H o l d f a s t M o d e l A e r o C l u b I n c .

Volume 3, Issue 1

January 2012

From the President 2

Tech Tip 2

Safety at HMAC 2

2011 Christmas Party 3

Achievements 3

Build That Next Plane 4

Vale Ian White 5

Instructor Roster 5

Inside this issue:

At the General Meeting to be held

on Friday Feb 3rd, 8:00 pm, the

revised Constitution will be

presented for approval. You

should have received a draft copy

recently in the mail. It contains

some important changes of which

members need to be aware.

Please make a note of this date in

your diary to attend this meeting

and cast your vote.

“Top Guns” receive awards at HMAC Christmas party (story, page 3)

Important Meeting

Kingsley Neumann

Welcome to 2012! At long last the warmer

weather is here. In fact summer is half over

already. Now we are in the part of the year

when we can really expect some good weather

for flying. Of course we always get a bit of a

mixture but more often than not it is great. I

am very pleased to report that the earthwork

associated with our new gate and roadway

has now been completed. The gate was

modified by master welder Graham Paterson.

(He is an artist with the arc welder). Hundreds

of tonnes of dirt and many tonnes of recycled

bitumen was formed into a road and also

used to raise the level of our car park. John

Tonkes has worked tirelessly on this project

and established excellent rapport with the

earthmoving contractor Zerrella, Holdfast Bay

and Marion City Councils. And the amazing

thing is that it has cost us virtually nothing due

to the negotiating skills of John. A letter of

thanks will be sent to all those concerned. I

know that John has spent far too much time

on this project for his own good and he has to

now try and restore equilibrium with his wife

Heather and also get back to flying his

models.

The southern runway extension managed to

produce an amazing crop of kikuyu grass and

unfortunately, some nasty weeds. Kingsley

Everett and some other members have been

attacking the worst of these weeds by pulling

them out before they go to seed. Thanks very

much for that work, people. We have since

had a follow up working bee to try and reduce

the weeds even more. Our aim is to get the

mower onto the job when we are sure that the

nasty stalks have been removed and the

stones no longer present a problem for the

tractor driver. Eventually we will have a longer

runway area.

Our Landlords, the Department for

Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)

have presented a draft Lease to us, covering

the next 10 years at our current location. The

Committee is very keen to secure the lease,

but unfortunately DENR has seen fit to

increase our rent by at least 50%. On the face

of it this would mean an increase of around

$30.00 per annum on the Club component of

our membership fees. Needless to say we are

appealing against this outrageous increase.

We have been told that all DENR tenants will

be hit with similar increases due to

revaluation of the land. Negotiations will

commence shortly based on our good record

of tenancy, improvements made to the area

and of course our community involvement.

The Club is situated in the O’Halloran Hill

Recreation Park and we believe that we are

using it as intended and should not be

compared with commercial leases.

The Committee has been hard at work

reviewing and in fact re-writing the HMAC

Constitution. This is a job that is not taken on

lightly but we had to change portion of the

constitution due to the MAAA and MASA

deciding to withdraw the previous “grace

period” for renewals. Fees will need to be paid

on time to ensure continuous coverage of the

Insurance policy. MASA has decided to pay the

cost of registering the new Constitution for

each Club. We need to have approval for the

changes at a Special General Meeting

scheduled for Friday 3rd February and there is

some urgency on this because time is rolling

on believe it or not. Please read the notice

elsewhere in this issue or received by mail.

Kingsley Neumann

From the President

Page 2

Tech Tip

For all users of the HiTec Aurora 9’s who have

purchased or are contemplating purchase of

the NEW miniature MINIMA series receivers,

You cannot bind/link these receivers to

your TX unless the 2.4Ghz TX module is

revised to firmware level 3.01.

The RX binding instructions DO NOT tell

you this.

Gian Young

Safety at HMAC

The HMAC club operates in a very

public area and we must all give

due regard to safety. The Club has

a well documented set of rules

and all Members should be aware

of them. It has come to the

attention of the Committee that

some people are not operating in

accordance with the rules. There is

no need to name anyone at this

stage.

The rules are there for the safety

of everyone. Let’s all use

commonsense and follow the

rules. In particular:

1. Fly your model only from a

position behind a safety

barrier on the flight line.

2. Ensure your model is

operated at least 10 metres

out from the flight line.

