District X—Arizona, California, Guam, Hawaii, Nevada, Utah
Lawrence Tougas
Vice President
ama.district10@gmail.com
Box 276, Fairfield CA 94533
Tel.: (707) 480-2053; www.ama10.org
My how time flies. Thanksgiving is right around the corner, then before we know it, Christmas and New Year’s. January will bring us all to Ontario, California, for the AMA Expo. Please mark your calendars for January 6-8, 2017. There will be lots of new equipment to check out and interesting speakers. We will hold our annual AMA District X and District XI meeting on Saturday. During the meeting we’ll be giving away a great prize to one person just for joining us, so plan to be there.
The Tokay RC Modelers (TRCM) club in Lodi, California, has a strong sense of community responsibility. Throughout many years, its members have done numerous projects as community service.
The club was approached by the World of Wonders Science Museum (WOW) seeking help. WOW had an old F-14 flight simulator that was in need of updating and wanted to know if TRCM would take it on. WOW was looking for some new monitors to replace the old CRT monitors, and had an old computer showing flight simulator game clips, not even actual aircraft flying.
TRCM voted unanimously to take on this project and also pay $250 (half of the projected cost) toward updating the flight simulator. For those in California who are unfamiliar with the WOW Science Museum, its mission is to offer hands-on, science-based exhibits and programs to stimulate discovery for all ages. It has more than 50,000 visitors a year and does a wonderful job.
On the project committee were Bill Churchill, Greg Hennefer, Al Doucette, Hal Singer, Bert Gray, Nancy Hennefer, and club president Bob Kellar. The Stokes family, which graciously provides TRCM acreage for the club’s flying field as well as supporting all of the community projects, loaned TRCM a trailer for the project.
The flight simulator is actually a full
aircraft size, roughly 16 feet long, 7 feet wide, and 8 feet tall, weighing 800 pounds. It’s a beast!
After discussing the museum’s needs for the simulator and the fact that children as young as 5 years old greatly enjoy it, TRCM decided to install a looping, in-cockpit flight video on HD monitors along with switches, lights, instruments, control sticks, and surround sound. They were tempted to turn it into an actual working simulator using a RealFlight simulator, but decided against it.
After removing roughly 15 gallons of trash, including candy, toys, and Legos, they removed the ejection seats, disassembled the two cockpit interiors, cleaned everything out, and started laying out new instrument panels and space for the two 24-inch monitors and surround sound.
They made customized cockpit instruments and monitor panels out of plywood. They also made realistic simulated instruments for the front and back cockpits, and rewired the switch panels so that different switch combinations lit up various LEDs in the panel. They designed and machined throttles and joysticks with strong springs in them, which gives them an authentic-feeling movement.
The Simulator Upgrade Team (SUT as they started referring to themselves) loaded the simulator and transported it to the WOW Museum on March 29, 2016. After approximately two months of work and more than 400 man-hours, the job was finished and the simulator was moved to its new/old home. Success was achieved and the employees at the museum were excited to have their new and improved simulator back on display.
The moral of this story is that a club never knows where an opportunity will present itself to reach out to the community and get its name out to the public with a positive impact. The project story ran in a local newspaper on the front page with several photographs. That’s the kind of publicity that our hobby needs at this time.
Until next month, I wish you all nothing but happy landings.
Associate Vice Presidents: Tim Attaway, Chula Vista CA; (619) 427-6392; trattaway@cox.net; Forrest Barton, Woodland CA; (530) 383-9019; cbarton328@aol.com; Richard Bonnardel, Kailua HI, (808) 261-7046; rebbfh@hawaii.rr.com; Kurtis Chandler, Phoenix AZ; (602) 647-8342; azpm@cox.net; Alan Friedman, Eloy AZ; (520) 876-0232; pooralan@aol.com. Dan Johnson, St. George UT; (435) 619-3112; dkj5johnson@gmail.com; Kevin Houser, Oro Valley AZ; (520) 490-7657; khous@rocketfarmers.com; Tim Johnson, Rancho Santa Margarita CA; (562) 965-4288; timothy@johnson.us.com; Mike Lee, Redlands CA; (909) 792-8424; mlee8249@msn.com; Scott Malta, Merced CA; (209) 723-4202; scottmalta@comcast.net; Jim Mohan, Phoenix AZ; (623) 434-1351; jmohan351@cox.net; Todd Sheridan, Pleasant Grove UT; (801) 358-8345; sheridan.todd@gmail.com; Greg Stone, Laguna Niguel, CA; (949) 413-0920; gstone4@cox.net; Gil Terzo, Las Vegas NV; (702) 523-9897; gterzo@aol.com. Peter Vogel, Santa Clara CA; (408) 569-7067; vogel.peter@gmail.com; Roger Willis, Murrieta CA; (951) 249-9688; willisasoc@aol.com.
Contest Coordinators: Tim Attaway, Chula Vista CA; (619) 427-6392; trattaway@cox.net; Forrest Barton, Woodland CA; (530) 383-9019; cbarton328@aol.com; Bob Bayless (Arizona and Utah), Peoria AZ; (623) 694-3379; sumobob@cox.net; Christopher Sullivan, Waipahu HI; (808) 953-8863; rccombat808@yahoo.com.
