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The Prez Sez
Hi Folks,
It's October,
and time to nominate your Club Officers for 2007. According to our
charter, we must nominate the proposed slate of Officers at the October
meeting, and then vote for those folks at the November meeting. The
proposed slate of Officers for 2007 is:
1. myself for
President and CEO
2. Pete Haring for
Vice President and COO (Chief Operating Officer)
3. Tom Campbell for
Secretary and CRO (Chief Recording Officer)
4. Tom Fenn for
Treasurer and CFO (Chief Financial Officer)
Please feel
free to nominate your own slate of candidates, if you choose to.
Please don't
forget the Foamy Fun Fly coming on the 11th of November; now is the time
to get your foamies and practice with them for the event. Just as a
recap, they are: pin point landing, rolling circle and obstacle course,
and a timed hover event. Mick is doing food, so come on out and make a
day of it.
For this
month's serious item I've chosen an article Dave Brown authored for us:
The flying field you save
may be your own
Dave Brown, AMA President
Lately, you
have probably realized that AMA has been encouraging clubs to get out
and do something with local park flyers. Many have asked, “What’s in it
for me?” This is a good question, and it’s one that can be easy to
answer, but hard to convince your club members is worthwhile.
Before proceeding, ask yourself if your club has enough political
influence in town to convince the political power structure to change
its mind after passing an ordinance that would prohibit you from flying
at your club field. Consider how long that process would take.
Those who have been involved in the local community may have
sufficient influence to preclude an ordinance from being passed in the
first place, but if this is the case, your club is probably in that 10%
that have their ducks in a row.
For the rest of us, having to deal with an ordinance that would
prohibit model-airplane flying within the county (city, township, etc.)
limits would be a challenge.
Some of our clubs wouldn’t even know that it was being proposed
before it was a done deal, and we would be faced with the very tough job
of getting it repealed.
Club visibility is the first way to avoid surprises, but is this
enough in today’s world? With park flyers flown in ball diamonds, soccer
fields, backyards, and even in parks, it’s just a matter of time before
someone does something “dumb” with one of these, and creates a reason
for the city fathers to think about some form of control for them.
Do the city fathers in your community know you well enough to draft
an ordinance that would prohibit park flyers without prohibiting
organized AMA club members? Further, do they even know we exist?
Obviously, while the answer to this in a few cases is yes, the
majority of us face an uphill battle if this scenario were to occur in
our areas. Ironically, the problem isn’t limited to just “them” causing
the problem.
In a few cases, our own members can create the problem by flying in
places which are inappropriate for model airplanes or which some in the
rest of the community will deem to be unreasonable. After all, these new
models can be flown just about anywhere, can’t they?
That is the loaded question. While these new models are capable of
being flown just about anywhere, whether they can be flown there is a
different question. An even more appropriate question is whether they
should be flown there.
There are a number of factors to consider before answering these
questions and there is more to think about than whether the model is
capable of being flown in that spot. For most club members, frequency
interference would be the first thought but does a new pilot with a park
flyer think of that first?
There is the question of pilot proficiency to think about. An
experienced pilot may be able to fly that park flyer in a typical park,
but someone with no previous experience probably won’t be able to keep
the aircraft within the confines of most parks until he or she has some
amount of experience.
Park flyers
are easier to fly than most “conventional” models, but the inexperienced
newcomer will still have the problem of the aircraft getting too far
away to handle—most likely downwind.
How many models crashing indiscriminately around town do you think it
will take to raise some eyebrows? What if one hurt another park patron?
How do we minimize the risks posed to our activity posed by the
sales of huge numbers of these models? The easiest way is to try to
bring the new fliers into the fold.
Try to convince them to join your club and fly at your field. If
your field is too far out in the wilderness to be attractive to them,
then get a group together and work toward creating an E-field or two in
town.
Work proactively with the local authorities to establish
appropriate places for park flyers to fly. I think you will find that
the local hobby shops will support those efforts.
You might find it fun and convenient to have a place to fly an
appropriate model on your lunch hour or after dinner when a trip to the
“regular” field isn’t practical.
Being proactive in addressing the potential situation will go far
to avoid that issue becoming a “problem” or even a “disaster” in the
future.
To steal an old saying: the flying field you save may be your own!
Think about it selfishly!
—Dave Brown
Until next
month, fly safe, but have fun!
Bill.
Club Meeting
The next
meeting of the MMRCC is scheduled for October 5, 2006 at 7:00 P.M. The
meeting will be held at the Northrop Grumman facility. Personnel are
required to sign-in and sign out for security purposes.
See you at the
meeting……………….Will
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