President Mark Weeks Called Meeting to Order @ 6:30pm

Introduction of Guests, and Club Officers. 17 Members were present and four members on the zoom call. There was one guest, Richard has attended a few of our events and is planning on joining BBMAC. Wendell Doubleday was at his first club meeting. Wendell has a full-size super cub that he hopes to land at the club field someday.

President – Mark Weeks

Vice President – Ron Swift

Secretary – Steve Higgins

Treasurer – Dart Sharp

Safety Officer – Vince Bell

Minutes from December meeting approval: Motion was made, 2nd and passed.

OFFICER REPORTS:

President: Covered in New Business:

Vice President: We had 21 People at the event including Sandy. Ron wanted to thank Ron B for cooking. We had quite a spread of food and items some even brought items like doughnuts as well. The event was excellent, and we even had a member from another club, and we did have another guest visitor who is planning on joining BBMAC when they finalize his move back to the Pacific Northwest.

Secretary: We currently have 55 Members in Good Standing; 30 Members have renewed for 2023. Two members with less than 30 days on their AMA membership. They will be notified by email in the coming weeks. Reminder: Dues are Due. If you haven’t paid your dues yet, remember that dues are due by the end of the March meeting to avoid $25.00 late fee.

Treasurer: In the Black, Money is good. Last year we spent a bit on rock and the Sani -Cans. This year we should finish still in the black even with the higher amounts for Flushing the Sani-cans, and other expenses. It was asked to set a date for an Audit, date hasn’t been set at this time.

Safety Officer: No real issues at the event. If you do wander off the field, it is wet and can grab you. The field was wet today with the rain we have had in the past few days. If you must go retrieve a plane, bring a buddy and dress appropriately. We are waiting for Amazon to put the radios on sale before we purchase them. There are also hip-boots in the container.

Field Manager: Michael has installed the door of the Clubhouse. Looks good… Still a little trim and transom work to install. Thanks, Michael, for the work! The clubhouse temperature with the heater inside was above 70 degrees! In the end, it wasn’t used at the freeze-in due to how good the weather was last Saturday! With Heavy rains, there is the possibility of field flooding. Please be careful when you venture off the main field.

Newsletter Editor: Ron handed out copies of the November Newsletter. Please send Ron/Mark pictures so we can publish them on the website.

OLD BUSINESS: None.

NEW BUSINESS:

Event Schedule:(Full Schedule is on the last page) Ron Presented and spoke about the event schedule. He ran thru the scheduled Dates in order. We also spoke about the Micro Quad Racing and Car Racing Dates. As usual, we do have a busy event schedule. If you want to come out and fly, the events are usually finished by 1 pm.

o The 2023 dates are pretty much the same as 2022, and the events are scheduled for Saturdays.

o It was proposed that we have rainout dates, but it was decided by the board to do them rain or shine and not have rainouts or secondary dates.

o Brian talked to Ranger Dave and confirmed the lake’s Boats and Floats dates are open for us to use the lake.

o Ron mentioned that the charity auction or beneficiary might/could change.  We will discuss this later in the year.

o Ron would like to get some ideas for the Family Picnic Day, maybe we could arrange something with the Scouts.

o The owner of the Lake store purchased a plane, at some point, he’d like to learn to fly.

o Confirmed with Paul that the Heli Event on August 26th, Paul later confirmed via email that, indeed, the 26th of August for the Heli event was a “Go”.

o Thinking about having the December Christmas party at Alfy’s in 2023, again the board will discuss this as the year progresses.

o Ron is also considering another swap meet like 2022 in the Sept/Oct Time frame.

o We didn’t talk about the work party, this year, we may have a couple of smaller work parties. The board is also currently working on a plan for this.

o In the past, we have charged a $5.00 fee, Ron mentioned it would be a good idea to continue to waive this fee. It was motioned and voted on to continue to waive the fee.

