Aloha, club members. My wife and I had a great time on the Islands and it’s also good to be home! But the real fun was being able to sit in the captain seat of an Airbus A330 as you can see in the picture. Naturally after that I had my Mai Tai…….and enjoyed the flight! We have had some interesting weather of late, all which has been great for the field. The lightning was amazing and something we San Diegans don’t see that often…unlike back east. Then we got a good rain storm followed by some wind. The first storm caused us to miss out on our club meeting and Fun Fly “Bomb Drop”. However, hot dogs were served, (Thank You Mark and Carl) and they were enjoyable!
We will get back to the fun fly, but now some club news. I am happy to say that we will be having our annual gathering on January 15, so please mark your calendar. We will have up to 125 tickets available in the coming months. Entrance is $20.00 per person at the Edgewater Grill which is located in Seaport Village. This will be a fun event and we are going to make up for the lost year.
Our field looks pretty good these days. Thanks to Dennis for keeping the runway smooth and getting rid of any footprints that may damage the runway. And, as always, we are looking for more chairs, so if you have any old outdoor chairs please bring them to the field.
There are still times at the field when pilots don’t call out “takeoff”, “landing” or “low flyby”. Please, call out your intentions (projecting your voice) so that all pilots are able to hear you. From the west gate to the east gate, you must be heard! Thank You!
As we approach the end of year, the club will just be holding the T-28 races to finish out the series. As far as club meetings and Fun Fly events go, this month’s event and meeting will be the last one for the year. It’s Thanksgiving and Christmas and I am sure a lot of members will now be able to enjoy the holidays since COVID 19 hit us. I would also like to mention that this is the time of year that Board of Directors members are looking for new club members to join in the fun. I would like to run for President again and I also invite any members as well who would like to be President to run. Same goes with Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer and Safety Officer. If you are interested in any position, please advise any BOD of interest in becoming a BOD member.
Thank you all for keeping the gate closed and locked as you leave the field. Along with the new railroad ties that were installed, it looks like we are keeping the riffraff out. So, thank you club members.
We may have missed last month’s Fun Fly, but we’re not going to miss out this month. The Fun Fly for this month is “Bomb Drop – Squadron Style”. Each squadron has five pilots and your positioning is based on how you pick your ticket. Each ticket identifies what squadron you have chosen with a number listing your position. If you chose number 1 you are the lead pilot and the other pilots follow in the order they have chosen.
Two squadrons will be on the runway ready to go. The first squadron takes off, one pilot after the other. Continue to make final approach and each pilot will try to maintain some sort of controlled distance. When the first pilot drops his bomb, the next pilot drops his bomb and then the next and so on. When all five pilots land the next squadron takes off. The altitude for the bomb drop will be the height of the wind sock, no lower or you will lose points if you are below. Each pilot will have a spotter in helping to help them with flying, staying in formation and dropping the bomb. Each pilot must keep an eye on their aircraft and not watch where the bomb drops. A spotter will inform you of your drop. If a pilot does not watch his aircraft and it veers off to the pits, you could be disqualified from the event and we don’t want that. So, keep an eye out on your aircraft at ALL times! The pilots who comes closest to the center of the target advance on to the next round. Once the first round is completed, we move to the round of Squadron Leader. From this round we will determine who the true Squadron Leader is. Gift certificates are awarded based on how close the leading pilot comes to the target; the closer the better!
My last note is that you all should be receiving or have received the AMA voting ballot for District X. Please make sure you vote for the candidate that you like. So far we’ve had one candidate at our field, Greg Stone, and we look forward to meeting the other candidate(s) when they make an appearance. I do believe Mr. Stone will be down for our monthly meeting this weekend since he, like we, were rained out last month. So please make your vote count! Voting goes till November 12, 2021.
Thank you all and looking forward to seeing you all at the field!
Jovi
President, SEFSD 2021
