Mid-Virginia Radio Control Club

Dear MVRC members,

It is with great sadness that I must inform you that one of our members, Ray Baker, passed away suddenly in January 2008. Ray was a dedicated member of Mid-Virginia Radio Control Club and a close friend to many of us.

Throughout his membership with MVRC, Ray was always helpful and willing to serve our club. Ray was mostly known as a RC helicopter pilot. Ray was a regular attendee at our club meetings and took great pride and seriousness in his responsibility to make sure our Wagoner Field was mowed on a regular basis. We will always remember Ray as an easy going fellow that always had a soft joke or joyful remark to share that earned smiles from his fellow modelers.

On behalf of the Mid-Virginia Radio Control Club, we offer our sympathy and condolences to Ray’s family and the many friends he leaves behind. We will all miss him.

Lowell Carrington
President, Mid-Virginia Radio Control Club

Popularity: 32% [?]

If you’re interested in traveling for your hobby bargains, the Central Penn Aeromodelers Association will hold its 28th Annual Flea Market on Saturday, March 8, 2008 at the Fairgrounds in Lebanon, PA. This event ti touted as the Largest RC Flea Market in the USA with 602 tables covering 41,000 square feet indoors! The flyer with detailed information and a selection of photos from past events is available on the CPAA Web site.

Popularity: 41% [?]

I spent the morning configuring the list-serve on our club’s server and I’m minutes away from hitting the “go” button. What’s a list-serv? That’s the Internet geek term for an email distribution list. It’s a simple concept: send a message to one address and everybody gets it. Much more convenient than managing an email header with a bunch of addresses.

Everyone who has given us an email address is being subscribed. I’m going to allow non-members (from nearby clubs) to subscribe by request.

Take a moment to read the guidelines for using the list.

Popularity: 41% [?]

Just North of Ashland at Big Jerry’s RC Airport, an IMAC sanctioned contest was held on June 23 and 24 and was a smashing success! The property owner, Jerry Huntsinger, his son Kent (aka: flyin woodbutcher) Some amazing top-drawer sequence flying was the order of the first day and some breathtaking freestyle performances graced the skys on the second.

Look for this awesome event to be repeated on the weekend of May 31 and June 1, 2008. It’s just a short scoot Noth on I-95. Don’t miss it!

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Few events stand out as spectacular and gratifying as the annual gathering of R/C Modelers at the “Joe Nall”. The event, simply known as “The Nall”, is a weeklong fly-in hosted by Mr. Pat Hartness near Woodruff, South Carolina. Folks come from all over the world just to spend the week at the Triple Tree Aerodrome and fly, and fly, and fly. With over 540 registered pilots and seven flight stations, you are assured of having plenty of time at the sticks no matter what type of IMAA plane you fly.

Flying is only part of what The Nall is about and you will come away with a sore arm from all the handshakes and a sore neck from watching some of the best pilots in the world perform at the daily noontime demos. This year featured several Duo Acts with the first being Mr. Frank Noll flying his 33% CAP alongside Matt Chapman in his full size, Thunderbolt powered, CAP 580! It was truly amazing to watch a model and a full size aerobatic plane perform in perfect synchronization.

Flying starts at dawn and the flight line on Thursday night had about 40 people on it well past midnight, the planes being decked out in strings of multicolored lights. After flying, the campfires and grills are lit and folks start to rail of the glories of the past year and revel in the events of the day. Sleep is something that is put as secondary for fear of missing an important gathering, or a good meal served past midnight.

I hope you can find time in your schedule to attend one of the Nall events. You will never look at modeling the same again. Please visit www.flyinggiants.com for over 2000 pictures from this year’s Joe Nall.

Popularity: 97% [?]

They will allow members to issue feedback and opinions on issues that affect the club. You must be a member of the site to vote and you may vote only once.

If you would liked to see a question asked and answered by the membership, either send me an email, use the contact form or leave a comment at the bottom of this page. I’ll create the poll and post it to the site. For now the polls will stay open indefinitley. As they become more popular, I may limit the time frame that they are open.

