Yearly Archives: 2022

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all SEFSD members.  “Christmas is the season of joy, of gift-giving, and of families united.” “Peace on earth will come to stay when we live Christmas every day.”  “He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree.” “Like snowflakes, my Christmas memories gather and dance—each beautiful, unique, and gone too soon. “

This has been a great year for our club.  We did a lot this year in all the fun we have had.  I am looking forward to the T-28 races and our Electric Glide which follows the T-28 races the following weekend in our upcoming year.  Our monthly meetings have had a great turnout with members coming down to the field this past year.  I do look forward to the upcoming year and the fun will continue.  Thanks to Jim B, we will have a calendar with all the events happening in year 2023.

I would also like to remind everyone to renew your membership and most of all, don’t forget to get your tickets for the Banquet on Jan 13, 2023.

This will be a fun event that we have planned for our members, so be sure to get your tickets for they will sell out fast!  As it stands now, we have 55 tickets sold, so only 45 tickets remain, so better get them quick!  Remember our event at the Air and Space Museum starts at 6:00pm.  With your purchase of the ticket, you can enter the Museum anytime during the day and stay inside when the museum closes.  You just won’t be able to enter where we will have our party.  That opens at 6pm.   Also, when you sign in, make sure you get your photo taken by Frank at the Spirit of Saint Louis.   Our Catering will be done by Lisa Bender, and I think we all know how that is going to taste.  If you missed last year’s banquet, well all I can say is, don’t miss out on this years, you won’t be disappointed.

We have a lot to give away this year for both our wonderful better halves and for us pilots.  We have some really nice aircraft to give away.  Your ticket puts you in the running for a gift.  Our wives will have their own set of tickets and, thanks to Steve Manganelli’s wonderful wife, she has put together a great selection of goodies!   I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at our banquet on January 13, 2023.  Event starts at 6pm.

As a note to just remind everyone about a few items at the field.  We need to remember to lock the bathroom after every use.  I know some like to leave it unlock but let’s not do that.  Our last lock was lost including the hasp bar as well.  We also need to lock the gate when we are the last to leave the field.  This past year someone was locked in at the field and they literally cut the bar by the lock and were able to open and leave.  If you are the last one to leave, and you see someone else, please just go over to them and let them know that if they choose to stay, they will be locked in.  So just a friendly reminder to be courteous and advise them of the situation when you leave.  

I also have another item to talk about and that is calling out your intentions.  Taking off, Low flyby and Landings.  If you’re in the middle of the pits you just might hear someone at the west end calling, “take off”.  However, if you’re at the east end and someone is at the west end saying take off, it is very difficult to hear.  So please, gasp extra air and yell it out in a loud voice call out your intentions.   Thank You members

And last, I have a few Inspiring Christmas quotes for you all:

“My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others. Come to think of it, why do we have to wait for Christmas to do that?”

“Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.”

“I love the excitement, the childlike spirit of innocence, and just about everything that goes along with Christmas.”

“It’s true, Christmas can feel like a lot of work, particularly for mothers. But when you look back on all the Christmases in your life, you’ll find you’ve created family traditions and lasting memories. Those memories, good and bad, are really what help to keep a family together over the long haul.” 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 

Jovi

By Steve Manganelli

Well, never mind my November column reminiscing about the past year as your President: we have one more Newsletter to go! Short and sweet says Mr. Editor, the kind Mr. Belknap. Let me start off by thanking Larry Kosta for taking the action to divest the Club trailer. It is one thing to advise on how it should be done, but there are some complicated logistics tasks involved and Larry stepped up to the plate to do so. We should have the anticipated funds to offset some of the costs of the Winter Banquet which brings up my next topic.

