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John-
I think it’s best to let Larry speak directly to my first point.
I’d sure appreciate the Board’s explanation, or, quite frankly, an apology, with regard to the other two.
-Tim
Reposted due to a messaging error…I (and several others I queried) didn’t get an email confirmation that this posted.
Hi John,
Thanks for the question. Please see below, taken from the constitution of our Club.
- Subsection pertaining to Larry’s exclusion from BOD meetings
Article VI — Board of Directors
<u>Section 2.1</u> The person who has served as President of the Club immediately prior to an annual meeting of the members of the Club or another meeting of the members called for the purpose of election and who is replaced as President by a vote of the members at that meeting shall become the Immediate Past President of the Club and shall also become an informal, non-voting member of the Board of Directors and entitled to attend meetings of the Board until a new President is elected at a subsequent annual meeting or at another meeting of the members called for the purpose of election.
- Subsection pertaining to “Special Assessments”, “Overhaul Funds” and raising dues for flight instructors with no vote taken from the general membership. Also listed under Article VI — Board of Directors.
<u>Section 2</u>. The Board of Directors shall have the power to make all necessary contracts on behalf of the Club, to purchase equipment and supplies, to borrow money on behalf of the Club and to secure the same by mortgage or deed of trust on the property of the Club, to pay and discharge all debts of the Club, and to carry out all matters and things necessary or incident to or in aid of the carrying out of the aims and purposes of the Club. The Board of Directors shall have charge and control of all Club property. The Board of Directors may also levy assessments upon the members, provided, however, that any assessment levied by the Board of Directors must be approved by a three-fourths vote of the entire membership entitled to vote before becoming effective. The vote on any assessment shall be by written ballot. Any decision of the Board of Directors may be repealed by vote in favor of repeal by three-quarters of the entire membership entitled to vote by written ballot.
- Subsection pertaining to threats to remove me from the club
Article XV Suspension, Expulsion and Removal from Office
<u>Section 1.</u> A member may be removed from office, suspended for a period, or expelled for cause for violation of any of these the Sky Soaring Inc Constitution and Bylaws, or the Club Flight Regulations, or other rules of the Club, or for conduct prejudicial to the best interests of the Club. Such removal, suspension or expulsion shall require a two-thirds vote of all members entitled to vote at a meeting of members, provided that a statement of the charges against such member and a notice of the time and place of the meeting shall have been mailed to such member at least fifteen days before the meeting.
Tim
Hi John,
Thanks for the question. Please see below, taken from the constitution of our Club.
- Subsection pertaining to Larry’s exclusion from BOD meetings
Article VI — Board of Directors
<u>Section 2.1</u> The person who has served as President of the Club immediately prior to an annual meeting of the members of the Club or another meeting of the members called for the purpose of election and who is replaced as President by a vote of the members at that meeting shall become the Immediate Past President of the Club and shall also become an informal, non-voting member of the Board of Directors and entitled to attend meetings of the Board until a new President is elected at a subsequent annual meeting or at another meeting of the members called for the purpose of election.
- Subsection pertaining to “Special Assessments”, “Overhaul Funds” and raising dues for flight instructors with no vote taken from the general membership. Also listed under Article VI — Board of Directors.
<u>Section 2</u>. The Board of Directors shall have the power to make all necessary contracts on behalf of the Club, to purchase equipment and supplies, to borrow money on behalf of the Club and to secure the same by mortgage or deed of trust on the property of the Club, to pay and discharge all debts of the Club, and to carry out all matters and things necessary or incident to or in aid of the carrying out of the aims and purposes of the Club. The Board of Directors shall have charge and control of all Club property. The Board of Directors may also levy assessments upon the members, provided, however, that any assessment levied by the Board of Directors must be approved by a three-fourths vote of the entire membership entitled to vote before becoming effective. The vote on any assessment shall be by written ballot. Any decision of the Board of Directors may be repealed by vote in favor of repeal by three-quarters of the entire membership entitled to vote by written ballot.
- Subsection pertaining to threats to remove me from the club
Article XV Suspension, Expulsion and Removal from Office
<u>Section 1.</u> A member may be removed from office, suspended for a period, or expelled for cause for violation of any of these the Sky Soaring Inc Constitution and Bylaws, or the Club Flight Regulations, or other rules of the Club, or for conduct prejudicial to the best interests of the Club. Such removal, suspension or expulsion shall require a two-thirds vote of all members entitled to vote at a meeting of members, provided that a statement of the charges against such member and a notice of the time and place of the meeting shall have been mailed to such member at least fifteen days before the meeting.
