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HVFF Meeting Minutes – Oct. 14, 2023

HVFF Meeting Minutes – Oct. 14, 2023
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Minutes by Shani Schechter

Regular Meeting Content

Paul Voight, club treasurer, announced the amount of funds in the club’s two accounts: (a) Regular account for operating expenses (~$7,000 pending a deduction for final mowing expenses) and (b) New Account for purchasing Ellenville Flight Park (~$5,000). These accounts will be kept separate. In terms of the regular account, Paul said that the club is doing much better than it usually does this time of year. There have been times when the club was in dire straits. This status is due to increased membership, as well as some members kicking in an additional amount (e.g., +$50) beyond the $30 membership fee. The current membership count is just over 80 people.

Rick Fitzpatrick was awarded a Commendation plaque for his contributions as mentor. Bi-wingual pilot Ricardo also acknowledged Rick for helping unite hang-gliders and paragliders.

Special Meeting Content

Main Message

Since 2016, Wayne Neckles, HVFF president, has endeavored to get Ellenville Flight Park under pilot ownership, working extensively behind the scenes in talks with Tony Covelli and the Open Space Institute to broker an agreement.

On 9/27/23, Wayne reached an agreement to buy both the Ellenville Launch area (16.67 acres) and the LZ (13 acres) from Tony Covelli, the site owner. The LZ plot goes from the creek to the edge of Tony’s training hill, between the road and the organic farm.

The price for the Launch and the LZ together is $650,000. The agreement is to pay Tony a $200,000 downpayment by 1/6/24 to keep the deal, and then $90,000 per year for the next 5 years, interest free. The site would become an USHPA site and thus get USHPA insurance.

The HVFF club will be seeking pledges in 2 stages:

  1. First pledge drive is for the $200,000 downpayment due to Tony on 1/6/24 (pledges due 12/31/23).
  2. Second pledge drive is to cover an enlarged fee ($90,000 per year plus ~$12,000 in prospective operating costs per year) for 5 years. Divide $102K by however many people you think will pledge to contribute as annual members – less some contribution from monthly members – and that gives you a sense of the membership cost per year for 5 years. That is the enlarged fee due for 5 years until the club owns the site outright. If more money is raised upfront – or if more members pledge to contribute (for the whole 5 years or any given year) – the membership cost goes down.

After the $650,000 is paid off in 5 years, the club will own the site outright, and get to fly it without threat of LOSS OF FLYING SITE, new ownership or development. At that point, the membership fees could go down dramatically. As Wayne said: it’d be nice if “Free Flight” were free.

  • The club would just need to cover its expenses (property taxes, USHPA insurance, site & road maintenance while still relying on volunteers, legal/accounting fees while leveraging pilot volunteers, weather station maintenance, any new bathroom or campground maintenance, etc.).
  • Wayne has considered starting an endowment for the flight park. That way future operating expenses could potentially be paid for out of an endowment as it grows.

A word from Jim Donovan: “We cannot underestimate Tony’s steadfast resolve to see this site end up in the pilots’ hands. He turned down numerous offers for more money from individuals both pilot and non-pilot.”

A couple words on the pledges: the club is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, thanks to Wayne. For this reason, any donations would be tax deductible. Also, if for some reason HVFF cannot gather the funds, any pledges already paid out would be returned.

Now a good chunk of the work begins. We have to raise the money for this purchase. And all the tasks of site ownership would, of course, come under HVFF purview.

To have the site end up in pilot’s hands would be tremendous – and almost unprecedented in the U.S. The number of such sites is probably countable on one hand. But club ownership of Ellenville Flight Park is not a foregone conclusion – and depends on the generosity and vision of the community as a whole.

Let’s see what we as a community can do.

