I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Even with this busy time of year, I hope you all can come to our annual Christmas Dinner Party on Saturday December 10 at 5:00 pm at the San Marcos Senior Center.

 

We will be having a great dinner catered again by Redtail Catering. The menu includes Tri Tips of beef, roast turkey with stuffing, rosemary potatoes, green bean almondine, rolls, along with desserts, coffee and drinks. We will have some year end awards and raffle prizes. You can purchase tickets for $25 ea. on the club website or from Joe Villarreal if you're out at the field. December 7 is the last day to buy tickets.

 

Also, Medal of Honor Nominee Royce Williams will be our special
guest.

Happy Autumn to everyone. Cooler temperatures make this a great time to come out and go flying.

For any of you that missed our October Club meeting, we had a Special Honored guest in the person of Captain E. Royce Williams. We hung on his every word as as he recounted his story of engaging 7 Mig-15 Soviet pilots during the Korean War. The U.S. Senate should be voting to approve his Medal of Honor award next month. We will be keeping in touch with him and will let everyone know when it happens. Here is the link to a Youtube video of his story...https://youtu.be/AbzrcJ2GZHg

​We Have a New Field!!
 

As I write this column, we are in the process of signing a Land Use Agreement with Perricone Farms, the landowner of the 436 acre property on Cole Grade Rd. in Valley Center. Our long search for a new location has ended and I am very excited with the possibilities it brings in the coming year.

 

This effort would have not been successful if it weren’t for the efforts of our Search Team who spent countless hours over the last few years to make it happen. Bill Hill, Roger Cosio, Loris Azar, Chris Wilson, Eric Armstrong, and especially Steve Gebler are owed a Tremendous debt of gratitude for a “ Mission Impossible” accomplished.

 

As we move forward into Oct. .......

 

Hello everyone! I am hoping you all are enjoying the summer and have been out to fly and socialize with friends. We had a great turn out for our August membership meeting, WASN’T IT TERRFIC TO SEE BILL HILL GIVE FINN THE PLANE HE WON AT THE RAFFLE!!

I want to take a few moments to thank those involved in locating a new home for us: Steve Gebler, Bill Hill, Lori Casio, Joe Villarreal and many others who have spent countless HOURS trying to locate a place for us to enjoy this sport.

 

Our Independence Day Weekend Bash is upon us. I hope everyone can come out for all or part of the weekend to join us for our last big event at Johnson Field. Remember...Club meeting at 10:00 AM on Saturday July 2 followed by a Barbeque lunch for all. Monday July 4 is our annual Independence Day Club barbeque. Bring your favorite desserts to share and right afterward we will have a free raffle for all club members. For more information on the weekend events check it out on the club website.

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Our field search team is working very hard to secure our new flying site. The Valley Center landfill site as well as the San Pasqual Valley site are at the top of the list. We should have some news very soon about them.

 

Hope you all are getting ready for a great summer. Enjoy the warm days and cool nights cause the heat's just around the corner.

We have been given a little breathing room from leaving Johnson Field in July. The Pappas group now says that they won't start grading until September 1...or possibly later. Should know more in the next few weeks. In the meantime we are still busy locating a new flying field site.

The Valley Center site is in final negotiations but another location is being looked at also. More information to come very soon.

The San Diego Heli Fun Fly was a huge success. 72 pilots from around the country participated and made the last Heli event at Johnson Field a time to remember.

 

It is with sadness to inform our membership that we have lost two of our fellow flyers this month...Tom Johnston and Chris Bunn. It was a great Honor to have known both of them and they will be greatly missed. We have extended an offer to both families that at the appropriate time we would like to honor their memories with a tribute flight at Johnson field. More information to come later.

The San Diego Heli Fun Fly is just 2 weeks away! Mark May 12-15 on your calendars to come see some exceptional helicopter flying at Johnson Field. There will be demonstrations by some helicopter pros along with food, multiple vendors, and a big raffle during the weekend long event. Heli night flying is spectacular....
 

 

April brings spring showers and also warmer weather. As a matter of fact, a youngster in my community of Valley Center was bitten by a baby rattlesnake a week ago. Please take care when out at Johnson Field to be aware of these
dangerous residents , especially if you bring your dog with you.

More on our field search...

 

As most of you know by now, we have been told by our property owners, Pappas Investments, that our time left at Johnson Field is coming to an end. The grading for the development may begin as early as this July. We probably have a little more time than this, but not much.

 

I want to take a moment to thank them for the good long run we as a club have had at Johnson Field. They could not have been better or more gracious to allow our club exclusive use of this 80 or so acres for the last 20 plus years......

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February brings us full speed ahead going into 2022. At the forefront will be our field search as I anticipate that there will be some information coming soon about how long we will get to remain at Johnson Field. More to come at our next Club Meeting at the field on Saturday February 12.

In the mean time, I have confirmed that another club in San Diego County was recently forced to suspend all flying activities for 60 days. In a surprise visit, the FAA found multiple violations of club members in regards to no FAA identification numbers on aircraft and members with no TRUST certificates. Doug Abel has graciously written the following article addressing the requirements we all must follow .....