Meeting Minutes – June 2014

Call to Order

  • Meeting called to order at 9:02AM by Dave Jamrog

Secretary’s Report

  • The secretary’s report was not reviewed or voted on due to to the the secretary’s absence

Treasurer’s Report

  • $3K in accounts
  • Lease signed/approved for 3 years, 2014-2017
  • The club will be receiving one more lawn mowing bill
  • Treasury report accepted
  • Request to modify May meeting minutes to reflect no Treasurer’s report

Safety Report/Field Maintenance

  • No Safety report

New Members

  • Jeff Schepers

Visitors

  • No visitors

Announcements

  • No Announcements

Old Business

  • No Old Business

New Business

  • “Come Fly Event” July 12 and August 9, voted and approved, need plenty of helpers
  • “Fun Fly Event”, Board to determine date – passed by vote

Comments and Questions

  • No comments or questions

Next Meeting

  • Club flying field Jul 2, 2014 at 6PM

Adjourn

  • The meeting was adjourned at 9:36AM by Larry Weller

Members Present

  • Jerry Timmer, Mort Wright, Donald Breazeale, David VerHoef, Dan Thomann, Bill Porter, Tom Ziemba, George Keefe, Rich Moore, Kenny Ly, Lucas Russcher, John Russcher, Ron Nienhuis, Bob Kovacs, Larry Weller, Denny Tiggleman, David Jamrog, Ray Weller

Battery Bunkers and Charging Safety

The FliteTest guys put out a video last week Friday about building a battery bunker and some tips on putting out a lipo fire.  This got me thinking about how and where I charge my batteries.  My workshop is in my basement and this is where I charge my batteries.  When I am charging batteries I am in my workshop maybe half of the time.  The other half I am in my office, watching tv, outside doing yard work or taking a nap!  I have never had a problem with a battery while it was charging. I have become complacent and figure that I am safe and that it will never happen to me.  But what if it did, even if I was in the same room what could I do to put out a battery fire?  Currently I would have to somehow move the battery 3′ to a sink and hopefully not burn myself.  That doesn’t sound like fun.  Even though we all probable think that it will never happen to us we should consider taking a few precautions at home AND in our shelter at the field.

At home: We should all at a minimum have a bucket of sand by our charging area.  At about 7:10 Josh talks about a small single cinder block bunker.  You put your battery in the slot of the cinder block and place a bag of sand over it.  If the battery starts on fire it will melt the plastic bag and the sand will flood the cinder block slot and put out of fire.  This would be a good method of charging our batteries in our homes!

At the field:  Again, we should at a minimum have a bucket of sand and a fire extinguisher in the shelter.  I am not sure how I feel about the need for a battery bunker.  On one side it would be a very good safety thing but do we need to be that safe…it is not our house, its a shelter.  I can’t imagine a battery getting out of control and somebody not seeing it and being able to take action with a sand bucket on the batter and a fire extinguisher on the table or shelter if it progressed that far.

I would love here your thoughts on battery safety at the field and at home.  What measures have you taken at home?  Please post a comment with your ideas and thought.

John “plane addicted” Russcher

 

Baldwin Jet Rally Fathers Day Weekend

If you did not know, Baldwin airport has a wonderful field to fly on. I believe the official club started a few years ago. They have a 3,500ft runway with a lot of jet pilots. This past weekend they held an event with many pilots. It was a great time. Here is just a small clip of some of the jets.