The District IX scholarship fund has been in existence since last December. I am extremely pleased with your response to this effort, both as clubs and individuals. I must make note of one contribution I received shortly after the announcement went out. On December 20, this letter arrived from the treasurer of the 95th Street Group, Bill Alexander.
“In response to your email, I am responding as treasurer of the 95th Street Group in the Kansas City area. The club would like to donate $880 to the District IX Scholarship Fund in memory of our former president, Darrell Watts, who passed away last month.
“Darrell probably did as much or more than any other AMA member when it came to aeromodeling education, promotion, and public relations than I can think of, and this scholarship program would be right down his alley.”
This single donation is enough to ensure the Matt Carlson, our first scholarship recipient, will attend the 2015 Camp AMA. What a touching tribute to the memory of Darrell Watts.
We now have a scholarship committee in place to review and select other young district IX fliers who are worthy of our support.
Many other AMA districts have an annual membership meeting. This is a place to meet your AMA officials, ask questions, and give your input as to the direction your leadership should take.
For the first time, District IX will have such a membership meeting. In 2015, the meeting will take place in conjunction with the Grand Island Modelers’ RC Exposition and Fun-Fly held on June 19-21 in Grand Island, Nebraska. I encourage you to come and be part of this event and put in your “two cents” at the membership meeting. I will be there with all of the associate vice presidents (AVPs) and any other AMA officials I can muster.
From Nebraska AVP Ed Paasch:
“We are honoured to have the Grand Island event be named the District IX membership meeting. Many of you have attended in the past and know what great fun this long-standing event is. Turbines, helicopters, ultra-micros, Giant Scale—anything goes. Primitive camping spaces go quickly, so reserve now. For more information, go to: www.grandislandmodelers.com.”
I hope to have this general membership meeting move to various venues throughout the district. If you’d like to have the 2016 District IX membership meeting as part of your club’s event, please let me know.
Norm Berger, District IX webmaster and Colorado AVP, is a wizard with computers and electronics. He is also active in the Vintage R/C Society. Norm recently put both of these passions together in reengineering an old Kraft radio with up-to-date electronic innards.
Inside the transmitter is an adaptation of an Arduino microprocessor that controls the 2.4 GHz radio. If you Google “Arduino RC Transmitter,” you will find that there are many such designs. The one Norm used was prepared by Phil Green in the United Kingdom, who often contributes ideas to the Vintage R/C Society.
For more information, visit the Vintage R/C Society website at www.vintagercsociety.org or contact Norm directly.
Here in the heart of America, we have learned how to deal with long, cold winters. Many of us schedule a New Year’s Day event just to 1augh in the face of Mother Nature.
It has many names in many places throughout the district. There is the Frozen Finger Fly in Beresford, South Dakota; the Nitro Chili Burn in Fremont County, Colorado; and the one I have attended for many years with my home club, the Rapid City Propbusters’ Frost Your Buns. Hot comfort food is always the reward after the flying is done.
In South Dakota this January 1, sun, 6 inches of snow, and approximately 30° greeted the Rapid City and the Beresford group pictured here.