3. Do not taxi in the Pits Area.

These rules apply even if you

are the only person flying

Page 3

“… the President’s Award

for dedicated services to

the Club, given to Mike

Mildren for his many

years of tireless work…”

2011 Trophy Winners

President’s Award Awarded to Mike Mildren for dedicated service to the Club Model of the Year Awarded jointly to Mike Newbound and Brian Cutting for their “SE 5a” Johnson Award for Applied Innovation Awarded to John Tonkes for his “Extra Air 55” Johnson Award for Scale Modelling Awarded to Kingsley Everett for his “P40 Attitude” Open Class Pylon, First Place Awarded to Tom Jacobsen Standard Class Pylon, First Place Awarded to Graham Paterson WW1 Combat, First Place Awarded to Merv Harris - “11 Kills” WW2 Combat, First Place Awarded to Ross Lloyd - “11 Kills” Fun Fly, First Place Awarded to Ken Burdon - 374 points

Gold Wings: Jesse Stewart (Instructors: Graham Paterson, Alan Ayles)

Recent Achievements

NOTE: Misspelling of names and omissions may occur from time to time. If you bring any issues to the

editor’s attention I will rectify them in the next Holdfast buzz issue.

There was a good turn-up (53) for the

Christmas Party held on December 4th, and

with the weather being a little on the windy

side it was a “nice ‘n squeezy” fit relocating

everyone to the clubhouse.

In their usual fashion, John Anthony, Sonya

Cole, Alan Ayles and Huw Rosser cooked up

a feast of mouthwatering goodies on the

BBQ. Lois Anthony provided a large salad,

while Kathy Paterson organised food, salads,

cakes, & table décor.

With everyone fed and watered, Kingsley

Neumann welcomed all attendees and

commenced with the presentation of annual

trophies. Of note was the President’s Award

for dedicated services to the Club, given to

Mike Mildren for his many years of tireless

work, managing both the financial affairs of

the Club and general maintenance of the

field.

Special recognition was given to Kathy

Paterson for all her work organizing and

managing the monthly Pylon Racing, WW1/

WW2 Combat and Fun Fly competitions.

Jean Harris and Pam Lloyd did a great job

offering the HMAC Tea Towels for sale and in

fact sold all of the stock we had. Flushed

with that success, Kathy Paterson suggested

that they should then offer the Club Cooler

Bags for sale at a bargain price. These were

quickly snapped up. Sales for the day

totalled $110.00. Thanks to all 3 ladies for

your convincing selling skills!

After much story-telling and laughter, the day

came to a close with everyone having greatly

enjoyed the Club’s final social event for the

year.

Geoff Haynes

2011 Christmas Party and Annual Awards

Page 4

“… The design, and

subsequently the aircraft,

has been built all over the

world as a homebuilt

aircraft with a wide

variety of engines…”

A visit to the club any Sunday morning will

reveal an array of shiny ARTF or RTF models of

Seagull Boomerangs and Hangar 9 Mustangs

and eager new members waiting for their turn

with an instructor. As their skills develop and

they go solo and then pass their bronze I often

wonder what their next model will be. I have a

personal attraction to build something unique

from a kit or plan and I hope to spread my

interest to our budding new members with

some short articles over coming months.

We have some older members with exceptional

modelling skills and with enough interest we

may be able to motivate some talks and project

nights from them. Yes I do have ARTF’s and

forgive me after vowing never to buy a “foamie”,

I have taken a great interest in FMS’s AM6 Zero

recently reviewed in Airborne Magazine, I’m

sure one will be added to my flying collection

soon. To kick things off this month I have some

pictures of a Luton Minor, a model presented in

September 2010 RCM&E magazine and built by

my brother. I have a copy of the magazine and if

this is your cup of tea the plan and article could

be copied.

Luton Minor - the aircraft scale 1/1

The Luton L.A.4 Minor was a 1930s British

single-seat high-wing ultra-light aircraft. The

prototype was built by the Luton Aircraft Limited,

and design plans were later adapted and copies

sold for home-building.

