINGSMEETINGSMEETINGSMEETINGSMEETINGS
The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, 8th March 2005 at Tennis Cove, Eastern Valley Way, starting at 7.30 pm.  and the one after that is on Tuesday, 12th April 2005

 
FROM THE SECRETARY'S DESK

1. VISITORS:
The Executive committee’s first item of business in 2005 was one which members need to be well advised to take note, and be sure that they adhere to the Club’s Policy on visitors.  A breach could be the end of your membership, following an investigation and decision by the Committee on any reported breach of attendance rules, behaviour, flying safety etc
The decision of the Committee was to advise members:
[a] that solo Helicopter or fixed wing flying is not permitted unless the person is a bronze wings holder;
[b] that NON MEMBERS are only permitted to attend the field if sponsored by a member.  That is  the member is responsible for the flying behaviour and non flying behaviour of that non member,    
[c] In line with Policy that non members are only permitted a total of three visits.
[d] that all flying visitors must be signed in to the new attendance book by the member who shall ensure adherence to the requirements of the attendance book.
The Committees’ attention was drawn to a culture of ring around/web grapevine for non authorised competition and fly-in meets.  All competitions and meets MUST be sanctioned by the Committee.
Encouraging non members to turn up as the gate will be  open  will be the same as personally inviting a non member.  This may well be cancellation of offending member[s] membership.
As Secretary I don’t intend to take the fall for those few smart alecks who do nothing to help run this Club but break any rule they don’t like.  My motion to the committee will be: "Sack em for 6 months or for ever depending on the case!!"   In other words a yellow card then a red card which means go elsewhere.  Oh and as secretary I shall be required write to MAAA/MAS to inform them of the disciplinary action.

2. AFFILIATE MEMBERS:
Currently we have 17 members who are said to have their MAAA registration/insurance with other Clubs.
To date 10 have not provided the Secretary with a photo copy of their Insurance as required.  
The next Committee meeting will decide on suspension of membership to this Club for any person who has not provided a copy of their insurance.  
In addition the Secretary will be proposing a motion that those persons who have not supplied proof not be permitted to rejoin this Club for 2005/2006 at the AGM and will only be eligible when the hard copy proof of Insurance has been provided.  
This will not affect those who have complied this year.
HELICOPTER GOLD WINGS

CONGRATULATIONS
to BOB FLINT and to JONATHAN WONGSO on achieving their MAAA Helicopter Gold Wings which were approved in December 2004
     CFI Corner
I am sure many of us have been stuck behind a slow driver in the right hand lane on a dual lane freeway. 
This can be very frustrating. 
However, how many of us have been guilty of the same or similar selective compliance with the road rules. 
Selective compliance, simply stated, means complying with those rules that suit us and not those that don’t. 
The various controlling bodies have better things to do than sit around dreaming up more ways to inconvenience us, although at times you have to wonder.
With this in mind I remind all members and pilots that the various rules and guidelines in existence at WRCS are only introduced when circumstances require it, but that they apply to everybody without exception.
Doing the right thing is not something that should only be done when the club moaner is nearby. 
If everyone did the right thing, all the time, there would be nothing for any of us to moan about and wouldn’t that be great!
However ... remember the bit about safety as an attitude …
We are all responsible for safety and our own attitude towards safety.
The club instructors are additionally responsible for the safety of students in their direct or indirect control.

General Safety Tips
* If your Rx has had any sort of a knock, getting it tested and fixed if necessary could be the cheapest option for you AND the rest of us.
* Great flying models don’t happen by accident.
* High performance models need suitably high quality components to perform reliably.

