Club News

I will try and post news and information here as often as possible. If you happen to come across something newsworthy, please shoot me a message by clicking here.

Sept 12, 2009. I few weeks ago I attended the IRCHA (International Radio Control Helicopter Association) Jamboree up in Muncie. This is the world's largest gathering of RC Heli pilots and was a blast for this newby "heli guy". As part of the event, they hosted a Precision Flying event open to anyone that wasn't a sponsored pilot or who hadn't ever participated in such an event in the past. The winner received a brand new 90 Sized heli - nice! Our very own David Smith decided to enter to competition. Now this is a precision flying competition and not an inverted cutting the grass competition, so it takes a completely different set of skills to be successful. This of this as the compulsory moves of a gymnastics or figure skating competition; everyone does the same maneuvers and is judged on how accurately they performed. Dave represented himself quite well and made it to the finals. If you ask me, he was definitely the top 1 or 2 pilots in the event. Unfortunately, he ended up flying his finals routine out of sequence and was basically disqualified from the event. What a bummer that was! Regardless, he did what most of us only dream of, stepped up into the competitive spotlight, fought the nerves, and showed his talent. I was able to capture both rounds on video for those interested. Bravo David!

Aug 12, 2009. We received word today that the City Wide Fun Fly will be held on October 3, 2009 at Indy RC South. Attached are the rules for the fun fly. Click here to view.

Aug 10, 2009. Guys, this is absolutely the best aviation video I've ever seen. Dave LeVee sent over this link to the Oshkosh Airventure 2009. If you love aviation, this is 5 minutes of pure joy. Thanks Dave!!

July 20, 2009. Rick and I went over to the Ohio Dawn Patrol in Harrison, Ohio on Saturday. This was an excellent event and we saw some beautiful planes. I compiled some photos and video into 2 videos below. Hope you enjoy. If you're interested in these types of planes, the Hoosier Dawn Patrol is in early August at the AMA HQ - I highly recommend checking it out.

July 12, 2009. Check out Dave Smith's H9 P-51 Mustang. He's flying this on the edge, like his helis. Listen to the audio - you think Bill enjoyed the show?

July 10, 2009. David Gulliver's Spitfire has flown at the field a few times, but I was never able to capture it on video until last night. David showed off this beauty after the club meeting and flew it proud! As you can see below, this is one great flying plane piloted by a pretty good pilot. I love those LOW passes, David!

David also shared some video from his B-25 onboard camera, shot over at the Lebanon Club. The videos are below.

July 6, 2009. Bill has been working on this Mud Duck since Christmas. He flew this on Friday morning and the following video was catpured. Enjoy!

July 2, 2009. Happy July 4th to everyone! I hope everyone has a fun and safe holiday. As a holiday "gift" to the club, I have made a replica of our flying field for the RealFlight simulator. For those that might want to fly on our field, this is my take at digitizing our field, adding collision objects and getting the general look and feel of our current "upgraded" field. I will post the download to our admin page for future reference. You can also click the picture below and start the download too. Have fun! Please let me know if there are problems with the airfield.

June 26, 2009. 4th annual Boyd Helstrom WARBIRD FLY-IN is Saturday, July 18th, 2009 from 9AM to 4PM. Details can be found in this document or on the Johnson County Flyers website if you are interested.

June 25, 2009. The Gee Bee Flies!

June 17, 2009. If you didn't already respect Naval Aviators, then these 2 videos ought to help convince you of their skills! This is a PBS documentary on Carrier Landings on a pitching deck; all I can say is WOW!

On a lighter note ... imagine our radio control planes being piloted on and off of a carrier. Imagine no more, check out the video below.

June 15, 2009. Below are a few videos recommended by Dave LeVee. This first video is one of his local club members building an electric shop caddy. If interested, reach out to Dave for details.

3DMON's Clutter Caddy Assembly - for full screen viewing.

Dave also mentioned that some of his club members are experimenting with scratch built foamies (like Don's been doing). Below is a video of one such foamie. If interested in the name of the model or details on how to receive the plans, shoot Dave a message.

HQ Prizm Recon Double Vision - for full screen viewing.

June 13, 2009. I finally posted Paul Van Kley's Cap 232 Maiden video from our "Maintenance Day" we had on May 23rd. Congratulations on a great flying model, Paul.

Also, I have begin to post some of my videos from the Indianapolis Air Show last weekend. Although not RC related, I figured you guys wouldn't mind me posting these to the site as well. This first video is of Gregg Koontz flying a Piper Cub. I must admit seeing Cubs fly like this at our field, but never a full scale. This is some impressive flying!

