GMA Family Day May 28th.
What a great crowd for this annual event with about 250 people. Rex Briant provided the food and prizes.  Trip Bellinger wore himself out manning the cooking duties all day.  One of the big crowd pleasers was the full scale show put on by young 16 year old Alex Land while his dad Jay hung around above in a Chinese CJ-6.  Thanks to Cliff Whitney for providing communication with Alex and Jay, which was broadcast over our PA system.

Another crowd pleaser was the Turbine Jets, with Larry Killingsworth with a Bruce Tharpe Reaction 54, Buzz Killingsworth with a BAE Hawk, Mike Pascoe with a BVM Super Bandit, an Mike Altis with a BVM King Cat.

For those of you without a computer, find a friend with a computer and check out the slide show and the Alex Land aerobatics at http://www.gmarc.com/familyday

Jet Guidelines
All Jet Pilots must meet specific requirements as outlined in AMA documents.  After successfully meeting these requirements the pilot is issued a Turbine Waiver.  The AMA guidelines for this waiver are posted at the field on the wall between the roll-up door and the walk through door.  Additionally, for those GMA members that have this AMA Waiver, their GMA membership card has "JW" added to their AMA number.

Frequency/Interference Update
There have been occasional complaints of suspected interference around our flying site.  We asked GMA member Chester Kramarski to coordinate efforts to identify any specific problems.  Chester spent considerable time and effort in this endeavor and the following is his report:

Sawnee EMC was contacted -- several topics discussed with focus on BPL (Broadband over Power Lines) and EMI (Electro Magnetic Interference).

Mr. Tom Kohler (engineer) responded to BPL:  Sawnee EMC has not tested and have no plans for BPL!

EMI was handled by Mr. Ron Crooks (System engineer -interference specialist). After introducing GMA and our activity with RC; the Clubs concerns with interference were discussed in length!  Mr. Crooks was most cooperative!  Appointment was made to meet at the field!  Mr. Crooks brought equipment to sweep the area - Power Lines; Poles; Insulating Connectors; Grounding wires; etc.

A sweep of Old Federal from Matt Rd. ( Hwy. 369) to Yellow Creek Rd. revealed no issues! A sweep of Nicholson Rd. did find some noise coming from a power line "Recloser".  The noise was in the 230 MHz. range!  (RC Spectrum Analyzer was used to scan Nicholson Rd. up to the New Subdivision -- No interference was noted!!) 

 Sawnee was out the next day to solve the issue!!   

NEW Transmission Lines:

Contact with Mr. Tony Chaapel (Land and Legal Rights Coordinator).  The new transmission lines going up on Matt Rd. (Hwy. 369) are owned by GTC (Georgia Transmission Co.). Same Lines will be installed along Old Federal Rd.  The new lines will connect Cumming with a sub-station in Cherokee -- 20 miles long.
Current power lines along Old Federal are 23KV and belong to Sawnee EMC!

New lines will carry 230Kilovolts!!  The lines will have a 190 ~ 193 KHz frequency!

RC Channel Spectrum Analyzer was obtained from the AMA District 5.

For the last few weeks, extensive use of the Analyzer along with two hand held scanners, in and around the Clubs area, has not revealed anything of great concern!   Sweep of the Club area was performed randomly:  in the morning; in the evening; weekday and weekend!   The Club perimeter was walked on two separate occasions!  Sweeps of approximately 1.5 miles distance from the Club field on three sides were performed on several occasions!!  The Cell Tower by the nursery off Dr. Bramblett Rd. was monitored as well!

I'll discontinue use of the Spectrum Analyzer in approximately two weeks!! 

Chester Kramarski

Safety Item
An item worth stating again, low, close-in passes are to be done in the same direction as take-off an landings, and when other pilots are on the flight line, keep the aircraft over the asphalt runway... or further out.  Also, no low passes aiming directly at the pit or shelter area.

Treasury Report
As of August 22nd, the club treasury stood at $8,860.44 in our checking account.  We have an additional $10,000.00 put away in an interest bearing account for contingency purposes.  Our monthly expenses continue to fall around $2,000.  Now that the asphalt runway is completely paid off we may be able to allocate some money for some other improvements and creature comforts.  We want to continue to build the interest bearing account so that we will have something to work with should it become necessary to relocate. 

Water cutoff
Bruce Tarleton is the club's coordinator for maintaining the water and sprinkler system, among other duties.  A Rainbird controller located at the water tank on the hill controls the sprinkler system for the runway and taxi area.  This unit is programmed to start watering at 10:00 p.m., watering each zone individually, and be finished by 6:00 a.m.

Power for this unit comes from an outlet box near the water tank.  Unfortunately this model controller does not have a battery backup.  So, if power is lost, the date and time reset to 12:00 a.m., which could result in the sprinklers turning on while we are flying.  If this occurs, you may turn the controller to the "off" position.  It will take a few seconds for the program to terminate.  After that, please call Bruce at 770 235-2801 to let him know of this situation.  It is important to inform Bruce so the system can be re-initialized for proper watering to continue.

FIELD MAINTENANCE & IMPROVEMENTS
Mike Kinsey has been working with Dennis, they guy that cuts the hay, and expressed the importance of keeping the grass at a maintainable level of waist high.  Dennis has agreed and as evidenced late July or early August, did an excellent job of quickly getting the job done.

We have been considering killing off all the Johnson grass and replacing it with Bermuda Hay.  Although the Bermuda hay won't grow as tall it will still require cutting to keep it our desired height.  This process would cost the club about $6000.  After reviewing this further with Dennis, we have decided to not spend the $6000 on this, rather keep the Johnson grass cut to proper level. This will allow the other grasses in the field to grow and potentially take over the field naturally.

By saving that $6000, we are considering putting in either asphalt or concrete under the shelter area. If anyone has a good contact for this project that give us a really good price, please contact Mike Kinsey.

First Aid Supplies
It seems our drink machine bandits have also on occasion decided they needed some first aid material... so they took ours.  Perhaps to keep these supplies more or less hidden, you will find them in the bottom left drawer in the refrigerator.

Contact the Board:
Any member wishing to express a concern or have a comment or suggestion for the GMA Board may do so by e-mail addressed to GMABOARD@GMARC.COM.