Standley Lake Float Fly April 25, 2015

Posted on

The spring float fly at Standley Lake.  The weather was beautiful and we had a great event!  The club-sponsored float fly raised nearly $500 for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation that raises money for childhood cancer research.  Thanks to the 33 pilots with dozens of aircraft of various sizes and types, the many spectators, and the Standley Lake Park staff and rangers who helped with the event.

Photographs by Lee Jay Fingersh.  More pictures here.

CU AES Preps for Alaska

Posted on

On Monday February 9, a group from Colorado University’s Research and Engineering Center for Unmanned Vehicles, which is part of CU Boulder’s Aerospace Engineering Sciences department test flew a RC Pilatus.  They plan to take the plane to Alaska to do an artic environmental survey and had concerns about carburetor freezing in the cold so they had converted it from gas to electric.  They flew several laps, then flew a preprogramed pattern on auto-pilot, and had a smooth landing for a successful test flight.

James Mack is the pilot and an AAM member;  Doug Weibel is a graduate research assistant;  Tevis Nichols is a graduate research assistant;  Gijs de Boer is with the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences which is a joint institute between NOAA and CU;  and Brian Argrow is a professor at Aerospace Engineering Sciences.

Legacy High School Aeronautics Class Demo 2015

Posted on

February 5th 2015, the Arvada Associated Modelers Club attended Legacy High School; in particular Mr. Godman’s aviation class. The class was made up of approximately 15 high school boys who are interested in aviation. On display we had numerous foam fixed-wing aircraft, a gyro copter, a quad-copter and a large scale aerobatics 28 lb. airplane. In addition Joe Falconer brought his hexacopter with a 3 axis gimbal and live feed camera.

ed started us off talking about the club and promoting our flight instruction. The class gathered around the large scale aircraft that Ted brought. The students asked relevant and thoughtful questions about Ted’s aircraft. We discussed how the plane works, the amount of electronics on board and approximate costs. He tied it into AAM’s training program and the students seemed very interested. Pat then talked about his aircraft and showed the functionality of his foam aircraft. There were a lot of questions for Pat about how much his aircraft cost and how hard it was to fly. Dewey then told everyone about his scratch built gyro-copter and explained how stable the design was. Finally Joe explained his hexacopter and how the 3 axis gimbal works along with an explanation of the future of UAS. A lot of questions revolved around cost.

Once we were done with the conversation portion of the demo we went to the gymnasium to demonstrate the capabilities of the multi-rotors. Pat went first and showed how stable his multi-rotor was indoors. Apparently if you can get the quad to use your head as a reference point it will follow you around as you walk. The students seemed to enjoy the demo that Pat gave. Joe was next to fly his hexacopter. He explained how he needed to calibrate the compass then gave a student a remote to control the camera. He also brought FPV equipment so the video signal was transmitted to a monitor the students could see. In addition Joe brought a pair of FatShark FPV goggles and the students took turns looking through the goggles.

The flight portion was uneventful and the students seemed to be enjoying themselves. Multiple people asked about the flight instruction that AAM offers. We expect we will see some of them at the field in the near future.

AAM Teaches Kids to Build

Posted on

On Thursday, January 22, a few of our club members visited Little Elementary School and taught some children how to build AMA Cubs, a balsa and tissue rubber band-powered airplane.  After the glue had dried, our AAM members returned to the school on Friday, January 23 and watched the kids fly their airplanes in the gym.  What fun!

Pat Vachon and Dewey Loudenback put the program together and received help from Dick Snyder, Rod Sage, George Baxter, Bill Neyman, Denny Malone, Ted Hughes, and Richard Maszy.  Well done!

Frozen Finger Fun Fly 2015

Posted on

Keeping true to AAM tradition, we kicked off the new year with our Frozen Finger Fun Fly.  This year we had gorgeous weather and loads of snow on the ground which meant landing gear wouldn’t work.  Several spectators showed up to watch the eleven contestants fly three timed events.  Once the points were added, Joe Pirozzoli took first place in the Expert Class while Dave Jones took first in the Novice Class.  Thankfully the worst incurred damage was a broken prop.

Stay safe and enjoy this year!

Photos taken by Rod Sage.