- August 31, 2013 - On a cloudy late August Saturday, following a few weeks of very active Club business and a special request from the Club President for increased attendance, the following members attended the regularly scheduled business meeting: President ~ Vic Echevarria, Acting Vice-President ~ Ron Hargrove, Sec. ~ J.R. Murphy, WebMaster ~ Andy Ripple, Safety Officer Larry Pryzborowski, Events Host ~ Julian Pugh, Jim Brooks, Ricky Hambrick, Tim Bigley, Jake Bigley, Lee Strimmel, Steven Poretz, Richard Rousseau, Dave Skrine, Gregory Wright, Norman Morton, Charles Trott, Bart Webster, Joe Brett, Richard Sykes, Jay Andrews, Dee McKnight, David Mitchell, Ed Moore, Chad Sheppard, Dave Sweet, Curtis Miller, and Davy Holcomb.
Vic called the meeting to order and thanked the attendees for their presence. He began the meeting with a review of the incident wherein one of our RC models immediately following takeoff - escaped normal control as it departed our flying field, dropped low over players and then landed on one of the Red Hawk Baseball Complex fields during one of their ball games coming to rest in the protective netting of one of the fields.
During the meetings that followed with our officers and the leadership of the Henry County Parks and Recreations Department, our officers came face to face with the fact that the privilege of flying on our flying field might be in serious jeopardy. As these meetings continued, it became apparent that the Parks and Recreation leadership was willing to work with the Club as long as the club could find a way to increase the separation between the ball diamonds and our flight operations on days wherein ball games were scheduled on the Red Hawk Baseball Complex diamonds.
In an effort to provide for continued flight operations at the flying field, we immediately moved our southern flight boundary from the tree-line on the north end of the ball diamonds to the fence line common to our access gate. We installed four 20 foot poles with streamers attached to the top to the gate fence line poles to provide a visible signal of the new southern boundary to pilots. This action provided roughly 220 yards of separation between the southern boundary of our flight pattern and the ball diamonds.
We began flight operations on Tuesdays and Thursdays to test these operating limitations to see what actual effect these new limitations had on our flight pattern. It quickly became evident that our biggest problem was the fact that the paved runway damage was our main limiting factor. When the paved runway began to sink, pilots just moved their initial take-off positions to the south end of the paved runway damage thereby relocating the flight pattern significantly south of the normal pattern and basically much closer to the baseball diamonds. It was thereby obvious to the Club leadership that if we were to have any chance of anything resembling normal flight operations from the field - the paved runway must be repaired.
The Club leadership had presented this situation to the Henry County Parks and Recreation Department leadership early this year and the DOT leadership came out and inspected the runway damage. However, no action was ever taken to help resolve this situation at this time. It was our understanding that budget restraints prevented any action on our request. Any person in a leadership positions understands the restraints imposed by budget limitations.
As sometimes happens, an unfortunate incident spawns a new line of thinking and so it was in this relationship between the baseball complex and the flying field following the crashlanding of one of our model airplanes onto the occupied baseball diamond. Presently the Henry County DOT is well along with the repair of the 60 foot damaged area of the paved runway and anticipates completion of the repair in mid-week following Labor Day. We are very excited and appreciative of Henry County’s willingness to make all this happen.
It therefore, becomes the Club membership’s responsibility to respond in the same manner to the County’s willingness to work towards a solution to this problem and strive diligently to do everything possible to prevent recurrence of the crash-landing situation that has forced us into this dilemma. The Club leadership has assigned a high personal priority to providing a timely transition to what we shall call the “Normal Field Flight Pattern” and has this list of physical changes to the field:
1) Moved the north safety fence further north,
2) Created two additional Pilot’s Flight Positions,
3) Fabricated two new starting tables to support the new Pilot Positions,
It is our plan to have the two new flight positions functional by the time the DOT has the runway repaired. (Sometime next week)
The Club’s By-Laws have been amended to both bring them current and provide for supporting the relocation of the Club’s functional traffic pattern to what we shall call the normal more northerly location. The new By-Laws and Constitution have been provided to the Club WebMaster for insertion into the Web Site. Attendees at today’s membership business meeting were given a hard copy of the new By-Laws/Constitution and the amended By-Laws are available to every member on the Web. Following the attending members examination of the amended By-Laws/Constitution, the vote to accept the amended By-Laws/Constitution was unanimous for accepting them.
Bottom line for flight operations at the field will be that once the paved runway has been repaired, we encourage everyone to get used to flying with the new southern boundary whether a “Game Day” or not. This will automatically build in a greater safety factor for the Henry County Radio Control Club flight operations and all of its neighbors. I cannot imagine that it is a secret that just to the west of the trees behind our shelters is a thickly settled housing neighborhood. And, just to the south of the southern boundary fence and trees is the newly constructed Henry County Battered Woman’s shelter. (Perhaps not the right title) And, to the south of our flight pattern on game days are a thousand boys and girls, their parents and grandparents and numerous Henry County Parks and Recreation employees who are trying to make a good thing happen.
There is not even a little bitty doubt in my mind that all the members of the HCRCC will join in this effort to provide a sincere effort to refine safety and minimize the inherent risk involved in our wonderful hobby. Therefore, I am confident that each of you will join your Club Officers in not only making all this happen smoothly but offer your valuable suggestions on how to make it even better.
See you at the ever improving field, JRM
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