ALERT! DUE TO YET MORE WEEKEND RAIN, THE FLYING ACES TAKE FLIGHT EVENT AT SPENCER-PEIRCE LITTLE FARM IN NEWBURY, MA HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED TO SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 13, 2025! SAME TIME, SAME PLACE, SAME SPONSOR (GUILLOW’S THANK YOU!) AND SAME FAMILY FLYING FUN!
Author: tomnallen2
Woodsom Meet Resched to 5/18!
New Amesbury Meet date (May 18) – same place, time, events
See you there!
Click to Enlarge Images
1st Woodsom Farm meet May 18
See the full Event Flyer HERE for Directions, Contacts, etc. NOTE: the date has not been updated to 5/17 on this Flyer, but all other information is good.
We’ve been out test flying models (see pics) at Woodsom Farm in Amesbury, MA and it’s in great shape.
Spencer-Peirce Little Farm Event Links
The staff at Historic New England’s Spencer-Peirce Little Farm in Newbury, MA have been busy. Our June 14 Flying Aces Take Flight! event listing is up on their website and Facebook page. Please plan to attend (register on Facebook page) and forward the links below to friends and family. This us a great day for kids looking to burn off some energy flying Guillow’s stick models on a beautiful open field with many other attractions at the farm.
Historic New England.org – Event Listing
Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm – Event Facebook Site
Let’s get that “Going” and “Interested” count up on the Event Facebook page gang!!
Indoor Season Wrap Up
We closed out the indoor flying season with a couple of great meets, April 6 in Georgetown, MA (results below) and April 13 in Glastonbury, CT. Thanks to our roving photog for capturing some pics.
April 6 Georgetown results – Page 1
April 6 Georgetown results – Page 2
See you on the flightline skyster!
Flying Aces Take Flight!
All Outdoor Contest dates have been added to our website Calendar
Click to Enlarge Images
Get outside!
The flowers are blooming, the days getting warmer, and just like that it’s outdoor flying season.
Our season opener on the big field at Woodsom Farm in Amesbury is on Saturday May 10 is coming soon. A few clubsters have already been out flying at the Woodsom Farm testing field!
Spencer-Peirce Little Farm Event Links
The staff at Historic New England’s Spencer-Peirce Little Farm in Newbury, MA have been busy. Our June 14 Flying Aces Take Flight! event listing is up on their website and Facebook page. Please plan to attend (register on Facebook page) and forward the links below to friends and family. This us a great day for kids looking to burn off some energy flying Guillow’s stick models on a beautiful open field with many other attractions at the farm.
Historic New England.org – Event Listing
Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm – Event Facebook Site
Let’s get that “Going” and “Interested” count up on the Event Facebook page gang!!
Indoor Season Wrap Up
We closed out the indoor flying season with a couple of great meets, April 6 in Georgetown, MA (results below) and April 13 in Glastonbury, CT. Thanks to our roving photog for capturing some pics.
April 6 Georgetown results – Page 1
April 6 Georgetown results – Page 2
See you on the flightline skyster!
3/9 Georgetown Indoor & NRE Event Update
See you at the Sunday, March 9 Georgetown, MA meet!
Click to Enlarge Images
Daylight Savings too
Remember, set your clocks ahead 1hr Saturday night March 8!
You don’t want to show up an hour late for this Sunday’s indoor flying at the Penn Brook Middle School in Georgetown, MA.
We’ve got a bunch of updates to share this time around gang. Read on!
Georgetown 2/23 Indoor Results
There was lots of great flying going on at the rescheduled indoor meet in the Penn Brook school gym on February 23. No pics this time, but we can share the contest event results (thanks Steve!)
2/23/2025 FAC Kanone Report Sheet 1
2/23/2025 Kanone Report Sheet 2
The indoor flying season is drawing short – you still have time to make official Scrappy One Design flights (see Scoreboard in sidebar).
Durham, CT Outdoor Dates Posted
As usual, there are four Full Day outdoor Flying Aces Club contests scheduled this year. The Spring Fling (Jun. 8), Mid-Summer Melt (Aug. 10), the Fall Fly-In (Sep. 14) and the Turkey Fly (Nov. 16). Check the Calendar and Coming Events on this site to view the Meet Flyers for all the details.
There are also Mini Meets scheduled for mornings on the first Sunday of most months during the outdoor season. See the dates on the Pinkham Field (Durham) schedule HERE.
