No report. See you at this month’s meeting.

Thanks

Will Campbell

President, Ft. Worth Thunderbirds

Last time I wrote to you I mentioned that; "In my Vice President role, I want to make sure that if there are topics that you are interested in hearing more about at our club meetings, that they are noted and we can try to find the appropriate person(s) to discuss them.  To that end, I will be helping Will set up programs for the meetings.  To do so, I may have to search out guest speakers and schedule them

well in advance so they can attend our meetings.  To better represent your interest and get authorities on subjects that you are interested in, please let me know the topics that you would like to hear more about.  Feel free to call me or e-mail me with your suggestions."  Well I can say that even with the technical difficulties we faced, the presentation by the President of the 114^th Aero Squadron, Darrell Barabash and the 114^th PR Officer, Dewey Walker was a great success.  Many people at the "standing room" only meeting stayed afterwards to chat with Darrell and Dewey and mentioned to me how informative they found the presentation.  Needless to say, I truly appreciate our visitors and a big FW Thunderbirds thanks to the both of you.  This type of sharing between clubs in the area will ensure that we optimize on ideas of all clubs and keep our hobby flourishing for years to come.

On another note of interest….due to the "Daylight Savings Time" change coming early this year we have again started the Thursday evening flight instruction as of Thursday, March 15^th.  Usually, an instructor will be out there by 5 PM with a trainer to train students and to give introductory flights into the exciting world of RC.  Feel free to let people know of the training.  Of course as this gets going we will always have needs for people to safety check the planes of students coming with their own aircraft.  So, on the beautiful evenings come out to the field and give the instruction team a hand.  Again… a big thank you to the instructors; Gary Alphin, Claude Barnes, Woody Lake, Oscar Slaughter and Terry Thorpe.

Club President, Will Campbell, called scheduled meeting of February 26, 2007 to order.

Motion was made by Randy Martin to accept November January 2007 Club Meeting minutes as written by Club Secretary, Lori Campbell. Motion was seconded by club member James Brown and approved by members in attendance.

Treasurer Report: Financial information shared by Oscar Slaughter; approved by the members in attendance.

Old Business:

Lake Road / Gate Entrance: Re-opening in early March. New fee structure will be implemented on March 26^th. Users will be charged $3 per car or $1 on bicycle/walk up. Special rates for senior’s access are (Continued on page 3)

available. This should not affect club members, but you must have your club ID card for free entrance to the park.

Building: We have permission to use the existing cement pad for our building site, which is not visible from the road. We are looking for a steel building "kit" to assemble. Volunteers are needed to assemble. Please contact Will Campbell to volunteer.

Raffle Fundraiser for Building and Equipment: Hellcat – SATURDAY, MARCH 24^th Len Minco will be announcing the raffle winner at Joey’s on Saturday the 24^th. Tickets still on sale – go to Joey’s to buy the raffle tickets. All proceeds go to the Field Fund (for building and equipment). Club members suggested selling tickets at the Weatherford club’s swap meeting. Will to follow up with Weatherford Club and Joey.

New Field: Club member asked for update. Will mentioned that we are still working behind the scenes with the legislature and the Corps regarding our future. We have the current field leased until 2013.

Ground Hog Fly In: Mark Roberts Feb 4^th

The event was very successful. The card fun fly was a lot of fun, except for the few flyers that crashed (right hand turn was a little tough for some). JT Hobbies was generous in gift cards for the event. Sold $125.00 worth of raffle tickets.

Newsletter: Woody Lake Please update your e-mail address with Woody if you did not receive a newsletter.

SAE Event: Oliver Alvarado / Will Campbell: May 4^th, 5^th, and 6^th. This is one of our largest events ever. We must have volunteers to pull this off. Oliver presented a field layout map and details on plans for this year’s SAE event. We are hosting 73 teams for the event.

Triathlon Event: The Corps recently announced that a Triathlon event was happening on the same weekend and asked us to change the date (which is not possible at this late date). Oliver Alvarado and Dave Dingman worked with the Corps on our behalf. The next meeting with the Corps is scheduled for March 9^th. We have adjusted our times to accommodate the Triathlon event.

Food: Will announced that Soda Springs BBQ has offered to sell concessions at the event. Lockheed will budget for providing all water to the teams without cost.

Access to the Event: Saturday 5^th / Sunday 6^th: We cannot access the lake until 9am and must use the Tiger Trail entrance for an hour. At 10am teams can access the main gate. We’ll need a volunteer to man the gate entrance for about an hour to control access. We will need to post signs leading the teams to our field and the new entrance. Select individuals may be allowed to camp at the field overnight (if the Corps is notified in advance). We will have car passes to ensure we can control access to the lake. We will need to drive on the shoulder to avoid runners. Tentative schedule announcing these compromises has been posted on our web-site. This is subject to change because we have not me with the Triathlon event officials. Oliver is pursuing funding from Lockheed for signage, water, etc.