June 11, 2009. Mark your calendars for June 20-21 as it is going to be an event filled weekend. First off, one of our members (Dave Smith) is hosting the "Internet Fly-In" in Muncie at the AMA headquarters on the 20th and 21st. This event is open to anyone with a radio control helicopter or airplane. Their motto is Bring Everything, Fly Anything! Bring out your camping gear and meet them at the field on Friday night. Then plan to stay until Sunday for a weekend full of flying and fun. For more information, you can contact Dave (see club roster). Also, Dave's website (RCHangout.Com) has information too, click here to see it.

The second event happening on June 20th, is the 2009 Down Syndrome Fly-In Fundraiser And Open House at the Indy Exec Airport. Details can be found here. For those not attending the Internet Fly-in, the club will be displaying RC Models near the airport tarmac as we've done in years past. We will also be flying at the field and giving buddy box flights weather permitting.

Both topics will be discussed at today's club meeting at Robin Run.

June 10, 2009. Have you ever seen a Radio Control Airshow? This is OLD, but cool nonetheless. Byron Originals used to put on an RC airshow that included more than just planes. Check it out below.

June 9, 2009. So I figured out a way to embed YouTube videos directly onto our website. Instead of linking to them as I have done in the past, I will play them directly from this page. This should make it easier for those people that were having trouble with the links. Below is an example using my F4U Maiden video from a few weeks ago. To view this in High Definition Press the HD button on the control. To view this in full screen mode, press the Full Screen button on the control.

June 2, 2009. I just received an e-mail from Dave LeVee (our Chicago member). He wanted to pass along a few videos from his local club for all of our enjoyment. This is especially timely given the "Bill's Folleys" video I posted last night. Everyone is probably familiar with Bill's Lawn Mower airplane - most have never seen it do much more than taxi. Dave's passed along two videos of a guy from his club that has the same contraption. This first video shows the mower in that air (nice airstrip there, Dave), while the second shows what can happen with these "unstable" airframes. Enjoy! Thanks for sharing Dave!

May 29, 2009. Now that this website is becoming a bit larger, it has come to my attention that it can be difficult to find specific things on the site. Thanks to Norman's suggestion, I added a Google Search box to the left frame of all our pages. Typing in a search word and pressing enter will popup a new window showing all the matches from just this site. If you want to search the entire internet, uncheck the "only search IndyWestRC" checkbox under the search box. Note, this search uses the google search engine to find content on our pages and it takes the google robots some time to index a site. That means it may take days or weeks for google to index new content. Regardless, this should be a good addition to our site. Thanks for the tip, Norman!

May 25, 2009. This past Saturday was a great day, if I do say so myself. We had an excellent turnout and were able to accomplish a great many things. The biggest maintenance accomplishments were the assembly of the canopy, the building of additional safety tables, the staining of the tables, and replacing the old safety fence. A big thanks goes out to everyone involved in the maintenance day activities. I was able to snap a few pictures on Sunday - those are below. It is tough to capture digitally, but the field has a different feel to it. An upgraded feel that says we are seriously trying to make the Club a first class place.

May 18, 2009. At last night's meeting we decided to make next Saturday (May 23) a "Maintenance Day" at the field. I sent out an e-mail to the membership which can be seen here as a PDF version.

May 11, 2009. I had a chance to video David's new E 4-Star yesterday. I posted the video to YouTube and it can be found here. Please forgive the choppy video quality as I am still learning to operate the camera - it is NOT as easy as you might imagine. Also note I created a YouTube user name of "IndyWestRC" and I'll post videos under that name online. You can subscribe to the "IndyWestRC" channel which can be found here.

May 2, 2009. Well, I got a new toy. No, it isn't directly related to RC, but it is something that can be used while at the field... a video camera! I made a short video of Rick King's maiden flight on his .40 GP Big Stick. No new maiden video would be complete unless it was accompanied by Kenny Loggin's "Danger Zone". I posted the video to YouTube and it can be found here.

April, 7, 2009. For those that may have missed the article or the stories on the local news, the airport received a grant to improve their runway last week (some of the nation's stimulus funds). They will be resurfacing the main runway by grinding it down first. There will be heavy equipment on site but will not effect us at all. If you want to read the article, I have posted it here. By the way, Bill went over to the Airport yesterday and met with Carl to discuss this and several other field related topics. We will discuss on Thrusday.

April, 2, 2009. I just received a package from the AMA announcing their 2009 Membership Drive. Although they sent me all the collateral, they also have it posted on the AMA website here. Please take a moment and watch Dave's message and read up on the AMA initiative to increase membership. Thanks!

