General News

 

Sunday 26 March 2012: Death of Terry McFawn Members of the Canberra Model Aircraft Club are saddened by the death today of our much loved member, Terry McFawn. His nephew Paul reports that he passed away comfortably at age 90 after contracting pneumonia. Terry had become increasingly frail over the past year or two but still managed to drive his trusty Toyota safely to the CMAC field most Sundays, where he watched the action and shared reminiscences of his long and colourful life with anyone who cared to listen. Club President Terry Griffiths says with regret "I guess I won't have anyone to talk bike racing out at the field now." "Sad news that, he always liked to watch my Panther fly as he said it was his favourite plane" was Byam Wight's recollection. The Club sends its special condolences to the McFawn family at this time. See Funeral Notice.

WW II - Terry in RAAF Uniform 2009 - Terry receiving congratulations and complementary CMAC cap from Committeeman Kent Jorgensen 2012 - Terry's special parking spot right next to the club house

 

Wednesday 21 March 2012: Announcement of Cobram Air Races 2012 From: Stephen Green [info@rcmn.com.au] Sent: Wednesday, 21 March 2012 11:34 AM To: Terry Griffiths Subject: Cobram Air Races Hi Terry, Throw a Red Bull 120 scale aero model together, its a great weekend or if you are interested in something new we have two grand in cash for F-1 this year. $1000 1st, $600 second, $400 third. Seagull Nemesis ARF and Hangar 9 Sundowner ARF are allowed. Thanks to the generous sponsorship from OMP, Model Engines, Desert Aircraft, Concept Hobbies, Christian Traders, Pro Hobby MVVS Australia prizes will be at a similar level to last year. Got few more fun things planned too! No rule changes from 2011 other than allowing 30 cc petrol in Red Bull 120 and opening up the noise level on larger engines. Entry Form and Competition Rules are available on both the Cobram Club's and RCMN website. See Moira MAC (Cobram Club) and Radio Control Model News. Course will be up (they left it up from last year) and the field will be open for practice on Friday. Hope to see you there. Cheers Stephen Green 0418 662 557 The Moira Model Aircraft Club is located at Pye Road, Cobram, behind the dirt bike club. Cobram, VIC is about 125km west of Albury, NSW on the Murray Valley Hwy/B400. Click for Map. For a Radio Control Model News-sourced report on the 1st (2011) Cobram Air Races, see Cobram Air Races. (Ed.)

 

Tuesday 20 March 2012: CMAC increases fees for 2012-13 After keeping fees constant for the past three years, the CMAC Committee tonight resolved to increase the Club's component of its annual membership fees for 2012-13. Club Treasurer Kent Jorgensen explains: "This fee increase is required primarily to help build a contingency fund for use within a year or so to replace the club's ageing ride-on mower, at an estimated cost of $4 500. The new annual membership fees are Senior $218 (up from $200) and Junior $115 (up from $85), subject to MAAA holding its fee component unchanged for 2012-13. In a move designed to increase new membership applications in 2012-13, the committee also resolved to decrease the one-time Joining Fee for Seniors to $100 (down from $150). Click to download CMAC Membership Fees 2012-13 Members who have any questions or concerns about the 2012-13 fees are invited to contact the CMAC Treasurer or members of the Committee.

 

Tuesday 20 March 2012: CMAC Committee meets at Symonston Club House The CMAC Committee held its quarterly management meeting on Tuesday night at the Club House, commencing at 7:30 PM. This was the first occasion that the Club House was used at night, and was made possible after the installation of several 240v miniature fluorescent ceiling lights, powered from the existing 12V solar-panel/battery system through a static inverter. Committeman Jack Pittar selected and installed the new lights, and they proved more than adequate for night-time. The next Committee meeting has been scheduled for this venue in early June. A gas space heater will be used then to deal with the low night temperatures characteristic of Canberra winters.

The CMAC Committee in session - Terry Griffith presiding

 

Sunday 29 January 2012: First flight of Mugin UAV This morning, the new Mugin Twinboon UAV safely completed its first test flight at the CMAC field. The 3m wingspan Mugin airframe (aka "CyberHawk") and DA50 motor were generously donated to the Canberra UAV team by Cyber Technology WA to support their entry in the 2012 UAV Outback Challenge. Andrew Tridgell installed and programmed the electronic guidance system, based on the ArduPilot Mega autopilot. This unit consists of microprocessor and device interface board, 3-axis gyro, 3-axis accelerometer, GPS rx, barometric altitude and airspeed sensors. Jack Pittar was crew chief and the test pilot for the first flight. To conform with MAAA regulations, Jack was able to override the automatic system at any time, in addition to performing manual take-offs and landings. Two basic modes of the ArduPilot flight control system were tested successfully during this first flight: STABILIZE and LOITER. The STABILISE mode maintains straight and level flight throught automatic roll-pitch-yaw correction of flight-path perturbations due to air turbulence. In the selected LOITER mode, 50% throttle is set and the system maintains the entry altitude while flying the aircraft in a constant 60m radius circle over a point on the ground. The UAV system includes down-link telemetry of all key flight parameters and data logging onto a laptop PC for post-flight analysis. The system evens spins out an x-y-z KML file so that you can view the entire 3D flight path in Google Earth. Click here for the GE-rendered flight path of a recent UAV quadcopter flight by Andrew. Andrew recently gave a excellent presentation on the Canberra UAV project to the 2012 Linux Conference in Ballarat. In his talk, titled "Rescuing Joe", Andrew covered the mission objective, aircraft systems and achievements so far. For a YouTube video of the talk, look for the link on the Canberra UAV website home page.