Ed Novak Tribute Event Updates
The NRE Tribute Event was a huge success at the Turkey Trot Contest back in November 2024 at Pinkham Field (Whites Farm) in Durham, CT. This event will be run again at the Durham, CT FAC meets this year. Check the Pinkham Field schedule for the specifics.
And guess what? A new all-sheet sport design in the spirit of the Tribute Event has been added to the roster. Capt. Dick Struhl’s Tubular Terror! Download a scan of the original plan and construction article for the Terror on the NRE Tribute Event page on this site. What a deal – it’s Free! Check out the updated Novak Tribute Event guidelines/rules too.
Let us know via this site’s Contact Us form if you need help printing the plan, or getting some of that vintage BLACK RUBBER motor for your model.
Whew, that’s all for now gang. Back to the building board — and
see you in the Penn Brook school gym (Georgetown, MA) on March 9!
see you in the Penn Brook school gym (Georgetown, MA) on March 9!
Feb 23 Meet & Tips
Sunday February 23 Georgetown, MA meet is ON See you there!
Click to Enlarge Images
Building & Finishing Tips
FLASH – The FEBRUARY Georgetown meet has been rescheduled to Sunday 2/23/2025 in the Penn Brook middle school. View FLYER for directions & contacts.
Since it’s the building season, here are some quick modeling tips from our clubsters..
Airbrushed Ink Finishes
Clubster Harry C. was flying his new, enlarged Nassise Hellcat at the February Glastonbury, CT flying session. This model (sidebar pics) sports a beautiful airbrushed ink finish. A brief run-down from Harry:
“I bought the ink locally at Jerry’s Artarama (available online). The colors are Artfinity alcohol ink from 25 ml bottles intended for marker refills. There are earth tones, olive greens and greys that would be useful for other camo schemes. I used Liquitex acrylic ink for the white simply because there was no white available from Artifinity. There are colors in the Liquitex line but not as many and they are more vivid. I used the ink unthinned in a Paasche model H external mix airbrush and it went on very dry, requiring three coats to get good color definition. Even so the total weight gain was only on the order of a gram. I held the airbrush fairly close to the model, perhaps three inches or so. The insignia were done with 0.002” low tack frisket film cut to shape. Next time I would probably paint the whole model with white to get better opacity on the color layers. A top layer of Krylon clear acrylic would add durability at the cost of more weight.”
Harry did a fabulous job rendering the tricky 2 tone blue/white color scheme on his Hellcat. Airbrushed insignia too – wow! Who’s next to give it a try?
Dollar Store Eraser Tools
Modelers are a resourceful lot. They’re often cheap too.
Our creative Vermont clubsters discovered that the ubiquitous “Pink Pearl” eraser makes a great multi-use building tool. Cheap discount store erasers work well too. Cut into small bricks (sidebar pics), they make soft yet firm hold downs for those lightweight laminated balsa flying surface outlines. No more pin marks and the eraser bits will not get glued to the lamination. Need a small, easily adjustable clamp for holding fragile parts together? Bits of eraser on a long common pin will do the trick. So, you don’t want to break out the airbrush for some simple decorations on your next model? Carve an eraser to make your own stamp. Use your imagination and get creative with these simple tools.
That’s all for now gang. Back to the building board — and
see you in the gym on February 23!
see you in the gym on February 23!
Feb 9 Georgetown Meet Cancelled
Upcoming indoor meets Feb 2 (G’bury) and Feb TBD (G’town). Be there!
Click to Enlarge Images
SNOW!
The Sunday FEBRUARY 9 Meet in the Georgetown, MA middle school has been CANCELLED due to SNOW CONDITIONS. Please stay home and build!
We haven’t done that lately, but there’s a blizzard of indoor flying going on here in the Northeast. Lots of socializing too – musicians, writers, pilots..we’ve got it all. Budding author Rich Z even had his story The Cannoneers read on New Year’s Eve on local radio station WHAV 97.9 FM!
And we’ve already had our first two indoor meets of 2025.
On Jan 5 we flew in the big gym at Glastonbury HS in Connecticut. Skyboss John K was out sick, but clubsters stepped up and the meet came off without a hitch. Lots of Scrappy One Designs were flying and John sent out the Scrappy Scoresheet after the meet. Ray H. has to top time with his Scrappy, but Jim R is a scant 2 seconds back and he’s fitted a promising new prop to boost duration. Surely the 2min mark will fall soon. Mitch K leads in the “closest to average flight time” category with lots of flyers vying for the pole position.
