Monthly Archives: November 2019

15 posts

Chairman’s Corner for Nov./Dec. 2019

President's Corner

Hey folks!

Welcome to the fall! Hopefully the hottest days and the red flag warnings are behind us. With rain in the forecast as I write this, the field should smooth itself out and be in AMAZING shape for the rest of the year.

One major point of interest this month for the club is the agreement coming out of Lindbergh air traffic control which is based upon changes from the FAA regarding the use of small unmanned aircraft systems within 5 miles of an operational airport. I know other board members will be discussing the requirements, so I won’t go too deep. Starting December 1 we will have to have a really good look at how high we are flying at our site. The agreement presented to us by the FAA Western Service Center will limit flights at our site to 200 ft AGL.  Quan has engaged the air traffic control center in an attempt to discuss options. More as we go into 2020.

We had a very successful Nightfly event the evening of November 10. Thank you Ken Dresser for organizing it! About a dozen pilots and quite a few family members showed up at dusk for pizza and fun. We may look at a night fly again as we move into 2020. However, right now part of the memorandum with air traffic control states no flying from dusk to dawn, but one fight at a time…

As we mentioned last month, our post holiday banquet for 2019 will again be held at the Harbor House on 18 Jan. Like last year, there will be $20 collected for each attendee which will cover an amazing meal, good times with family and friends, and your raffle ticket for some amazing prizes. As last year, there will be prizes for fliers and spouses. Quan is using his computing expertise to automate the process to purchase your tickets. Expect to hear more from him, and a blast from the club during the first week of December as ticket sales open. Seating will again be limited to 130 members and their guests, and will only be available to members for the 2019 calendar year. Buy your tickets early to ensure you attend!

Also, kicking off at the beginning of December will be renewals for a club membership for 2020. It looks like we will finish 2019 with 345 members. If you know you are going to join for 2020, please get it done early so we can get your badge to you early Jan! Quan will be shifting over the membership application to 2020 on the website the beginning of December. The system will again validate that your AMA membership is up-to-date before allowing you to proceed for payment. Have you purchased next years AMA yet? If you need your card quickly, please mail either Quan or myself and let us know.

This Saturday, 23 November, we will have the club meeting which will include the end of year vote for club officers to carry us into 2020. I have had a couple members step up to fill board positions for departing members. Steve Manganelli has volunteered himself as your vice president, and Jeff Struthers has stepped up to fill an open member at large position. I fully expect both of them to provide valuable insights in the future guidance of our club. If you have decided to nominate yourself last minute, I will be unable to send ballots out via email, and will need you to present yourself at the meeting with your nomination for any club officer position.

The Fun Fly event which will be held prior to the club meeting on the 23rd will be Warbird Day. Between approximately 10 AM and noon, flying will be restricted to any aircraft that has fought in any conflict in the world. Ken Dresser, your new master of fun, well set the rules allowing people a chance at a $150 worth of gift certificate to Discount Hobby Warehouse.

I would like to close out this month with a big THANK YOU to a lot of people who have went above and beyond in supporting the club and it’s endeavors this year. For our yearly club events, I want to shout out to Jim Bonnardel, and Jeff Struthers. Thank both of you for running pop wing racing and electroglide so well. Right now their futures are unclear, But hopefully we can figure something out as we move ahead. Thanks Ken Dresser for stepping in to make the monthly events a lot of fun.  I also want to thank Dennis Laberge for all of his support and keeping the site maintained, from pulling weeds, to assisting with maintenance of the tables, and driving the roller for hours when we are maintaining the field, Dennis is always there when there is work to be done with a smile on his face. Carl Cox and Scott Vance also step up whenever we ask for a work party. Another to Jim Bonnardel for his time and effort s getting the fencing right at the rotorplex, and replacing numerous tables with a lasting solution.  Please take a chance to say THANK YOU to John Weaver the next time you see him at Discount Hobbies for Giving us a break on the Fun Fly raffle prizes which lets us give back even more to the members. Thank you Steve Belknap for managing our website and putting together this newsletter for your monthly reading pleasure. A SUPER Big shout out to Mark Davis for taking care of us on Fun Fly/meeting days with the hot dogs and refreshments. His Salsa is the best!!, and Finally a thank you to our 2019 Board of directors for stepping to the plate this past year.

