Jan 2020

Annual Planning Session 1

2020 Trips & Events 2

Poker Run for 2020 3

AR District Planning Mtg 2020 4

2020 Polar Bear Run 5

Trip to Mt Magazine 6-7

Trip to Patty’s Down the Road 8

Dwarf Car Museum-Maricopa AZ 9

GWRRA Mtg 10-12

A Fighter Pilots Guide to survive 13-19

Deer vs Motocycle 20

Winter Riding 21

Tim Starr has assumed the position of Assistant Director Rick & Gerri Hiemenz have assumed the positions of Couple of the Year.. Sharon will get the information for Avery Pavillion to reserve it for this year's picnic to Mike and Stepha-nie. 2019 events were reviewed to determine what could be repeated or added in 2020. A trip to Marbles Falls Resort (formerly the Hub) has been added this year. The Leaf Peeping trip to Eureka Springs will include a visit to a Civil War site in Missouri organized by John Bowers. The Christmas Party will be held at Diamante Club again this year if available. The updated document is located in the GWRRA drive in documents. The Chapter E calendar has been updated to reflect these events, as well. Information for each will be shared as the events ap-proach. Don will check with the District to determine if there will be a District Poker Run this year. If not, Chap-ter E may schedule one. Details to follow. Thanks,Jan Miles

Attendees: Chuck and Sharon Eddy Mike and Stephanie Catlett Don and Valerie Hewett John and Judy Bowers Jan and OJ Miles Mike and Stephanie Catlett have assumed their new roles as Chapter Directors. John Bowers assumed his position as Chap-ter Treasurer.

January

1/01 Polar Bear Run to Lake DeGray

1/25 District Paperwork Meeting

February

2/13 Chapter E Valentine Dinner Meet 5:30, Eat at 6:00 PM

March

3/26 - 28 Louisiana District Rally – Ramada Lafayette Conference Center, Lafayette, LA

May

4/29 – 5/3 Mt. View - Mt. Pines Cabins - Jan

5/25 Flags at Cedarvale Cemetery, 7:00am put up, 4:00pm take down

June

6/06 Peak to Peak Poker Run – Queen Wilhelmina State Park

6/30 Wingding 42 in Springfield, MO

July

7/1 - 4 Wingding 42 in Springfield, MO

August 8/14 – 8/15 Music, Mountains and Motorcycles, Mountain View, AR

September 9/19 Chapter E Picnic/Gathering

October 10/1 - 10/4 Osage Beach - Catletts 10/17 Memorial Picnic

10/27 - 30 Leaf Peeping Trip – Eureka Springs, AR .. Canceled

November 11/11 Flags at Cedarvale Cemetery, 7:00am put up, 4:00pm take down

December 12/3 Chapter E Christmas Party 12/? Salvation Army “Ringing the Bell”. 12/12 Angel Tree Gift delivery

2020 Staff Chapter Director

Mile & Stephanie Catlett Assistant Chapter Direc-tors

Tim Starr

Treasurer John Bowers

Newsletter/Webmaster

Valerie Hewett

Ride Coordinator Jan Miles

Membership Enhance-ment

OJ Miles 512-913-4567

Facebook Administrator

OJ & Jan Miles

Meet to Eat Jan Miles

Quarter Master

Dan Drennon

Sunshine Person Mona Harrison

Couple of the Year

Rick & Gerri Hiemenz Safety Resource Tom Harrison

2020 AR District Touring Poker Run

The purpose of this touring poker run is to enjoy some of the many interesting sites and rides dur-

ing the coming year. It begins when announced and runs through the District Memorial Picnic.

Rules for the Poker Run:

This Poker Run is only for current members of AR Chapters in 2020

There are ten railroad sites that have been selected from a list of suggestions by each Chapter of in-

teresting locations located in Arkansas. Participants must submit a hard copy photo (email photos

before deadline) taken at these sites during 2020. The photo must include the designated site,

you, your bike, and a copy of Wing World magazine or Gold Book. You must be in the photo, so

make plans to ride with another member or find a volunteer to take your picture or a selfie. Get in-

terested members in your Chapter to visit other Chapters and get your Picture while in that area.

For each photo submitted, the participant will get to draw one playing card. If you turn in all 10 sites,

you will draw 10 cards. You will build your best 5 card poker hand from the cards drawn. (No Jok-

ers and Aces will count High and Low). In the event of a tie, the winner will be determined by cut-

ting cards. Each member must draw his or her own cards or predetermined designee. The drawing

of poker hands will be at the end of the 2020 Memorial Picnic on Oct 17. Prizes will be announced

later. We are soliciting motorcycle dealers to donate prizes. It is possible to win without making

all 10 sites, so get on your bike, ride and take some pictures.

