Hey Guys and Gals,
I have a lot to put out this month so I hope I don’t put you to sleep before you get to the bottom!
First I need to state the status of our club as it relates to the FAA and Lindberg ATC. At the moment our field is in what is considered class B airspace. That means that there was no “automatic” permission granted for unrestricted model use up to 400 feet. The most recent direction from the AMA was to continue utilizing our site unless otherwise informed. Steve N., Quan, and Eric have been in contact with and received contact information for the lead air traffic controller and local FAA rep and have forwarded same to the AMA who will develop the Memorandum of Agreement which should give us full permission to continue on at our premier site. With this in progress I would like all members to review our club and AMA safety requirements and ensure we are all flying well within our posted safety guidelines. Please limit all flights to the prescribed maximum altitude of 400 Feet, and do not come closer than 25 feet ( 50 feet preferred ) to people or wildlife. Any time we are close to 400 feet a spotter should be used to watch for inbound full scale air traffic. All pilots need to get lower than 100 feet when there is ANY full scale activity in the area anywhere between Fiesta Island and the I-8 .
We have authorized the funds for replacement or the 3 worst tables at the flight line. The member doing the work ( Jim ) volunteers his time and has been very busy lately, so please exercise a bit of patience and do not actively increase the breakdown of the tables by picking away at them, smacking them with hard objects, or sitting on them. We may need another month or two to get them done.
As in years past, we will be having a “Member Only” event at the field on the 4th of July for you, family, and friends. All day long we will ask members to close the gate after you pass through. Don’t let people past you into the lot if they do not have current membership badges. If you have guests arriving later, please arrange to meet them at the gate to let them in, then lock the gate behind them as they pass through. It is a LOT easier to control the madness if we keep control of access all day. Usually we do an all day event with some of us coming early in the morning and staying for the fireworks. We will have lunch available for purchase on site, and I am asking for two or three volunteers to bring a couple of small gas grills later for those who want to bring and cook some dinner on site I am going to ask a board member to bring the clubs grill also. As a reminder, you are all grownups, but I am obligated to state that Mission Bay Park promotes an alcohol free/smoke free environment. The Sea World Fireworks generally go off right in front of us around 10:00 P.M., then as you exit the site afterwards – you go across Sea World drive at the light and turn left onto Old Sea World drive, it will take you a bit east to Friars road where you can make a quicker getaway. The lunch plan has been finalized, Quan has set up the same food truck that was on site last year to set up around 11:00AM and serve until the demand dies down. Leilani’s Food Truck will be on site to sell lunch tasty plates around 11:00 A.M and the menu will include choices of a Teriyaki plate, Kalua pork plate, Aloha plate, Kalua pork and teriyaki chicken, Teriyaki beef, and Ahi poke with vegetarian options available for Dave Gordon…. Sides will be Rice, Green salad, or Macaroni salad. Beverages will also be available for purchase at the truck, or bring your own. Around noon there will be a really great raffle purposed to raise funds for our end-of-year holiday banquet. The current prize line-up is valued at over $3500 dollars and includes some GREAT airplanes and large brushless outrunners donated by Steve Neu. Tickets for this raffle will be $1.00 each, and I will say that if the people that enjoyed the banquet last year each purchase 20 tickets, that will get us half way to funding next year’s event. There have been some ticket sales at the field, but for those of you that don’t make it down on the weekends, there have been blasts to your registered e-mail account with instructions on how to purchase tickets using either PayPal, credit cards, or checks by mail. Thanks George for managing raffle ticket sales this year!! [Tickets available in this newsletter, keep reading – Ed]
We are up to 308 members for the year. Not far from our total last year with 5 months left in 2019. Still, I was approached last weekend by a prior member who was flying wearing a 2018 badge who then asked for a gate key while claiming his badge had not expired because the AMA expiration date on the bottom had not arrived. For those that missed it, ALL 2018 memberships expired on December 31st no matter when your AMA membership expired. Club memberships are year to year, and do not include any portion of the following year – no matter when purchased.
I would like to thank the members that have been providing interesting submissions and articles to our editor, Steve for inclusion in our newsletter. Some really neat stuff has been popping up! Also, Here is another plug for members to start using the FOR SALE section of our web site. There has been some great items at reasonable prices posted, so if you are looking, please look here – you may find what you need. If you are selling, send your submission with a picture or two to our editor at editor@sefsd.org and he will post them. Thanks Steve!
We are still in need of chairs to get us through the rest of the year. If you recently replaced your lawn furniture, please think of bringing your used items down if it will still support rear ends. If you know someone getting their carpet replaced, we could also use the old carpet, and they would save the disposal fees ( no pad please! )
To close out, Saturday the 22nd will be our Fun Fly and club meeting at the field. This will be our second bomb drop of the year, A favorite that anyone who has Soloed can play, and sometimes there is excitement when the pilot watches the bomb instead of the plane. Shifting things up a bit, Jim will be buying a couple of 5 foot subway sandwiches for lunch, which will be served by Lisa and Mark after the meeting.
Hope to see you all at the meeting, AND on the 4th of July at the field!!
