Pacific Aeromodellers

05/26/2026

I brought out my Ringmaster kit today that I aquired from Kelly Croiser.

05/25/2026

Yesterday, May 24th was PAC’s second “fun fly” at Clayburn Park for 2026. Nice weather and there was NO sign on the 20kph wind that had been suggested in Saturday’s forecast. Larry B., Brian F. and Wade F. were already there and had the field set up. Brian and Wade had Brian’s Shoestring and Wade’s 1/2A Wildcat. Larry B. had his Ringer, a Flyte Streak and a 1/2A built by Henry H. and I had the “trainer” and the Elec-Tric-A.
Larry B. had Clayburn’s first flight of the year with the Ringer. Paul B. and his Barnstormer arrived and put up the next flight then my turn.
Now for the newbie, Wade, on the trainer. I took off, handed the handle to him and all I had to do after that was to sit down. He may have taken 50 year away from the hobby but he still remembered how. We tried for a second flight but the gremlin that plagued the motor last year was back again, I thought I had fixed it - nope. Wade was trying to run the 1/2A and “broke” the motor mount off. Don’t be too harsh, the plane was originally mine from the 70s. Would you believe fuel soaked?
Next up was the maiden flight for Brian’s Shoestring. When I visited Brian a few weeks ago we had moved the balance point forward by removing some tail weight. I was to fly it. It got into the air ok but even with holding my hand steady, trying to fly level it was jumpy as heck. Oh yes, we also lost a wheel, – found it! Reattached the wheel, changed the setting on the handle and took off another ½ oz. of tail weight. I tried to bend the gear forward and up and proceeded to break the brass tubing Brian had used to connect the gear legs together. Wade gave me a hand launch and the plane flew much better, in fact I gave the handle to Brian and he had no problems flying it. Landing was a bit rougher – remember the gear fiasco? Tipped over knocking the fin/rudder off.
Hube S., Denis C. Jora M. Henry H. and Keith B rounded out the gang. Henry and Keith didn’t fly. Hube had one flight on his Score, Denis flew a Ringmaster that had been donated by Wayne S. (VGMC) and another ? from the collection of Gerry B. Jora flew my Elec-Tric-A for his first time and even though the flight was almost twice as long as his longest last year had no problems. Now all I have to do is convince him to try a loop. Oh yes, I had four flights.
One member not there was our “club photographer” who was “out sick”. I dunno Barb. Hope your better for the next time. Today’s photos are courtesy of Brian and Jora.
Update – The Shoestring has been repaired and Brian and I made a new engine mount for the Wildcat. I still have things to iron out on the Elec-Tric-A and that darn trainer motor. Next session is on June 9th so there is still time.
Tight lines & stay safe, Larry L.

05/24/2026

This past week has been quite a week. I've been to the Mission Wings Club three times. Monday, I went with two purposes, intending to find out if just changing the prop on the new Eureka had taken care of the vibration I noticed on the maiden flight. Secondly I remembered that at the end of the season I had made changes to the set-up on the Elec-Tric-A to try to more equalize the turns, it had preferred the outside over the inside. Well the wind never let up so Monday was a wash. Wednesday again with calm hopes, did not happen. I ran the Eureka on the "bench" and noticed the prop and spinner trying to leave the plane so it got shut down real fast. Later I did get a windy flight on the Elec-Tric-A. Whereas it was bouncing all over the place it flew the way I remembered so I was happy. Yesterday I made one flight with the Eureka and the vibration was gone. Guess what we are going flying at Clayburn today. Tight lines & stay safe, Larry L.

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05/19/2026

I went to the Mission Wings field yesterday with a couple of things in mind. Firstly I wanted younger and more accurate eyes to help with the symmetry of the fuselage molds for the Tempest build. Paul B.'s son Chris was able to do that and now all I have to do to continue with it's build it to get Chris C. to teach me how to "stretch" balsa. Secondly I wanted to test fly the repaired Warlord. I "wetted" down the engine, got a "burp" and tried to fill the tank. I say tried because the inlet side had epoxy in it. I had put epoxy on areas of the nose to help seal it from fuel. Well, it is now open so I will try again tomorrow. Paul B. was also there but didn't fly as the grass was too long. After the flying was done he and Valdy cut the grass. Brian F. flew his R/C trainer with Bruce C. on the "buddy box". Keith B. (R/C /control line flyer) came out, so me being nasty and knowing how he loves GBs, I had to taunt him by showing him a large scale GB Sportster. One of the Mission club members has/had several larger R/C planes for sale, including the GB. Tight lines & stay safe, Larry L.

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05/14/2026

With Chris C. in Australia and me at a point on the Tempest where I need advice, I got to thinking. Alright, I know that is a dangerous statement BUT what if we had an "Almost 1/2A" day to celebrate Gerry Boyd, the father of the "Almost 1/2A". I know that several of us still have planes for this event, I have 5. Same rules, same everything. Their take-off ability is limited so I think Rice Mill would be the preferred flying site.

THE LAST SET OF RULES USED

1) Model MUST resemble a military aircraft, single or multi engine (preferred).
2) Maximum engine size, one engine .10, multi engine total .10 or equivalent electric motor
3) Capable of flying a brief specified set of maneuvers (stunts) as provided.
4) 4) Entrants may fly two(2) flights if you choose and the score will be averaged for a total.
5) Maximum of two(2) models can be flown but only the score for one will apply.


