March Recap & Outdoor Meet Flyers!

Season’s Final Indoor Meets:
Georgetown, MA 4.14.2024
Glastonbury, CT  4.21.2024
Be there!


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Rich & Pete Scale Judging Gbury 3.3.24
Steve E won the Chameleon Pylon Race at the Mar 10 Georgetown meet
Perfect Launch by Alec at Mar 10 meet
Stick model Mass Launch – Fun!
Chameleons in Glastonbury gym, March 3 meet
Guillow’s Strato Streak Flyers in Penn Brook gym March 10, 2024

May 4 Outdoor Season Opener!


It’s been very quiet these past few weeks.  We know – everyone’s at their workbenches finishing up models for the coming outdoor season, right?  Well, Spring has Sprung and it’s here!

Outdoor Meet Flyers Posted!

Yep, we’ve just posted all of the Event Flyers for the Spring, Summer and Fall meets at Woodsom Farm in Amesbury.  Check the Calendar page of this site – you’ll find all of the local meet Flyers there – including the meets at White’s Farm (aka Pinkham Field) in Durham, CT.   Mark your own calendar and see you at the field skyster!

Indoor Season Closing Soon!

But it’s not over yet.  There’s still time to fly in Georgetown, MA, or Glastonbury, CT.  Check the meet Flyers in the Coming Events sidebar, or on the Calendar

We had so much fun at the March indoor meets (see pics).  It’ll be months before we’re indoors again, so don’t miss these last dates.

The March 10 Georgetown meet in the Penn Brook School gym was a blast.  Stick models were flying around everywhere!  Many thanks to Sam B for bringing the Guillow’s and Jetco kits – and Glastonbury ace John K for donating them.

The Chameleon One Design pylon race was a riot with Steve E’s, tight-turning Tiger Chameleon besting “rapid” Rich Z’s speedy Chameleon.

Check out the Georgetown March 10 Meet Results below:

 

Remember, we’ll be back flying in the Penn Brook School gym on Sunday April 14.  See you there!

Jan 14 Meet Results – Feb 4 Meet Next Up!

Sunday Feb 4 Indoor Meet at Penn Brook School, Georgetown, MA

Be there!


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Winter Georgetown Indoor Meets Flyer
Kash and his Comet Step 2 stick model. Flew well!
Luc and wife Annie trekked from Montreal to fly at the Stealth meet
Richard launches his Pussycat in the Penn Brook School gym
Luc’s Dewoitine WW2 fighter on the winding stooge
Top competitors in the Skelly hangar!
Animal themed models on Steve E’s table at the January 14 indoor meet

New Models, New Flyers!


The Stealth Squadron indoor flying season kicked off with a rush on January 14. 

The first serious snowstorms of the year must have spurred a flurry of model building activity as several new flyers brought a bunch of new models.  There’s nothing like the satisfaction of seeing a new model fly successfully. 

There were a raft of new One Design models flitting about.  Steve’s “Tony the Tiger” Chameleon was a crowd favorite and a fitting stablemate to his infamous “Cow” Pussycat model. 

Kash brought a table full of new models including a nice flying stick model from the old Comet Build & Fly series.  He had another all-sheet balsa stick model flying – an original design we think.  Oh, and only a burst motor kept him out of the WW2 mass launch winners circle.  Way to go Kash!  

Intrepid Canadian flyer, Luc, trimmed his French Dewoitine fighter to circle nicely in the gym, but a burst motor also kept him out of the finals.  Rich’s steady flying Comet P-40 held the course to win the WW2 mass launch event.

Richard B. had a nice Chameleon that was dealing with some nasty wing warps.  A new Taylorcraft Dimer looked promising in flight – now if only it can be convinced to turn!

A pretty little Super Ace parasol was seen flying out of the Maine corner of the gym.  Some nice first flights for this model.  Ara thrilled the gang with his CO2 powered model.  It’s not often we see these  expansion engine powered models.

Bill’s Chameleon was pretty in it’s blue and yellow US Army Air Corps livery and his big new SE-5a World War 1 fighter wowed the gang by flying in stable flat circles.

Sam brought his new WW1 Bristol Fighter that some of the gang got to see fly in Glastonbury, CT a few weeks back.  Tom’s DH-4 another new WW1 recon biplane was also making circuits in the gym.  Tony’s neat Halberstadt fighter flew in the WW1 mass launch event too.

Alec, another youthful local flyer, flew several models from a Guillow’s stick job, to a Pussycat and an Embryo Endurance ship.

The Rittmeister challenged Ray’s indomitable Pussycat with his own new Pussycat model in the mass launch event. 

William, busy preparing for his 2nd year Engineering studies, flew his old reliable and highly competitive fleet of models.  He shared some neat new tong tools – a design/make exercise at school.  Thanks William!

In between all of this flying, a number of competition events were held.

Steve shared the Official Results below:

Remember, we’ll be back flying in the Penn Brook School gym on Sunday February 4.  See you on the flightline skyster!

