Monthly Meeting Notes:

Meeting of Wed July 16th, 2020

Hey, We had a decent turn out, and beyond decent weather for flying! Not much more can be asked for. We have mowers for August (me) and September (Larry) but that does not mean we can't just mow if it needs it and you know how to run the mower. The Civil Air Patrol folks will be coming to the field tonight from 7-9 and we hope to give them a good show of different kinds of aircraft and also some buddy box action. :) Come out and meet some new folks and hopefully spark the interest in model aviation for some young kids. We will not be having a "Fun Fly" this year, instead we will have more of an informal open house, BYOP (bring your own plane) and BYOF (bring your own foodstuffs). This will be on September 19th from 9-5. Keep your fingers crossed for good weather. After the meeting flights were flown, Larry had a fixable mishap but overall everyone had smiles. Marv put on a slow motion RC Show with his Kadet Senior, and Nick showed his jet prowess. I put 3 batteries through my new DHC Beaver. And Rick and Trudy tested a trainer (PT40) for tonight's CAP visit. I hope everyone is well and having a good summer so far despite all the craziness in the world. see you next time! Dave

Meeting of Wed May 17th, 2017

There were 13 present for last night's meeting. Weather was almost parka time. The main topic of discussion was drones, drones, and drones. The rights and the wrongs and the do's and the do nots. Main concern is that the drone boys have every thing in compliance with Sod Busters, AMA, and whatever FEDERAL issues are involved. Now that the John Deere is seeing more than twice as much work as before, we'll need the mower maintenance boys to get those blades sharpened at least once a month. Treasurers report given. It was not contested. We gave notice of the nice financial contribution to the club by member Robert Stahl. Thanks again Robert. The club now has a new weed whacker(with some left over for future needs). Received notice from FedEx that the roll of runway fabric will be at the FedEx warehouse on Monday. Need about 5 or 6 guys there at 6pm. From 12Th and Kiwanis go north to 7th St then west to the main yard. Continue west and go around to the south side of the building towards the east end. Those of you who have been there before will know. Tim M will have a trailer there. Remember, installation date is set for June 3, 8 am. Need at least a dozen guys for this. The weather will get better.

Meeting of Wed March 15th, 2017

We "broke in" our new club president, Dave, who did a fine job conducting the meeting last night. It was well attended with 19 present, including several guests. I big thank you to Doc for hosting the meeting in his spacious garage. We were all very impressed with the display of the huge, glider towing airplane called the Bidule. After the meeting most of those present invaded his basement where multiple, beautiful airplanes and large gliders are kept. To start off with, Bob Schuurmans and Kurt Anderson have volunteered to service the mower this spring. One roll of the new fabric runway extension will be delivered sometime around end of May/first of June. Rod Mullen has secured a lawn service to apply round up to kill the grass 50 ft on both ends. This service will also do several applications for bug and weed control this summer. Tim Mallat has offered a flat bed trailer to haul the 300 lb roll from the freight dock to the field. We are pretty much all set up for the auction on the 25th. We now have enough volunteers (16) for helping to keep things going. Doors open for setup at 8. Auction items come in at 9. Much discussion on the drones. It was decided that the club should try to secure part of the field just to the west of the parking area for drones. We thought this would be the best and the safest place for this. The county officials will be contacted and we will explain why we, as a club, need to pursue this. To explain that drones and fixed wing aircraft are totally different from each other and will not mix well on the same field, especially when it comes to racing or obstacle courses. Having a separate field for drones would be the ultimate answer. Keep in mind that we have drone pilots who are also fixed wing pilots, so, would be nice if we could separate them but keep them close enough to the main field so they could enjoy either! We are all in the hobby of RC. Some of us use air in a different way. Welcome new club member, drone pilot, Dan Lehman. Hope to see you at the field soon, Marv

