OMFC Fliteline The Newsletter of the

Oakville Model Flying Club November 2006

Blankety, Blank Weather!!!!!!!!!

Opening Comments

W ell, how do you like the weather……….great one minute………and ….. foul the next! Right now

it’s amazing!!!!! Have fun while you can!

November Meeting

S oon to be past President Jim welcomed everyone to the November annual AGM meeting and the elec-

tion of a the new Executive for the balance of 2006 and 2007. It was nice to see a large feisty crowd show up. There were a bunch of new/old faces in attendance and Jim wondered if a new clique had been formed or was there a conspiracy or coup in the making! We had no less than 5 former Presidents in attendance; the only recent President not in attendance was George “WMD” Bush. The main block, in no special order of importance:- • Erik “Swap Meet” Genzer • Tim “I Can’t Fly a GB” Deal • Rodger the Dodger “I’ll crash yours “Young These guys were all sitting together with the ner do well Chris “Belly Laugh” Kanski by their side, all looking very suspect at the back of the room. Rounding out the group of Presidents was Brian “I can’t sing a note” Anderson [sometimes known as “Arfman”] and last and least was Jim “the critique especially when I don’t have a plane” Eichenberg.

After the warm hail to the chiefs, Jim wanted to turn the meeting over to Brian to award the Wings Certificates but John Ross had not ap-peared with the Certificates, so we moved on.

Jim launched into the lease signing with Milton and the proposed club name change recognizing the reality of our association with Milton. Jim advised that the “expiring Executive” was 100% behind the name change and asked if he might have a motion to…………”I just happen to have one here” injected Brian, a motion to change the club name to the “Oakville Milton Flying Club”, pointing out that this would allow us to remain being known as OMFC.

Well we really had a discussion ranging from potential cost issues to legal issues involved with MAAC or the Province, as we are a legally incorporated company [unfortunately, the original incorporation papers and filings are adrift]. John Ross has confirmed to Jim our incorporated status. Questions from the floor as to why this change is being contemplated were answered by Brian and Jim both noting that with all the positive things Milton is doing now, complete with some assur-ances for the future, it just makes sense for OMFC to move closer to Milton. Jim reminded everyone that the town of Oakville was approached a couple of years ago about helping us out with a new field and they said they would take our request for a new field, viewing our anticipated loss of the South Field, under consid-eration. Despite a couple of follow ups, they have not yet come back to us on the issue, so who knows where this will lead us. While Milton has not pressed us, the potential name change has been warmly received by Milton, as you might expect. Erik Genzer suggested that we could chose an easier path by leaving our legal name “as is” and operate as The Oakville Milton Flying Club. Erik suggested that we can make this change without any legal changes or significant costs. This would also mean that no changes to our banking arrangements would be re-quired. Jim advised that the new Executive will be charged to look into the mechanics of the issue further. A variety of new name suggestions came from the floor but the desire to retain the initials OMFC pre-cluded many suggestions.

Bob Zak, insisting he can be brief, wanted to know if there was another club within the Milton area……….”none that we know of” was Jim’s answer. Bob was also concerned about the dropping of the word “Model” from our name. Jim advised that the club’s Executive appreciates that this may cause some confusion down the road, but felt that it was something we could live with. Erik Genzer suggested OMMFC …...no takers. Rodger Young wondered if this poten-tial change might open up discussions with Revenue Canada if we do try to change our constitution. Erik Genzer advised that by leaving our legal name un-touched, there would in fact be no need to officially advise the Province. Some positive comments about the prospective change were received from the floor; it appears that the Bramalea Flying Club is enjoying the fruits of their close association with the Town of Bra-malea. The town is apparently willing and helpful and we are hoping for a similar result with Milton. Our proposed name change can only facilitate that relation-ship. Rodger is particularly sensitive to any possible cost to OMFC from our having to do anything that will require lawyers to enter the picture. Jim assured Rodger that the club would not want to go down that road. Various motions were proposed with various amend-ments but [the Editor believes] the final motion of Brian’s [with a modicum of input from Jody McCon-nell] was unanimously accepted to change article 1 of our constitution to read as follows:- Name A] The name of this organization shall be the:- “Oakville Model Flying Club” herein after referred to as the Club and is incorporated as such under the laws of the Province of Ontario. B] The operating name shall be the “Oakville Milton Flying Club”. The motion was put to the members and was unani-mously accepted. It will be the charge of the new Ex-ecutive to pursue this change and report back to club members as soon as possible. The Editor has omitted some of the lengthy and healthy discussion that took place at the meeting. Ob-viously everyone has strong feelings about our club name which has been around for decades and the deci-sion to seek a name change was not taken lightly. Turning to the Beauty Contest Awards for 2006, Jim advised that in preparing the awards, he went looking

