Minutes

Bell Air Flyers April Monthly Meeting

April 20 th, 2009 7:00PM @ WECU, Ferndale

E-Board members in attendance: Paul Baker – President, Mark Metge – Vice President, Renny Stefani – Treasurer, Gerry Becker (stand in for Jay Schoening) – Safety Officer, Rory Cahill – Secretary and 35 members.

The meeting was brought to order at 7:05PM; a sign in sheet along with a “thank you” card for Bill Lee was passed around.

New guests Todd Brenner, Mike McMullen, Brad Reed and Kelly Nelson were welcomed.

The reading of March’s minutes were read and approved. We now have the charter in hand from AMA for 2009.

Introduced by Rory Cahill is the new “Spectacular Crash Of The Year Award”. Each year the trophy will be given to the most deserving pilot at December’s meeting. You can enter as often as you wish and the decision of the judges is final! There are 6 name tags to go on the trophy; the winner gets to keep the trophy until the following year.

The Treasurer’s report was given by Renny; we now have 80 paid up members to date. Details of the club’s financial status was given.

Paul gave the President’s Report – Thanks for the great attendance! Reminder of the silent auction to be held after the monthly meeting. Club members attended the Heritage Air Museum open house on the 18 th of April bringing several planes and the trainer that is to be raffled off at” Warbirds Over Whatcom”. Sale of tickets have been brisk. The Museum has agreed to furnish fly-bys at our major events when possible. The charter and insurance policy received from AMA covers Hoby Acres liability during events that are attended by the public; a separate rider is not required. Paul talked to the Lummi’ s about drainage problems at our field and adjoining fields. We were given permission to try to unplug the problem area. A work party including Paul and David Baker, Renny Stefani and Chris and Rory Cahill were able to get the water moving. It is going to be an ongoing problem keeping the drainage open considering the amount of junk in the ditches.

Reminder that Big Bird is June 6 th & 7 th and Warbirds and All Bird is August 1st & 2 nd; help will be needed to make these events a success. Paul talked to CAP about helping with traffic control, they are booked for Big Bird but should be available for Warbirds.

The 3 rd Thursday in May(21 st) will be pylon racing at the field starting at 6:00PM. At least 6 volunteers will be needed to put on the race. May’s meeting will be held at the field beginning at 6:00PM, hot dogs and chips will be served to members and guests. The E-Board is looking at printing business cards , we should be able to do this with available computer software.

Jeff Mullen stated that we seem to be having trouble identifying improvements that need to be made at the field. He feels we should start to build a reserve and look at long range planning. If we don’t have money, nothing will get done. This is a good time to talk to your E-Board with thoughts and ideas!

The Vice President’s report was given by Mark Metge, Donna Baker has volunteered to run the concession stand but lots of help will be needed, If you are interested, please call Mark. Brian Hamilton is the club’s PR person; he will help promote major events. Pat Eastman will again be the voice behind the horn at Big Bird.

The Safety Officer’s report was given by Gerry Becker; there are concerns about pilots taxiing behind the fence into the pits. All agreed that it is O.K. to taxi out to the runway but shut your plane off at the fence on the way in. Gerry told of a pilot that he observed in Canada that taxied into his own leg causing considerable damage. Smoking in the pits has been observed again, it is extremely dangerous especially with all of the planes that are powered by gasoline. Reminder, with the sunny weather due soon, use sun block and keep hydrated.

Two new members were introduced, Marv Benson and Bill Mitchell.

George Eckhart brought a beautiful WWI mono wing fighter called a “Pete-N-Polk” that he built from a Great Planes kit, powered by an O.S. 40 four stroke. The plane was painted as a French fighter, complete with machine guns and pilots.

Renny talked about the work party on April 25 th beginning at 10:00AM and described the items he hoped to accomplish. There will be no runway repairs on that day because of the volume of work. Jeff Mullen expressed concern about the number of taxiways that were to be installed on Saturday; he felt it would be better to only install two instead of four. Some felt that the grass acts as a brake and was safer when taxiing back towards the pits. A motion was made to ask Hoby Acres to hold off on construction of the taxiways until it could be decided whether it should be two or four taxiways. The motion went down with 15 NAYS and 12 YEAS. Construction will continue as scheduled. Those interested in name tags have payed Renny.

Meeting adjourned at 8:25PM; silent auction was conducted.

Respectfully submitted – Rory Cahill