Meeting of Wed February 15th, 2017

There were 13 members at the meeting last night. First we want to welcome Dave Hatt as our new club president. He was voted in unanimously. Dave will do a fine job. Secondly, a big thank you to previous president Kurt for his many years of service to the club. Larry Rolfson and Bob Jackson volunteered to do the runway maintenance for the upcoming flying season. Next month's meeting will be at Doc Walkers place on the 15th . This is our pre-auction meeting. One of the items for discussion will be on drones. If you are a drone owner, please try to attend. Dakota Flyers have lost their field. They only have a few weeks to clear out. We have invited them to use our field, at least for a year or so, or until they establish a new field. 'til next time. -Marv

Meeting of Wed November 16th, 2016

We had the Sod Busters Club Meeting yesterday evening at Marv's house. Thank you Marv and Rheba for hosting the meeting, and for the snacks Rheba made. 11 members came to the meeting. The Club would like to welcome Ralph Gunderson as our newest member. Ralph is a full size pilot and is getting into RC aerobatics. We discussed several topics, here is a short list: The Club voted on and approved extending the runway 50 feet in each direction. We will buy 1 roll of fabric and install it next Spring. Sod Buster RC auction is March 25th, 2017, at the American Legion. Anyone interested in flying at the field this winter, please contact Kurt Anderson to get a group text message started. As a reminder to members who fly First Person View (FPV) aircraft, in accordance with FAA and AMA rules, a spotter pilot is required, and the aircraft must remain Visual Line of Sight (VLOS) at all times. At our next Fun Fly, the Club will have a Flight Director at the flight line, to monitor the flying and direction of flight, and if necessary limit the number of aircraft in the air at a time. There will also be a safety meeting for all pilots. The Fun Fly will be a Sanctioned AMA Event. We have a new place to fly float planes !! Sid Brakke, has a long trench with water, near Wall Lake. Marv checked it out, and said that it should work great. And a recovery boat will not be needed !! Doc Walker brought up the idea of organizing a trip to Granite Falls, MN, to visit the Fagen Fighter Museum, probably sometime next summer. The Museum is awesome, and the planes are flown on a regularly. You can even buy a ride in a PT-26. Our Club will have a dinner at the Royal Fork restaurant, in January, date to be announce later. We will have a guest speaker, Rich Hall, who has flown charter, crop dusting, and for the USAF. As far as projects to see; Marv has finished mounting a 1/4 scale Cub on floats, and installed a power board. The Cub has a twin cylinder 4 stroke engine, with on-board ignition. Marv also showed us a voltage regulator set-up for using a lipo battery to power a standard 5 volt receiver. Doc Walker brought in a new Desert Aircraft 12 horsepower twin cylinder engine with carbon fiber propeller. Marv's garage had several airplanes and a 16 foot glider for us to check out. Kurt brought a new coroplast stik type airplane, recently maiden flown. Happy Flying, Kurt

Meeting of Wed February 17th, 2016

Our monthly meeting was held Wed nite at the beautiful new Johnson Constr. building on S. Minn. Ave. There were 15 members and 1 guest present . A discussion was about the new FAA registration concerning drones and what the FAA don't seem to know called fixed wing aircraft. They are drones too you know. Also we talked about our upcoming March 26 auction. It's not too early to go over your inventory and start making your selection on your auction items. If you have not used it in the last year or two. Think about bringing it to the auction. Any way there was a pretty good show and tell. Gerry Johnson had on display his new drone. Pretty fancy with the camera, GPS, homing system. All the bells and whistles. Kurt brought his latest coroplast design. I highwinger with a Saito 80 for power. It will fly as good as all the rest of them he's built. Doc brought the big 1/3 scale Spacewalker, the large glider tow plane, with all the Sig coverall installed complete with rib stitching and ready for paint. Needless to say, a beautiful job. Dave Hatt brought the fuselage of a Top Flite P-47 under construction by yours truly. Next meeting on March 16 at Doc's hangar at Tea. See you there. - Marv