Have you renewed your Club membership and purchased your tickets to the Grand Event, yet? Quan Nguyen did a great job enabling the Club Renewal along with the opportunity to purchase tickets to the banquet.  We’ve prepaid the Aerospace Museum and capped attendance at 100 guests. Since we have just over 300 members eligible and assuming every member could bring one guest, that’s 600 people eligible, so buy your tickets early (if you haven’t already) to ensure you don’t miss out! Jovi has already spilled the beans on the fabulous raffle aircraft and I can say the non-modeler guest prize array is shaping up nicely, thanks to Michelle Manganelli. The join/renew link was activated on December 1.  If you’re currently a member through December 31, your new badge with the new Gate/Potty combination will be printed and first available early in the year when we have “Badge Day”, likely the weekend of the 7^th and 8^th of January. Badge Day saves the club some $ on mailing; those not picked up on Badge Day will be mailed shortly thereafter.  The combination will be changed to the number on the new badges on January 14^th . New members will be mailed a 2023 badge when they join up.

Our really last flying event of the year was a T-28 race that took place last weekend, the 10^th of December.  Ten of us braved 65 degree temps, clear skies and virtually 0 wind to conquer the pylons, tough duty! The impetus for this event was a set of medals identified as “December” and “2022”, ergo we had to have another race to use them up. However, race master Mr. Neu forgot to bring them, but he did remember his airplane which he expertly piloted to 1^st place in Gold class. Silver winner was Alex Sutton and Bronze to relative newcomer Artie Means, well done Artie! Steve did remember the prizes for the goodie raffle and the medals will be awarded next time he sees the awardees.

Glen Merrit of the Weedwackers announced he was taking over race master duties at their field next year and we are all invited to join in their races. He will follow our format exactly and his races will be scheduled on a Saturday other than the 2^nd of the month so us racers can double up!  Watch for E-mail blasts announcing the dates.

Let’s go back to the subject of the Club Trailer. Paying to store things we’re probably never going to use again is waste of resources, but storing a few things we are likely to use is a different story. I have custody of a Gas powered back pack blower and a cordless back pack weed sprayer that belong to the Club. If field maintenance requires these things, let me know and I’ll arrange to get them out for you.  One final thing retrieved before the trailer goes to it’s new owner is a dry erase board having (to me anyway) a touching message pictured below. A little sleuthing suggested that “Sunday 5/16” must have been 2010, our last Mid-Winter Electrics, or “MWE Spring Fling” as I believed we called it toward the end. It’s a bit bittersweet that MWE didn’t go on, but at least I will “See you next year!” as your Treasurer.

Happy Thanksgiving SEFSD members.  I would like to say Thank You to the BOD for this past year.  Steve Manganelli was a great President for our Club.  He kept us all informed with all events and how the club was running and what we have planned as a club for the city of San Diego.  Thank You Steve!  Here’s the good news, Steve is going to be our Treasure for 2023.  Stepping in for President is going to be Brad Bender.  I want to welcome Brad back to the BOD and we all look forward as you guide us through 2023!   Thank you, Quan, being our VP for 2022 and he is going to continue as VP for 2023.   Allen, for his contribution in being our treasure (I hope Allen returns and comes to our banquet.) and Quan for stepping in, to take over the treasure for the last few months.  Ken Dresser for being our secretary when he was able to contribute.  Coming in for next year for secretary with be Eric Shapiro, thank you Eric to returning to the BOD!  Our Safety officer, Steve Neu, who kept us safe and for the T-28 races each month, and those races are fun, I do believe we’ll have a couple T-28’s at the banquet to give away….

Yes, I will be back as Chairman to guide us though the 2023, and I look forward to the fun we will have next year.

 Our members at Large for 2022 were Carl Cox with his contributions at the BOD meetings, Carl will be returning for 2023, Jeff Struthers, wow what I can I say about Jeff.  Jeff contributions this year and the many years before are greatly appreciated and we are sorry to say that Jeff is stepping down for the upcoming year.  However, Jeff will continue to host the Electroglide for 2023 which is a great event if you have not yet participated in.  Jeff Thank You and we hope to see you soon on the BOD once again!  Larry Kosta for our logo and shirts, hats, stickers, magnetic logo.  Thank You Larry, and we look forward to your continuing contribution to the club.   Hello Nick for joining as a member at large for the upcoming year.  Thank you for joining us!