THANK YOU!

Brad

President’s Corner for Nov./Dec. 2019

President's Corner

Hey pilots,

We are coming to the end of the year and I want to thank everybody for a great year of flying. I would like to remind everybody that we are voting this month for club officers. So if there’s anybody you would like to nominate, please do so.  If you want to nominate yourself, that’s fine as well. We will be holding the vote at this months meeting which is on November 23. Please have a say in what your club does and how it operates. 
We have received a response to our LOA from the FAA. As of December 1, we are restricted to a 200 foot altitude and daylight hours only. I know this is not ideal but we are still allowed to fly and have access to our flying field. We are negotiating with the FAA and hope to bring our flight ceiling back up to 400 feet but in the meantime please respect the altitude change until further notice. We know 200 feet is low for some pilots we are doing what we can to bring that back up so please be respectful and fly to 200 feet. We want to be back at 400 feet and are working hard to get there and get it done so please be patient with us. This is ongoing and we will keep you informed. 
We will be holding our Christmas party on January 18. We will be reserving the harbor house again this year and are expecting around 130 seats to be available. Tickets will be $20 apiece so first come first serve. Once 130 have been sold there will be no more seats available. We always have a great time at the party and hope to see you all there. 
I want to thank you all again for bringing your fire extinguishers. I have seen a lot more fire extinguishers at the field which is great, keep it up. You guys are awesome and I hope to serve you better in the coming year so please feel free to contact me and give me any input that you have.  Thank you again. 
 
Sincerely 

Tony Blackhurst. 

Warbird Day

Events

November’s Event

 

Warbird Day

 

This Saturday, November 23, 2019.

Bring down all your warbirds for this pilot choice
fun fly event.

Pilot meeting at 10 a.m. + or – 10 minutes. 

If it flew during a conflict, then it’s a warbird.

Any questions contact: Ken at (858) 405-0421

AMA Expo East and West Come to an End

General Interest

“MUNCIE—After a good 20-year run, AMA Expo as we know it, has come to an end. AMA officials announced the decision at this year’s show AMA Expo West, held November 1-3, in Pomona, California, after the AMA Executive Council voted to end the show.

In 1999, AMA acquired what was then known as the International Modelers Show (IMS), from Bill and Anita Northrop. The couple founded the event in 1978, with the first IMS held at the Los Angeles Convention Center. They later moved it to Pasadena, California, where it was held for 20 years until it was acquired by AMA.

After AMA purchased the show, its name was changed to AMA Convention, then to AMA Expo. For many years, the trade show was held at the Ontario Convention Center, in Ontario, California. The event traditionally took place in early January each year.

In 2018, AMA Expo West was held twice. The first was held in January in Ontario, but the second AMA Expo West that year took place November 2-4 at the Pomona Fairplex in Pomona, California. The show was moved to the fall in hopes of attracting Christmas shoppers. The new venue also provided space for outdoor flying.

In 2019, the January AMA Expo West was eliminated, and the event was again held in Pomona in November.

Since Bill and Anita first established the trade show, the aeromodeling industry, and how modelers shop, have changed tremendously. When the event began, AMA members came from far and wide to catch a glimpse of the newest products. Rows and rows of vendor booths showed off new goods, with the hopes of exciting potential and returning customers.

Years later, we saw a boom in e-commerce. Instead of only seeing new products at trade shows, hobby shops, or in magazines, shoppers could find and purchase them online. Across the country, attendance at hobby trade shows began to dwindle, along with the number of exhibitors.

In lieu of hosting a national trade show once a year in Southern California and in New Jersey (AMA Expo East), AMA has decided to explore multiple district events across the country in 2020 and in the years to follow. This allows AMA to serve and impact more members.

This new approach embraces elements of Expo West that members have grown to love, such as the fun-fly and educational opportunities. If you live in Southern California, look for details on the District X Fun Fly tentatively slated at the Las Vegas Radio Control club in October 2020. We will provide more information in the coming months.

