KENT RADIO AEROMODELERS, INC.
Minutes of the February 3, 2015 Meeting
Called to order at 7:02 pm by President Lee Frederickson
There were 17 Members present and one guest.
Jim Quinn, guest speaker for the evening, was also present.
A review of the Minutes of the January 6, 2015 meeting produced no additions, deletions, or changes.
Motion to approve by: George Orphan
Seconded by: Jim Heist
Vote: Carried
The Financial Report was presented by Dan McLaren. It was questioned if only having half of the regular members signed up by the beginning of February was normal. Unfortunately, the answer is yes. Emails, with renewal forms attached, will be sent out this month.
Motion to accept by: Dave Parrotte
Seconded by: Dave Kingma
Vote: Carried
Old Business
Lee Frederickson discussed the results of the two forms he emailed to all members asking for input:
– Sign up to assist at club events and projects had a number of responses but still had a number of openings available for members to volunteer their time to help out at the various events planned for the summer. After a little arm twisting, all activities are covered. That form is attached to these minutes. It is also posted on the web site so you can quickly review what and when the event is that you volunteered to help.
– The form that asked the opinion on the value of activities conducted by the club produced few responses. However, the general consensus of those that responded was to keep doing what we are doing except do not do the “Wild Wings” fund raiser.
Lee – reported that 10 members sent back his request for contact information
and financial pledges. (Total paid or pledged as of the meeting is $940) The bank is still open so please send you donation or pledge back to Lee soon.
Dan – DUES ARE DUE! Please pull a renewal form from the website and fill out and mail with check for $75 made out to KRAM to Dan McLaren, 1058 San Lucia SE, East Grand Rapids, Mi. 49506
Reminder emails with a renewal form attached will be sent during February. Members who have not renewed their membership by the March meeting will be dropped from the club roster.
New Business
Lee – coming events
Indoor flying: February 21, March 7 and 21, and April 18 at WMAA from 9:00 to 1:00
Chesaning swap meet – Sunday, Feb. 8 from 9am to 2pm – new location
New Lothrop Elementary School, 9387 Genesee Street, New Lothrop 48460
Saturday, February 21 from 9:00 to 1:00 pm – Skymasters RC Club. 455 Scripps Road, Lake Orion, Mi. 48360.
Future Club Events to get on the calendar:
Memorial Fly In June 15
Club Picnic July 25
Veterans Fly In September 12
Lee passed out a listing of all Flying Events in West Michigan this summer. It covers events at CARDS, Sky Hawks, Walter Field, Port City, KRAM, White Cloud, and Warped Wings.
Dan Osborn requested a date for this year’s TAG (AMA Take off and Grow) program. Final date selection will be announced at the next meeting.
Dave Kingma requested a count for chairs that he is to investigate buying to replace the chairs at the field. The answer was 30.
Mike Murphy requested that we have a serious discussion at the next meeting concerning the place of drones, quads, etc. at the flying field. He would like to address the issue before we start the flying season and have an issue. A motion was made, seconded, and carried to set aside 10 minutes to discuss the issue at the March meeting.
Jim Quinn, guest speaker for the evening, talked about “first person view”
Jim is an expert builder and always had a dream of being in the cockpit. First person satisfies that dream. Jim displayed two drones, a small quad copter with camera and a larger 6 motor number with a better camera, goggles, transmitter, etc. Jim noted that the flight capabilities far exceed the legal limits of model flight today. He says they big one can fly a mile high and continue to transmit on the down link on 5.8 kHz. Current AMA rules restrict modeling to 400 foot ceiling. As Jim and others noted, the rules are still in flux and the FAA is not making a distinction between quads and drones and model airplanes… More to follow on rules in the future. As Jim notes, you get what you pay for! You can get into the hobby for fifty bucks or you could go into business and spend $5000. Jim can be found at Hobby World if you have questions.
Lee notes that he has one and is spending time indoors trying to master flight beyond hover. He is getting there but has to concentrate to maintain orientation.
Guest Speaker: March speaker is Steve Barr on FPV – quads
April speaker is Evan Roelofs on Military Jet Aviation
??? lessons on better us of telecommunication
Dan noted a funding request from the USA F3P team requesting support for the upcoming Team trip to the 2015 World Championship in Pruzko, Poland on March 14 -21. Anyone wishing to contribute can get the address from Dan.
Dan noted the Lease was signed on 1/9/15 with Swiss Lane Dairy Farm, Inc. Good news this year – NO CORN. The field around us will be planted to wheat.
Dan – the 2015 Club Charter documentation has been mailed to AMA.
Dan Osborn asked if there is any interest in a late winter get together at Brann’s. A show of hands indicated enough interest to proceed. More to come.
Show and Tell
Jim Grant showed a Kaos that he rebuilt the fuselage after pulling the covering intending to just recover it. It was so oil soaked he just started over.
Dan McLaren showed the same plane. The kit was manufactured in December of 1995 and someone started it soon after but gave up. It was given to him a few years ago to finish. The wing was started, but very poorly. After much work to get the warps out, the plane was completed. We will fly them in formation in the spring.
The 50/50 for February of $8.00 was won by Ryan Gallagher.
The February attendance winner is Matt Slobe.
(Note – this was the last attendance drawing. The Pres. does not want to continue this activity at the meetings.)
Next meeting: March 3, 2015 at 7:00pm at West Michigan Aviation Academy
Meeting adjourned at ???
Motion by: Dave Kingma
Seconded by: Allen Simpson
Respectfully Submitted,
Dan McLaren
Secretary / Treasurer
Kent Radio Aeromodelers, Inc.
