Yearly Archives: 2018

As we roll into the holiday season I would like to express how much I enjoy being part of SEFSD. As a 400 member club, we are bound to have a few anti-social folks, too friendly folks, and folks that – no matter how long they fly, will never get out of the “dangerous” or “unpredictable” category. I want to commend the rest of you for patiently putting up with these few and keeping drama at the field to a minimum.  We are all there to have a good time and share our interest in flying machines with others – What could be better?!

I want to touch on quite a few matters this month and hope not to bore you with the length of this one!

We have some big changes on the Board of Directors for 2019. When you see them at the field, please pass on a “Thank you!”  to the people that have stepped up to manage the club for the next year.

Chairman: Brad Bender
President: Tony Blackhurst
Vice President: Ian Mckinlay
Treasurer: Quan Nguyen
Safety Officer: Steve Neu
Secretary: Ken Dresser
Member at Large: Carl Cox
Member at Large: Eric Shapiro
Member at Large: George Sullivan

I would like to add personal thanks to Randy, Jim, and Dennis for their past service to SEFSD and for allowing new blood into the board.

There was a troubling incident at the rotorplex that I would like to share. On the day it happened there were 5 or 6 members at the main runway, and one member alone at the rotorplex  with all of his FPV drones and extensive support equipment on a table ready for use. He determined that he needed a zip tie to affix something and stepped away to ask for one from a member at the main runway. Upon his return 3 or 4 minutes later – he found ALL of his gear was missing, even his coffee cup, prescription glasses, and his jacket that was on a chair. The supposition is that some people with questionable upbringing were parked along Old Sea World drive and saw him walk away, then they ran through the back field and took everything. There was no vehicle traffic through our lot at that time. While our members are a trustworthy lot, please remember that we are in the middle of a publicly accessible area and you never know who may be watching… I would even go as far as preferring you set up at the last table on the east end of the runway and fly your drone from there rather than being alone at the rotorplex. Some of the great drone guys pitched in to help him buy some gear so he can continue to fly while checking with his insurance policies to see if any of it can be claimed. Please be careful, especially if you are alone anywhere on our site!

On the opposite side of the same coin, please do not leave your items out if you plan to depart the flight line for more than a few minutes! If you are going to buy a sandwich and be back in 15 minutes – Great! I understand having to go home for a radio, wing tube (been there!), or another forgotten item as it happens on occasion. However, to go home to Poway and take a nap for 4 hours is completely unacceptable behavior while someone is stuck watching your items. If anyone asks you to watch their items while they leave the field, I would like you to weigh the risk before you accept the burden. Is this person reliable? Will they come back TODAY? If they don’t come back, can you transport their items along with yours when you leave? Would you enjoy them harping on you for the rest of your life because something they left unattended on a table came up missing? If the answer is no to any of these, please do not accept their burden! Tell them to pack it up and take it with them.

The main runway is in good, compact condition after the recent rains. Thank you for staying off of the surface while it was soft. We have been trying to coordinate a sweeper truck to come out and remove the sand that has settled on top. If we can’t make it happen before the club meeting at the field in Jan, I will call a sweep day and ask members to bring brooms and we can knock it out. Also, a couple of volunteers to bring leaf blowers to clean the sand out of the pit area would benefit us all. One thing that has been tearing up our surface for the last couple of months is gliders with skegs, teeth, or pins attached to dig in and stop the plane upon belly landings. I understand people are practicing in anticipation for the return of electro-glide next month, but if you can remove the dirt brakes and land without them, it would be greatly appreciated by everyone else!!

