Latest News
December 2011
Congratulations to RCAC member Angus Balfour who was appointed R/C Aerobatics Secretary
at the recent MACI AGM.
Some members who enjoyed the hospitality of the Willows Restaurant in Navan for their Christmas
get together.
November 2011
A proposed Club Logo can be viewed in the Member's section of the Club Forum.
August 2011
In August our esteemed member, Angus Balfour, participated as aprt of the Irish
Team at the World F3A Championships in Indiana.
Angus came 19th. overall and his performance helped Ireland to finish in 10th
place out of the 31 competing countries giving us our best ever result at the
championships. In recognition of his achievement Bill presented Angus with a
Mullingar Pewter whiskey tumbler on behalf of the members of the Royal County
Aeromodellers Club.
The Angus Balfour Fan Club.
The inscribed tumbler presented to Angus.
Bill Thompson, Club Secretary, makes the presentation to Angus.
The Club Forum is back up and working, however the format is slightly different from
the previous version. Select the link on our Home Page to access it. Note that the
"Club House" can contain information which is only relevant to the our club and access
is therefore restricted to our paid up members. Whenever a member resisters as a
user they will then be given the additional permissions.
This version should make it easier for you to include photos in your posts. Just follow
the instructions in "General Chat". There is also a "Trade Stand" forum included, the purpose
of which is to allow the trade, any trade at that, to highlight special offers which they
may have available.
Remember you need to to post early and often to make the forum a success.
July 2011
The Club gets a new Wind Sock.
June 2011
Trim Flying Club Fly In and BBQ.
Once again this year, the RCAC was invited to attend the annual Trim Flying Club BBQ and Fly In. Unfortunately, due to the unfavourable weather conditions, the event had to be postponed fromSaturday June 25th to Sunday 26th. As is usual there was an excellent turn out of aircraft. Cessna and Piper were particularly well represented in addition to several Ultralights, a two seat Autogyro, the Air Corps Cessna 172 and the Sikorsky S-61 SAR helicopter
A number of members went along for the day and a lot of interest was shown in Bill’s SE5A and Gordon’s Bristol M1C both of which were on static display. The flying was left to Angus who, as usual, put on a stunning aerobatic display with his 85cc petrol engined Raven. Angus achieved this despite having to cope with the challenges of an unfamiliar location, a severe crosswind and turbulence and a critical audience. Suffice to say that he received a well deserved standing ovation when he landed.
All our members who attended really enjoyed the event as we extend our thanks and appreciation to the TFC for their hospitality.
Club Activities.
Chris Straight and Level
Paul Cullen's Cessna on approach.
Damien's Piper Cub.
April 2011....
Club AGM
The AGM was held on the flying field on Sun 17th April and was attended by
Approximately 13 members.
In the absence of the Chairman, the Secretary, Bill Thompson, gave a summary
of the year just finished and complimented all who contributed time and effort
in running the affairs of the club. In particular, special mention was made and
thanks given to both Joe Reilly and Alex Cuipers who did sterling work on the
maintenance of the flying field all year. It was agreed that while both Joe and
Alex wish to continue with the work this year, a number of backup people
should be available to step in should either of the lads not be available.
A number of members volunteered their services.
Bill Thompson, as Secretary, gave a summary of club activities for the year
gone by.
The club had planned to run a Scale helicopter event in August 2010 but was
forced to cancel this as the organising member was unable to devote sufficient
time to its preparation.
It was suggested that the club should run a general Fly In combined with a car
boot sale this year. Bill will check the MACI calendar to find a suitable day.
Bill and Paul Gaffney are now B Certificate qualified. This means that with
Liam Butler the club has three A Test certified examiners.
It was agreed that this year a number of members should be encouraged to
take their A Test. Over the coming weeks members will be nominated for the
A Certs and will be coached during A Certificate training sessions.
In the absence of Ron McDonnell, our treasurer, Bill Thompson gave a summary
of the club’s finances.
Given that most of the outstanding money from last year has been collected,
the club faces a healthy balance after provision is made to pay our landlord at
the end of the year.
Ron has held the post of Treasurer since the club was founded in August 2006
and has managed the clubs finances very well, however as he has been
experiencing a period of ill health recently he has decided to step down as Treasurer.
The committee and the membership in general extended a sincere vote of
thanks to Ron for his efforts over the years and wish him a speedy return to
good health.
The new committee was then voted on and the makeup is as follows:
Chairman William Bowles
Secretary Bill Thompson
Treasurer Alex Cuipers
All members present were reminded that each individual member is a Safety
Officer in their own right and should be vigilant in promoting safe flying particularly
as we are approaching the turfing season.
Bill then closed the meeting.
Club Trip to Hendon
On April 2nd. a number of our members travelled to London for the day to visit the RAF Museum
in Hendon.Travel arrangements were made by Bill and the group took an early flight, 7:30am, from
Dublin and following a full English Breakfast in Heathrow took the Tube to Collindale which is only
a fifteen minute walk from the museum.
The museum is a great experience for anyone with an interest in avation. The exhibits are very
well laid out and all are in pristine condition. Everyone was in awe of the sheer size of the Lancaster
and Vulcan and the fragility of the WW1 Fighters.
The group spent the entire day wandering among the various displays, simulators and 4D! film show
before heading back to Heathrow for the 8:30pm flight back to Dublin.
Dave, Dave, Bill, Manuel, Paul and Gordon with the Hurricane outside the RAF Museum.
November 2010
Damage
to our Flying Strips
We
recently had a couple of unwelcome visits by people in the area what resulted
in
damage
to our flying strips. In the first
instance we had someone drive over the runways
and
inflict tyre damage which was easily fixed up and in time the grass recovered
itself
and
all was OK.
However,
the second visit was more insidious. It
turns out that the same people arrived
with
spades and proceed to dig up over 40 holes at the start of the main
runway. When it
was
discovered it looked dramatically worse than it actually was. Both Joe and Alex and Joe’s
grandkids
spent a good few hours fixing the jigsaw of sods and matching each sod back
into it’s
own
hole. This was followed by a reseeding
of each area and as of now that part of the runway
is
now back in a healthy state. We then
replaced the 20 or so plastic stakes at the periphery of
the
strip that they broke and I believe, Joe has now repaired damaged Peg Board
!
All
in all, it was a very unsavoury episode.
However, we did make our complaints to the
authorities
and I believe the Garda are looking into it.
The
Move to the Dark Side
As
2.4Ghz radio sets become more plentiful and eliminate the need for frequency
checking, I have
recently
taken the plunge and moved over to this secure form of radio transmission. As most of
ye
know, I use a Graupner MC-24 transmitter which I really like. I have always preferred the
European
style of transmitter, ie the flat tray type with the ball adjustable aerial
such as the
Graupner,
Multiplex and Robbe/Futaba. However,
Graupner had introduced their own version of
2.4Ghz
called Graupner IFS, however, they only people I could see using it was the
German
National
Aerobatic Team..!! Since the origin of
the species in the 2.4ghz world was Spektrum
Technology,
I had toyed with the idea of buying their equipment but this would have left me
without
my beloved European style tranny.
However,
Spektrum came to the rescue as they market an extensive range of Spektrum DSM2
(their
latest iteration of their system) modules for retrofitting into other brand
transmitters.
Lo
and behold, they had a 2.4Ghz DSM2 module for the Graupner range of
transmitters including
the MC-24. It is sold in 2 versions, ie one with a
Spektrum 9 channel receiver and one with a
Spektrum
12 channel receiver. As there was ony
£15 of a difference I decided to go for the12
Channel
unit. While I had read a review of the
installation of this module, it gave me a small
dose of
the frightners as it involved some tricky soldering.
In
the end, I went to Gliders Distribution in the UK (http://www.gliders.uk.com/ ) and I agreed
that
they would supply and fit the module for me.
In the end the did a lot more as I got all of the
following
work done:
·
Upgrade of the
MC-24 ROM module as it was around 8 years out of date
·
Installation of Spektrum
DSM2 module and supplied with Spektrum 12 channel receiver
·
Installation of
additional 2 position switch in specific location on transmitter
·
Replacement of both
plastic sides to support neck strap supports which had broken
·
Overall service of transmitter
and testing of new 2,4Ghz module
·
It includes new
steel backplate with SPEKTRUM embossed on it and also has a hole
to access the bind butto
·
Ship back to
Ireland.
Total
cost was just under €380 but bear in mind the Spektrum module with 12 channel
receiver
costs
around €210. The ROM upgrade was around
€110, shipping was €22, switch and sides
around
€50.00. At least I have the comfort of
knowing it was professionally upgraded.
It took
them about 2 weeks to finalise all the work and I have to say I am well pleased
with my
new albeit
circumcised transmitter. It almost
feels crisper and sharper when I operate
the
Spektrum receivers and existing servos.
All in all a job well done that has left me
totally
and utterly in and on the Dark Side !Q!!
Herewith a picture of the conversion.

