Daily Archives: July 27, 2019

10 posts

Chairman’s Corner for July/August 2019

President's Corner

Our efforts to establish a Letter of Agreement with Lindbergh air traffic control continue. I would like to thank BOD members Quan, Steve, and Eric for their Efforts. Also a big Thank you to Steve Manganelli for his contributions and experience dealing with Government entities. Our LOA was submitted this week and we are waiting for a reply from the officials involved. While this process is underway we have not been instructed to cease operations, so we are still using our site. It is very important that we adhere to the posted guidelines at our site. Please make a STRONG effort to keep aircraft below 400 feet. Some folks have a harder time judging altitude than others – so If you think “I wonder if I am too high?” – You are too high and should not linger. Along these lines, Jeff has also reduced the motor run times for Electroglide to keep the gliders closer to our limits.

Late last month we had an Officer from the FAA visit our site. He was happy we were in talks with the tower, but was very unhappy that less than half of the models (Planes AND Multi-rotors) on site had FAA registration numbers displayed per the current legislation. While neither I nor the BOD members serve as FAA Police, and are not going to be inspecting your craft – I am motivated to state that the FAA requirement to register yourself and display your numbers can get you in hot water legally and the possibility of a hefty fine is not out of the question. 99% of us are grown-ups, Nuff said…

The Independence Day Raffle went fairly well, We had more funds come in than last year, but still not as much as I was hoping for. As we make plans for the next Post – Holiday Banquet we will determine if the members will have to kick in for their meal as they did last year.  I am looking for a volunteer or two to help with the banquet committee this year, Please let Me, Tony, or Quan know if you would like to get involved!

Speaking of Independence Day, The weather cooperated and the fireworks show was the best we have had in the last couple of years! The breeze was perfect and blew the smoke away to give a great view from our field. Thanks to those on site for carrying their trash out with them. Our area was the cleanest part of Mission Bay the next morning.

The outlying field area is very dry, please be careful! Those with extinguishers please be ready if we need you! We are setting up a water truck and roller in the next couple of weeks to get the field back in shape, but I still need to ask you to not kick at pebbles and rocks in the surface as that only makes things worse.

Obviously the cool months are behind us and as we get ready or August and September I need to throw out the need for sun block, and hydration. We have had a few members show up this year looking like bandaged mummies after having cancers removed, try to avoid long term exposure if you can! A couple of summers ago a member was suffering from severe dehydration and almost was hospitalized. Bring Water for you and any pets! I have had people approach me and ask for water, and while I like to share, if I give you my water- then I have to leave earlier than planned. Fair?? Not really. Bring your own fluids.

This month’s fun fly event on the 27th will be the Flea Circus. Between 10 AM and Noon all flight will be restricted to Micro aircraft. There should be some neat events! Our usual hot dog lunch and board meeting will follow.

I hope everyone has a GREAT month,

Brad

UMX Flea Circus

Events

Club Event

UMX Flea Circus

Come one, Come ALL to the SEFSD FLEA CIRCUS !!

Saturday, July 27   Events start at 10am

Bring your UMX or Ultra Micro Aircraft and play in this 3-ring CIRCUS!!!

There will be 3 different events scored, and the top 5 scores will win the appropriate Gift Certificate to Discount Hobby Warehouse

There will be 3 stations:

1- UMX Looper

2- UMX Spot Land

3- UMX Glide

Points for each flight, total high points wins.

Details at the pilot meeting.

Come on down and FLY FLY FLY

Meeting and Lunch to follow the event!!

Larry Kosta Sr. Has Passed

General Interest

It is with the deepest sadness that I share with the R/C Model Airplane Community of San Diego that my Father, Larry Kosta Sr passed away peacefully in his sleep on Tuesday June 18th, 2019.

He will be greatly missed by his family and his friends. Dad flew model airplanes for as long as I can remember. Some of my first memories in life are of going to Lakeside next to El Capitan High School, there at the river bed to fly Models with his friends, like Chuck Brown and Jack Irey. I also remember stopping at Lou Proctor’s house. Lou’s cats come to mind here for some reason.

Dad also flew full scale planes, getting his pilots certificate at the tender age of 16 in a J-3 Cub. During his life, he owned two different airplanes, a late 1950’s H35 “V” tail Bonanza that he acquired in the 70’s where he got his IFR ticket. He had the Bonanza for about 15 years and then a few years later, in the early 2000’s he bought an Avid Flyer with a Rotax 912 engine, that had an Armstrong starter! The wings folded back and he towed it back to their little ranch just north of the Ramona Airport.

Dad stayed pretty active later in his life, riding his motorcycle to the bowling alley and flying model airplanes and helicopters until he was 85 years old or so. Finally, Mom talked him into selling the motorcycle which was kind of a relief to most of the family except him. I used to think to myself that he had to have been the oldest dude in San Diego to be riding a motorcycle on the freeway!

Larry Sr along with his wife, my Mother, Deanna started a blueprinting company in 1963 called Advance Blueprint. My sisters and I still work there today with it’s new name, Advance Reprographics.

Well Dad, the tower has issued you your final clearance to taxi for takeoff, you’re cleared for VFR on top, for evermore.

