From: Alan Hieger

Date: Mon, Apr 4, 2016 at 6:18 AM

Subject: VCB Weekly Nag 4-4-16

Today is Monday, and Spring has sprung.  Now, someone tell the weatherman, as the denizens of the Midwest and Northern plains continue to shovel the partly cloudy from their driveways and walks.  Let's get started.

Official VCB Business

The Angelfest Crisis: An Editorial

You guys made me the editor, so it's my prerogative.

It was certainly my intent to activate the membership, but gee whiz, a little perspective is in order.  It's time to take a step back, breathe deeply, and take a chill pill, at least in the short term.

Responses to the Angelfest proposal started at, "Oh Hell no!," and escalated from there.  Particularly vehement were those from members whom we share with the Knights of the Round Circle (henceforth forever known in these "pages" as the KOTRC), who related tales of an analogous experience at the Whittier Narrows field which resulted in severe damage to the circles and surrounding properties, wholesale drug abuse (I am shocked!  Shocked!) and criminality, and even a death.  I do not intend to minimize these concerns, but the fact that the city has provisionally green-lighted the project should be a clue that highlighting these concerns might not be the most promising approach to these issues.

Understand that this is not a done deal.  Last week, Deborah Lamb of the Army Corps of Engineers responded to Ray Firkins regarding our concerns.  The letter read in its entirety: "Thank you for your interest in the proposed project.  The Environmental Assessment should be available for public review within the next few weeks."  In other words, no final decision has been reached, and there will be an opportunity to provide our input.  Additionally, it should be realized that we have numerous allies beyond the modeling community who do not in any way want this festival to take place including, but not limited to: area residents, golfers and golf course management, tree-huggers, bird lovers, some nearby businesses, and park users of various stripes.

Ms. Lamb's response has been forwarded to Laurence Tougas, AMA District X VP, who continues to follow developments with appropriate interest.

At this point it would seem that cautious optimism is warranted.  Never fear: you will be kept well-informed.

Proposed Format Change Results

The voting is done, the results are in.  Democracy is a messy thing.  With 60-odd members eligible to vote, I received a total of ten legitimate votes, for a participation rate of roughly 15%.  This is not a complaint, merely an observation that it would seem that the format of this communication is not a burning issue.  I say ten legitimate votes because there were several instances of multiple voting, probably due to my having provided a "clarification" in mid vote.  I have to conclude that some other force or forces were also in play, since one member voted a total of four times.  Gotcha!

Some interpretation of results is needed.  I gave you an "A or B" choice, and received votes for options A, B, C, and 4.  The pluraliity split evenly between "Leave it as it is," and "Do whatever is easiest best for you," at four votes each.  There was a single affirmative vote for the PDF file attachment option, and a single vote that I use a methodology which had not been proposed, but which was purported to be superior in various ways.  This monkey suggests that this latter individual get together with my tech guru/best friend and, well, spank the monkey (joke).

In light of the results above, I envisage no changes to format in the immediate future.  I remain open to suggestions, but implementation will have to wait until my hopelessly obsolescent desktop is replaced and I have enough free time to learn the required software and procedures.  Honestly, I generally have other things I'd rather do.

Bylaws

I am now officially in Nancy Drew mode, but will take no affirmative action until I get my business taxes done.

May Meet

The sanction has been officially received, and we are go for Saturday May 21.  Activities will include a swap meet, fun fly, and maybe an "uncontest."

Basin Field Activity

Wednesday's flying session had light turnout. Only Steve Schiff, with his Gieske Nobler, and Jim Luekin, with his OTS-legal Viking came out.

Sunday's turnout was predictably higher as the "flying season" has fully arrived.  Over a dozen people passed through during the day, with both northern circles in use well into the afternoon.  For the most part, participants included the usual suspects flying the usual equipment.  Notable exceptions included a pair of PDQ Baby Clowns: a Medallion .049-powered example campaigned by Dave Hull, and an electron-burner version flown by a nonmember who was, I believe, named Israel.  Language issues, and equipment problems with my Magician (bad glow plug, as it turned out) kept me from getting full information.

Bob Palmer Memorial

Just a reminder that the KOTRC club is conducting this year's Palmer Memorial contest on April 23-24 at the Whittier Narrows field in El Monte.  Bob was for many years a VCB member, and it would be really nice if we could regain sufficient tactical capability to reclaim the contest from our sister club and return it to the Basin.  Perhaps this is something we could discuss in the future.