Indoor Flying is Here!

Check the Calendar for the Georgetown, MA and Glastonbury, CT flying dates.

See you in the gym!


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Baby Glider mass launch at the Durham Turkey Fly!
Kash with the Rittmeister’s winning Roland D2
A pretty Guillow’s Piper Supercruiser at the 11/4 Woodsom Farm meet
Bird Dog launch at Spencer-Peirce Little Farm, Newbury, MA
Another Chameleon One Design model. Check the One Design page for Plan & Rules download.

Club Meetings too!


Hey there clubsters, Turkey Day is long passed and we have a lot to catch you up on.  Let’s get on with it!

Club Meetings @ Georgetown MA Library

Yep, we all miss the meetings at Jim F’s Golden Age Repro headquarters.  So we’ve started up a new monthly club meeting at the Georgetown, MA public library.  Check the Coming Events in the sidebar, or the Calendar for the Monday 6-8pm meeting dates. Click the event link for the library address.

Indoor Dates Posted

All indoor flying & contest dates for both the Georgetown, MA and Glastonbury, CT gyms have been posted to the Calendar and will appear in the Coming Events in the sidebar on this site.  The Georgetown Event Flyers will be posted soon.

Better get cracking on your Chameleon as these indoor flying dates are here!

Outdoor Flying Season Closes

The outdoor flying season closed with a rush of activity.  Two excellent meets were held on Nov 4 and Nov 12 at Woodsom Farm (Amesbury, MA) and Whites Farm (Durham, CT).  Memories of fine weather and great flights will help keep clubsters inspired during the winter months.   Check out the pics in the sidebar and the Amesbury Nov 4 results below.

November 4 Meet Results 1

November 4 Meet Results 2

See you in the gym(s), or at the club meetings skyster!

One Design Plan Posted & Oct 9 Meet Results

Outdoor flying finale
Nov 4 FAC Meet at Woodsom Farm, Amesbury

See you there!


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We try to avoid this by rescheduling our meets when necessary!
Ric P shows off his Baby Flea FAC Sport model at the recent Durham meet
Steve B shows off his high flying Laird LC-DE at Durham meet.
John K and Fairchild dime scale model at Durham meet
Jim and Marc show their Jimmy Allen FAC Sport models at the Fall Durham FAC meet

A beautiful flying day!


One of the best features of Woodsom Farm is the ability to reschedule flying meets if the forecast is bad.

This was the case for the October 7 scheduled meet.  Rain was forecast, so the meet was moved to Columbus Day 10/9.  It was sunny, cool and calm in the morning – perfect flying weather.  A gentle breeze picked up in the afternoon and all events were flown.  A group of flyers had a lot of fun and friendly competition with their towline scale gliders.  Our stealthy roving reporter was there –

“Steve E led the pack early with an 85sec flight on his new Megow Primary in the light and calm morning air.  Sam B (Waco CG-4), Bill M (Slingsby) and Tom N (Ruby homebuilt) chased him in the breezier afternoon air.  Bill’s Slingsby had probably the straightest tows, but he held off going to full line length and the glide while good, needed some tweaking.  Tom’s Ruby went up straighter on the tow and managed a 49sec flight, but Sam came on with a 70sec final flight on his Waco to force Steve to bring out his little Primary in the wind.  Snoopy climbed that Primary fast and high, but just couldn’t get any lift in the late afternoon air.  Steve’s last three  mid-20sec flights were not enough to catch Sam who won the event.” Wow!

October 9 Meet Results 1

October 9 Meet Results 2

Don’t miss your last chances to join in the outdoor flying fun – Nov 4 at Woodsom Farm in Amesbury, MA and Nov 12 at Whites Farm in Durham, CT.

One Design Page Updated

We finally got around to updating the One Design page for the 2023-24 one design model, the Phantom Flash II Chameleon.
Check out the page for the free construction plan download along with the Parts page and the 2023-24 One Design Rules.Oh, and the Calendar page on this site has been updated for the Glastonbury High School indoor flying dates.  We expect to add the Georgetown, MA Penn Brook School indoor flying dates soon.We heard the first indoor flying date in the Glastonbury HS gym had around ten  Chameleons flying around nicely.  Start building yours and join in the fun!

Aug Amesbury Meet Results – Sept 9 Meet Next Up!

Saturday Sept 9 FAC Meet at Woodsom Farm, Amesbury

Be there!


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Sept 9 Amesbury Meet Flyer (click to enlarge)
Two Richards at Woodsom Farm showing off their models
Steve K and Lulu glider at the Woodsom Farm August meet
The Pelatowski Stork – look for a free Plan Download here soon!
Sam B won the Goodyear Mass Launch event with his Little Gem
Final heat in the National Air Race mass launch event

Towline Event FUN!


