Presidents Corner

Don Hafer

This month I want to focus on safety and money. Safety comes first. I mentioned at the last club meeting about my recent re-kitting of a giant Stinger due to breaking basic safety rules that I learned 20 years ago. We had recently upgraded and improved our backup tow plane and we went out for a full day of soaring activities. This plane has been used by our group for a good 10 years or so and it is very reliable. During the upgrade the old four cell Nicad batteries were upgraded to new five cell packs.

At the beginning of the day I checked the voltage and all was in order. We completed our normal preflight checks and the first couple of hours of flying were great. Because we were all so familiar with this plane we never thought to keep track of the new batteries. You guessed it, they died during a flight of course and we were fortunate that no one was near the crash site. The new batteries only had about half the capacity of the old packs. OOPS. Even with a redundant, dual battery system, you have to keep track of the packs to see when they go south. Most of us get used to a plane and we don’t check the batteries before each flight as recommended. You can bet I will be paying more attention once again.

At the February club meeting we will conduct business as usual. Some important financial decisions will be made about topics such as protecting the club bank accounts and how to fund ongoing field maintenance. As is our normal practice, the Board of Directors will do our homework and come to the membership with some options to propose. I look forward to a nice turnout and the program will also be exceptional. Please bring along your latest show and tell items to share with the rest of us.

Don