Minutes From the June Meeting
Provided by Rich Hook:
We had the club meeting this evening, in attendance was:
Ken Wells, Linda Wells, Larry Staitiff, Jim Locke, Tim Wadding and Rich Hook
We talked about the contest and the upcoming picnic. Ken Wells will be contacting you on
details about the picnic. Please attach the following letter to the Newsletter and if you
would please get it out as soon as possible to let people know about and make plans for
the club picnic.
Rich
6/1/99
Letter to the Newspaper
Randy
I am Vice Presd of Balsa Busters, the Radio Control Model Airplane Club
serving this area. We are holding an event to introduce new comers to the sport/hobby of
radio controlled flight, at our Flying Field (located on the Smithtown Rd approximately 2
miles from Falls Creek) on Sat June 26, 1999 from Noon to 4:00 Pm. (Rain Day Sun 6/27/99).
Visitors age 12 and over will be able to experience flying a radio controlled airplane
with the aid of an experienced club instructor. The club will be supplying free hotdogs
and pop for all participants.
We would greatly appreciate an article promoting this event in the
Courier and Jeffersonian Democrat papers - Please contact me for additional information.
Several mths ago the Courier had a front page picture of one of our members and his plane
- This would be a good follow up. Thanks.
Larry Straitiff
Letter From Rich
THE FOLLOWING WAS COPIED FROM AN E-MAIL RICH SENT AND REPRESENTS HIS OPINION. THE
OPINIONS OF OTHER MEMBERS SHALL BE GIVEN EQUAL RESPECT
Where have all the flyers gone!
I don't mean for anyone to take this personally nor should anyone feel this is directed at
themselves or anyone else. I feel this is an over all consensus of the club and local
flyers.
I have been heavily involved in flying R/C since 1985 and have been competing since 1986.
I know this is not for everybody and probably not for most. I am not trying to get
everybody involved in competing in Fun Fly's or trying to get people to fly high
performance aircraft's. That is the wonderful thing about this hobby, you can go into many
different facets of the hobby. If you get tired of flying trainer aircraft's you can fly
Scale, Electric, Gliders, Quickie 500's, Ducted Fans, Pattern, IMAA, ½ A or even Float
planes and many more. This hobby is not boring and everybody has there own preferences. I
am not trying to change that nor would I want to.
In 1988 Jeff Brown, who I considered a good friend of mine, started having a competition
of his own on Memorial Day Weekend. There was no club or club field. He held the contest
at the old field in the DuBois Meadow. Contestants had to park on the road. He did not
charge anyone to get into the contest. He made his own trophies and bought his own prizes
to give out. He even put money in the trophies out of his own pocket. He did this in
return to all of the other fellow flyers because of all of the fellowship he received from
them. I had a lot of respect for Jeff for doing such a noble thing. I remember all of the
good times we had flying and competing with each other. Sometimes that was the only times
you got to see the other people in the local area that flew R/C. Jeff died about a year or
so after Bill Prothero died.
I decided then to continue the Memorial Fun Fly in there memory. I ran the contest on my
own after Jeff died, buying trophies and soliciting prizes. I found the enjoyment that
Jeff found by giving something back to the people. Not a year goes by that I don't think
about Jeff and the key people that helped teach me how to fly (Bill Prothero and John
Florio). To me it is an honor to continue doing the Memorial Weekend Fun Fly.
After the Balsa Buster's R/C Flying Club started up I thought I finally had a chance to
make this event what it always should have been. I thought I would have caring people that
would help and enjoy giving something back to the hobby. But I guess I am alone out there
with those thoughts.
With the turn out I have been getting from the club members and local flyers for our
contest, I can only assume that no one wants to be involved in the Fun Fly contest. Also
with the comments in the past and this year about the event not making any money and
contestants wrecking their planes, I realize that the club members are not wanting to get
involved. I do not believe the event should be about money and I have yet heard a
contestant complain about wrecking his airplane at our contest. We all wreck airplanes and
when you compete, you tend to push yourself beyond your limits. Our contest is one of the
firsts of the year in our area of the United States, which is one of the reasons there are
accidents at our contest. Most of the pilots are rusty from the winter lay over. But I
still, see far less accidents than I do at most of the Fun Fly's I go to.
If the club is not interested in having any part of the Fun Fly competitions, that is OK.
I guess I will now ask if I can use or Rent the field that weekend and I will go back to
doing it all myself, just like in the past. If you do not want me to even use the field,
that is OK also, I will find somewhere else to hold the event.
I continue to wonder why you want me as a President for your club if everyone is so down
on what I would like to see from the club.
Rich Hook
President
Balsa Buster's R/C Flying Club
Trivia Question...
What was the name of the presidential plane during Harry S. Truman's term in office?
Future Meetings
THE JULY MEETING WILL BE HELD TUESDAY, JULY 6 AT 7:00 AT THE CLUB FIELD.
Upcoming Events
Following is a list of upcoming events that I know about. If you know of any other
events that may be of interest to our club members, please let me know:
Club Picnic--June 26 & 27
Balsa Busters' IMAA Fun Fly--August 14 & 15
Club Flight Nights
REMINDER: Tuesday and Thursday evenings have been designated as the unofficial
"Club Flight Nights". This is a good chance to socialize with other club
members.
For sale
Goldberg Cub 76 inch span completely built. $65.00
Contact: Jim Miller jbmiller@key-net.net
Phone: 814-328-2229
Newsletter Editor
Harry (Abe) Miller
PO Box 61
Rockton, PA 15856
583-7546
e-mail: stinky1@penn.com
Trivia Answer...
Independence
BALSA BUSTERS
AMA 2390
DuBOIS, PA 15801