We have had around 140 members renew for 2019 to date. Keep them coming! The process that Quan has set up on the web site couldn’t be easier. It works for those that want to do it totally online and pay the $50.00 dues via PayPal, or do the online form and mail a check, or print the form to mail along with a check. There will be a new design for 2019 badges – picked by Quan, and the badge will be vertical vice horizontal so you can tell at a glance whether cards are valid. For people that renew prior to December 31^st we will have “ Badge day” on Saturday Jan 5^th at the field. Come down, collect your 2019 Badge, and enjoy a slice or two of pizza! Badges not collected will be mailed out the following week. Jan 19^th will be the weekend we start requiring a 2019 badge be displayed by all pilots flying – but why wait?? Last weekend I was again approached by members who do not remember that SEFSD membership runs by calendar year and does not pro-rate membership based on purchase month. ALL 2018 memberships for SEFSD expire at midnight, 31 December 2018 – no matter when in the year they were purchased. The expiration date printed on the bottom of your membership card is your AMA expiration only. Keep in mind that whether you joined in January or November –  it’s time to renew. SEFSD is the premier club in the San Diego area, and you always get amazing value at a great flying site. Even the folks that joined right at the end of the year can see some return if they attend the post-Holiday Banquet on Jan 12^th.

As of Wednesday we were over 110 seats reserved for the banquet. Only 20 left – don’t be the one standing outside!! If you missed the previous notifications, our 2018 banquet will be held on Jan 12^th at the Harbor House in seaport village – 831 W. Harbor Drive. Seating can commence at 6:00 pm with dinner starting at 6:30 pm, and the event will end at 9:00 pm.  We had a great dinner there last year, and I have high expectations again this year. Tickets are $20.00 per persons having a meal, with half of that charge going towards the Raffle. Member Michelle Manganelli suggested we have some raffle prizes that are the fairer half specific, and we agreed. When you check in for your seats and raffle ticket- you can specify whether you would prefer a ticket for an airplane related item, or a spouse oriented item. With so few seats left, the preferred way to reserve yours will be to send $20.00 per members and guests (sponsor must have been a member during 2018) Via PayPal using the friends feature to ken@red2tech.com.  Alternatively, you can pay cash to a board member, or send a check (quickly) to:

SEFSD 
3954 Bancroft St. #16 
San Diego, CA 92104

However, 3 weeks into sales – if we hit 130 seats reserved before your check arrives it will be returned and you can try again next year ( Skip B take note! )

During the month of December we usually do not have the club meeting and fun fly at the field as a lot of us are away on travel. All of Decembers weekends are open flying so if you have em… The next organized days are:

Jan 03 – Night flying
Jan 05 – Badge day
Jan 12 – Pop Wing Race season begins
Jan 12 – Post holiday banquet  Harbor House
Jan 19 – Electroglide series resumes
Jan 26 – Club meeting at the field – Bomb drop for prizes!

Lastly, I like to express at the end of each year the importance of safety at our field. If your radio supports throttle lock, please get into the habit of having it engaged at all times your model is not taxiing or flying. There have been some VERY close calls this year. In the last month a member attempted a self-vasectomy and another narrowly avoided needing facial reconstruction when randomly bumping the throttle. Please look BOTH WAYS before calling loudly and stepping out onto the runway! If you step out without looking, there’s only one person that can be blamed. When you call your landings and take offs – make a strong attempt to be heard at the other gates. If you hear someone else calling out like a little girl – feel free to call out for them so other pilots know the situation.  Finally, I use New Years as a check point to inventory my first aid kit for proper content and any items that have expired.

I look forward to seeing everyone next year, so please have a safe and happy holiday season!

Brad

Folks,

This months pictures include a sad reminder of why the last member leaving the site daily HAS to lock the gate on the way out. The gate was left unlocked Sunday night, and the Monday early fliers arrived to see that 90% of the plastic chairs at the main runway and the rotorplex had been destroyed over night. An industrious individual took their time and threw a very large rock through each one – even the brand new ones…  Jim has contacted the city to see if they will task a couple of trucks to get rid of them, if not – members will need to dispose of them a few at a time. For the next month or two, if you need to sit while at the field – plan on bringing your own chairs. That being said, most of the chairs on site were donated by members as they replaced their yard furniture going into summer. If you generally buy new chairs each spring, can I ask you to bring your old stuff down now instead of April?

Back to the gate.  It is part of our agreement with the city that we maintain control of our site and prevent unauthorized use/access to the area we control. The last member out MUST close AND LOCK the gate as they leave! We need to stop being our own worst enemy here. If there are non-members in their vehicles, ask them to leave. If there are one or 2 cars on site, and If you don’t know the person(s) with them, ask if they are a member. Tell them you are about to lock the gate, you will be surprised with how many who claimed to be a member will immediately leave if they know the gate is being locked.  If there are empty cars on site with no one around, lock the gate!

