President’s Column – April 2021

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A Six Month Update

One issue upon which I ran as President was to unite the club. After six months, I am pleased to announce that this process is on the right track. The Board is united and a united Board is the first step towards achieving this goal. My thanks to the board for their eager and willing participation. Kevin LaCroix has been appointed to the YXX Hanger Board which will provide a liaison between the two organizations and will be a positive move.  In addition to his other duties, Kevin is assuming the position of club Secretary. The safety sub-committee, led by Warren LeGrice, continues to work on both a Safety Management System (SMS) and the updating of our Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). Taylor Belich was instrumental in changing our aircraft maintenance provider under the mentorship of Duncan Poynton. This change seems to be working very well.  Chris Palmer has been a positive addition, taking over responsibility for the position of Vice President. The clubhouse security system has been replaced (no cost to the club) with one having multi-point access via the internet. Thank you to Bevin Tomm for his very generous donation.

It is now time for the membership to grasp the important issues facing our club. This occurs through members receiving and focusing on the correct facts underlying the issues facing the club. How does this occur? There are several opportunities for you to share in the issues facing our club: Monthly club meetings, monthly Board meetings (whereby members can observe Board discussion), Wednesday Dutch lunch, TGIF, Sunday breakfast “fly outs,” IMC presentations — all can be done from the comfort of your armchair at home.  Zoom meetings provide the membership a venue for the dissemination of shared information upon which current and future decisions will be made. If you are not participating in any of these events, you are missing the opportunity to become informed about Club events and issues. 

We have some very important long-term issues that need to be addressed by the next board. I encourage you to get involved to identify the facts and make the effort to reflect on what you want for our club so when asked, you can give an articulate, constructive, thoughtful opinion. This is how our club will unite — under a common purpose and common goals.

More nice weather is upon us with more opportunities to get out and fly the friendly skies.  Let’s do so safely.

Ken Funk
President
Abbotsford Flying Club

General Meeting Minutes – 2021-03-10

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General Meeting Minutes – 2021-03-10
ABBOTSFORD FLYING CLUB
GENERAL MEETING

Members attending via Zoom teleconference 46 attendees

Guests

  • Captain Mark Folchi (USAF) joined us from Joint Base Charleston, South Carolina

Presentations

  • Captain Mark Folchi, of the USAF 437AW Weapons and Tactics will be presenting to us from the Joint Base Charleston in South Carolina! Mark’s been on active duty since 2014, and has a remarkable story to tell!

Agenda:

1. Call to order.
2. Welcome to the March 10th club meeting
3. Guest speaker: Captain Mark Folchi, of the USAF 437AW Weapons and Tactics
4. Questions
5. Committee reports:
VP
Treasurer
Safety Committee
Aircraft Maintenance
Membership
Good and welfare
Other
6. Announcements
7. Questions
8. Next meeting: April 14th
9. Adjourn

Call to Order – 19:38

Motion to accept tonight’s agenda: 1. ChrisP 2. RandyK (MSC)

Presentation: Captain Mark Folchi

  • Captain Mark Folchi gave a great presentation of the setbacks and triumphs he endured on his path to becoming an instructor on the C-17 Globemaster. Mark’s advice to anyone is that if you work hard and stick with it, good things will happen.

Committee Reports

  • President: Ken: A new security system is being installed. The existing one would have had to use a new laptop, and before we purchased one the board did an investigation. We discovered we could make it better. With the new system we will be able to make changes remotely by the direction of Safety/Treasurer/Secretary (over the internet). We decided on a new system that was donated. The new system cost was zero. New fobs will be required – the benefit is they are smaller and more robust.
  • VP: Chris Palmer: Nothing to report.
  • Treasurer: Kevin Lacroix: YXX AGM is this Friday, Kevin will attend to represent the AFC shareholders. If you have any questions in advance, please feel free to forward them to Kevin prior to the meeting.
    Aircraft billing has been corrected for January. Kevin is calculating the bills for flying, so if there are any errors in the future, please address them to Kevin. Kevin will be happy to deal with any issues and have Janet give credits to your account if necessary. A clarification was made that we are billing on tach time – that has always been the rule, but it hasn’t always been the practice, which was an error. From what he can tell, it is more likely that you have been under billed than over billed in the past. He is trying to create a system to minimize errors and to streamline the billing (save time and money). For example, even though we will have the data as backup, you may see only total tach hours for the month instead of the club spending time to itemize each flight on the invoice
    Access fobs for the new access system are ready to be mailed. They will be mailed tomorrow. Please carry both the fobs and the cards until it becomes obvious that you no longer need the card. There may be a $10 charge for lost fobs.
    Airshow: We have been very frugal with spending during COVID. We have money in the bank from the sale of SBS that we would rather not have the club need to spend. There is some talk that the airshow 2021 will happen without the campground this year. The airshow would like the campground to be included, but that depends on how COVID goes. It’s been suggested that the club discuss what a campground might look like (if it is ultimately allowed, and assuming different scenarios around COVID)
  • Flight Safety Committee: John Palmer: JohnP was absent, although it was reported that SOP and SMS are going well. We expect to be able to present something to the board in 2 months. A reminder to please respect the COVID guidelines with respect to flying the club planes. We would like to encourage everyone to take part in the seminars being put on over zoom. A question was asked about how to get check rides done if they are required during to COVID restrictions – the answer was to get check rides done through a flying school.
  • Aircraft Maintenance: Taylor: A reminder that IUK is going in for annual in April. The schedule might be shifted around, so please be patient with the maintenance committee. An Airworthiness Directive (AD) to do with main spar will be addressed at the annual. IUK has a squawk for lever for the seat adjustment – you can use the fuel dipstick to push the button down in the meantime. Taylor says the lap belt will be replaced too.
  • Membership: Amar not on call.

Good and Welfare of the Club

  • Not much to report this month. The club’s oldest member Don Richardson will be 89 soon.

Announcements

  • Lise Ash mentioned there is a conflict for women in aviation (99s) doing a virtual event at the same time as the other zoom meeting events. She is asking people to please remember that there are other events happening that people might be interested in attending.

Old Business

  • None

New Business

  • A question was raised about the Tach time billing. It was clarified that corrections will only be made retroactively to January 2021 (when the error was discovered).

Adjourn – 21:19 by Millie

Next club general meeting:  14 April 2021 @ 19:30 via Zoom
Next scheduled Board meeting: 24 March 2021 @19:30 via Zoom