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This was just reported to me by Len Rozamus:

“I was saddened to learn that Dave Robelen has gone on to the ultimate flying field. This, a week after I flew one of his Pronto designs at our fun fly, evoking discussions about Dave.

The photo here was taken at a free flight contest at Dinwiddie Airport where I had the pleasure of spending the day with Dave and his daughter. The airplane he holds was one of many this prolific designer, builder and columnist was known for. We will miss him.”

Agreed. He was a great contributor to the hobby. I’ve got an old, damaged Playmate I’ll probably now rebuild, and plans for the smaller, e-powered Playmate XL. I will pursue both projects now as a tribute to this great talent.

Edit: April 12, 1:56pm. There is a touching tribute thread growing on RCGroups.com. If you’ve ever met him or built one of his designs, you might want to drop in and leave a remembrance.

Popularity: 85% [?]

Dan Slagle Uploaded over 30mb of digital photos to our server. My dad also shot a few worth sharing. I decided that rather go through the time-consuming task of processing and posting all of the images myself, I thought it would make more sense to put that time into a gallery feature that would allow members to do it themselves.

It was great to see so many digital cameras being used, but I broke out in cold sweats when I suddenly realized that all of the data that they were capturing might be heading my way.

Its a start. I’ll be creating a page soon that asks for comments and input on the Gallery’s configuration.

Popularity: 86% [?]

This new Web site, an open line of communications, has been up for nearly two weeks now.

With the exception of contributions from our newsletter editor, I have seen no more that a few visits from anonymous visitors. Maybe I’m just too impatient, too caught up in this digital age of instant gratification, but I had expected a bit more of a rapid embrace of the new format. After all, every MVRCC member now has the opportunity to have a voice on this Web site. It is not my agenda to use this as my own personal soapbox, But with nobody else willing to speak up, it begins to appear that it is.

That being said, I’m tossing out a couple of items that are significant to a number of members as catalyst for discussion:

First is the news that Hobby Corner will soon close. No big surprise to some, but nonetheless, a huge inconvenience to most. I interviewed Yvonne briefly and reported on it.

Secondly, when the wind is howling, the precipitation is stinging, where you gonna fly? The availability of small, cheap, electric aircraft open up many possibilities. Indoor venues are out there, but will require action on our part as a club. Don’t just sit there and expect to be invited!

Popularity: 78% [?]

This site is set up so that club members wanting to join will have to contact me to do so. Get the page password here and my email address here. The public at large will be able to view MOST pages on the site, but there will be a few pages and features accessible ONLY to registered members. It just has to be that way to minimize the workload of those of us who are charged with monitoring the content.

As time goes on, I will be tweaking the format, adding new features and doing all I can to make this something our membership can utilize to its best benefit. If you have any ideas, hopes and dreams for this site, let me know… we’re open for business!

By the way, the March 2007 newsletter is up and more details about the Spring Fun Fly are available. Have fun!

Popularity: 76% [?]

Please keep below the posted speed and expect the unexpected. This week we are transitioning this site to a new host, so expect a few potholes and workers stepping onto the highway. My goal is to be finished by week’s end. From there, we push the left stick forward, up the throws and start tryin’ stuff. We have a new domain, http://midvarc.com/ , but will also be pointing the old one to the new site eventually. Your patience is appreciated.

Popularity: 74% [?]

In an effort to exploit the full potential of the World Wide Web as a two way communications channel, the site you are viewing is phase 1 of a three stage proposal being offered. It will enable us to greatly enhance the quality of communications within the membership, with nearby clubs and the general public.

Membership on this level of the website is limited to that of MVRCC’s active member list. From time-to-time we may well grant membership to special contributors and liaisons from nearby clubs. Upon approval of this website, the administrator will collect and process email addresses from everyone to allow them access to the “members only” features of the site.

Content published on this site will be contributed and maintained by our membership, however, anybody in the world can view our content using a modern Web browser.

All content from the old site will be re-purposed and formatted to reside this site over time, once the domain is relocated to the appropriate host. It’s good content that should not be lost.

To read the full proposal about all three stages, look here.

Popularity: 49% [?]