Let’s Race – Claude Barnes

Event postponed because we’ll need to apply for a waiver to host our event. AMA has new rules requiring pilots to be 330 feet from the center of the pylons and provide for 150 additional feet from the pilots to the spectators. More news to follow. If the waiver is obtained, we will host our first race on Sunday March 18^th @ 12 noon.

Training – Len Minco. Weldon donated training box and 2 PA amplifiers. Thank you! Dean was volunteered to help us set up the system.

Buy Fort Worth Thunderbirds’ shirts and hats! $10 for hats and $15 for golf shirts.

Presentation: Guests from the 114^th RC Aero Squadron, Darrell Barabash and Dewey Walker presented a DVD and PowerPoint demonstration on how to market the club to community leaders. Excellent presentation!

Woody Lake – Showed us his Tiger Moth. He also shared his secrets to an instrument panel.

James Meadows – Brought the largest foam airplane we’ve ever seen. Army & Air Force used this model for target practice. "B" Model – infrared targeting option. Mig 23 Flogger. James’ goal is to get his model ready for the War Bird.

Peter – Pitts Special

Randy Martin – Ear phone "timer" – for those of us that have trouble hearing our timers. $5 at Sally’s Beauty Supply.

Fry’s has the helicopters demoed in our last meeting for $20!

Joe Jopling – Donated an historic model engine to the club for auction to the highest bidder. The engine was successfully auctioned off at the club meeting. Dave D’Arcy won the auction for $60, which was donated to the Club. Thanks Joe!

6 Hellcat Raffle Tickets – Bill Campbell Monokote – JC Dean

Xtreme Micro-Helicopter – Ben Moore Monokote – Raymond Cervantes

Covering Iron & Sealing Iron – Walker Brents 1 gallon Power Master fuel –Oliver Alvarado

Monokote – Clyde Henley 1 gallon Power Master fuel – Walker Brents

Officers in attendance: Will Campbell, President; Len Minco, Vice President; Oscar Slaughter, Treasurer; Lori Campbell, Secretary; James Brown, Safety Officer; Woody Lake, Newsletter

No report. Report will be available at this month’s meeting.

Respectfully,

The Thunderbirds have been asked to perform some helicopter and electric flying demos in addition to a static display for Western Hills Elementary School. The school is located on Calmont just east of Las Vegas Trail. The demo flying area is a soccer field and the static display area will be setup inside the school cafeteria. The event is scheduled for 31 March (Saturday) between 10 and 2. More information will be provided during this month’s meeting. My hope is that we could provide a flight simulator, static acft, and videos. Anyone interested please contact Woody at: at6pilot@charter.net or (817) 294-8746.

The Boy Scouts have requested we provide some flight demos and this event is scheduled for the 15^th of April. Instructors and anyone else that cares to participate is welcome. Please contact Len at: lminco@fwthunderbirds.org if you are interested. These are excellent opportunities for the Thunderbirds to get community involvement exposure (good press).

SAFETY HUMOR

Our new building will be delivered sometime this week and volunteers are needed to set it up. Please contact Ben Moore at (817) 271-6898 or Bob Bishop at (817) 851-8384 if you are able to help.

During World War II, a select group of young women pilots became pioneers, heroes, and role models...They were the Women AirForce Service Pilots, WASP, the first women in history trained to fly American military aircraft. 

In the United States, women pilots were trained to fly non-combat missions in order to free male pilots for combat missions. They ferried planes from the manufacturing plants to military bases, and ended up doing much more -- including flying new aircraft such as the B-29, to prove to male pilots that these were not as difficult to fly as the men thought!

The WASP was never militarized, and those who served as WASP were considered civil service employees. The WASP was deactivated December 20, 1944, having flown about 60 million miles in operations. Thirty-eight WASP were killed, including some during training.

In 1977 -- the same year the Air Force graduated its first post-WASP women pilots -- Congress granted veteran status to those who had served as WASP, and in 1979 issued official honorable discharges.

Airframe only –Used: 80-inch wingspan---fly’s great and is set up with a DA 50.  $200

4-6 May 07 SAE Competition Oliver Alvarado/Will Campbell

E-Mail: oliver.g.alvarado@lmco.com

E-Mail: wcampbell@maseratiusa.com

19 May 07 War Bird Fly-in Terry Thorpe

thorpetr@flash.net

13 June 07 Old Farts Four Stroke Fly-in Chuck McLeroy

chpe12@sbcglobal.net

16-17 June 07 Scale Masters Qualifier Lawrence Harville

lawhar@yahoo.com

July Club Picnic Club Officers

27-29 July Heli Heat Wave Will Campbell

E-Mail: wcampbell@maseratiusa.com

5 Aug Float Fly Oscar Slaughter

E-Mail: Oslaughter@charter.net

29 Sept Big Bird Fly-In Woody Lake

E-Mail: at6pilot@charter.net