Saturday August 26 dawned wet with the promise of rains to come through the day.  With seemingly better weather coming, the meet was pushed to the next day.  Sure enough it rained hard Sunday morning, but a stalwart group of flyers showed up at Woodsom Farm and waited it out.  Yep, the skies proceeded to clear yielding a nice flying day with afternoon sun and thermals.   Don’t trust the weatherman – better to show up and be ready to fly.

At least three new Megow Primary Gliders showed up.  The towline winches were brought out and soon gliders were going up high over the newly hayed field.  Clubster Steve E. led the pack from the beginning, his Snoopy-piloted Megow Primary putting up long flights.  He capped off the win with a massive flyaway 5 min+ flight into the late summer clouds!  Alas, no pics of the high-flying Primary were taken before it went OOS.  Perhaps Steve will build another. 

We’ll be flying the Towline Scale event again at the Sept 9 Woodsom Farm meet in Amesbury, MA.  Come and see what it’s all about!

Steve K brought his nostalgic Lulu towline glider and flew it several times.  Fitted with a mechanical DT and Auto-rudder, Lulu showed the gang what a fully-fitted out towliner can do.  Word is FAC GHQ is considering a new event for these classic non-scale gliders. 

Towliners are Fun!

 

The Pinkham Stick event was flown once more and sure enough Steve E copped this event again.  His canard Goose got the win, but his new Stick model, the Stork,  developed with FAC veteran Ed Pelatowski, finished a close second.  Plans for the Pelatowski Stork will be offered for free download on this site soon.  Keep your eyes peeled for it’s release skyster.  And congrats to Steve’s double-Kanone day at the August Woodsom Farm meet!

Remember there’s another Flying Aces Club free-flight model airplane meet coming up on September 9 at Woodsom Farm in Amesbury MA.  Full Flyer with Directions and Contacts HERE.

Fall is the best time to fly rubber-p0wered model airplanes outside and the season will pass by quickly.  Don’t miss an opportunity to fly, or check out the action on this big beautiful field!

Feb 5 Georgetown Results & Balsa Strength Article

A technical look at Balsa strength as a function of density. 


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William S uses a cantilever beam to measure balsa strength.  Read his article HERE
Feb 5 Georgetown Indoor Meet Results (click to enlarge)
Feb 5 Georgetown Indoor Meet Results (click to enlarge)
Competitors wind their Guillows Bird Dogs in 12min of Georgetown
George S WW2 mass launch winning Guillows Typhoon
Ray H’s Dime Scale winning Comet Corben Super Ace

Next Indoor Meet March 12


Hi gang, we’ve got a double feature of sorts for you this time.

The indoor flying season is at a peak with lots of great flying both at the Penn Brook School in Georgetown, MA and the Glastonbury High School in CT.  Click the images at left to check out the Feb 5 Georgetown meet.  The competition remains very close with enough surprises thrown in (midair collisions, rafter hangups, etc.) to keep things interesting.  We’ll share some highlights below.  

On top of that, we’ve got a nice article on Balsa Strength by our own engineer-in-training William S.  Those of us not familiar with Young’s Modulus need to click the link below and learn something new.  And we look forward to hearing thoughts from our seasoned Stealth Sqdn engineers – oh yes, we have a few and they’re not shy!

Back to the Feb 5 flying…   Well, William not only knows his tech, he knows how to fly models too!  His Earhart Vega and Time Flies embryo were back in the winners circle.  Pop George also stretched the winning streak with his Typhoon (WW2 combat) and edged out Sam B’s circle burning Bird Dog with his own steady circling Guillow’s Bird Dog.  Still, if it weren’t for a few cut pylons and a controversial mid flight collision with George’s body as the final minutes ticked down, the finish might have been different.  The spectators certainly enjoyed the show!

Ray H hung his top-placing Pussycat up in the curtain which opened the door for Sam B and Steve K to duke it out in the final heat where Sam eked out the win.  Jon C didn’t have quite enough time to tame the trim gremlins in his Pussycat, or he’d have been a factor in the final too.

Ray came back strong, however, putting up tremendous flights with both his Corben Super Ace to win Dime Scale, and his Voisin Hydro to win Pioneer Scale.  Both of these models were flying near 2min flights within the confines of a basketball half-court.  Truly world-class flying that one needs to see to believe.

Steve Evans was busy detuning the climb in his Mad Maxine embryo and had it skimming the rafters nicely later in the meet.

The WW1 combat event was competitive as ever.  Tom N picked the wrong side of the gym to launch his Nungesser Nieuport and Rich Z’s colorful Fokker DVII siezed the opportunity to pull up underneath the little Ni17, flipping it over and sending it to the floor.  The Mercedes in the Rittmeister’s dastardly Fokker must’ve thrown a rod as it just couldn’t keep up with Sam B’s slick Ansaldo SVA which emerged victorious in the end.

At least one new Pinkham Stick model was seen flitting about – this one a triplane constructed from the laser cut parts Jon C. donated at the last indoor meet. 

The next Georgetown Indoor Meet is March 12 in the Penn Brook School.  See you there — and remember to check out the Article below too!

Read Balsa Strength Article Now