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!
Tag: Glastonbury
Woodsom Meet Resched to 5/18!
New Amesbury Meet date (May 18) – same place, time, events
See you there!
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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
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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!
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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!
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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!
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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!
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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
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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!
Fying Aces Take Flight at Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm!
Exhibition Flying at Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm in Newbury MA on June 8, 2024
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CHANGE: May 11 1st Outdoor Meet
Whew. Just like that the Indoor Flying Season is over! The April 14 meet at the Penn Book School in Georgetown was a big success, with lots of entries in many of the events. See the Results Sheets below:
And the following week, flyers gathered at the Glastonbury High School in CT for the final indoor meet at that site. Check out the great pics of the action that Clubster John R took HERE. Thanks for sharing John!
Flying Aces Take Flight at Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm!
Yep, that’s right, on June 8 the Stealth Squadron FAC club #49 will put on a stick-and-tissue rubber powered model airplane exhibition at the Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm in beautiful Newbury MA. From 11am to 2pm, Stealth Squadroneers will fly their models in several exhibition events and help attendees get their stick models (included with public admission tickets) flying at this historic early New England farm. Check out the Event Listing on the Historic New England site and tell your family and friends to come join us at the event!
Last Club Meeting of the Season coming up!
Monday May 6 will be the final club meeting of the season at the Georgetown Public Library. Check out the sidebar or Calendar listings for the details. With the good weather and longer days, we’ll be planning more impromptu flying sessions at the testing field off the parking lot at Woodsom Farm in Amesbury, MA. Perhaps our club meetings will be at this field.
See you at the May 11 meet at Woodsom Farm, skyster!
High Performance Indoor Scale Model Comparison
Indoor Contests: January 8 in Glastonbury, CT & January 15 in Georgetown MA
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Lessons from the Glastonbury Gym
Do you remember when we used to fly free flight rubber models in the MIT Dupont Gym in Cambridge MA? Perhaps you flew there with us.
One of the top flyers there, Jim D., built a couple of flying scale models from the popular Golden Age Reproductions kits and plans. One was the 25″ wingspan Scientific Curtiss Robin and the other was the Megow 20″ span Caudron C460 Racer. They were fabulous flyers with flight times of 80sec to 2min duration indoors.
Being an engineer, Jim documented the key specifications for his models – weights, wing area, motor dimensions, etc. He also charted the empirical results from a number of flights on each model in the Glastonbury high school gym. Yes, this is the same gym we’ll be flying in on January 8, 2023!
In his analysis (click link below), Jim compares the performance of the two models and draws some insightful conclusions. He comments on high wing vs. low wing configuration, the effects of drag and wing undercamber among other things.
There’s lots of great information in this brief analysis for both experienced and newer modelers. If you can replicate Jim’s specifications, you’ll be very competitive in indoor meets like the ones coming up in January 2023. Good luck skyster!