The 2017 SEFSD Officers, L to R: Dennis Benitez (At Large), Randy Wynant (Safety), Brian Chenoweth (At Large), Jim Bonnardel (V.P.), Brad Bender (President), Quan Nguyen (Secretary), Isabel Guidice (Membership), George Rebello (At Large), Paul Guidice (Treasurer).
Hey Folks! I hope the month was as good to you as it was to me. The pictures I selected this month were from guys that may have had a bad day, but were having a good time while at it!
As we approach the end of 2016 I would like to thank all of you that have made this year one for the record books in many ways. The last time we checked, our current membership numbers put us at the 4th largest club in the AMA. Not too bad for a group of electric junkies with a dirt runway!
Seriously though, Thanks to all of you who made our club a welcoming place to visit for folks that want to see what it’s all about. Thanks to Jim for organizing and keeping track of the majority of our amazing events at the field. Thanks to Jeff, Chuy, and Scott for running the electroglide and FPV races. And thanks to those of you that participated in the events and made the competition so fun and lively! Thanks to Chief, Tom, and Dennis for their diligence in keeping the field and tables in good shape. Thanks to Isabel and Steve who volunteer to run membership and the web site. I don’t know how we would do this without them!
On a lighter note, thanks to Fred for greeting everyone with a smile and a piece of candy. Also a fond thank you to Lee, Dave, Eric, and especially Skip for the exuberance shown in keeping things interesting and fun!!
Saturday the 28th is an important day for members, and I hope you show up at the fun fly and meeting. Not only is it Warbird day, and meeting day, it is also time to vote for your club officers to take us through 2017. Come out and support your favorite candidate! For those who have thought that they would like to help out in some way, but are reluctant to actually try for a position on the board, I encourage you to get involved in managing one of the monthly events next year, maybe take some of the load off of Jim…
The first week of December will mark open membership renewal for the club. Have you renewed your AMA yet? Steve will send out an e-mail blast when the forms are active on the web site and the PayPal account is set up to receive funds. Also starting December 1st , I will be accepting reservations for the club holiday banquet set to occur on 14 Jan. at the Admiral Kidd club. This is on a Naval base in Point Loma, but Non-military people can attend as long as we get your name on their access list for the evening of the event. Like last year we will be accepting a 5 dollar deposit to reserve your seats and get everyone who attends a ticket for the raffle. You will be able to either pay your deposit via the family/friend feature of PayPal, or with cash to any board member. There will be more specific info and instructions coming on the first, but one thing I would like to start stating now so there are no surprises: Reservations will close on December 30th or when we hit 150 guests. There will be no late adds as we are required to have attendee names to the military establishment by the 31st.
As I mentioned earlier, this month’s event is Warbird day. If it is a model of an actual aircraft used in combat somewhere, bring it and fly it for a chance at $150.00 worth of prize money! Around noon we will have the meeting/voting and finish up with a hot dog lunch.
Hope you all score some good hobby related deals this month!
Brad
By Quan Nguyen
This month, due to some recent incidents, I need to bring up the requirement of having a spotter with you when you fly FPV. This is the one rule I need you to all help me keep our club in compliance 100% of the time. We need to enforce this to make sure we can keep our field. I realize this is a sensitive issue, and it’ll require compromising for everyone. FPV fliers often don’t want to bother other members to spot for them, especially when they intend to fly a marathon, back to back sessions for hours. Bystanders, on the other hand, are reluctant to bother FPV pilots when they’re just keeping to themselves enjoying a relaxing afternoon FPV flight in perfect San Diego weather. However, the problem is that some recent stray drones have shown the limitation of FPV technology, and it’s simply not ready to be safely flown solo for hours at a time from a lawnchair.
FPV fliers must have a spotter at all times in order to fly. I apologize in advance to those who fly extended flights and can’t find a spotter. You’ll have to find a spotter before you can fly. If you have an FPV monitor connected during the flight, you are no longer a Line of Sight pilot, even if you are looking at the drone most of the time. This is how the latest incident happened.
Fellow members, try to offer your assistance to spot for FPV pilots, and FPV pilots, please be courteous and limit your FPV session to a reasonable time so the spotter can enjoy their hobby as well.
If you see someone flying FPV without a spotter and you can’t spot because you’re leaving or something, please do the club a favor and politely remind them they cannot fly without a spotter. I understand it’s difficult to tell someone who is enjoying their hobby peacefully in solitude, but there have been enough incidents of drones wandering off to where they shouldn’t be, such that a strict enforcement of this rule is needed to ensure the continued operation of the club for the 425+ members.
If you inform the FPV pilot politely and they don’t listen, simply back off and contact myself or another board member, and we will handle it.
-Quan
Click the pic to see all the pics from October’s contest.
PopWing racing Video from Tuan.
Otto’s flying witch at Tony Hawk’s place.
The candidates from Otto.