We have had a rift in our club between the turbine pilots and the OF's. They do not like our aircraft due to that we do not walk down to see their old cubs and Taylorcrafts anymore, I heard this straight from one of the OF's. Also when visitors come to the field to watch, the first words out of their mouths are " Where are the Jets?".
Well unforunatly, we just got a new president who is an OF. Last week his crew of stupid OF's went out and dug up our 2 year old runway with pick axes and shovels. Right down the center line stripes, removed every one and left deep ruts. What kind of idiots would waste $26,000.00 of the clubs money like that? These are childish, very small men. You know the type, the ones that sit around, don't do anything to help the club or promote the hobby, and by the way, never even fly. One of the OF's, at the special club meeting to vote on the runway, had such a hissy fit that he stomped his little feet, threw up his arms and stated, " I quit, you are all a bunch of ***** hol&$" he did not pay his dues the next year, but wouldn't you know, he still came out to fly.
This all took place at Tri Valley RC in Rosemount, MN. David Shulman even remarked that this was one of the best places he had ever flown. Well, not any more!
The moral of the story is, pay close attention to what you have and do your bset not to lose it.
Thanks for listening to me whine.

Let me get this right
They dug up an asphalt runway??

What was the "Official" reason for that?
It doesn't make much sense.
What are the remaining runways constructed of?

I no just how you feel......... We have the same problem here. Bunch of "Old farts". After begging and proving that it is good to roll a grass field. We are finnally getting it done. Our field has been around for more than 30 years. The president does not believe that rolling a field helps. (Than again, he doesn't fly) I must say I did see him fly about 2 years ago. A 40 size high wing trainer. And yes, the field is good enough for 40 size planes. The voting members in the club were born before "Moses". THEY DON'T FLY. Now we have 4 jet pilots and there not happy. It's time to move into the future and fly other things than 40-60 size trainers. People want to see jets


Hoss

How old do you have to be to qualify as a OF? Once you become an OF do you have to sell your jets?

Luckily the OF's at our club enjoy watching the turbines and even voted in a runway extension.

I think if OF's did that at our field then the OF's would soon be overtaken...

Gary - I'm sorry - you don't even need to do the math - you're there.... Just kidding! I think you don't have ALL the qualifications; 1st you have to be Old...uh...well, you're not THAT old and secondly you have to be a _ _ _ _. You solidly fail on the last account my friend; sorry.

Going to Austin? JR and I are set; will bring both the Hawk and the Facet myself.

i here this alot from a lot of flyers
we get a lot of jet pilots come to FBF
to fly there jets mostly because we have a 1500 by 300 ft
paved runway and i here the same complaints
and it happens at our club also
most members like the jets {the members that fly}
the members that DONT fly always make the most noise
the worst thing is to have board members that dont fly
we have 2 board members that fly jets
the best thing to do is jets pilots need to run for office at there home clubs
vinny

If digging up the runway was not a club decision, I think I would have to have the parties invloved arrested for vandalism. Assuming you can prove they did it.
We have a little of that going on at our field. But luckily, it's just 1 or 2 guys. Most of the older fellas like the jets. One particular OF is very nice but then writes letters on occasion to the park board and even AMA suggesting they ban turbines at our field.

What are the age requirements for OF's?

We're both there Bob-O. Bob

i think you spelled it wrong
correct said it would be OAF,s
not a of

Someone dug up the Tri-Valley runway???!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ***!!!!!!!!!!!! That was a great place to fly! How could guys let this happen?

The grass runway on the side of the paved runway was fine.

Man, this is very sad, especially since good sites are becoming harder and harder to find.[]

That is unforgiveable! The individuals involved need to be held accountable for their actions.
What is their official reason for doing this?
Was a change to the runway discussed at a meeting and passed by a membership vote?
What was the plan and what is the plan to repair the damage?
Check your club constitution to see if there is a clause in it about kicking out members who destroy club property.
Also check to see what it says about throwing out club officers who abuse their office.
If the actions were not approved by a club vote those individuals are personally liable for the damages.

