Monthly Archives: December 2013

Greg Cadez and I filled the position in 2013 and worked to keep Rogo Field a safe, happy and fun Flying Field.

Field Maintenance
Spring Cleanup Day 2013, and weekly grass cutting continued.  A proper windsock was purchased and installed.

The ad hoc Field Improvement Committee (Simon Hinchcliffe, Greg Cadez, Ken Ross and Bill Quantock) began discussions about a Geotex Runway at Rogo Field early in the spring of 2013. The committee researched Geotex for use at Rogo Field, a report was presented to the Board of Directors and the Board visited Keswick Model Airplane Club to discuss, examine and actually try out Geotex first hand. TEMAC’s Board of Directors deserves to be congratulated for its open mindedness in making this effort. This process resulted in the Board approving $1500 towards the installation of Geotex material at Rogo Field in 2014, contingent on a final review of the Keswick runway after winter.

In the fall Greg handed the position to me. The board approved money for gravel for the driveway and parking lot. This was added on October 10, 2013 and improved the parking area especially in wet weather. We expect to add more gravel next season.

Safety and Security
We will be reviewing safety and security procedures for the 2014 season.

Training
Congratulations to Mike Hazelton CFI for running an outstanding wings program, cited as exemplary by other clubs. A report of the 2013 Wings program is included in the President’s Annual Report.

2014 Objectives

• Spring Cleanup Day including grass improvement (date TBA)
• grass cutting (schedule as per 2013)
• gravel  as needed
• Geotex Installation Day(date TBA)
• review of safety and security procedures

Respectfully,

Bill Quantock (Director of Administration)

For those of you that don’t know, in my day job I am a Continuous Improvement Manager, which means I deal with numbers, statistics and data. (Too bad you can’t talk about which members eat the most cookies!!) As I look back on 2013 for TEMAC, I can’t help but appreciate some of the statistics. Before I get to that, I also want to draw another parallel with my work; we have a goal, or mission of 100% engagement and zero losses, which we refer to as “100 & 0”. For TEMAC it was a milestone year, our 10th birthday, but also a year of firsts (which I will come to.) So the theme for my report this year is “TEMAC: 10 & 1.”

10 years as an electric club is an awesome achievement and we’re going from strength to strength. Our membership is in excess of 120 members which makes us the largest club in our zone, we’re financially healthy and we have an improving and developing field. So what about our firsts….

It’s the first full year that we’ve had many aspects of our club in place, but I’d like to start with our website. We had over 1 million page views and 4.6 million hits this year – how about that! We get an average of 13 post per day, and Ed McMann has spent 35 days of 2013 (so far) on the website – does he deserve another award or therapy? I think our website is a form of therapy. It allows us all to stay connected and support one another 365 days a year, 24hrs a day. The best bit – our busiest topic is “Anyone planning on flying tomorrow?” which means that none of us can wait to fly again, and we want to do it with friends and other members! Ben Feist – thank you so much for giving us this gem.

It’s also the first full year that Mike Hazelton has been our CFI, and the first year of our “Park Wings” program. What a wonderful job Mike & his Instructors have done and what a great year for training it’s been. We’ve had 20 students and successfully graduated 8 new MAAC pilots, and awarded 9 Park Wings. I managed to attend and help with numerous Wednesday student nights, and they were always safe, fun & educational – with an open mind, you can always learn something.

What an amazing contribution Jack Higgins continues to make to our club. He’s brought so many firsts to TEMAC this year – the first season of pilot meetings, the first ever scratch build class and the first year of TEMAC pylon racing! These activities have added so much breadth, given such dynamism and generated so much fun for our members. Seeing the Norsemen come to life, each with their own individual livery was delightful to witness, and credit to their builders. I’d like to recognize Frank Van Beurden for his enthusiasm for and commitment to the scratch build course. I’m sure the participants are especially grateful. And what can I say about the TEMAC Piker class pylon racing that’s not already been said? Exciting, collaborative and fast, fast, fast. Ed showed fabulous skill, but didn’t have it all his own way – was it 4 or 5 race winners this year? All I can say is “bring it on!” for 2014. I’d like to acknowledge and thank ICARE-RC for supporting our group buy and making the series possible (with the Nooner kits.)

We continued our themed fun flies, and introduced a few new ones for the first time. Thank you to everyone who came out to support them and show-off some amazing and beautiful models. Some themes worked, and some didn’t; maybe it was the weather (which seemed unusually windy) keeping people away, the frequency of events or the theme itself? We’ll continue to strive to bring you the events you want in 2014, but bigger and better! I did enjoy all the BBQs and hot dogs we managed to have!

What else can you look forward to? We have our TEMAC indoor fun fly arranged for the holiday season, which we intend to be the first of many. Thank you to Michael Rogozinsky for arranging that. I hope you all know about our planned Geo-tex runway (pending a Spring review of the Keswick runway’s overwintering experience) which will allow everyone to enjoy the challenge of lining up and landing on a smaller, designated runway (if you wish) and taking off with smaller wheels (for all you jet fans and warbird enthusiasts.) We also hope to continue our field improvements, with improved parking, a toilet (hopefully) and more tables for the pits.

So as 2013 draws to a close, I want to thank each and every one of you for participating and supporting our club. The Board works hard to guide our club, and I am incredibly grateful for the efforts, commitment and support of every Board member and advisor. I’d especially like to thank Greg Cadez for his enthusiasm and stewardship of administration this year. In late summer, due to the demands of work & commitments outside of TEMAC, Greg handed the role of Vice President & Director of Administration to Bill Quantock.

