District VIII Report - 2008/05
Flying is in full swing across the district. Nearly every club has scheduled or ongoing events and I receive daily invitations. Often I cannot accept because of multiple activities with more than 250 clubs in the district. Don’t let that deter you from issuing the invitation — I genuinely want to attend.
- When you invite me, please invite your local associate vice president at the same time.
- He may be able to attend if I can’t, and I can assure you he wants to attend events and will represent the AMA well.
Park Pilot Program (PPP)
As you are aware, AMA launched the Park Pilot Program (PPP) in January. It is intended to increase membership by helping new modelers who want to get into the hobby at the electric entry level. The real hope is that these new members will band together and form PPP clubs that will develop flying fields in municipal parks.
The Park Pilot magazine is very good and offers a number of tips as well as contacts for information and assistance. Although Park Pilot members’ personal liability insurance is reduced, it still includes the same coverage for property/land owners, so allowing them to fly at your established field is acceptable.
It is a club’s prerogative to deny or allow Park Pilots to fly. Park Pilot membership cards/licenses are a different color, so it should be fairly easy to determine who can fly what size airplane. I encourage you to stop and visit with anyone flying in a local schoolyard or park and give them a run-down on AMA and the Park Pilot Program. It just might lead to a valuable friendship and a new AMA member.
Tejas RC Association — Winter Rally of Giants
Tejas RC Association held the Winter Rally of Giants at the Weslaco, Texas, municipal airport February 29–March 2. The facility was closed to full-scale aircraft for all three days.
More than 1,500 spectators visited, and the hospitality of the hosts was superior. Airport manager George Garrett attended the event and the Saturday-night supper and promised to encourage the Airport Commission to support the event for years to come.
Club president Xavier Pruneda and his family prepared food for the concession stand all day and presented a superb rib-eye steak supper in the evening. Lieutenant Hector Galvan of the Civil Air Patrol brought at least 18 cadets who stayed nearly all day Saturday.
Volunteers and Survey
Please participate in the survey in Model Aviation or on the AMA website. The survey asks for information and volunteers to help with staff and committee activities. Our organization has a lot of free talent, and we plan to capitalize on it when and where we can.
Have fun and fly safely! See you on the flightline.
Jim.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