The next weekend (Jan 12) the Georgetown middle school gym was abuzz with stick and tissue models flitting about. Yet more Scrappy’s were getting airtime and all seemed to be flying well. Jon C showed up with a Freebird ornithopter, illustrating the broad range of rubber powered free flight models. All of the usual competition events were flown. Check out the Event Results below (thanks Steve!)
Stealth Squadron Jan 12, 2025 Results Page 1
Stealth Squadron Jan 12, 2025 Results Page 2
See you in the gym in early February skysters!
Indoor Season Underway
All Georgetown, MA indoor flying dates have been posted!
Click to Enlarge Images
NRE Tribute Goes Viral!
Thanksgiving seems ages ago. The annual Durham Turkey Fly was held the weekend before T-day and the Novak Tribute Event was the highlight. All-sheet Tribute models were flying in Durham and an equal number of flyers participated remotely from Texas and Canada. How about that – an International salute to one of the FAC’s finest, Never Ready Eddie (NRE)!
The Colonel (Paul S who ran the event) will tell us about it below, but first – an ANNOUNCEMENT.
The Georgetown, MA indoor flying meet dates have been added to the Calendar and will appear on the Coming Events in the Sidebar. There will be indoor flying dates each month January – April, 2025 in both Georgetown, MA and Glastonbury, CT. See you in the gym(s) flyers – and don’t forget your Scrappy one design model!
The Colonel’s NRE Tribute Event Recap
“There were 19 entries in the Tribute Event. Four from the Alamo Escadrille in Texas, Six from the Snow Owl (Harfang) Squadron in Montreal, Canada, and Nine from the Pinkham Field Irregulars in Durham.
Tribute models built included 5 Flying Fools, 3 Commando’s, 3 Little Mike’s, 2 Swallow’s, 2 Rigid Midgets, 2 Clodhopper’s, 1 Lil Cloud Sniffer and 1 FAC Beginner’s Racer.
And the Winner was ..(drum roll).. Mike S. and his beautifully decorated Flying Fool.
Mike had Three duplicate flights out of his six officials and his next closest was one second apart. The Snow Owl’s Giorgio T. also had Three duplicate flights, but his next closest official flight was three seconds apart.”
A tip o’ the hat to Mike for some impressively consistent flying with his Flying Fool. And what a pleasure to see Mike with his young family out on the field. And thanks Colonel, we know your cell phone was smoking like an old Hisso with a bad cylinder with all those remote flights getting texted in to Pinkham Field!
Hope we can do it again sometime.
See you in the gym soon skysters!
Good-Bye Summer
One more outdoor meet –
11/17 Durham FAC Turkey Fly
Event Flyer HERE
Click to Enlarge Images
Seasons go round & round..
And just like that, it’s over. The shadows grow longer as the days get shorter. The pitter patter of soft soled shoes on the gym floor. The first weekend of November was truly a transition – flying in the brisk air at Woodsom Farm on Saturday and in the calm, quiet space of the Glastonbury HS gym on Sunday. Whew!
There’s one more chance outdoors at the Turkey Fly in Durham, CT on Nov. 17. See you there!
Nov 2 Woodsom Meet Pics & Results
Despite the strong Fall wind, a great time was had by all. Steve E. extended his streak with wins in the Pinkham Stick, Embryo, Dime Scale and Chameleon Mass Launch events. Rich Z. mopped up most of the remaining events. Congrats guys. We won’t go so easily on you next time..haww!
Check out pics and meet results below.
Results p2
Thanks for sharing Kim & Steve!
Thanks for sharing Kim & Steve!
About those Indoor Dates –
All of the Glastonbury, CT Indoor dates have been posted to the Calendar page. Check the Flyer for dates in the Glastonbury High School gym, key contacts (John K) and address for the High School (your GPS/mapping will provide directions).
Don’t forget to build a Scrappy and get in on the One-Design Fun!
Georgetown, MA Indoor Dates are being finalized and we expect to have these posted to the Calendar soon. We anticipate one flying day per month beginning in January 2025 and running through April. The Scrappy One Design will be flown in Georgetown as well, so get building!
