Flyfunston

FF Meeting Minutes
12/14/04

Attending:
Urs Kellenberger
Henry Bittner
Ted Lipke
Tom White
Steve Rodrigues
Martin Beresford
Tom Cleary
Attila Plasch
…
Gene Foley
Arturo Melean
Raffy Lavin
Mike Cleary
Chuck Artz
Jonas Barbour
Daniel Pifko

TREASURER’S REPORT

Nov 4493.45
Dec $3,864.94

OLD BUSINESS

Waiting list and clubhouse

* Can anyone contact Walter Pallock (sp?)? Can’t get hold of him. Spot 66
* Some people gave up their spot.
* We need to redefine clubhouse policy officially to give people advance notice of what we plan to do.
* Henry, Steve, Tom, and Daniel have been working to clear older, unused gliders out of slots and into purgatory. Many slots have been given out already

Windsock Pole

* Last Month: Motion: give Larry authority to buy and replace swivel. All but Raffy in favor. Motion passed. No new progress?

Nick Davila – film maker in Stanford’s graduate film program

* Film shown Dec 7th. We will get a DVD copy too.
* Urs liked the film

Keys and locks and tags

* Locks will be changed in January/February
* We need to contact the Air Resources Board – Henry to get the number from GGNRA.
* Henry has given the Rangers a key to the clubhouse. Did it months ago – old lock. New guy needs to send key to rangers and the Air Resources Board


NEW BUSINESS

Rick Cavallero – $150 for webcam. Moved and seconded. All in favor. Approved.

Henry

* Paid $250 for site insurance for 2005. $2M liability through USHGA. Reimbursement moved, seconded, approved.
* Henry already mailed out request and check for insurance
* We take the insurance document and send it Rudy Evenston. We will pay him some amount - $125ish.

Remote Control Vehicles

* Do we want to make changes to the bylaws to allow electric motors?
* Our members have some electrically powered gliders that could be okay.
* Henry thinks we should put some new rules
* Jonas: do we apply rules to any vehicle, flying or otherwise?
* Urs: suggests any flying or nonflying vehicle
* Attila: is it the noise or the danger?
* Henry: we don’t want to regulate RC’s and we should tell the rangers about this, especially in the form of our bylaws
* Henry: he wants to allow RC’s to be separately regulated, directly with the rangers
* Henry wants to talk to the main RC pilots in the club
* Steve: @ Mission Ridge – they allow us to manage all the flying activities. We can control anything that has to do with our flying. RC gliders are not allowed on the ridge at all. RC pilots have to join a club that gives them insurance. They negotiate their own agreement with EBRBP.
* Gene: We don’t control people who come in off the street (dp: or do we?)
* Gene doesn’t want to start his own club.
* Henry only wants to deal with hang gliding, not with RC
* Arturo: tell the RC pilots to come to the next club meeting so we can discuss this. Arturo isn’t an RC pilot. Most are ok. Some are dangerous. He doesn’t see any danger there, since the RC’s are grounded when HG go to take off.
* For next meeting – discussion about starting an RC club. We’ll publicize this for people to attend.
* Murphy was told “no motorized gliders” by the ranger, even electric gliders bad
* Gene: what does the use permit say, and what does the park service’s rule say?
* Should we set a tighter area on where you fly RCs and don’t?

* Actions:
o Daniel and others to spread request to RC pilots to come to the next meeting
o Henry and Daniel to come up with agenda for next meeting, including: should RC pilots work directly with GGNRA, other than having to ground planes when HG are aloft.
o Daniel to bring Use Permit, Rules, and Bylaws to next meeting for precise reading

Stickers

* We have 2005 stickers for distribution. Mission Soaring and MCHGA have stickers. Steve Rodrigues bringing a bunch to next WOR meeting.

Tandems

* Urs: Can we do tandems?
* Henry: he has Dan Buchanan’s contact info. Gordon, Joe Spinney and others want to look into it.
* Urs: doesn’t want to open it up to commercial interests.
* Henry: maybe we should have a tandem administrator who determines who can launch tandems and who can’t. Gordon could be a good person for this. Steve could be the right person for this.
* Steve, Urs and Daniel are on the committee to make this happen
* Steve: require signoff by a club tandem administrator to fly tandem here

* Actions:
o By 1/11/05: Urs to contact Dan Buchanan to determine the rules of the previous trial period and the outcome
o Urs and Steve to write a proposal for GGNRA. First draft by 1/11/05

Instructing at Funston without being an instructor
* You can teach at Fort Funston not being an instructor. This is against safety. We should require that someone be a USHGA approved instructor.
* It takes 2 meetings to change the rules.
* Henry – you must have a USHGA instructor rating and be approved by someone here. Henry to come up with new wording to present at next meeting

* Actions:
o By 1/11/05: Henry and Daniel to write specific wording changes in all documents to formalize this rule change
o By 1/11/05: Henry and Daniel to propose who would have the authority to sign off instructors

Clubhouse rules change

* clubhouse should be for people who are current flyers
o By 1/11/05: Jonas, Henry and Daniel to propose wording changes for 2006.

Which spot is which

* Some people have mistaken their slot for someone else’s above or below. There are now brass, label tags on most of the slots. The rest will be done by Steve and Henry.
* $114.70 reimbursement for Steve for tags. Moved, seconded, and approved.

$24.17 for Tom for rubbers (padding for purgatory). Moved, seconded and approved.

USHGA BOD meeting repot (Urs)
- Powered Harnesses: There will be a revote for powered harnesses since the last ballot was deemed illegal. USHGA needs new words but they are having a hard time determining a specific proposal. What do people propose?
- Name Change: USHGA is considering a name change, as advertised on ushga.org and other online sites. One of Urs’ big issues is how to communicate the process and request for a decision to pilots who don’t have computers.
- Lower Class A Ceiling: Europe is considering lowering the floor for the equivalent of class A airspace to 10,000 ft. USHGA is concerned the FAA will follow suit. This would be a BAD THING.

Elections:

No further nominations. Vote was held. The new board is:

President: Daniel Pifko
VP: Steve Rodrigues
Westlake: Raffy Lavin
Treasurer: Attila Plasch
Safety: Chris Cornbill
Clubhouse: Jonas Barbour
Secretary: Tom White