Congratulations to
Shane Austen – Helicopter Bronze Wings (already holds Fixed Wing Gold Wings)
Miles Foster – Fixed Wing Bronze Wings
Mark Ter Laak - Fixed Wing Bronze Wings

Reminder:
Current membership badge must be visibly worn at all times when flying to show current insurance coverage. If your badge is not visible, you may be asked to show it or your current MAAA card.
MEMBERS PLEASE NOTE 
Effective Immediately 
To comply with our insurance, all visiting flyers MUST complete and sign the visiting flyers register on each and every occasion. Members are reminded that visiting flyers may only visit 3 times. 
Proof of current MAAA insurance is required before flying. 
All members and visitors must hold Bronze Wings (or higher) qualifications for the appropriate model type, before flying in the main flying area without a supervising instructor.
RURAL FIRE BRIGADE ENJOYS "FLY-IN"
When was the last time you saw 29 transmitters in the pound and 6 others being used! Well, if you’d been at the field on Sat 29th January enjoying the Sausage Sizzle for the Belrose Bush fire Brigade – you’d have seen them!
The club hosted the event to thank the guys for all the work they put in protecting our special piece of the world and also to give those who wanted to the chance to waggle some sticks and maybe get tempted to join us in our addiction. There was no shortage of volunteers both from them to fly and from club members to help them have a go. Our CFI George Atkinson started things off by demonstrating how the Tx operated the control surfaces ably assisted here by Tom Sparkes. Having got through that it was time for them to move on to buddy boxes or just a shared Tx and find out what it’s really like. 
There was quite a crowd in the pilot’s area, here on the right you can see George and David Menzies with their “pupils” while Tom Sparkes explains what will happen when he gets his electric glider to altitude (some people reckon Tom was having a crafty practise for the comp on the 20th!). He took it up to a great height – about 4 mistakes high rather than the usual 2 since he didn’t have a buddy box and then complained the thermals wouldn’t let him down again!
The guys enjoyed their “stick time” though more than one said that it was harder than it looks! There’s a few club members who would echo that. Lunchtime saw Tom Wolf, Peter Sharpe and Des Rim supplying snags and rolls to all and sundry and then Col Simpson made a presentation of a cheque for $1000 to Deputy Capt Fred Hijazi who expressed the thanks of his associate, Deputy Capt Peter Isles and of all their guys.
And all those transmitters? Well, there were a lot of club members flying too including Jim Masterton and this very smart Bucker Jungmann (or is it a Jungmeister – can never remember the difference) and nearly a shed full of planes here waiting to fly.
 
All in all, we had a great day and the weather was kind to us, we made some new friends we hope to see again soon – who can ask for more!
NEXT EVENT
COMBAT DAY
Sunday,
20 March 2005
Classes: Sport, Open, Stock.

THIS IS A FUN EVENT WITH SAFETY PARAMOUNT
Competition Director - Warren Lewis
THE TIM COWAN PERPETUAL TROPHY
At the January Committee Meeting, it was resolved to dedicate and name the Perpetual Scale Trophy in the honour and memory of the late Tim Cowan who originally commissioned the production of the Trophy. We advised his son Martin, who wrote to us:
"Thank you so much, I would like to thank all fellow WRCS members past and present personally for this honourable recognition. I especially would like to thank the WRCS committee for this dedication to my dad, Tim Cowan who passed away recently this past June 6th 2004. 
Dad would be extremely pleased and proud to know that his passion for scale R/C modelling and his gesture of creating/donating the WRCS Perpetual Trophy will live on for many years to come and that future generations of WRCS scale fans! Also that the newly dedicated and re-named WRCS Tim Cowan Perpetual Trophy has and will continue in some small way along with of course with the dedication of many WRCS club members over the years has helped to foster the continuing growth and love of scale modelling within the WRCS club.

Dad’s passion was for scale modelling (it inspired my life long love of the hobby also) and covered a vast selection of aviation eras and aircraft. 
The older scale biplanes primarily were Dad's passion and one his favourite models that he built was a Sterling PT-17 Stearman. Iam sure many of the older WRCS members will recall this particular model which was originally test flown by John Piggot for us in the late 70’s.
It was also the first scale model that I ever flew myself! at WRCS under the guidance of the great ‘Piggo’. Lots of fond memories with this model, which by the way is still in existence albeit in long time storage and really in need of recovering and some refinishing and restoration work. I do plan on refurbishing this model when time permits and do hope one day soon to see her fly again at one of our future WRCS scale days. 

