Daily Archives: March 24, 2021

10 posts

Chairman’s Corner for Mar – Apr 2021

President's Corner

Spring is finally upon us! Longer days mean more flying. While we have managed to get a little bit more rain this month, forecasts predict a dry summer. Please take a few moments to ensure your safety equipment and fire extinguishers will be up to the task this year. As a reminder, the KIDDE fire extinguisher company has offered free replacement of their extinguishers that have a plastic vice metal head. Their contact info is on the extinguisher labels. We had failures involving the plastic heads last year. Scot watched his Heli go up after a battery failure – the damage would have been minimized had the on-site extinguisher ( plastic head ) operated properly.

I would like to WELCOME our editor, Steve Belknap, officially to the Board of Directors for SEFSD. He has long been a valuable member of the club as its webmaster and newsletter editor and now he has volunteered more of his time to help guide the club. THANK YOU Steve!!

As vaccinations continue to roll out in San Diego county. Life is beginning to see some normalcy. Who could have guessed last March that the year would have progressed as it did? While the infection rate is down, along with the associated fatalities, It’s still too soon to relax our posture on site. Please continue to wear your masks when you are within 6 feet of others, and take care of yourself and your family. If you don’t feel 100%, please stay home.

Membership is coming along well, with numbers at a pre-virus level. Please ensure you are visibly wearing your badges while on site, and don’t get upset if another member asks to see your badge if it isn’t visible. If you have not renewed yet, please complete the process, This year is only going to get better.

There have been quite a few instances lately of the gate being left open overnight. This has led to more trash being dumped in our parking lot, and more intelligent people doing burn outs in the lot. Remember, our agreement with the city includes locking the gate when the last member leaves to stop unauthorized use. There are many times when non-members are on site and the last member just leaves them there and the gate open potentially overnight. If you are nearly the last person on site, ask the others if they are members and inform them you are locking the gate – they will leave. If there are empty cars left in the lot, lock the gate – they will figure it out.

T-28 Racing is coming along great! If you have any interest, stop by before 10:00 am on April 10th and watch the fun. The FMS 800mm Trojans are inexpensive and provide a challenge while you go fast and turn left!  Not 100% yet, but we may resume electro-glide in May. More to come. As situations improve, I will resume the monthly meetings and fun fly’s, and eventually we may get back to enjoying hot dogs.

The Weed Whackers Swap Meet is on for April! Click <<HERE>> for info.

Have a great month!

Brad

T28 Racing Report for March 2021

T28 Contest Results

We had 9 pilots with planes come out for the March edition of the SEFSD T28 races. The three rounds of preliminary races went off without much drama or destruction. The results of the preliminary races provided the lineup for the finals races as follows:
Bronze:
Frank Gagliardi
Steve Manganelli
Tim Attaway
Silver:
Quan Nguyen
Brad Bender
Larry Kosta
Gold:
George Sullivan 
Alex Sutton
Steve Neu
The Bronze race provided a collision with the west pylon with Frank getting an unwelcome “pole position” followed a few laps later with Tim doing a what looked to be a landing at full racing speed on the runway going downwind——with little damage to the plane. Frank’s plane on the other hand had to go to the body shop for some repair work. After the cuts were tallied Steve Manganelli got the win in spite of having 2 cuts! I guess it helped that his two competitors managed to not finish the race.
Next up was the Silver group and while there was little drama the results again showed that NOT cutting is often the path to the winners circle! Quan managed two cuts and Brad got one also—but Larry Kosta had no cuts so while he was the tortoise speed wise he got the win!
The Gold race ended up in similar fashion to the Silver where the two front runners took themselves out of contention with Alex and Steve Neu both recording one cut each giving George the win. 
The medals were passed out to the winners in the three classes with the “better luck next time” award going to Tim for recording the most cuts for the day. Club sponsored prizes were given out to the helpers and pilots.
The next T28 race will be April 10th at 10am—be there!

Safety Corner for March 2021

Safety
We have had an influx of new fliers at SEFSD due to some issues at several nearby flying fields. One result is an uptick in helicopter operations. We do allow helicopter flying at both the “Rotorplex” and the main runway with some restrictions. People who want to do helicopter 3D aerobatics or extended hovering should do that at the Rotorplex. Helicopters are welcome at the main runway if they are flown in a manner that integrates their flight pattern into that of the fixed wing planes. This means no 3D flying or extended hovering practice  at the main runway area. 
Some of the new members may not be aware of our flight boundaries or altitude limitations. If you see someone flying outside our field boundaries please let direct them to our the field maps and rules posted on the rules board at center field.  Please be welcoming to the new members. 
Lately I have seen a few people taxiing their planes out of and into the pit area. This is against our field rules and can pose a hazard to nearby people—often we have young kids and pets visiting and they might not know the dangers of spinning propellers. Please don’t start your motor until you place the model at the gate and shut it down before bringing it into the pit area. 
That is all I have for this month—
Steve Neu

SEFSD BOD Minutes for March 2021

Meeting Minutes

3/10/2021

SEFSD Board of Directors Meeting Minutes

Quorum at 6:40 PM 3/10/2021, meeting convened.