Field maintenance: There is currently quite a bit of sand on top of our clay surface. This adds to the complexity of taking off and landing for the ducted fan and tail dragger folks. We have authorized funds to have a sweeper/vacuum truck to come out in the next few weeks to clean the sand and give us a better surface as we get into the rainy ( ? ) season. I’m not sure what day yet, but if it happens on a day you are there, please be respectful of what we are trying to do and keep your planes on the ground while the truck works. We are trying to get 6 more months out of the older tables on site. Please don’t sit on them, pick or chop them with anything destructive…

We will start 2019 membership renewals around December 1^st.   All 2018 memberships will expire on December 31^st no matter when in the year they were purchased. We do not pro-rate membership. The majority of us have our AMA on the same cycle, so this is a reminder to renew your AMA now so their system has you documented for 2019 Before you attempt to renew at SEFSD. The system will not allow you to proceed with renewals if your AMA membership will expire shortly. Quan and Steve will shut down the 2018 membership button on the web page, and Jim will disable the Facebook link after Thanksgiving, and an e-mail blast will go out when 2019 renewals are available. If you need a new card immediately let me and/or Quan know and it will be sent out directly, otherwise we will attempt to hand out new cards to all early renewees on badge day at the field on Jan 05 2019. There will be Pizza between 11:00 and Noon for all that pick up their badge. I want to put out a big THANKS to George Sullivan, who is not only running for a club officer position, he continues to be our membership coordinator – processing all of your badges. Quan is still taking submission of pictures for the 2019 badges, so if you have a nice aviation related image ( portrait oriented ) , send it to him and it may be picked!!

Randy and Quan have finalized plans for our post Holiday Banquet. Last year we had an amazing night at the Harbor House. Even though we sadly lost Butch this year, his partners have agreed to host us at the same discounted rate they gave us last year, so we will again have our banquet at the Harbor House – Saturday, Jan 12 the evening of our first pop wing race of the year.  We had around 125 folks attend last time, and I expect to have around the same attendance this year. As previously stated, the fundraising this year for the banquet was not as lucrative as last year, even though we doubled the dollar value and quality of the raffle prizes for the Independence Day raffle, members were not feeling it, and we actually lost money. A few members donated directly to the banquet (THANK YOU! ) and Jims efforts selling T-shirts has brought us closer, but still short. As a result, admittance cost will be a bit more this year, with tickets costing $20.00 per person for anyone with their a dinner plate, which is an amazing value for this venue! Evey year I am asked about discounts for children – Young children that eat from a parents plate are free – but if you expect a plate and raffle ticket for your two year old, the fee will be $20.00.  $10.00 from each fee will go towards the venue and $10.00 will go towards the raffle prizes, so approximately $1250.00 worth of prizes this year. There will not be additional raffle ticket sales, one ticket per paid seat. I will put out a separate message when Banquet registration starts, but plan on giving your RSVP and payments to Ken Dresser just like we did last year.

Kevin Shaw and Ken Dresser have taken the first step to an organized night flying event the first Thursday evening monthly from dusk to ??. Their first get-together on November 1^st was a success, and their next one on December 7^th is expected to draw more folks now that daylight savings has ended. If you do attend, please dim your lights in the driveway and limit the use to white LEDs in the pits to preserve everyone’s night vision. As with everything we do at our field, AMA and club membership are required.

Thanks again to the members that have sent stories and images to Steve Belknap, our Editor, for inclusion in our newsletter. Sometimes it is difficult to come up with fresh content to keep everyone interested. Do YOU have a neat project on the bench, or an inventive way of doing something that you would like to share with everyone? We are interested!!

BOD Voting is coming up on 17 November, you should have received absentee instructions a day or two ago. Please say THANKS to all of the victims that stepped up to manage the club next year!!

