Zippi

My Feedback: (10)

We have over 120 members in our club but only 20 to 25 active members. These are guys or gals that you see on a weekly basis or just occasionally. The only time we see more of the members is during an event, annual picnic and Christmas party, or our Mall Show and sometimes work days to help at the field. We have a very nice flying facility with a concrete runway as well as grass with a nice club house and maintenance building. Ours is one of the best from what we are told from flyer's that visit or fly in our events from other states. It's just hard to believe that the whole facility is all for 20 to 25 people most of the year.

khodges

My Feedback: (1)

Don't complain---as long as they are paying their dues, it keeps yours from being higher; whether or not they make use of what they paid for is up to them. Less people at the field means more flight time for those who DO come, and less hassles with "who has the pin for 'my' channel". Our club is much the same; only about 50 members, and maybe 15 or 20 who do any amount of flying on a regular basis

mirwin

My Feedback: (1)

I ditto that. I belong to two clubs:

Club one has 25 members and only 4 or 5 of us fly on any sort of regular basis. So I can plan on flying anytime the weather permits.

Club two has over 100 members but only about 20 fly on a regular basis. But that 20 wants to fly on Sunday so it gets relatively crowded. To have the sky to myself, I fly on Saturdays.

There is another club in this area with over 200 members. A friend who belongs to it said he gets to fly once on average on a weekend day. That stinks!

carlosponti

My Feedback: (1)

i belong to a club that is an hour away so its difficult to get out there. i have to plan a whole day around going out there. i probably only find the time to go out 4 or 5 times a year.

Zippi

My Feedback: (10)

4 or 5 times a year. Man, thats a killer. Whenever I go out to fly, it's always for the whole day. Looks like everyone is in the same boat. A lot of members and very few flyer's. I like to have other flyer's there just to have someone to talk to and lie to

XTOL

Im our club sec/treasurer and the last membership list I compiled
had 52 paid members. On any given weekend day at our field you
would normally see 5 or 6 fliers. Add a bit of wind and that drops to 2.

A big crowd for us on a really perfect Sunday is 10 or 12 people.
We get somewhat better turnout at special events but not much.

We did have an unexpectedly high turnout for our club wiener roast
this past October. So much so that we ran out of hot dogs but this
is an exception rather than the rule.

Turnout for club meetings is also quite low.

Mike Hammer

khodges

My Feedback: (1)

That would kill me, I usually make it out 6-10 times a month. Today broke the longest no-fly spell I've had in a year; I flew about two hours today, first time in three weeks. Our field is about 20-25 minutes from my house. I've flown every month since I first started in r/c, 4 years ago.

JohnW

My Feedback: (6)

Zippi, our club has about 120-130 members, a asphalt runway, a grass runway, a nice club house and maintenance building... sounds almost like a carbon copy of your club. We too have about 25 "active pilots", i.e. those you would expect to see on a nice weekend, etc. We do have others that stay "active" in the club, but they limit their activity to once a month flights, or spectators, or club meetings, etc. All together, those I would consider "active" in some form over the course of a year would total about 50%-60% of the membership, yet the active pilots is still only about 20%. From other clubs I have visited, I believe this is the norm.

One thing I've noticed at our club is that our monthly club meetings get fairly good turnout, typically in the 20-35 count range. The club is as much a social group as it is a flying field. For those that don't fly much or at all for what ever reason, their only incentive to come out is a social event or as a spectator, such as you listed (mall show, event, clean up days, etc.) While I'm in the "very active pilot group", I believe it is important for the club to host events the "non-active" pilots will enjoy, from mall shows to inviting them to a contest as a spectator or helper (for free lunch), etc. This way the club offers a little something to the majority of it's members every year, and makes the non-flying members feel included in flying events, if they so wish.

Cheers.

Geistware

My Feedback: (16)

WOW, I guess I am obsessive. I usually make it out 4 times a week or more during the summer and 3 out of 4 weekends during the winter.

the_madgenius

Geistware , i guess i am in your catorgory, as i fly 7 days a week at our second field, which is a private airfield, with a mile and a half long runway. WInter over here is like your spring. So to top it off , i manage 800 tp 900 flights a year. There is 60 members in the club, but most of them use the other field which is 30 mile away from me and the one i use is only 6 mile away. Heaven ????? Yes

Zippi

My Feedback: (10)

Thats a lot of flying dude. You must go through a lot of fuel not to mention and engine or two. I normally get to go fly every Sunday and when I have time I might get to the field sometimes through the week but not to often.

