MINUTES OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING – SA MODEL AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION, HELD AT PICKFORDS ON WEDNESDAY 8 MAY 2002
PRESENT Bob Skinner Chairman, secretary, aerobatics
Johan Ehlers Vice-chairman, scale, safety
John Godwin SAMAA News, communications
Dave Armitage Proficiency, fun-fly, sunday flying
Joe Coetzer Soaring, constitution
Russell van der Westhuizen Pylon racing
Graham Swallow Control line
André Beukes Helicopters
Boet Denysschen Jets
Ian Edwards Large aircraft and Large Scale Aerobatics
APOLOGY Lesley Roberts Treasurer
WELCOME The chairman welcomed all to the meeting. Hopes new venue will be beneficial to good work. Special word of thanks to Harry Wilesmith for making boardroom at Pickfords available.
Distributed to committee members. Accepted with small alterations.
Financial report supplied by Lesley to meeting. All in order. Request for YTD figures to be included in financial reporting. Committee members to present budget items at June meeting. Invoice for Scale Masters presented. Amount of R1100-00 approved for Pylon Nats. Accounts for SAMAA News to be generated.
Draft constitution posted on SAMAA website. No adverse comment – perhaps too early. All opposed to pro-rata membership. Rolling membership system working fine. Joe Coetzer to make MGA model of structure available to all. DA to arrange meeting of dealers after AGM, to elect two spokespeople.
Jet incident proved CO2 extinguishers essential. Powder-type very dangerous if ingested. Severe interference experienced at Soutpansberg Club. Johan Botha will research and compile documentation. Safety rules for jets to Johan Ehlers. AFC in Cape Town main interested party for safety rules. M Wolffe to coordinate with Joe, then forwarded to Johan. Letter ex Keith Nicolls re 10KHz spacing in 35MHz band. DA to investigate. Serious incidents alleged at Langebaan event. Details requested ex Marc Wolffe. Dirt bike ignition could be possible cause of interference on 35MHz band. No confirmation.
BS presented document indicating growth in membership. Presented proposal to be appointed to handle admin and finances full-time, in view of retrenchment. Recused from decision. Members present considered proposal favourably. SAMAA will henceforth have full-time office. Position to be reviewed after AGM by management team. Video conferencing discussed. All felt it was not vital, and direct input could still be made by regions and SIG’s. After AGM, SIG’s to have more autonomy. WPAA report confirmed no AGM took place in 2001. Request for Parys airfield for G2K Nats in June passed to CAA for approval.
Glider: All in hand for Silverton. BS requested to attend prize giving. Hopes to have transport by then. Many new applications for membership.
Control line report by Graham Swallow. Good, with sporting result. Appeal from NCB for 2003 event to be awarded. All in favour of NCB C/L Nats at Pinedene 2003. Foreign participation expected. PR exercise at W/C and US Nats.
Combined Pylon and LSMAA Nats at RMAC all in hand. Reasonable entry in Pylon. Prizegiving after all flying.
Helicopter: Mini-Nats likely in November. Novice and Clubman to be contested. Rules existing. Venue likely to be in Gauteng.
May issue at mailing house. Constitution published for comment. Closing date for July issue=20th June. Publish another request to establish interest for electronic downloading of S News. Not popular at present, with very few respondents.
WP Championships postponed for one month. Gauteng monthly event at Vaal cancelled. Scores received from E Cape. Good probability of N Prov championship in Pietersburg.
LSMAA event at Putfontein on 14 April had 13 entries. Many new aircraft appearing. Renewed interest in W Cape. Ian Edwards to request regular feedback. RMAC Scale Day on Sunday should see some large aircraft.
Fun Fly Masters last week in October. Letter of complaint regarding lack of results. DA to solve problem. Proficiencies in hand. Request from W Cape for instructor judges: Jean Vos accepted. DA to request motivation for others from Marc Wolffe. TMFC appears to be okay, as well as PRF and WPAA. CRF team of father/son recommended. Proficiencies for slope soaring handled by Dave Greer.
All under control. P Eagle and K Mabeta on development team. Document generated to satisfy request of authorities. Subtle mods needed for SAMAA purposes (budget to be added). Reply to be sent to AeCSA.
Chopper day at White Hills saw about 30 entries. Event t RAM in June, NERF in August. Also possibility of event at Potchefstroom. Weekly working meetings in progress.
P Lott to act as judge at 2002 W/C in Germany. Protest brought to meeting regarding Formula 360 racing event at Nats. Committee considered all facts and ruled that CD decision is binding. Results not being disputed. Second protest involved documentary evidence of 1997 racing event. Record and time now credited to Lionel Smith. All in favour.
Need to build on recent enthusiasm.
SAMAA site has Proficiency details. Safety book not yet available for electronic display. Positive reaction of sailplanes book review.
No restrictions on airships/dirigibles regarding advertising.
Updates required to club register. BS to supply to John Godwin.
G Swallow to do objective review of correx kit ex Aeromax.
Proposal from Joe Coetzer (member 1407), seconded by Graham Swallow (life member 114) for increase in membership subscription fees from 1 August 2002. To be considered at AGM on 27th July. R150 for adult members, R75 for juniors. Life to be R1500. Committee to carefully review life membership fee. Possibly too little, too affordable. Will deprive association of income in later years. BS to extract profile from database. Pensioner fee to remain R80.
Problems experienced with over-flying of provincial roads (Scale Model Flyers, CRF Milnerton, CRF Bloemfontein, etc.)
Extensive upgrading of RMAC. NCB possibly relocating.
List of club officials to DA.
NEXT MEETING – WEDNESDAY 5 JUNE 2002 AT PICKFORDS, CNR OF SECOND AND SETTER STREETS, COMMERCIA, MIDRAND – 19:30 FOR 19:45.