IMAA Air Show 2011 at the
Montluçon - Guéret Airport, Lépaud, France

Have you checked on your stuff lately?

Your engines, radio equipment and batteries are safely snuggled in for storage over the winter, right??  Your airplanes don’t really need much care; just make sure they are nice and clean.  Metal parts, such as pushrods, would benefit from a little bit of oil.  It will keep the areas rust-free and ready for flight.  Don’t forget to make sure all the fuel from your gas tank is drained.  You may want to cover the fuselage and wings with sheets/towels to prevent dust build-up.

Internal corrosion in engines is your biggest worry.  Two highly corrosive agents to watch for in glow engines are found in the fuel.  There is water (in the alcohol) and nitro methane.  It is most important to get rid of all traces of fuel in the engine before storage.  The best way to do this is to run the engine until both the engine and the tank run completely out of fuel. The heat from the engine will also help to dry up any moisture in the engine.  Some of the manufacturers of four-stroke engines recommend you also flush out the crankcase with kerosene.  After-run oil should then be worked into all parts of the engine. You can use light machine oil, transmission oil, or other similar products.

You should remove the glow plug, (or at least loosen it a bit).  Glow plugs can tend to stick and “Become One” with the head when left for a long time. When storing a fuselage with an engine in it, it is best to store it nose down. That way the protective lubrication in the engine flows forward to the bearings in the front of the crankcase.

Don't forget fuel tanks.  Not sure what you can do from a preventive standpoint but take a really hard look at them in the spring BEFORE the first flight.

IT'S ELECTRIC!

If you are “Old School” and have NiCad’s, you can leave the battery in the aircraft and transmitter, but be sure to run the packs through a discharge-charge cycle periodically through the winter.  Another school of thought is to remove them from the aircraft and transmitters and store them in the refrigerator or freezer over the winter.  Then in spring they should be cycled several times before using them.

Charge Nimh packs overnight the first of every month.  Doing this only on the first day of the month is extremely critical, I am told.

Lipo batteries should be stored in a partially discharged state of between 3.8V and 3.9V per cell and at a temp of 40 to 70 degrees with low humidity.  Many of the current programmable chargers will do this for you.

President signs FAA bill
That Includes Protection for
Model Aviation

Last week, Congress passed the first FAA Reauthorization bill in more than four years. The Bill included a special provision for model aircraft protecting it from FAA regulations.

Signed last night by President Obama, the special provision in the Bill recognizes community-based safety programming as an effective means of managing the modeling activity. The model aircraft section establishes minimum criteria for safe aeromodeling operations and specifically directs the FAA to not enact rules for modeling activity conducted within the safety programming of a nationwide community-based organization.

The culmination of AMA’s efforts over the past four years in achieving this recognition and obtaining the legislative safeguard is a great accomplishment for the aeromodeling community. This recognition will help with our continuing efforts with the FAA to improve safety in the national airspace.

Recognition is also due to the tens of thousands of AMA members who went the extra mile by writing their congressional leaders, making phone calls, and supporting the AMA with donations used for this campaign. Continue to monitor www.modelaircraft.org/gov for further details.

Recently, a ½-scale Pfalz D.III WW 1 German fighter successfully flew its first test flight. 

The plane is a custom built model built from an Arizona Model Aircrafters Short kit that includes many prefabricated parts. Jaime Johnson of Scottsdale, AZ is the owner/operator of the company and he developed the ½-scale project starting with a set of Tom Polapink drawings, and incorporated many traditional modeling materials with lightweight Experimental Ultralight Aircraft materials and construction techniques to produce a plane that’s both scale, and that conforms to the new Academy of Model Aeronautics super giant scale RC aircraft guidelines.
Click HERE to see & read more about this plane!!

Click above to see
February's AMA Today Newsletter

a Chuckle for Charlie