Sig Fly-In page 1 - page 2 - page 3 - page 4 - page 5 - page 6 - page 7 - page 8 (below) - News - Gallery

Photos from Sunday, June 10, 2007

Sig Fly-In page 1 - page 2 - page 3 - page 4 - page 5 - page 6 - page 7 - page 8 (above) - News - Gallery

Please allow me to preface the following remarks by saying that these are the observations, thoughts, ramblings and opinions of Shaun Zimmerman, who was just - one - of the many people who attended this year’s Sig Fly-In. The views expressed are those of the individual author, not JCRC. Other JCRC Members are welcome and encouraged to contribute their stories or opinions of the Sig Fly-In or any other event they may have been fortunate enough to attend. If appropriate, we may consider posting comments from non-JCRC members. As you can imagine, there were over 100 pilots that attended the Sig Fly-In, accordingly, there are over 100 different experiences. This is one. Enjoy.

Preface

For years I wanted to attend the Sig Fly-In. I have always heard that it was one of the biggest, nicest events to attend, not only in the Missouri area, but nationwide. For a variety of reasons I was never able to attend, plus it is a 6+ hour drive from Jefferson City , so the arrangements were never made. Then our Club was blessed to count among its members a great guy by the name of Paul Pennington. Paul has attended the Sig Fly-In for many years and he didn't stop just because he moved to the Mid-Missouri area. In fact, he started taking more-and-more JCRC members with him each year he attended, and yet, I still hadn't been among those fortunate enough to attend.

In the past, the organizers of the Sig Fly-In have traditionally held the Fly-In on Father's Day weekend. What better way to spend Father's Day than doing something that a Father enjoys!? Well, this worked great for some people, but others couldn't attend because it was held on Father's Day weekend. I guess they had received enough requests that they decided to hold the 2007 event on the weekend prior to Father's Day. Well, this was not great news for many JCRC Members because all of us had already adjusted our schedules to be able to attend on Father's Day weekend and to top it off, the date change caused a direct conflict with our R/C friends in Sedalia, who had already announced and planned their Spring event for the weekend of June 9.

JCRC Members have always had a great time at the Sedalia events and we really didn’t want to miss it, yet at the same time, this was going to be our biggest entourage of JCRC Members making the exodus to Montezuma , Iowa . Another big problem with Sig’s date change was the fact that long-time attendee, Paul Pennington, had another obligation and would not be able to attend! Sig just wouldn’t be the same unless Paul could attend. Luckily other JCRC members had already experienced the Sig Fly-In, so they would know what to do, where to stay, what to see and where to eat, nevertheless, Paul would be missed.

Some of the JCRC Members, who had previously attended, attempted to see if Sig would re-think this date change and hold it on Father’s Day, but they had already set everything in stone and it couldn’t be changed. They said that they wanted to see how the date change would affect attendance. They were convinced that more people would attend if they did not hold it on Father’s Day weekend.

Friday, June 8, 2007

We spent most of Thursday evening over at Steve’s workshop getting the trailer loaded and ready for the next morning. We had a lot of airplanes and equipment to try to get stuffed in there. We left on Friday morning, June 8^th, to try to get there in time to stake out a nice location for our tents and trailers. Steve was kind enough to tackle the driving duties, he allowed Stacy and Shaun to ride along with him, while Jim & Rick had to leave a little later in the day, and they rode in Jim’s truck and trailer. We thought we would likely arrive before too many tents had been erected, but we were wrong. The flying site looked full already, but almost miraculously, somehow, three of the best possible spots for tents at the Sig Fly-In were still available as we walked up to the flightline. We laid claim to them very quickly. Finding a place for Steve’s trailer proved to be a little more difficult. We thought we had found one and started to drop anchor, when Stacy found a different location that, in the end, proved to be a more convenient spot, but we had to hook-up again and move to the better spot before someone else discovered it. Jim & Rick showed up just in time to park their trailer right next to ours. JCRC had landed and planted their flag in Montezuma , Iowa !  

Since this was the 33rd annual Sig event, we were convinced that all of the A.M.A. rules would be followed to-the-letter, so we felt it was important for us to get up to Montezuma in time for us to finish the test flights of Steve’s beautiful 1/3^rd scale Spacewalker for it to qualify for the actual event to be held on Saturday & Sunday, June 9^th & 10th.

It only took a little while for us to get our bearings and get the tents and the majority of our airplanes and field equipment setup for the Friday afternoon / evening flying session. It was a beautiful day on Friday, but rather windy as we started flying and there was a stiff 45-degree cross-wind which was a little uncomfortable, because it would switch from head-on to 90-degrees off, but this is a full-scale runway and there should be plenty of room for error, right?

Well, sometimes there are more obstacles at a full-scale airport than there are at an R/C Flying Field. This is due, among other things, to the runway markers and landing lights that line the runway. They may not look big, especially from up high, but get close to them on the ground and you realize that they can quickly become large obstacles for R/C flying.

