VOLUME

The Pattern Contest held at the Springfield RC Club field was a great success. Here are some comments from participants:

To add my .02…the hospitality was exceptional, but the SUPPORT of “Pattern Wives” was incredible. Scoring, running sheets, posting results, running concessions…a small group of really committed folks made it a GREAT event!!! I add my thanks to others!!! Bob P.

Just wanted to give a big thanks to Dan Curtis and his club for the great job on this past weekend contest! Weather was perfect, and the hospitality from everyone of the Springfield Black sheep squadron was outstanding! Nice job Dan, for everything! Charlie Rock

The Springfield contest, as always, was first class. Its always a great time made by the great folks of the Springfield club. Great job everyone. Todd Schmidt

Ditto….Good time, great contest, wonderful weather…Thanks all at Springfield. Chris White

Dan Curtis, President of the Springfield RC Club added these comments regarding the Pattern contest also:

Springfield Pattern News: This year has been a busy and successful year for the pattern guys from our club. So far we have had representatives at 7 contests with one more coming up in October. Lots of travel miles and lots of practice time have made the summer zip by for this group.

Mike Howard, George Ashley, Doug Bennett and Tim Johnson have been putting in lots of hard work and their dedication and determination are showing rewards. George ventured out on the pattern circuit for the first time this year. Flying Sportsman, George has had two wins and two second place finishes so far this year and will going head to head with another Sportsman flyer, that has two wins, next month at Ft. Scott, KS. Mike Howard has been doing extremely well in Intermediate this summer. He has some very nice wins against some rough competition. He will be moving up to Advanced for next year’s campaign. Tim Johnson has being doing very well in Intermediate as well. He had a very good first place at Columbia this year and a solid second at Springfield. Doug Bennett moved to Intermediate at the beginning of the year and for the first half of the year had some time problems. The kind of time problem we all get every now and then, where we can’t find the time to get out to the field as much as we would like. The second half of the season Doug has been coming on very nicely. He had some nice rounds in St. Louis and took the third place hardware in Springfield. These guys have worked hard and have been great ambassadors for our club this past summer. If you see them at the field take a minute and give them a few kudos, they are well deserved.

The Springfield contest has received a great number of accolades from the flyer’s that attended this year. We have included a few of the emails that were posted on the national pattern flying discussion list as an example. We have a great club and it is something to be proud of, as the remarks indicate.

Our local pattern flyers did well at our contest, with George Ashley 2^nd in Sportsman and a clean sweep in Intermediate with Mike Howard 1^st, Tim Johnson 2^nd and Doug Bennett 3^rd. Dan Curtis took second in FAI/F3A. I have included some photos taking during the contest for your viewing pleasure.

I have included some photos taking during the Springfield contest for your viewing pleasure. For larger picture access the website and click on the picture: http://rhodesrc.iwarp.com/Oct-04-newsletter.htm

Springfield RC Club, Minutes of September meeting - Thursday, September 2, 2004. Ralph Todd, Secretary.

The club met at the Library Center on South Campbell Street. The sign in sheet was signed by a good turn out of members, and the meeting was called to order by president Dan Curtis at 7 PM.

Nearly all present had read the minutes, as appeared in the newsletter, and they were approved as written. Kevin Murdock gave a complete treasure's report of the balance on hand in the club's checking account and CDs. The club voted to go ahead and let the CDs rollover and renew at the present rate of interest. The report was accepted as presented.

Dan related details from a flier he receiver, describing an RC airshow that is coming up soon in Garner, Kansas. Many sizes of high quality planes are expected.

Dan, Mike, George, Doug, and Tim, have all been successful by winning trophies in recent pattern contest in Omaha, Kansas City, and St. Louis.

Old Business;

Sparky Wessels turned in nearly $700 in cash and checks, to our treasurer - proceeds from the recent, and successful float fly at Springfield Lake. 29 pilots entered the competition event. Doug Bennett reported that he fried and sold over 100 hamburgers and hot dogs. The perfect weather may have contributed of having over 100 combined pilots, relatives, and visitors at our flying site on the North shore of the lake. Sparky was given a big round of applause for carrying on the great job of CD that his dad had done for so many years.The club was honored to have Doc Wessels in attendance both days.