I still have Dads awesome Fiesler Storch which was another favourite of his and mine! and also the two time winner of the WRCS Perpetual Trophy in 97-98. 

I was still only in my mid teens at the time (early 80’s) (by the way I turned 41 y.o. in Feb 05 and it all seems like only yesterday )
Again I very much appreciate all of our many and dear friends at WRCS for honouring Dad this very special way.		 With much assistance from Dad's building skills and Charlie Peake's ducted fan flight experience we also had a lot of fun building and flying our Byron F-16 (photo) which was one of the very first D/Fs flying at WRCS.
All the very best- 
Martin Cowan"
THE FIESLER STORCH

Further to the letter earlier in this issue, Martin Cowan has also written from Canada, where he is a member of Prince Edward County Aeromodellers. One of the members there has home built a simply gorgeous 3/4 scale Rotax powered Fiesler
 

Martin reports that everyone has to pause on the flight line for it to take off etc.

The same modeller has also built a 1/6 R/C scale model of the Storch as shown in the photo above
On the right, Martin is seen with his son Zac posing in front of the Storch. As we have reported, Martin's late father, Tim Cowan (and Martin too) used to bring their Storch to the field for Scale Days and won many competitions with that excellent model
HAPPY BIRTHDAY GEORGE
George Ward came down to the field quite unaware that we remembered that it was his birthday and was happily surprised by a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday".
George works tirelessly for the Club and its members, it was the least we could do
CORRECTION
Just goes to show ... you are only as correct as your source. 
Last month we wrote about Tony Warren-Smith's Corby Starlet as being the first of many at the field. In fact Tony got the idea of getting the model when seeing David Foster's model late last year. 
In fact David's was probably the first of the kit models to be flying in Australia, he had it on order with Col Taylor from September ’04, 
Col was the first dealer to receive his stock when the Australian agent HWT received their shipment from the factory and David's was the first one Col sent out.
David received it on December 4 and flew it four days later. Tony Warren Smith saw it and liked it so much he bought one.
Apologies to all Members, the author of the incorrect info has been rapped over the knuckles ... right Mr Minty?? ... but please keep sending me articles.
AD ASTRA DICTUM
* An airplane might disappoint any pilot but it'll never surprise a good one.
* "The Cub is the safest airplane in the world; it can barely kill you" - attributed to Max Stanley, Northrop test pilot.
* If something hasn't broken on your helicopter, it's about to!
* Taxiing down the tarmac, the jetliner abruptly stopped, turned around and returned to the gate. After an hour long wait, it finally took off. A concerned passenger asked the flight attendant, "What was the problem?" "The pilot was bothered by a noise he heard in the engine," explained the flight attendant, "and it took us a while to find a new pilot."
* A smooth landing is mostly luck; two in a row is all luck; three in a row is prevarication. 
* Do you remember when sex was safe and flying was dangerous?
* Mankind has a perfect record in aviation; we never left one up there!
* Advice given to RAF pilots during WWII: When a prang (crash) seems inevitable, endeavor to strike the softest, cheapest object in the vicinity as slowly and gently as possible. 
* What is the similarity between air traffic controllers and pilots? If a pilot screws up, the pilot dies; If ATC screws up, the pilot dies. 
* The three most common expressions (or famous last words) in aviation are: "Why is it doing that?", "Where are we?" and "Oh Shit!" 
* The only time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire.
* Progress in airline flying; now a flight attendant can get a pilot pregnant. 
* Airspeed, altitude and brains. Two are always needed to successfully complete the flight.
* Just remember, if you crash because of weather, your funeral will be held on a sunny day. 

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