Club Issues that warrant a reminder to Club Members (continued)

The other three pilots who launched Regionals AFTER the White X was deployed, however, flew along the front ridge in excess of 2 hours and made no attempts to descend and land.  CSS Board members and other pilots in the LZ continued to observe multiple firefighting aircraft pass through the airspace during that time, although there were no close calls.

As noted above, the White X was cleared from the LZ at 1820 and the three pilots still aloft landed between 1840-1900.

The first pilot to land was found not to be an active club member.  He may have had a membership in the past but did not have a current club membership.  That pilot was asked not return to CSS/AJX until 01 October for any flying and that he must have an active membership to fly our site.  It goes without saying that he got an education on what the White X means as well why its important to maintain a current club membership.

The second two pilots landed were active club members, but both didn’t understand what the white X meant.  They were both directed to review the club rules that posted on the CSS website as well as on a GIANT color poster displayed in the LZ.  Both pilots were asked to take a break from flying at CSS/AJX for the next weekend and may return to flying at our site on the weekend of 7-8 SEP.

Some other points that are noteworthy and could be helpful:

– Flying with a radio is not required by the CSS, but during fire season its a good idea to have one so that clear communication can help with the situation.  We use different frequencies between groups of pilots, totally normal to minimize heavy chatter.  Its a good idea that you share with someone outside of your group what freq you are on in case we have to send out comms related to fires or any other safety related event.  There is also a big whiteboard in the LZ, you can write your frequency in use on that board and how many pilots are on it for that flying day (this a good idea for many other safety reasons besides just fires).

– The regular CSS club members and all of the students who learn at CSS have a solid foundation in club rules, big thanks to our resident Instructors who make sure all our P1/H1 students are taught this from the get-go.  While the Club Rules are on the website, on the poster in the LZ, and on the trifold pamphlets in the LZ… it appears that some visiting pilots still don’t get the word.  Lets all do what we can to make are pilots are aware of our safety rules and procedures (to include the approach patterns and the White X, this are really our two biggest rules).

– CSS membership is REQUIRED to land at AJX and use club facilities.  There are multiple people who have flown our site without being, at the very least, even temporary members.  This behavior is disrespectful to the founders of the club, people who have put in countless hours over many years improving and maintaining the club, to the volunteers who run current club operations, but perhaps most immediately it is disrespectful to all of the Club Members who maintain a current paid membership.  It takes money to operate our club, maintain the facilities, and pay our insurance premiums.  Luckily, that total dollar cost annually shared between our active members makes the individual contribution each year a very low dollar amount.  Anyone who ‘pirates’ the privilege to fly at CSS/AJX is doing a disservice to the people who made it possible for us enjoy this site for the last 30 years and to our current members, also putting our club at risk if something bad were to happen.