I apologize for this very long post ahead of time, I just want to make sure I get most of it out.

The CSS board has recently received a few e-mails from member pilots who are asking that the Gene and Nicole one-year ban decision be reversed. I would like to address this. My opinion may or may not align with the other board members, so please see this as me speaking for myself.

First I’d like to explain (from my limited three year experience on the board) how a ban from the club may come into effect. It doesn’t happen often, in fact almost never, but when it does, drastic actions had to take place for drastic solutions to come into place.

The board receives confidential complaints against a member via e-mail or in person for whatever reason you can imagine. Maybe they feel they have been harassed, or they witnessed an incident that prompted them to write to one or more of the officers to make us aware of the situation. We investigate the complaint. Video and audio recordings are obviously our best form of evidence, but if we have multiple witnesses describing the same event, we take it more seriously. We then try to talk to the individual causing the problem and hope we can get it resolved privately. If that individual receives multiple warnings and continues the unacceptable behavior which is witnessed & substantiated by others, we have to take it a step further.

Like I mentioned in the above post, we’re just volunteers, none of us want to police any of our fellow pilots (let alone the man/woman that drives us up the mountain), but unfortunately sometimes we have to for the sake of the club as a whole. It’s part of being a club officer, whether we want it or not. If you knew for a fact that someone was putting the club in danger, or if you were harassed by someone repeatedly, you too would want us to take actions against that person, so that you may continue to fly at AJX without having to feel anxious about the presence of that individual. We would prefer you work it out with each other between yourselves, but sometimes we may have to step in and mediate.

Most CSS members who are relatively new to the club, or who have never served on the board, are not aware of the nitty-gritty details of club drama. We have board and general member meetings to address club needs, but we are not out to embarrass or make public certain complaints against our members. You’ll never hear us outing members for misconduct, unless it’s already become public knowledge in other ways. We definitely take into account that some complaints may be biased, or bogus. That leads me to the Gene and Nicole one-year ban.

We tried to address the issues with Gene and Nicole verbally in a private manner for months. None of us wanted it to come to this. Unfortunately it became public after Gene and Nicole may have complained to their regulars about this “unfair” treatment.

I can’t stress enough how hopeful and fair we tried to be with them prior to the one month ban. Luke and I hand-delivered the first warning letter to Gene and we had a nice conversation with him outside his trailer about what changes needed to take place. Gene sounded very receptive, he seemed to understand, he promised he’d do his best, and we left with our fingers crossed. I felt good about it at the time!

Gene and Nicole had clear and written instructions on how to avoid the one month ban, and after they violated the warning and the one month ban, they received clear written instructions on how to avoid a lifetime ban from the club. Violations were still made. I witnessed it myself multiple times at the LZ.

Although the one-month ban listed a lifetime ban as a consequence to violating it, the board eventually agreed to make it a one-year ban instead of a lifetime ban. Just another example of us trying to be lenient with both Gene and Nicole, something that wouldn’t be a consideration for about 95% of current club members with the same disregard for our attempt at protecting the club from harm.

Maybe some of you believe that your right to not have to walk a couple hundred feet to get a ride up is more important. We are not out to stop Gene and Nicole from offering rides, they simply cannot do so from AJX property at this time. If they violate the one year ban, it may become a lifetime ban. I hope it doesn’t, but this is up to them to prove that they care about the club enough to respect certain stipulations they were given.

Saying things like; “but I thought the ban ended on the 10th!” when the letter clearly states that the ban begins on the day of delivery of letter, is a poor excuse. Allowing the specific dog that has soiled multiple pilots gear to run free, also inexcusable. The dog literally urinated on the reclining chair that’s located under the shade structure while I was sitting in it. If I hadn’t pointed it out to Gene, he would have never known and never been able to clean it. I did get a “sorry”, but the dog continued to be off-leash the following days. If the dog was on a leash, it would have never been an issue.

If you know you have a dog that repeatedly urinates on gear and you have to give multiple people multiple sorries, at what point does it become unacceptable to see this dog off-leash at the LZ? It’s not the dog’s fault, it’s the owner who’s responsible for either training, or restraining that particular pet. Most of us love dogs, many of us like seeing them have free reign, but not when the dog causes damage to expensive equipment. This is an air-park first and foremost, something both Gene and Nicole should understand.

