*** Guerrilla Squad A T X ***

[Lonelasso]

haPPy birthDay Dave!

Thank you sir, and I been smiling alot this week, as you wished ! And, thx Chad !!! Congratulations for the podcast mention !

 

[Doc Austin]

Oh man, you may be exiled from here!

That would simply be the second place that has tried to exile me today. The old women in one of my clubs are now targeting the afternoon 3D fliers as a safety problem. I had finally listened to enough utter bull poop that I had to say something, so I wrote everyone in the club.

Everyone.

First, I think we should all apologize to Dave (our president) because he’s in a no-win situation. He’s going to be the bad guy no matter how this plays out and he deserves better than that. No one else wanted to step up and take the job and we would be screwed without Dave. If you want to run the guy out of office with all of this petty, vindictive, backstabbing crap, have at it, but don’t expect to have a place to fly next year because no one else can do his job.

Maybe Josh screwed up, but he’s admitted that and apologized.... repeatedly. Josh stood up like a man, and admitted he was wrong/ He is serving his suspension, so let it go already. Josh has already been punished for the incident, so it was settled.....or so we thought.

Now a single individual wants the board to put him on trial for the same offense yet again? Are they going to keep doing this over and over and over again until they are finally successful in destroying him? In the US court systems, this is called double jeopardy. Continuing to go after a person who is already being punished is petty and vindictive, and it is most definitely illegal. It’s done. Leave it alone.

Seemingly for good measure, the whole afternoon group is now put in the crosshairs as well. For those who believe the falsehoods about the afternoon group flying dangerously, remember that those guys are all accomplished pilots who can handle their airplanes proficiently and safely. This is not always the case in the morning, when, as Paul noted, there seems to be a lot of difficulty avoiding the power lines, telephone poles, the parking lot, the pits, pilot stations, and the lake behind the field and the boundaries in general. Since we hear of so little being done to curb that, while at the same time targeting the afternoon group, I can only say there’s nothing like selective enforcement of the rules to divide a club and brew resentment.

The afternoon group flies safe. Don’t believe anything else. If the club wants to send a safety patrol out in the afternoon, knock yourselves silly. The truth actually works for us just fine. The safety patrol isn’t going to find anything outside of occasionally someone forgetting to sign in. We are always striving to make ourselves, and each other, better pilots, and that includes being safer and helping those around us to do the same. No one who has ever come to us for help has ever been turned away.

That means we spend more time helping and less time judging. Imagine that.

You can believe all the trash talk or you can come out in the afternoon, burn a few packs with us, and see for yourselves. We don’t have anything to hide and never have. Maybe one of us will forget to sign in, or maybe we won’t have both feet on the pad in the pilot’s station, but you won’t see anyone putting other people in danger. Let’s not lose sight of what’s really important.

Finally, the afternoon group minds their own business and doesn’t try to interfere with any other group. We don’t try to cause deep divisions in the club and fracture the membership into opposing camps like some are trying to do with this incident. We just simply fly and have a good time, and anyone in the club who simply wants to fly safe and have that good time is more than welcome to join us. It’s your club too.

 

[gyro]

Doc I laughed as hard reading this here a when you read it to me on the phone!
Awesome writing by the way!

 

[SteveT.]

Reminds me of any old lady (actual old lady) that tried to run a group of sailplane fliers off of some school property outside of Peoria IL. We had permission to fly there...it was only sailplanes, with no engines, just a high-start or winch. She was always griping at us telling us we couldn't be there and threatened to call the police....I finally told her to do so...and when the police showed up, he said he had a complaint about our engines... I laughed and told him....kind of hard for our engines to bother anybody as we didn't use engines....He asked us how we got our planes in the air, so one of the guys launched a plane using the winch...and even he agreed there was very little noise....He then said, that the complaint also said we were drinking....I then showed him my cooler which was filled with Coke and the bag of empties. Then I showed him the written permission slips all of us had from the school district.... At that time he said...looks good guys....enjoy yourselves.......About then....the old biddy (who had been watching out of her window came out her back door, yelling that she wanted us arrested, fined, etc. The police officer told her that we had permission to be there, and none of the other complaints she had made were true. She then started hollering at him saying she wanted his badge number etc...and she was going to call his captain. At that time he told her to go back in the house and to leave us alone...and if she ever bothered us again, to call the police, and they would site her for harassment.....So...she turned around and headed for the door, at which time we heard what the whole problem was as she muttered G** Da***d grown men palying with toy airplanes.... Basically, she just couldn't stand for somebody else to have fun!!!

SteveT

 

[Doc Austin]

It's partially the fun thing, but I know a lot of it is rooted in jealousy. Part of it is the skill divide. We all have really nice planes and they make their own foamys out of insulation material. They probably have about $25 in a plane, but they want to tell the guys flying $1000 jewels what to do.

The afternoon guys are so much more skilled that you might think the others would take the opportunity to learn from us. Instead they plot against us.

The worst part is how they talk so much crap when your back is turned, but to your face they smile and call you "bud," as if we don't hear the stories about the smack they constantly spew. I have no use for disingenuous, two faced people.

You might think the problem is the FOGs, but I'm going to be 60 in a little more than a year. The guys are younger than I am! I'm the FOG in my club, but they act like more like FOW. Perhaps I am aging a little bit too gracefully for them.

It's really sad. we have a nice little facility and we stay away from those people. What do they care what we are doing when they aren't there? Like Alfred says:

"It's not about the money. It's not about the power. It's not even about the rape and murder. Some men just want to watch the world burn."

 

[SteveT.]

Quote Originally Posted by Alfred of Wayne Manor
"It's not about the money. It's not about the power. It's not even about the rape and murder. Some men just want to watch the world burn."

Agreed!! And sorry to hear you are going through that kind of B.S.!!

SteveT

 

[3dNater]

Great stories guys. Better days ahead Doc.

 

[Doc Austin]

Great stories guys. Better days ahead Doc.

Thanks. I'm getting to be too old for this schnitt. I am not trained to babysit insane, rabid little children with bad attitudes.

 

[SteveT.]

Where the heck did you come up with that???

SteveT

 

[3dNater]

Somebody make posts quick... that pic is too much lol