We have many non-BOD members who have contributed in more ways than one can really Thank.   Jim Bonnardel, who took the task of being our Contest Director for the past year, great news is that, Jim will continue to do our monthly events for 2023.  Next year you will see all events on the calendar on our website, this way you can schedule your life around flying…. lol   Dennis Laberge, keeping our field in great shape, helping newcomers in flying. Always stepping up no matter what the task is, Dennis will be there, Thank You Dennis!  Mark Davis, bringing all that food and drinks, for our Monthly meetings, I tell you is not easy task to do, I have done it.  Thank You Mark. 

The last Thank You, goes out to each club member who are the ones who make our club, in coming out during the week or the weekends.  Joining our events, everyone contributes in many ways.  We have two moms who come out and have contribute to the club, Laura Thompson with her son Ty and Spring with her son Neil, matter of fact, both Ty and Neil are in the same class at Bishop…..

It is that time for renew of membership and starting Dec 1 or 2^nd, when Quan gets the renew button setup, you can renew for 2022 and most importantly, get your banquet tickets.  Event will be held at the Air and Space Museum in Balboa Park.  Cost:  Yes, we upped our dues for next year to $60.00.  Within this past year the cost of supporting our field has gone up.  Banquet tickets also increased in priced to $55.00 per person.   With the purchase of the banquet ticket, you can enter the Air and Space Museum anytime during the day and stay inside the building once it closes.  Our Banquet starts at, we’ll check in at about 5:45 and then get your picture taken by Frank Sutton, (Thank You Frank for your contribution with all the photos and videos you have created).  The event starts at 6:00pm, dinner is around 6:30 – 7:00 pm, and then it’s, give away prizes! Here is a list of prizes……

• Skynectic SXtarling 1230mm PNP
• Freewing Vulcan 4S
• Flightline P-51D Mustang 850mm
• Flightline Spitfire Mk.IX 1200mm
• Freewing Rebel V2 70mm
• FMS 800mm T-28 Trojan V2
• FMS 64mm EDF F-16 PNP
• FMS 64mm EDF F-18 PNP
• Gliders, work in process

And our Grand Prize:

AVIOS (PNF) King Twin 1700 Sports/Scale Executive Turboprop Airplane!!!

I cannot forget our better half’s that allow us to go fly our airplanes, that we will have some real nice items for our wives in which Steve Manganelli wife, who greatly is taking on this task.  Thank You so much for your contribution!  I have also created a video this past year (Who Started the Fire) and I look forward to sharing it all with you at the banquet.  100 tickets will be sold, so get yours as soon as you renew and don’t wait too long, for they will sell out!

As a last item to discuss is Thanksgiving:  It’s so easy to get caught up in our busy lives. These Thanksgiving quotes will help you feel appreciative anytime you need them.

• Thanksgiving is one of my favorite days of the year because it reminds us to give thanks and to count our blessings after each flight. Suddenly, so many things become so little when we realize how blessed and lucky we are to bring our planes home in one piece.
• I love Thanksgiving because it is a holiday centered around food, family, and airplanes, three things that are of utmost importance to me.
• Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for those perfect landings.
• Give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current airplane.

Happy Thanksgiving and be safe this coming Holiday Season!

Happy Flying!

Jovi

By Steve Manganelli

As the Newsletter year and my tenure as your President comes to a close, this needs be my “Thank You” edition. I’ve enjoyed R/C modeling virtually my whole adult life, but at the end of the day, the people I’ve shared it with and the places it has taken me, become more memorable than any particular model. I like to think the popularity of our Club is not just because we have the most central City location, least expensive dues and certainly the best Summer weather in San Diego, but that we all like hanging out with each other, sharing each other’s triumphs and commiserating with each other’s follies. We like learning things from each other between flights and getting first hand advice for our next model by searching the flightline for attractive models. In this context, I thank my fellow BOD members whose energy and enthusiasm sets the tone for the Silent Electric Flyers of San Diego, and makes the Club what it is.

