SCAT Electronic News 21 February 1999
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SCAT Electronic News 21 February 1999
Table of Contents
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Contest Flying at WPAFB: The END of an Era! - Norm Poti
Seen/heard at the Feb SCAT meeting
A 'beginner's' point of view on the rules
Contest Flying at WPAFB: The END of an Era!
===========================================
For the past two plus decades, Wright-Patterson Air Force
Base (WPAFB), located in Dayton Ohio, has been the cornerstone
for free flight activity in the Midwest. The flying field is
actually on Wright Field, the deactivated part of the Wright-
Patterson complex. The field is triangular in shape and
consists of three runways, each over a mile long with grass on
the interior and on over-fly areas surrounding the runways. In
the heart of the Midwest, which is mostly farmed in the summer
months, this oasis has been a primary contest and practice site
for the free flight clubs of Ohio and Indiana. Since the mid
1970's many local and regional events have been held here. In
addition, the free flight portion of the 1980 National Model
Airplane Championships and several Semi-Finals for the
international FAI program have been hosted here. In the recent
past, these contests have occurred at a frequency of up to 8 per
year, most of which have been scheduled as two day affairs. In
short, WPAFB has been the Mecca of free flight activity in the
Midwest for some time now.
To legitimize these functions, the free flight modelers who
worked at WPAFB organized into a club, under the guise of the
Moral, Welfare & Recreation Office, and became the Free Flight
Aeromodelers Society (FFAMS). That organization has interfaced
with the Real Estate Management and Security Police offices to
obtain proper admittance for both FFAMS members and non members.
The FFAMS has maintained a good working relationship with the
Air Force and was successful in maintaining use of the field
through many changes of command.
In recent years the free flighters have seen a continual
degradation in the quality of this site for free flight
modeling. Other uses of the field for both official and
recreational purposes have seriously eroded the suitability of
the field for contest flying. While the existing Air Force
Museum was located on one of the three primary runways, it was
on the north-west side of the field and did not pose much of a
problem as the winds seldom came from that direction. But the
addition of a second Air Force Museum building on the interior
side of the triangle did pose a formidable obstacle, but not
always a factor due wind direction.
Then came one of the most obtrusive impacts to our flying
activities, namely a security fence that was erected to
partition off the southern portion of the field for official
testing activities during normal working hours. While our
weekend contest activities did not conflict with this testing,
the security fence was a formidable foe to our models (which
quite often glided into the fence). Also retrieval on foot was
made nearly impossible when the wind blew perpendicular to the
fence, as there is only one gate through the fence on the far
east end. Other recreational uses of the field also started to
play a major role in the use of the field for contest flying. A
new first-class softball complex, with four lighted diamonds was
located on the grassy interior of the triangular runways. Then
designated soccer fields with goal posts became the norm in the
area next to the softball diamond complex, particularly during
the spring and early summer flying season. To make matters
worse, many shade trees were planted on the main north south
road that is used for primary access to the field, as well as
the area surrounding the softball diamond complex. In the most
recent past, several new buildings on the east side of the field
were erected, reducing severely the over-fly area to the east.
These obtrusions, as well as in increase in organized weekend
activities such as soccer and baseball tournaments, have
resulted in scheduling conflicts, rendering the field almost
useless for contest activities. In addition, it became known
that the Air Force gives priority to its paying guests and some
of our traditional dates such as Memorial Day weekend had to be
forfeited to soccer tournament activities. (Some of the larger
soccer tournaments rent the facility at $10,000 per day).
In 1998, the issue of riding motorcycles for retrieval
became a concern of the Base Security police. The FFAMS has
never obtained official authority to ride off-road motorcycles
in the grass areas of the flying site. Base regulations require
any licensed motorbike to be operated on paved roads only, and
that the operator wears a helmet and safety vest. This is an
Air Force-wide regulation that is enforced 24 hours a day 7 days
a week. Some of the security staff at WPAFB have been lenient,
and looked the other way while we rode off-road bikes during
retrievals. Recent downsizing of the security staff at WPAFB
has also downsized the leniency we are afforded. The FFAMS
experienced one contest where the day shift of security police
allowed motorcycle retrieval, but when the second shift arrived
at 5:00 PM they disallowed the same. With many of the free
flight modelers becoming more accustomed to retrieval on
motorcycles, as well as the security fence that makes retrieval
on foot impractical, the non-use of motorcycles for contest
flying thus became the final chapter in the legacy of this once
great flying site.
