The NFFS President's Message for March 2001

1. Free flight club listing. For the past several years, we have been unable to produce a listing of free flight clubs in the US and elsewhere. I attempted to put together a data base using those clubs that I knew about, and tapping into AMA's website. However, there were a number of omissions that I knew were incorrect. In fact, in the case of AMA, if you do not specify that you are a free flight club you are listed as multiple interest. So, getting this list became important. Rick Pangell came to the rescue, when he asked Hank Nystrom, our membership chairman, for such a list, Hank passed the request to me. Since my list was out of date and incomplete, I offered Rick the chance of a lifetime: "put one together for us." He took the bait, and is now searching out free flight clubs and putting them into the NFFS data base. Here is where you can help: Please let Rick know that your club is a free flight club and wants to be included in the NFFS listing. Contact him at TheMaxOut@aol.com if you have internet access or via letter at 6994 S. Prescott St., Littleton, CO 80120 or via telephone at 303.798.2188. We need to have the name of your club, a contact name, address, phone number, and email address (if available) and other information. Contact Rick for more information, and thank you for your help.


2. National Cup Update. Bob Perkins, who has headed up the scoring of this competition, reports to the final tallies are in from the 64 NC contests held in 2000. The program was an unqualified success with 157 contestants in AMA Power, 216 in AMA Rubber, 181 in AMA Glider and 137 in NFFS Nostalgia. This is a great turnout for a first ever event and well worth the amount of energy put into it by the NC committee.
I want to personally thank the members of the committee: Bob Perkins, Chairman, Bob Johannes, Bob Sifleet, Bob Beecroft and Charles Caton. Also, I want to thank the Contest Directors and contestants who stepped up to the competition.
As you look over the results, you will see the competition was heated. If you find an error, please contact Bob Perkins for either an explanation or correction.
The winners:
AMA Power: Joe Clawson; AMA Rubber: John Kamla; AMA Glider: T. Jones; and NFFS Nostalgia: Ron Sharpton.
Congratulations to all who participated. The nice perpetual trophies to the winners will be awarded at the NFFS Banquet at Muncie in conjunction with the AMA/NFFS nationals in July, 2001.
And the 2001 NC competition is already under way.


3. Lost Hills Update. About 18 months ago, the NFFS became involved in attempting to obtain added property access for the Lost Hills free flight site. Bob Waterman was appointed as the committee of one to head up the project, and since Bob lives in nearby Bakersfield, he was in a great position to make personal contact with business and governmental entities. So far, Bob has made some of those contacts and with the help of NFFS member and attorney, Lee Kell, he has generated a sizable amount of paperwork that gives us some reason to be optimistic about our chances. One of the primary reasons that the NFFS obtained a 501 c-3 Federal tax designation was to help us promote donations of funds and property use by businesses. The Lost Hills project fits this description. More information on this project will be presented in the Digest as it is known.


4. Nats Dates for 2001. I have received a number of requests for the dates of the 2001 Nats. Here they are: Indoor Nats at Johnson City, May 30 - June 3. Outdoor Nats at Muncie, July 29 - August 2.


5. Nats Dates for 2002. One of the results of our recent survey of outdoor Nats participants was that a majority of our contestants would prefer to have the FF events held on a Monday through Friday schedule. I have asked the AMA Executive, Joyce Hager, for help in getting this change to occur in time for the 2002 Nats. More information on this topic as it is known.

Bob Stalick, NFFS President.