District II Report - 2009/11
Gary Fitch, District II Vice President
Email: [email protected] Region: New Jersey, New York, Europe
I have had a couple of members say they weren’t able to contact me by e-mail. Please check to make sure you have copied the correct e-mail address and not the AMA District II web site URL. Most importantly, please put “AMA Business” in the subject line. I receive a couple of hundred junk e-mails daily and this will alert me to your message.
New York Conference of Mayors — Saratoga Springs
I met with Associate Vice President (AVP) Eric Williams, Leader Members Reid Condon and Tom O’Brien, and AMA staff members Ben Flesher and Shawn Grubbs in Saratoga Springs, New York, at the New York Conference of Mayors.
AMA and I made a promise to the district to engage our politicians to promote model aviation, and this was an excellent start. Ben and Shawn brought the AMA booth and we had a flight simulator allowing interested parties a chance to fly. We even flew a Vapor above the displays and all over the hall, drawing a great deal of interest.
The outcome? It was a real hit! More than a dozen mayors told us they have underutilized parks and wanted to know how to get a flying site started. Now, all we need are interested pilots. AMA’s Park Pilot Club Program is a natural fit for these applications. Think about it.
A special thanks to Eric, Reid, and Tom for their many hours staffing the booth and preparing for this great event!
District II Fun Fly / STARS Rally
The weather could have been better, but the District II Fun Fly / Southern Tier Aero Radio Society (STARS) Rally drew 150 aircraft and 81 pilots. I attended along with other AMA officials and district leaders, including:
- AMA President Dave Mathewson
- District III Vice President Bob Brown
- AMA Executive Director Jim Cherry
- AVPs Frank Granelli, Eric Williams, and Bill Hauth
Twenty-four clubs from New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Canada were represented. There was a controlled flightline with six flight stations; each station had a STARS member with a radio headset, communicating with Randy Bittinger, the flightline boss, and the PA announcer Tad Manske, who did an outstanding job keeping the hundreds of spectators informed.
Everything from turbines to helicopters and foamies flew. I want to thank STARS CD and AMA District II RC Contest Coordinator Jim Goodemote for organizing this event, and thanks to the many STARS members for putting on a great show. I would also like to thank all of the pilots who traveled many miles to be there and put on a terrific rally for the spectators.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