Nobody has the right to treat the airpark as their personal horse pasture or their dog’s bathroom as they please. This is a landing field for pilots. They pay good money to be able to lay their gear in the packing area without fear of destruction. We don’t enforce leashed dogs, because most dog owners are able to keep an eye on their dogs to make sure they don’t damage equipment. They also pick up after their dogs. If that were to ever change and official complaints are made to the board about a specific dog, we will definitely have a conversation with that pet owner and will make the same demands of them as we have made of Gene and Nicole. It wasn’t personal, it was necessary.

The current CSS board is only trying to address a problem that has existed for a long time. Please keep in mind, this is not just about the dogs and horses. Much more serious issues were at hand, things that could still cause major problems for the club down the line. If it did come to that, it would put an end to the LZ for good, and it would put an end to every business on site.

Some people may believe that because they’ve volunteered their labor over the years, they deserve a pass to do as they please. Wrong! Yes, they have gotten away with it for a long time, because nobody wanted to put a target on their back and create a toxic situation at the LZ for themselves, but enough is enough.

Painting the current board as some vindictive organization that’s out to get people, is a bit reckless. We made the decisions we made based on the actions (or inactions) of the individuals in question, not based on how we feel about them personally. Like I said, I thought we were friends. If you had to deal with the insurance woes, paperwork and day to day runnings of the club, you too would have very likely come to the same conclusion in spite of your personal feelings about a person, or based on what they’ve contributed to the club in the past.

Big THANK YOU to everyone who showed up to help with this project! Luke’s update is that the project is very close to completion now, just before the weather turned.

Luke, Daniel, Albert, Owen & Jeff spent Saturday and Sunday sanding and painting the outer beams to protect them from bad winter weather. We still need to get paint on the south side, but that should not take too long. We still have supplies left for that and we’ll be using a 24 foot extension ladder to get the remaining work done.

Jerome, thank you so much for leading the way! I wasn’t sure if I’d join you guys, but after I got that one big thermal in front of Crestline and saw you heading towards Marshall, I decided I’d try to follow along as far as I could. Turns out I was able to stick uncomfortably close to you almost the whole way! 😂

No worries Billie. I know you haven’t been here for that. Not many people are aware of everything that happens around the LZ behind the scenes. I don’t know what the previous board allowed or condoned, but I bet a lot of it wasn’t discussed, voted on and approved like we thought.

Luke and Tim would be the best source of contact for that. Luke is our site coordinator and Tim frequently uses it to fix the roads. Kelly has offered his help as well, but regardless of whether that works out, it would be great to have more people with expertise in heavy equipment for times like these. Please get in touch with Luke by e-mailing: sitecoordinator@crestlinesoaring.org

I’m told that Jeff Bether (our treasurer) kindly picked up the new radiator and now we also need replacement fluids such as anti-freeze, hydraulic fluid and distilled water. Luke said he would pick some up on his way to the LZ.

Big thank you to anyone/everyone willing to help us out with Gracie! 🙏😎

I think there’s a bit of confusion here. Gene, Dan and Tim are the only people in the club using Gracie for projects and road maintenance (as far as I know). Whenever Gracie needs repairs and replacement parts, one of them lets the CSS board know what’s going on and the board cuts a check for repairs.

Lately (as in the last couple of years) Gracie has been used for what I would dub personal projects, even though we’ve been told they are for the benefit of the club. Examples include spreading out tons of dirt we didn’t ask for. In fact, we’ve been begging for it to stop. Despite the questionable/unauthorized use of Gracie, the club still pays for the repairs when we are told they are needed.

When I saw this post, that was the first I heard of Gracie being broken down and abandoned on a road somewhere. We are now trying to get someone who has experience fixing and driving heavy equipment to look at it and move it to safety. Can’t act on fixing a problem if we don’t know there is a problem. This seems to be a case of broken communication.

It’s because I haven’t been able to fly all of September. I’m ruining it for everyone else. 😜 Day 23 of no flying, 7 more to go. 😑