Meeting Minutes – May 2013

Call to Order

  • Meeting called to order at 9:01 by President

Secretary’s Report

  • Last meeting minutes approved by vote of members present

Treasurer’s Report

  • $4035.95 in bank
  • Two new members
  • Expenses: $49 for hot dog night, and $47 to update fire extinguisher and first aid kit

Safety Report/Field Maintenance

  • Grass mowing is a little behind due to wet field
  • Weeds are tall at the end of the runway, fly higher

New Members

  • Rick Dacey

Visitors

  • Chris Dibble

Announcements

  • Hot Dog Night had a great turn out and went well. Thank you Larry!
  • Sparta club has lost their field

Old Business

  • Sign is up and grill is cleaned

New Business

  • Dave will talk to Steve about adding gravel to driveway by the road
  • Bob K wants to get rid of the two large picnic tables. A motion was made and seconded but resulted in a No vote.
  • Several members said they would like to see a change to the tables to allow work on planes to be done easier. Mort and Larry will look into ideas on how to improve tables for airplane prep.
  • Dave suggested a photo directory online as part of the member only area. Send a photo to Dave at the club email address if you want to be part of it.
  • Dave says the building needs paint and is to put together a cost estimate to do so.

Comments and Questions

  • Steve likes the new charging table.
  • Rich suggested folks head the information given in crash stories on the web site so you do not fall victim to the same mistakes. Good information there folks!
  • Mike would like to see all members go to the web site and use the Subscribe feature so that new posts on the site will send you an email. This would be helpful instead of the board having to email everyone.

Next Meeting

  • June 1st at 9:00AM at the field

Adjourn

  • Meeting adjourned at 9:36 by vote of members present

Members Present

  • Mike, Larry Weller, Chris Dibble (Guest), Jerry Timmer, Rich Moore, Bob Kovacs, Jim Tibbitts, Bill Porter, Rick Dacey, David VerHoef, Dan Thomann, Ray Weller, Mort Wright, Kenny Ly, Steve Post, Ron Neinhuis

First Flight and First Crash

This is not a happy set of pictures, but we should learn from this. The plane took off was perfectly in trim and flying well, when all of a sudden one wing folded and down came the plane with some force. What happened. Some times one cannot tell, but this time it was clear. I had a more minor crash last fall due to on aileron not working. I repaired the plane, the only damage to the wings was a broken carbon fiber wing tube. Rather than spend forty to fifty dollars for a new one, I took a piece of aluminum tube that fit tightly in the carbon fiber tube, it was about four inches and epoxied the carbon tube that had broken cleanly to the aluminum, making what I thought was an excellent repair. Well I flew it twice last fall fine. And so did not expect any trouble, but the epoxy evidently let loose, and with force on wing the tube started to slip and then began to split. The wing broke loose with its part of tube and the other part was still in plane with the wing bolts still attached to the ripped out rib of the departed wing. Result Crash!!