[NSRCA-dist1] Good luck and good flying this season!

[Dana Beaton]

Dear fellow D1 pilots, by now you may have seen the AMA e-mail about the TFR and its impact on us.  Needless to say, many of us won’t be practicing pattern this weekend!

There is another reason that I will be short on pattern practice this season, and I do not wish to make a big deal out of this, but I want you to know that I am no longer a member of the LVRCS, at least for the next 6 months until I can rejoin the club...

The reason is that I have been sanctioned by the LVRCS for flying at the club field twice without a current membership card.  I made the bad mistake of letting my membership lapse by not paying my dues.  When I went to the meeting this past Monday to apologize and pay up, my dues were not accepted and the President moved to have the club vote on letting me back in, or not.  This was done after I was asked to leave the meeting so the club members could deliberate the motion.  After about 5 minutes, the President came out to me at my car to tell me that the vote was taken to “reprimand” me as a former club secretary, and that I could reapply in 6 months for membership.  What could I say but ok and leave the airfield quietly, which I did to avoid needless conflict around a silly situation.

While I was fully prepared to apologize to the membership for the arrears and disrespect of the rules, expecting perhaps a sanction letter, I was not prepared for the motion which was taken and passed.  What can I do now but reflect on the errors of my ways and wait out the sanction period?

What I can do is fly at AFRCF when POTUS is not in NJ.  With very little time between now and OCM and the TFRs this weekend, I am just not going to be ready to compete in time, so I have decided to not fly at Jackson.  Needless to say, I will not be at the LVRCS in July either!  And with a bunch of family and other schedule conflicts, I have decided to sit-out the pattern contest season until all the other silliness passes.  Hopefully AMA can negotiate something for us to fly at our club airfields during TFRs, but that is probably a long road to hoe, and I applaud their efforts to work something out.

Allow me to reiterate, I am sending this to increase understanding of my personal situation; I am not asking folks to take this up with the LV as I must accept the consequences of my action just as any other members in violation of the by-laws must. And I do not wish for this unfortunate matter to escalate into a community thing.  I just want you to know why you won’t be seeing me around D1 contests in 2017.

Its not personal, its just business, right?

Respectfully,
Dana