Safety Report for July 2019

Safety

By Steve Neu

As most of you already know the club is working on complying with the new requirements that were put into law with the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act. One small part on that law is the requirement that “drones” and model planes that weigh more than 250 grams have placed on them the FAA registration number of the operator. If you haven’t already done so, in the next few months all club members will need to register with the FAA and obtain and display the number on the outside of your models—the rules are pretty lax as to location and size so for now you can be creative in making the numbers non obtrusive. Here is the link to the FAA registration web site as well as to a AMA instructional video on the subject. 

Also, as part of the same 2017 law our cub is required to obtain a “LOA” (Letter of Agreement) with the tower at Lindberg Field. This letter for the most part spells out what what we do and what safety rules we operate by. Mostly it is common sense stuff but we will all need to make sure that we observe the various requirements so as to preserve our access to a unique model flying location. There will need to be some adjustments to old habits— one of the most  important ones is for pilots flying larger models and other higher performance planes to have a spotter stand with them to keep them informed of full sized aircraft that may be in our area—and to descend to 50 feet if the full size plane gets within 1 mile of our field. The requirement to descend is not new but the addition of a spotter is new and needs to be observed.
So—the bad news is that we will need to deal with some additional regulations. The good news is that with the work the “gang of 4” BOD members: Quan Nguyen, Eric Shapiro, Steve Belknap and myself plus Steve Manganelli have drafted a “LOA” and submitted it to our contact at the Lindberg Field tower for consideration. They may ask for some changes to our letter as submitted but we will do our best to make sure we can continue to operate safely with as few restrictions as possible. I want to make a special thanks to Steve Manganelli for crafting a LOA that is complete and written in the best bureaucratic style possible—30 plus years of working for the US government has not gone to waste. The feedback on the draft LOA from a former club member who now works for the FAA on safety issues was very favorable. We need to cross our fingers and wait for the response.
Fly Safe!

BOD Report for July 2019

Meeting Minutes

Board of Directors Meeting

Silent Electric Flyers of San Diego

Meeting starts at 6:50 pm

 

For this month’s meeting we discussed the agreement that is pending with San Diego Control Tower.  AMA called us about getting this done and we are working on it.

We talked about making it a matter of procedure to have a spotter for the Electroglide event.  That way we are 100% to avoid full scale aircraft approaching our field.

Once again we ask our members not to sit on the tables, and we approved the budget to fix them asap.

The center Line on the runway turn out to be a great success, it takes 3 cans of paint and we have approved it.

Please check the website (under calendar) for the upcoming events as we are changing things up.

The next matter was the CD for our money.   We are still investigating the best place to open it.

As of today we have 306 members.

We the Board of Directors  thank you, the member for making this the great club it is.

Your Humble Secretary,

Ken Dresser

Meeting Adjourned at 8:37 p.m.

Treasurer’s Report for July 2019

General Interest

We are at 321 paid members as of 7/24 and over [removed] in the bank. This month, we submitted our Letter of Agreement to Lindbergh ATC, and we hope to have an executed LOA very soon. I want to thank Eric Shapiro, Steve Neu, Steve Magenelli, and Steve Belknap for taking the initiative to put the document together.

-Quan

Electroglide Report for July 2019

Electroglide Contest Results

The Electroglide for July ended up being pretty fun. We had good lift at times and some long flights. At the start time, Lindbergh field was reporting North West winds of 8 mph and 70-degree temperatures under partly cloudy skies.

A few of us had our gliders up before the 10:00 o-clock start time. We found solid lift in the North West section of our flight area, in line with our runway and the Sea World tower.

The Electroglide is now allowing a 15 second motor run time to limit our maximum altitude to 400 feet. This appears to be working as both Scott Vance and I have altimeters in our Radians; we were noticing altitudes of 420 feet at motor cut off.

On the first launch seven pilots sent their gliders aloft and we soon found that 15 seconds of motor power is good for altitude but maybe not for ideal position. Finding the lift needed a bit more searching time. The longest flight was 2:39 minutes, recorded by Scott with a 10-point bonus landing. Arthur Markiewicz had a flight of 2:33 with a 20-point landing. Dennis LaBerge came back at 2:20, also with a 20-point landing.

Hmm, this is going to take some strategy to get a longer flight time.

Second launch got under way 2 minutes after the first. Scott was able to get the long flight again, coming back at 9:00 minutes with a 30-point landing. I had the second longest at 8:50 and Jon Graber came in third at 6:39 with a 20-point landing. This was much better.

Third launch saw Dennis get the long flight at 9:20 with a 20-point landing tacked on. Scott had a flight of 6:38 and Stephen Treger had a flight of 5:11.

Forth and final launch Saw Arthur with the long flight at 9:45 plus getting a 30-point landing. Scott had a flight of 9:11 minutes with a 20-point landing and Jon came in third at 5:10 minutes.

The winner for the day was Scott Vance with total points of 226. Second place goes to Arthur Markiewicz at 208 points and third place was won by Dennis LaBerge with 186 points. Nice flying gentlemen.

So, what is the winning strategy with this shortened motor run time? For most of us it’s having a nicely trimmed aircraft. A half ounce weight in the tail of a Radian helps, and a having a high discharge battery is good too.

Paying close attention to your aircraft and staying off the controls as much as possible will also reward with a long flight. Add up the small things and they start to make a difference.

Thanks to Frank Sutton for taking the event pictures.

Next Electroglide is scheduled for August 17th, 10:00 a.m. first launch.

See you there,

Jeff