AMA thanks all of the members, sponsors, and exhibitors who have supported AMA Expo throughout the years. Also, thank you to those who have volunteered at our shows.”

Report and Pics from the Last Ever AMA Expo

General Interest
  Alex and I attended, Joan and Codey stayed at our nearby Holiday Inn Express and we just got back earlier this afternoon. This was our first year going, but Alex and I enjoyed it so much, we plan to do this again next year! Of course, Joan and Codey enjoyed getting away and enjoying the swimming pool and hot tub at the hotel too so we’ll do another weekend getaway next year. Alex got a nice new FA 18 Hornet for a $50 discount and really fast Blade (drone) for a whopping $200 off the normal $350 price! WOW! These were early Christmas gifts, but Alex helped pay for some of it with his birthday money he’d saved.
  We watched the 1100 show on the main stage with “The Paper Airplane Guy”, it was really a great show and he has the Guinness World Record for longest paper airplane flight (indoors) – it was just short of a full football field length! Alex and I sat right in front, center stage and he had more than a dozen pre-made paper airplanes that he talked about and flew right over our heads out into the audience. He had a slide show going on the side too showing the paper airplanes in detail, and everyone in the audience got to make a paper airplane too (like I have never before made) and we all flew our planes at the conclusion of the show!
  After the show, Alex and I met with “The Airplane Guy” and Alex bought his book ($20) which he autographed to Alex and I got a photo of the two of them. Of course, I got a few photos of him as well while he was presenting his show and flying airplanes over our heads – I’ll forward a few of these photos to you too.
  The R/C Exposition certainly had plenty to offer for eating and drinking! We ate a late lunch and had some leftovers that we had to carry with us back to the hotel and put in the refrigerator for later! It was a little expensive but it was very good and huge portions too! We easily could have gotten by with just one order of French fries instead of two!
  We stopped at the Kearny Mesa Hobby Shop on the way home this afternoon and Alex cashed in $160 worth of Gift Certificates from SEFSD and bought a new Turbo Timber plane too. Of course, I had to help him with the additional overage cost! Joan and I have figured out Alex years ago now, when it comes to him buying a new plane he operates like ENRON did! If you don’t know about ENRON, do a Google search on it! Ha! Alex says it’s not really COSTING me the extra difference when he doesn’t have all the money to buy a new plane or new battery or parts, it’s SAVING me the money that I’m having to pay! Now that’s what ENRON would have said too! Haha!
  Have a great week ahead, and perhaps we’ll see you out there Saturday morning – Alex is looking forward to flying his new planes soon if the weather cooperates!
V/R,
Frank Sutton
Click this pic for all the AMA Expo pics:

Safety Corner for November 2019

Safety
We are getting towards the end of the year and with a little luck we will continue to operate safely. During the past month the number of fliers has been lighter than usual—so it is a good time to do some flying without feeling crowded out! 
 
I urge all members to keep informed on what is going on with the FAA and Congress in regards to rules regarding limits that may be imposed on our model plane activities. Some of the proposed restrictions would pretty much end our ability to fly at Mission Bay. There is a good chance that some adjustments to the proposed rules will be adopted and allow clubs like ours to continue to operate safely. It would be a good idea to keep up to date with the news regarding the moves by the FAA and this link is a good source for what is going on:  https://amablog.modelaircraft.org/amagov/category/400-foot/ 
 
One simple and easy thing you should do is to make sure your FAA numbers are on each of your models.  If the FAA sends someone out to check, it will help our cause if they find that our members are making an effort to comply with the new rules. 
 
The club was sent a copy of a “letter of agreement” (LOA)  by the acting air traffic manager at Lindberg Field. The LOA as drafted has some limitations that are very restrictive in how high we can fly. The letter appears to be a “one size fits all” agreement that did not consider our long history of safe operation at the site.  Your board is soliciting advice from the AMA and others before responding to the LOA. 
 
It is important to continue to observe all the AMA and safety rules at this sensitive time.
 
Steve Neu
Safety Officer SEFSD