May 2001 Issue. Editor/ Webmaster Randy Hawkins - email ffly98@aol.com [MY Comments in the brackets 1st amendment]

Upcoming Events:

June 23-SAT- Kids Spring Fling (Non-Sanctioned) 10am-4pm Annual King Peach Junior HLG and Rubber Free Flight event. Rain day June 24th. See Dave Zeigler for details. Field closed to other forms of flying.

July 15-SUN -Spring Fun Fly / Cookout / Combrat Fun Fly / SWAPSHOP (Non-Sanctioned) Open Club Family Fun, Grills start serving at 2pm. Flying All day.  Always a great time. Bring your trading stuff. The fine art of Combat flying will be held between 3pm and 4pm. Open to all to have a fun time. THIS is FUN try it. [ALWAYS A GREAT TIME]

Congratulations to Mike McGowan, he took 2nd place in 2 meter at the Florida Soaring Society Rabble Rally in Ocala this weekend.  22 fliers in the Expert division. Last Week.

Remember it's suppose to be fun!

There is no power nor provision in this club for Seniority!

This Club is OPEN to everyone!

Everyone Including the Officers and Staff has and OPEN Freedom of speech!

The Field is open to ALL types of RC Flying under AMA guidelines!

This Club Represents Good Family and Community support.

This Website is Copyrighted TO the Editor and WEBMASTER/OWNER!

The webmaster will publish in the best interests of all including Our Field Owner!

Have some fun - Randy Hawkins Editor/webmaster/site owner

PRESIDENT’S CORNER

I hope that a lot of you stayed around after last months meeting to watch the "night fly" that was held after the meeting was adjourned. Three of our club members had been trying some things out in preparation for a large "electric only" fun fly that will be held later this year in the state of New York.[NEAT FAIR] Randy Hawkins, Ernie & Clare Schlumberger had taken small batteries and attached them to light bulbs which were attached to parachutes, and once the aircraft reached an altitude that Randy was happy with, he released them. There were like 25 or so "fire flies" slowly floating down in the black sky, it was really pretty. I am sure they will make a big hit later this year at that event, great job!

A reminder that in July, we are going to have our club fun fly and cookout. Charles and I have been working on a "special menu" (and no Randy, it won’t be road kill) so I hope your planning on attending. If there are any events or things that you would like to see incorporated at the fun fly, please let us know (remember I will put you in charge of the idea!). Also, this is a family event, key word is family, please make every attempt to get your group there.

I don’t normally do this, but I am going to make an exception this time because I feel very strongly what is going on (by a few) is not right and not in the best interest of the club as a whole. Recently a couple of club members have been taken it upon themselves to speak out in what I would characterize as "bashing" of the club. They have said we are a second rate club, poor facilities, and an embarrassment to the field owner. They have stated that I should go and "impress upon the field owner" that we investigate the possibility of purchasing or establishing a long term lease. (This we did and is covered elsewhere in this news letter by Tom Huckaby). They have stated that we as a club have made no improvements to our facility, and we should not be carrying the monetary balance in our treasury we do since we are "nonprofit organization". I don’t know where they have been recently, but there have been many improvements made in our field. One member has given Randy Hawkins [I be the Editor] a letter he drafted and wishes to have published in this newsletter. I can only assume he didn’t think it would be, because now I understand it has been sent to the club as a whole, it is included in this newsletter.[Was too late for April] Our club is made up primarily of flyers who are beginners, intermediate sport flyers, and electric flyers of all types. This past weekend I made a point to ask those visiting from other clubs (during our King Peach Sailplane Event) how they were structured and how much of a treasury balance they maintained (if they were willing to give this information). All clubs were set up as "nonprofit" just as we are, most were in the 35 to 65 membership range, and all had anywhere from $3,500.00 to$8,500.00 in their coffers.[The same for the other LOCAL area clubs] All were very impressed by our facility and our organization. Our membership is in excess of 150 members and the club is meeting the needs of the group very well. His letter ended with a statement that he did not mean to offend anyone, but as you can probably tell he has offended some. I will end mine with pretty much the same, but I truly mean it when I say if I was that unhappy with this organization, I would be looking elsewhere to fly or maybe at starting my own club where I could mold the club in a manner that I felt like was fitting for the types of members that the club was comprised of. This is what the leadership members you nominated have done and will continue to do with no apologies to anyone.

