District II
Gary Fitch — District II Vice President
- Email: [email protected]
- Area: New Jersey, New York, Europe
I want to thank all of you for your vote of confidence and support in the District II vice president (VP) election. I look forward to working with you and being your representative on the AMA Executive Council.
The ninth annual Northeast Electric Aircraft Technology (NEAT) Fair was the venue where Dave Mathewson, AMA president, District III VP Bob Brown, and I had the honor of presenting Mr. Electric and Model Aviation Hall of Fame member Tom Hunt with one of AMA's highest awards: the Distinguished Service Award.
Tom, along with Bob Aberle, founded the NEAT Fair concept and, together with the Silent Electric Flyers of Long Island (SEFLI) as host club, are responsible for organizing the largest electric modeling event in the country. Congratulations, Tom, and thank you for all you do for model aviation!
I would like to thank Bob Aberle and Ray Juschkus for their help in scheduling the award presentation and the photos and content at the NEAT Fair.
Rick Ruijsink, of the Netherlands, received the Technical Achievement Award for his incredible tiny 3.07-gram ornithopter that includes an onboard micro TV camera. This tiny airplane flies well and broadcasts TV images back to the ground — an incredible achievement.
The Long Island Skyhawks, together with Roy Vaillancourt, sponsored the Scale Masters Qualifier in August 2008. For any scale buff this is a very interesting event to attend, especially for aspiring Top Gun contestants. One of the outstanding aircraft in this event was a Westland Wyvern, built and flown by David Wigley, which included a scale torpedo drop. The flying venue is a sod farm, a great place for these skilled pilots to compete.
At the invitation of Joe Ciraulo, I had a chance to meet a few of the Pine Barren Modelers of Barnegat Beach, New Jersey. The purpose was to get together and fly, and a couple of fellows did just that in 25-knot winds on a blustery October morning. The rest of us stood talking about flying fields and what can be done to secure them, and about AMA programs that benefit clubs.
On a sad note, Terry Terrenoire, associate vice president in Endicott, New York, notified me that longtime Aeroguidance Society member Bill Underkofler passed away on Halloween after a lengthy battle with Alzheimer's.
Until next month, keep 'em Three in the Green.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