Geistware

My Feedback: (16)

I would fly that much if I could.
Have to work too much.
I burn about 60-80 gallons of gasoline a year.
I probably fly 500 flights with another 200 or so with training and maiden flights of other peoples planes.

the_madgenius

Giestware , i am fortunate as i am retired , so work isn't an issue.
Zippi, i just did an average of the last 4 years of flying , and i average 127 gallons of fuel per year, and each year i perform a complete overhaul on my engines , rings,cylinder liner, bearings, and they still perform extremely well, so as you can guess i just love Super Tigre engines, especially the 90 size ones, that i use in my pattern ships.
So Merry Christmas to all modellers , especially our moderators who perform a wonderful service for us all.
Thankyou.

TexasAirBoss

My Feedback: (22)

Our club has about 135 members. My days off are during the week. And I work afternoons on the weekend. So I just fly during the week, Monday through Friday. I rarely see anyone at all. The older retired guys meet and fly on Wednesdays. I'm told that is the busiest day of the week at the field. I might see 8 or 9 folks then.
We have a beautiful field and it is very well kept. I appreciate all of those members paying dues and running the club. I'm not particularly happy with a non-flying membership making up most of the rules. It seems for many of them, the hobby is all about attending meetings and pretending they are on some board of directors or something. But, I guess the real flyers need them as much as they need us.
One funny thing. The pit area. Its this huge concrete pad 240 feet long. Its covered with a steel roof. They have electricity. There is a kitchen. There are two refrigerators and a stove and sink. There are dozens of tables to work on and an entire section that is full of picnic tables. It is amazing. The club has so much money, they just don't know what else to spend it on. There are nice restrooms also. They sank a well and we have water also. And get this, a grass runway ! It rains so hard here in Texas that runway will be out for days at a time. Sometimes I just have to laugh at thier priorities. But they don't fly. They just don't get it.

khodges

My Feedback: (1)

Too bad you can't just move the stuff out of the way and land on the pad when the runway is out. Think of it---you'd have the only club around with a COVERED runway

Talk about precision approaches, and watch out for the support posts with those wingtips on take-off! It would be like landing on the hangar deck of a carrier, through one of the outboard elevators.

The facility sounds awesome, a home away from home. Does it have a bunkhouse too?

blikseme300

My Feedback: (118)

Active membership ratios are typical to the numbers posted here. It is true that the funds generated off the dormant membership is good, but the flip side is where the danger lies. These dormant members can skew the election of officials is such a way that the club can fall apart. Been there, seen that.

Safe Flying! & a Merry Christmas

JohnW

My Feedback: (6)

"Sometimes I just have to laugh at their priorities. But they don't fly. They just don't get it. "

A big ditto from me on that one. I fully understand first hand the conflict between the wants/needs of the flying members vs the non-fliers. Being that I'm way into the active pilot side, I too am often totally baffled and amazed at some of the ideas of the non-fliers. It's like they never even considered what impact thier ideas would have to someone who actually brought out a plane and intended to fly. It is frustrating at times. My guess is that this struggle of flying members vs non-flying members occurs at basically every club of any size.

Cheers

Geistware

My Feedback: (16)

I will say that this is why I am glad that we are incorporated the way we are. The officers are the officials of the corporation and have full authority and responsibility for the incorporated club. We never block a vote on anything but the Board officers have the power to veto any vote. As a Board officer I want every member heard and while we as board officers have argued over many of the votes the membership has approved, the officers have yet to out right veto any vote. We came close during a vote from our november meeting but we didn't.

I would hate to see an incorporated club where the members have final voting rights. Anything and everything can get voted in and this could mean disaster.

d_bodary

My Feedback: (85)

yup 20% fly.
25% never see or hear from
15% only belong in case they lose another field might come out once a year to tell about the other club
40% could share a gallon of fuel between them and still have some left over at the end of the year

Bet you can't guess where the stupid rules come from
Not to mention the spending of the money

Seems to me belonging to a model FLYING club should be about the FLYING but alas it's not.

Dennis