club scene

I thought it was time we visited a ModelFlight reader's club, as we haven't done so lately, so here we drop in on TIM KNOWLES' club.

NORTHSHORE RADIO CONTROL CLUB

Northshore Radio Control Club is located in Slidell, Louisiana, USA and is AMA and IMAA sanctioned.

In the late 70's, some guys split off from the Chalmette LA R/C Club to form the Slidell R/C Club. Then, in 1986, some of that club's members split off to form Northshore, and they have been flying at their present site ever since.

Northshore is a big club compared to many and has 117 members and always welcomes more. They have 400 feet of what they describe as some of the best grass runway you've ever flown off.

Flying activity at the club covers a broad range of disciplines and flying types, as nicely defined on the club's website - 'sport flyers, ducted fan guys, turbine men, heli dudes, electric volt heads - just about everything'!

Northshore RCC has a good website, but a lousy URL that's so long I've had to drop it down a size to ensure it will get on some screens! It's

http://personal.lig.bellsouth.net/lig/w/o/woketman/NorthRC.html

but once you've typed that lot in (and got it right first time if you're lucky!), then it's worth it!

Here's a miniature of the club's home page - or rather just the first screenful, as it's one of those long pages carrying loads of very interesting material and links to other items on the site, rather than a navigation menu.

There are one or two items of news on the home page, one of which mentioned the first 'Johnny Smith's Memorial Fly-in' at which the club raised almost $1,000 for the Children's Wish Foundation - brilliant work. The page also carries a few nice pictures, plus links to membership forms, site location map, four dedicated picture galleries covering sports planes, members' pictures, jets and helicopters, as well as links to members' own home pages, suppliers and international modelling bodies.

As you may know, I just love looking at the picture galleries - other people's modelling skills just amaze me! I've had a good look round on the Northshore pages and included a few pictures on photo gallery and you can click on that enormous link above if you would like to see more. Northshore RCC now also has a permanent link on our club links page.

Welcome to ModelFlight, Northshore Radio Control Club - if any of you guys have anything for us, I will be delighted to publish your material.

Midnight Sun R/C Club, Alaska

Brenton Watkins' club

The Midnight Sun R/C Club is the world's farthest north AMA model flying club. With a membership of around 30, the club operates a flying field suitable for both wheeled and float-equipped models.

Midnight Sun run a good program of events throughout the year as well as holding a monthly club meeting. They publish a monthly newsletter which is mailed out to club members and is also available for viewing on the web. Visitors are welcome and they can offer camping in the parking area of their flying site.

The club has a neat and tidy website, managed by BRENT WATKINS who has recently made contact with us for the first time. The site provides details of membership, including a list of members, information on the flying site, news and events, a selection of photos of members and their models, etc. When I saw the picture of the club flying site, I thought the proximity of that water could present special challenges and a visit to the photos page confirmed it with this picture of Reuben Clayton (right) rescuing Al Gaudin's crash! They clearly have to be hardy souls up there in Alaska as another photo shows some of the lads flying in MINUS 45 DEGREES!

Midnight Sun R/C Club's URL is another of those very long ones - easier just to click the link!

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/bjw2/midnight.htm

Go to site seeing to read about Brent Watkins' personal websites.

Here's a repeat of Tore Loodin's report on his recent club meeting in Påldalen, Sweden, but this time with Jngve Johanneson's pictures that I lost during my recent computer problems.
Esbjörn checks the balance on his Looping . . .	. . . the constructor, Bertil Baeckman, launches off . . .		. . . but a sad ending! Esbjörn's Viking on the bench
Jörgen Daun's Mills-engined Mini Mambo	Our latest meeting was the yearly old-timer meeting in Påldalen last Saturday. Fourteen flyers mustered in the very ideal weather with almost no wind. All participants were as usual fed with free hotdogs and soft drinks on this easygoing meeting with no entrance fees. As a matter of fact even the prizes were hot dogs, if there remained any room in the stomach. After a timed motor run limited to 60 seconds, you were awarded one point per second in the air, plus 30 points bonus if you landed within a circle of 30 meter (about 10 feet) diameter. The points of three heats were added together and shows the total points. I had the impudence to win the competition, the first win of all competitions during 76 years. Talk about slow learning curve! My mount was the 13-years-old Playboy Senior, first flown at Old Warden's Vintage Days 13 years ago! It was just repaired but not test-flown before the meeting, so all parts evidently got on the right places. Of course some friendly thermals happened to gather under the under-cambered wing!		Lennart Rönnerstig's venerable Astro Hog took fourth place
Mats Ljungberg with his Pacer			Pär Laxén starts his Radio Queen
Rolf Tolstoy readies his Red Zephyr. Tore's Playboy lurks under the table	Bill Dean's lovely Southerner 60, built 1948	Tore performs his winning flight . . .	. . . and enjoys flying it again at the end of the day!