The glue that keeps us together is this newsletter, the Club Calendar and a series of E-mail blasts that reminds us of events. All of those tools are the purview of our editor, Mr. Steve Belknap. Thank you for your service, kind Steve! Thanks to Jovi Murek for chairing the BOD to keep us on the straight and narrow, for procuring great raffle prizes for the banquet (hint : we have some awesome raffle prizes for the Winter Banquet, you won’t want to miss it!) and scoring/officiating T-28 Racing and the Monthly Fun Contests. Jovi also pitched in as Hot Dog lead when Mark Davis was unavailable. Thanks to Quan Nguyen for paying our bills, keeping our books straight as replacement treasurer and being in charge of club events as Vice President. Beyond simply paying our bills, he arranged and negotiated our expenses such as the outhouse rental, water truck and Dust Down procurement.  I’m going to try to fill Quan’s shoes next year, but it’s going to be tough!

Thanks go out to Steve Neu for keeping us safe, hosting BOD meetings at his home and running the T-28 Racing Series. I have it on good authority that the prizes from the post-race raffle come from his Neumotors business and the club may or may not get a bill;  it’s wholesale if we do! I Next want to thank Jeff Struthers whom provided valuable input to the Board of Directors and along with his Misses, conducted Electroglide throughout the year. Even better, Jeff is standing up to do it again next year; thank you kindly, Jeff! I want to recognize Larry Kosta whom along with BOD issue insights, used his business to provide a variety of graphic arts items to the Club at no cost. These include the Lindberg Field warning addendum to the main sign board, the “SEFSD Property” sign and stencil for the new chairs, numerous paper stickers with our new logo and the and Electroglide medal inserts. Larry’s professional graphic artist “Felix” is the one responsible for our new logo. Next, thanks to Carl Cox for reasoned input to BOD decisions and pylon judging for T-28 Racing. Lastly, thanks to Alan Issacs and Ken Dresser for doing what they could when available. Non-BOD members whom made great contributions to SEFSD include Dennis Laberge, Frank Sutton, Mark Davis, Randy Wyant and Jim Bonnardel. Dennis for his selfless field maintenance activities, Mark for his incredible home-made salsa and the rest of the hot dog roasts, Randy for surveilling our field for nefarious homeless encampments and lost airplanes, Frank for his expert photography and graphic arts and Jim for running the Club Fun Contests all year and maintaining the tables. Yes, it’s all those efforts that make us what we are and I appreciate it!

Military scale at the last Club Members Meeting in October  was a hoot! It took all year, but master of ceremonies Jim Bonnardel finally found a scoring rubric that us rocket scientists could handle using only half our brains : every other method tried seemed to need all our brains which apparently could not be mustered for these contests…”Ever watch a dog show on TV” says Jim? You just walk up and down the flightline, put the medal on your favorite airplane and declare it the winner! Quan and I had a lot of fun watching the show and coming to agreement on the winner, er “Best In Show” which I recall was a twin bomb dropper guided by Bob Simpson. The lack of paperwork to be second guessed was a bonus!

In closing please support our new President, Mr. Brad Bender, new Member at Large Nick Anton and new Secretary Eric Shapiro and the rest of the 2023 BOD (details contained in the November BOD Meeting Minutes elsewhere in this issue)  and of course, see  you at the Winter Banquet on January 13^th where there is at least one surprise awaiting one well deserving somebody, just saying.

Hello members and do we have a few things going on right now.  First, it is time for our change of guards, referring to our Board of Directors.   We invite any club members who would like to join our BOD.   We are accepting names for our upcoming election this November 12^th, I believe, this should be following Veterans Day which is on Friday.   We have the following positions if you would like to run for, they are President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasure, and Safety.   We also invite you as a “Member at Large” which you too would be joining our BOD meetings.   Food for thought, remember, this is YOUR club and if you would like to have a say in what it does, then join our BOD.   Thanks, you all!

