My Friend Chuck Grim

By Steve Manganelli

To most current members of SEFSD, Chuck was the guy in the cool red Tesla Model X. Few people know that Chuck is actually the founder of SEFSD! I don’t think Chuck flew in several years having battled cancer for most of the last 10; his health not sufficient to allow him to participate in our pastime. Chuck was always the quiet guy, tirelessly turning the cranks behind the scenes; never the loudmouth front man, always the selfless supporter. To me Chuck was both a friend and co-worker, we were both career Engineers at NAVAIR/North Island, him retiring about 2010 and myself in 2019.

Turning back the clock to about 1990, Chuck knew that Steve Neu and myself were experimenting with electric powered R/C models. Chuck suggested, “Why don’t you bring one to work and demonstrate it for us during lunch in the newly built park in Coronado”. Sounded like a plan to me, I brought a 7-cell racer I’d designed called the DC Tempest. That was (7) 1.2 Ah round cells, not 7S something or the other, more like 2S1200 but weighed more like 3S3300! With a crowd of other Engineers including Kurt Fowler, Lynn Heffern and of course Chuck eagerly looking on, the DC tempest was tossed and made that park seemed tiny. Talk about turn around maneuvers, that’s all I could do! Fortunately all of San Diego Bay was available to set up my landing approach nothing went wrong during a couple of minutes of loops and rolls; the Tempest settled into the grass without problems. The assembled crowd of Chuck’s fellow Engineers were suitably impressed. Chuck clearly thought there was a future in electric powered R/C.

Not too much later, I was hanging out in Chucks office when he said something like “Steve, this electric thing is clearly viable, what do you think about starting a new club in San Diego dedicated to electric propulsion?” “We would be strictly electric, no ICE would be allowed, and because we’re avowed to be quiet, finding a club field should be easy!” At that time, I was unaware that Chuck was dabbling in R/C modeling and was experimenting with E-power also. I said, “OK sounds like a plan”. We (probably he, because that was Chuck) ginned up a flyer announcing an introductory meeting, we set a date a few weeks in the future at some community center I don’t remember. We distributed these flyers to all the Hobby shops in town (there were 5 or 6 back then, sadly more than there are now). We were astonished that more than 30 people showed up and by the end of that meeting we agreed to form a club and collected $5 dues from each person present. Of course, as organizers of the group, myself and Chuck and probably Steve Neu were sitting at the head table pontificating over the assembled masses. When the dust cleared, Chuck managed to elect himself Treasurer or Secretary and myself as President! Pretty darn crafty for someone for which a club was his own idea! One topic of discussion is what we would name ourselves. “Prop Busters” or “Battery Burners” of San Diego certainly wouldn’t do. Chuck wanted us to have a more regal moniker. Chuck already had a name “Silent Electric Flyers of San Diego”, which was derived from Silent Electric Flyers of Long Island, an East Coast group whose exploits Chuck admired and I’m sure he hoped we’d eventually usurp.

Chuck, never the hero observed Steve Neu and others flying FAI-F5B and managed to get himself “appointed” as Team Manager for at least (3) bi-annual World Championship Teams. The Team Manager is the person whom gets to use his spare time, “spare” vacation time and money to organize a trip to Europe carrying huge model boxes, trying to get the AMA to pay for everything, find hotels, transportation and the penultimate achievement : participate in an International Team Managers meeting where minutia of rules are argued vainly in English, each TM trying to gain advantage for his home team. After that, you get to sit in the sun for a (2) day toy airplane contest followed by a (4) or (5) day toy airplane contest!

Between his and my retirements, Chuck and I were discussing work at North Island. After several organizational changes and reorganizations we both concluded that I in fact occupied the closest thing that remained to Chuck’s former position in charge of Aircraft Avionics Engineering which was a country mile from where we were when the club was started. Hmmm, how did Chuck manage to hand me down his old Federal job?