Other Notes from the meeting:

More Notes on Funding & Communication

  • Meeting participants discussed the importance of communication within the community, and of reaching out to other clubs throughout the US to contribute.
  • It was suggested a gofundme page – or at least a fundraising page with a progress bar relative to the fundraising goal – could be helpful for sharing more widely.
  • Jim suggested publicizing a $300,000 fundraising goal instead of $200,000. Any amount beyond the $200,000 down payment would go towards the annual payments and thus reduce annual membership fees.
  • Wayne presented various scenarios for membership fees, based on different assumptions.
  • Jim announced the contributions pledged so far.
  • The club intends to reach out to the Foundation for Free Flight for a grant. A grant would be enormously helpful but will not remove the need for individual donations.

More Property Notes

  • No buildings may be constructed on the property except a building of certain dimensions. The building area is limited to 1000 ft² and any structure must be under 12 feet tall.
  • The club is interested in building a bathroom and setting up ~13 campsites on launch for pilots to use. Ensuring that campsites are only used by pilots is a separate management task.
  • The club will have the right to put utilities on launch, but they will have to be underground
  • The club can put solar panels up for its own expected consumption, and theoretically farm out excess if any, but cannot create a solar farm. Wayne and others have various ideas for additional revenue sources but have not budgeted that into projections for now.
  • The plot containing Tony’s house will be subdivided and not part of the proposed club acreage. “Tony’s training hill” on the LZ is eroding and will be removed. Meeting participants recommended putting in the contract that no trees be planted on the house plot, as that could compromise HGs’/PGs’ landing approach.
  • The road to launch would be owned by the club but would have an easement allowing Open Space Institute (OSI) to access the road in order to build a hiking trail up the mountain. Wayne said the club has a say on the trail location, and thinks the existing rough trail is good, but suggests making sure the hiking trail doesn’t interfere with the parking area. OSI will be putting a sign up to direct hikers up the trail. Meeting participants commented that additional spectators would be good for the sport. The road would remain gated so that non-pilots cannot drive up.

Governance

  • Wayne noted that there will be many more tasks to take on as HVFF takes on site ownership and the club will be looking for more volunteers. In the meantime:
    • Jim Donovan is leading the fundraising effort
    • Paul Voight and Rick Fitzpatrick are writing an article for USHPA about the endeavor
    • Cathleen will contact local news outlets about the endeavor
    • Brian Vant-Hull volunteered to handle USHPA insurance
    • Shani Schechter volunteered to help set up online waivers & membership
    • Ricardo and Jane volunteered to help with communication
    • The club will seek someone to help with grant writing
  • Wayne mentioned that a subgroup of the club meets weekly on Tuesdays to make progress on the various site purchase tasks. He would like to post weekly reports in a digestible/skimmable format to keep people aware of progress.
  • New club bylaws will be created given the prospective asset ownership.
  • Wayne will also post more info on the deed restrictions on the website.

In Person:

  1. Wayne Neckles
  2. Paul Voight
  3. Brian Vant Hull
  4. Mike Strother
  5. Jim Donovan
  6. Susan Stoltze
  7. Kenny Foldvary
  8. Joyce Foldvary
  9. Rick Fitzpatrick
  10. Jamie Hall
  11. Tony Davis
  12. Suma Khail
  13. Kevin Zeininger
  14. Ricardo Caballero
  15. Shani Schechter
  16. Jane McCarthy
  17. Fred McCarthy
  18. Greg Saracino
  19. Bryon Estes
  20. Tim Curran

On Zoom:

  1. John McGlade
  2. Joseph Stearn
  3. Marcus Santos
  4. Peter Geoghegan
  5. Hook Huang
  6. Rolan Yang
  7. Ze Luis
  8. Helder Delucio
  9. Hadrien Dyvorne
  10. Billy Diomis
  11. Brian Engleheart
  12. Brian Herbert
  13. Carl Jonasch
  14. David Berman
  15. Doug Dillon
  16. Jim Lawrence
  17. Israel Beneti
  18. Tom McCormick
  19. Taylor Bennett
  20. Juan Sarria
  21. Martin
  22. Tiago
  23. Kenneth
  24. Karim
  25. Kim
  26. Kristin
  27. Steve