The holiday season is, once again, upon us. I wish to each of you and your family and friends a wonderful, healthy, and relaxing season.

There’s a lot to be thankful for. I’d just like to mention a few things that I am thankful for and hope that you feel the same way.

Our Wonderful Flying Field

Thanks to the generosity of the Pappas family of Sacramento we have enjoyed our location for more than 20 years. If you would like to send them a note of your appreciation, you can drop them a note at pappas@pappasinvestments.com I think Patrick Pranica summed it up for me one Sunday morning when he said, “this is like therapy, man!” Therapy, religion, addiction, family, or whatever; aren’t we lucky!

Our Great People
People ask me all the time — “What’s your favorite part about the hobby? Is it building the planes or flying them?” I have to confess that I can’t decide between just the two. The third, and heavily weighted component is the people! What would this club be without the great people that constantly keep us in good spirits!

Well, if you missed it, you missed a great day — maybe even the event of
the year — Jennifer Walker and Richard Torres’ engagement at the field on
October 19. See lots of photos of the day later in the Transmitter. Be sure to offer Jennifer and Richard congratulations! Did someone really say, “are you xxxxxxxx me” when the proposal banner flew by?

Richard also conducted our first Poker Fun Fly that day. Talk about cool, calm, and collected!

With all the warm weather and Santa Ana winds, please be extra careful at the field as it is a tinder box out there. Be sure that you know where the fire extinguishers are located and learn how to use them.

PRESIDENT’S COLUMN-Steve Gebler

I regretfully would like to inform everyone of the passing of Ray Klotz this past month. Ray was an excellent
and very generous member of the club. Ray donated his video projector to me when mine decided
to quit. Please read Joe Buko’s “In Memorium” to Ray later in this issue.

It’s time to think about upcoming elections for club officers and board members. If you have an interest
in supporting your club, be sure to let one of the existing board members or officers know of your
intentions. We would welcome suggestions and nominations of people that you believe could serve
the interest of our club.

The ever popular club auction is coming in November. Get ready to clear out your hangar of some of
those aircraft, parts, tools, etc. that could be donated to the club for the auction. Polish up the checkbook
and bring home a beauty of your own!

PRESIDENT’S COLUMN-Steve Gebler

Warm days and lots of activities still ahead as summer winds down. Thanks to the
Continued generosity of Pappas Investments, our newly mowed field looks great!

Safety
It’s important, that when you are on the flight line that you LOUDLY announce your
intentions. That means loudly and clearly calling out your intentions to “come out”, “take
off”, “landing”, “on final”, “low pass”, “touch and go” and so on. When there are a lot of
pilots on the line, or if there are nitro or gas planes in the air, it is frequently difficult to
hear your intentions from one side of the line to the other unless you shout them out! It’s
common courtesy to acknowledge that you heard the call out by shouting back, “got it”.

PRESIDENT’S COLUMN-Steve Gebler

If you haven’t been out to the field recently, you’re in for a treat. Due to the connued generosity of Pappas Investments, this past week the fields got a major haircut and now are trimmed and ready to go for our flying pleasure and safety.

With the wildly changing weather condions, be sure to stay hydrated at the field.

Trifecta: Keith Albert scored the win for the second month in a row. I came in second pu'ng Terrible Tim (our reigning combat champ) Hitchcock in third.

PRESIDENT’S COLUMN-Steve Gebler

Shout Outs
Trifecta
Congratulations to Keith Albert for winning this month’s Trifecta. Not only did he get to wear the esteemed “Chase the Skirts” tutu, but annihilated the completion throughout all phases of the competition to take top combat honors.

Maker’s Faire
Palomar Radio Control Flyers Hero Doug Abel planned and executed an excellent presentation for our club at the Maker’s Faire in Vista this month. Doug located all kinds of airplanes to build for families visiting the booth at the faire, had two flight simulators working and really did a great organizing the activities and securing volunteers to help out at the event. Bill Hill, Richard Torres, Jennifer Walker, Chris Thompson, Rick Hilton, and yours truly were also on hand for this fun and informative event.

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PRESIDENT’S COLUMN-Steve Gebler

Happy beginning of the warm weather! Congratulations to Scott Dedic and all his contributors to the 20th anniversary Helicopter Fun Fly. With over 50 pilots at this year’s event and the return of the Align Flight Academy, this well orchestrated event is looked forward to every year and makes a nice contribution to our club’s coffers.

PRESIDENT’S COLUMN-Steve Gebler

By the time you read this, another addition of the Paintball Blaster will have been completed. Thanks to David Storey for adding two new Paintball guns to the artillery and for Tim Hitchcock to do the same. Five guns on the line for some old aircraft devastation should provide some fun results!

The weekend of April 27 provided some memorable experiences for the Riley family as our young friend, Charlie Riley, graduated from basic training from the Marine Corps and Chuck and Gwen Riley hosted a party at their new home in honor of Charlie who will be proudly serving the country.

PRESIDENT’S COLUMN-Steve Gebler

As always there is a lot going on a the field, but before we get into the events, there are a lot of “shout outs” this month to our outstanding members.

Field Cleanup Weekend
The turnout was great and the efforts made to make our beautiful field even more beautiful were outstanding. Sam Terry brought his Montgomery Ward – yep, that “Monkey Ward” -- giant mower to the field (again) to keep the weeds from taking the place over. Did you know that there are at least two things that are 85 years old at the field? It’s Sam (whose birthday was this month) and that ancient Monkey Ward tractor!

PRESIDENT’S COLUMN-Steve Gebler

Rain, rain, go away! Once again the rain has caused havoc on our roadways and events. Despite reworking the roads and giant sinkholes around the field, please continue to use caution when driving around or walking to retrieve an errant aircraft.

The rain is likely to postpone the Trifecta Combat event again, originally scheduled for Sunday, March 3

until March 10

PRESIDENT’S COLUMN-Steve Gebler

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As always, there is a lot going on at the field. We have a ton of activities and events coming soon. As I write this, yet another storm is on the way that will postpone our monthly Trifecta Combat event from Saturday, February 2 until Saturday February 9. Combat begins at 9 AM with a pilot briefing at 8:45. Clearly, this storm is nothing compared to the north central US is going through.

PRESIDENT’S COLUMN-Steve Gebler

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As this year draws to a close, we have a lot to be thankful for. We are truly blessed with the best flying environment as well as the wonderful members, and their families, in the club.

Saturday, December 15 was our annual Holiday Party and approximately 70 members and their families attended the event. This year’s party was organized by Barbara and Joe Villarreal and my wife, Brenda.