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Communications

September 2019

March 25, 2019
COLLIER MODEL AERONAUTIC CLUB

From the Desk of the First Pilot:

I hope life is treating you all well. Back on March 2, 2019 we had our annual picnic. We had a great turnout of around 100 pilots, friends, and family. It was a beautiful day with much flying, great food, and new memberships.

Later in the day around 3:00 we had an incident of a foamy A-10 electric lose control and crash into the water treatment plant areas. This incident got Community Improvement District (CID) and management involved and they issued a letter of cancellation of our lease. I called the property management company to better understand and was granted an opportunity to speak to the board on March 15, 2019.

OVERFLIGHT OF THE TREATMENT PLANT IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED! per our lease agreement.

They granted a stay of execution of termination for 30 days in order to review their position and to give us a chance to come up with some changes in our operation at P.O.1. to better insure no overflight of the treatment plant. These are the proposed changes:

  1. If a pilot cannot control his or her aircraft, and allows it to overfly treatment plant, they lose their membership. This only requires a witness!
  2. Incident reports are kept at the field with emergency contact numbers: 239-450-5650 or 239-216-2999
  3. Move flight line SW in the vicinity of the lake.
  4. Requires a pilot check flight and is signed off by a board member or trainer.
    Membership roster indicates date of check flight.
  5. Signage posted about water treatment plant, restricted area, and overflight warning.
  6. Aircraft failsafe must be set to throttle off, elevator down, and full aileron deflection. This will stop flyaway if signal fails.

I am meeting with CID again on April 19th at 9:00 AM to discuss our direction of operation. It is imperative that all members respect the lease agreement and do everything possible not to violate agreement. It will cost us our field if not respected.

Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.

Clifford MacMorris, President, Collier Model Aeronautic Club

P.S. I will let you know how the meeting turns out. We are not out of the woods yet. Thank you.