OUT OF TOWN GUESTS WELCOME TO ARRIVE EARLIER IN THE WEEK. Let Chris Kaiser know so I can make arrangements to be there.

Thank you to all of the sponsors that are supporting our event.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1062330758142052/?ref=newsfeed

Thank you to those who striped the runway in preparation for this years flying!

This looks good!

Jet Rally is May 19th-21st 2023!

Due to weather concerns the date has changed to May 19-21, 2023. Sorry for any inconvenience. Please share with friends so we can reach everyone. Thank you.

OUT OF TOWN GUESTS WELCOME TO ARRIVE EARLIER IN THE WEEK. Let Chris Kaiser know so I can make arrangements to be there.

Thank you to all of the sponsors that are supporting our event.

Calling all RC pilots! Join us for some fun, good times, camaraderie, seeing friends and making new friends. The first flying event in Billings, Montana for the 2023 season is coming up quick. We hope to see you there!!

OUT OF TOWN GUESTS WELCOME TO ARRIVE EARLIER IN THE WEEK.

Thank you to all of the sponsors that are supporting our event.

Progressiverc
BVM Jets
RC Battery.com
Global Jet Club
Bad Boyz RC.com
Jersey Modeler
Futaba USA
Horizon Hobby
HeliDirect
Savox
Amain Hobbies
Ron Horton Landscape and Irrigation Services

Improvements at Chaimberlain Field.

I would like to take this opportunity to personally thank all who have participated in the work that has been done at the airfield the past month and a half or so. I’m not going to mention specific names as those who have helped know who you are this goes for the opposite as well. We have accomplished a lot so far. The parking area has been extended 120 feet to the east, north/south runway has been built up with 350 tons of road mix. A concrete pad has been poured between the clubhouse and pitts (which will improve access between the clubhouse and pitts and also alleviate some of the water issues inside the clubhouse when it rains.) Grass has been planted between the new parking area and the runway. We just completed laying petromat on the runway extensions which will make a total usable runway almost 600 feet long. Future plans are to have astro turf in the pit area, improvements on the snack shack and hopefully more new pit tables. This sounds like a lot of work and it is! However, it will be easy with more volunteer help when we ask for it and quite honestly a little financial help wouldn’t hurt either. That could come in the form of a direct donation whatever the amount or even to come to one of our events and pay the landing fee (whether or not you plan to fly) or buy some “extra” raffle tickets. Again a little from everybody is better than a lot from from a few. We do have one of the BEST sites around and to top it off “we” own it. Please, lets all take ownership and justfully so pride in what we have. Thanks for hearing me out and reading this entire message.

Elder Grove Tech Team Visits BFM

In May twenty students from the Elder Grove Middle School Tech Team visited the Billings Flying Mustangs field. The Tech Team students volunteer their time to repair equipment at their school, and assist in tear down for a local ewaste facility. For their annual field trip they decided to learn more about the principles of flight, radio controlled airplanes, and how they work.

Thanks to the Billings Flying Mustangs team for taking the time to share with these students. Jim started off the excitement by visiting the school and discussing the principles of flight, and allowing the students to see how transmitters work to control the planes, Then, a few days later, the students visited the field where Art, Jim, Dennis, and a few others provided many opportunities for learning throughout the day. The students were able to practice flying on Real Flight RC simulators, they were able to fly an Apprentice with an instructor, built foam gliders, and rubber band propelled airplanes. It was a day filled with fun and learning! Thanks o everyone who made this a reality! The students couldn’t stop talking about their day and all that they learned!

Hangar Insulation Project Completed

A crew of members from the club decided to spend their weekend hanging an electric heater, insulating the building, and then installing drywall. Here are some photos from the weekend.

Thanks to the following members for your time and incredibly hard work this past weekend. The entire club will benefit from your efforts. If you see one of these members out at the field please take a moment to slap them on the back, and point out how the screws in the drywall do not line up! Just kidding! Please take a moment to thank them for their time!

Fearless Leader Art
Additional Fearless Leader Clay
Lee
Bug
Pat
Carol
Travis
Andrew
Keith
Earl
Adam
and many others who stopped by to bask in the warmth of the newly updated hangar and offer words of encouragement! Thanks to Pat & Cathy for providing lunch for everyone on Saturday!

We hope you enjoy the new and improved hangar!

Meeting, Elections & Awards

Our monthly meeting on Tuesday, December 7th was well attended. Elections were held. The results are in:

President –              Randy Broderick
Vice-President –     Chris Kaiser
Secretary –             Dennis Schuld
Treasurer –             Scott Cranston

Outgoing President (Dave Brown) automatically becomes a board member.  The other board members are Carl Thuesen, Pat Kelly and Dennis Rollins.

Randy Broderick handed out some awards.

TJ Hogan won Rookie of the Year

Pat Kelly was awarded the Lifetime Achievement award.

Dick Holmes was added to the memorial plaque that reads ‘In Remembrance of those flying on God’s field.’

The meeting ended with a discussion about insulating the hangar at the field and some basic other business.

MORE Weekend Fun Videos

Check out the newly posted videos! Our members are very active! We hope you enjoy watching the antics of our members.

Weekend Fun

Our70+ members are very active all throughout the year. Here are just a few of our members having some weekend fun November 6th – 7th 2021!

Our Members Jet Around

ELECTION TIME & CLUB UPDATES

I want to remind everyone that we did not have a November meeting but WILL have an in-person meeting in December to wrap up the election of officers.  As of this morning (Thursday Nov 4) 13 people have submitted their votes.  If most folks vote early via email we can probably have final results at the December meeting so get those votes in!