Most of the year we hold our meetings at the field, and the associated fun fly, on the 4^th Saturday. With the end of year holidays falling around the same weekend, we push November to the third Saturday, and do not have a meeting in December. That being said, our last meeting and fun fly is rapidly approaching this weekend – the 17^th.  The fun fly will be Warbird Day, beginning at 10:00AM followed by the club meeting, Officer voting, and Hot Dog lunch provided by the club. One of the new Members at Large will be taking over hot dog duties after this weekend, so please thank Dennis Benitez for his efforts over the last 2 years!

Have a great Thanksgiving!!

Lock the Gate!

Brad

Well, we finally broke the heat wave, sort of… With the end of October still seeing the 80’s, it seems like we can’t win! A couple more weeks, and daylight savings time, should give us some respite.

We just finished our 2 monthly competition series, Pop Wing racing, and Electroglide for 2018.

For the Racers, Eric Shapiro took First place again this year, With Jim Bonnardel in second, and myself in third place. Jeff was not feeling well, so I did not get the Electroglide winners, but should have that info by the meeting on the 25^th. Both events will have their prizes awarded at the monthly meeting. I would like to thank all participants and even more so a big thanks to Jim and Jeff for running the yearly events. Both will return in Jan 2019.

A member recently mailed me about organizing some night flying as we head into our “winter“.  if you are interested, we should have more info in the next few weeks. If there is something you want to do at the club, and you want to organize and run an event, feel free to let me know. All ideas are on the table, as long as they are safe, and do not have an increased risk of destroying aircraft.

I have had a couple of weekend members approach me over the last month talking about some unsafe behavior that is increasing. Please DO NOT come across the field directly at the pits at full throttle and yank it up at the fence. We have all seen servos, clevises, and thumbs fail at the most inopportune moments, and deliberately putting others in danger is not to be tolerated – I don’t care how good the pilot is. Please continue to call “take offs”, “landings”, “low passes”, and any time you step on to the runway for any reason. And PLEASE look before doing so. I still see people stepping, and calling out – right in front of a plane on final that they did not see because they did not look…

During the November meeting we will be voting for club officers to take the club into 2019.

I have to say that I am dismayed by the lack of response from club members when I ask for people to step up and help guide the club. For 400 members to only have 2 volunteers is disheartening…

People say that they like the club the way it is, and do not want things to change, but our bylaws put term limits on BOD members and it is time for new blood. That being said, I need 4 or 5  more people that want to get involved.

I can no longer be president, and while I had hoped Randy would step into presidency, he has some personal interest items that will require him to come off of the board completely. Voted positions are listed below.

President : empty

Vice President: empty

Treasurer: Quan Nguyen – plans to run again, thank you.

Safety Officer: Tony Blackhurst – plans to run again, thank you.

Secretary: Ken Dresser – plans to run again, thank you.

Member at large: Carl Cox – plans to run again, thank you.

Member at large: empty

Member at large: empty

Only 2 members have accepted nomination for positions. Both Eric Shapiro and Ian McKinlay are nominated for Members at large. I need participation folks!!

Please send names to me in the next 2 weeks so I can get them publicized before voting.

Last October we laid to rest Fred Duffy. He was our venerable Candy Man who welcomed members, family, and guests to our site with a smile and the offer of a sweet treat. We still miss him, and as a memorial to Fred, we held our second memorial flight of T-28 Trojans ( Freds favorite plane _ on the 20^th. About a dozen pilots paid tribute in a 3 minute flight which ended with a missing man formation. Freds children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren were on site and very appreciative of our efforts. The board has filled and passed Freds candy cooler amongst ourselves and continued Freds tradition for the last year, and we passed the cooler to Freds son, Mike at the conclusion of the memorial.  Thanks to all that remembered Fred!

This month’s club fun fly event will be Foam Frenzy. Between 10:00 and 11:30, fly a foam plane to earn raffle tickets towards $150.00 worth of discount hobbies gift certificates. Randy will instruct at the pilots meeting how to earn tickets. Following the fun fly, we will have the October meeting and this month there will be dogs from Costco.

Since it will come early next month, not to interfere with Thanksgiving –  I want to mention that the club meeting/voting and Warbird Day will be held on November 17^th.

Be safe, and most of all – Have fun!

Brad

See more great pics of the flyover here.