The above noted degradation of WPAFB as a free flight site
coupled with the proximity of the Academy of Model Aeronautics
(AMA) national flying site at Muncie Indiana, located 100 miles
to the west, has notably decreased participation at WPAFB
contests. In 1998 all but the FFAMS and Northern Ohio Free
Flight Association (NOFFA) had moved their contests to Muncie.
These last two organizations are moving their activities to
Muncie also in 1999. There will be no contests at WPAFB this
year. We are greatly appreciative to the United States Air
Force for the many years we were able to hold free flight
contests at WPAFB, but this has now come to an end. The FFAMS
has, however, reserved 4 weekends for informal practice sessions
in 1999. The approved 1999 practice flying dates are 8/9 May,
19/20 June, 17/18 July, 21/22 August. Anyone not a member of the
FFAMS wishing access for a practice session must be on an
approved list delivered to the Security police seven days in
advance of the session. Please contact the undersigned if you
want to attend one of these scheduled practice sessions. Assume
that all retrieval will be done on foot.
See you at Muncie this contest season!
Norman D. Poti
FFAMS President
5695 Marshall Dr.
Dayton Ohio 45429-6022
(937) 439-4831
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Seen/heard at the Feb SCAT meeting
==================================
Victor Stamov had the '99 version of his beginner model. This
is improved over the previous years model by the addition
of a wing wiggler.
Bob Wiehle, SCAT charter member and treasuer is in hospital,
send cards to his home at 7939 Wish Ave, Van Nuys, CA 91406-1022.
Bob need our encouragement at this time as he has encouraged
us in the past.
A 'beginner's' point of view on the rules
=========================================
Dick Wood
AMERICANS PLEASE PROPOSE A HOLD ON ALL F1B RULE CHANGES FOR 10 YEARS
Speakin as a newcomer the rules should not change often If you want the supply
of new fliers to continue. I have two friends that are thinking about
building a Wakefield, but I dont think that they would pursue a moving target
of rules changes. I know that I wouldnt have. I have invested 1 year of
flying time to Wakefield just to get to the novice stage. Thats a lot which
could be destroyed by the rule makers. The risk is too high for incoming
modelers if the event is not stable and a supply of new modelers is needed
since modelers are always quiting, gettin too old or going on to other things.
About the sports analogys:
Relate F1B to the PGA . The max is equivelent to par and the world cup
events are like the Majors in Golf. Masters, ect. The flyers are the best in
the world like the pro golfers are the best. Some have many years of
experience. You dont have to change all the golf courses just because a some
golfers (Tiger) got good. Even the best flyers in the world only hit maxes
at a 90 percent rate. So for a 14 round contest only 22 percent make the
flyoffs. Beginning modelers have to struggle to become consistent enough to
ever max out at a contest. Making the task harder is very very discouraging
to someone who is considering entering the event. The flyers who are
currently in the event have worked hard to get to where they can max out and
do not need the agrivation of trying to cope with poor performance models.
Personaly I am hooked on the Wakefield model because of the high performance.
I get a thrill every time they go and absolutely love to watch them glide
down. If the performance is severly hamperd like in SAM or SLOP the thrill
of the great flight would be gone. Almost every flyer on the field likes to
watch the hawks circle in a thermal and the wakes go up together at a contest.
That type of performance is needed to keep the best flyers in the world going.
In my opinion, without that type of performance I and a lot of potential
replacement flyers who are crossing over from other freellight activities will
not make the move. I hope that F1B rules are stable for at at least 10 years
at which time I will probably have to retire from flying F1B.
Please Have the American represenatives propose to put a hold on all F1B rule
changes for at least 10 years.
Dick Wood.
............................
Roger Morrell