Even though we’ve attended countless Fly-Ins, there’s still a feeling of jitters just before you start to fly in front of a large gathering of people. This is normal, as there may be as many as 6 other R/C airplanes (with most) attempting to avoid mid-air collisions, lots of engine noise and some yelling going on as Pilots and Spotters call out their intentions. That jittery feeling is magnified depending on the Pilot’s skill level and no one wants to mess up in front of others.

One guy, who initially avoided the jitters, at least on Friday night, was Dr. Jim Crago. Unless you’re a modeler you may not understand how relaxing and refreshing it can be to work on a model aircraft. It is much the same feeling that some people get while building a puzzle or creating a work of art. It is good for a man’s soul. Jim was prepared. He set up his table right next to his trailer, underneath an E-Z-Up tent and he dutifully worked on his Hirobo Freya 90-sized helicopter that was in need of some repairs. He seemed extremely contented to take on this task while the rest of us headed to the flight line.

We believe Stacy brought the most airplanes of any of us in attendance and he was chomping-at-the-bit to get in the air. Who could blame him? He had just finished the electric conversion on his Sig Something Extra for this event and he wanted to show it off. He was gunning for the “Best Sig Modification” award like he had won the previous year with his modified Sig Kadet Senior. It really turned out nice with the front-end of his fuselage looked much sleeker than most. It didn’t take him long to have other pilots gathered around asking questions about his modifications. Yet, somehow, the folks running the event failed to notice it, as we thought they should have, or perhaps they didn’t even give out that award this year. I don’t remember.

I was fairly content to sit there and watch the other airplanes fly and to take in the sights, but Steve was ready to fly as well and why not? We had just driven several hours, not to sit and watch; but to fly! I was wishing that the wind conditions would improve as we sat there, but the sky was a beautiful blue and the temperatures all weekend were fantastic, even though we probably should have, we couldn’t put it off any longer.

Steve prepared his Senior Telemaster for flight. We had just completed a modification to the wing that allowed it to bolt-on instead of using rubber-bands. It was nice to use bolts instead; it is quicker, cleaner, possibly even stronger, and certainly a lot more convenient. The all-yellow airplane looked good on the ground and in the sky as Steve took off from the Sig runway and started flying over the Iowa countryside. Steve was shooting some touch-n-go’s when the crosswind got underneath the upwind wing and made the airplane do a single cartwheel. It didn’t look like it would have caused any damage, but unfortunately the lightweight materials used to build the Senior Telemaster ARF didn’t handle the impact well as it broke the tail group from the fuselage. The damage could be repaired, but it wouldn’t be a quick fix and this also meant that the only other airplane Steve had available to fly was his giant Spacewalker which is not your typical ‘kick-around’ kind of airplane.

Gratefully Dr. Crago helped us out by loaning us his transparent blue covered Sig Kadet Senior. I say; “gratefully” but after the second or third dead-stick landing we had to make with the Kadet, we started to wonder just how “lucky” we were. HA! At this point we started in on what we thought would be a minor engine repair. All of us, at one point or another, but especially Rick Poire, tried to figure out what was going on with the engine on Jim’s Kadet. It was able to be repaired; Rick found a metal burr on the carburetor barrel and once that was removed, it worked like a champ. Steve and Jim both enjoyed flying the Kadet the rest of the weekend. Jim seemed to enjoy flying an airplane again for a little while and Steve never came close to a cartwheel again.

The flight line on Friday night was busy, but not overwhelming, and everyone seemed to handle the self-regulated radio impound fine. The winds died down later in the afternoon, bringing nearly perfect weather. Due to this and the fact that it seemed like we had this huge field all to ourselves, is the reason why I enjoyed this day the most out of the three we attended. What happened next was nearly magical.

During nearly every free hour that we had for 19 straight days prior to the Sig event, Steve and the “guys-in-the-shop” “worked” hard to get Steve’s 1/3^rd-scale Spacewalker ready for the Sig Fly-In. Except for the airframe which was obviously built by an expert, every component in the airplane was changed. The original engine, a Super Tiger 3250, 2-stroke glow, was changed out for a beautiful O.S. 3.20 Pegasus 4-cylinder, 4-stroke glow with scale engine covers. In my mind this engine was designed for this airframe, it is a perfect match in size and scale. I was surprised to find out just how much work it was going to be to swap out the engines, but it was done and everyone involved could be justifiably proud of what they had accomplished, especially Steve as the owner of such a beautiful airplane with such high-quality equipment.

Amazingly enough the balance came out perfect, which is always a great feeling; it shows good design combined with proper building and on-board equipment can come together when properly done. Obviously we wanted to take advantage of the beautiful, and large, Sig flying field to test fly Steve’s new creation and the moment of truth had finally arrived. Again, everybody on the trip pitched in to help make this flight a success. Jim held the plane while it was being started. Rick expertly handled the video camera duties, while Stacy used his photography skills to document the flight. Steve and I got the plane fueled, started and ready to taxi out to the runway.