STUNTS TO BE FLOWN IN ORDER LISTED.

1. Take-off, make it as smooth as you can.
2. Three(3) laps of level flight, between 4 and 8 feet.
3. One standard wing-over
4. Two(2) inside loops (keep them smooth).
5. Two(2) figure eights, lazy eights are OK.
6. One(1) maneuver of your choice, must let judges know before flight.
7. Landing, Hooray, make it smooth.

What do you think? I'll bring it up at the next VGMC luncheon.

Tight lines & stay safe, Larry L.

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05/11/2026

The "One more sleep" is over!
Yesterday, May 10th was this year's first "fun fly" at Clayburn Park for PAC. The weather was beautiful! We had made plans to reintroduce another flyer to control line so I started charging batteries at 7:00am. Ten batteries in total. At 8:30 I got a phone call from Brian F. saying that he and his brother Wade (he is the reintroduction) were at the field "Where was everybody?" Um Brian, we don't start until 10:00 and setup only takes a few minuets.
I got to the field just after 10 and everything was set up but it was steadily getting gustier. That trend continued for the rest of the day. And the grass was wet with dew and I don't like wet. So Larry B., Brian, Wade and I sat around and got "caught-up" from over the winter. Finally Larry B. got his Ringmaster ready for a flight, chose a lull in the wind and did get in the first flight of the Clayburn season!
I managed one flight on the Elec-Tric-A but it wasn't much fun, the wind had it bouncing all over the place. Larry B. flew his Flyte Streak, Tried a 0.15 sized Mustang (that Henry H. had built) without success and ended up with the Ringer again. It was windy enough that the new Eurika went back into the truck. That was all the flying for the day. Doesn't mean that is was a bad day, on the contrary, it was a great day! Gord (G1) S. came by and he still has all his control line equipment - so Gord, can we get you back out, occasionally, this year? Hube S. and Dave D. came by and visited for a while, neither brought a plane. Barb B. collected dues from new and rejoining members.
The day ended up with almost my whole family showing up for a "Mother's Day picnic". Got to thinking, 4 of them have flown that ugly, slow "trainer" I have and Kathy says that our oldest grand and her husband were saying "that might be fun" You never can tell. As usual all photography WILL be provided by Barb, so even if you get here before she does, come back again for the pictures.
Now I have 0 batteries to return to "storage".
Tight lines & stay safe, Larry L.

05/09/2026

One more sleep and will get to see if the Shoestring will fly at Clayburn Park first fly of the season.😎

04/27/2026

I was invited to a friend's place yesterday to try flying in his field. This is normally a horse pasture but right now the horses are in a different one. As he is just getting back into control line he thought this would be a good place for him to maiden his new builds and practice. He was sure that there was more than enough area so we set up my P40 on 57 1/2' lines, paced the distance to the big cedar tree and the fences and a sapling alder (?) tree. All appeared to be good. The ground was rough but the grass was fairly short and there were no horse pucks around so we gave it a go. The first takeoff - it nosed over, the second takeoff - it nosed over again, the third takeoff was a successful hand launch. This is a plane I am not that fond of but have been trying to get better, the outboard tip is STILL low and it will never be any sort of a stunter but will suffice as an intermediate trainer. It was getting towards the end of the flight when I pulled a Henry and tried logging, (remember he lost a plane to a tree up at Barrie's last year?) well there were leaves flying but so was the plane. Examination of the "damage" afterwards was surpriseing - there was NONE! We moved the "centre" of the circle a bit and went again, the only damage from this flight was a part of one roundel came off. He has a nice place but the field isn't as big as he thought although still big enough for 0.15 sized planes (52" lines). We found out things and had a few laughs. All was good. Tight lines & stay safe, Larry L.

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04/17/2026

Today I went to the Mission Wings field and met with Paul B., Brian F., Bruce C., and Dave. Dave and Bruce were helping Brian get his plane into the air. It had some problems but finally made it with Dave at the controls. Bruce didn't stay long because he had forgotten his batteries. Paul had his Barnstormer and I had gone in an effort to maiden the modified Eureka Mk 2(E). I haven't done a post on it yet but will do one when the trim is finished.
I did get to maiden the plane. In level flight it was smooth and stable as "heck" with a "just right" pull. I didn't do much but I had to do some lazy 8s because I was starting to get dizzy. I only put in one flight as the grass, although it had been cut, it wasn't as short as it could be, I barely got off and I had a vibration in the "drive train" and didn't want to exasperate that causing any damage. BUT IT FLIES!
Paul and his Barnstormer were practicing the precision aerobatic pattern. There were some unrecognizable maneuvers he DID have a good start at many others. Tight lines & stay safe, Larry L.

02/21/2026

Chris C. had his latest version of his Hellcat at last weeks VGMC luncheon. This version is fully take-a-part in order that he may "ship" it to this world's precision aerobatics contest in Perth (?) Australia. Increasable workmanship. Thanks to Chris for the taken apart picture and to Denis C. for the rest. Larry L.