League Of Flight by Thermal

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L.O.F.T. Club Newsletter
Annual meeting January 2008

January 2008 Meeting

The annual LOFT meeting was held January 27, 2008 at the Soloman Farm Learning Center. Following an hour of swapping greetings, stories and airplanes, Club President Bill Krauskopf called the meeting to order at 12:02 p.m.

First order of business was budget approval: Denny Zech prepared a 2007 profit / loss statement that was handed out to those present. Thanks to good contest turnout and lack of any major maintenance expenses we are in the black to start 2008. If you are interested in seeing the line item report and did not receive a handout or was not at the meeting, please see Denny Zech.

Second order of business was paid membership review: The LOFT club had 27 paid members for the 2007 flying season. We have 15 paid member from today’s meeting and expect the number to rise as some regulars were unable to attend. Anyone interested in Sailplanes is always welcome to fly at our club events. It is not necessary to be a member of the club but you do need to be a member of the A.M.A. That being said, we ask that locals or regulars join the club and pay the $15.00 annual fee.

Third order business Schedule:

2008 Schedule LOFT Dates:

1) March 30 6) August 10
2) April 20 7) September 14
3) May 4 8) September 28
4) June 29 9) October 12
5) July 20 10) October 26

June 7 & 8 Bob Steele October 4 & 5 Fall Roundup
June 21 Aviation Day Kite Day

Note: Due to a lack of open Sundays we have scheduled LOFT 4 on the same weekend as Wood Crafters 08 which is June 27, 28 , and 29 at the AMA field in Muncie. Anyone interested in wood sail planes this contest is for you. See details at Rays website, www.skybench.com

Three new additions to the regular season club contests:

1)Ray Holzheuer’ Woody Sub Contest.

Directly from Ray, here is the simple format:

Fly the club MOM UNL contest as usual, when its over you have a 1st-2nd-3rd etc place winner. (note, all club LSF scores should be figured from these scores as usual). Then pull out all the WOODY score cards and see who was 1st-2nd-3rd etc winners You are done.... The 4 or 5 guys with WOODYS can see where they stand. The winner can get a slap on the back, or Hi-5, no trophies, no special treatment. That’s all that was ever intended. No extra work for the CD/scorer etc.
This is not RES, or a separate contest, no need for William to enter this separately into club record or make new score cards. I would like to see all the balsa birds be able to fly in this group & APPLY Ray’s sensible WOODY rules. That means NO AVA types or Foam covered wings. Any number of controls is OK. Glass fuse OK. No Molded or carbon D tube leading edges.

2)LOFT Championship. The Club voted to keep the ten club contest format with this exception. We will take the best seven of the first nine contest to determine master, expert and sportsman champion for the season. Years past has been seven best of ten. For LOFT # 10 we will take those seven of nine scores to the contest. The flyers who attend LOFT # 10 will get divided into groups by yearly average. For example the top five averages will be in group one. Averages from 6 to 10 will be in group two etc. You will then battle it out all day in that group to determine champion for each group. This will give guys a chance to fly against others at there own skill level. Should be a very fun event.

3)In addition to the regular Sunday club contest we will have a new Ray Hayes matched hi start series for RES woodies on the following Saturday dates:

April 12
April 19
May 3
May 10
May 17

Two Classes flown separately ...
Class A. Woodys ( Wood Crafters rules ) and Class B. Store Bought
ARF's.

Each class has no size classes and any number of models may be flown.

If the guys come out for this and enjoy it, we can continue this program
thru the summer and not necessary confine it to Weekends.

Please note that these dates may be changed or added to. Please watch the web site and LOFT e mail group for the latest updates.

Flying Field : Our current field location appears to be secure for the next two to three years. There is no guarantee. We know the school has plans to build on the ground in the future but no dates are in concrete. The search for a new field continues. Bill and Denny will check out some ground at the Waist Management site on Adams Center rd. Look for updates on the outcome later in the season.

We are still in need of a place to store the golf cart. There is some hope of finding a place at the Old State School. At this time we are keeping it out a Soloman Farm. Anyone that is able to bring the cart to the club events, please see one of the club officers. At this time John Gospodarek is the only member with a hitch.

2007 seasons scores: We lost them. If anyone knows where they are, or finds the score cards for the missing contests please contact Will Sears or Bill K. We do not have any way of crowning a 2007 season champion with out them. For the 2008 season all CD’s please email the results of their contest to will sears or Bill K. If Will or Bill is at the contest giving them the score cards will be sufficient.

Batteries: Our winch batteries are past their prime. Denny Zech and Phil Gieseking will take a field trip to the Pepsi company and see if they are willing to donate some good used batteries as they have in the past. A big Thank You to Pepsi!

Elections: This year, Vice President and treasurer terms were up for election. Denny Zech was nominated for another term. He graciously accepted. A vote was taken and all were in favor. Phil Gieseking was also re-elected Vice president. Thanks Denny and Phil for the work you put into the club to keep us flying.

Club President Bill Krauskopf called the meeting to adjourn at 1:30 p.m.

See You all at the field!

Notes from the president:

I would like to welcome everyone to the 2008 LOFT soaring season.
Just a short recap of 2007 and I’ll move on. The 2007 season was anything but typical.
Snow and cold temperatures put a damper on the beginning of the season, than right on queue high winds forced many to stay away during the season. The turn out was low on several occasions due to the weather and there is not much we can do about that. We lost several contest scores and this prompted a decision to forego last years trophies, sure made the bottom line look better, anyway it’s on the 2008.
First off I would like to introduce the 2008 LOFT board:
William Krauskopf President
Phil Gieseking Vice President
Denny Zech Treasurer
Job Albridge Secretary
Wil Sears most recent Officer
Thank you one and all.
Every year the same two questions arise at the annual meeting, and this year was no exception.
How to get new club members and what to do about a secondary flying field. We have discussed both issues at length and have come up with some pretty good ideas.
As far as new members, we discussed putting up signs when we fly to encourage folks to come and watch, taking the time to speak with these folks and even letting them fly a plane.
All of these ideas are great and every member should take time to meet and greet any guest that happen upon the field.
We have some ideas for a secondary flying field too. One being the Adams center land fill in New Haven and the other is IPFW.
Phil Grote with IPFW has offered to take me around and look at the other properties that IPFW has control over I believe he said that they have 26 locations to see, I can’t wait. Looks like we have a game plan for both issues and now as a club we need to follow through.

Did someone Say Woodie?

Woodies…Woodies everywhere, so much so we have set aside several Saturdays to hold special woodie contests. These will be fun fly contest and for bragging rites. All flyers are welcome to join in, but to compete you must have a woodie ship (determination of what a woodie model consists of is still be discussed) All others can fly anything they want they just won’t be in the contest. These days will be great for LSF achievements and practice. So come on out on a Saturday and join the fun.
In a closing note I would like to thank several members that offer so much to our club and take so little.
Ken Lozo, when we need this or that, even a meeting room or place to store our golf cart it’s Ken Lozo, Thanks Ken.
John Gospodarek ,who thanklessly delivers the golf cart to our contest no questions asked, helps with setting up the winches and does just about everything we need, Thanks John.
Denny Zech who takes care of all the club paperwork I mean all paper work, sanction fees, insurance matters, trailer license you name he does it, and yes he sets up winches too. Thanks Denny.
Phil Gieseking for lugging the club box around and making it to all the contests. Plus he lugs around two winches too, Thanks Phil.
A special thanks to all our club members for participating in a club that revolves around friendship and the sport of soaring

Yours

William D. Krauskopf