PMAC Logo Pontiac Miniature Aircraft Club
Gold Club Leader Charter #367
Home Members Training Newsletter Photos Links Help
Recent Web News
Click on Topic



2007 Electrics Over White Lake
August 19, 2007

The good news, there was no wind. The bad news, it rained a good bit of the morning. With that said, the die hard electric pilots braved the elements for a great day at the field.

Pilots's Choice, People's Choice & CD's Choice awards all went to Tom Bacsanyi for his KMP P38 (21 lbs, 87" wing span, two Gunther 30 belt drive with counter rotating props, 2K total power)


Event Photos          Event Flyer
Return to Top

2007 TAG Event
TAG Day
June 2, 2007
10:30am - 5:00 pm

PMAC's first TAG day was a huge success with over 80 students receiving ground school, simulator training, and actual time flying a RC aircraft.

Registered students will recieve an "Intro Pilot" packet from AMA and of course are welcome to visit the field anytime but especially on Thursdays from 6pm to dusk for continued training.



See Flyer   Club volunteers
Email Ed Kincer for further information.
Return to Top

2007 Field Safety Day
Many club members enjoyed the fun, sun and wind on Saturday, May 12th as they attended our (first annual???) field safety day.  In addition to hot dogs and open flying, we all refreshed ourselves on our safe flying procedures for 2007.  

Prizes were awarded to pilots based on their "in-the-air" flight awareness.   Here's the "Top 10" winners:
  1. Sterling "Smitty" Smith
  2. Jack Scheck
  3. Al Wesley
  4. Ed Kincer
  5. Mrs. Ed Horgas
  6. Randy Hockey
  7. Bob Blau
  8. Bill Schaeffer
  9. George Dzahristos & Bob Wright (tie)
  10. Mrs. Don Hines
Special thanks to outgoing Chief Cook Bob Fowler and incoming Chief Cook John Glenn for feeding the masses.

Contact Sterling Smith for further information.
Return to Top

2006 Club Officers
President Bill Ridenour
Vice President John Valencia
Vice President & Public Affairs Tom MacDonald
Secretary John Zonneveld
Treasurer Frank Vella
Chief Instructor Ed Kincer
Field Marshal Keith Brown
Return to Top

Riders Pigs Fly Contest
flying pig
PMAC member John Hoover wins "FUNctionality Award" in Rider's recent Pigs Fly contest

Details of contest and other winners
Return to Top

Electrics Over White Lake
August 13, 2006

Our 2006 Electrics Over White Lake is now history with AMA reports in the mail, but what a great day it was. Twenty-five registered pilots flew fifty-eight planes on a near perfect day. All had fun and all stayed safe. Many thanks to all PMAC members for their support, but several members went above and beyond...

Thanks to Tom, Smitty and Dave for overall support. Thanks to Brandon & Dale for their tireless day at registration and tx impound. Special thanks to Dale for his MC activities. Thanks to Hank & Dick for the corn and brats. Thanks to Bob & Bill for cooking a great lunch. Thanks to Pat, Greg & Danny for record raffle sales. Thanks to Keith for set-up and to Keith and all the grounds crew for making the field look like a show place. Big thanks to Jim for both parking support and "meet-and-greet" duties for our many visitors.

Thanks to our supporting sponsors, Riders of Madison Heights, Quiet Flight R/C of Columbus, OH, HobbyTown of Grand Blanc and Carltons Hobby of Union Lake.

Congrats to our flying winners Jim Young (Skybolt), Richard Sawicki (Flying boat) and Chris Jarman (Giant Ultimate).

Full report will be submitted at the September meeting, but it looks like the club made a few dollars as well.

I have received some photos already, but if any of you have a few especially good pics from the day, send them to me for posting in the near future.

Ed Kincer

PHOTOS

Jim Young's E-Zone Magazine Article

Event Flyer
Return to Top

Runway Pattern Indicator

A "Runway Pattern Indicator" system was approved at our August meeting. A red arrow has been installed near the frequency control station and its direction indicates the pattern which all pilots should take off and land.

Thanks goes to Dale and Greg for the quick design and installation.
Return to Top

New Safety Benches

Four new safety benches have been built and installed at the field. When you see Greg, say "thanks".

Click on bench to learn the origin of the safety bench design.


Return to Top

Frequency Control
July 5, 2006
New Frequency Control System In Effect

A new "take a pin" frequency control system was approved at the July 5 meeting. You will find frequency pins (clips with channel numbers) in our impound area. You should leave your PMAC or AMA card in the rack, take the appropriate frequency pin and attach it to your transmitter.

All transmitters not impounded MUST have a frequency pin attached. Do not "turn on" unless you have the proper pin!!!

Don't forget to return the pin at the end of your flying session.

This new system is found at most other fields and adds redundancy. You now can look up and down the flight line and tell if all pilots have secured their channel.

More Info

Special thanks to Bill & Dick for making the pins so quickly!
Return to Top

Inter-club Fun Fly
July 22, 2006
Email from John Hoover...

Today we had a fun fly at the PMAC field.  This was a club versus club event.  Skymasters, Holly and PMAC were competing.   PMAC ended up the overall winner but it was close.  The Skymaster guys had been practicing and the scores were tight.  There was a little carnage but nothing too bad.  My plane ended up in one piece and I managed to win one of the events and put pressure on in the rest.  Everyone seemed to have a good time and we had a good crowd of spectators.

Events:

1. Dixie Death-Take off, do three rolls, three loops, and three spins (any order), and land. Fastest time wins.

2. Limbo- Set the ribbon at one height, fastest 5 passes under it wins.

3. Mail run- Plane on runway, engine running. partner runs to plane and touches tail (delivers mail). Plane takes off, flies pattern, lands. Does not taxi after landing. Partner runs to wherever plane is, touches tail (picks up mail) and runs back to starting line. Fastest time wins.