While in the process of getting everything ready, we heard some shouts and a not-too-distant and distinctive crunching sound. We turned around to see that a Sig Kadet LT-40 had planted itself in the middle of the runway, not far from where we were getting everything prepared. That was only slightly unsettling and I thought that his incident will surely drop the odds of something happening to us. After radio checks and the clearing of debris from the runway and all excuses behind us, Steve and I hooked up the buddy cord and taxied the Spacewalker out to line up on the centerline.

The airplane glistened in the saturated light of the early summer sun and looked as real as the full-scale Spacewalkers stored in the hangars that surrounded us at the Sig Field. The sound of the Pegasus idling was impressive just prior to advancing the throttle slowly to full power, not knowing what to expect out of this engine / airframe combination.

The Spacewalker tracked down the runway as if it was on rails, but it did not jump off the runway like I expected that it might. Instead I was treated to the opportunity to ‘drive’ the Spacewalker down the runway until it had built up enough speed to gracefully lift off. The plane was definitely not overpowered in this configuration and it was definitely flying “on-the-wing”. We promptly realized that we may have over-propped the engine as we were flying at full throttle and felt like we were struggling to maintain altitude, but in actuality, the plane was flying in a perfectly scale manner and after realizing that we relaxed a little more. The perception is that the model was under-powered comes from the fact that most R/C airplanes are grossly over-powered and you get used to having that ‘reserve’ power when needed, so it felt a little uncomfortable.

On this maiden flight we didn’t do anything other than laps around the flying field and I was glad we were at Sig because this airplane can eat up a lot of sky quickly and here we had a nice big open blue sky. Despite the perceived lack of power I believe Steve enjoyed flying his model around. It was then my honor to bring it in for a low-photo-pass and the landing. Stacy & Rick kept on shooting the flight and I so much appreciate their sacrifice in doing that, since I’m usually the one taking pictures, I know how annoying it can be. This, however, was one of those once-in-a-lifetime moments for me and they did a great job getting beautiful photos and video.

The low pass was thrilling as that wonderful sounding engine flew past at full throttle and the airplane was rock solid. The landing was okay. I pulled off the power a little to soon, so there was a slight bounce, but the very stout landing gear and the recovery after the bounce made up for it. Of course, the best, if I may say; the perfect landing was on the second day, when no video camera was around; of course! In the end, it was a hugely successful flight. After about 10 minutes my thumbs and knees stopped shaking and the rush felt great! We swapped out the 22” prop for a 20” prop and that change made the airplane perform much better the next day. The satisfaction of a successful flight is hard to describe, but is sweetly remembered each time I look at the wonderful photos captured by Stacy Gillmore or the video Rick Poire shot.

The rest of the evening was kind of a blur as we made our way to the Hotel which was a Sleep Inn about 18 miles away in Brooklyn , Iowa , at the intersection of Interstate 80 and Highway 21. I would highly recommend it to anyone. It was very clean, very nice and in 2007 still seemed very new. Across to the caddy-corner side of the Interstate is where we went to eat our dinner at the Pine Cone Restaurant. I would also recommend it. Home-style cooking with huge portions of desserts, just get there before we did and you could also enjoy a family style buffet. Don’t be in a hurry either. If you plan on sleeping you may also want to take along some antacids.

Back at the hotel, Stacy Gillmore and I shared the expense of a room together which was nice or I probably wouldn’t have been able to go because two nights in a hotel can get expensive. Be forewarned however, I like to keep the room cool, but Stacy likes to keep it just barely above freezing so be prepared if you ever have the privilege of sharing a room with him. Also take along a power strip as both of us had several electrical gadgets to plug in and there were only four available outlets in the room!

Saturday, June 9, 2007

We got up and went down to the lobby to enjoy a breakfast and thaw out. Steve was already anxiously waiting to get the day started. We had waffles and breakfast beverages, then headed back to Montezuma to continue the fun!

This was the first official day of the event so even more people had arrived and we were once again grateful we had arrived a day earlier. They held the Pilot’s meeting where we were told that we must strictly follow all A.M.A. rules regarding Fly-In’s and the flight line was explained to us as were the flight positions. People who wanted to fly had to line up in a single-file line and start all airplanes at one spot right in front of the main area where lots of people were standing, watching and waiting to fly. I know I wouldn’t have ran the event in this way, but there were no incidents to report despite what appeared to be a higher chance of something happening.

The morning was full of open-flying but time went by very quickly and they started holding some of the “Fun Fly” events such as the “Egg Drop"

To be continued, please check back.

Last updated 05/16/2008.

Sig Fly-In page 1 - page 2 - page 3 - page 4 - page 5 - page 6 - page 7 - page 8 (above) - News - Gallery