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Field Closed

Sunday March 17th - field closed all day

There will be dog trials on Sunday March 17th,
so we will need to close the field all day.

I look forward to seeing all of you on Tuesday at the club meeting.
Mike Burgess





01-23-13_01

AMA 2012 Leader Club award


It’s official.  ERCA has been given the gold level of the AMA’s Leader Club award.

Talk to Al Barrington about getting your award PIN




REMINDER
Winter Flying Rules - Attention All Pilots:
During November, December, January, February
Saturday, Sunday & Wednesday
NO FLYING before 12:00 Noon.
NO ARRIVING before 12:00 Noon.



Fire in Field

Saturday July 21, 2012

Incident report: 

At approximately  12:55pm we had an electric plane powered by two Turnigy lipo batteries (bought within the last 12
months & inspected prior to flight) crashed 150 yards northwest of the club house.

The crash resulted in a fire.  I am very conscious of the possibility of fire due to a Lipo battery so I watched the area for approx 20 seconds before I noticed heat coming up from the crash site.  No flames were visible.  I called fire and ran for the extinguishers as Shola (guest) and Marty Wittman ran towards the area with a towel.  It took approx 90 seconds to reach the area that had erupted into a full blown fire reaching 4 feet high stretching to an approximate width of 7 feet. 

We concentrated putting out the outside rows of hay first hitting each side with the extinguishers and pushing anything on fire to the middle of the two rows with our feet while trying to create a fire barrier around the fire.  The 5 pound extinguishers where quickly emptied and put out the side rows for the most part.  While Shola and Marty continued to try and keep the remaining hay that was on fire contained I called Mike Burgess reporting we had a fire and to come out.  I ran back to the shed and grabbed the 5 gallon  bucket of water.  That bucket is very heavy especially when your exhausted and lugging it 150 yards. We used all of the water and some additional water brought to the scene by Mike Burgesses dad Mark.

WE WERE VERY LUCKY TO GET THIS VERY FAST FIRE UNDER CONTROL. 

Brad brought his personal brand new 10 pounder to replace the used extinguishers and keep the field open to fly.  Thanks Brad! 

Fire

Observations


   - it was exhausting for myself, Marty and new comer Shola to run the 150 yards with extinguishers and 5 gallon jug of water. 
   - if we did not keep an eye on the spot it could have taken us a while to see we had a fire. 
   - If it would have taken us another 30 seconds to get to the fire we would NOT have gotten it under control.
   - two 5 lbs extinguishers were barely enough to get this fire under control.
   - hay was very dry and extremely flammable!

Areas of opportunity:
   - additional fire extinguishers needed.  Brad has increased our 2 x 5lbs extinguishers to 1 x 10lbs and 2 x 5lbs (when the get refilled)
   - We should never operate any plane or helicopter, gas or electric without having fully charged extinguishers on hand.
   - proximity of extinguishers to fire.  I believe during high risk fire dangers we should keep the extinguishers on the flight line during flying.
   - we should put on the back side of our new id cards the gps coordinates as field address for emergencies such as this. 
   - we need to post the field address and gps coordinates in the outside of the shack or in the flight line
   - we need to develop a procedure for fires
  - we need a policy and probably additional education on the dangers of Lipo batteries.
  - POSSIBLY routine safety checks on airplanes (during high risk fire season) regardless if it uses Lipo's or not. 

I believe additional safety policies and procedures must be written and adopted.  We must be safe not just for ourselves but the community.  This is another opportunity to show the Burgess family and community that we are responsible, safe and considerate.


Looking back at this situation I should have given direction to one of them to call 911 then run out and try to address the fire.

I can't express this enough, we are very lucky we got this under control.  The whole field could have gone up in a matter of minutes.



 
Mike Winklepleck
Safety Coordinator




Work Party   Graveling project.
 
I placed the order with Conser Quarry to have 3 loads of 3/8" minus crushed quarry gravel delivered to the field on Friday, June, 22nd at 10:00 am. 

We planned a work party for 8:00 am to allow a couple hours to move obstacles from the area before the first truck arrives.  Helpers should bring gear for safety and to aid in spreading the gravel once it is dropped off. 
 
I plan to fire up the grill about noon for an after work party potluck BBQ lunch.  Please reply to give me an idea of how many people we will have and what dish you may be able to contribute.
 
We're looking forward to making this a good time.  Thanks to everyone in advance.
 
AL
06-09-12


Small Fire at Field

I just wanted to let you know the lawn mower caught on fire yesterday. (May 6)

 

Pat and his son Theo were helping Doug mow the field when all of a sudden smoke started billowing out from the right side of the mower.  It appears as if the blade pulley bearing got really hot and caught the cut grass that had accumulated inside the blade housing on fire.  We were quick to grab the fire extinguisher and water bucket (although, the water bucket is a 5 gallon gas container marked water! Lol).  We did not want to extinguish the flames with the extinguisher and have to pay for a new one so we tested the “water” by smelling it then doused the flames.  It looked really funny and we were all laughing but it got the job done.  There is no burn mark on the field and the flames were small and contained so there was really no concern. 

 

I am very proud of our volunteer fire department (Myself, Pat Willis, Chris McVey, Mike Lee and Khoi) had it under control very quickly… approx. 90 seconds.

 

What did we learn?

         1.      We need to make sure the bearing is ok and gets greased as per maintenance instructions.

         2.      We need to clean out the blade housing from old grass prior or after mowing.

         3.      We need to replace the gas can marked with water with a real water jug.  J

Theo was really bummed his mowing experience was cut short but handled it like a champ!

 
Mike Winklepleck
Safety Coordinator




FYI

Subject: RE: powermasterfuels.com: Oil content in fuels

VP/Powermaster did an asset purchase from Powermaster. All blends are copied 100% from them less the nitro content. They advertised 18% Oil when in actuallity only 17% was in the formula. 14% nitro instead of 15% nitro. I talked with Mark Williams from OS, and he stated OS would stand behind us 100% on any blend we have. Thank you for your interest in Powermaster.

Tommy Porfirio
Powermaster Sales Manager, VP Racing Fuels / Powermaster





ERCA Club fundraising

RAFFLE

$200 Gift certificate

 

for Trumps Hobbies

( See Flyer )
 

$2 per ticket

$2 each or 3 for $5


    

Members selling tickets:

Brad Werneth, Doug McWha, Jayne Krenz


Drawing to be held at first meeting or event after $200 worth of tickets sold.


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In case of an

EMERGENCY

Call 911

ERCA Flying Field
Is at
92560 Alvadore Rd
Junction City, OR  97448

GPS
Lat  44°10'44.90"N
Lon  123°15'53.87"W









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