Spring has sprung and in Indiana that means we are into the fifth season that we enjoy here it is called, “Mud Season”. Hopefully you have gotten a chance to get out to at least do some sport flying. With the New Year comes the expectation of great things for every pilot to set a record in racing and win every gold race. For some of you that is a reasonable goal but for the other 90% of us we hope to do better than last year. As the new VP of USRA we are looking forward to building on the foundation that Scott Hanburry and before him Kenny McSpadden have done to get the USRA to the point that we enjoy the Status of one of the most technically demanding model sports. (Also the most fun) The biggest thing I think we all need to do is seek out our past Association officers and personally thank them for their hard work to get us to this point.
As I learn my new job I am amazed at how much I am responsible for. I want to talk about the first two.
USRA Propellers. I am the source of the F-1 GT, T-6 and Dominator propellers. Do you have any idea how much space 70 GT propellers talk up? I have a huge box of these guys and they are the ones we will be using this year at our races. If you need some props for practice flying before the first race send me an email and I will ship you out the propellers you requested. The T-6 and GT props are $25 ea and the Dominators are $15. You will have to pay the shipping. So far sending 2 GT props to the left coast is about $8. You can also get the props from APC and I understand they are about the same price so pay USRA or APC but you will need the props for practice. I don’t know if you can get your local hobby shop to get these props but they probably will get stuck with a bunch of very specialized propellers that only you are interested in so why don’t you get them from me?
As an added benefit for those who are going to Toledo, If you send me an email I will make sure that I have propellers for you. Regardless, I will have some extra as well so call me on my cell phone Friday and Saturday morning at 812 322 1077 and after that 812 325 3021. I will only accept a check as payment made out to USRA, no cash (I will spend it buying goodies)
Chief Technical Officer. Yep, That’s me, while I have only been modeling all my life there are still many things I don’t know, fortunately I have lots of people who I can fall back on. Soon we plan to introduce a section to the USRA web site were we will publish frequently asked questions as well as discuss specific questions you guys come up with. Before we even start this section on the web if you have a question about racing that you need an answer to contact your USRA Regional representative. He is the technical inspector for your region. West coast is Fred Sattler, central is Captain Eric Hunter and east is Scott Hanburry. In addition Kenny McSpadden is a selected designee for the west coast. These guys by and large have day jobs so give them a few days to respond but they are the go to guys to answer your questions. The first thing they will ask you is what do the rules say? It is easy to giggle about that but the majority of the questions that come up can be answered in the rules. Look both in your class specific rules as well as the common class rules.
If you have a plane that you are building new for this season you will need to have a Technical inspection completed before a log book is issued. The rules for conformance are published and there isn’t room for interpretation they are black and white. The idea here is to have your regional representative conduct the technical inspection Before you show up at the first race. Make it easy for all of us have your plane prepared to the best of your ability and know what the rules require. If the rules call for a minimum of 5”. 4 59/64 isn’t good enough. Do yourself a favor as well as us by not putting us in a difficult position over this. Remember we are all racers so our time at the races is important too. Try and get your Technical inspections and log book completed prior to the week of the race. At the race we only want to do the safety inspection and radio range check.
In closing read the rules, here is a test. Does the USRA require you to verify the integrity of the airborne batteries?
Tim Sparks
Vice President