Dare County Radio Control Flyers

Steve Smith, Stephen Yanacek, Grant Peacock, Jim Shiels, and Robert Yanacek met at the flying field to enjoy a day graced by a pleasant temperature, low winds, and unlimited visibility.

Stephen Yanacek led off the day's activities with a maiden flight of his E-flite RV-7 which went very well. Steve Smith followed with a maiden flight of his new powered 2-Meter Tori glider which went well too. Once at altitude, Steve made it look easy catching thermals and steering clear a two hawks that were circling the area.

Jim Shiels flew a number of UMX airplanes, however his effort to fly his larger aircraft failed as a result of equipment failure which he luckily detected during his pre-flight check.

Stephen Yanacek continued his First Person View flying experiments, utilizing a new digital headset display he recently acquired. Stephen then spent time with Grant to assist him in improving his flying skills.

The day's activities ended at about 2 in the afternoon with everyone heading home with a nice tan and all airplanes intact.

With temperatures in the mid-60s, seven club members met at our field under overcast skies to enjoy a fun-filled day of flying as a club.

Jim Davis, Stephen Yanacek, Grant Dick, Philip Garey, Robert Yanacek, Peter Fynn, and Grant Peacock flew many sorties today with a variety of aircraft—ranging from trainer planes to warbirds. Only one aircraft was seriously damaged as a result of a defective battery.

Of special note was that Stephen Yanacek performed the first airplane flight at our field using First Person View (FPV) equipment that he installed on his AeroScout S. Stephen's flight went very well and he reported that FPV flying he felt was much easier than normal radio control model flying.

Grant Peacock also brought his video equipment to the field, filming many flights and performing interviews with members about their experiences in radio control model aviation. Grant will use this material to produce an informational video about our club and for inclusion on the club's YouTube channel that he is developing.

In addition to all the flying activities, Jim Davis also used a part of the day to lead a team of members to tamp the pilings for our club's new storage shed and cut them to length in preparation for construction efforts which will begin in May.

Our 2022 flying season opened today with six club members meeting at our field for a fun day of flying and sharing our knowledge and skills with each other following a three month winter break. Although the temperature was on the cool side with a high of 52-degrees, unlimited visibility and winds of between 6 and 10 miles per hour made flying conditions fairly good.

Peter Fynn led off the day's activities with a maiden flight of his electric-powered flying wing. Unfortunately, flying it proved to be challenging due to the difficulty in control and easily determining its orientation, resulting in a number of crashes. Luckily, the aircraft was recovered intact with only minor damage, offering Peter the chance to resolve the flight control issues.

Stephen Yanacek then conducted a maiden flight with his E-flite Maule M-7. His flights with this aircraft went very well as the Maule proved to have excellent ground-handling characteristics and stable and forgiving while in the air. Stephen also flew a number of flights with his HobbyZone AeroScout S using it as a platform for a First Person View (FPV) experiment with a analog video camera and monitor he recently acquired. Although these flights went well, the image quality of the analog equipment proved to be grainy, so he is considering investing in digital equipment for future experiments. Following these flights, Stephen assisted Grant Peacock in setting up his new E-flite Apprentice STS for its maiden flight. Using Grant's new DX6 transmitter, Stephen assisted him in the binding process, setting up the flight control settings on the transmitter, and binding a DXs transmitter to the DX6 for use as a student/instructor buddy-box system. To ensure everything was working properly, Matthew Huggins performed a maiden flight on the aircraft, and after making some minor trim adjustments, worked as an instructor pilot for Grant to assist him in improving his flying skills.

The remainder of the day involved numerous successful flights by Stephen, Matthew, and Peter with Stephen's AeroScout S and Peter's E-flite Turbo-Timber before we all headed home looking forward to the next time we meet to fly.

Stephen Yanacek, Robert Yanacek, and Peter Fynn met today for breakfast at the Jolly Roger restaurant in Kill Devil Hills to talk about model airplanes and the upcoming flying season.