March 31, 2009. Just an update on the field. Yesterday was such a nice day that I decided to head out to the field and take a look. I met Bill out there and as luck would have it forgot my camera! Anyway, I was greeted by the light green color of new grass in several of the "bald" areas of the field. Given that it is supposed to rain tonight and be mild the rest of the week, Bill and I opted not to fly and instead fertilize the entire field (including the pit area). Afterwards, I got the open bag of seed from the barn (about 30 pounds) and overseeded the bald spots again. I remain optimistic that our field will be in better shape this year.

March 18, 2009. Just an update on the field. I posted some photos below. I was at the field on Sunday with David Gulliver, Jim McKee and Aaron Glaser. Our newest member Rick King also game out and introduced himself. The condition of the field is good - especially considering winter is just now behind us. Bill has done a great job of rolling the field. I have never seen it so flat. We still, however, have big bald patches of land as you can see in the pictures.

Bill seeded these areas about 10 days ago and there's still a large amount of seed sitting on top of the ground. With some timely rain and warm weather we might see that seed germinate. I remain optimistic that this will begin to sprout when our lawns start to green up. I know everyone is anxious to see grass grow out there - believe me, none more anxious than I.

February 23, 2009. Now's the right time of year to make sure your batteries are in fine working order. There's a nice thread out on RC Universe here that provides an Excel spreadsheet to track all your batteries and know if any are beyond their prime. As we all know, batteries are not everlasting and need to be checked from time to time. This tool allows those of your with cycle chargers to understand when a battery needs replacing - before is dooms an airplane.

A second set of news Paul Van Kley pointed out that RC Universe has extensive coverage of E-Fest 2009. The coverage can be found here for those interested. By the way, Paul attended this event in person and suggests checking out the Antonov AN2 molded in Depron with panel and rivets too. Hey Don Freeman - that plane looks like something you might build! See below.

February 22, 2009. Okay guys, time for some technology ... ever want to know if the website has new content, but didn't want to actually log onto it to find out? Well now you can. You may have noticed a new icon on the main screen in the left column under the forum link. It looks like Well that little icon connects you to the world of RSS or "Really Simple Syndication" - that's a fancy way of saying a "feed" from the web. If you're using a recent version of Internet Explorer, you can click on the icon on the home page and subscribe to the Indy West RC RSS feed. You computer will automatically search for new content and will tell you when there's new content. You can also download RSS "readers" that run outside of your browser and do many neat things. If you want to read up on RSS, here's a link to the wikipedia.

The real power of this comes in the way of gadgets that run on some of the newer operating systems. You can download RSS readers, set them to automatically update and then access the new websites from the reader. Very slick. Anyway, we are now setup to use this technology and for those of you that want a high tech way of knowing when there's a change to the website, you now have it. Please let me know if you have any trouble with this as I am learning this too.

-Darryl

February 10, 2009. Norman Stump has created a Indianapolis West Side Modelers online Forum. You can see it here. You will need to register to post messages. The intent is to share ideas and information via the forum but keep it a private community for just our club. Norm will discuss this more at the meeting on Thursday. I will make a link to this off all the pages soon. Thank you, Norm!!

Dave LeVee sent me a message asking me to remind the club that he's a member at other clubs in the Chicago area and we're always welcome to fly if we're ever in the area. Hare's what Dave had to say in his update: We have been flying on skies, but the winds have pretty high up here in Dec and January. Today was the first nice day we've had in some time. The snow was off the field and the winds were light at less than 5. I got the Stinger out today and man am I rusty! It took a few flights to get the feel back. We had about 10 guys out today with various glow and electrics so it was a good , overdue day. Also, If any of the Indy West members ever get up to Chicagoland and are able to bring a plane. I have access to 3 club fields within 6 miles of me. Here is my home field, AeroSport RC Club in Mettawa Illinois. All Indy West members are more than welcome to visit.

These pictures sure look warm! Remember Spring's just around the corner.

February 8, 2009. Dave LeVee sent this message - Don't know how many of you caught this reference in the February 2009 MA but in the Radio Control Giants column by Sal Cavagna he gave a link to one of the most comprehensive listing of servos I've ever seen. For info on any brand you can mention and some you haven't heard of go to this link.

February 6, 2009. Carl Winkler from Indy Exec Airport asked if anyone was interested in a ready to cover Goldberg Chipmunk. One of his employees is selling the plane, along with some field equipment and other items. This was the exact cryptic message from Carl - Goldberg Chipmunk ready to be covered. I have all my equipment and several other airplanes and a field box i want to sell all together. $350.00 takes all. Below are the pictures he supplied. If anyone is interested, Al Lerman is willing to co-purchase so your investment would be less than $350. Contact Al to discuss details.

The person selling the plane is Brian Smith. If anyone is interested, shoot me a message here and I'll provide you his contact information.