The new flight safety program is taking shape. The requirements for beginners to solo, have been slightly reduced to: preflight check (including tuning engine), take off, right and left level flight, horizontal figure 8, slow flight, and landing. Beginners will be expected to know all safety regulations. The candidates must be tested in the presence of three qualified members. Details of this program will be printed in the October newsletter, and be voted on, to be adopted, at our next meeting.

It will be up to the club to re-establish the fence that the county tore down while doing road work on FR 189. Mike Howard, and Dan Curtis volunteered to help build a new fence if the club would buy about $150 or so in fence posts and supplies. Gary Weaver offered to donate one roll of barbed wire.

New business:

Dan asserted again that the rule still stands to have only 3 aircraft flying at one time. The exception being a high flying glider, which could be a forth plane, as it is no threat to other flyers. Also, that hand launched gliders need to launched from either the North or the South ends of the runway, into the wind, depending on it's direction. Plane should not be launched down the runway in front of other pilots.

Doug Bennett offered to make the club newer frequency pins. Most of the membership felt like the ones we are currently using, will do for another year or so.

AMA is requiring that upon the club's re-charter, that we elect a separate safety officer, and that we supply the exact GPS locations of our flight stations.

Vic Campbell has purchased airplane tickets for Allen Sabo, Jr. to be at the Heli fly contest next month. He is rated in the 10 top RC helicopter pilots in the country. This is expected to increase participation and attendance.

The nominating committee is expected to submit a list of candidates for next years officers at the October meeting. These will be voted on the following month.

The meeting adjourned about 8:20 PM.

President's Corner

From the Office of the President

The October meeting will soon be upon us and yes, it is hard to believe that the year has passed so quickly. The meeting agenda will include the selection of a nominating committee for officers and board members for 2005. Due to the changes in AMA requirements for a club charter, it will be necessary to select a club safety officer for next year. The membership will need to decide if the safety officer position will be an ancillary position or will be included with the officers and board members. If memory serves, we will also be voting on the solo flight rules at this meeting. Important items on this agenda so be sure and make plans to be there.

I would expect a final report from the Christmas party committee at this meeting so we can finalize the plans for the December bash. Since no one has stepped forward to run the meeting prize raffles this year it will probably be necessary to allocate some funds for any prizes or niceties for the party, if the membership so desires. I would also like to have a volunteer or two to see about establishing a small program for the party. If you have any ideas or preferences for a program them by all means let your voice be heard at this coming meeting.

The past few weeks have been busy for the club. The annual float fly in August was deemed a success by all that attended. Sparky Wessels took the helm and CD’d this year’s event and he did an excellent job. I was unable to attend and help out this year due to a previous engagement in Omaha but I understand over 30 flyers participated and a good supply of club members were on hand to help with the event. Attendance at the float fly had been down some the past couple of years and it is great to see that trend turning around.

In September we had the annual pattern contest. This year the weather was absolutely perfect and the flying was terrific. Twenty-three flyers from four states came in to vie for the awards in five classes. Several club members and some of the pattern flyer's wives joined forces to assist in this event. I would like to thank the club members that took their time to come out and gives us a hand and a special thank you to Pam Curtis, Kathy Howard and Mindy Johnson for their hard work and dedication at this event.

The next club event is coming up the second weekend in October, which is the annual Heli Fly-In. Due to popular demand and numerous requests by past attendees of this event, it has been scheduled for three days, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Our Heli-Fly has grown each year and this year it looks like the growth will continue. Several manufacture’s representatives are planning on being here as well as a world class Heli-flyer, Alan Szabo Jr. So this should be our biggest fly-in to date. Along with the expected turnout comes our responsibility to make our guest welcome and comfortable. So if you can come out and lend a hand whereever needed, by all means do so. As an added bonus you will get to see some outstanding flying.

Hope to see all of you at the meeting!

Dan Curtis

Club Contacts:

President: Dan Curtis- 887-2971	Vice President: George Ashley- 883-2621
Secretary: Ralph Todd- 859-3073	Treasurer: Kevin Murdock, 823-7865
Board of Directors: James White, Ron Cannell, Ray Niles, Lonnie Cort, Harrold Carrol, Charles Newton.
News Letter Editor: Russ Rhodes, 3164 S. Glenhaven, Springfield, Missouri 65804, rgr592f@smsu.edu
Web Site of Springfield RC Club: http://www.angelfire.com/mo2/blacksheeprc/index2.html

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