Welcome back Flyers!
As we finish our third week of being allowed back into our site, I want to thank all of you for your patience as we were negotiating with the city, county, and Park Services for approval to re-enter and resume operations at our field.
One major change is that we are now using a combination lock at the entry gate and on the Porta potty. Current members have received emails from the club with the combination, and new members will have the combination printed on the back of their membership card once it gets mailed out. The expectation will be to change the combination with yearly membership. The city’s new keyed lock on the gate will no longer open using the previous key – that key will no longer fit in the lock – please don’t attempt to force it in.
Last weekend we were able to allow access to our on-site porta potty. As you can imagine, three months of no use lead to a couple thousand earwigs and a couple of fat spiders taking up residence. I have sprayed bug barrier throughout and terminated all the spiders I could find, but it would be in your best interest to take a good look around before sitting down in there! Posted on the door and inside the bathroom itself are the cleaning requirements that will keep us in the good graces of county and Park services. In the bathroom is a 2 gallon liquid sprayer containing diluted disinfectant that is EPA approved. Please put a light spray on any areas you have touched before exiting.
Seen over the past few weekends while I’ve been on site, and from the feedback I have received from the weekday crew – The consensus is that we are not experiencing overcrowding or people having to wait their turn in the parking lot. I appreciate that everyone is sharing the site! As we move forward please remember there are still social distancing requirements In-place, including separating ourselves in the parking areas near the logs, on the tables, and at the flight line gates. Anytime we are within 6 feet of each other we should be wearing masks as currently required by state/county protocols.
For now we have not determined whether we are going to resume Club events in July, August, or September. Please pay attention to the email blasts from the club for updates. Right now Covid cases are on the rise again in San Diego county likely due to the protests that occurred around memorial day. If numbers continue to rise, we will do our part and hold off on the organized events for a couple more months. I have received member feedback that some are not receiving all of the mail blasts from the club. The solution is simple, contact the Editor editor@sefsd.org.
Recently a notification came from the FAA stating that all pilots that originally registered with the FAA with 2015 will require renewal of their FAA registration by December. There are a lot of sites out there that will process your registration for a fee between $15.00 and $50.00 – but that is not required if you go to the RIGHT site. It’s not too bad, begin by going to https://faadronezone.faa.gov/ and towards the bottom of the page you will see a line that will allow you to log in to your existing account. You may have to reset your password… Once logged in, you will see an option to renew. Check that you understand the safety guidelines and it will take you to the payment page. Before you pay, it will tell you that you will get a new registration number, but by using this process of logging in to my existing account before paying, it renewed my current registration number for three years – so I do not have to replace the numbers in any of my airplanes.
Usually we whoop it up pretty big at the club for Independence Day. Sadly, that is just not practical this year. Let’s just think of it as a normal use day. Seaworld has announced that there will not be fireworks, and the current agreements with the FAA and western division of Air Traffic Controllers prohibit flying recreational models between dusk and dawn. If we do a banquet fundraiser raffle this year, it will likely be on Labor day.
I heard of a lot of projects that were completed while we were in lockdown, I would appreciate if you share your projects with everyone! Share your repair/build experiences and make the newsletter more fun! [Please submit your articles to: Editor@sefsd.org]
Again, pay attention to emails from the club for any updates concerning Electroglide and Mini T-28 Racing.
It’s been great to see a lot of you, and I’m looking forward to meeting the new members!
Brad
Click the pic of Brad for an album of “Return to Flight!” pics from Frank Sutton.