A
Certificate Exams
On
Sunday 4th Oct, we held our first session of A Certificate
examinations to continue the personal
development
of the club membership. We had a total
of 6 candidates who were available to take
the
test. We were visited by MACI
Examiners, Steve Quigley from the Newbridge Club and in
conjunction
with our own Liam Butler, also a MACI Examiner, they proceeded to give us a run
through
of the procedures.
We
had already met in the coffee shop that morning and between ourselves read
through and
answered
the various questions to our best ability and covered the flying schedule as
well.
Bill
was first off and answered all the relevant questions and performed a good
flight to end
with
a Pass to his delight. As we had all
elected to use the Club Trainer, it was refuelled and
prepared
for Alex who was next. Unfortunately,
Bill had inadvertently moved the throttle trim
and
when Alex performed the Intentional Stall, the motor quit forcing Alex into a
deadstick
landing. This necessitated a complete rerun of the
flight test which Alex passed no problem !!
Then the
remaining candidates, Manuel, Joe, Paul and Damien sailed through the various
sections
of the test and we achieved a 100% score in that all candidates are now fully A
Certified
!! Congratulations to all
concerned. Some photos of the day are
next.

Damien going through
the motions !!

Manuel getting familiar with the Club Trainer !

Alex pleading with the
Examiners after his dead stick landing !!

Alex learning the
Irish solution to an Irish problem !!!

A Happy Group of
campers in front of our mobile clubhouse !!

The Club Trainer has
notched up it’s first 6 Victories !!!

Liam Butler’s very
nice YAK 54. A lovely flyer.

Gordon’s Hangar 9
Soptwith Camel.. flew very realistically.

Steve getting his
Seagull Pilatus ready. Nicely finished
in Irish Air Corps colours.

A good turnout of high
quality models on the day. Some great
flying also.

The smiles of 2 new A
Certified Aeromodellers.. !! Manuel and
Joe !!