Looking ahead to 2024 (our fourth year), we will be focusing on adding more events now that we have the infrastructure in place.

Also, be sure and check out the Members Discount page for special offers for SWA members on the website. If you are not a member be sure to join! We are also in the process of adding more photos to the Galleries. Be sure and check them out.

Hopefully this year we will finally be adding SWA SWAG (t-shirts and mugs) to the site for you to help support the organization.

Last but not least I wanted to announce this year’s drawing winner. Each year you are a member your name is added to the end-of-year drawing and for each SWA event, you attend you get an additional entry into the drawing. This year’s winner is Darrell Mims. Darrell has won a ISDT Q6 Nano Lipo Charger/Discharger DC 200W 8A Smart RC Battery Charger. Congratulations Darrell!

Looking ahead to 2023 (our third year), we will focus on building the organization more and adding more events now that we have the infrastructure in place.

Also, be sure and check out the Members Discount page for special offers for SWA members on the website. If you are not a member be sure to join! We are also in the process of adding more photos to the Galleries. Be sure and check them out.

Hopefully this year we will be adding SWA SWAG (t-shirts and mugs) to the site for you to help support the organization.

Last but not least I wanted to announce this year’s drawing winner. Each year you are a member your name is added to the end-of-year drawing and for each SWA event, you attend you get an additional entry into the drawing. This year’s winner is Al Kretz. Al has won a $100.00 Gift Certificate from Balsa USA. Congratulations!

As we wrap up our second year since reorganizing the SWA I thought I would update you on several items and let you know where we are heading and how we are doing as an organization.

First of all, we added nine new members to the organization bringing us to 26 members at this time. We have decided to wave the 2022 membership fees for current members as we continue to be limited by health events in our country. However, all memberships will come due on the first of 2023 as we bring on more events.

Speaking of events we have added two additional events to the SWA this coming year (Rally of Eagles and Sodbusters) bringing us to four events. If you would like your event to become an SWA event please contact me for more information.

Also, be sure and check out the Members Discount page for special offers for SWA members on the website. We are also in the process of adding more photos to the Galleries. Be sure and check them out.

Last but not least I wanted to announce this year’s drawing winner. Each year you are a member your name is added to the end of year drawing and for each SWA event, you attend you get an additional entry into the drawing. This year’s winner is John Mueller. John has won a $100.00 Gift Certificate from Balsa USA. Congratulations John!

It is with a sad heart we must let you all know my good friend and partner in so many things Jim Weems passed away mid-July. Jim battled cancer to the end and left so many of us who knew him with an empty spot in our hearts. Per Jim’s wishes, he was cremated and we flew his 1/3rd scale L-6 and dropped his ashes on the flying field at his celebration of life party on August 1st at our club.

He loved our hobby so much and did so many things to help it. Those of you that knew him understood the kind and gentle person he was. He will be missed greatly!

Mike Hipwell has stepped up to help me run the organization in Jim’s absence. You will be hearing more from us in the near future.

Regards,
Mike Chilson / Mike Hipwell

While we want to continue to keep Chris’s vision alive and well, we also recognize a lot of changes have occurred to our hobby. This has caused us to think hard about what it will take to move forward the organization and we have come up with some changes we feel with help the organization survive another 20 years. Let’s take a look at these now.

First, while the peak of our hobby was years ago and there were so many different interests that we needed to segment it into groups this is no longer the case. The organization’s membership has dropped substantially. The only way forward here is to OPTIONALLY allow smaller warbirds at events. This is not mandatory, but an optional way for events to increase participation. “Giant Scale Warbirds” is but a tiny segment of this hobby where there are literally thousands of modelers flying 60-78” wingspan warbirds. There is no reason not to include these modelers also. However, if a CD/Event director/Club wishes to only allow Giant Scale Warbirds this is totally their decision.

Secondly, to help promote the entry of theses smaller models into the organization we will be slightly modifying the name from the “Giant Scale Warbird Association” to simply “Scale Warbird Association”. This is simply to make this untapped group of modelers feel more welcome and integrated into our great organization.

Next, we are setting the yearly membership fees to only $10.00 a year. We are currently streamlining our processes so they don’t need things like postage and copying and such. All communications will be digital except our event packet (see below).

Also, we will be doing a yearly drawing for a nice hobby related prize each year. Each member who registers or renews gets one ticket each year. Then, every SWA event you attend scores you an additional ticket in the drawing! We will announce the winner at the end of December each year. One other benefits members will receive is vendor discounts. We are currently negotiating discounts for SWA members with select vendors.

For clubs, we are putting together an Event Packet this month for CD’s / Event Directors / Clubs who wish to host an SWA Fly-in. This will include a handy checklist, and an SWA event form that will have to be submitted, SWA sign-in sheet (see below), and SWA membership applications to give out at your event. We want your event to be successful.

Last but not least we have launched our new website so be sure to check it out at https://scalewarbirds.org Thank you for taking the time to read this and we hope you will continue to participate in the organization.