Davy Slote’s “ Spitfire” for the May 2006 Fliteline for details of the winners and loooo and behold……shock and horror…….there was none……can you believe! Looking around the room for a certain Fliteline Editor with his eyes wide open to burst-ing point and a tone of voice dripping with sarcasm ……wondering why there was no such issue…....he found me [the errant Editor that is}. The Editor, managing to re-frain from using unseemly language and four letter words, explained that he had already eaten crow in a confessional in the October Fliteline so @#*)&%$# !!!! After all that, turns out that all this smoke screen noise and fuss was really to cover up the fact that the award plaques were not ready [what a shower!]. These awards will be presented at a future meeting! John Ross had showed up so next came the presentation of the “Wings” Certificates. Brian Anderson CFI, con-gratulated the following three “ attendees” :- • Marek Chrzanowski • Larry Henley • Alex Gorelik

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Brian took this opportunity to thank once again all those involved in the Wings Training program. Don’t forget next year …...we will need all your help again. He spe-cifically thanked Adam and Randy for their enthusiastic first year as instructors!! Well done guys!!

[ Photos overleaf ]

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Marek Chrzanowski and Brian

“Wings” Certificates Awards

Unfortunately, the other Wings awardees did not attend the meeting.

Larry Henley and Brian

Alex Gorelik and Brian.

Confucius [alias Bert Armstrong] says “If this mother does not start soon, I’ll #@% i^*!! It!”

Manny looks for a “lift” Jim’s bird before a brush with the trees!

We finally got Adam doing something!

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More summer fun!

2006/2007 Election Well, says Jim, I am no longer President so I can run the election, assuming there are no objections……...Jim to-tally ignored the telling look of Brian Anderson. Jim advised that the nominating committee had a slate of existing officers and new faces who had offered to run for election plus, of course, any nominations from the floor would be welcome. The following people agreed to stand and were elected. Starting from the bottom of the heap, so to speak says Jim, with the election of Officers…………[one day I’ll just kill him!]: Fliteline Editor : Mike McDermott Re-elected

Membership/ Social Director: Jack Devito Elected South Field Manager: Frank Pilih Elected North Field Manager: Bill Fennell Elected Secretary Treasurer: John Ross Re-elected Vice President: Percy Ford-Smith Elected President: Don Wilding Elected This is your Executive for the balance of 2006 and 2007 advised Jim, reminding everyone that the positions of Web Master, CFI, and Field Acquisition Manager are ap-pointments made by the Executive. “Do we have a web-master already……….inquired Jody McConnell ???? ” …….yes we do said Jim ……...give me second and I’ll try to remember his name!!!” Jim will remain on the Executive with his position of past President.

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Jim then made the following statement:- I would like to congratulate the new Executive mem-bers and thank the returning members for their contin-ued support for this club. A special thank you goes out to Dan Morgan and George Stecca for the work they have both put into the flying fields and for their support for the last two years. Also, to Jody McConnell who filled the roles of Fliteline Editor and Vice President for four years. Thanks Jody for also getting our Scale Rally going again…..[sorry Jim, had to edit a bit so people would find message a bit less fuzzy]. Jim then turned the meeting to our new President, Don Wilding, but not before telling past President Brian Anderson to “buzz off” from the head table as he, Jim ,was now the past President! Don said he was looking forward to his stint as Presi-dent and asked if there were any issues or discussion topics before he closed the long meeting. Erik Genzer advised that 2007 would be his last year running the Swap Meet as he would be spending future winters down south . He was looking for a volunteer to replace himself and work with him in 2007 to learn the ropes and then be able to take over in 2008. At this point, Bert Armstrong put forth a motion that we change the Swap Meet date to early spring……Erik was not amused! Anyway, please contact Erik if you are interested. Steve Goldring had copies of the OMFC 50th Anniver-sary video made by Wayne McKee and it was agreed that, for a $5.00 donation to the club, you could take one home……….several members did. The meeting was now turned over to Bob Zak. The 2007 Air Show will be on June 10 and the mall show will be on June 2. Bob also reminded us that the OLN network will be showing the OMFC 2006 Air Show on November 18.[ it repeats sometime in December]. Brian Anderson took to the floor to comment on the 2006 flight training year. We had a relatively small group in training this year and 6 out of 13 got their Wings. Thanks again to Don Wilding, Jack Devito and all the instructors and helpers that make it all work for the club. Chris Kanski noted this was a 50% success rate??? [ not sure what his point was...but then…..]. Meeting adjorned!

