Muncie field maintenance

[BillLee]

With the recent talk about r resealing the L-pad and the proposal for adding concrete centers on the 600x600 grass pad, does anybody know if AMA has done any maintenance on the OTHER facilities there ?

The McCool pad was built in 2003, and in the 18 years since then, there has been zero maintenance. Oh, a little bit of tar to try to fill a crack here and there, but there are many spots where a landing model can be damaged by the chasms that still exist. The surface is so badly weathered that it is much akin to flying in a gravel parking lot.

Anybody?

[Bob Hunt]

Hi Bill:

Good point, but it is my understanding that Roger Wildman left a pretty sizable sum to AMA when he passed with the stipulation that it was to be used for L-Pad upgrading. That, of course, would benefit the CL Stunt gang, but also any RC groups that use the L-Pad as well.

I'm certain that the AMA relies on donations in a great way to help upgrade various parts of the facility.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong about any of this...

Bob Hunt

[Brett Buck]

Hi Bill:

Good point, but it is my understanding that Roger Wildman left a pretty sizable sum to AMA when he passed with the stipulation that it was to be used for L-Pad upgrading. That, of course, would benefit the CL Stunt gang, but also any RC groups that use the L-Pad as well.

I'm certain that the AMA relies on donations in a great way to help upgrade various parts of the facility.

   But I would say I would be *extremely hesitant* to donate any money for that purpose, because there seems to be no guarantee that it will be used in the manner designated. Over and over again, the AMA has come around with their hands out asking for donations for various things, only for those things to not happen or the goalposts moved to use the money for something unrecognizable. I note Muncie site, the Visalia site, Roger Wildman's money (which was used to slap sealer in the cracks, which might have used 5% of the total donation money, if the numbers I got were remotely accurate) and numerous smaller examples.

      The Visalia scam (including a second pass at it a few years ago) has left everyone around here with *an extremely bad taste* in their mouths, because that money went into a black hole, never to be seen again. Even if people misunderstood or failed to read the fine print ("fund many be used pursuant to an AMA-authorized expense"), no one, to my knowledge, ever once got an explanation, or an apology, for that one. All we got a slick artist's rendering of a site and I know from personal knowledge that there was *a lot* of money "donated" for it. A *lot*, even by California standards. It appears to have gone into the black hole and/or running HQ - a place almost none of the donors, 2400 miles away, will ever use or even see.

   I was not at all surprised that the estate money was not used to repave the L-pad as intended, it appears to be par for the course.

   I would help pay for a lot of this stuff, but *proceed with extreme caution* if you donate significant money directly to the AMA, and *make absolutely sure you have a contract* that states exactly what will be done in detail. I doubt they will go along with that, of course.

   My suggestion for the McCool site - have racers and other interested parties get up the money, get a contract with a paving company to fix it, and then just show up on the site and do it themselves. That will be a more efficient use of funds and more likely to get a positive end result, even after you pay for the lawyers.

     Brett

[Dave_Trible]

I want to be careful to clarify the story about the money Roger left to AMA for LPad improvements.  Roger left $41,000 for that purpose.  The quote I was told of from Joyce for the work now just completed ( crack filling last fall and the final sealing done just in the last couple weeks was $53,000.  She had to go to the EC to request the additional amount.  To tear out and completely rebuild the LPad was around 1 1/2 million.... never going to happen.
I can only guess a reasonable facelift of the McCool site could be $20,000.
Dave

[Allen Goff]

I personally seen that Rogers money was used for the L pad.
My son-in-law is an engineer for the biggest pavement company in the Midwest and like many companies working though the Covid-19 earthquake, price’s have gone up for many reasons.
 AMA was lucky to get the repairs made when they did. With all the government money going to state intrustructure upgrade all the paving companies are swamped with state highway work. Pavement has gone up over 300% in the last 2 years.
Just finding some pavement company to do any work is out of the question for the foreseeable future.
I worked with Joyce for two years to get what we got.
Blessings