Tucson Shootout 2011 Report

Every competitor gets to visit the prize table in turn and 30 plus sponsors led by Desert Aircraft insure each pilot getting a prize of at least $300 value. The five days of TAS were marvelous in weather but more importantly in organization led by Dave Johnson’s Desert Aircraft team of Tony Russo, Steve Richardson, Brian Howard, Anna Woods, Bob Sadler (mouth of the South). Fred Midget from Higher Plane recorded the highlights which he offered for viewing with a Flight Pass. Many dedicated judges from across the country led by IMAC president Wayne Matthews came together with TIMPA,the host club, plus the aforementioned talent …..and then add to that nearly 70 happy, grateful, friendly Scale Precision (IMAC) contestants and you have the best Tucson Aerobatic Shootout I have ever been to….thanks everyone.

The SEFSD was represented by Dr. Ray Fulks flying Sportsman class for the second year in a row and improved his results to finish 10th out of 15 in that class. Tim Attaway finished 10th also in the Unlimited class and another member, Steve Nelson finished in 9th place in Unlimited. We had a terrific time at the TAS and look forward to the next one in 2012.

Tim

Please see the gallery of pictures here.

Published November 16, 2017

Brad’s Corner for Nov/Dec 2017

To begin, I would like to mention that we are moving this month’s meeting/board member voting from our usual fourth Saturday to Saturday the 18th to avoid conflict with Thanksgiving holiday travel. We will have the meeting/voting around noon with pizza provided by the club for attendees. Jim has sent out absentee ballots for those that cannot attend, please ensure that if you do vote absentee – you fill in your full name as it appears on your membership card. If we can’t verify that you are a member, your ballot will not be counted. No cemetery voters please…
Finally, it has cooled off a bit! It is crazy that we had to wait until November to get a break this year. Still waiting for some rain to smooth the field out and reduce the risk of fire at our site. We really haven’t had many fires this year, and I want to thank all of you for being careful and having your extinguishers ready as needed.
Jim and Dennis have started replacing the worst of the tables at the main runway. Please throw them a thank you for giving up a few flying days to work for us instead. They started with the worst four and will continue into next year as the existing tables give out. Not bad, we have nearly 4 years on tables we expected to last one.
A reminder on etiquette at the field, safety concerns, and just plain common sense: In the last 2 weeks I have observed folks walking out past the fence without letting other pilots know they were stepping out. Please call loudly, there were a few VERY near misses! Also, please look and verify no one is on approach before loudly announcing take-off and landing. Also judge the point at which you call your landings, calling too early can leave others stranded with low batteries waiting for a landing that should have been called thirty seconds later. Finally, after landing, if you taxi – please do so near the fence to reduce risk of others coming in after you.
One of our club members, Butch Bucciarelli, heard my call in September that we were looking for a venue to have our Holiday banquet in Jan. He came through for us in a big way, and our Banquet Committee ( Randy and Quan ) are finalizing the details. It sounds AMAZING! Plan for a blast to all 2017 members to come out in early December with all of the info. Details will not make the web page or be posted to Facebook ( Pictures will post AFTER the event) to avoid the party crashers/freeloaders as we experienced the last 2 years. If you are a member, and do not get the club e-mails, email your friendly editor and he will make sure you get yours: editor@sefsd.org

As I look over the newsletter for the last few months, I notice a great amount of content provided by members. Thank all of you that have hopped on board! Steve Belknap has been doing a great job of putting it all together for us, and it makes his life a bit easier if he does not have to search for all of the content himself. If you have a neat project, please share!
The Board has voted on and approved a small increase in membership dues starting 2018. Dues will go up to $50.00 a year when we start accepting 2018 applications next month. The club costs have been going up over the last few years and this will allow us to keep even. One exciting thing you will see next year is a new style of badge we will be issuing to take some of the load from the membership coordinator – THANKS GEORGE SULLIVAN! We failed to realize how much of a load we had put on Isabel as we took the club from two hundred to four hundred members. Thanks again to Paul and Isabel Guidice for the service to the club for the last seven years.
Please join us on Saturday for the meeting and vote. If you want to give back to the hobby you enjoy, I greatly encourage each of you to spend a bit of time on the board so we can all benefit from your ideas and experiences.
Have a great Thanksgiving, and please be safe. I think I saw a video on YouTube of Skip trying to deep fry a turkey. It was scary! I will be having ham now…
Brad