With our final build class completed, participants were given an assignment to complete their planes at home and have them ready to fly in late March or early April. Any participant having questions or needing assistance were told to contact Peter Fynn.

The included photographs show the final results of each participant's efforts.

We completed our fourth and final build session this evening which began with a quick class by Peter Fynn on applying dope to the covered surfaces we completed this past week. Most had finished covering all their aircraft's surfaces with silkspan, and those that had not continued to work on building and covering to get caught up. We also installed our plane's rubber band motor after applying lubrication to it provided by Jim Shiels.

By the end of the evening, much progress had been made by all, and we departed with instructions to complete the application of dope to all surfaces, and to await further instruction which will be communicated via e-mail.

Our club's informational rack card was added today to the business information display in the lobby of the Outer Banks Chamber of Commerce, located at 101 Town Hall Drive in Kill Devil Hills. Julie Walter, the chamber's membership services director, accepted our newly printed rack cards, and placed them on display.

Jim Davis, Stephen Yanacek, Peter Fynn, and Robert Yanacek met this morning at the Jolly Roger for breakfast and discussion about our build session last evening. Also discussed was Jim's idea to construct Tiny-Tony foam board electric-powered planes for our next group build, culminating in a pylon race at our flying field.

Following another week of continuing to build at home, participants met once again. With all the framing now completed, we received a quick class from Peter Fynn about the process of covering our models with silkspan. Using a diluted glue mixture, Jim Davis, Jim Shiels, Stephen Yanacek, Philip Garey, Robert Yanacek, Matt Cooke, and Kolton Cooke turned-to and began the covering process. Over the next hour and a half, we all completed covering the surfaces of the wings and empennage.

Our "homework" for this week will be to cover the entire fuselage before we meet next week to apply dope to all the covered surfaces.

No flying today, but nonetheless Robert Yanacek, Stephen Yanacek, Peter Fynn, and Philip Garey got together for breakfast at the Jolly Roger Restaurant in Kill Devil Hills to talk about model planes and exchange ideas.

Club president, Jim Davis, recently received an e-mail from a local resident who had a Parrot AR Drone 2.0 that they wanted to donate to the club. Jim gladly accepted the drone, and passed it along to Stephen Yanacek to set up and test.

Stephen got it set up rather easily and flew a test flight locally, due to its rather small size and power. The drone performed very well and will undoubtedly be going to our flying field this spring to perform more flights and to assist in locating planes that go down in areas with heavy brush.

Following our first week's building session, our participants spent the week continuing to build at home before returning for our second session.

We continued to build at our second session and our airplanes are taking shape. Those who were further along in the build process assisted those who were not, and by the end of the evening, everyone had made considerable progress.

Our "homework" for this week is to complete the framing for the fuselage, wings, and empennage before we meet again next Thursday to begin the covering process.

Jim Davis, Steve Smith, Philip Garey, Richard Boyd, Stephen Yanacek, Matt Cooke, Kolton Cooke, Robert Yanacek, and Jim Shiels met tonight to learn some basic model airplane building skills.

The event was organized by one of our esteemed members, Peter Fynn. Each participant purchased a small Guillow's balsa wood model kit and received instruction on the build process by Peter. Everyone then commenced to building their model under Peter's watchful eyes.

At the conclusion of our first session each participant had made progress on constructing their plane's fuselage and were assigned "homework" which involved completing the fuselage at home before next Thursday's session.

In addition to those listed, an additional member, Rusty Kennedy, is working on his kit independently from our group as he lives in Virginia.

Of special note is that we were very pleased to have two guests participating in this series of classes—the father and son team of Matt and Kolton Cooke.

Club president, Jim Davis delivered six pilings to our flying field today as we prepare to get started on the construction of our new storage shed. According to Jim our next step will be to have these pilings installed as soon as possible by Northeastern Marine. Once these pilings are installed, our members, under Jim's expert supervision, will commence to building the structure.

Jim added that although the construction area was very wet, the stakes that were laid out in early December by our club members were intact and did not require any additional effort.