31st Northern California Free Flight Championship was held at the Waegell Field in Rancho Cordova. We had good attendance, with many flyers  from Oregon and Southern California joining the action.

We enjoyed good weather on Friday and on Saturday when most of the flying was done. Those two flying days ended with a happy hour, including live music by Mark Sexton, with Ken Bauer joining him on Saturday, and with Guy Menano in vocals.

There were few flyers early on Sunday, and flying was cut short due to increasing winds in mid-morning.

Here are some pictures for your enjoyment, from the Saturday session, courtesy of Bill Lundgren.

In this relatively quiet free-flight period due to the pandemic there is still some activity going on. Here are a couple videos from the San Valeers Annual 2020 contest held at Lost Hills FFMA in late October 2020 and some photos of OCD member Ates Gurcan flying his Tsh-3 Russian ground attack plane (photo credits Tom Faith).

Dakota time target (video)

Late Sunday activity (video)

Ates' test flights for his Tsh-3 (photos)

It is with a heavy heart that I inform you that Dick Douglas passed away on Friday, October 9th after suffering major health issues over the past year.

As many of you know, Dick was responsible for volunteering his expertise in maintaining our annual contest points schedule for both the Oakland Cloud Dusters and the Northern California Free Flight Council, and making sure that the trophies were maintained and presented at each annual awards banquet.

In later years, he enjoyed competing in the Hand Held, Catapult and the large, OCD Catapult glider events.

He held virtually every position within the club, including taking over as "Sgt-at-Arms" for each monthly meeting from founding member Carl Rambo.

He will be greatly missed,

Fred Terzian

Oakland Cloud Dusters President

Dick helping youth at Moreland 2008	Dick with Rocco Ferraro in 2011
(L-R) Bill Vanderbeek, Fred Terzian, Dick Douglas at Waegell Norcal-2018	Dick at Waegell Norcal-2018

Since there are plans for a June 6th contest at Waegell Field, we thought it was appropriate to include Andrew Barron's suggestion for how to prepare and run a contest in this Covid-19 atmosphere. Read below:

Dear Free flight friends,

Some of you have already received notice of the upcoming contest at Barron Field in Wawayanda from Tom Juel, Alan Abriss or Aram Schlosberg.  This note is to expand the distribution somewhat, in case we have missed someone who is interested, and to discuss the field use constraints.

The meet will be held on Sunday May 17 with a start time and end time designed to allow as many as possible to come without requiring an overnight stay in the area.  I have been to the field to practice several times in the past few weeks. It is in good condition for our flying.  

Social distancing is important.  Park your cars farther from each other than usual. For your flights, have your timer be at least 2 or 3 meters away.  Please state the result for the contest director or assistant to record (you can maintain a flight card but don't put it in someone else's hand). 

If you are a towline flyer.  Place your model on the ground and start to string out so that you can keep sensible distance.  Your launcher can then comfortably pick up the model to assist you.

Please have cleaning wipes (ideally disinfecting wipes) with you and clean the steering wheel and any part of the golf carts your hands have touched after each use.  Be understanding that offering rides is problematic

Likewise clean appropriate parts of the portable toilet after each use.

Masks are needed anytime you are in the general vicinity of others.  What I have been doing is wearing a bandana around the neck.  It is down off my face when I am towing or retrieving far from others.  But when I am in the vicinity of others I raise the bandana over my mouth and nose.

I suggest bringing your own food and being gassed up before you start your drive.  This way you don't need to stop at any stores on the way to the field or on your way home.

Some may wonder about holding the contest in New York while the coronavirus is still a concern in the state.  Please understand that the number of participants at these Barron Field meets have not been very large in recent years.  15 to 25 participants is typical.  These moderate numbers make it possible to keep the appropriate social distancing.  New York and other states are wisely encouraging people to get outside and get healthy air and healthy exercise, subject to the now familiar constraints I have here discussed.

Enjoy!

Andrew

Hello fellow Dusters,

If you are craving some outdoor contest flying, here's your chance: the COVID Postal Meet, run by NFFS. Details below.

Build this indoor -rather in your ling room- model and join the worldwide Covid19 Quarantine Contest fun! 

Click on the link below for the plans and rules. Build, fly, and have fun and stay safe and healthy!

http://indoorfreeflight.com/scraps.html?fbclid=IwAR3EDgyTx83oxpYeQPAmkzBCQXb2q9BLNmlv4vs4jr5HxpgltTG0BkfdXIc

Bernard Guest of Hummingbird Model Products will be at Lost Hills for the FabFeb events. If you would like to pre-order goods for pickup at Lost Hill, you can reach him through his web site:

http://hummingbirdmodelproducts.com/

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I am going to be flying at the Fab Feb FAI events and will be bringing some product with me that is of interest to AMA and SAM FF guys (mainly balsa strippers, band burner timers, small battery chargers, and electric ff timers). Last year I got some feedback from the AMA guys flying in the Ike Winter Classic events that they would be interested to know ahead of time If I plan to bring products to the contest that would be relevant to their interests. So, this is me reaching out to a California club to let you all know that I will be at the contest and folks who would like to test a band burner timer and/or buy a balsa stripper should drop by. I will be in one of the RVs on RV row (with Tony Matthews and Ladi Horak). If folks want to see the product line they can use the website link below. 

http://hummingbirdmodelproducts.com/

Wishing you happy holidays and a wonderful New Year. Best wishes from Oakland Cloud Dusters.

In late 2000, the Friends of Waegell fund was established to financially secure the preservation of what we have had for the last 60 years or so. This is the only field currently available in Northern California suitable for holding free flight contests. After a letter was sent out that established the Fund and explaining how membership in the Fund would help to ensure the use of Waegell Field, the response was outstanding. The first year, 70 people contributed $50 each to the Fund and became members for the year of 2001. In succeeding years many continued to contribute, (some for much more that $50), and many of whom never flew a flight at the field but contributed to help support a sport they've lived and loved for a lifetime. This is even more important as the field rental has gone up $500 to $2500 a year. We need to keep a cushion in case of any serious downturn in members, (now standing at 37 in 2019), as well as for possible mowing and other site work. For example, the stiles, which allow easy access to the North field, designed and partially donated by Ed Decker. George Waegell seems to be happy with us being there; just keep the gates closed as usual. Since we do not have a real sense of how many will renew their membership each year, the decision was made to start the membership at $50 and review each year. For 2020 the first increase ($10) has been added. The FWF fee now stands at $60 and as before, members fly free and non-members will pay a field rental fee of $5 at each contest.

As a result of the very generous gift of many motors and a large number of assorted kits by the late Craig Stout, the Council now has a special fund which stands at $5783.35. At the time Craig had asked Doug Galbreath to dispose of the Motors and kits on E-Bay. After a lot work on Doug's part this was accomplished along with some assistance from Walt Ghio and Fred Terzian.

With membership in the Fund slowly decreasing, it was decided that clubs would pay for their porta-pottys during 2019 and this resulted with income and expenses holding much closer to even as opposed to the $2000 drop in 2018.

Our change to Category III seemed to work well with the slightly longer maxes (two minutes from 90 seconds) resulting in slightly longer retrieves, mostly felt by some of our older members; but now we are on the "same page" as everyone else. Flyers are extremely grateful for the support of the "Friends of Waegell Fund: As before, checks for 2020 membership are to be made out to the SIERRA EAGLES (not FWF fund or Chris Borland) and mailed to: Chris Borland, 1520 - 40th St. Sacramento CA 95819.