Photo sites for 2020 Poker Run

Little Rock - 1400 West Markham Street #102, Little Rock, AR 72201

Hot Springs Transportation Depot - 100 Broadway Terrace, Hot Springs, AR 71901

Mena - Kansas City Southern Depot, 524 Sherwood Ave, Mena, AR 71953

Ft. Smith - Arkansas & Missouri Railroad, 100 Garrison Ave, Fort Smith, AR 72901

NW AR - 249 S. Main St, Decatur, AR

Pine Bluff - Arkansas Railroad Museum, 1700 Port Rd, Pine Bluff, AR 71601

Eureka Springs - 299 N Main St, Eureka Springs, AR 72632

TBA TBA Let’s ride and have FUN!

AR District Planning Mtg 2020 Jan 11, 2020

District Poker Run

Do it again this year? Yes

Railroad theme for stops

Draw Poker Hands at the District Memorial Picnic Oct

District Rally

June 11-13 Theme “Mountain Memories”

Moved to Searcy, AR

Organized rides each day

One food vendor

Chapter Shirt Competition

Roy and Keith are Game Coordinators

Wingding

Need AR Volunteers – Tuesday June 30, 1-5 PM

Ticket Sales – 1-3 and 3-5 PM

Memorial Picnic

Oct 17 at Burns Park, N. Little Rock

Christmas Party

Dec 5

Now you see it

Now you don’t

5 Trikes, 1 bike and 1 Little Red corvette drove to Patty’s Down the Road Café in Royal. Bob Sturgeon, Bob Dominguez, Joe Dowd, Skip and Valerie and Ben had a nice and easy ride. Valerie thought it was a little slow in her “Little Red Corvette”. The picture above is a member from1995. His name is Bob Williams. He was driving by the res-taurant and saw all the Gold Wing bikes and thought he would stop in to say hello. Well, as soon as he came over Skip and Valerie knew him right away. Made his day! He promised he would go on the next “Polar Bear Run”

Bob Williams, a member from 1995 and still remem-bered us.

Here are a few pics from the Dwarf Car Museum in Mari-copa AZ. These cars are 11/16 scale and run on a 4 cylin-der engine. Just about everything except the engine is all made by hand. By Steve Didion

Rex & Pam Gudritz David Goff

Linda & Dennis Vogtsberger Ron Sturgeons

3

3 December 2013 General interest Andy Henderson

This article first appeared in the forces pension society magazine Pennant and is repro-duced here by kind permission of the editor. John Sullivan is a Royal Air Force pilot with over 4,000 flight hours, and a keen cyclist. In this article he describes why collisions can occur and, in layman’s terms, how some of the techniques of flying fast jets can be used to increase your chances of survival on the roads.

‘What’s wrong with you — are you blind?’ Who hasn’t thought this at some point whilst cycling or driving? Now, before we go on, who can say that, at some point in their own driving history, they have not been about to maneuver — pull out from a T-junction, etc — when a car or bike seemed to come out of nowhere? Hopefully, it was just a close shave, and no doubt quite frightening. You may have wondered how you failed to see it, and concluded that they must have been driving too fast or you would have seen them. Perhaps, on such an occasion, you were the recipient of that loud and urgent query, ‘Are you blind?’ Well, here’s the bad news — yes, you were. For small but significant periods of time you are completely incapable of seeing anything at all. Most of the time, as I shall explain, this is not a problem. But if it means that you fail to see a vehicle that is just about to occupy the same point in space and time as you are — then this is a big problem! The good news is that understanding why we sometimes do not see things allows us to adopt some defensive strategies that tip the odds back in our favour. This article, then, is a fighter pi-lot’s survival guide to avoiding collisions.

This month's safety article comes from Vin Hayes. For those who don't know it,

Vin used to fly F4 military aircraft and as such is automatically my hero! This ar-

ticle presented me with a new but very important word called saccade. Websters

defines saccades as rapid movements of the eye between fixation points. It is criti-

cally important that we understand saccades and how to combat them while riding

in a car

Contrary to what many of us think, our eyes do not smoothly sweep the horizon but cover that range is a rapid succession of movement be-

tween fixation points. Well, so what?? If there happens to be something between those to fixation points, you might not see it. How many

times have we heard people say, "I didn't see that motorcycle!" This article, while somewhat lengthy, does a nice jump of explaining why

this happens and how you as a motorcyclist can combat it. I found it to be very interesting and informative. Many thanks to Vin Hayes for

sharing it.