You shoud make sure that all of the jet friendly members are at the next meeting and put these guys on the spot. Demand that the president resign. Propose a motion to have all involved ousted from the club and persue legal action. Even if you can't get a majority vote it will put them in a very uncomfortable situation. If that doesn't pass then propose a motion to spend the club's money to repair the runway.

Joe

Hi Dave and all the others. The runway is asphalt, brand new 2 years ago. They removed all of the center line stripes, IMO this was done to prevent us from flying. As we all know what happens to retracts when a 2.5 inch wheel hits a .5 inch hole. There was no club vote on this, in fact it was done at a time when no one else would see but the crew of OF's. Yes, we have suggested calling the police, I may still do so. I just cannot believe that these people that think they are grown up would act this childish. My little Granddaughter has more common sence.

Go in the middle of the night and cold patch it, should remedy it.

We have "OF's" at our field, however instead of fighting them, I socialize with them. Some of these "OF's" just need some very little TLC and they're alright. Besides, I was one of them before I got addicted to this *****. I have noticed that most jet piltos I know stick to their crowds, just as Heli pilots do.

We may be diggin in our own graves (or runways! ). Many times I go home after a good session and I say to myself, "darn I forgot to tell Larry how good his P-51 looks".

Many times I have been told by "OF's" how much they dislike jets, so I've taken it upon myself to change their minds one by one by actually sitting down with them and dicussing all the urban legends about jet flying.

Not many jet pilots realize............the trick to adding 200ft more of runway to our field lies in winning the hearts of our OF's.

David

I would imagine your club is insured in some way for vandalism possibly. Maybe try that route or otherwise were permits pulled to make the official changes Let the building department get involved and slap a violation on them. Either way will cost the club money but the persons responsible should then be held accountable for their actions of wasting the clubs money and then no longer have the majority to keep them in their elected positions.
Good luck as this is such a sad childish maneuver to hear.
The next step they take may be worse. I would suggest checking out those 2.4ghz systems for some insurance against them doing something worse.

took the words write out of my mouth amigo.

it's not that hard to be cordial. Don't give 'em the impression that their time at the flying field is less important than our own. Strive to match as closely as possible the speed at which others are flying (unless you don't mind waiting) in order to minimize your presence. be like a rabbit in the bushes, minimal impact and you'd be amazed at the result.

3 weeks after nearly hovering my boomerang with a bi-plane in a steady headwind, the gentleman remarked how he wished we had a photo of the flight and looks forward to doing it again. now that's good PR eh?

fly friendly

buck

sorry to hear about the runway bro' but like sean said, maybe you could patch it. those ruts are going to make it tough on everyone, whether you take off and land at 40mph or 10mph

I'd go repair it in the middle of the day when the old fogies are there watching. Then I would call the police and see if they could patrol the area at night for a week or so at different times. Maybe they will be caught in the act.

These guys were apparently attempting to remove the runway's stripes. Did they say why? Did the generate a half reasonable excuse for their actions? Or was it blatantly to deny runway use to high performance models?

Either way, sorry this happened. As someone else mentioned: acceptable flying sites are becoming far too rare for this kind of tom-foolery to occur.

I want pictures of the damaged Runway.
Anthony

Would you post pictures of this. I have a hard time beleiving this. Not that I doubt you, but I find that purposefully ruining a Chartered AMA Club field is deranged and criminal behaviour. My point is that if AMA was notified of this, I would think some diciplinarian action would have taken place with regards to the club members who did this. I would not believe that AMA would tolerate such behaviour of ANY AMA member at a Chartered Club field. This sounds like a malicious act of purosefull vandalism that would also fall into the hands of prosecution by the property/field owner be it City Property or else. If the Club owns the field, again a simple phone call to the AMA describing such an incident should give back control to a Sane club member.

Off topic, but while I'm thinking of it Wocketman, I asked West Systems at Florida Jets about the browning of my hardner, they said it sometimes happens, sometimes does not. Two years later I finnally remembered to ask, and knew you wanted to know about that.

Nah, do it in the middle of the night, show up the next day and thank THEM for fixing it!