RCACF FLYPAPER The Official Monthly Newsletter Remote Control

RCACF FLYPAPER The Official Monthly Newsletter Remote Control Assoc of Central Florida “Fabulous February”, 2017 Cover Photo : Overhead view of the flight-line static display. Over 1, 000 attendees, pilots, volunteers, fans attended The 2016 RCACF Airshow recently and what a show it was. We are fortunate to have so many talented pilots, builders, volunteers in RCACF. There were WW 1 Fokkers, Warbirds, turbine and electric jets, pylon racers, Team Graves “Dillon Graves”, RCACF pilots, Top Gun Pilots, and a special appearance by “Walt’s Marauders”. The photo above is only ½ of our runway which was covered with visitors mingling with pilots and viewing all the spectacular aircraft.

John Foushi President Air Show The Air Show was a great success. We had over 330 cars parked and over 700 visitors. My thanks to the members that helped run the event. Greg Foushi did a great job in putting together the pilots and flying events. Dave Sirak filled in at the last minute and did a great job in announcing each pilot and flight. We were short about a dozen members. 6 members canceled or didn’t show up at all. We need reliable, younger members to take part in this event. If not, we won’t have an Air Show next year. Many of us are getting too old to do a good job. Profit for the event was $2, 361. 40. The same goes for the Pylon Event. If we can’t earn money from these events, our only recourse is to raise the annual dues! Pylon Event Profit results from the Pylon Event was $1, 447. 63. New Camera Michael Vivona will be installing a second camera on the roof of the Club House. It will be facing the East side of the building and you will have a view of the Northern part of the runway. We are still waiting for a DVR to finish the Food Hangar camera system. We want to thank Mike Vivona and Bill Freeland for heading up those two projects. New TV/Monitor Michael Vivona, Walter Blanca and Jim Lackey have installed a new TV/Monitor in the Club House. This will be a big improvement, allowing us to show slide shows and video presentations during our meetings.

Our Neighbors We not only share our flying field with Riegl USA but, also a quiet, slow moving turtle. Or better known as the “Gopher Tortoise”. I came across an article about them and thought I would share with you. Gopher Tortoise burrows an average of seven feet deep and 15 feet long but, may be more than 40 feet long depending on the climate and surroundings. Burrow openings are halfmoon shaped with the curve at the top and its size is a fair representation of the size of the tortoise. Many eggs never hatch because they are eaten by mammals, birds and snakes. They breed March-October but, generally dig nests in May & June. One clutch is Adult tortoises are generally 9 -11 laid per year with an average inches long and weigh 7 -9 pounds. of six eggs. Females begin to reproduce when they are 9 -21 years old. Males begin slightly younger. The biggest threat to the Gopher Tortoises long term survival is loss of habitat. Most live to 50 years old.

Dave Sirak Vice President Orlando Drone Ordinance Concerns FAA The City of Orlando passed an ordinance to ban model aircraft flying in all city parks, over city buildings and venues without a permit. I truly believe city leaders think the ordinance will protect the public from injury and damage from irresponsible model aircraft pilots. The ordinance actually makes the job of the FAA harder by implementing a different set of rules established for all aircraft - including model aircraft. If more local governments continue to enact their own laws and regulations an irregular patchwork of laws and rules will span across the country. In recent years the FAA has been kind and respectful to model aviation and have urged local governments not to pass their own laws which are contrary to their regulations. The UAS model registry clearly states the rules to allow hobbyists to fly in safe and responsible manner. The Orlando Police Department sponsored and prepared the ordinance stating the FAA rules were difficult to enforce. It may actually be the FAA which will come to the rescue of model aviation. Cities accept grant money to support local airports. Both the Orlando Executive Airport and the Orlando International Airport are supported by FAA funding. The City of Orlando has passed an ordinance which challenges the authority of the FAA sole mission to provide for safe and public airspace access. In the mean time it is important for all of our members to participate in the drone registry program, fly safely and enjoy our wonderful facility at RCACF. Days after the City of Orlando pass the drone ordinance these signs were installed near Camping World Stadium. Dave Sirak

