July - the Santa Cruz County RC Bees

RC BEES of Santa Cruz County, Inc.
Newsletter
July 2014
Editor: Alan Brown, 388 Aptos Ridge Circle, Watsonville, CA 95076-8518
Phone: (831) 685-9446. E-mail: [email protected]. Web site: www.rcbees.org
were no minutes from the May meeting. Guest Jerry
Arana, former RC Bee and currently a member of
Next Meeting
the Salinas club, was welcomed. He is an excontrol-liner and flew R/C gliders.
Thursday, July 17th, 2014,
at the EAA building, Aviation Way,
Watsonville Airport, 7:30 PM.
Treasurer’s Report (June)
Beginning Balance
$9330.50
Income
Fuel Sale
Dues
Subtotal
$20.00
$64.00
$84.00
Expenses
Office expenses
Fun Fly expenses
Field Mowing & Maintenance
Field Toilet Service
Subtotal
$24.99
$32.70
$250.00
$64.95
$372.64
Ending Balance
$9041.86
Note: the field mowing and maintenance was
actually done in May, but was recorded in June.
June meeting
The meeting was opened by Steve Boracca at 7:34
p.m. with fifteen members present. The treasurer’s
report was accepted, and it was noted that there
We were reminded that a reporter from the
Pajaronian newspaper would be at the club field on
the following Sunday for a forthcoming newspaper
article, and that on Saturday, June 28th, the
Watsonville Airport was holding an open house
from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., where we would have a
stand. Members were invited to attend both of these
events with models for display.
Steve Boracca reminded us that we have plenty of
fuel available for members to purchase, at a
significant saving compared to shop prices.
Show and Tell
Richard Tacklind showed us his immaculate Fokker
D VII from a Balsa USA kit. George Ribeiro and
Jerry Arana are to the left of the picture.
Lots of great detail including a very nicely applied
Solartex lozenge pattern camouflage scheme
complete with rib stitching and rib tapes. Propulsion
was via a HiMax 6332 and two 8.0 amp-hour 5-cell
batteries.
Benno and dad Jay showed us rockets from Benno’s
“other hobby”, where he regularly flies at Moffett
Field in Mountain View.
Richard Tacklind repaired and recovered a glider
wing for John Williams, seen lounging in front of
the beautifully finished work.
Benno gave us a very interesting talk on this
subject, and discussed all three of the rockets he
brought with him. Yes, the middle one is made
primarily from foam coffee cups – always knew that
there was something useful that could be done with
them!
Alan Brown brought along a partly finished 46”
wing span pattern airplane made from leftovers in
his workshop. The wing is from an Electric Chaos
he built from plans some years ago, and the
horizontal tail is from the same airplane, although
changed from a flat plate to a NACA 0009 airfoil.
The fuselage and vertical fin and rudder were
copied from a three-view of Dennis Kanemura’s
Pinnacle pattern airplane scaled to fit the wing. The
canopy is from a Mountain Models Flashback,
which determined the fuselage width. An AXI 2408
motor with 1800 3-cell LiPo will complete the
package.
them as things that happen to other people
and not to ourselves. Well, now this has hit
home. Jacob and Steve Boracca, both very
careful people, had a fire at their home
recently. Here is Jacob’s verbatim
description.
Last Thursday night we had just finished dinner and
were about to go to bed when my mom said the
trash needed to be taken out because it was garbage
night. As my dad was taking out the trash, he
noticed smoke coming from the garage and yelled
fire. I ran out to the garage, only to be blinded by
smoke, the smell of lithium, and 2ft flames coming
from our charge box. We then tried to grab the fire
extinguisher which was directly above the fire but
my dad burnt his finger in the process. (2nd degree
burn on his right index finger.) When he got it we
realized the hose was melted from the fire as seen in
the photo below.
Finally, Steve Boracca showed us the underside
detail of the foam Ugly Stick type model which was
seen at the field in last month’s newsletter.
And with that the meeting was adjourned at about
8:40 p.m.
Safety!
I’ve headlined this section in large red
letters because we’ve all read articles about
the dangers inherent in charging LiPo
batteries, but have probably looked upon
I then decided to get the cars out of the garage. I got
in my dads truck, hit the garage door opener and put
the truck in drive! I almost drove through the wall.
With adrenaline running I got the truck in reverse
and floored it only to hear a crunching sound. I
thought the sound was an airplane that my dad had
left on his truck and figured I'd sacrifice it at the
expense of the truck, so I preceded to back up. What
I was backing into was the garage door! So now the
garage door is jammed and we can't get either car
out!
Meanwhile the fire is getting bigger so I run to my
neighbor who is an ex police chief and yell fire
trying to get his attention at 9:45 at night. He comes
out, I tell him the situation, and run back home. In
the driveway I get the garden hose and run in the
garage to try to douse the fire, to find that my dad
had finally put out the fire by using carpets that
were lying around on the floor. I then called my
other neighbor who was a doctor to tell him about
my dad's burns and he comes over to help.
The main point of all this is to always, always,
always be aware of what you are doing! Never
leave the charger out of sight. If you do, set a
reminder of some sort to check the charging
batteries so you don't forget like us. And I know it
is not always convenient, but if you have exterior
outlets away from the house, charge outside! That
way if something does happen, the fire will be
limited to the things around it and you won't be
putting your garage and house at risk.
My dad In the process of putting out the fire, lost
his slipper and burned his toe from walking on hot
coals. At this point, Cal Fire finally arrives and
checks out the situation.
We have an exterior outlet by our driveway with a
brick retaining wall alongside the outlet. This is
where we will be charging from here on out so that
way if something does happen, the fire will be
burning against cinder blocks and asphalt. The only
thing attached to the house will be the power cord.
The source of the fire was from charging a 3cell
3000mah battery that was OUT of balance and
being charged WITHOUT the balance lead
connected to the charger in NON BALANCE
CHARGING MODE. There were approximately 10
other batteries lying around the charge box that also
caught fire. Batteries ranging from 150mah single
cells to 4cell 3300mah packs. Mind you there were
almost 40 batteries being stored in the cabinet
below the fire, most of which for my pattern plane.
We are so fortunate and blessed to have caught the
fire when we did. We assume it must have been
burning for a couple minutes. Had we gone off to
bed or came out 5 minutes later, the fire would have
moved to the structure and to the house. (Our
garage is connected to the house via the roof.)
Please have respect for these batteries no matter
what size they are and charge with caution so that
this does not happen to you.
Down by the River
Back to more light-hearted content. On the Sunday
right after the meeting we had a visit from Cathy
Kelly, a freelance reporter who was doing an article
on our club for the Watsonville Register-Pajaronian.
She gave us a fine write-up which most of you will
have seen in the article forwarded by John Kent,
who was the only one of us to get his picture in the
paper. If you missed it, you can get a back issue,
Thursday, June 26th, from the Pajaronian offices.
They are close to Highway 1 just off Green Valley
Road.
We had a good turnout with a lot of models on
display and small lightweight ones flying. The
flying was unfortunately curtailed by workers close
by in the adjacent field, unusual for a Sunday. Here
is John’s photo as captioned in the newspaper.
The following Saturday we were at the Watsonville
Airport Open House. Again we had a good selection
of models on display as seen here.
And here’s Cathy at the field with Dan Morris and
John Kent behind. Further back are the Boraccas.
We even found a full-size Cirrus to pose beside
John Williams’ model!
Here are some of the models on display.
Thanks to all who helped out. To your right, as a
filler, is the editor’s Electric Chaos, now ready to
fly at 26 ounces.