Hi Mark Williams, Thank you for your input.
Where our club ( The Harbor Soaring Society) flies, it is within a Public Park. We do have a permanent frequency board. When I got there another person was on my ch (54). However, this person was at our slope flying area which is about 300 yds from the main flying area. I took 15 minutes to scour the field looking for the pilot. I have an Icom R2 that was used to find out if someone was in fact on the channel. After I spoke with this pilot, I just stood around chatting with friends. When he was done he came and told me he was finish. I went to the frequency board about 10 minutes after he said he was done. It was clear, put mine on, went to launch and the Sharon went straight down. I took the Icom out again and sure enough the ch 54 signal strength was on 8-9.... I thought ok, the previous pilot must have turned on his radio, but he was done and gone... So I walk again all over the place and found another ch54 pilot who also was on the slope. When I ask he said that ch 54 was clear when he put his pin up. I told him it was clear when I put mine up. Since this person is also a veteran of the field and knows well the rules I couldn't for sure with 100% say it was his fault. Upon coming back from the slope with him, we both saw that my pin with my name is in fact on 54, but his was clipped to the back of the board. But he swears it was on 54. I am involve with the rulemaking committee at the field and have suggested that an AMA card be clipped on to the frequency board as well like that of Visalia, but because it is at a public park that so far has not required AMA; it is hard to enforce to non AMA/Club members. However, our club, (The Harbor Soaring Society) has worked out a plan with the city to require permits and the full understanding of the rules and procedures to fly there and hopefully this will help reduce some of the accidents. Anyone else have suggestions? It would be great to get more input before the rules are set in stone. Thanks. > -----Original Message----- > From: Mark Williams [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Sunday, November 27, 2005 9:25 AM > To: Tuan Le; [email protected] > Subject: Re: [RCSE] Sharon 3.7 Pro Wanted > > > Was yours on the board? If it was I would not be so cool. > This should not > ever happen, especially with a frequency control board!!! How > did his get > removed, did it ever get attached to the board, how will we > ever know or is > that just an excuse for not accepting responsibility? > > We fun and practice fly at a field that does not allow us to > have permanent > structures, thus no structured frequency control boards. An incident > occurred this last week where a long time club member and > ex-safety officer > turned on with out knowing who was in the air. The offended pilot was > knowledgeable enough to know he had an issue. He announced > his problem and > the person on the ground turned off quickly enough for the > man in the air to > recover control. I was very perturbed that these guys that > fly together on a > daily basis had become so lax. > > I sold that airplane to the offended pilot and he just prior > to that had > told me I did him a favor. It isn't pretty and no where near > the caliber of > a Sharon. But, guys frequency control is not something to > take lightly. $150 > or $3,000, five pound objects traveling at potential speeds > in excess of 100 > MPH are not trivial particularly when uncontrolled. > > Mark Williams > President Soaring League of North Texas > AMA #5462 > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Tuan Le" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[email protected]> > Sent: Saturday, November 26, 2005 3:29 PM > Subject: [RCSE] Sharon 3.7 Pro Wanted > > > RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off. Email sent from web based email such as Hotmail and AOL are generally NOT in text format