Tommy Vinci - Club President

VP Corner- Tom Huckaby

During the discussion  of new business in the February meeting, the matter of field improvements was tabled until President Tommy Vinci and Tom Huckaby V.P. could "discuss our options on securing our field " with the property owners.It was the feeling of the membership that this information was vital to future decisions  that would be made with respect to site improvements. On March 7, I sent an email to Bubba's secretary requesting an audience "with the appropriate people" to explore the possibility of purchasing the property we are presently allowed to use as a model flying field."I received
a reply that same day advising that Bubba had gone for the day but the message would be given to him the next day. About a week later I received a message stating that the email had been shared with Bubba but he had not had time to discuss it with his Dad and that Bubba and his Dad would be out of the country for two weeks.  It would be mid April before it could be
discussed. On 4/23/01 since I had not received any additional information I sent an email asking if the matter had been discussed and had any decision been made.I received a reply the same day stating that it had not been discussed but it was on Bubba's agenda again.  On 5/2/01 I received the following message:"Bubba had a chance to speak with Truett yesterday about
this and he is not in favor of selling the property." I acknowledged the receipt of the message and expressed our thanks for their consideration. In the April meeting the membership was informed of our efforts to do what the Club had directed us to do but we had no answer at that time.As you can see we were busy but it just took time to get an answer. It may be good thing
for us that the owners don't want to sell the property but I really don't know. In any event we have secured the information requested in the February meeting. ...Huck

Mike McGowan  AMA Contest Director

The contestants paid a high price for every event but the return on investment because of this club’s membership and officers made it worth their while. Special recognition must go to Randy Hawkins, Ernie and Clare Schlumberger, Charles Perkins, Andy Anderson and Mike McGowan for their efforts, time and personal sacrifice. But most of all, Tommy Vinci must be recognized for not only his efforts but also his support, organization, discipline and willingness to encourage those who can make a positive contribution to the hobby. Without his leadership, this club, this event, and this hobby would not be here today!

Meeting Minutes for April 26, 2001 by Ernie Schlumberger

I'm printing this letter from [NON Club Member - Good Guy Mac Hodges] for your enjoyment.

Greetings From Hodges Hobbies;

The  2001 Joe Nall Fly-In is history and so is the B-29. It met its demise at the beginning of the first roll on the first flight Friday. I had dropped the X-1 on a successful flight, climbed up, spun down, recovered, leveled out, turned parallel with the runway, powered up, and when I gave right aileron to initiate a roll, the left wing folded at a point about 5 feet in from the left tip. It broke at the end of the plug in wing tubes in an area with no spar  support, only the foam and sheeting giving support. And  the sheeting had very little adhesion to the foam anymore. It was also a very windy and gusty day that might have contributed to the failure. The B-29 was built in 1983 by Larry Horbacz from Brunswick, Georgia. Larry died in 1989
having never seen the B-29 take to the air. Larry was a prolific builder of giant scale airplanes but didn't fly. I met Larry about 1980 when he showed up at a fly-in with all   these big planes and didn't know how to fly them. Someone pointed him in my direction and I was more than happy to do the test flight honors. The flights were successful and we became good  friends, meeting at fly-ins all over the area with him building new birds and me flying them. He built the 29 in 1983 from Bob
Campbell plans and cores after Bob had built one for the movie "The Right Stuff". Larry was on a tight budget and pieces and parts came slowly for the big 29. By the time he got close to having it ready, a 100 lb. weight limit was imposed and the 29 was about 120 lbs. so he kind of put it aside. He developed lukemia and died in 1989 at the age of 51. His parents wanted me
to have the 29 and I told them I would get it flying as a tribute to Larry. And that I did. The first flight was in April of 1991 at my annual fly-in at Hodges Hobbies. His parents and brother were here and there were plenty of tears during that first flight. The first flight was very successful. Just a few passes around the field keeping the gear extended. The second flight was
in 1992 at the same fly-in. This time I had sent the gear off and had it worked on in order to make it operable. Well, on the second flight, one gear leg fell off, an engine or two started sagging, and things started going downhill in a hurry. I retracted the gear and made it back to the edge of a plowed field. The crash landing knocked one of the engine nacelles off. We repaired the damage and I sent the gear to someone else to rebuild. In 1993 we flew it successfully and took it around to a few fly-ins but didn't go too many places because it didn't have the AMA certification for a 55 to 100 lb. airplane. Don Lowe said I ought to go ahead and get it certified so I could be legal with it. But to do that it had to loose some weight. I swapped the American 70 engines ( 4.2 Homelites ) for Quadra 42s and lost about 12 lbs. The rest of the weight was lost by making new outer wing
panels and stabs with lighter foam, lighter sheeting, and using Monokote instead of glass and paint. So in 1994 we hit the road with it and had flown it approximately 225 flights at 33 different sights. A remarkable record! I never thought it would have lasted anywhere near this long. We added the X-1 about 5 years ago after my flying buddy Dan Stevens came up with the idea
and built a model to the same scale as the B-29. It was a big success and got the biggest applause of any act at a fly-in including the B-29. By the way, Dan's looking for a ride now if you know of a 29 out there. Will we build another? Time will tell I suppose. I always said I would move on when it happened and wouldn't build another one but so many people have
encouraged me to consider it that I might. Something about my "trademark". Like I said, time will tell.