Meeting Date Change for Summer months. June, July, August, and September, and October. Mark Weeks said many members would like to have the meetings out at the field in the summer months. By June, we shouldn’t have an issue with daylight.

Mark will be sending surveys to see where we stand. Please take some time with these. The board does value your opinion.

A few surveys will be coming out, please take the time to answer them, they will help the board determine what events the membership would in.

Flight Test has been awarded CBO classification. We are just getting started on our paperwork with the AMA. There was a question about if the lake needed an FRIA zone as well. The lake is listed as a secondary site, but AMA does not have the lake information. We need to work with AMA to add the lake as a secondary site. Mark is working with Phil at the AMA.

Summer event at field foam board build? A few clubs are doing a foam board builds challenge. You would be given two sheets of foam. You would then bring it to the following meeting. The board will discuss this and see what kind of plan we can come up with.

Work-Party projects:

o Shelving and org container (organized, clean up and label things).

o Seal the Roof on container.

o Crawler track

o Move the existing crawler area to the old barn area?

o Mount Rain Cover to driver stand

o Over seed runway

o Stairs from lower to upper areas

o Seed picnic area

o Touchup flight tables, clubhouse,

o Water/Power : This should be finished this spring/summer. They have a T setup already, it was asked where the water came from before, but there are problems with is and too much to fix. We also talked to him about adding s security light pole. Permitting issues. Dave is working with his father to get a permit. They are fixing some damage that occurred from a fallen tree and damaged some of the power electronics in the houses above the field.

Brian did say he gave the Rangers their Christmas gifts, they were very thankful. Brian beat Mark in paying the rent for the field this year.

Michael mentioned that we should have a fire extinguisher at the field and easy access, a motion was made 2nded and passed to buy two fire extinguishers.

PROGRAM:

Ron Swift Talked about setting up exponential.

For Futaba, and others, you use a negative expo, while for radios like Spectrum, you  use a positive value.

Exponential “softens” the center of the control stick. Generally, you do this to make your flying smoother and helps the pilot from overcorrecting the controls.

Keep in mind that each radio system is different.

There is a club member that set his at 100%. This, made the plane hard to control and caused him to crash.

Ron was telling a story about a guy at the model hobby expo who didn’t like the amount of expo that had been set. Some people like it, and some don’t.

On Spectrum, they have a gauge that shows you how much you need and to check if the values are correct at positive/neg.

Typically, the more “squirrely” the aircraft, the better idea it is to use expo.

For Heli’s, you typically do not use expo. you let the flight controller take care of this.

For AS3X, you need to be careful as AS3X or Safe can override exponential. When using AS3X or Safe Mode, consult the documentation and ask a club member.

Some use Flight Modes. Again, these are meant to make flying easier.

With 3D and Heli’s people will use Flight Modes to setup different responses. So, you can change your mixes in flight for different performances.

You can use the internet to help you set radios, if you need help, be sure to reach out to a club member, we are certain that somebody will be willing to help you set this stuff up or send you links where you can find tutorials.

Ron Told a story about someone at the field in Snohomish, whose rotor speeds were out of control and downright scary.

Ken said he has a detailed PDF on spectrum radios for mixes and expos for setting up your radio. The document is about 600 pages, it’s mostly set up for the DX9 or NX series radios.

Just be consistent with your radio setup. Try to set up your radio the same for all planes this way, you don’t get it confused.

Everyone should be programming a kill switch to kill the motor, as it can be dangerous if someone not familiar with the aircraft/model picks it up off the ground.

The question was asked about using 72mhz. People today use 72mhz for boats, so there is a risk of a crossed signal. Make sure you use the Frequency board if you use a 72mhz radio.

Make sure you ask around. We have a diverse group, and most everyone will help you with your radio setup.

Ron then spoke about ensuring that your receivers and servos will operate at the correct voltage, as some older receivers and servos don’t work at higher voltages we use today.

ADJOURNMENT: 7:29 Pm.