Pahrump Valley Model Aviators
Newsletter for September 2015
On Saturday, July 11th, we held a Funfly at Ron Murphy Field. We had 14
people attend the event in relatively cool weather.
Before the Funfly, Larry held a very short club information meeting.
The County laid out their fireworks launch area with our proposed runway
in mind. But, we have had no response to emails to our Commissioner, Dan
Schinhofen, who originally proposed the idea. It’s not dead, but we will see if
anything develops in the immediate future.
The Funfly consisted of 3 events. Touch and go, bomb drop, and limbo.
The first two events went off easily, but by the time the Limbo contest got
underway, we had some pretty strong winds that made it difficult/impossible to
set up our crepe paper Limbo line.
Overall winners were-1st Place, Arlen West, 2nd Place, Phil Shallenberger,
and 3rd Place, Larry Chapman. All three winners donated their prizes back to the
Club for future events or meetings.
Snookie setup and prepared hotdogs and Italian sausages for all members
and their guests. Water and cookies were available for everyone.
Don won the raffle of an indoor quad copter.
Thank you to everyone that attended and helped prepare for the Funfly.
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Sometime between 10:00AM on Tuesday, July 21st and our planned clean
up day at 7:30AM, July 22nd, someone crossed over the fence at Ron Murphy
field and destroyed our Field sign, completely destroyed our safety fence at the
flight line, broke a couple of tables and threw toilet paper over and around our
shade, and bent and broke about 20 feet of fence at the north west side of the
field.
Larry called the Police, who responded quickly and inspected the damage
and took a report. Larry also called Brenda Klinger, a reporter for the Pahrump
Valley Times, who recently interviewed Larry for an article about the club for a
future appearance in the paper. She then called her editor, who turned it over to
their crime reporter, so they might come out and take pictures of the damage.
Repairs and cleanup are planned for Thursday, July 23rd.
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Thanks to Larry’s connection to the Pahrump Valley Times, the newspaper
ran an article detailing the damage done to the field and the previous two other
times.
http://pvtimes.com/news/vandals-strike-murphy-park-again.html
Also, Bonnie Beatty posted on the “All About Pahrump” Facebook page
about the damage done to the field. Those that read the thread noted that they
know of several teenagers that have reputations for trouble in the neighborhood,
immediately west of the field, and they would keep an eye on them for the near
future.
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We had a large representation of members that came out to the field for
cleanup and repair. Richard Cantino, John Rackley, Marvin Young, Bill Holt, Bob
Cameron, Tim Nelson, Doug Wittenberg, Don Beatty, Larry Chapman, Richard
Beatty.
If I’ve missed you, I apologize, but I’d like to thank you for your help.
Many of the repair crew spent the better part of the morning with buckets
picking up broken pieces of plastic pipe and litter. While others utilized a
powerful blower to move a large amount of dust and dirt from the areas around
the work tables and the staging area behind the now removed broken safety
fence.
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On Thursday, July 29th, Larry, Don and Doug, and myself came out and
started replacing the safety fence. The work on the safety fence should be
completed by Saturday, August 1st.
The new field sign will take a bit longer, but Don is working out the details.
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Saturday, August 1st – Don repaired the sign and remounted it. We still
need to replace the clear plastic sheet over both sides, but the sign is up.
Larry, Don, Doug, Richard Cantino, and myself met at the field and
finished the safety fence. Other than replace the field rules and cover both sides
of our field sign the work is complete.
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Friday, August 21, edition of the Pahrump Valley Times contained an
article written by Brenda Klinger with an interview she had with President Larry
Chapman and Richard Beatty a month before. It’s a pretty good article and
relatively accurate. See it here:
http://pvtimes.com/community/pv-model-aviators-born-shared-passion.html
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An e-mail that Doug Wittenberg sent out on September 8th included a
warning about a Sidewinder rattlesnake, 18-24” long, that was found in the
setup tables under the shade at Ron Murphy Field:
“Today, we found a young sidewinder 18″ to 24″ Rattle Snake near the setup
tables. John Rackley saw it when it was in the open then it went under his car.
After he moved his car, it went under one of the wire reels. Our guest went
home, got a shovel and killed it.
We are going to ‘screen’ the area under the wire reels so snakes ETC can not
hide under them.
As far as I know, this was the first time we have had a problem with a snake.
Just be alert!
Doug W”
As Doug stated, be alert.
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Finally!
On Tuesday, September 15th, the county commissioners will hear our
MOU (memorandum of understanding) concerning the creation of a flying field
at the Pahrump Fairgrounds.
The meeting will start at 10:00 am, but we can’t say when our MOU will be
heard. All citizens will have 3 minutes to comment on why they think our using
the fairgrounds is a good thing.
It would help to have as many members of the PVMA attend as possible.
The meeting will be held at the County offices at 2101 East Calvada Blvd.
That is the building in the center of the Calvada Eye.
