The NFFS President's Message for January 1999

January News .. "Welcome back. The National Free Flight Society Website is back online. For all of the many fliers and supporters who have asked about it, thanks for your patience. I believe the site will be better and more responsive now, but it seemed as though it took a long time to get it going. Here is some of the most recent news of interest to our members and other interested free flighters.

1. NFFS Symposium. The 1999 Sympo is well underway with Bob Perkins serving as editor. Bob reports that he has a full complement of reports on the docket, and that members can expect to see a publication nearly the size of the 1998 version. Our goal is to produce the publication to sell for $20 per copy plus postage, but we need to pay our expenses, so depending on the costs, we could have another $25 book.

2. The 10 Models of the Year Process is underway as well. Larry Kruse is the chairman and nominations are being accepted now. Larry tells me that he has all of his subcommittees up and running. If you have any nominations, you will need to be in touch with Larry ASAP. His address: 1204 S. Mansfield Dr., Stillwater, OK 74074.

3. The Symposium also contains the latest of our freeflighters to be elected to the NFFS Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame chairman is Jim Haught. Nominations should be submitted to Jim ASAP. His address is: 4629 E 150N, Anderson, IN 46012.

4. Nostalgia Updates: Walt Rozelle is the new chairman of the NFFS Nostalgia Committee. Walt's committee has been hard at work and plans to have a number of proposals voted upon in January to be submitted to the NFFS Vice Presidents for their approval. When this happens, the rules will become official and will constitute rules book #7. This book will be available for the upcoming season's competition. A book will be available for purchase from NFFS Publications, and the full rules will be posted on this website. Since there are a number of major changes in the rules, it will be important for all NosGas fliers to carefully read the rulesbook either in print or on the website. Once again, the target time will be late January for final approval with the book available sometime in March.

5. Change in Publications Address. As many of you know, Fred Terzian has given up the Publications Dept. for NFFS after about 19 years of service. The new guy is Bob McLinden. Bob has recently moved, and his new address is: 3903 W. Temple Place, Denver, CO 80236. His phone number is : (303) 738-9406. You can buy anything that Fred sold from Bob.PLUS: Bob has now taken over the sales of the NFFS License Plate Frames. These had been selling for $20 postpaid and can now be purchased by $10 plus postage.

6. NFFS T-Shirt Competition. Because the NFFS is out of most of its old T- Shirts, it seemed time to do some updating. Anyone interested in getting their artwork on a shirt can submit a design to Bob McLinden (address above) within the next couple of months. The winner will receive a couple of shirts, a NFFS gift certificate and much honor and gratitude. Judging of the shirt designs will be done by Bob and some other distinguished fliers from the Denver area. Do it now. PS: Try to maintain some identification with the NFFS and our beloved "Bird."

7. Finally, The USOC dates have been moved to August 1 through August 5. The reason is that we will no longer need to compete for flying space at Muncie with the Soaring guys. We will have the field pretty much to ourselves. The events are essentially the same as in the past, plus NFFS members will receive a $10 credit on their entry fees.

More in a few days.
Bob Stalick

and here's more ..

The NFFS One Design Event is being expanded in 1999 to include even more contests than in the past. A full listing of those meets will be included here in the near future, but for now, fliers are encouraged to build the Honey B, which is the model of the year. Honey B kits are available from BMJR and are complete with everything needed to frame up your model. Covering materials are not included this time around, but the usual great laser cut balsa parts are.
The complete kit is $68 plus postage.
Order directly from BMJR
at PO Box 1210,
Sharpes, FL 32959.

Kits will be shipped by February 1, 1999. Both Bill Vanderbeek and Ron Sharpton have test built prototypes from the BMJR kit and have suggested minor changes in the production version. These changes have been incorporated into the kits.

Bob Stalick, NFFS President.