Meeting of Wed November 18th, 2015

We had a good turnout for the club meeting at Gary Wolbrinks work shop/RC hangar. We had 15 members and 1 visitor who will be a member sometime soon. Thank you, Gary, for hosting the meeting. The desserts were great too. Thanks, Connie. Gary had an awesome looking Pico T-28 Trojan, with pneumatic retracts, custom built by Marv Rozeboom. Gary also had a large scale, gas powered Extra 330. David Hatt showed us his new E-Flite scale L-4 Cub. Nice looking plane, build up wood frame construction, electric motor for power. Lots of windows and invasion stripes. At the meeting, we discusses maybe having an event open to the public, so people in the area can know what we do, that we operate safely, responsibly, and have fun. Several good ideas were brought up. invite news media to come out to the field. invite the public have a buddy box trainer set up and ready to fly. explain what we do and how we operate. David Hatt would like to put items for sale by club members on the Sod Busters website. David will set it up and keep us advised. There will be no meeting in December. The meeting on January 20th, will be at the Royal Fork restaurant. Have a great Thanksgiving!!

Meeting of Wed October 21st, 2015

The Sod Busters Club Meeting was held at Marv's house, last Wednesday. 12 members present. The Club has 66 current members. Ron Myhre will be our auctioneer again for the March 26th auction at the American Legion. The Club is very happy to have Ron do it again for us. At the meeting we decided to have volunteers help for at least half of the auction, about 4 hours, in order to get individual club membership waived for the year. We also agreed to winterize the mower, and that was completed this last weekend. We might also check into getting the field porta-potty serviced more often. And, as a reminder to everyone, please lock the gate properly when leaving the field. That means wrapping the chain around the fence post and locking it with the combination lock. This last weekend, Kurt A. Anderson, had his 1/3 scale Balsa USA Cub at the field. He did a great job on that plane. The fabric is doped covered, with the pinking tape and rib stitching. Military olive drab, with invasion stripes. And it has a Desert Aircraft 120 CC engine, so this J-3 can hover. Custom landing gear suspension. Beefed up airframe for the occasional 3D flying that Cubs are famous for. Very nice plane.

Meeting of Wed August 20th, 2015

There were 14 present at last nights meeting. Kinda breezy, but there's always those who don't seem to be bothered by winds. So, quite a bit of flying took place. Our fun fly is not that far off. Sept 12 the date. We'll set a starting time around 8 and continue though out the day with lunch being served around noon. We will send out an invitation to our county commissioner's office and invite them at least for the noon lunch so they may see our new runway. On Sat, Sept 5, 9 am, we need a few of you members to do a field prep for the fun fly. Mow, if necessary, weed trimmer, some of the fencing needs a little help. Goes without saying, bring something to fly. Our treasurer, Rod, gave the current bank balance and, yes, we are doing quite well in that department. On the day of the fun fly, right after the noon meal has been served (that?s when the most people will be there), we want to take a group picture of ALL members lined up on the runway. We would like all 78 of you to be there---with an airplane?whether you fly it or not. This will be used for promoting the club and to be put on our website. This is probably the only time this will happen, at least for this year. So, come out for the fun fly, show support for your club!! Marv will pick up a new propane tank for the grill as the old one is not refillable . We will see many of you before the fun fly, but, we want to see all of you at the fun fly! Remember, he that stalleth, falleth. Nose heavy airplanes will fly, tail heavy airplanes fly once.

Meeting of Wed June 18th, 2015

A beautiful nite for a club meeting and flying. 14 members present. A few misc items were discussed. One was to purchase a small weed sprayer with some round up. Weeds have a way of poking their ugly little heads thru places where it?s not supposed to happen. Another item was the possibility of relocating some of the safety fence. It was decided to continue on the way things are, at least for the rest of the summer, and we?ll discuss this more after seeing how things pan out with the new runway as far as any safety issues are concerned.

Our bank balance remains quite healthy and shows that all the runway expense were paid thru donations.

Marv gave a demo on repairing the runway, should it need it. There is plenty of material left over for patching and there will be GOOP II MAX in the shed. We will have scissors there also for cutting the patch you need. In appreciation for all the time and money donated, the Sod Busters decided to have a grand opening for the new runway. We are inviting you, your family, and any others who might be interested in seeing, and or, using the new runway for a June 27 Sat evening grand R/C fly in. Come and join us for hamburgers, hot dogs, fresh chips and salsa from Don Smiths Casa Del Rey, cold drinks, and who knows what else. Flying will start around 4 pm (or whatever time you choose) with the meal at 6. Flying until sunset. AMA required. No fees.