Tim
Looks like wx today is going to be a little worse than forecast last night…oh well. Try for next time.
How’s the chute on the PW5? We forget the darned repack every year…if it can wait until the 13th when I am done with my work project I volunteer to drop it off at the rigger myself 🙂
Yeah takeoff and landing at high gross weights is where density altitude can bite you. We used to have a few summer days with the 150 and 182 where we said “thanks but no thanks”
A man answered a “Help Wanted” ad that read “Hiring Welders $18-24 per Hour” When he arrived he was told he’d have to take a welding test. He turned in 2 sets of welds. One was a great weld, the other was a mess. When the boss asked him why he did this he replied “One is $18/hr, the other is $24/hr”.
Point is, it’s a free market, and every member’s time is valuable. Some people make a free choice to pitch in, others do not. However, those choices generally depend on the incentives being offered to do so.
Helping out with mowing and field maintenance generally yields the adulation and social acceptance of our fellow group members.
Leading a retrieve crew for a land out generally involves a steak dinner.
Those who are capable of performing aircraft maintenance tend to command a unique level of respect in every aviation circle, and their requests for modest financial compensation rarely, if ever, go unanswered. Except for here.
We as instructors and tow pilots feel that our incentive is to have a financial burden lifted. Deny us our incentive with no attempt to compromise, we deny you our services. It’s that simple.
I find it interesting that the board has fielded the idea of “UPGRADING SKY SOARING“. An UPGRADE in what? Equipment? The board is still asking about selling the winch. I think the hope is that if we say no 999 times and yes 1 time their confirmation bias will take care of the rest.
We’ll have fancy UPGRADED club equipment we can’t tow, train in or maintain because we’ve DOWNGRADED all the people who previously chose to take on those responsibilities.
I vote that we keep the winch.
I also would like to nominate myself as a winch driver coordinator to help more people understand how to run her 🙂
The winch is an excellent training tool that enjoys a much wider profit margin per launch than aerotow.
This is primarily because the maintenance costs are significantly lower. A periodic engine overhaul is neither legally prescribed nor does it induce such things as $400 special assessments.
I might add that several days when we had a sufficient crew I tried to instruct and supervise a small operation. Often, some members of the club attempted to shut these operations down, citing a requisite minimum experience level known only to them or an observation that the wind was something other than light and variable.
In my mind, this can only speak to an inherent fear of winch operations as a whole and a deep seated doubt about the safety of the procedures we have developed. To those people I would politely recommend that we start a dialogue about those fears, and I would encourage those people to come train with us further to gain firsthand experience into the safety, versatility and fun that comes with winch flying.
For the amount of financial (greater than $55 thousand, yes?) and temporal effort we have put into adopting it, and the volume of instruction we get from it, I would be very disdainful of a decision to let the winch go.
Best
Tim
I’d be happy to standardize. The Bob Wander book is a good choice, very comprehensive and goes a long way toward “avoiding gaps in a student’s learning”…something Ron has begged and pleaded with us to address more seriously.
The only downside I see with over reliance on this is a one size fits all approach to flight training. As many of us are aware most, if not all students sail through a lot of concepts only to be tripped up on others.
If we use a more organized and syllabus based system it could help get every CFI on the same page about where a student is at Even more importantly it’s good information for the students themselves, to be shared individually and confidentially of course.
I don’t know if a Chief Instructor would be good or not…our club is very much an egalitarian society. To have one “benevolent dictator” whose opinion matters more than others could do a lot to hurt the individual CFI’s good professional judgment. If a CFI needs to ask permission from top brass about every little thing and can’t be left well enough alone to teach in his or her individual style…I don’t think it will help our training program one bit.
Take my opinion valued at every cent you paid for it but I’d go with a standardized syllabus (which is a fantastic idea Ron has been begging for) and would advocate holding off on the Chief Instructor thing unless there is some huge implementation problem with the syllabus. Then and only then (in my humble opinion) should we talk about more oversight.
Cheers
Tim
Not too bad. Your method helped. Heat a little and pull. Heat a little more then pull like hell. When the polymer starts to get shiny stop heating that area. I put the heat shrink on before the splice (ask me how many times I’ve screwed that up…) but the washer and nut to center the PTT switch could not be installed from the top of the button. Clip the splice, wash, rinse, repeat. It got done. Reinstalling the grip was also a question of heating and slipping on. For both procedures it is easy to seriously burn yourself on hot polymer. Rawhide gloves help.
Thanks also to Don for helping me find the heat gun and zip ties. You guys helped me get it done before the sun went down.
Cheers
Tim
