Hey guys, I hope Christmas brought you all of the little goodies you were hoping for!
I wish everybody a happy New Year’s and I hope 2020 is the year that meet your expectations.
Quite a few things to talk about as we finish up 2019, so I’ll jump right into it. Thank you everybody for respecting the altitude limitations that have been placed on us by the FAA and air traffic control, and keeping your aircraft below the 200 foot ceiling imposed upon us. Like you, I am unhappy with the decrease, but at the current time this is our ceiling. Quan, Eric, and Steve Manganelli will be dealing with air traffic control and the FAA in the future to see if we can get our flight ceiling restored to at or near 400 feet – which was our previous limit.
We had elections for the Board of Directors in the end of November, and I would like to welcome the board members for 2020. Tony Blackhurst is again our President, stepping in as vice president is Steve Manganelli, Quan Nguyen carries over his duties as treasurer, Ken Dresser continues the secretary and as our monthly FUNFLY event coordinator, Jeff Struthers is new to the board as one of our members at large, Carl Cox continues as a member at large, and Eric Shapiro also continues as a member at large. As the previous President, I will continue as Chairman. Thanks to all of you for stepping up to help guide our club into 2020. George Sullivan is stepping away from the Board of Directors, but will continue on as our membership coordinator. Steve Belknap, of course, continues as our editor for SEFFSD newsletters and the manager for our website. A great big “THANK YOU” to all mentioned for stepping up instead of stepping back!
2020 membership is in progress. All 2019 club memberships expire At midnight on December 31. There are no exceptions. The date printed on the bottom of your membership cards denoted your AMA expiration date – not the club member expiration date. We do not pro-rate, and there are no 2-year memberships for SEFSD. George has designed and is printing the new 2020 badges. For those of you who don’t pick up your badge on badge day at the field, Jan 4th, you should receive them in the mail within the first couple weeks of January. Have you renewed yet? There’s no reason to wait! Once you have your AMA membership for 2020 you can renew your club membership at https://sefsd.azurewebsites.net/VerifyAma and 2019 members can purchase their tickets to the holiday banquet at https://sefsd.azurewebsites.net/EventTicket . As of this writing, there are about 30 seats remaining to the holiday banquet at the Harbor House at 6PM on Saturday, Jan 18th. I highly recommend you get your seats reserved, it will be a great event again this year with lots of raffle prizes and also- like last year, prizes for the ladies.
We have received a lot of rain over the last month and the field is in very fine condition. I really appreciate the members staying off of the field when it’s damp or muddy. Please continue with this trend, all will appreciate it! A couple things to mention from a safety standpoint since we seem to have past members who forget some basics, and new members coming in from other clubs. Unless taking off or landing, please keep your aircraft over the weeds at the far edge of the field. High speed passes do not belong over the fence! One small error and your aircraft is in somebody’s face or in somebody’s vehicle. If you know you are losing control of your aircraft you should be the first to speaking up, warning other pilots that you have an issue. A loud “ HEADS UP!” or “LOOK OUT!” could stop a potential visit to the emergency room. Also, please call out loudly announcing your take offs, landings, and anytime you step out of a gate or from the field onto the runway. We continue to have issues of members stepping out – without announcement – right in the path of aircraft that are landing or taking off. The pilots are concentrating on their aircrafts, it’s on you to call out – and just as important, to turn your head and LOOK to ensure it is safe. Let’s be safe!
Now is also a good time to take a look at your first aid gear and see if it’s still up to your expectation. While some items don’t have an expiration date, some do – and you don’t want to be in need of something that you can’t use. Maybe a look at your extinguishers is also justifiable?
Weather permitting, we will have badge day at the field on Saturday, January 4. This will be an opportunity to come to the field grab a slice of pizza and save the club some postage by collecting your badge in person. New members who need keys for the gate in the bathroom can purchase them at this time for our cost, which is three dollars apiece.
There will be some changes to the clubs monthly events for 2020. Popwing Racing has officially ended due to the non-availability of Popwings. There have been a few suggestions of other aircraft to use as alternates. However, our Popwing master (Thanks JIMMY) for the last several years is currently too busy to run the race series for the year… If you have an aircraft to suggest that is inexpensive and readily available *AND* you would like to take over as race master for the year, please bring your suggestions to Tony, Steve, or myself. The current height limitations are forcing us to modify the electro-glide event, however, It will continue on the 3rd Saturday monthly with a slightly different format. The F5B, F5D teams will also continue with a few modifications, and their 2020 schedule should be on the Calendar within a few weeks. Night flying is also currently on hold per our agreement with ATC at Lindburgh, but hopefully we can have that discussion and renew night operations shortly…
Mark Davis has been our hot dog master for the last year, and he has done an amazing job!! THANKS Mark! His work plan for this year has a lot more travel in it and we are looking for a volunteer to take over on fun fly days. It involved moving/taking custody of the club grill, and purchasing/bringing the supplies (Dogs, Buns, Condiments, Chips, and Beverages) You will be reimbursed by the club. Please let us know if you would like to help!
There is no event this month with so many on travel. Kenny is making the event calendar for 2020 now, If you want to suggest something new, let me know and I will pass it on.
Here’s to a Happy and Healthy New Year!!
Brad