Human Resources

In order for the VCB to successfully put on contests, volunteers will always be needed to perform various functions.  Some, like field setup, can be performed by anyone who can be strongarmed/jawboned/shamed into volunteering, but many require specialized skills.  If we intend to continue forward as a competition sponsor, we need to identify and expand our resources in several areas.

Contest Directors--The job requires nominal AMA certification, as well as the ability to exhibit significant knowledge of rule book content in the events of interest.  I'd appreciate anyone holding a current CD ticket to self-identify by doing a "reply to sender" (I won't out you without permission) to this missive.  If anyone else is willing to pursue qualification, that would be a major asset to the club.

Stunt Judges--The job requires a working knowledge of the various official stunt patterns, an awareness of the elements of flight which go into scoring, plus experience and an "eye" for the task.  I'd like to establish a roster of "go to" candidates which could be made available to prospective CDs, and again request self-identification, beginning with myself.  Here we could expand our resource base by conducting one or more judging clinics, which I am hereby volunteering to conduct.  I'm certainly no Keith Trostle, but I have attended several of his seminars and have over 16 years of stunt judging experience, including 14 Vintage Stunt Championships.  I have never been Nats qualified, however, so there's that.

Attitude Judges--Needed for Carrier events.  Relates to the 50 degree maximum nose-high rule, not flyers field behavior.  To Tony Naccarato and the rest of our carrier cohort:  who have you got, and do you need anything other than those ping-pong paddle sighting devices to have useful workers.

Timers--Needed for Carrier and Speed.  Must be quick on a stopwatch, and preferably should own one.

Cut Counters--Needed for Combat.  Anybody want to fly a contest over pavement?

Scale Judges--Is anybody left in the club who can reasonably evaluate a documentation set?  With Fred Cronenwett and Grant Hiestand no longer in the area, does anybody still care?

In the end, if we identify our resource base ahead of time, we will be able to schedule competitions confidently, without fear of last -minute scrambles, or of doing a crap job.  There is no shame in deciding we want the club to be a non-competition oriented social organization, but if so we should make a conscious decision to do so.  Otherwise we're just kidding ourselves.

Okay.  Climbing down from the soapbox for the second time this week.

Unofficial/Fun Stuff

Playmate of the Week

Thanks to Jim Luekin, everyone gets one more week until we're all reduced to looking at dredgings from my photo album.  Check out this beauty.

Jim relates that this beautiful OTS Viking (which was the one he was flying on Wednesday) was constructed for him from a Brodak kit by Jim Levell "after a month or so of polite discussions. . .make that pleading!"  The silkspan covering was applied and sealed with nitrate dope, followed by spray application of color courtesy of Pep Boys Dupli Color paints.  Final fuel-proofing was provided by multiple sprayed coates of butyrate dope, brand unspecified.  It was either brave of Jim (Levell) to court compatibility issues in this finish or he did significant proof of feasibility tests.  This combination of transparent covering and opaque color trim is extremely attractive when well done, but it has a tendency to highlight every workmanship flaw, so a certain amount of courage is required simply to attempt these schemes.  They seem to turn up most frequently on OTS designs such as this one, but the effect on classic era I-beam designs needs to be seen to be believed.  Jim is powering his bird with a Magnum .46GP which required more than a little initial tweaking, but which is now providing reliable runs.  Next stop for the Viking: its competition debut at the Palmer Memorial.  Thanks Jim(s) for the preview.

Wanna Go Flying?

I sure do, but the imminence of tax time means I'm out of action again until the weekend.  I suspect you guys can manage to have a good time without me, so get your half-formed intentions into the "reply all" stream and link up.

Broken Promise OMT

I'd like to do a creditable job on the "miracle silkspan repair" how-to but, taxes. . .  I really, really, really promise to make good on this soon.

Do You Know Me?

The original Nag distribution list which I stole from Bill Barber contains the name of a flyer who does not appear on the VCB roster: Burn Dup.  Now I have never met Mr. Dup, nor have I ever encountered references to Burn in any of the usual stunt publications.  I'd like to track him down and provide him with the kind of public exposure he undoubtedly deserves, which would certainly be on a par with that of his purported relative, Deez Nutz.  Note that the Nag is successfully transmitted to his e-mail address each week, so Mr. Dup actually exists in some incarnation, even if his true identity is hidden (perhaps to avoid the attention of various authorities?).  April 1 always seems to do fascinating things to my computer files.

TTFN

Until a less taxing time.