This Saturday, May 26, the Albany Club is hosting a fly-in at their new field just east of Leesburg on Hwy. 32. They have a great field and the fly-in will be a good one. ( As good as a fly-in can be without a B-29 )

June 9 the Dixie Aeromasters are sponsoring two events: A Southern Scale Warbird Fly-in at their field near Byron and a model fly-in in conjunction with a full size airshow at the Thomaston airport.

June 23 there will be a Quickie Race at Hodges Hobbies. It has been a while
so everyone should be anxious and ready.

Plan on a Tiger Stick Contest June 30. It's also been a while since we've had a stick contest so we are looking for a good turnout for that also.

Hope to see you at some of these events, Mac

Looking back over the past 13 years or so, I can’t remember a time when our club hasn’t had a surplus of money in its treasury. With that in mind, I have to ask myself the question, why? How much do we need to have? What is the money intended for? When will it be used, and if not, how many years are we going to carry this surplus into the future?

I agree that we might need to carry a few dollars in case of an emergency. But how much? The only scenarios I could imagine are moving the field location, or repairing say, the shed in case of damage or the like. It certainly won’t cost us much to move the field. Any repair in the worst instance, would have to cost less than a $1000.00. Field improvements? That in the past has come out of the budget, and yet our surplus is still there. At the past meetings, I have seen that the members do not want to make any more improvements to the field. They claim, "We don’t have a lease" or something to that effect. We are donating the same amount of money ($2500.00) to Truitt [LAST NAME RMOVED BY EDITOR], as we would have if we had a lease on the place. And I might add, we don’t even have the protection that a lease would provide. Now don’t get me wrong, I appreciate what Mr.[LAST NAME RMOVED BY EDITOR]  has done for us, I am only trying to open your eyes to another viewpoint. Lets look at a lease. What real protection does it really provide us unless it is a long-term lease? None. And, most leases have some loophole of sorts in the landlord’s favor so he can sell the land if he wants to. For those of you, who are long-time members, let me remind you that we had a lease on Quarters Rd., but they sold the land and where are we now? If your looking for a sure thing, you had better own the land! We have had for the past four years, an average surplus of $7,926.64. This of course includes the Dean Witter account and the CD. And at our current rate, we will have this surplus, and even more in the future. We have in fact, by the virtue of a dues increase, seen to it that this sum would not decline, but probably grow in the coming years. To prove this, look at the Dean Witter account. In 1997, starting with $2,445.75 in the account, it has grown to be $2,820.81 as of 12/00. The CD in 1997, starting with $2,587.41, has grown to the sum of $2,940.13 as of 4/00. We have increased our reserves by the total of $727.78 without even factoring in the increase in revenue by increasing the membership.

If we think about it, our current budget supports us for the most part, whether or not we are one hundred members or one hundred and fifty. With the current way of thinking, the members, both old and new, are not receiving any benefit of this surplus, nor will they, unless this money is used in one way or another. Now how could it be used? It could be used for improvements without a dues increase, a dues reduction until we reduce the surplus by a decided upon amount, and at that time the dues would be increased just enough to cover the budget. The Christmas Party could be paid for in its entirety a few times, etc. There are probably a great many other ways to achieve this if we would just put our minds to it, but doing nothing is costing the members money. And lets face it. Whose money is it in the first place? In looking back the past five years, this club could have actually had an improved runway for our use, with or without a "lease". And, given the circumstances, could probably be using it for many years to come.

Instead we sit on our "reserves", running around like "Chicken Little", yelling that the "sky is falling!" and doing absolutely nothing to put us in a better position.

There are many ways we can raise money if we need it. In the past we have had the "Toys for Tots" fundraiser, which recently became a fundraiser for Truitt [LAST NAME RMOVED BY EDITOR] children’s home. We have had contests and shows. Some raised money and some did not. But if we set our minds to it I’m sure we could come up with something that will raise money if we need it. And if all else fails, there is the ever famous, the last resort, and the unthinkable individual assessment program.

Let me apologize to anybody who might take offense to this editorial. It is not my intention to offend anyone for the way he or she might view this issue. It is my intention however, to have us question the reasons as to why we have this surplus in the first place. After all, we are supposed to be a non-profit organization aren’t we?

Josh Thorner