To the club…

Hello all! I hope that you had Merry Christmas and I wish everyone a Happy New Year.

So what is on the agenda for the next meeting, you ask. Well we have to discuss replacing the frequency control board. We need to update the rules and we need a place for 2.4 GHZ fliers to put their AMA card while they are flying. Even though they may not be using a frequency per say, anyone on 2.4 GHZ must still have proof of AMA on the flying board.

The other item to discuss is the contest/fun fly calendar for the year. So if you are holding an event please come to the meeting so we can get it on the calendar. Also we will start to look for volunteers for the SAE event. That event will be May 4-6. It is a great event and we need several leaders to assist in managing the event. The SAE event will be huge this year so please step up now so we can begin to organize the event. This is a very important event for the Thunderbirds, for the community and for the hobby so your assistance is important and appreciated.

Also we have our Hellcat Raffle going on as well. We will hold the drawing on the Saturday before the March meeting (Saturday March 24^th). I had planned on only selling 300 tickets but do to overwhelming requests I have instead planned on just having a date for the drawing. You will be able to buy tickets up to the day of the drawing. The hope is that the raffle will provide enough money to purchase our new storage building.

Also I need to offer a special thanks to James Bruno, better known as Bruno, for giving a generous donation to our storage building fund. He is a new club member that felt the need to offer his support to the club. It is much appreciated.

Your new officers will be at the meeting. I am still President, Len Minco will be our new Vice President, Oscar Slaughter stays on as Treasurer, and my wife Lori stays on as Secretary and James Brown is our new Safety Officer. Woody Lake will stay on as our Newsletter Editor and Joe Joplin will continue his fine work on the website.

With that I will end this long note. Be sure to make the meeting Monday, January 22^nd at the Westside Café.

Thanks

Will Campbell

President, Ft. Worth Thunderbirds

Club President, Will Campbell, called scheduled meeting of November 20, 2006 to order.

Motion was made by Randy Martin to accept October 23, 2006 Club Meeting minutes as written by Club Secretary, Lori Campbell. Motion was seconded by club member James Brown and approved by members in attendance.

Treasurer Report: Financial information shared by Oscar Slaughter; approved by the members in attendance.

Old Business:

Toys for Tots – Mike Hicks CD: Very good turnout this year. Thanks to the club members for their support and donations.

Christmas Party: December 9^th Downtown Fort Worth – Care A Lot Inn 6:30pm

VP of District IIX AMA Elections News – Lawrence Harville has not yet heard the results from the election…but will let the club know the results as soon as he knows. Lawrence mentioned that District IIX AMA has a lot of volunteer positions open and please let him know if you are interested in volunteering for any of these positions. He will send Woody Lake a list of the positions that will be available. Lawrence would like to staff with our club members if possible.

(November 2006 Club Meeting Minutes – continued)

Newsletter Editor (Woody): Article in the newsletter regarding Thunderbird of the Year. E-mail Woody or any of the officers with your nominations. If you haven’t received a newsletter and would like to, please e-mail Woody and he will send one to you.

Corps of Engineers: Under no circumstances can we store private equipment on public land. Will and the officers will be working with the City of Benbrook to determine what type of building we can place on the site. We will be trying for shipping containers, but may have to resort to the same type of building that we had before.

Dutch Branch Park (where we fly) is CLOSED, starting Monday 11/27

They will allow us access to our flying field using the following directions to Holiday Park (the other "pay" gate). We will post these directions on the website. Please let your fellow Thunderbird Club members know.

Bring tarps, tents, and food (black-eyed peas and whatever else you’d like to eat)! (Lunch at 11am)

Ground Hog Day Fun Fly – Feb 4^th (Sunday). Requesting to pool resources for a tarp and some supplies. To be discussed at our January club meeting. Sign up sheet at our January meeting.

Bob Hoover – Trinity Bible Church in Willow Park has an event that they would like Fort Worth Thunderbirds to host. Joey, Elvis and Bob flew at last year’s event and they really enjoyed the show. The church has asked us to host a class to teach them about RC airplanes. Bob encouraged members in attendance to offer this at their own church or clubs so that we can get more kids interested in flying. Bob hasn’t yet developed the curriculum for the event. Will suggested that Bob work with Len Minco in putting together the training materials.

Texas Scale Masters Championship. 16^th and 17^th of June. Laurence Harville CD. The event has been sanctioned.

