Hi everyone,

Well, how is the New Year going for you?  I hope everyone had a new airplane on their Christmas list and Santa Claus was very generous to you.   I didn't ask for any myself because I have two on my bench, a P38 and a giant scale biplane I need to finish before I start another project. They have been sitting there while I work around them. I think it's time to get them done. Is anyone else building from kits or scratch? ARFs are nice but I like building a plane better.

The AMA show and Cable air show are now over. 

The AMA show was nice, but like last year there were a few vendor tables empty. I guess it's the sign of the times right now. The attendance was also down, it seemed. I was there Friday and Saturday at our club booth helping to sell raffle tickets and answering questions about our club.  Ticket sales were slow but there seemed to be a lot of interest in our club. Since then I have talked to about five people who came to the field to check it out. Hopefully we may have some new members soon.

Cable air show seemed to have a good program again. Thanks to all the people who brought out their airplanes to fly and display.  Thanks to Kevin Linstrom , Carl and CJ Lindou, Ron Hurwitt and Lonnie Mount for getting it organized. I heard that flying time was short Saturday and this made a few people upset. On Sunday they gave us a lot more time to fly. Thanks to all the club members that helped out, plus George Manning and Ron Werner for the jets they flew. The people really like them.

At the AMA show, an AMA representative came to our booth. He talked to us about the AMA and the civil air patrol working together to get new people interested in model aviation. The AMA puts RC clubs and CAP units together to teach young people to fly. I think he said AMA would give clubs some help to get training aircraft to learn on. I like the idea and wonder if other members of the club like it too. It could be a club project.

At January's meeting we learned that Sam Converse's grandfather Buzz had passed away. I'm sure everyone remembers how well Sam can fly his helicopter even though he hasn't been around a lot lately. We asked for donations for the American Cancer Society and it was sent there in his name. We also had a request to clarify the club rules for jets to fly at our field. We only have a couple of members who fly them. If the rule were changed I do not think we would get too many people wanting to fly because of the dirt runway. I would like it to be club members only and they would have to have the AMA jet waiver, plus necessary equipment.

The weather has been good to us this year, not too much wind or rain. I don't think that we will have a lot of field maintenance this year. We try to do it in March and maybe we won't have any at all. That would be nice for a change.

The Riverside Air Show is also in March. I think this is everyone's favorite show to be in, they always have a lot of military aircraft there to fly and displays to see.

Has anyone had any crashes lately? It seems to me there have been a few planes go down since the beginning of the year. Gary Thomson lost his 50cc yak while hovering close to the ground. The engine quit and he had nothing he could do. Maybe he will quit listening to everyone saying lower. He will do it again, it is too much fun. Now he has more parts for his P40 he wants to build, and I get to help him with. I don't mind, it is all fun for me.  Not much more to say so I will see you at the field.