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After the December 2005 Fly-in, we realized that we were not happy
with how the event turned out and knew that it had to be changed. We reviewed what we were doing, because the organizers of the JCRC
– YMCA Indoor Fly-in events never once anticipated the potential
problems that would arise. Of course, the last thing we wanted was
tension, confrontation or to have ANY of our guests offended in
some way. All we wanted was a place where we could fly our electric
models, at a nice, indoor location, during the months when outdoor flying is not
so pleasant.
Since we weren't sure whether or not our own Club membership would be able to
support renting such a fine facility on a monthly basis, we opened up the event to all of
our friends in the Central Missouri
area as long as they had current membership in the A.M.A. and were willing to
pay a nominal fee to fly and abide by our rules for an indoor event,
after all we are the ones responsible for whatever might happen inside
the building while it is entrusted unto us.
Well, it doesn't
take long for good news to spread and since modelers tend to be a
tight-knit group, before we knew it, we had over 30 pilots signing up
for the event with nearly as many spectators showing up from all over
the state and beyond! With
that large of a turn out, we found ourselves doing more administrating
than flying and that's not what we had in mind nor what we want to be
doing! Perhaps it is selfish, but we are doing this so that we can fly. In fact, we don't even
want to make money at these events, we simply want to break even on our
costs, have an enjoyable evening of indoor flying and go home at a
reasonable time. Yet we find ourselves arriving home very late because
we have to pick up trash left behind by others in addition to restoring
the facility to a condition better than when we arrived.
Instead we
have found ourselves administering the largest events JCRC has held
since 2003! There are two organizers who have signed their names to
documents stating that they would be responsible to the YMCA for what
takes place during these events. The reality of that responsibility has
grown to a level that is uncomfortable, especially in light of the
behavior of a very few of the guests. This cannot be tolerated, we feel
there is too much at stake and we are not willing to risk our privilege of
using this wonderful facility.
We held
discussions during our January meeting and among JCRC Club Officers and we decided that
there would be no tolerance of breaking the rules or we were going to close the event to
anyone but JCRC Club members and perhaps a few personally invited guests
and that still remains a very real possibility. However, we also realized that the
great majority of our guests are level-headed, high-quality, friendly,
respectable people who come to have 'fun' in the same way we view 'fun'
and we do not want to cut those people off from enjoying a hobby that
all of us love, because we truly enjoy flying with them and watching them fly.
So, in the
friendliest, yet sternest way possible without being offensive, we held the Pilot's meeting
shortly after 7 P.M. to make sure the rules were
plainly explained and offered a refund to any pilot who felt that they
would not be able to abide by the rules, giving them an opportunity to leave prior
to the start of the event. No one left. This made us happy! We explained that
the January 2006 event could be the
last event open to the public if the same behavior that took place in
December repeated itself in subsequent events.
I am thrilled to report that we had
20 pilots show up and we registered 19 of them and the behavior did not
repeat itself.
We weren’t able to
register one pilot because he did not have a current A.M.A. membership. As we
suspected, everyone stuck to the rules, not nearly as many airplanes
were damaged, certainly none of them were intentionally damaged and we
also credit the better flying conditions to the fact that we set a rule
of no-more-than-four airplanes in the air at once. We believe everyone felt more comfortable and the spectators
felt
safer. The other pilots and the facility were respected and we
feel that it went well enough that we will still be able to keep the
event open to our current guest list and possibly other current A.M.A.
pilots who are willing to abide by the rules and pay the nominal fee to
participate.
What amazed
us the most was the fact that many of the pilots who had attended the
December event and had returned for the January event came up to us and
thanked us for the enforcement of the rules during the January event.
Some of them told us that they had driven a long way and
found that they didn’t even want to fly for fear of their equipment
getting torn up in a mid-air. That fear was lessened during this event.
We have three more events this year
and we are going to do our best to have a good time and to provide a
good, relaxing time for our guests. We will have at least two nice door
prizes at the February 18th event to make up for not having
one at the January event and at least one door prize for the March &
April events as well. There will be one entry into the drawing for each
registered pilot.
As always
your suggestions on how to improve our event are welcome, this is a
learning process for us and we invite your comments and suggestions be sent to info@jcrc.com.
The January
event had many highlights that we would also like to point out.
First of all,
Stacy Gillmore put on a heck of a show with a GWS Slow Stick that he has
converted into a dual-rotor Autogiro! As Bryan Zang noted; “There are
too many spinning things on that airplane!” It is hypnotic and makes
one wonder how it even gets into the air. We have even posted a digital video
of Gillmore’s autogiro so that you may see it in action - or better yet
- we hope the autogiro will be brought back to the February 18th
event, so make plans to stop by and
see it in person. Great job Stacy!
There are a
couple of pilots that come up from Springfield
who are both truly exceptional. We will hopefully have more information
on one of them for the February report, but for now we want everyone to
know how much we enjoy having Jeff Pfeifer show up for our event. You
may not know it, but Jeff is one of the top-ranked pilot’s in the USA
and is often invited to
participate in the national invitation-only events including the Electric
Indoor Tournament of Champions in
Toledo,
Ohio, as well as the Extreme Aerobatics competition held annually in
Troy,
Ohio, plus many other events where
you will find him piloting his aircraft along side Quique Somenzini,
Chip Hyde, Frazier Briggs and others. We are honored
to have him here despite the fact that he makes all of us look like the
true amateurs that we really are (argh!).
Jeff had been
showing up with his purple & white Equalizer biplane, but we were in for a very
special treat during the January Fly-in because he brought in a new
biplane, one that he has helped design! The name still isn’t
clear. It is apparently based upon the Equalizer, but this is the Jeff
Pfeifer edition! The base airframe has been modified with features
and improvements that he has suggested.
It is so smooth.
It can do any trick in the book and
he flies it in a way that makes one ask; “How did he do that maneuver and not
hit the ______ (wall, ceiling, floor or himself) ??” We hope he can
return for all our events and we sure hope to show him our support as he
returns to
Toledo
in April. Go, Jeff, WIN!!
Take a look
at the other pictures – they aren’t necessarily up to our usual standards, but a
simplified camera was brought to this event because it also captures
video. We sincerely hope that the pilots who attended this event had an
enjoyable time and will return to join us on February 18th.
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