Weatherford Aero Modeling Society RC Club
WAMS Established in 1986
WAMS News Letters
Vice President: David Moore [email protected]
Secretary: Carole Savage [email protected]
Treasurer: Verne (Sarge) Bell [email protected]
Field Safety Ofcr: Roger Guinn [email protected]
Newsletter Editor: Bernie Olson [email protected]
Newsletter submissions to [email protected]
WAMS News
New Officers – Our WAMS Officers for 2019 were elected in a landslide victory at the Christmas party. It’s basically the same cast of characters except John Savage moves to club President and David Moore steps into John’s former role of Vice President. Welcome aboard all and thanks for volunteering!
2019 Dues – It’s that time of year again. Be sure to send your membership dues to Sarge with the form at the end of the newsletter.
Runway Repair – The club approved funding for replacing and flattening the runway. We’ll benefit from three key changes in the process:
1. The current surface will be replaced with more durable material. Please come out and lend a hand once a date is set.
2. The runway area will then be graded to cut down that annoying hump. It will still be gently sloped, but hopefully, a lot flatter.
3. After grading but before the new material is rolled out, gopher repellent will be applied liberally to the area. It may take a week or two, but once the rodents have vacated and their trails have been raked smooth, the new runway material will be rolled out. We have had success with a castor-based granular repellent in the past. It’s a safe material that gophers and moles just don’t like being around. Can you blame them? Unfortunately we discovered the product after installing the current runway mat and were never able to spread it under the runway - only around its perimeter. This time we have the opportunity to get that stuff down where it will do the most good and we’ll put down a heavy dose so it lasts.
In the meantime, we’ll mow the runway area wider and fly off grass during runway repairs.
Upcoming Club Events
January 1 – New Year Fly-In at WAMS field. Come out and kick off 2019 properly. We’ll start
gathering around noon. Bring whatever you want to fly but if you have a WWII combat foamie
bring it along and we’ll chase some streamers. Jack plans to lay out a winch so bring a sailplane
if you have one. Black-eye peas and cornbread will be provided.
Other News
Drone Sightings around Aircraft & Airports Exceed 100/Month – Report from the FAA
“Reports of unmanned aircraft (UAS) sightings from pilots, citizens and law enforcement have
iincreased dramatically over the past two years. The FAA now receives more than 100 such
reports each month. The agency wants to send out a clear message that operating drones
around airplanes, helicopters and airports is dangerous and illegal. Unauthorized operators may
be subject to stiff fines and criminal charges, including possible jail time.
The FAA continues to work closely with its industry partners through the "Know Before You Fly"
campaign to educate unmanned aircraft users about where they can operate within the rules. The
agency also is working closely with the law enforcement community to identify and investigate
unauthorized unmanned aircraft operations. The FAA has levied civil penalties for a number of
unauthorized flights in various parts of the country, and has many open enforcement cases.
The FAA encourages the public to report unauthorized drone operations to local law enforcement
and to help discourage this dangerous, illegal activity.”
https://www.faa.gov/uas/resources/uas_sightings_report/
On a related note, London’s Gatwick airport was closed Wednesday night Dec 19 and much of
the next day due to repeated interference by drones. When the runway was first reopened about
3 am on the 20th, the drones reappeared and the airport was shut down again until 4:00 pm that
day. 120,000 travelers have been impacted and the airport expects it to take days to return to
normal. This is exactly the kind of publicity that’s going to hurt our case during rules negotiations
with the FAA in 2019.
Solid State Propulsion
The big-brains at MIT recently flew a model airplane with solid state propulsion. Performance
wasn’t exactly eye watering but it’s a pretty interesting concept just the same. The model is
propelled silently by ionic wind. Now you may ask; ‘what is ionic wind?’ Darned if I know, but
Steven Barrett, the guy who dreamed it up describes the approach:
The model has four pairs of wires stretched under the wings. Each pair has a forward wire that’s
positively charged and an aft wire that’s negatively charged. The positively charged wire causes
electrons in the air to collide with other atoms and molecules which then release some of their
electrons. The end result is an flow of electrons from the positive wire to the negative wire
creating an ‘ionic wind’ that pushes the model forward.
Several hundred years ago Newton told us that for every action there’s an equal and opposite
reaction. Even though this is moving something as small as electrons there are enough of them
to create enough force to propel this model.
The plane has been flown indoors and gained about a foot of altitude while under power
. Somewhat reminiscent of those first flights the Wrights made at Kill Devil Hills in 1903.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/airplane-charged-molecules-ionic-wind
Dreaming of Summer