After excusing himself from shepherding any more US FAI-F5B World Championship Teams, Chuck took on the equally thankless task of leading the US FAI-F5 Team Selection Committee. This fun job involves developing and maintaining various Team Selection Program Plans, seeing to it that proper US World Championship Teams are fairly created via sanctioned competitive events and the winning Team Members names are dutifully conveyed to the AMA.

Sometime after Chuck’s health deteriorated, Steve Neu twisted my arm into taking on the task of US FAI-F5 Team Selection Program Manager…wait a minute this was Chuck’s job! Dang it Chuck, you did it to me again! And I wouldn’t have had it any other way. We’ll miss the selfless courage you used to fight illness for many years and your irreverent humor. Wishing you forever blue skies, light winds, perfect landings and batteries that always stay charged. Goodbye old friend.

Frank Sutton and family went out to see the Thunderbird fly over.  Click the pic below to see the entire gallery:

Here is a video of the T-Birds and the Blue Angels flying together:

Here is a video of a near mid-air of T-Birds:

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/33498/the-thunderbirds-had-a-little-scare-over-socal-with-one-f-16-executing-an-emergency-breakaway

For those of you who have maybe jumped up and down on your transmitter screaming bad words after a bad landing, or just knocked the TX off a table, there are a few sources to get replacement switches.  Thanks to Frank Sutton’s efforts to get replacement switches for Alex’s transmitter (knocked off a table) your search is made easy.  Here is where they got theirs:

Brad found some transmitter switches at Digikey:

The website is  www.digikey.com

The 3 position long round switch – usually flap:
https://www.digikey.com/products/en?keywords=360-3394-nd
The 3 position short round switch :
https://www.digikey.com/products/en?keywords=360-3393-nd
The 2 position long flat switch:
https://www.digikey.com/products/en?keywords=360-3388-nd

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) today announced the eight companies that will assist the Federal government in establishing requirements for future suppliers of Remote Identification (Remote ID). Remote ID will enable Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), commonly called drones, to provide identification and location information while operating in the nation’s airspace.

The FAA selected the following companies to develop technology requirements for future Remote ID UAS Service Suppliers (USS): Airbus, AirMap, Amazon, Intel, One Sky, Skyward, T-Mobile, and Wing. These companies were selected through a Request for Information process in December 2018.

“The FAA will be able to advance the safe integration of drones into our nation’s airspace from these technology companies’ knowledge and expertise on remote identification,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao.

This initial group will support the FAA in developing technology requirements for other companies to develop applications needed for Remote ID. The applications will provide drone identification and location information to safety and security authorities while in flight.

The technology is being developed simultaneously with the proposed Remote ID rule. Application requirements will be announced when the final rule is published. The FAA will then begin accepting applications for entities to become Remote ID suppliers. The FAA will provide updates when other entities can apply to become qualified Remote ID USS on FAA.gov.

Drones are a fast-growing segment of the transportation sector with nearly 1.5 million drones and 160,000 remote pilots now registered with the FAA. The agency’s ability to develop Remote ID technology simultaneously with the rule enables the FAA to continue to build on a UAS Traffic Management (UTM) system that has demonstrated global leadership through the small UAS rule and the implementation of the Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC), which automates the application and approval process for most UAS operators to obtain airspace authorizations.

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Remote ID Cohort Information

Thanks for the questions we received after yesterday’s press release on the Remote ID Cohort. To clarify, the Cohort is not part of the decision-making process for the proposed Remote ID rule final rule. The Cohort will help the FAA develop technology requirements for other companies to develop applications needed for Remote ID. The comment period on the Remote ID Notice of Proposed Rulemaking closed on March 2, 2020, and the FAA is reviewing the more than 53,000 comments.

If you are a member of the media, contact us at pressoffice@faa.gov and a public affairs specialist will respond.

If you are a drone operator with questions about Remote ID, or any other drone-related question, please email UAShelp@faa.gov or call 844-FLY-MY-UA.