It's time again for Suburban RC Barnstormer's spring edition of our all-night "Dome E-Niter". Jeff Peca and his posse have set up another great indoor electric “open” Fun-Fly at ChicagoLand's biggest golf dome located in Bensenville, Illinois, just west of O'Hare airport. Doors to the White Pines Golf Dome, 500 W. Jefferson Street, open promptly at 10:30PM, Saturday, March 14, 2009, and flying starts at 11:00PM. The event runs all night until we close up shop at 5:00AM Sunday! Cost is $15 for flyers and $5 for spectators like your friends and family. Spectators can even walk upstairs to a special second-level Viewing Deck with seating to watch the fun if they wish. The entry fee includes four tickets for pizza snacks before midnight, free coffee and soda throughout the night and a pilot prize. We also have a great raffle you can enter. The raffle prize is a combo of the Spectrum DX6i radio along with TWO indoor micro flyers; a Vapor Bind-N-Fly and a Blade mCX Bind-N-Fly heli. The winner of the raffle can literally charge up the batteries and fly both airframes that very night! So, drive over and have a good time; it's indoors, guaranteed tornado-free and warm: you can fly even if there’s rain, sleet, snow or wind outside! Who could ask for more?

Plans include: a Combat event, one surprise flying contest, product/vendor demo, at least one "Lights-Out” flying session, two dedicated periods for "Helicopter Only Flying" and stuff we haven't even thought of yet! Yes, vendors will be on-site; we'll post the names of all vendors as soon as we have the final list! For those friends coming long distances, we have many good hotels/motels in the area and a “plethora” of places to dine. (Scott Hurley told me to say plethora; I think it means “a bunch”)

Finally, the Park District, the Dome’s owners and our Barnstormer’s Dome Master (we call him MISTER Mert!) asked me to note the following small print for you lawyers out there:

1)All Flyers must carry their 2009 AMA cards with them to cover our AMA sanctioning rules.

2) When you arrive, register at the Snack Shop building that’s located immediately left of the Dome - BEFORE you enter the dome, please. At registration, Spectators and Pilots will pay their fee, sign the AMA waiver and be issued wrist I.D.’s to wear in the Dome. You can also purchase (a plethora?) of SRCB raffle tickets for that great $400 combo prize!

4) For this event, Spread-Spectrum-type pilots will not need to visit our Frequency Desk inside the Dome, but AM and FM pilots must check in at the Frequency Desk BEFORE TURNING ON THEIR RADIOS. We urge AM/FM-radio folk to buy and attach frequency plaques to their radio antennas to help us keep track of - and share – the channels.

5) If you have to walk out into the Dome’s huge flying area to retrieve your aircraft, please keep your head on a swivel, yell out “On the field,” and raise your hand and/or radio while you walk, to help the other pilots see and avoid you. (This is especially true if you have to walk all the way to the back of the dome - we’ve Lost people for days way back there!) We want everyone to have a good time, but safety has to be our number one priority!

7) Fixed Wing Airframes: There is a 2-pound weight, prudent speed, and 150-watt power limit for “plankers”. All props must be slow-fly or E-props - no nitro props. Helicopters are limited to 450-sized, 325mm individual rotor blade/ 700mm (27.6”) maximum rotor diameter. For safety, no Carbon Fiber and no Fiberglass main rotor blades, please. (Tail rotors of C.F. or F.G. are OK) Heli pilots will fly in the left and right corners of the Dome except during “Just Heli” sessions. Please look at the Park District, Dome and SRCB site safety rules posted at the Snack Shop Hut and at the Frequency Desk. Our Dome Boss is the final arbiter for all decisions/discussions and all arm wrestling matches!

The upstairs Second Level is for spectator use only -- no piloting from upstairs, please, for safety reasons.

9) And lastly, the Golf Dome’s late-evening golfers rent and “own” the use of the Dome until 11:00PM Saturday, so please cut them some slack to finish their practice swings.

For more information, please contact Stan Warden at frenchstan@att.net or 630-654-8476. Or, check out SuburbanRCBarnstormers.com, to see our TWO posters for the spring E-Niter and the detailed tollway directions to the Dome. You can also see photos and videos of the football-field-sized White Pines Dome. See ya there!

(Besides this all-night event, we also hold “regular” open indoor flying on Friday and Saturday nights from 11:00PM to 01:00AM for $15 for 2 hours flying, from November through April)

PS. Don’t forget our Radio Control Aircraft Swap Shop at the DuPage County Fair Grounds on 4-11-09

See some updates in the Post #1, above.

Thanks, Stan