TEMAC truly is a special club; and it’s special because of each and every one of our members. As I continue to be part of TEMAC, I realize more and more what a community it is, and how much we all give to one another. Whether it’s advice on a motor, emailing a photo of a model, the loan of a screwdriver, walking with a friend to search for a model in the beans, a laugh at a pilots meeting or true friendship at a time of crisis – we really are the club we are, because of each and every member. So again, at the end of the 10th great year, with so many firsts – thank you all.

Simon Hinchcliffe

TEMAC President

TEMAC remains in good financial condition as a result of continued prudent management of our finances by the Board, ensuring that we spend on the important things, but stay within our fiscal means.  We have invested carefully in solid infrastructure improvements (e.g. driveway upgrades) and field maintenance (rolling; seeding; grass cutting) to ensure a good facility which meets the needs of our growing club, with adequate funds remaining to cover our other operating expenses and of course, food, prizes and awards for our fun fly events.  In October the Board approved our first dues increase in 10 years, from $65 to $80 per year for full memberships, effective 2014, to allow for inflation, additional field improvements (e.g. possible geotex runway, gravel, storage bins) and increased operating costs (lease, web site, office expenses).  The complete new fee structure is available on the TEMAC website (http://temac.ca/?page_id=5).

The increased revenue stream created by unprecedented membership growth in 2012, has remained stable, with modest turnover in membership in 2013. TEMAC’s membership now stands at 126, including 2 life members, 14 junior members and 5 non-flying members, making TEMAC the largest club in the SE Zone of MAAC.  Growth in the club has put significant additional demands on our field resources (parking, assembly tables, and airspace availability), but so far have not had to limit how many members we can accommodate at TEMAC.

Looking to 2014, we are submitting an application for a Trillium grant and have again requested funding from the SE Zone of MAAC to allow us to make further improvements to our field, including the parking area and driveway at ROGO field.  Given our positive cash situation over the year, and the added revenue from the dues increase, we look forward to maintaining our facilities in good condition with modest improvements.

And I can’t emphasize enough how extremely fortunate we have been to have the talents of a consummate IT professional and web designer, Ben Feist, to make our web site the vibrant communications and discussion vehicle that it is.

Andy Hoffer

Secretary-Treasurer and Membership Director

TEMAC

What a year we have experienced. The weather was not very cooperative but we adapted, we improvised and we overcame like the marines. This was the second year of our Mini Fun Fly experiment and we had expanded the involvement to include more members and encourage greater participation in our events. Some worked, others didn’t. Next year we will try harder to meet the needs of the membership.

We had Warbirds, Jets Day, Speed Fest, Annual Fun Fly, Battle of Britain Day, and Skills Challenge. For next year I think we will limit it to four events, one a month.

Warbirds and Jet’s Day will, most likely, be combined with and additional emphasis on WW1. We will have more group or formation flying and possibly some simulated dog fights with appropriate aircraft.

The Annual Fun Fly will remain the way we currently run it but we want to raise the emphasis on the quality of the awards. With the amount of scratch building going on in the club we want to add some emphasis by way of recognition of this as a class in its own right. We would like to consider encouraging visitors to join us for this fun fly.

Speed Fest was a bust, so that one we won’t try again for some time. It’s my belief that it lacked sufficient appeal to enough members and the key is to make an event attractive to the greatest number of members. Niche classes won’t cut it.

The Skills Challenge has proven to be the most popular of all our events. Next year I will have new challenges in addition to some favourites. This year we had 32 pilots who flew 76 flights.

If you have never attended a fun fly, for whatever reason, you have missed a great experience. Even as a spectator you can have fun and get involved. Come out and I’ll get you doing stuff and have you involved in no time at all.

Piker Class TEMAC Team Racing was a wonderful experience. Great pilots, great racing and best of all great fun that is the story of 2013. This is not about elite members or extra skilled pilots. Most had never raced when we started but as time passed and they began to believe in themselves they showed amazing improvements in their times and pilot skills. Next year we will have more entrants and new planes, many own designs. We will spice things up with two relay races at the midpoint of the season and at the end. They will have more points available but they will only go to the team and not the individual pilot. We have lots of room if you’d like to give it a try.

Pilot’s Meetings were a resounding success. We are getting 25% – 30% membership turnout. Proving once again that a large part of this hobby is the social aspects.  The management of the 3 Monkeys is very pleased with our presence. We do not plan any changes as the format seems to work for everyone. Drop in some time and check us out if you have not been to a meeting yet.

Scratch Building was a new experiment this year. I think it was very successful mainly due to the skills of Frank van Beurden. It evolved very differently from our original plan but we adapted on the fly and ended up with a handful of maidens that was most satisfying. We are planning a new build and are working on a new design. We will be meeting in the party room of Colonel Mustards on Hwy 7 at Ninth Line.

Indoor Dome Fly. We are starting up our Indoor flying again. Same team and the same fun. Sunday December 29, mark it on your calendar and start fixing your indoor models. Check out the Forum for more information.

MAAC Meetings I have been representing the club with other members of the Board at various MAAC events. Thank you to all who took the time to respond with your Proxy when requested. You have no idea how proud I am to represent you when I have the largest representation of any club. Your votes count.

TEMAC Tickler continues to be our communication vehicle of choice. It is well received by all and I hope to continue to make it timely and humorous. Send me any stuff you would like to share with fellow members. I’m particularly interested in any historic material from the early days of the club. The Tickler is actually the product of a number of club members. Ben Feist who runs such a fabulous website and always puts up with my lack of computer skills and patiently walks me through the solutions. Andy Hoffer and Greg Hazelton and all the others who send me photographs

Thank You to all the volunteers who came out and helped with events. Especially Greg Cadez who went above and beyond storing our supplies. Thank you to all who took the time to thank me for what little I do for the club. It’s you who give me the strength and desire to continue to help the club move forward. Thank you to the Board for all your support and encouragement, it’s great to get your input and cooperative involvement in running events for this club.

Jack Higgins.