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Bill “Willy” Sikma On December 14, Bill will be 80 years old!!!…….what a huge milestone this is in anyone’s life. Many of us will not reach this pinnacle. Bill sent me this picture a couple of weeks ago and looking at it, I thought it would be a good idea to ask him for a profile of his life to include in Flite-line. You all know Bill; he is always around the fields fly-ing, talking, just taking it all in. He takes loads of photo-graphs for yours truly and attends most of the club’s meet-ings and helps out when and where he can. and he is 80!! When his profile arrived, I knew I had to include all of it for everyone to read and enjoy. ……..this is his story……… I was born in 1926 in Friesland in the northern part of the Netherlands, a few years before the great depression. My father started a potato business, figuring that whatever hap-pened, people always have to eat. He was able to send me to high school, which was a real privilege in those days. After graduation, I hid from the Germans for a year in our attic until the Canadians liberated us in May 1945. I then got some more education and wound up in the signal corps of the Dutch army, which amongst others taught me Morse code. In 1950, I decided to immigrate to Canada as a farm laborer because at that time it was the only category that was al-lowed in. I obtained my certificate from the farm that I had spent several working holidays while I was in high school. The trip across the pond was in an old four-engine Sky master to Montreal and I arrived in Hamilton by train with $10 in my pocket in August 1950. After spending about half a year on a farm located between George Town and Lynden, I progressed to the foundry of the Westinghouse factory shoveling sand. I managed then to get a job as as-sistant engineer in the frequency conversion business (25 to 60 cycle) that was going on in Southern Ontario. When the job ran out, I found myself unemployed again. At that time Buffalo opened a TV station that could be received in Ham-ilton. Figuring that it was a good industry to get involved in, I chased on my bicycle after a panel truck with the name “Television “ on it. When I finally caught up with it, it had stopped at its place of business and I talked to the owner

who promptly hired me to install TV antennas. This was somewhat dangerous. The antennas were 40 feet high and a lot of old houses were 2 stories high with a 45-degree roof with worn out shingles and a picket fence waiting below. However, the job was a real goldmine. I saved every penny I could and it was not long before I bought my first new car. I went for half a year to Vancouver and did the same there for Cana-dian Aviation Electronics. Coming back to Hamilton I started my own TV repair business. It gave me a lot of oppor-tunity to learn to fly, something I always wanted to do ever since I was knee high to a grass hopper and my sister read me the captions of the one and only existing cartoon called Bru-intje Beer, known to you as Winnie the Pooh, that still exists today. Once upon a time, Winnie received a crate from his friend that contained a little aircraft. Winnie put it together and flew it all over the place. I fell in love with this little low wing aircraft and little did I as a 4 year old know, that one day I would come to own it in the form of a Moony Mite.

Bill on board!

As time wore on, TV went to color and became more reliable, signaling the end of my business. On a trip to Toronto, I decided to drop in at the Air Canada office. They informed me, that they were only looking for elec-tricians. I told them that I was one and after a little ex-amination they sent me to Malton for an interview. It went rather well and I left the office as an avionics me-chanic with all the benefits and privileges of Air Canada. The year was 1957. We phased out the DC-3 and I helped to send our last Super Constellation on its way, the very one Canada is now asking permission to restore. We entered the jet age and the need was felt for more instruction in the maintenance of aircraft. I spent 25 years with Air Canada, the last ones as an avionics in-structor.

In the meantime after I had obtained my pilots license, I bought a Cornell that I flew for a year. I also obtained a commercial pilot license, a night rating, float endorse-ment and instructor rating. Following the Cornell, I bought the Mooney Mite. One of the most pleasurable aircraft I have ever come across. No electrics, retract-able gear and it could do 110 knots. It also had a spare tank. Somebody made me a portable radio, which got me into Malton and even to my uncle, who lived in Kenosha, USA. Some of the things I did with the Mooney cannot be printed here. Its registration was HFN and its history can be found on the Internet.

