Well, maybe four days, since I went down a day early. This weekend was the Flying Aces Club Outdoor Champs followed by the Roscoe Turner Memorial contest. I went down on Wednesday and we wrapped up on Saturday, eliminating Sunday because of predicted bad weather. The weather on these four days (Wed-Sat) were just about as perfect as you could ask to have for four consecutive days. The temps were 70s-80s and the breezes were mostly negligible. Thermals were light, but present most of the time. The wind came up a little on Saturday (to like 5 mph?) and the thermals were stronger, too.
Winnie Mae Dimer
One of the things I wanted to check on was Pat Murray’s prototype Winnie Mae Dimer. This was based on the Comet plan (kit A18) which Pat had built and it had flown away. I was inspired to rework the plan and produced a new plan that appeared in the Sept-Oct 2025 issue of the Flying Aces Club News, #345. Pat built the prototype from my short kit parts and had a suspicion he won’t have the model for long.
His model flies VERY well; I think he had two max flights (120 seconds) out of his official flights. It was very impressive, climbing out strongly and grabbing lots of altitude. This will be a good one.
Pat Murray’s Winnie Mae Dimer – the prototype for my soon-to-be-released short kit.
My Models and Experiences:
Zephyr Embryo
The Zephyr Embryo was designed by Cloudbuster Ken McGuire. It was selected for the 2025 One-Design. I don’t usually build a One-Design model for various reasons, but I promised myself I would build this one because friend Ken had designed it.
I built it right before the Contest and hadn’t had a chance to really test it but it showed promise in my back yard. On Thursday, the day of the event, I got it out and tested it – wow, it was a flyer. It weight about 19 grams and I was only flying it on a loop of 1/8″ rubber. After a couple of trim flights, it was doing well – and there was no added weight, no added Gurney flaps, and only a hint of thrust changes. I went official and rattled off three max flights and won the One-Design event!
At the next contest on Saturday, I got one max plus some other times, but won that event, too!
This model just flies. I don’t recall a model that was this natural. With low power on a buoyant day, it just went up, even at a chubby 19 grams!
my Zephyr off to a max!
Miss Production Old Time Stick
I flew a triple max in OT Stick with my Miss Production. Of course, so did two others. At the end of the day, Tom Hallman, Winn Moore, and I did a mass launch fly-off to determine the winner. I set my DT for four minutes thinking that might be enough if I got a little help from a thermal or two. Winn went right up while Tom and I flew around lower, near each other. Eventually, my Miss P hooked a thermal and went way high. Tom’s Gollywock went down at about 2.5 minutes. Winn kept cruising at a decent height, but I kept climbing higher.
Four minutes came and went. Of course, my trusty DT popped when it did. My model passed Winn’s Wanderer on the 45-second elevator ride down. Winn eventually landed at nearly 7 minutes. And everyone landed on the field.
The Miss Production has been a very good flyer for me – very consistent and dependable. The only time it has let me down is when I have under-powered it – or done something stupid, like forgetting the DT (I’ve lost three of them!)
Mr. Smoothie NoCal
This was a brand new model – designed and built inside a week, just for the Roscoe Turner contest Outdoor NoCal is rarely flown). I tested this in my backyard with a very short loop of 1/8″ and a couple hundred hand turns. It was my plan to load a long loop of 3/32″ and crank it up. And that’s what I did. After trimming, I turned in three very respectable and consistent 2+ minutes, 3 minute, and 2.5 minute flights. it was a nice calm day and the model cruised around, not climbing real high, just waiting for a little bubble to grab it and take it up. The only downside was it flies left and glides right and that tendency to go right forced it OUT of the thermal just about every time. You could see it – it was going around to the left and it would tip right, but get sucked back in, tip right then back in to the left, then it would tip right and be out of the lift.
I was very pleased with the model, but it was truly and fairly beaten by higher scores. DJ Ruhland took the event with a OOS flyaway. Check the scores:
my Mr. Smoothie NoCal in flight
check out those scores!
Phantom Flash
Phantom Flash is also rarely flown these days. I haven’t built one in years. but I had parts of some sitting around. I took the remaining fuselage of my indoor #11 and the wing of my poor-performing outdoor #12 and created a mash-up (is that #11.5, #12.5, or #13?)
As the weather forecast showed that Sunday was turning bad, CD Pat Murray decided to fly some of his events a day early on the last day of the Outdoor Champs. Phantom Flash was one of these events. I assembled my model, pulled a used 3/32″ motor out of my box, and tested. I pushed the wing back an eighth of an inch and wound it up and called for a time. It ROG’d just right, caught a bubble, and maxed. I did that two more times for a triple max. Great!
Since very few people flew Pat’s events a day early, Pat decided to carry them over to Saturday. One other had flown PF the same day that I did, but now, everyone else would have an opportunity to fly again! My meaningless (only two flyers) first place was at risk! At the end of the day a couple others flew Phantom Flash – but no one came close to my triple max! The extra day allowed others to fly and made my victory kanone-worthy! Woohoo!
Bede BD-4 Peanut
My Peanut BD-4 is working on its third year of flying. My models don’t usually last three years; they get lost or – more often – broken. This one has become a dependable performer, especially outdoors. I have found just the right prop and rubber combo, highlighted by a long loop of 3/32″ rubber that I can pack 3000 turns into. If the air is good, it can almost be counted on to max.
