Prez Sez
By Walt Pierzchala
Our 40th Anniversary Fun-Fly was a huge success!
A special thanks to Jim Campana, Nathan Marks, Jeff
Bitzer and Joe Pasquini, everyone had plenty to eat
and drink. I would also like to recognize the efforts
of Warren Barrick, our P.A. announcer, Rom Boutin and
his candy-drop "bomber", Mike Estock - Fun-Fly
Chairman, Joe Weizer - taking visitors on the training
box, and all others whose names escape me at the present
time. Others at the field recognized your efforts
to make this day a success. Thanks to all of you.
A special note!
When flying at the field, it is a Club rule and a Park
rule: Your membership card or a valid day pass must
be displayed on the pin board when flying your model.
NO EXCUSES!
With the upcoming Auction at the Valley Forge Middle School, I was informed there will be NO SMOKING inside or outside of the school building. Please discard your butts before entering school property. The Auction date is Saturday, Nov. 6.
Election of next year's B.O.G. Members will be held
at the October general Meeting. Eleven new members
are to be elected. Club members running for election
are (alphabetically):
Ferenc Bakay, Miles Bowman, John Bragitikos,
Ron Brown, Jeb Bushell, Jim Chubb, Gene Gifford,
Al Haftel, Mel Jones, Dan Natale, Bill Sunick,
and Carl Sutton.
A BOG meeting will be held on Tuesday, October 19 for the conduct of Officer nominations and elections.
Our monthly Raffle will be held at the October General Meeting........hope to see ALL club members at this important meeting!
From the Editor
By Al Campana
Walt has covered our Fun-Fly pretty well so I thought I would mention the Club participation in the Pottstown A.O.P.A. 45th Annual Breakfast Fly-In. We had about 25 models on display at Limerick. It was surprising to me, in talking to several full-scale pilots, how many started to get into R/C and then went on to earn their FAA Certificate. A couple of the fellows were members of the Signal Seekers many years ago.
I received their Newsletter the other day and this is what they reported (quote):
"We got through our 45th Annual Breakfast with
flying colors! We had over 50 volunteers, perfect
weather, 868 paid breakfasts, 131 planes,...........
1 helicopter and a tethered hot air balloon.
The balloon, helicopter, 2 Cessna 172's, and a Waco
biplane were kept busy selling rides all morning.
Many of the airplanes flown in were really interesting.
All in all, a perfect breakfast and a great time was
had by all."
(unquote)
"Thank you" to all club members that participated. We had some great looking models there, and based on the comments I heard, the full scale pilots really enjoyed our display. Thanks also to Dee Messina, Mike Estock, Ed Moore, Karl Kuehlmuss, and Gene Gifford for helping to set up the canopy and boundry lines for our exhibit.
Murphy's "Model" Law
By Robert Osario
If you can't go flying tomorrow, the weather will be perfect.
Like milk, every airplane has an expiration date. Some are sooner than others.
To calculate the location of the exact rear center underneath your workbench, just drop a screw.
A new glow plug will last forever if you have spares, but only about half-an-hour if you don't.
Trees are always closer than they appear.
Piper J-3 Cub
First built in 1938, the Piper J-3 earned its fame as a trainer. So successful was it that the name "Cub" soon came to be a generic term for all light airplanes, and Piper Aircraft became the best known general aviation manufacturer.
The story of the J-3 began in the late 1920s with C. Gilbert and Gorden Taylor, partners in the small Taylor Brothers Aircraft Company of Rochester, N.Y. Onetime barnstormers, the brothers had designed and were attempting to market a two-seat monoplane called the Chummy, when Gorden Taylor was killed in a crash.
Gilbert Taylor, who believed there would be a growing market for light planes, moved in 1929 to Bradford, Pa., where community leaders were anxious to promote new local industries. The Bradford Board of Commerce provided $50,000 to capitalize the new Taylor company, which built five Chummys before the Great Depression put a halt to construction.
