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 1st. All 2018 memberships will expire on December 31st 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 1st was a success, and their next one on December 7th 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 4th 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 17th. 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
