Hey folks!
I hope you had a great October and that November brings quality flying time!
As we near the end of the year, we wrapped up our special events for 2016 this month. There were some great prizes won by the leaders in each group, and also some nice raffle prizes that all who participated had a chance to win. When you have a moment, please thank Jim Bonnardel for organizing the pop wing racers, Jeff Struthers for running electroglide, Scott Fuller with an assist from Chuy Wong for keeping the FPV Multi-racers on the track for victory, and Steve Manganelli for directing the F5B/F5D group. I really appreciate the guys who see an event they like and want, and step up to make it happen! There were some questions raised about starting a new parkzone Trojan race series, as well an attempt to re-instate EMAC precision contests. If you want to organize and run an event, let me know and we will see how many mad souls want to join you!! One common theme, as we closed out this years events, was the great support of our club by John Weaver, owner of Discount Hobbies. He stepped up BIG TIME and gave us a fairly large discount on gift certificates which allowed us to give larger prizes back to the members who participated! Please thank him when you see him in the store, and please keep sending business his way, his is the only family owned RC business in our area and a cornerstone of the industry.
I recently had a few members approach me and state that they no longer receive e-mails from the club. A while back we asked Steve, our Editor to scale down on the group that we were sending to and a few people may have been mistakenly removed from our list. While it is still possible to read the newsletter online (as these folks stated they were), avid users of our field should still get the e-mail blasts which will indicate field closures due to airspace restrictions, area closures caused by events at Mission Bay Park and SeaWorld Drive, and important events that affect us such as the notifications for the monthly fun fly events, local swap meets and estate sales, and neat things happening at local clubs like the recent float fly at Otay Lake. Here is the link for non-members to get back on the mailing list if you were removed. Please don’t use it if you already get the e-mails. Members not receiving the emailings should contact Isabel at: sefsdmembership@cox.net. While talking about our editor, I would like to throw a shout out and a personal thank you to Steve Belknap for the time and effort he volunteers to maintain our web site and to finalize and produce our monthly newsletter.
Isabel reported our membership as 427 members a few days ago. For the new members, thank you for joining! There are still several quality months left in 16 to enjoy your membership and the camaraderie at our field! To all members, I will reiterate my appreciation of your willingness to welcome new people and willingness to talk about your planes and interests to people wandering in with questions. YOU are the reason our club continues to grow! Thanks Isabel for managing our membership for us and keeping us on track. She is looking into some new badges for next year that may change things up a bit. Due to the AMA’s shift last year from membership that encompasses the calendar year to a membership on a 12 month cycle, we have 4 members that have their AMA expiring at the end of this month, and 4 that expire at the end of November. You should know who you are, but I have asked Isabel to send a reminder just in case. Please do not fly if your AMA has expired. The rest of the current members are valid to 12/31/16, 12/31/17, with a few lifetime members depending on how you renewed, and a renewal now (If expiring in 2016)will keep you on a December cycle which will make things easier to manage ( I appreciate that!). The current plan is to disable the club membership and PayPal link on our web site around Nov 15th, load the 2017 documents, and open renewals for 2017 around December 1st. Please do not attempt to renew early! A blast will be sent to all members when we can process payments for next year.
Our Holiday banquet committee has been hard at work for you setting up our event for closing out 2016. More details will be posted later, but for planning purposes, the event will be on Jan 14th to get a better venue within our budget, and will be held in the Admiral Kidd convention center near the airport. It promises to be a great time similar to last year!
We have reserved the space for 150 people (members and family) and like last year I will be accepting 5 dollars per guest to RSVP their seat and add to the raffle prizes. I will start accepting the money on December 1st and will stop either on December 31st or when I reach 150 reserved seats. The 31st is the date we need to have all attendees listed and present the list to the naval base so you will be allowed access on the night of the event. Absolutely no late sign-ups for this one.
I would like to lay down a reminder that ALL members are empowered to ensure the safe and responsible use of our site. You DO NOT have to wait for a board member to say something if you see irresponsible use of our facility. If there in an incident, WE stand to lose the site, not just the 9 members of the board. Sadly, one recent incident involved a guest of a member – that was not given even basic safety instructions by his sponsor ( ? ), Flying an airplane next to the porta potty ( ? ) , and flying over the parking lot and in the space between the parking lot and SeaWorld Drive 9 ?) … It gets worse. Even though there were members standing right there, no one said anything. As Quan and I approached we noted the person in question standing next to a former board member, (who was the safety officer) who watched him fly and said nothing! His statement was that it wasn’t his job. I really dislike saying bad things at the field, and just instructed the guest and his sponsor and left it at that. Actions like this can get us shut down people!! Also, we have some members that fly with other local clubs. If you want to invite members of other clubs to come try our site out, I fully support that! However, please ensure they know our boundaries and the flying rules before unleashing them on us!
Pretty much every 2 months this year we have had VERY experienced pilots severely damage or completely destroy high value aircraft mainly due to the fact that they were distracted while assembling their aircraft which led to missing wing bolts, incorrectly connected servo wires, disconnected servo wires, or plugging in discharged batteries. This brings up 2 points. First, if you see your buddy/pal assembling their plane/multirotor for flight, please leave them be until they are done! Most any question can wait 10 minutes, A little distraction can be costly. Second, there are some checks that should be done before every flight. If you can turn wing bolts with finger pressure, they should be tightened. Check your battery voltage before putting them in your plane, even if you are SURE they are charged. And prior to advancing the throttle- do a control surface check while actually watching the surface move (don’t just listen for a servo sound). These small steps can save you a lot of grief!
This month’s meeting will mark the opening of nominations for the Board of Directors that will drive the club for 2017. The election will be held at the November club meeting. The majority of the current board has agreed to run for another year with a few changes of position, and a couple have announced their intention to vacate. There have been a few people step forward to self-nominate. I am going to beat a dead horse here and ask each of you to determine whether you feel your experiences, knowledge, and possibly desire to change something you may not agree with is justification to run for a position. I still hear the comment that some people just “want to have fun” but don’t want to get involved…
We will accept nominations between October 22nd and November 26th – the day of the vote. We will send out a blast at the end of October so you can see the nominees up to that point.
Our fun fly on the 22nd is the popular BOMB DROP. We are looking for Challengers! If you can solo your plane, you can play this one! As usual, there will be prizes for the winners followed by the club meeting/nominations. This month the Bonnardels will be bringing Subway sandwiches to give me a break from cooking dogs, and I am looking forward to seeing YOU there!
Have a great month!
Brad