History

The L.A.3 Minor ultralight was powered by a 35

hp Anzani inverted-vee air-cooled engine, and

was of spruce, ply and fabric construction. It

was designed by C.H. Latimer-Needham, and

built by Luton Aircraft at Barton-in-the-Clay,

Bedfordshire in 1936, using the fuselage and

components of the earlier experimental L.A.2

tandem-wing aircraft. The prototype L.A.3 Minor,

registered G-AEPD, first flew on 3 March 1937

at Heston Aerodrome.[1]

The aircraft was a successful flyer despite the

low-powered engine, and it was then redesigned

for home construction. Designated the L.A.4

Minor, it had a strutted undercarriage and

parallel wing struts. The first L.A.4 Minor was

built at the company's new factory (the Phoenix

Works) at Gerrards Cross in Buckinghamshire. It

was fitted with a 40 hp ABC Scorpion two-

cylinder horizontally-opposed engine. All

subsequent Luton Minors were home-built from

plans sold by the company.

The Phoenix Works had burnt down during

1943, and Luton Aircraft had closed, so

designer C.H. Latimer-Needham and A.W.J.G.

Ord-Hume created a new company in March

1958 to take over the design rights for the

Luton Minor. Latimer-Needham updated the

design to take more modern lightweight four-

cylinder engines and an increased all-up weight.

The redesigned aircraft was designated L.A.4A

Minor. The design, and subsequently the

aircraft, has been built all over the world as a

homebuilt aircraft with a wide variety of

engines, with the plans for the aircraft being

distributed by Alf Knowles as the Knowles Duet

before being passed on to the Popular Flying

Association in the UK. Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luton_Minor

Steve Masters

Build That Next Plane

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

Friday 3rd Feb - General Meeting

Sunday 5th Feb - Point 10 Pylon

Wed 15th Feb - Committee

meeting

Sunday 19th Feb - Fun Fly

Newcomers to R/C modelling are catered for by setting aside every Sunday

morning from 10 am when qualified instructors will teach all aspects required for

the safe operation of the model. During the training period no other models are

allowed to fly, ensuring the least possible distractions to the student.

P.O. Box 94

O'Halloran Hill

S.A. 5158

HOLDFAST MODEL AERO CLUB

Club Phone: 08 8377 2708

Newsletter Editor

buzz@itapps.com.au

We are fortunate in having so many rated instructors and our thanks go to those keen instructors who turn up even when they are not

rostered on. We expect to see more learners now that the warm weather is here. Advanced Flying Training is available on request, so if

you want to brush up your flying for a Wings test, please arrange a session with one of the Instructors. There are still a number of “Solo

Only” flyers out there who could easily qualify for the Bronze Wings.

Date Instructor Instructor Assistant

JAN 22nd John Jefferson Peter Robertson Kingsley Everett

JAN 29th Ross Lloyd Allan Scroop Max Thomas

FEB 5th Kingsley Neumann Graham Paterson Trevor Baudinette

FEB 12th Ken Burdon Matt Jamieson Kingsley Everett

FEB 19th Ross Lloyd Peter Robertson Max Thomas

FEB 26th John Jefferson Allan Scroop Trevor Baudinette

MAR 4th Kingsley Neumann Graham Paterson Kingsley Everett

Instructor Roster (January - February)

We’re on the web!

www.holdfastmac.com.au Ian scratch built several outstanding models

over the years and flew in prestigious events.

Never being a modeller to rest between

projects, he nearly always had a house full of

models.

Another area of interest lay in breaking

Australian flying records and he flew a power

model continuously for over eight hours in an

attempt to break the duration record. In later

years Ian became interested in aerial

photography and made headline news when

he inadvertently photographed vandals in the

act of painting a building, which led to their

conviction.

The Internet allowed him to make new friends

in other countries and he often posted on R/C

groups. Ian was a unique character and there

was seldom a misunderstanding on where you

stood. If you were in any doubt he would soon

tell you.

Perhaps he was not on everybody's Christmas

card list - last year he reminded me he wasn't

on mine - but I will miss him. He was a good

friend.

David Whitten.

Vale Ian White Early in Ian's working career he served in

the Australian Navy on a supply ship. He

had a variety of other jobs over the years

including a stint with the Channel 2 studios

at Collinswood.

Ian joined the Holdfast Model Aero Club in

the early seventies and this was when I got

to know him. He quickly became an

Instructor and owned a whole fleet of

aircraft.

After a one week full size gliding course

with the Waikerie club he had not only

flown solo but also completed several two

hour solo thermal flights in a Blanik sail

plane.

He enjoyed attending many inter-club fun

fly events at places like Mt. Gambier and

Loxton also competing in the Australian

National Model Championships becoming

the first person to fly in the Stand Off Scale

event with a model ducted fan jet. Another

interesting model was a large German 163

Komet built to compete in an interstate

scale rally.