Meeting of Wed Dec 14th, 2014

Last night meeting was held at the Pizza Ranch. There were 24 seats available and we pretty much had every seat taken.

We welcomed new club member Bob Schuurmans who comes to us from our capital city of Pierre. A long time RCer who has several (maybe many) nice airplanes. Looking forward to seeing him at the field this spring.

Thanks to Dave Hatt and Tim Mallat for our new auction entry forms. There are now 4 entries per page. More than twice the amount of room for your description which you can fill out right on the screen, save it under your own file name, recall it, edit it, print it out. Watch for it on our website www.sfsodbusters.org

Marv brought a sample of the new proposed runway matt for all to see. The paper work is complete and sent off to AMA Headquarters and hopefully AMA will approve it and send us a check for 10% of the gross amount ($2860.00). Last nights meeting proved again the generosity of RCers. Thank you to two members for each donating a generous amount of cash for the runway project. If, at any time, in the next few months, you would like to make a donation for our runway fund, please send it to our president, Kurt Anderson, at 6512 W 52st , Sioux Falls, 57106. If you wish, your name and amount will be held in strict confidence within the executive committee.

Last nights meeting proved to be a very humbling experience for the writer of this newsletter. I was presented a beautiful wall plaque. A thank you for my willingness to help other people in this wonderful world of RC. Whether it be building a new airplane, repair, assembling ARFs, flight instruction or maybe a little advice. I admit I was at a loss for words at the time I received the plaque. You guys don't know how much this is appreciated. Since moving to SF some 10 years ago, I have re-enforced my thoughts that RCers are the best people in the world. This again proved that! What a wonderful club we have. There is so much cooperation among all club members.

But it doesn't stop here. Our club president also received the same kind of plaque thanking him for his great leadership. Since he became president, our club has grown by 35% in a matter of a few years. We are now over 50 members strong and with our new runway project, that will no doubt climb even more. Thanks, Kurt, you do good and are good at what you do.

Thanks, Doc

Happy birthday to Dean Everetts (today)

All for now and back to the building board of the electric Top Flite Elder 40 (this one's mine)

Meeting of Wed Nov 19, 2014

Our monthly meeting was held at Doc Walkers place with 15 members present a real nice turnout.

Kurt was asked by Tom Wickerts widow if we would sell his r/c items at our spring auction. It was agreed upon to do that.

The runway mat was again discussed and the material chosen. It was unanimously approved by all 15 members present. The next step would be to discuss this with the county and hope for approval there. If approved, there will no doubt be a fund raiser campaign among all club members. Several have already committed to some nice donation promises.

Show and tell: Marv R had a built up wing from a 50 size JU87 Stuka. This is being built by Marv for Club member Dave Hatt. Looks like Dave will power this bird with a nice, new OS 72, 4 stroker

Another club member from Lester, IA, Jake Van Voorst, brought his P-39 Aircobra. The 4 stroke 160 OS twin is actually mounted behind the pilots seat just as the full size engine was. Prop run by a ball bearing drive shaft through the cockpit.

Quite a work of art getting that all together.

Of course, the highlight of the evening was looking at what seemed like an endless array of beautiful R/C airplanes, gliders, a large glider tow-plane (1/3 scale Spacewalker) with an 85 cc gas engine to tow the big 15-16 ft gliders. Lots of drooling going on at Doc's hangar. Thanks, Doc, for having the meeting at your place. We all enjoyed it.

NO December meeting.

To every one a great Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, prosperous New Year.

October 16, 2014

Meeting was held in Marv's hangar/workshop. 8 club members present. Tasty brownies made by Rheba.

We discussed some safety concerns, came up with some safety guidelines to be followed when operating in the pit area.
- From now on we will not taxi in the pit area. After starting your model, please carry it to an opening in the fence. After flying, taxi to the fence and shut down, then carry the model back to the pit area.

