On Feb 29, 2016, at 8:45 AM

Alan Hieger wrote:

Subject: Re: Official Valley Circle Burners Weekly Stunt Nag--Special Premiere Edition

Today is Monday.  Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of your week.
Welcome to the inaugural edition of the Official Valley Circle Burners Weekly Stunt Nag, to be known henceforth as the Official VCB Weekly Stunt Nag, the OVCBWSN, or most frequently, the Nag.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

The short answer is, what you are reading is a highly experimental effort to merge the traditional but erratically published newsletter The Burner with an e-mail bulletin being used to coordinate Wednesday flying sessions, The Weekly Nag.

You are receiving this e-mail either because you are a Valley Circle Burners member, were once a member, or have at some time in the past expressed an interest in the doings of the club.

You may unsubscribe (A 21'st Century verb.  In the past, most subscriptions expired of natural causes at predictable intervals.) at any time by clicking on the "Reply to Sender" button and typing, "Stop Nagging me!"

That's the short answer?

As short as you're going to find around here.

You mean, there's a long answer?

Yup.

And?

Oh. . .right.  Well, since you asked. . .

Last spring, I decided to make a return to serious flying after a period of almost a decade in which my involvement in stunt consisted almost entirely of reading airplane mags and judging a few local contests every year, plus VSC (It's complicated.  Maybe another time.).  Because my business (dog training) tends to be busiest on the weekends, my ability to get meaningful handle time was dependent on the Wednesday sessions which Bill Barber was cheerleading.

Over the Summer, I fought to knock the rust from aging reflexes, all the time combating aging, over-the-hill airframes, and seriously snotted fuel systems.  By Autumn, the basic rhythms were coming back, I had some new lumber ready to come off the boards in 2016, and I started to feel hopeful about the upcoming season.

Then Bill Barber had his incident/episode/event/traumatic brain thingy.

Apart from worrying about Bill, one immediate effect of his absence on the club was that the weekly Wednesday flying session dried up to nothing almost instantly.  I thought about it for several weeks, wondering why suddenly none of the usual suspects wanted to go out mid-week.  Eventually, I had an epiphany:

Given the slightest excuse, a modeler will avoid a flying opportunity in order to do something useful.

Clearly, if my squadron mates were to have for themselves a good time, they were going to need to be nagged into it.

Thus The Weekly Nag was born.  Beginning with the phrase "Today is Tuesday," it simply provided a forum for elite Wednesday flyers (Ews) to turn vague intentions into concrete mission plans.  We've managed a mid-week session about 2 or 3 times a month since the Nag started going out each week to the folks on Bill's contact list.  I may be imagining it, but it feels like the pace has quickened in recent weeks.

When I was elected Secretary/Newsletter Editor (See below.) eight freaking days ago, it instantly occurred to me that if I were to simply e-mail the existing Nag to the entire VCB membership, it could be used in a similar way to goose interest in all sorts of club-related activities, primarily by having us share our half-formed intentions.  If we throw enough aviation at a wall, some of it will stick.  As I move down the learning curve of manipulating the e-mail system's features it will become possible to import text and graphic files (pretty airplane pictures), and make this bulletin more like a traditional newsletter, but with the advantages of extreme timeliness (directly impacting future events, not just reporting on the past) and providing a limited form of interactivity.  Most newsletter editors are continually begging their readership for content.  Consider yourselves begged.  The success of the new official Nag will not, however, depend entirely on your response.  In theabsence of outside input, you will find the Nag to be noticeably shorter than this inaugural edition, but my intent is to have it appear every Monday, and for its content to always be current.  If this approach succeeds, we should be able to slash stationary and mailing costs, while improving communications.  We'll see in the months ahead how (if) this all pans out.

One reason for changing publication to Mondays is to take advantage of field gossip from Sunday sessions to promote further flying during the week.  This means two things.  First, if I'm not at the field on a given Sunday (as will be the case for at least the next three weeks due to my Arizona expedition) those who do show up(and even you playing the home game) can still do mid-week planning in the Nag, which I plan to publish as usual with a VCB at VSC column.  Second, if there is something you don't want to see in these "pages," make dang sure I don't overhear you talking about it at the field, or at least be sure to swear me to secrecy before we leave.