Andrew (left) and Jack run through pre-flight checks Electronic guidance system Mugin lines up for first take-off (Therapeutic Goods Admin bldg in background) Mugin airborne Rolling right onto final approach

 

Wednesday 25 January 2012: Second Helicopter Base at Hume ACT Emergency Services Agency's new helicopter base at Hume - next to the SnowyHydro Southcare site - is now operational. Currently, ACT ESA has a Eurocopter AS350BA Squirel and a Bell 212 on contract and located at the Hume hanger. These aircraft will stay until the grass fire risk in ACT has passed. If there is a serious fire in ACT or surrounding NSW, other interstate helicopters, particularly from NSW Rural Fires Service aviation unit, could be deployed to the region and would also operate out of Hume for the duration of the emergency. The ACT ESA hanger will be open for the Snowy Hydro SouthCare Base Open Day on Sunday, 25 March 2012 which will be a good chance for you to see these choppers up close. The photo at right was taken recently by ACT ESA's all hazards Air Observer Ludzia Szychowska and shows on the right of the highway: ESA's new Outdoor Training Facility, Snowy Hydro Southcare Helcopter Base (with helo on pad), the new ESA Helicopter base (with twin landing pads and tanker refuelling loop) and the Alexander Maconochie Centre. The CMAC airstrip (pink rectangle) can be seen about one kilometer up the highway on the left. CMAC members are reminded of the need for constant monitoring of the Hume/Symonston airspace and to operate model aircraft only when there is no risk to any full-size aircraft (rotary wing, fixed wing or balloon) in the area.

Hume aviation precinct Photo courtesy ACT ESA

 

Sunday 08 January 2012: New Year Fun Fly and Sausage Sizzle To mark the start of the new year, the CMAC Committee organised some special activities at the CMAC Field for Sunday 08 January 2012. A number of novelty flying events were held throughout the morning, a raffle was conducted for a $100 MMH gift voucher, and free hot dogs, steak sangers and soft drinks were handed out to members. Despite early rain and a strengthening north wind, a number of members braved the conditions and contested the full range of flying events. Flying Events and Winners were: Event Winner Result Beads on a String Matt Chambers 12 rolls Dead Stick Landing Byam Wight 1 m Fast and Slow Byam Wight 41.7 secs Looper Jurgen Mildner 22 loops Shortest Take-Off Byam Wight 2.4 m Two Minute Touch and Go Jurgen Mildner 12 touch-and-gos For the complete score sheet see CMAC Fun Fly Results. For more photos see Photo Gallery > Events.

Are we having fun yet?

 

Sunday 01 January 2012 - Our Field Byam Wight and Kent Jorgensen have combined their special talents to create this new hi-res aerial image of the CMAC field at Symonston. Notice the results of the latest field development work completed in December: northern and southern extensions to the green pit-area matting newly covered taxi-way just north of the pilots enclosure covered areas in control-like circle. How did they capture this great image? Byam provided his Rico Caplio R3 digital camera and ball-joint tripod mount. Kent supplied an electric-powered trainer and constructed a temporary platform under the fuselage to take the camera mount. The camera was installed facing straight down ('nadir' axis), focussed at infinity and set to take one picture (with flash) every five seconds. Then Kent flew several smooth passes over the field at 400ft. Too easy :o)

CMAC field - East at top Camera installation

 

Friday 30 December 2011 - In Harm's Way Spare a thought for our ADF personnel currently deployed overseas. See DoD Global Operations. Right now CMAC member Kim Knowles (AUS 75574) is serving with the Australian component of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. Kim sent us this email today: UNCLASSIFIED Merry Xmas to all, I hope everyone had a great xmas with family and friends. I have attached a couple of photos of how I spent my xmas. The photos are mid day and no wind, -5, a warm day! All the best for the new year, wishing I was home still, as cold as it was at home, its nothing compared to here. I will see you all in the new year. Cheers, kim

Kim Knowles On patrol