Last year at the AMA Outdoor Nats, I put it in the beans. I had a line and Pat Murray had a line but they were pointing different directions! We looked through the beans, following Pat’s line, in a fruitless attempt to find the little model. When we got back to the flightline, Pat realized that the radio tower he was referencing was the wrong one – there were two radio towers on the horizon. We noted that the “real” landmark matched my line. and I went out and found the model, just in time to put in a third flight and win the event (Modern Civilian).
On Friday, I flew the BD-4 in FAC Peanut, Low Bonus Points. I put up a max, but the model went into the 10-foot tall corn to the south of the flying field. I noted my location and the landmarks and decided I might look after the flying was done. I came in second because Dave Niedzielski’s Fike E had a better Scale score (even though I had a higher flight time). That’s the way the cookie crumbles.
I wasn’t up to a lot of searching so I decided “one trip out and one trip back” – if I didn’t find it, I would let the poor model rest in peace. I had a better line that you might think. I was exactly north of the model and perpendicular to the corn rows. I walked out – straight to the model – and walked back, counting 60 rows deep.
On Saturday, I flew again in Modern Civilian. I put up two decent flights, both thermal assisted. The thermals were stronger than the gentle ones on Thursday and Friday and sometimes on launch the model would do acrobatics in the lifting air. I added the smallest amount of clay to keep the nose down better and launched my final flight into a real boomer.
The sky was blue with white puffy clouds and the sun was shining on my white model so I could keep it in sight even as it climbed to the heavens. More than once I thought it would be gone – this flight and many others. This flight drifted over the corn, then came back to the field. Then is drifted over the residential areas – and came back over the field. Finally it drifted over the soybeans and you could tell it was slowly (very slowly) coming down. IT finally came down after over 6 minutes in the air. It came down on the field and I was right there on my bike when it landed. An incredible flight and chase.
I have decided to call this model “Nine Lives” since I have gotten it back more times than expected.
yes, that speck in the middle of the cloud in the middle of the screen is my Peanut BD-4
DJ Ruhland – “Finder of Lost Models” – or maybe “Eagle-Eyed Blood Hound”
Let’s talk about our good friend, DJ Ruhland. DJ has been flying FAC since he was young. He and his dad (Dennis) were (are?) part of the Calumet Escadrille in the greater Chicago area. We flew together back in the 90s when Les Burdsal and Ted Dock and others were alive and active. DJ has been around awhile. Now, I think he has moved to Tennessee, but he comes up for the big meets at Muncie and sometimes to Geneseo. He really should be called “VTO” for the way his Folkerts (Peanut, Scale, NoCal – it matters not) goes straight up on launch.
But for many modelers, he is an eagle-eyed observer. He always seems to have seen some epic flight that went off the field AND he has a good line on it. Quite often, his line has allowed the model to be found and it has kept many of us modelers happy.
On Thursday, I “lost” my Zephyr (see above) on its second max. I had attempted to follow it but waited too long to get around some obstacles and lost my line when the model came down. I had an idea that it was at “angle X” out into the soybeans. I came back without my model, but DJ came up and said “from right here, it was nearly down and went behind that tree. Follow that line.” I took off on my bike and found it deep in sliver of yard, right on the line that DJ pointed out.
But that’s not the best of it. I’ve had models found because of DJ and Kanones won because of DJ, but Friday, he saved me $1000 and a lot of headaches. I was out flying a model – and I was timing a flight – and I was talking on my phone with my wife. I picked up my model, ended the convo with the mrs, and started the watch. I stuffed the phone in my pocket and took off on my bike to follow the model as it came close to the corner of the field that was occupied by corn and houses with residents that have caused problems with modelers in the past. It was critical to get a good line on the model.
I wandered all over the field, far from the flightline, and eventually returned to the flightline. I then discovered that – oh no! – my phone was missing! We tried various things: calling the phone, paid phone apps that are worthless, other apps that are valid. But it was all to no avail. Eventually, the phone just went right to voicemail when called; I figured it had shut off due to the heat of the sun shining on it continuously. It wouldn’t ring.
DJ had come up and asked for my phone number (he didn’t have it); he said he would try to find it. Hours later, I saw him out in the field in a golf cart. He was standing next to it. then he trotted over and moved it and got out again. And then back in… I felt he was wasting his time.
But he wasn’t. Awhile later, he came up to me with my phone. His calls were ringing for him. He could hear a faint ringing and moved. He did this over and over until he found the phone in the deep grass where a bump had cause it to fall out of my pocket.
My phone records show my call with my wife was about 12:30. It also shows that DJ made about 7 calls over a 10-minute timeframe, ending at about 7pm.
DJ saved my bacon and I am grateful. If DJ says he has a line on your plane, you need to believe him and go find your plane. He knows where it is (or how to find it). Thanks again DJ!
the overall view of the section of the field where I rode my bike and lost my phone. the buildings on the extreme right horizon are about 1/3rd of a mile away. it is about the same distance to the left side of the field, maybe less. The green line is the estimate of where DJ found the phone.
the approximate path I took on the field, starting at the right going to the left. the circle is a guess as to where DJ found my phone.