January 10, 2009. Ever see/hear a 9 cylinder model radial engine? You're in for a treat in this YouTube video. I can't imagine the size plane that this would power, but it sure would sound sweet!

Ever wonder how the "experts" recommend tightening the covering on an ARF? Here's a PDF document that 21st Century Covering publishes to describe the technique. Not a bad document to download and save for that next ARF you purchase.

This video has been floating around the internet for awhile now, but it's a good one. Ron Cox forwarded me this link and I thought it was newsworthy. The video is of guys using Wing Suits to literally fly off of cliffs. This is a 3 minute video that's worth a click if you've never seen a wing suit before.

January 06, 2009. I found this the other day and thought you all might be interested in it. There's a guy suggesting a new RC Television Show on Discovery or History Channels. His YouTube message can be found here if you're interested.

Those interested in scratch building, there are several downloadable plans for smaller electric planes over at FlyRC. The downloads are right on the main page for those curious. I expect to see Don Freeman with at least one of these at our first Spring fly-in.

Paul swung by the field recently and snapped a couple of pictures - three to be exact. The first image captures some new neighbors that were dropped off next to the trailer. As you can see, whoever dropped off the "junk" was kind enough to stack it neatly against the trailer. The other two pictures show some of the standing water at the field at the east end of the runway. You can also see where we're going to need to seed and fertilize in the Spring. Click on the pictures for a larger image.

January 05, 2009. I have a couple of news postings today. Do not forget there is a Club Meeting this Thursday (January 8) at 7:00PM. We will be reviewing some video from the Freeze Fly and possibly some additional video from David Eames. This should be a good time.

Norman Stump was kind enough to do a Freeze Fly write-up that I posted here. Thanks Norman ... although we are all still waiting for that Chili recipe from the Stump archives!

December 26, 2008. I have a couple of news postings today. I moved the meeting minutes from the news page onto their own page. Here's a direct link. There is also a link from the Admin page too. In the future all club meeting minutes will be linked from the Admin page.

I stumbled on an interesting post the other day regarding how we identify our planes. Here's a link to the thread if you're interested. Basically the poster discussed the need to identify our planes with our AMA numbers and contact information. There was some theory about not receiving AMA coverage should a plane without this be responsible for damage. I know I am horrible about following this rule and am making a pledge to mark all my planes before flying them. In order to make it easy for everyone else to do this I have posted a couple of documents that can be printed and affixed to your plane. Now none of us have any excuses to not have this information. MS Word Document of AMA ID tags. Adobe PDF of AMA ID tags.

I met with Mack today and now have the ability to deposit the membership checks into the bank. For those that sent in their membership dues, all checks were deposited today. I have membership cards ready to be mailed tomorrow, so look for those in your mailbox early next week.

I added a new page to the website today called Tips, for Tips and Techniques. This will be the landing page for different ideas that are shared at club meetings and online. I look for this area to grow quickly as we all use this site more and more.

December 18, 2008. There are two bits of news to share today. The first is we have a famous member … who's seen Dave LeVee's picture in this month's AMA magazine? Yep, the member that drives the furthest to fly with us also has a home field up in Chicago. Looks like those are some old pictures given the snow, but it's neat to see someone you know in the magazine. If you're looking, Dave's in the back section in Charlie Bower's update section on District VI. Dave, too bad those pictures are a bit dark.

The second bit of news relates to our freeze fly. I got word today from Bill that the Lutheran Church posted our fly in their bulletin, and have invited members to come out if they want. Bill will have 2 club trainers on site for anyone to fly. This may be a way to generate interest and possibly increase membership. Looking forward to seeing you guys on the 1st.

December 16, 2008. Here's an example of the new club membership card that I mentioned. Hopefully you like the re-design that includes a picture. I will print these on colored stock like Ron has in years past. If you are not able to provide a picture, one will be provided for you at no cost. No, seriously ... if you don't have a picture, I can take one at the next meeting or we can print this without the picture, just let me know what you want to do.

December 16, 2008. Guys don't forget our New Year's Freeze Fly is January 1st at the Church in Lebanon. Check out the club minutes below for details on how to get there. This is a gentle reminder to renew your AMA memberships before the event so you have insurance coverage from AMA for 2009. Here's a link to the AMA renewal page if you need it. Also, don't forget to submit your IndyWestRC membership renewals while you're at it.

December 16, 2008. Internet rumor and hoaxes abound out in cyberspace and we all get the e-mail spam talking about the newest crime wave or way to steal your credit card numbers. This, however, looks legitimate. It appears that Hobby RC here in Indy was robbed recently and the owner wants people to be on the lookout for his stolen property. See this message here for all the details.