AMA News District VIII - 2010/03
The March winds should be blowing pretty hard while you read this. Flying time is just around the corner and swap meets are filling our shops with new (at least new to us) creations to use in our attempt to fool Mother Nature’s theory about gravitational pull.
Spring flying and preflight checks
Give yourself an above-average chance of success with thorough preflight inspections and a complete check of all of your ground-support systems, including:
- batteries
- chargers
- fueling systems
Introducing new members
I am writing this on Christmas Day between breakfast and the grandkids hitting the door to open presents. All four of them are getting electric helicopters of one kind or another.
What makes me write about this is that I want to make a New Year’s resolution and ask all of you to do the same. I want to introduce modeling to at least one new person every month. I just signed my 12-year-old granddaughter, Kinley, up for her AMA membership.
She tried to buddy box a few years ago but just didn’t have the motivation. This month, she has asked to go indoor flying with me twice and has soloed both an airplane and a helicopter. She has a smile on her face when she is flying and when she is asking me if she can go. What a thrill for both of us!
Kinley will be 13 before this prints and will soon discover other things in life that are truly more important than flying; however, I won’t forget these days and neither will she. If she loses interest, maybe she will come back at a later time in her life.
Events
I reviewed my various inputs over the year and here is a great event that I have missed for the last three years because of conflict with Executive Council meetings.
I plan to attend this year’s Heatwave in the Heartland in Tulsa unless something unforeseen comes up. Jack Rogers, president of the Tulsa Glue Dobbers, reported that the 2009 event attracted 89 pilots from 10 states and more than 3,000 spectators over its three-day duration. The club does a great job of advertising and attracting the public.
Jimmy Marshall, associate vice president for South Texas, reports the first Fall Airshow for the Tejas RC Association at the club’s New San Juan flying site was a great success. The club was recognized by the city fathers for having turned a rough-and-tumble landfill into an amazing and beautiful flying field for the community.
Have fun and fly safely. See you on the flightline.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