Tony Naccarato asks, "A weekly newsletter?  Are you crazy?"

Yes I am, Tony.  Yes I am.

Do you intend to continue having a public dialog with the voices in your head?

No, that would be crazy.

Actually, if I'd written the paragraphs above in the third person, they'd read like Bob Dole having an incident/episode/event/traumatic brain thingy.

Official VCB Club Business

Non-Minutes of Club Meeting, 2/21/16

The meeting came to something resembling order sometime mid-morning around the picnic benches near the circles.  Over a dozen people were present, most of whom appeared to be VCB members.

The primary issue at hand was that with the annual club charter renewal coming due, the club lacked a full complement of officers as required by AMA.  To address this, a search for a new president was begun on site.  Long story short (too late!), a concensus formed around Ray Firkins, who despite threatening to move from the region at the first opportunity was named President by acclaimation or some other process which I'm sure was democratic.  Steve Schiff agreed to stay on for another term as Vice President, a role he has ably filled since the Chixilub impact, for which the entire membership remains grateful.  Stan Kitzes remains as Treasurer, if for no other reason than that none of the other officers have learned to forge his signature.  Jerry Silver is staying on as Club Safety Officer (as required by AMA) because nobody else wants the job and because nobody else in the club can do it with the seriousness and attention to detail required as well as Jerry.

Then the vacancy at Secretary/Newsletter Editor came up.  In unison, every face on the field turned and pointed directly at me.  I swear this is true.  Like targeting radar.  Like a family of meerkats tracking a predator.  Maybe more like jackals checking out potential meat.  Let's just say there was a feeling of expectation in the air. I protested that I am temperamentally unsuited for the job.  I was assured no one cared. I noted that I was not now nor had ever been a member (of the VCB).  I was invited to fork over $15 and join.  I pointed out that making a person pay a fee in order to be assigned a chore is an impolite act, and thereby became an unpaid member and club officer.  I will leave it to Stan to figure out how to account for this.

At this point, the VCB has a full complement of officers for 2016.

Old Business

I've been in the loop for a whole eight days.  I have no idea what old business might be pending.

New Business

Charter Renewal

The primary impediment to renewing the charter this week was my inability to discover the club's charter number, which theAMA needs to process the renewal.  Folks, the club charter number is 4406.  Get that, everybody, that's 4406.  So 4406 isthe number to respond with if anyone ever asks this question again.  Now that roughly sixty independent copies of this file exist, it should be easier to find next time.  Thank you, Bill Barber, for being the club's institutional memory.  Do I even need to make the obvious joke? 

I will contact AMA HQ during business hours today (2/29) to confirm that the deadline for renewing the club charter is 3/31, not 3/1 as I've apparently hallucinated.  If the later date is accurate, I can use some of that time to clean up our membership roster, which gets sent to AMA as part of the renewal process.  If facing the 3/1 deadline, I will file thepaperwork with the current membership roster.

Membership Roster

Our official membership roster currently lists 58 names, but it is clearly at least partially fiction.  For instance, Steve Sobel currently lives on the eastern tip of Long Island, a significant 3,200-something mile commute to the Basin, so we shouldn't count on Wednesdays in the park with Steve to maintain field activity.

According to the official spread sheet, paid membership for 2016 stands at 15 members plus me, and this is the roster I will provide to AMA if we need to renew today.  This number compares to a 2015 paid membership of 19, with an overlap of 9 individuals who chose to pay in both years.  These numbers suggest that the club stands to gain several members who simply haven't gotten around to re-upping.

Fellow hemisphere slicers, your new slate of officers has stepped up, however reluctantly, to get the job done when theclub faced dissolution.  I am asking as a personal favor that any reader with an interest in being a VCB member in 2016 get their dues to Stan Kitzes ASAP.

