Hey guys! Hope everyone is having a good month, and staying out of the heat when able.
To start, I would like to thank the people who were on site into the evening on Independence Day. You helped keep our site secure from unauthorized users, while having a front row view of the fireworks at Sea World. I heard it was a good show, though some people wished the breeze had blown the smoke the other way – but you can’t have it all.
I would like to thank Quan for negotiating with the city managers for added security for our site. Some of you may have noticed the double railroad ties now in place between S. Shores Dr. and our access road. While the more motivated trespassers still seem to get through, it is a start in the right direction. Just a reminder to all, please ensure that if you were the last member leaving the site, you’re required to close and lock the gate behind you. If there are nonmembers / or people you don’t recognize on site, let them know that you are locking the gate and ask them to depart. If people leave their cars and wander away, LOCK THEM IN! They will figure it out.
As mentioned last newsletter, some of our chairs have wandered away to various homeless encampments, and we could use a few more chairs on site. If you have some old lawn furniture lying around, we could really use it at the field – instead of sending them to the dump. On the same note – if you’ve had renovations to your house, Office, or general workspace and have old carpeting you’re trying to get rid of, you can bring it down to the site instead of paying waste management or Edco to dispose of it. We will roll it out in the pit area on top of several years of carpeting to keep us from standing directly in the dirt.
The outer field area is extremely dry and likely to get worse as we head into August. I appreciate that most of you have extinguishers on site for emergency use. If there is a particularly bad crash, I would like to see one or two people heading out with extinguishers – just in case. Before moving on from issues caused by heat, we have had a few members nearly overcome by dehydration and heat exhaustion in the past. Please bring plenty of fluids and portable shade to the field if you need it. One member mentioned recent bouts of skin cancer, please cover the sections you want to keep!
For the last couple weeks the BOD has been discussing alternate surfaces for the main runway. We have a little bit of money in our account, and once we have a plan I may toss the hat out in a fundraiser to see if we can raise the difference with donations. For the first time in my memory we have a Mission Bay administrator who seems openly agreeable to our requests for improvements. We are getting estimates on tons of material and are pretty surprised at the prices we are quoted for the actual installation. If any member has a friend or relative that works with heavy machinery and may be willing to give us a deal as we contract improvement work (with the approval of the city), please let our secretary, Eric Shapiro – or myself know.
As part of the FAA Reauthorization act of 2018, the FAA has finally issued their Recreational UAS Safety test (TRUST). All recreational flyers must pass this aeronautical knowledge and safety test and provide proof of test passage (the TRUST completion certificate issued upon completion) to the FAA or law enforcement upon request. While our club has no designated persons to verify that members have taken and passed this test, our governing/insuring organization ( AMA) has requested all members take the test ( and pass!) and keep their certificate with them while flying at any AMA site. The AMA is an approved TRUST test administrator and you can begin the process here: https://trust.modelaircraft.org/
Right now we have 315 club members and two or three joining every week. I want to thank everybody for welcoming new members, and being welcoming to people visiting our site with questions. I appreciate that folks are warm and willing to help people that show up with a plane and a dream. Remember though, that all persons lofting an aircraft into the air at our site are required to have AMA membership. They can NOT be covered under your membership unless you are designated by the AMA as an IP INSTRUCTOR. With AMA membership, a new pilot can get flight instruction prior to joining the club, but once they solo- they are required to join.
I would like a volunteer or two that would like to be designated as official flight trainers for our club. There has been a gap since Mr. Forrester left us. While a lot of people help out when asked ( Dennis, Randy, Brad A., and Dave come to mind), I would like someone officially willing to take ownership of the clubs training airplanes and buddy radios and also be willing to spend some time with new people getting them ready to solo. Please see myself or Jovi if this is you.
It looks like we may not be completely out of the pandemic woods as there are some virulent COVID variants starting to show up in Ca. Our hobby is still considered a safe outdoor activity. However, in efforts to not poke the bear, if you are not feeling 100% on a day you plan to fly- please feel free to practice social distancing by staying home for a couple of days.
It’s never too early to start soliciting for members interested in joining next years Board Of Directors in guiding our club through the perils of 2022. Nominations go out in September, with voting in November. A couple of you have recently expressed interest in joining. If you would like to attend a meeting or two to see what goes on, please let me know.
As we move to our 2nd in person monthly meeting at the field and Fun Fly event, I would like to thank our President, Jovi, for being FUNMASTER for the rest of the year by coordinating and running the events. Also, HOT DOG Lunch following the meeting will return this month, with a thanks to Jovi Murek, Mark Davis, and Carl Cox for doing the work.
This months event will be the POKER fly. Jovi may add a twist to keep it interesting, but any pilot that can safely control their plane should be able to compete for a total of $150.00 worth of Gift Certificates redeemable at Discount Hobby Warehouse.
Be safe and have a great month!
Brad