Al Cooper Membership Chairman RCACF Monitoring of AMA Membership Expirations RCACF club insurance requires that all members of the club maintain a “current status” (paid up to date) in the Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA). In the past, AMA only issued memberships with expiration dates of 12/31 (year end) of each year but they have recently changed their procedures to allow memberships to expire at the end of any month during the year. RCACF membership however is on a January to December cycle for all members. In order to ensure that all RCACF members are maintaining a “current status” regardless of when his/her AMA Membership expires, RCACF Membership has had to modify its New Member / Membership Renewal procedures. As part of the redesign of the Membership Database where we maintain all club membership information, we have added the AMA Membership Expiration Date to each individual member’s records. At this time, I have completed reviewing all 2017 Member’s AMA Expiration Dates and updating the Membership Database accordingly. The next part of this process involves the monitoring of these Expiration Dates to ensure that all active RCACF Members have maintained their AMA Membership. The monitoring process will now include the following steps: • A database report has been written that will be run at the beginning of each month. This report will identify all members whose AMA Membership will expire in the next 31 to 60 days. This report will be used to query the AMA Membership system as to the status of that member’s expiration date. For those that have not yet been renewed, an e-mail will be sent to that member reminding him/her of the requirement to renew his/her AMA membership. • A second database report has been written that will also be run at the beginning of each month. This report will identify all members whose AMA Membership will expire in the next 30 days. This report will also be used to query the AMA Membership system to verify that the membership has been renewed. For those that have still not been renewed, both an e-mail and a physical letter will be mailed to the member reminding him/her of the urgent need to renew his/her AMA Membership before the expiration date. • A third database report has been written that will also be run at the beginning of each month. This report will identify all members whose AMA Membership have already expired. This report will also be used to query the AMA Membership system to verify that the membership has, in fact, been renewed. For those that have not been renewed, a letter will be mailed to the member informing him/her that his/her flight privileges at RCACF have been suspended until their AMA Membership is returned to a “current status”. If you, as an RCACF Member, receive any of the notices (e-mail or letter) outlined above, please plan on acting upon these notices at your earliest convenience. To ensure that our RCACF Membership Database reflects your current AMA Membership status, please send an e-mail indicating the status change to membership@rcacf. com. It is not necessary to send a copy of your new AMA Membership card as we are now verifying AMA Memberships online through AMA’s web site. Al Cooper

Barry Vaught Photographer Hello Pilots! Thank you to everyone that helped make our 2016 Airshow a huge success. If you were not there you missed this special appearance by Walt’s Marauders simulated bomb drops! Thank you to John Foushi and Ruben Rodz for helping with the photography. More photographs to be posted soon. Barry Vaught RCACF Photographer 407 -256 -2240 vaughtenterprise@aol. com

RCACF board members John Foushi President jjfoushi@aol. com Bill Freeman Treasurer treasurer@rcacf. com Dave Sirak Vice President davesirak@gmail. com Al Cooper Membership Chairman Walt Blanca Facilities Chairman wbpyrockets@bellsouth. net Michael Vivona Webmaster@rcacf. com Bill Higdon Secretary Safety Officer Brad Frank Safety@rcacf. com Barry Vaught Photographer bvaught@cfl. rr. com Our club has two different cameras that you may use to see how crowded it might be, or to check the wind-sock before you head to the field. The first camera is a snapshot of the center parking area and the wind-sock/flagpole. It is viewed on the home page of RCACF. com. It doesn’t require any special applications or logins. It is a high-res snapshot that updates every 60 seconds. Windsock Web. Cam Security Cameras The second camera is the security DVR. It has 4 small cameras that point in different directions from the clubhouse roof. It does require special access parameters and passwords. It also requires a special application if being accessed from a Smartphone. These cameras are motion video, but due to the limited bandwidth of our internet connection there a couple of items to note. 1. Video is jerky or freeze at times. 2. Soft looking or pixilated image. Video cams are lower resolution than the website snapshot cam. An email with full instructions went out to all members. If you are still having difficulty, please catch up with Bill Freeland or Michael Vivona at the next club meeting.

Michael Vivona Webmaster Kicking off the new year was our annual Airshow where guests and members alike had the thrill to witness the best pilots and aircraft that our great hobby has to offer. The attendance was remarkable. We had hundreds of visitors helping us enjoy the beautiful sunny day. Rows of cars lined up in the overflow parking area. It was great seeing all the youngsters that brought their parents. It does make you feel good nowadays when you see a kid enjoying themselves and it has nothing to do with a game console or a Smartphone. I think we definitely have some future pilots. Plenty of terrific food was consumed and new friends made. It’s wild how a basic hotdog or hamburger taste so much better when eaten at an outside event. I always look forward to the 24 Hours of Daytona race just to sample some of their un-healthy food and drink. They have this huge deep fried funnel cake looking thing all covered with powdered sugar. The darned thing weighs about 4 lbs and looks absolutely disgusting. And yes. . I can’t wait to eat one of them too. Who knows, maybe next year we will have our own version of the swirly deep fried doughnut at Air. Show 2018. Michael Vivona Next general club meeting – February 11 th 10 AM A great big THANK YOU to everyone who supports our great club. We could not do it without your continued help. Have a wonderful day… Come Fly With Us R C A C F