Minutes Sparks Officer’s meeting.

Attendance: Paul Jones, Tom Simpson, Bob Shadroui, Jim Kline, Jerry Thornton, Randy Bosang and Jimmy Jeswald. Attendance representing a quorum making the meeting official.

Financial Report from Treasurer.

·         Meeting comes to order at 11:10am.

·         Treasurer’s reports Club’s financial report. April’s starting checking account starts with

·         Treasurer to review any possible benefits that come from savings being put in a CD instead of the current money market. Treasurer to report to board findings.

Discussion about club events this year.
 

·         May 20th “Warbirds over Sparks” (any military planes). Warbirds registration table set up by Paul to collect a $5 landing fee from all Pilots flying in the Warbirds events. All Pilot’s to present proof of current ama membership. at registration. Each active pilot then will receive a chest badge with the name showing they have registered. Pilots, prior to flight, will announce their intentions to fly to our event director, Mike Valetti. Warbirds shirts and hats will be available to all for $20 each. Paul has notified all existing clubs of the met.

 

Only Warbirds to fly prior to lunch at 11am. At 11am and beyond, all planes may be flown. Randy will collect $5 for each meal at the plate end of the serving tables. Lunch will be hotdogs or hamburgers, chips and water. Bill Drummond will be our grill master, he will bring a spare bottle of gas and lettuce, tomatoes and onions, prepared by his wife Ann. Cookies to be furnished by Paul’s wife Reane. Sparks usual 50/50 drawing (winner announced during lunch) will take place throughout the morning for $1 per ticket.

Next event to be a 3D event.......Saturday June 24

 

Entry road repairs and gate lock discussions.
 

·        Paul met with Michael (Mike) Merrell and Charles Managers of the Pinellas County Waste Division. In the meeting we discussed possible road repairs for the road to our club. Mike announced they would access the road for material needs and start the pavement procedure this week, the road is the county's responsibility. They also stated they knew it was in need of repair.

·        Next, we agreed to a common gate locking procedure. To color code both locks and chain ends, white for Sparks and black for the County. If for any reason their lock is left unlocked, we would be doing them a favor if we locked their black lock, that it’s supposed to be locked at all times. If we don’t hear from them within two weeks Paul will contact them again as a reminder to let them know when they're going to be working on the road so we can close the flying field to our members, while they work.

Runway coating discussions.

·        Many paving companies were contacted by Paul & Bob to recoat the runway. All verbal and one written quote were too expensive at this time. The stated reason was the pavers were too busy now with county area work and to check back this fall when their season might be able to give better pricing. We agreed to postpone this project till the Fall.
 

F.R.I.A. and letter of agreement with FAA (at PIE) and Sparks.
 

·        Most know by now that the FAA is requiring Sparks to (in great detail) identify our designated flying area used to fly and summit them and get their approval by September 2023. Mike Valetti (having volunteered) is doing an amazing job in preparing the needed information to submit this application.  Paul has met with the head of FAA and the St. Pete airport Tower Manager, Anibal Velazquez. The agreement letter was presented for their review and signature which Mr. Velazquez said he saw no problems with the agreement and their relations with Sparks has always been very good. Paul will follow up with the signed copy and provide to Mike. 

Additionally, the following was discussed.

·         A Sparks general membership meeting was agreed to take place at the field 10am on Saturday June 3rd.

·         It was further agreed that Bob has volunteered to work with Tom to do all event food purchases.

·         Agreed that our next club cookout event would be October the 14th.                   (Called Oktoberfest)

·         Also, there would be two events per year the lunch will be free to members and their families. Oktoberfest being one of those two free lunch events.
 

Three New Rules.
 

There have been situations where a maiden flight has almost hit another pilot already in the air. This is a huge safety issue that can’t be overlooked.

1.      All maiden flights of new or repaired aircraft must be first flown with no other aircraft in the air. It is up to the Pilot that is flying a maiden flight of any aircraft to make sure all other pilots are aware and that no other aircraft are flying until the plane is launched and trimmed at which time all other flights may resume.

2.      All 3d aircraft must do all the 3d maneuvers over the grass area, not over the runway.

3.      There will be no high-energy maneuvers of all aircraft that are aimed at the pit area. 

 

Review of Sparks T-Shirts cost vs selling price. Agreed to sell the shirt or hats for $20 each.  

It was also agreed to have a June 24 3D event headed up by Lois, Jim Kline and that Tom will be in charge of the event per our Bi-Laws.

All voting issues were affirmative by all. 
 

MEETING ADJ0URDED AT 11:40AM.

 

Respectfully Submitted,

 

Jim Kline, Secretary                          05/08/2023

Paul