Hello all, and happy Thanksgiving! Between flights, I hope you are spending quality time with family and friends. It sure seems as though it has been a fast year, with the holidays on us so quickly—of course, as I am writing this, the weather has been some of the best for flying.
Cutoff Dates to Remember
February 1, 2018: Take off And Grow grants (TAG), and AMA Scholarship applications. In 2017, District VI only had four TAG grant applications, and we had one scholarship winner, Andrew Sites.
February 15, 2018: Youth Leadership Award. The national winner of the Youth Leadership Award is typically granted tuition to Camp AMA.
March 1, 2018: Flying Site Development Improvement grants. This year there were no District VI grant requests completed. Nationally there were only $23,000 in applications and there was $31,000 to give away, so please get your Flying Site Development and Improvement applications completed and submitted on time. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
March 31, 2018: AMA Leader Club Awards/Renewals and AMA Model Aviation Hall of Fame nominations.
The Award of Excellence is the highest level of club recognition that can be given to an AMA sanctioned club. I was recently honored to award two clubs in District VI with an Award of Excellence.
The Rend Lake RC Club in Ina, Illinois, has flown on Rend Lake College property for many years. The club has recently expanded its partnership with the college in a couple of ways.
The college was interested in adding courses to teach FAA Part 107 license requirements to fly commercial drones and needed a location to make that happen. Together the college and the club developed a new, world-class flying site that would suit the needs of both the college and the club. Additionally, the college held a week-long summer camp that featured an aviation element.
The club worked with the college to make this happen by instructing the kids during a full week of ground school, building, simulator training, and hands-on buddy-box flying with Apprentices acquired through the TAG program earlier this year. It was a huge success.
The River City Radio Control club, near Louisville, Kentucky, was also presented the Award of Excellence for its 17 years of charity work with what is now Norton’s Children’s Hospital. Throughout the last 17 years, the club has donated more than $250,000 to the hospital and 2017 was the best year ever, with a $35,000 donation to the hospital.
These types of donations don’t come easily. The club puts on an annual air show during the first weekend in June that is well attended by the community. The members work on the event year round to make it happen.
I believe the club has done more for charity than any other of which I am aware in the district, and possibly more than any other AMA club. I’m extremely proud that the club has allowed my wife and me to be a small part of its event for the last several years by bringing and staffing the flight simulators in the AMA Education trailer.
Thank you to John Griffin and David Black of the Rend Lake RC Club and Doug Bailey of River City Radio Control club for making the arrangements for the presentations. And thank you to both of these clubs for their hard work.
Happy holidays and flying!
Randy Cameron
Vice President District VI