Minutes

Bell-Air R/C Flyers August Monthly Meeting

August 16 th, Club Field

E Board members present: Paul Baker – President, Mark Metge – Vice President, Renny Stefani – Treasurer, Jay Schoening – Safety Officer, Gene Tapparo – Field Marshall, Rory Cahill – Secretary and 25 faithfulls.

The meeting was called to order at 6:10pm and a sign-in sheet was passed out to the membership.

Doug Mellinger was introduced as a guest.

The reading of July’s minutes were read and approved.

There were no new communications to the club.

Renny gave the Treasurer’s report and the settlement of accounts report. The club did very well at the Warbirds over Whatcom fly-in from food, raffle tickets and the raffle plane which was won by member Clem Lottimer.

Paul gave the President’s report and asked Jerry Becker to give a re-cap of Warbirds and it’s workings. Jerry said that 16 businesses contributed to the success of the event. Great Planes donated some very nice prizes. Friday only took about 2 hours to set-up for Saturday’s event due to the high number of volunteers. Saturday morning work was minimal again with lots of members helping put out signs and Al Bass managing parking until the Civil Air Patrol arrived to run that part of the show. 59 Warbirds and over 100 planes were at the field for the two day event. In the future, a parking plan will be published in advance of events so people know where to park their campers and trailers to better utilize our parking space. Donna and Gene received trophies for their efforts in the concessions stand. Many thanks to the “raffle gang” and Mike “the mike” Miller to keep the entertainment going during Saturday’s events. Pat Belisle won best WW1 fighter, Jay Schoening and Jerry Mclean won best WW2 planes and bomb drop, Jeff Mullen won best military trainer. Jerry would like to form a committee this winter to make next year’s event even better.

Sunday a bus load of senior’s came out to the field to observe the flying; while there we had a visit from Homeland Security’s Blackhawk helicopter. They loved it and would like to make this a yearly event. Sunday’s clean-up went fast due to all of the volunteers.

George Eckhardt said that the filming done by TV station KVOS will be aired in the near future. He will be told when it will be aired and we will also receive several DVD’s of the program to be passed around. George said Joe Moser would like to come back again next year and the word about our event will go out even earlier!

Paul said that the club had purchased a $100 gift card from Bellis Fair Mall that had been presented to Louise Wilson to show our appreciation for her generous gift of her late husband’s planes and supplies to the club. She has been invited to the Salmon BBQ on Sunday the 29 th of August. This weekend (August 21 st ) the Heritage Air Museum was having a “Mustang-Mustang” show at the open house with Mustang cars and planes.

There was no Vice President’s report.

Jay gave the Safety Officer’s report: there were no major accidents and reminded members that spotters are required at all events in fact it is a very good idea to use a spotter anytime we fly. Jay reminded members that when landing remember that the road on the other side of the hedge is a lot higher than we think and in the event of a dead stick we might not make it (another reason to use a spotter to help keep the proper altitude). This winter, Jerry Mclean will put on a “building techniques” class. He also reminded members to follow the instruction book’s recommendations on glue choices when either building a kit plane or assembling an ARF; not all glues are equal! Know what woods to use where when making repairs, some don’t have very high shear strength.

Old Business: Renny said he had some inquiries about name tags and plans on putting together an order this fall. A plane had been donated to the club by Nick Miller but it needs some repairs, volunteers? There will be no mowing this week as it is not needed.

New Business: Marv Benson stated that Jets over Whidbey was on the same day as our Salmon BBQ August 28 th) and made a motion that we move our BBQ to the next day (29 th) same time – 1:00pm. There also was a fly-in in Lynden on the 28 th which several members wanted to take some of their planes to for static display. The motion was passed. Reminders of the change have been placed at the field. Jerry Mclean made a motion that the club use $100 dollars for food and prizes at the Pylon Races which will be on Saturday September 11 th from 10:00am to 4:00pm. The motion passed. Russ Haines asked if it would be possible order white hats to sell at events because they are cooler during very sunny days. We will see what the set-up fees will be and also a logo that will show up on white. The subject is on the table until next month. Donna made a motion that the price of food be raised from $4 for a “meal deal” to $5 at future events. The motion passed. Bill McCormick suggested that our obituary plaque have pictures of passed members included. The E-Board will discuss the possibility.

George Crum said it would be a good idea to have a canopy made for the top of the observation tower to be used in very hot weather like what we had. The club already has one but no one remembered where it was. It will be resurrected for future events.

Jerry Mclean said we need more flagpoles in the field to aid in finding lost airplanes. Ryan Barnes asked if the E-Board could look into buying a batch of “air alerts” that could be made available to members at a reduced price. This might be possible by ordering enough to get a reduced price.

The club raffle went to Bill Law (tachometer).

The meeting was adjourned at 7:00pm.

Respectfully submitted – Rory Cahill