Stan, if you'd like, you can use the "Reply All" to set a deadline for inclusion in this year's roster, and we'll all know instantly what it is.

There are 5 potential members for whom I do not have e-mail addresses.  Four of these have not been active for the last two years, and will need to be contacted by telephone to see if they're still interested.  Honestly guys, I don't see myself getting around to that until I return from Tucson, so if anybody thinks it's urgent, they are welcome to usurp my authority in this matter and if so, get the list from Stan.

My e-mail address for Jed Kusik is no good, and as a recent dues-paying member, someone should call him.

I have spent much of this last week updating data on the roster spreadsheet, mostly by cross-referencing an old PAMPA membership directory, and by speaking personally with several flyers.  Before I leave for Tucson I will provide Steve Schiff with the master worksheet with all the accumulated changes to give to Stan.

Stan, once you've updated the spreadsheet, e-mail me a copy of the file.  A couple iterations of this and we'll know who's truly in the club and what resources we can count on.

Upcoming May Contest

There was some discussion of this year's upcoming May contest at the 2/21 club meeting, but little was resolved.

Terry Thorkildsen has agreed to handle the filing of the event sanction with AMA during my absence, but he lacks nearly every piece of information needed to do so.

--On which specific date(s) will the event run?

--What event(s) will be flown?

--Will we seek a Class A or Class C sanction?

--Who will CD(AMA certification req'd.)?

Note that every one of these questions needs to be answered before we can even begin tactical planning for the event, and Terry is under almost immediate time pressure to get the sanction application in.

This is a good space in which to resolve these issues quickly, preferably over the next few days.  Let's try to make it not look like a Google comments section (ie, hostility among friends who are going to have to face each other across rapidly rotating knives).

Adjournment

The meeting ended somewhat later than it started as members trickled off to prepare for flying or wandered away to dispose of the morning's coffee in a socially responsible manner.

Now Back to Unofficial Scuttlebutt

VCB Bylaws

According to AMA, every club must have at least a minimal set of bylaws on file with HQ, so some such set must exist ofthe VCB.  Unfortunately, not a single person to whom I've spoken has any idea what such bylaws might be or where a copy of same might be found.  Somebody might want to look into this while I'm out of state.  Given that the VCB was originally founded as a racing club (a piece of history of which I've just become aware), we might just find out that our bylaws are no longer fully relevant. 

Noseferatu Update

As noted in last week's Nag, the Ringmaster of the Dead finally made it's first post-reanimation flights right after the club meeting.  It took six flights and two flying sessions to get the Enya .35 working properly and dialed in to where I could stop listening for sudden engine stoppage and start thinking about flying the plane.  By the end of yesterday's session, the log book shows 11 flights, six of which are full OTS patterns.  A cumulative half-ounce of tail weight has rendered square corners at least conceivable, and I'm beginning to think that Tony N.'s initial estimate of a full ounce might be realistic (ugh!).  It will be instructive, once Nosferatu gets on the scales at VSC, to see what the rebuild and recovering have done tothe weight.

Anybody Going Flying?

The theoretically primary reason for this rag, I mean, Nag.

I'd like to get one more practice session in with Nosferatu before leaving for Tucson.  Right now, Steve Schiff and I are looking at either tomorrow or Wednesday, depending on variables in Steve's schedule, so I can't be definite.  The weather forecast (if you believe in such things) is for delightful flying all week, so opportunities abound.  Remember to post your vague intentions here.

I Am Such a Liar

I predicted in last week's Nag that as far as content went, I expected you guys to send me diddly squat.  Well, Terry Thorkildsen made me into a liar my very first full day on the job by sending me no fewer than four publishable columns.  I intend to dribble these out over the coming weeks for two reasons.  First, this inaugural edition has gotten pretty long, and it just might be getting tedious to read.  Although I may well be proven wrong, I suspect that the average Nag will run much shorter than this one.  Second, this gives me a chance to up my e-mail savvy.  If I can, I'd rather include Terry's work in themain body of the Nag, rather than just include it as an attachment.

That'll Do It For Today (at Last)

See you at the field?