One of the stockholders was an oilman named William T. Piper. Being interested in aviation and believing that the Chummy was too expensive and inefficient, Piper offered to sponsor the development of a small plane to sell for half the Chummy's $3,985. The resulting aircraft designated the E-2, was completed in late 1930 and fitted with a 2-cylinder Brownbach "Tiger Kitten" engine.
Testing had revealed the engine, which was rated at 20 hp, had too little power for the E-2. At full throttle, the small plane was able only to indulge in "grass cutting", rising a few feet into the air before settling back to earth. The Tiger Kitten engine had suggested the name "Cub" for the airplane, however, denoting the E-2 as the earliest true ancestor of the J-3
With no suitable powerplant, the Taylor Company was forced to declare bankruptcy in 1931. Piper bought up the assets keeping C.G. Taylor on as chief engineer. Later that year, Continental Motors Corporation came out with the 37hp A-40 and the Taylor E-2 Cub was placed on the market. Twenty-two were sold that year, with sales growing ten-fold by 1935
The following year the plane was completely redesigned.
Redesignated the Taylor J-2, it featured a greatly improved
Contin-
ental engine. Also in 1936, C.G. Taylor left to establish
the Taylorcraft Aviation Company in Alliance, Ohio.
When the plant at Bradford burned down in 1937, Piper moved his manufacturing equipment and more than 200 employees to an abandoned silk mill in Lock Haven, Pa. The company resumed production under the name Piper Aircraft Corporation and completed 687 aircraft before the end of the year.
In 1938 Piper introduced the improved J-3 Cub. Powered by 40hp Continental, Lycoming or Franklin engines, the J-3 sold for $1300. Engine horsepower was soon raised to 50 and reached 65 by 1940. Piper also standardized a color scheme; just as Henry Ford's Model T's were all black, so Piper's Cubs were all yellow with black trim.
Immediately before the entry of the US into World War II, sales of the Cub were spurred by the organization of the Civilian Pilot Training Program. In 1940, 3,016 Cubs were built and at the wartime peak a new J-3 emerged from the factory every 20 minutes! Seventy-five percent of all pilots in the Program were trained in Cubs, many going on to more advanced training in the military.
Cubs were also flown during the war as observation, liason, and ambulance planes. Known variously as the L-4, O-59 and NE-1, these planes rendered valuable service and were nicknamed "Grasshoppers".
By 1947, when production ended, 14,125 Piper Cubs had been built. The J-3 is now finding an ever-increasing popularity among airplane buffs, and brand-new Cubs are being constructed by homebuilders. Both an excellent trainer and a delightful sport plane, which lends itself to lazy summer afternoons, the Cub might be best summed up by the words "simple", "economical", and above all "slow".
The Air and Space Museum's J-3 Cub, S/N 6578, was built in March, 1941 and has about 6000 hours of flying time before being completely restored in 1975.
(From a Booklet on the National Air and Space Museum,
Author Unknown,
Edited and compiled Leon H. Raesly)
Club Dates
Tuesday, October 12......Club Meeting at the Church,
8:00 PM. Election
of new
BOG members
for 2000.
Saturday, October 16......Cloud Kings R/C Swap
Shop, Assumption
B.V.M.
School Gym,
West Grove,
PA. Starts
9:00 AM
More info,
call Dick Plyler
(610) 896-0822
or
Email: rplyler138@aol.com
Saturday, November 6....VFSS Club Auction!
To be held
at the newly
refurbished
Valley Forge
Middle School
on Rt. 252,
less than
1 mile from our
field. Admission
$3.00.
Registration
9 AM, auction
begins 10:30
AM.
This is the
Club's annual
function and
it draws
modelers from
a large area.
PLEASE NOTE - There will be NO Club meeting
in November! We were
notified
by the Church administrator
that
our meeting hall will not
be avail-
able on Nov. 9th.
Raffle Prizes!
The following items have been purchased for the October
meeting:
Futaba Skyport 4 chan. FM Radio
OS Max .40 LA Engine
Hot Shot Glow Starter
3 Rolls MonoKote, red, white, and blue
15 Minute Epoxy
$25 Gift Certificate for Penn Valley Hobby Center
Feedback or comments to:
Al Campana , HearYe editor
Michael Myers, Webmaster
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