2007 Thunderbird Fun Fly Challenge: Claude Barnes announced that the club is planning Quickie races at the flying field in 2007. Any .25 engine under a $100 that you can purchase at the store. Any Quickie model will work (like the Quickie Sonic 500 that we raffled in tonight’s club meeting – kit is approximately $85). Planes built and ready to fly in January to start setting up for the races. 1^st tentative Race Date is in late February or early March.

Raffle: Hell Cat Raffle - Dave Dingman is building a Hanger 9 Hell Cat and donating a 6-channel radio. Joey is donating the engine. Our goal is to raise $3,000. The raffle will occur when we have raised the funds.

Field Tarps - Mark G will coordinate donations for tarps and bungee cords for the club. Proposed that Woody send e-mail to all club members with details. If anyone is interested in "buying a portion of a tarp", please e-mail Mark. Mark will coordinate with Bob Bishop and make the purchases.

Special thanks to Claude Barnes for hooking the club up with his employer in getting us trailer parts at a greatly reduced rate. Thanks so much!

John Brodie – Gave a great presentation on combat planes. His group sells the entire kit for only $125. He provided a detailed presentation that we will post on our website.

Bob Hoover – Showed off his P51. It was gorgeous!

Woody Lake – Woody brought his Spitfire – it’s still in primer, but knowing Woody, it will be at the field soon!

John relocated here from Alabama. He flies both helicopters and airplanes. Welcome John!

O.S. Engine (.25) – Walker Brents

15% Power Master Fuel – Clyde Henley

Quickie Sonic 500 RC Airplane – Dave Dingman

$10 Gift Card to Joey’s – Gary Alphin

Officers in attendance: Will Campbell, President; Lori Campbell, Secretary; Claude Barnes, Safety Officer and Dave Dingman, Immediate Past President

Respectfully submitted for approval as written:

Club President, Will Campbell, called special Club Meeting of December 6, 2006, to order.

Purpose of this meeting being the announcement to general club membership, and to whom it may concern, newly elected year 2007 term (January 1, 2007, to end of day, December 31, 2007) Club Officers.

Club President Will Campbell, to conduct club business, then opened floor.

(December 2006 Club Meeting Minutes – continued)

Old Business:

Club President, Will Campbell announced newly elected year 2007 term Club Officers, as follows:

President: William H. Campbell, IV

Vice President: Len Minco

Secretary: Lori J. Campbell

Treasurer: Everett O. Slaughter

Will and club members in attendance discussed plans for the January meeting including: Frequency Control Board, Contest Calendar, and Raffle.

With no further club business at hand, Club Secretary, Lori Campbell, made motion to adjourn. Said motion was seconded by club member Woody Lake, and voted approved.

Respectfully submitted for approval as written:

Well we’re off and running in the New Year. The renewals have been really coming in, 65+ and 5 new members since the first of the year. We managed finish 2006, despite the loss of the building and equipment, on an up beat. The total operating loss was less than $3000 and we mere able acquire enough equipment to keep the Mowing Crew going. So keep those renewals coming in and we will be back on our feet before you know it.

Please make welcome our latest new members Thomas G. Cheatum, Chuck Ezell, Everett W. Gunter, Alvin W. Mason and Larry G. Smith

The Christmas Party was great and everyone in attendance was served a really great meal. We had a nice atmosphere, good food and no standing in line. . If you missed it, all I can say is you should have been there

Don’t forget to go by JT’s Hobby and pick up your raffle tickets for the Hellcat being raffled by the club to raise money for a new storage build.

Well that’s all for now, see you at the meeting, so be there or be square.

Respectfully,

Oscar Slaughter

SAFETY AVIATION HUMOR

Next time you’re down by San Antonio visit the Stanzel Model Aircraft Museum. Located in Schulenburg Texas at the highway 77 and I-10 junction. The biplane on display is a 12-foot span scaled down replica of a vintage Boeing P12E, a WW I Army Air Corp pursuit aircraft. Additional information may be obtained by visiting www.stanzelmuseum.org.

Chuck McLeroy

A special ‘Thank You’ to those folks that donated training equipment to our Training Program. Due to the short daylight hours, training sessions are handled by appointment with an instructor. More to follow.

4 Feb 07 Ground Hog Day Fly-in

4-6 May 07 SAE Competition

19 May 07 War Bird Fly-in Terry Thorpe

thorpetr@flash.net

13 June 07 Old Farts Four Stroke Fly-in Chuck McLeroy

chpe12@sbcglobal.net

16-17 June 07 Scale Masters Qualifier Lawrence Harville

lawhar@yahoo.com