Ute R/C Association Come on, let's fly!

From his archives Jan Hyde provides us with this episode of "UteRC Events and Modelers from the Past."
Clicking on most images will open them full-sized and zoomable in a new window.

Ralph Moore, a long time club member, retired and extremely successful New York Life Insurance salesman was originally quite active and involved with free flight. Eventually his interest evolved to R/C.


Bob West hooked up with Ralph sometime in the 80s and became his tutor in our wireless control hobby. Bob and Ralph must have gotten along very well as Bob assisted with equipment, and care. Much later on as Ralph became older, he required more assistance to fly. Most everyone paid attention to Ralph's needs but notably AJ Carlson was his go to modeler for assistance. AJ kept Ralph in the air.




A consummate builder that must have been cultivated in his free flight days, his aircraft always looked beautifully done and flew nicely. With the advent of Almost Ready To Fly aircraft availability in the market, Ralph, the builder expressed his opinion of the look of these products with indignation by reluctantly purchasing an aircraft he might like then stripping the entire structure of it's plastic film and recovering it with his desired cloth covering. He had worked with silk and dope for years. Usually he preferred Worldtex or other cloth coverings such as Solartex. See an example of his "Perfect" in the following images.




One of Ralph's other loves is flowers. He enjoys planting flowers in his yard. I haven't had the pleasure of seeing his yard but I've heard that it is as fine as a redo look of his ARFs.

Thank you Jan for sharing the story.

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Here are photos from the March 9th UteRC Meeting.

Aaron Loertscher's tiny E-flite UMX Cessna 182. Even with AS3X & S.A.F.E technology it is tricky to fly even in a light breeze.

Ray Jones' scaled-up Swizzle Stick sporting a 40 engine and tricycle gear.

Aaron Greer talked about the basic concepts and nomenclature of electric power for models. Here are reference links to more information.


Paul Jones shows a FrSky 4-Channel D4R-II 2.4 GHz ACCST receiver (with telemetry) that he likes.

Ray Jones shows his scaled-up version of the Swizzle Stick with a 40 engine. Ray promises a 60 size version is coming next.


To replace an expensive and worn covering iron sock, Ray Jones uses a piece of inexpensive 2" wide cotton tube bandage tied on his covering iron.

Ray Jones describes how to do a perfect Monokote trim job like he has done on his big Swizzle Stick.

Doug Dorton shows a thin stick-on label made with a Brother P-Touch labeling machine. The labels are handy for FAA numbers, keeping track of batteries, and many other uses in the hobby, around the house, and in the shop.

The Brother P-Touch PT-90 Labeler prints 1 or 2 lines in black or white and in a variety of forms on 12mm-wide laminated tape. The tape, in a variety of colors, is sold in cartridges and withstands most any environment. http://www.brother-usa.com/Ptouch/

Doug Dorton demonstrates how the stabilized 12MP still & 4K video camera on his new DJI Mavic drone will maintain its viewing direction and attitude no matter how the drone's angular attitude changes in flight.


The Mavic can be flown with its own controller, or a smart phone which can show the image seen by the camera aboard the drone. The Mavic is an extremely stable platform that can hover or maintain a flight pattern with independent control of the camera's view.


Tony Naef describes an optical tachometer that has an electronic shutter clibrated in RPM thru which one czn look at a helicopter rotor and adjust the shutter rate until the rotor appears stopped. At that point the shutter indicates the RPM. The device is essential for setting up a helicopter where an up-close direct-reading optical tachometer is dangerous, difficult, or impossible to use.


Tony describes the process of adjusting the throttle curve on the Tx to best manage the helicopter while in flight.

Tony's helicopter restraining board with the bird's landing skids strapped down with Bungee cords. In the field, the board is weighted down with whatever is handy and heavy to keep it on the ground as Tony is adjusting the engine fuel mixture and main rotor loading while the heli tries to tilt or lift off. This restraint allows Tony to make those adjustments without a helper holding the bird high overhead.

I hope you enjoyed these photos. -Ed