In-person participants: Brad, Steve N., Quan, Steve M.
Online participants: Eric, Carl, Jovi, Jeff, Steve B. (1st meeting)*
Not present: Kenny

Eric keeping notes.
Meeting held at Steve N.’s home.

Brad: SD City Master Plan should be attended SEFSD (last meeting in March)
Are rollers available to take advantage of recent rains?

Steve M.: Ordered T-28 race series reward medals.

Steve N.: T-28 racing this weekend (3/13/2021)

Jovi: Club running smoothly.

Quan: Still awaiting city response about Rights of Entry.
264 members as of 3/10/2021
Bank balance sufficient and financials available to club members upon request.
Money market account nearly opened, awaiting second signer.

Eric: Meeting at bank for second signature.
We have two sets of prize checks ready when we resume contests in earnest.

Steve B.: Will send out T-28 racing schedule on website.

*Motion to make club Editor (Mr. Beklnap) a voting position.
*Non-elected position.
*Vote introduced, seconded and voted “aye” unanimously.

Next meeting date April 7, 2021.

Meeting adjourned at 7:54 PM 3/10/2021.

Eric Shapiro
SEFSD Secretary 2021

Treasurer’s Report for March 2021

General Interest
We have 264 members as of March 10th. The board finally opened a “high yield” money market checking account to put our reserve funds to use! Hooray! Although I must warn you the definition of “high yield” has changed quite a bit the last year, and it’s not that much. The club charter with the AMA has been renewed for 2021.
We rolled the field this month after the rain. Dennis LaBerge, who has been operating the roller for the last several years, is finally ready to pass on his knowledge to the next generation of groundskeepers. He showed Brad and I how to use the roller so we can take over the monotonous chore when he needs a break.

I’m happy to hear most of our older members have been fully vaccinated, and starting to return to the field. My dad was fully vaccinated as of last week, and I immediately took the opportunity to visit him so we can finish building my 89″ MXS-R together. He’s quite the handyman, and we used a vintage drill press frame that he mounted a hand drill to, complete with a variable drill speed controlled with a wall switch dimmer, and a switch to automatically turn on the drill when the press comes down. Worked like a charm for drilling the four holes in my 24″ Mejzlick prop.


Editor’s Safety Note:  In the above picture we see Quan’s Dad using a drill press to drill the 4mm bolt holes in a carbon prop.  Drilling carbon is not inherently more dangerous than drilling wood.  As with drilling anything, there is a chance the drill will become stuck and want to rotate the thing being drilled.  If this thing is a prop then you could have something with sharp edges spinning around.  That could cut you very badly.  Be extremely careful when drilling a carbon or wood prop.
MORE IMPORTANTLY, do not use a power drill of any kind to drill out any type of plastic prop!!!!  If you have tried this you will know that conventional drill bits love to bite into plastic and drive themselves completely through the prop in an instant.  The drill grabs hold of the prop and spins it with the power of the drill.  This is true wether you are using a drill press or a hand drill.  At a minimum the prop will be ruined.  If you are holding the prop with your hand you could be lacerated badly.  I have personal knowledge: years ago I tried drilling out an APC prop with my drill press.  The prop was in a 5 lb drill press vise (not attached to the table).  As soon as the spinning drill bit made contact with the plastic it screwed itself all the way through the prop hub and lifted the prop and vise to the top of the drill bit against the chuck.  Then it began to spin around.  Had my hand been in the way . . . I don’t want to think about it.  Lesson learned!

I found that opening a hole in a plastic prop is safer if you clamp the drill bit in a bench vise pointing straight up.  Then using your hands rotate the prop manually around the bit.  If the prop is sharp wrap it in tape.  This takes a while but it is safe and works very nicely. 

747 Shuttle Piggyback

General Interest

A quick “trip report” from the pilot of the 747 that flew the shuttle back to Florida after the Hubble repair flight. A humorous and interesting inside look at what it’s like to fly two aircraft at once.  (I have decided to adopt one of “Triple Nickel’s” phrases : “That was too close for MY laundry!”)

Well, it’s been 48 hours since I landed the 747 with the shuttle Atlantis on top and I am still buzzing from the experience. I have to say that my whole mind, body and soul went into the professional mode just before engine start in Mississippi, and stayed there, where it all needed to be, until well after the flight…in fact, I am not sure if it is all back to normal as I type this email. The experience was surreal. Seeing that “thing” on top of an already overly huge aircraft boggles my mind. The whole mission from takeoff to engine shutdown was unlike anything I had ever done. It was like a dream… someone else’s dream.

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