- Quad copter and helicopters are not to be flown in the pit area.

- Quad copter and helicopters are to be operated a safe distance from everyone, no hovering at eye level close to anyone, even the operator.

We also discussed runway mat materials and costs. The field would have to be leveled, probably with a grader, prior to putting the mat down. Ideas were suggested for fund raising for this project, we are still in the research stage, but many members would like a smooth mat for small wheeled aircraft.

Doc's 1/3 scale Spacewalker is going to be large and have plenty of power, with the DLE 85 to pull it along. The Spacewalker is going to tow large gliders, for Doc and Marv. David Hatt brought is Tower Hobbies V-tail motor glider, it turned out to be an interesting radio set up project to mix the V-tail. Brain figured out the way to do it, I'm still amazed.

Saturday, the 18th, is the EAA Pancake Breakfast at the Tea Airport. Pancakes, eggs, and sausages for only $5, from 8 to 10:30 AM. This is a fly-in breakfast, so there might be some nice planes that arrive.

September 17, 2014

Wednesday night meeting was very well attended with 16 present. Beautiful weather and a few mosquitoes. The main topic was, once again, the runway mat. Several club members volunteered to research that this winter for availability and cost. Will probably come to a vote next spring. If you are a member who does not fly or attend meetings frequently, please let one of the executive committee members (Kurt, Tim M, Rod, or Marv) know what your thoughts are on this. We need your opinion! The after sunset Bobcat show was presented but only with one. Two were disabled.

Fly much.Be safe - Marv

August 20, 2014

Some 12 members present at last nights meeting. A good turnout.

A discussion was held on the possibility of purchasing a runway mat for the field. With more and more small electrics, this would be a great help in getting these airborne, especially with their small wheels. We have all winter to investigate this as to the availability, cost, etc. Something to think about.

We plan to do a little fence repair,fixing up . If interested in helping, come out Sat am around eight. Weather sounds pretty wet for Sat, so will plan for a week later on the 30th if needed. Would like to have this done before our fun fly on Sept 6.

Show and tell was nicely done by Doc as he presented his newest in the large glider category. The proud owner of a 14 ft Blanik glider. (Google this and check it out) A beautiful glider (red bull decals) that will be towed up by a 1/3 scale Spacewalker owned by Doc and currently being built by Marv. Hopefully by next spring.

Marv gave a demo at dusk on his Bobcat with some 56 LED's on it. Quite something to see and very pretty at night.

All for now. Fly often but do it safely - Marv

July 16th, 2014

Wasn't much of a meeting last night very short but, what a grand night for flying. Eleven members and one guest present and at least a dozen or more airplanes. We had gliders, 2 bobcats chasing each other. We had bi-planes, sport and scale airplanes, 3D foamies, home made coroplast airplanes. There were nitro, gas, and electric. Plus 1 quadcopter. What a good time that was!

Doc told about the trip Marv and he made to Owatonna, MN for the big glider aerotow. Some of the gliders being towed were in excess of $2000 with 15-20 ft wingspans. Tow planes with engines from 80 to 150cc. Truly another dimension to the great world of RC. With the high powered towplanes they can reach 1000-1200 ft easily in less than a minute.

After a 15 year rest from RC, we got Jim Cerro back in the air. He has a beautiful electric Cub that flies like---- well, like a Cub should. Jim did very well on it and now that he is back into it, we'll make sure he sticks with it. Right guys?

This past Tues was another beautiful night of float flying. We now have several guys from the Adrian, Luverne area enjoying our Lake Alvin float flying. Can you imagine Minnesota guys coming to SD to float fly? Awesome! Thanks again to Wendy for always bringing out the "ARK" (aircraft retrieval kayak)

Ok guys, lets get with it. Summer is 1/2 gone already. Have you flown yet this year? Why not? Your plane is collecting dust just setting there. You know that dust is not good for model aircraft covering. In time the covering will begin to fall off. Why not take it to the field, fly it, and the dust will be gone.