Saturday Nov 2 Season Close Meet @ Woodsom Farm
Don’t miss the final outdoor meet of the Season –
Event Flyer HERE
Click to Enlarge Images
Outdoor Season Finale Nov 2
Tempus Fugit, gang! Yep, time sure is flying, just like one of Steve E’s Pinkham Stick models. Next Saturday Nov 2 will be your last chance this season to fly outdoors on the beautiful rolling fields of Woodsom Farm in Amesbury, MA. Don’t miss it!
The event roster has been slimmed some, but we’ll still be filling the sky with stick & tissue models. Check out the full Nov. 2 Meet Flyer.
See you at the field!
October 20 Meet Results & Pics
Gorgeous weather, good friends and lot’s of high flying models – what more can a flyer ask for? How about a bunch of great photos to help remember it all?
Thanks for sharing John & Kim!!
Pinkham Stick was arguably the event to watch with several new models and light-hearted competition. Steve E kicked it off with a one minute flight on his new Troubadour in the calm morning air and then upped the mark to 100sec plus soon after. Kim W got several nice flights with her Rocky-piloted Boxy Bipe. Then in the thermally afternoon Rich Z popped off a 2min plus flight with his Gabelschwanz Teufel (Fork-Tailed Devil) which unfortunately ended with the model 80ft or so up in a majestic pine tree. Steve countered late in the day with his Pelatowski Stork, catching a thermal and going OOS (out of sight) into a cloud. But alas, he forgot to start the stopwatch! Gremlins were surely riding Stork’s wing on its last flight! And it was the FT Devil for the win.
One thing’s certain. There’s a lot of flying smiles per build time invested in these simple Pinkham Stick models. Why not join in the fun?
There was lots of action in the other competition events as well. Steve E’s Hellcat took the top spot in Dime Scale again and his Mad Maxine (biplane, n’est pas!) topped the Embryo Endurance field. George S’s Nassise Mustang edged out the Rittmeister’s Henschel 123 to win the WW2 Mass Launch event. George’s Guillows Fairchild 24 won the Golden Age/Modern Civil event too.
Rich Z’s wretched Roland D2 wreaked havoc winning the WW1 Mass Launch event. His silky smooth flying Ercoupe also won FAC Simplified Scale – the meet’s premiere competition event.
Sam B and Ara D made the trek from out-of-state to fly with us. It was great to see you guys. We sure did have FUN!
Stealth Squadron Oct 2024 Results Page 1
Stealth Squadron Oct 2024 Results Page 2
See you on the field at Woodsom Farm on Nov 2 tissue trimmers 🙂
Woodsom Farm Fall Meet Sunday Oct. 20
FLASH: The October 12 meet has been rescheduled to Sunday October 20
Event Flyer HERE
Click to Enlarge Images
Fly at Woodsom Farm this Sunday
Heads Up Skysters! We’ll be flying on the big field at Woodsom Farm in Amesbury this Sunday, October 20. Last Saturday’s meet at Woodsom Farm was cancelled due to poor flying weather.
The contest event roster remains unchanged – check out the full Oct. 20 Meet Flyer. You’ll find directions to the field and key contacts on the Flyer as well.
Fall flying at Woodsom Farm is the best. See you at the field!
September Woodsom Farm Meet Results
The Sept. 7 meet saw a light flyer turnout, but nice weather. Several folks showed up to watch and fly gliders that were handed out. Chris helped Alec get his Sleek Streak flying and by the afternoon he was getting 30+ second flights every time. Way to go guys!
The contest events were hotly contested. In Dime Scale (pg2 below), a scant 2 seconds separated 1st place from second and second from third. An exciting event..
Stealth Squadron Sept 2024 Results Page 1
Stealth Squadron Sept 2024 Results Page 2
Novak Tribute & Scrappy One Design Models
Well, folks sure have been busy at the building board! Our Canadian clubsters from the Harfang Squadron have built and flown a whole gaggle of Novak Tribute Models. Rumors of several streamer-flying mass launches have been reported, accompanied by a mysterious photo (sidebar pic). Surely the pic was staged…could it be real?? That’s the Spirit skysters… NRE is smiling!
Check out the NRE Tribute Event page for pics of new Tribute Models built by clubsters. Send yours along and we’ll put it up for all to see. It’s all for FUN!
Reports are trickling in of lots of Scrappy One Design activity down in the Glastonbury. CT high school gym. The first flying session of the 2024-25 indoor season was this past weekend and Scrappies (?) were said to be bouncing off the ceiling and putting up nice flights. The excitement is building!
See you on the field at Woodsom Farm this Sunday skysters –