Next on the list,

Renewal and Banquet……December marks that it’s our time to renew (membership had to go up $10.00 to $60.00 due to cost of living which has gone up on us too) your membership for 2023, and it might be time to renew AMA, before (unless you have a two year, four year or life time) you can renew your membership with SEFSD for 2023 and at the same time, get your banquet tickets!!!!!  This will be an exciting banquet at the Air and Space Museum in Balboa Park.  Your $55.00 gets you the following:  Entrance into the Air and Space Museum any time during the day and when it closes, you get to stay inside and continue to look all around.  At around 5:30 to 6:00pm we will start checking folks in and get your picture taken right at the “Spirit of St. Louis.”  Photos will be taken by Frank.  We will have drinks, just like last year, you buy your own drinks.   Food will once again be taken care of by Lisa, Brad’s wonderful wife.   We will have more of a menu later next month.   And yes, the club will have prizes, consisting of airplanes, chargers, and a few other goodies too.  Oh, how can I forget about Hats!!!!!  Ok, do not worry, I will not want to do that again……This year, Steve’s wife will gather the gifts for our better halves, giving Lisa a break on women’s prizes   Oh just one special note, The banquet is only for members of 2022.  If you happen to join as a new member before December, meaning remaining October and November, you get to come.  Join as a new member in December of 22 or 2023, you will not be eligible for 2022.

This will be our last Club meeting of the year, so make sure you come this weekend, we got Warbirds this weekend.  And I am sure Jim has something up his sleeve……We will want to thank Mark for handing our Hot Dogs and in preparing and getting them cooked up for us!  Thanks Mark!   Thank You Steve, for keeping our members up to date about the club and being our President for 2022, A Job well Done! 

How about our runway!!!!  Thanks to Quan (current VP, Steve M (current President) for placing down the “Dust Down” and Dennis for rolling the runway.  What a job that all three have done and Dennis, as always spending his time of over 7 hours rolling!  Thank you, Gentlemen!

Thank You Larry, I see the club’s Swag being worn by a lot of members and it is exciting to see.  I heard of some Tee shirts that will have our logo, so stay tuned for more news on that!

I am sorry that I have had no time to work on the DC-3 and my wife is telling me to get it done.  Guess I better get it off the kitchen table………It does look like I will have a week off from Christmas to the New Year, perfect for me to build and perhaps get the wings close to sheeting.  What can I say, but really, Work is fun!   But in the meantime, I look forward to seeing you all out this weekend at the field for we will have a fun filled day!

Thank You,

Jovi

We are down with Dustdown, finally!  The much anticipated process of solidifying the topmost later of our dirt to a respectable runway surface was finally completed last Friday. The real selfless sacrifice goes to Dennis Laberge who spent 7 hours on the roller getting the field just right after Quan and myself orchestrated the water truck disgorging! Thanks so much Dennis, your work is exemplary! For the record, Quan and I hucked (5) 5 gallons of Dustdown to the top of the water truck and poured it into the first 2,000 gallons of water and the 2^nd 2,000 gallons completes the mix. Proper spreading is an art perfected by Quan and duly instructed to <Ms. Water Truck Driver, neighbor of George Sullivan>. One pass only, so you have to go slow, else you would make ruts on a subsequent pass; the remaining water with the dust down shared between the parking lot and edge of the runway/pit area applied with a “water cannon”. 

Other than a lot of mosquitos and moving around a few chairs, Quan and I had it pretty easy compared with what Dennis endured. If you see Dennis on the field, you might want to thank him!

Any thoughts or differences of opinion as to how the Club should be run? You still have time to self nominate. Nominations and the nominal composition of the 2023 BOD  will be announced following November’s T-28 race which will be the last Club event of the year. Those continuing on the BOD are willing to shuffle around a bit to accommodate newbies. The “Member at Large” is a good place to get one’s feet wet. All you have to do is attend the BOD meetings on the nominally 2^nd Wednesday of the month participate in discussion and vote on the outcomes. The secretary position requires attending BOD meetings and taking minutes, not too hard either. Please think about it. Any questions about roles and responsibilities, please shoot me an E-mail.

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