Check out some milestones throughout club history
In March the club built a new storage shed to surround the generator to replace the older plastic one. It had seen better days and the number of times that the doors were left closed while running didn't help the poor structure (heat and plastic don't go well together). Along with the new facility, an older one was torn down and removed along with cleaning out all of the "stuff" in yet another one. The club donated the empty one to the land owner in appreciation of their continued support of the Club.
During the annual "field day" it was decided to address some fence and assembly station issues. While doing this, the Directors thought it was a good time to liven up the place with some color. Traditional barn red was chosen, and the members went to town painting everything in sight. It reminded folks of the Clint Eastwood movie "High Plains Drifter" where the town got painted red before a big battle.
A generator was purchased and installed in a generator "compound" in the parking area. Within one of the newest shade structures a charging station was built that can accomodate 8 chargers. This gives members a better option for charging rather than relying on their vehicle battery for support.
The sun can get rather warm down here in North Carolina. The existing carport/shade structure wasn't quite big enough for the membership, so 2 additional carports were purchased and installed (single width). They were placed on either end of the existing structure with some space between them, but installed perpendicular to the original for a different flow pattern (walking through pits). This readily helped with shade and protection from quick rain storms for those caught out at the field.
The Directors decided that the West approach to the runway could use a little "opening up" and during February the members got together on a Saturday to start clearing the brush and trees. Some of the trees were rather large (over 50 feet) and this took some time and effort. We cut the wood into firewood sized pieces for the land owner and stacked it as well. What a difference it made to the approach. Much more open.
As the club membership grew, it became obvious that additional assembly and starting stations would be required to ease the congestion and line-ups for pilots wiating to fly. A safety fence was also erected along runway to separate the pits from the active runway. It big enough to support 6 flight stations.
A notification area was added beside the original carport that housed a frequency board, message boards, and along side that, a windsock tower. The boards were enclosed in plexiglass to keep the elements out, and a gable roof extending out the front and back provided some additional coverage. This was the "go to" place for information (no web-site at the time).
A double wide and double long carport is erected to give some shelter from the elements. A couple of picnic tables for seating, poster board for updates, and a grill for the cooking at the field are put in. This will be the only structure for quite a few years.
Several guys decided to start mowing a section of a hay field to create a runway so they could fly their planes. Once this had been accomplished, they decided to form a club and get registered with AMA to make it official. Humble beginnings for sure.
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