GMA Activity - November 2005
| The air was cool and the sky
overcast on Sunday morning (November 6) but quite a few GMA members were
out at the field. There were sport planes, pattern planes, electrics,
giants and helicopters.
I don't know what I would do if I went to the field and didn't see Mike Hopkins almost immediately. Mike is at GMA everyday and is always willing to lend a helping hand. Today he was helping a pilot do the final assembly on his 120 sized Sig Rascal done in red and white. Jim Little has to use a Haulmark trailer pulled by his VW Tourareg to get his stable of giant scale aerobatic planes to the field. Sunday he had a new plane, powered by a large twin engine and if you look closely at the fuselage you can see that the profile of the engine has been airbrushed onto the top of the cowl. Also check out the cool tips on the prop. They are similar to the hoerner tips you see on many full scale planes wings. A.J.Rivers, as usual, was flying up a storm. He just wouldn't smile for the camera. Maybe cameras make him mad, or he is just shy but his flying sure isn't. Notice the Horizon P51 in the foreground. This is the one they characterize as a trainer and although it looks like a scale plane it has a lot of features that make the handling docile. Ray Sweat, the young man in the wheel chair was making his second solo flight today. His GrandDad, J.D. Sweat is starting the engine and his co-pilot, Craig Turner, is handling the transmitter. Barry Flansburg is shown here with this Das Ugly Stick, a design that has been tearing up the skies for close to 40 years. He flew it well and also had a semi-scale F5 Tigershark finished in red film covering. Helis were well represented today. There were two flying during the time I was there and one of them was powered by a YS .53 engine with pressurized fuel delivery system. Pictured here are Richard Collier and J. Martin. Ross Ramage came out early and was flying his SIG Cadet. Burt Gunter had his large J3 Cub out while the weather was clear. Loren Mitchell was flying a Horizon Stick and doing it well. This young southern patriot (Craig Turner) and his dad (Doug) had several planes at the field. This black and white Telemaster flew as all Telemasters fly, just great. Here is Doug with a striking Fokker DR1 as campaigned in WWI by Baron Von Richtofen, the Red Baron. Tom Hulsey was flying the Laser 200 in what appeared to be 1/4 size, and his wife Julia was also flying. She had a nice Spacewalker done in the classic red and yellow scheme developed for the full scale prototype by Hazel and the late Glenn Sigafoose. I am always impressed with detailed airbrushed paint schemes and today's award for best artistic interpretation goes to Cameron Smith. His name is airbrushed onto the canopy and the company who manufactures his plane shares his name as you can see in the photo of the fuselage side. See you at the field.
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