We had another great holiday banquet this past Saturday! I saw a lot of you there and I know everybody had a great time. For those that missed it, I missed you! Banquet pictures should populate on the site within a couple of days. Dinner was outstanding as usual, the hospitality at the Harbor House was amazing, and the raffles were stellar! The ladies again appreciated the effort put forth to get raffle prizes more tailored towards them. Tony and I had a lot of fun presenting and holding the raffle itself. If you can manage it you should try to come next year.
Still no response from the FAA or Lindbergh Air traffic control about raising our altitude ceiling back to 400 feet. We continue to attempt contact, and Steve Manganelli is going to utilize his years of experience to attempt a dialog. Government bureaucracy at its finest! We are still better off than the Chula Vista club, which is currently shut down from flying RC airplanes until they work their letter of agreement with the Navy’s REAM field in imperial Beach. A couple of their members have joined our club over the last month, please continue to make them feel welcomed. I have put out the olive branch to their clubs electric flying members, and we will let them come fly at our field for a couple of weeks – as long as they have current AMA and one of our members explain the protocols involved with flying at our site… If it looks like their fight will be a long one, we will ask them to join our club.
Steve Neu is investigating a new airplane to use for our monthly race series which ended due to the non-availability of Popwings. He has also volunteered to be the race master for this year! Steve has an 800mm FMS trojan that he is using as a test mule, it is fairly inexpensive. If the trojan makes sense, and people are willing to buy them, we could have a race series starting again in March. More to follow.
This past weekend Jeff Struthers initiated the first Electroglide for 2020, and it seems to be a success! A 10 second motor run keeps the planes just below 200 feet. It’s a bit more of a challenge to add minutes to your flight time while starting out quite a bit lower! Thanks Jeff, and the glider4 pilots willing to try the event with the new format.
Our president, Tony Blackhurst, is going to take custody of our barbecue equipment for the year, and Carl Cox will be the hotdog master. Please say thank you to Mark Davis for doing it this past year when you have a chance!
Ken Dresser your fun Fly coordinator, has finalized the list of meeting day fun place for the year, and it should be on the website calendar shortly. He is bringing back some old favorites, as well as new challenges, it should be a lot of fun! This months event one of Kennys favorites, limbo. The event should start at 10:00 AM and conclude somewhere between 11 AM and 12 PM. Afterword we will have the monthly club meeting at the field and our hotdog lunch. Hope to see you there!
The pictures I’ve chosen for this month are some of our younger members, and I want to thank everybody who has been mentors to these individuals. They are the future! Some of them are flying better than some long-time members…
Brad