May all your landings be like a butterfly with sore feet. Marv

June 18th, 2014

Our monthly meeting was held at the field with the gentle SD breezes of 15-25 mph. No effort was made to get any airplanes set up for flight. 5 members were present.

Kurt brought to the meeting a bunch of brand new caps donated by Jim Ricketts. Most of them have the AMA NATS logo on them dating back to the mid 80's. They are the summer type, well ventilated and free! Thanks Jim R.

Check with Kurt as I think he may have a few left.

Was approved to get second load of gravel as the first one got rid of the mud at the entrance. Now we have more mud to cover up. Kurt will set this up for delivery.

Our new club logo was also approved and thanks to Dave Hatt for following up on this and getting it to where everyone is happy with the final results.

Don't forget the big auction coming up this Sat at the Dakota Flyers field. 9 AM. Lots and lots of first class R/C goodies. Don't miss it! Also the Billy Beck memorial fun fly on Sun.

Our field is looking great. Try it! You'll like it!

May 21st, 2014

Lake Alvin Float fly was great on Tues nite. The weather was perfect. Hope the weather will allow this again in two weeks. Thanks again Wendy, for bringing your kayak for those retrievals.(We do have use for that every now and then, don't we?)

Last night meeting at the field was very good in attendance. There were 11 present. After the meeting another 4 members showed up so a total of 15 at the field

and that's great! Nice weather allowed as many as 4-5 airplanes flying at once. Sod Busters members love to do touch and goes and we do that quite often with 4 or 5 planes in the air at once. All evenly spaced and well under full control of each pilot.

Our new club logo was discussed and several changes were proposed which Dave H , our webmaster will pursue. Looking better all the time. Will see what comes up at the next meeting. Tim M has offered to make a new sign for the field entrance once the new club logo is Okayed by the club. The old sign is becoming quite weathered and is due for replacement. Thanks Tim, for your offer.

Once again, the subject of gravel on the road to the field was discussed. Pres Kurt will be checking on from whom we can get the best deal. If anyone of our club members knows anyone who can give us a deal on some gravel, let Kurt know.

For those members who do not frequent the field very often, come out sometime, even without a plane. Maybe you have not flown for a while? Need a little help or advice? Maybe to trim that airplane out, test fly it for you, or just to check it over? There is always someone out there willing to help. We have a beautiful field. Come out and enjoy it!!

C U at the field.

April 16th, 2014

10 members were present at the meeting.

Was agreed upon by all to buy a new 12v battery for the field mower. Kurt to take care of that.

To have Dave Hatt, our website manager, make contact with a professional to design a new club logo. This will eventually will be viewed by club members present at whatever meeting that might be: maybe a month or two down the road. To decide at that time what our choice will be.

Tim Mallat to be issued a check in the amount of $100 for all his materials used in preparing for the auction. This being for the last few years of which Tim has received nothing.

Discussion on getting some gravel for the field entry and bringing it up to the parking lot.

Has been confirmed once again to have weed control at the field as necessary. Also, bug control if necessary.

Gary installed a set of 8" wheels on the front of one of the tables at the field. (his donation, thanks Gary). Would be really nice to have wheels on all the tables, especially for whomever does the mowing. Makes them very easy to move. We'll be checking out various places to see what we can find. Would appreciate anyone willing to donate some 8" wheels.

Our club is now 40 members strong

March 16th, 2014

Great attendance at the meeting Wed with 16 R/C'ers present. Discussion centered on the auction. All helpers be there next Sat at 8 for setup.

Thanks Doc, for having the meeting at your spacious hangar. With all the full size and model aircraft as well as the 'vettes', always a pleasure, Doc.

Thanks Tim M for all the paper work preparing for the auction and a pre-thank you too all who are willing to help.

Next month meeting at the field? Maybe? Else Marv's hangar will work too.

A few of us checked out the field a few days ago. Still a little snow around some of the setup tables. A little soft around the main gate.

You may want to stay a little left when entering. Parking lot a little soft in the center with some standing water.