4. Balloon Break- Pilot attempts to break balloons tied to the ground. Fastest time wins.

5. One Leg Stand- The pilot performs a take off, loop, roll and land with one foot in the air. If the pilot's foot hits the ground before he lands, he is disqualified.

Return to Top

Joe Jacobs Memorial Scale Fly-in
Sunday, September 25, 2005
Click image to see photo album

See Flyer

Scale Fly In is Big Success


The Joe Jacobs memorial scale fly in held on Sunday September 25 went off without a hitch with the able guidance of CD's Don Hines and Dave McDonald with assistants Keith Brown and others.  The rain held off until festivities were complete and chef Bob Fowler had sold all the food and pop.  There were plenty of warbird fly-bys by George, John, Shaun, Don, Frank and others.   There were also exciting fly-bys by F-82 Twin Mustangs flown by Bill Paul and Paul Lanson.  PMAC's Bob Smith won the kit raffle, a Hanger 9 P-40.

Prizes were awarded to pilots based on the choices of all the pilots and the choices of the spectators.

Pilot's Choice:
          First Chris Tucker - Byron P-51
          Second Paul Grossman - Zorolli AT-6
          Third Al Wesley - Tiger Moth
          Fourth Bill Ridenour - Focke Wulf
          Fifth Vic Kerster = Great Planes P-51

People's Choice:

          First Chris Tucker - Byron P-51
          Second Vic Kerster - Great Planes P-51
          Third Bill Paul - F-82 Twin Mustang

Reported by Dave McDonald


Return to Top

PMAC Adopt-A-Road
Click image to see photos of our fall clean-up

The saturday, September 17th White Lake road cleanup was a sucess thanks to the devotion of 17 PMAC members.  A good turnout indeed. Attending were; Issac Bryant, Don & Fran Hines, Dave McDonald, Curt Spicer, Keith Brown, Ron Leake, Dave Taulbee, Michael Pad, George Arnold, Kevin Kron, John Zonneveld, Jim Wert, Bill Schaeffer and Rodger Warren.  Special recognition to VP Al Johnson, 'All Out' Al picks up trash just like he flies, 110%, its rumored Al filled 8 trash bags himself!.  By noon the airplanes were coming out and our fall road cleanup was done.  Thanks to all.

Dave Stephens
Return to Top

Aug 21, 2005 - Inter-Club Fun Fly

Click on image to see more photos
A Plane A Place A Wind

The wind was the determining factor in all the events at the interclub funfly on Sunday August 21 at the PMAC field.  The Holly Cloudhoppers had a smaller contingent than previous encounters, in fact, Ed Kincer was it. (Ken Kliewer had to bow out for health reasons).  PMAC loaned two of their amateur pilots, Jason and Dave, to create a complete team for both Holly and Skymasters.  But with the windy conditions it made little difference.

No team scored any points in the ballon bust events, either Pro or Amateur.  There were many overly long times and a few minor crashes and dings, but no total destructions.  With Ed carrying the Holly team and Dave and Mark and the guys from Skymasters doing their best, and PMAC's Brandon, Dave, George and Frank trying to make headway, the results were:

         Holly------------- 14 Points
         PMAC ----------- 14 Points
         Skymasters--- 13 Points

It could only have been closer if it had been a three way tie.  This result is a lot like kissing your sister, but it was a great day and every one had a ball.

Many thanks to our PMAC cheering section and to Bob Fowler and Rich Rottenberk for keeping us fed.

Reported by Dave McDonald

See Flyer for event details
Return to Top
 
 
Aug 7, 2005 - Electrics Over White Lake


The August 7th event was well attended with 19 pilots bringing some 40 airplanes and 2 helicopters.  The weather was warm with light winds allowing us to get a lot of relaxed flying.  The event was very profitable for the club, this was only made possible by the great help of the following club members.

First by our great field committee who had the field in excellent shape for the event.

Secondly to Dave McDonald and Pat Chapman for spending all day running the transmitter impound stand and setting up the PA system.

To Tom MacDonald for being my assistant C/D and getting the newspaper ad.

To Keith Brown for putting out the signs.

To Brandon Bartz for taking over the raffle ticket sales and really working the crowd all day.

To the ever hard working cook Bob Fowler,who also does all the shopping for the supplies needed to run our great concession stand.

To Bill Schaeffer when called into duty helped Bob with the rush crowd.

To Hank Wildeman for providing the fresh corn on the cob.

To George Dzahristos For the great art work on the plaques and contest flyer.

To Dick Schaeffer for printing all the flyers.

Without the help of all the above mention club members this event wouldn't have been possible.

Now for the winners!!!

          Pilots Choice---------Al Mrock------------------Sikorsky S-39
          Best Scale-------------Al Mrock------------------Sikorsky-S-39
          Best Mini electric---Jim Young---------------DH-88 Comet
          Best Sport Scale----Marko Beiderman----Funtana 40
          CD'S Choice----------Tom Bacsanyi---------P-51

Let's not forget, and remember to support the Hobby Shops who made this event profitable.

          HOBBYTOWN USA
.           12821 S.SAGINAW ST.
          GRAND BLANC,MI. 48439
          PH: (810) 695-9088

          RIDERS HOBBY SHOP
          32115 JOHN R.
          MADISON HEIGHTS 48071
          PH: (248) 589-8111

Submitted by Sterling (smitty) Smith


See Photos

See Flyer (113KB)
Return to Top
 
 
Return to Top
Contact PMAC Webmaster