Ahh, yes, Joe figured that I would read through the threads and see the post to me along with the pic that I sent him...

Anyways, I just want to make it clear that there is no animosity towards any groups or type of flying. I'm into racing, aerobatics, etc.. I like it all. If I had a plane like Joe's, I'd be out tearing up the sky too <and hovering>. Joe hasn't been at our field long enough to see what I used to do when I had an aerobatic plane.... Giant scale racing and college has kept me so busy that I haven't had the chance to build anything new. But, I just wanted to make a flew slight comments to clarify some things.

Our (the SCCMAS) original comment that started things off in Nov was the fact that we do not want people hovering over the runway with individuals below the plane. I'm not sure if Joe mentioned it, but we commented on the fact that he had touched the rudder of a plane piloted by someone else while hovering on the runway. In our judgement, this is not exactly the safest thing to do. So, we wrote him a letter asking to stop touching tails of hovering aircraft. Likewise, the TOC banned Sominique <sp?> from having his crew attach a banner while hovering. The bottom line is we do not want to jeopordize our field.

I think what happened after the letter was sent to Joe is things tend to get "divided". People see the letter sent to him and take things like we are cracking down on one type of flying. This is not so. I'll admit that we have problems with all types of aircraft and pilots. No one is perfect. The racing guys tend to barge in on the airspace and get close-in, jet guys are overflying the red zones, and it takes a lot to combat these type of things. Plus, it seems as much as we mention it in the newsletter and at the meetings, some people still don't communicate out on the flightline. Our membership passed 410 last year. Simply put, that's a lot of pilots and it has been a challenge keeping on top of it. We saw quite a surge in 2001 in the diversity of planes and seriousness of the people flying them. I can tell you, I never thought I'd see the day when I can go flying on a normal weekend and see SIX turbines flying.

On the concern of hovering -

I believe hovering over the runway is fine as long as no other pilots are around. That's fair game to me.

BUT...

When you have others present, hovering is a different story. Some may be ok with a plane hovering near or in front of them - others may not. So we have to err on the side of those that it distracts.

The underlying comment is that we are looking out for all members and stressing safety and will be doing our best to set a fair basis for all pilots.

And when I get another plane that will hover - rest assured that I'll be out there doing it too. My last intended plane - Super Stinker, did it ok, but the Moki cut out at idle a lot! - That's another story in itself.


http://tsunam.tripod.com/stkr1.jpg
That was me on a normal weekend...

Regards,
Michael