Please Choose One for Each – You can send your votes to Dennis via email or come to the meeting and fill out a ballot.

PRESIDENT
Randy Broderick (Current VP)
Dave Brown (Current President)

Vice President
Dennis Rollins
Travis Tanner
Chris Kaiser
Randy Broderick (Current VP)
If you choose him for President please choose someone else for VP

Secretary
Dennis Schuld (Current Secretary)

Treasurer
Carol Phillips
Scott Cranston (Current Treasurer)

Randy wanted to let everyone know that we have paid the 2021-2022 taxes in full so that has been taken care of.

There has also been some discussion that the next project for the club will be to do some clean-up on the snack shack to probably include some skirting around the bottom to help keep out the environment – rain, snow etc. – and also small animals.  We can discuss this at future meetings and probably start the work in the spring.

That’s it for now.  Get those votes in and hope to see you at the December 7^th meeting.

Our Own Kind of Pumpkin Patch

Thanks to Lee for submitting this photo that he called ‘Pumpkin Patch’!

We heard that the Cody Fly In was a lot of fun. Thanks to Lee for sending us some photos.

Elections in December

We will NOT have a monthly meeting in October or November, but we WILL have an in-person meeting on December 7, 2021 at which we will deal with among other things, election of club officers for 2022.

We are asking everyone to submit nominations for the four officer positions (President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer) by October 31.  At that point we will close nominations and put all the nominees on a ballot that will be emailed to all currently enrolled members.  The current club officers are: President–Dave Brown, Vice President–Randy Broderick, Secretary–Dennis Schuld, Treasurer–Scott Cranston.

You will have two ways to vote – you can reply to the emailed ballot with your choices (ONE for each position) by November 20^th or you can come to the meeting on December 7^th and vote in person on a paper ballot.

Once we have all email and paper ballots we will count the votes and send the results out to everyone, which should happen within a very few days of the December 7^th meeting.

To summarize:

Nominations are due by and will be closed on October 31.
Voting via email must be done by November 20^th.
In-person voting will be done at the December 7^th meeting.
Results will be sent out within a couple of days of the December 7^th meeting.

Nomination requests and election ballots are only being sent to currently enrolled (2021) members.

So please participate in the business side of the club and get those nominations in!

I will send out reminders a couple of days ahead of the nomination and voting deadlines.

Member Submissions

It is great when members share photos and videos. We love seeing our members in action! These were sent in by Chris.

Update on Club Meetings

During the Club Meeting on September 7th the club decided to cancel the meetings in October and November. Our next meeting will be Tuesday, December 7th at 6:30PM at Fiesta Mexicana Restaurant. We will be voting for officers of the club and deciding dates for future fly-ins, BBQs, and swap meets.

Wings of Youth

Three of our youth members spent the weekend building Crash Test Assassin Wings. They chose orange as their squadron color with orange wing tips and orange elevons. The rest of their colors were their personal choices.

Sunday evening they flew their maiden flights with instant, but wild, success. The following weekend they were able to trim them out! For more on this story visit the
Youth of BFM page.

Anyone up for combat with our youth members?

THANK YOU!

We want to thank ALL of the volunteers who changed out the plywood and carpet on the tables in front of the hangar! We really appreciate you efforts! Take a look at the picture below. Don’t they look great!

New Windsock

Thank you to Travis, Austin, and Tristan for taking the time to install the new windsock and frame on the roof. It is so much easier to see it on the website! Thanks for your hard work! We would also like to thank Windy Wendy, the former windsock, for her 7 years of service. We will have a retirement party for her at the next BFM Club meeting.

Paradise Valley Fly-In

The Paradise Valley Fly-In got off to a great start on Wednesday, August 19th 2021 despite the overcast weather. Thursday had lots of flying even though it kept trying to rain. There is still time to get out there as the fly-in goes through Saturday, August 21st. You can have some fun and support another club. It is only $10 to get some flying time in on this beautiful grass field. Don’t forget your AMA card. The Crazy Mountain club also has a raffle going with $400 worth of prizes and the chatting is free!

Carl Made the News

One of our members, Carl Thuessen, made the news in this article about

Day 1 of LSF Cross Country and F3H Racing. Good luck Carl! We are sending thermals your way!

The Story of Our Sad Sock

Have you tried to see the windsock on the cameras lately? She is looking kind of sad! She is faded and has a hole. Yes, we know that windsocks have two holes but our’s has an extra one. She is ready to retire!

Well, never fear, a new one has been ordered along with a new frame for some fresh ball bearings. We will install it as soon as we can! We will let you know when it is up so you can take a peek!

Windsock Wisdom

Did you know that 15 Knot windsocks are variegated so that you can have an idea of the wind speed? Not only do they tell you the direction of the wind, each segment of the sock represents approximately 3 Knots of wind. The windsock we have ordered is calibrated to accurately represent the wind conditions!

So to summarize the above photo –

‘Wimpy Sock’ = Great flying conditions! Get out to the field and have fun!

‘Straight Sock’ = Stay home and shop for more planes and helicopters!

Beautiful Billings Flying Mustangs Airfield

Isn’t our field beautiful! The sunrise was beautiful for one of our youth members to get some early morning flying in.

Link to Historical Article

Here is a link to a story (click on the photo) posted in 1962 in American Modeler magazine about how we bounced back with the new field.

At the monthly meeting on August 3rd the club decided to have a Swap Meet on Saturday, August 28th 2021. This will be a great opportunity for ALL members to pick up some new gear and clear out their personal hangars!