Rotary Spoke 02 29 16

Posted by Murry Awrach 
on Feb 29, 2016
 

PP Don Martini Speaks to Rotary About Drones

 
It was a beautiful early spring-like day in the 60's as 18 Lexington Rotarians met at Waxy's under President Domenic's capable guidance.
 
Lunch was Chicken Parmesan with some nice pasta, salads and other goodies.
 
The Pledge of Allegiance was led by PP Spencer B., 1st Verse of America by Charlie V., and the Invocation was given by PP Don S.
 
All attending were severely fined one dollar each due to no guests attending the meeting.
 
Happy Dollars were donated by;
PP Don M. for his recent Phoenix, AZ vacation, and PP Dan O., because he did not have to lead, nor hear, the Welcome Song for guests. PP Dan B for the excellent activity on Amazon through the club’s website, for November and December of 2015 which netted the club almost $200.00.
 
Raffle gifts were donated by Brookline Bank, Walpole Cooperative Bank, Peoples United Bank, Friends Forever, Brookhaven of Lexington, and Bickling Financial.
 
Pres. Domenic took time to call up to the podium, PP Jim Freehling and awarded him with his 4th Paul Harris Fellow pin for his continuous commitment and generosity to our club.
 
 
Some announcements given and to take note of:
  • March 21 – meeting will be held at Minuteman Career and Technical High School,
  • March 28 – meeting will be held at Lexington Community Center. Community Center Director Sheila Butts will talk about the history of the Community Center, and then will give a tour of the facility and the Rotary Club of Lexington Billiard Room.
  • April 11, the joint meeting with the Concord Rotary Club will be held at Waxy's.
  • PP Spencer B. noted that Comedy Night will be the first Friday in May, May 6th and highly recommends that reservations be made early. Also, PP Spencer noted the need for as many as possible to please advertise to help sponsor Comedy Night, and asked that everyone begin selecting items to donate for the Silent Auction for that evening.
  • PP Dan B. is looking for people to either renew their sponsorship in the Club Runner, or to become new Sponsors. It only costs $50 per year, so please contact PP Dan B.
  • President Domenic noted to those who recently received dues notices to please make their payments at this time.
 
Our speaker for today was PP Don M., Co-Owner (with son Brian) of Advanced Aerial Systems, who spoke on Unmanned Aerial Systems, better known as drones. PP Don even brought several drones, which he placed on a table, just for us to see firsthand. He noted that drones that cost $15,000 originally several years ago can cost as little as $3,500 today; that the cost is going down for drones.
 
 
There are basically three types of uses for drones:
  1. Personal: including as toys, of which about 900,000 have been purchased; 
  2. As Tools: used to help locate, search and rescue, site locations, data-gathering, real estate-residential and commercial-planning/development/construction siting, etc.
  3. Military use drones.
 
PP Don said that although lit is not absolutely necessary to register a personal drone with the FAA, it is easy to do so for just five dollars. Commercial drones must be registered with the FAA, and must even have a flight plan filed for them with the FAA each time used. The FAA basically regulates drones with the same rules applied to other aircraft. Drones must not go beyond certain heights, and must stay away from certain areas, including airports, beyond certain defined distances. GPS is commonly connected to many drones, so that they can be located and brought to a safe location including landing, should they go out of site or encounter foul weather or run into a situation of remaining low battery power. The lower cost drones have battery power for about five minutes of operation, while the more advanced drones have longer periods of battery power. PP Don also noted that drones are not as bad as many people think they are, especially if used properly. An interesting and fun subject matter and talk, and thanks to PP Don.
 
 
 
The 50-50 raffle was won by 2nd VP Lori M., and the meeting was then adjourned by President Domenic.
 
Respectfully Submitted,
 
PP Murry A.