In 1964, the Mooney Mite had to go because I got mar-ried, bought a house and we had 2 sons. When the mar-riage fell apart, I joined a gliding club. Some of the feel-ing you get is like flying a jet. No fumes, vibration and engine noise etc. Once you can afford your own glider the real fun begins. Flights of 7 hours are possible and once I went up to 32000 feet in a mountain wave. Dur-ing the Diefenbaker days, our dollar was worth $1.10 US and I imported a new Blanik from Czechoslovakia. I later sold it to SAUSA for twice the price. It is still fly-ing today. I then bought a fiberglass Libelle. In 1982, I was hit with very severe arthritis. The DOT revoked all my flying licenses and that was the end of my flying days.

Or was it? I joined the Oakville Model Flying Club and received my Wings on Oct 1st 1995. I appreciate the fact that I can fly any time I feel like it and that I can try aerobatics without risking my life. Above all, I really enjoy the comradery between members and I thank them whole heartedly for all the help they have given me. Life is without a doubt a lot better with the kindness eve-rybody has shown me. Bill Sikma.

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Happy Birthday Willy and many, many, more!!

Executive Meeting

Don assumed his new role and we were off and run-ning. The following issues were discussed:- • Appointments:- CFI: Brian Anderson Asst. CFI : Mike McDermott Webmaster: Bert Armstrong It should be noted that Rodger Young volunteered

to take on the role of Webmaster. • Ways of enhancing club coffers were discussed and

more on this topic will follow next month. • Field maintenance costs were discussed and will be

discussed further going forward. • The design of a new OMFC sign for the North field was discussed and the design is virtually done. The next step is to have the sign made up. • The Milton lease will be signed within the next few

days accompanied with a cheque of $800.00. • Milton has agreed that we can put in a new gate and

fence along the park entry road adjacent to the field. As you know some 4X4 truck nuts entertained themselves last year and put some nasty ruts on the field. The Executive will work on this and report back to the members.

• December meeting….we are going to try a raffle system for prizes ……..other clubs do this to raise money and it works……...bring loads of cash!

• New club jackets and golf type shirts ……..is there any interest out there……..will be discussed at the December meeting.

• Percy Ford-Smith will make a presentation at the December meeting…”The way it was”…….

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Remembrance Day/Month

“Least we forget”………………………………………………………...

Canada is home to people from all nations and many of these people came from lands that have known too many wars. Many of us/them have lost sons, fathers, daughters, family members and friends……………….hopefully, they are all remembered, every one.

Closing Comments

You will note from the Executive meeting notes that we are having a raffle at the December meeting. Many clubs do this to bring in more funds and also to introduce a bit more fun. We will have several items to raffle, so bring some cash with you!!! Bringing in more cash is a new theme the club is going to look at. There is no attempt to increase member fees but maybe that hot dog will cost a buck or two instead of being free as before. Our expenses have increased and we need to become a bit more cost conscious in the future. We have access to a new source of jackets and shirts and this will be discussed at the December meeting. Percy Ford –Smith will be making a presentation at the December meeting on “The way things were……………..”

OMFC 2006/2007 Executive

President: Don Wilding North Field Manager: Bill Fennell Vice President: Percy Ford-Smith South Field Manager: Frank Pilih Past President: Jim Eichenberg Social Director: Jack Devito Chief Flying Instructor: Brian Anderson Field Acquisition Manager: Mike McDermott Assistant CFI: Mike McDermott Web Master: Bert Armstrong……...bert@virtuhost.com Secretary Treasurer: John Ross Fliteline Editor: Mike McDermott 1339 Grosvenor Street mike.mcdermott@sympatico.ca Oakville, Ontario L6H 3L4 Telephone: 905-845-8789

OMFC Event Dates for 2007

Date Event Contact Person Monday, January 1 Frozen Finger Fly Jim Eichenberg Saturday, June 2 OMFC Mall Show Bob Zak Sunday, June 10 OMFC “Air Show” Bob Zak

OMFC Meeting Dates for 2006/7 Date Event Contact Person Monday, December 4 Regular Meeting Monday, January 8 Regular Meeting Sunday, February 4 Swap Meet Erik Genzer Monday, March 5 Regular Meeting Monday, April 2 Regular Meeting Monday, May 7 Regular Meeting/possible Beauty Contest

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OMFC web site: www.omfc.org