A Fighter Pilot’s Guide to surviving on

the roads

Fighter pilots have to cope with closing speeds of over 1,000 mph, and they don’t always get it right! But crashes are always analysed carefully to learn the lessons that might prevent future accidents. This article reveals the hard-won techniques that fighter pilots are trained to use. First some background. We have evolved over hundreds of thousands of years to our environment. We are highly adaptable and have eyes in the front of our heads, which gives us binocular vision for judging distance to prey, or threats. Our eyes, and the way that our brain processes the images that they receive, are very well suited to creeping up on unsuspecting antelopes. We are even pretty good at spotting sabre-toothed tigers creeping up on us! We are, however, rubbish at spotting vehicles that hurtle towards us at high speed.

Let me explain why.

Light enters our eyes and falls upon the retina, whereupon it is converted into electrical impulses that the brain perceives as images. Clever stuff. Only a small part of the retina, in the centre and called the fovea, can generate a high-resolution image. This is why we need to look directly at some-thing, by moving our eyes, to see detail. The rest of the retina contributes to our visual experience by adding the peripheral detail — hence peripheral vision. Peripheral vision cannot resolve detail, which prevents the brain from being overloaded with too much information, but it is very good at detecting movement. Any movement, such as the twitch of an antelope’s ears or the swish of a tiger’s tail, im-mediately alerts us to something of interest which we can then bring our high-resolution fovea to bear upon. And our eyes move fast, really fast — no doubt spurred on by the motivation of not end-ing up as food ourselves.

So what?

Well, first, it is an unfortunate fact that if you are converging on a given point with another vehicle at the same speed, and assuming that you are both traveling in a straight line, then there is no appar-ent movement noticeable by the occupant of either vehicle. That is, to the driver of each vehicle, the other will remain in exactly the same position in the windscreen up to the point of impact. There is no relative movement — so our peripheral vision is not suited to detecting it.

Remember, our peripheral vision is not good with detail — in fact, just 20o away from your sightline

your visual acuity is about one tenth of what it is at the centre. Not convinced? Well, the standard

eyesight requirement for driving in the UK is to read a car number plate at 20 metres. Go outside,

now, and stand just 10 metres from a car and look at the number plate. Now, without moving your

eyes try and read the number plate

A Fighter Pilot’s Guide to surviving on

the roads

Remember, our peripheral vision is not good with detail — in fact, just 20o away from your sightline your visual acuity is about one tenth of what it is at the centre. Not convinced? Well, the standard eyesight requirement for driving in the UK is to read a car number plate at 20 metres. Go outside, now, and stand just 10 metres from a car and look at the number plate. Now, without moving your eyes try and read the number plate of the car on its right or left. Now try it again from 5m. Clinically, you are blind in your peripheral vision. That’s not to say that we cannot see something in our peripheral vision — of course we can. As you approach a roundabout you would be hard pressed not to see a dirty great articulated lorry bearing down upon you, even out of the corner of your eye — obviously, the bigger the object, the more likely we are to see it. But would you see a motorbike, or a cyclist?

To have a good chance of seeing an object on a collision course, we need to move our eyes and probably head, to bring the object into the centre of our vision — so that we can use our high-resolution foveal vision to resolve the detail. Now for the really interesting part. When we move our head and eyes to scan a scene, our eyes are incapable of moving smoothly across that scene and seeing everything. This makes perfect sense: just like trying to take a picture without holding the camera still. The image would be blurred. So, our clever brain overcomes this by moving our eyes (really fast, remember) in a series of jumps (called saccades) with very short pauses (called fixations and it is only during the pauses that an image is processed. Our brains fill in the gaps with a combination of peripheral vision and an assumption that what is in the gaps must be the same as what you see during the pauses. This might sound crazy, but your brain actually blocks the image that is being received while your eyes are moving, which is why you do not see the sort of blurred image that you see when you look sideways out of a train win-dow. Not convinced? Okay, go to a mirror and look repeatedly from your right eye to your left eye. Can you see your eyes moving? You cannot. Now have a friend or partner do the same thing while you watch them. You will see their eyes moving quite markedly. The reason you couldn’t see your own eyes move is because your brain shuts down the image for the instant that your eyes are moving. Experiments have shown that it is impossible to see even a flash of light if it occurs within a sac-cade.

The saccade/fixation mechanism has always served us rather well, and means that we can creep up

on antelopes without being overloaded by unnecessary detail and a lot of useless, blurred images.

But it does present us with some shortcomings now that we

A Fighter Pilot’s Guide to surviving on

the roads

routinely climb into metal boxes and hurtle towards each other. Our eyes and brains are just not de-signed for this — our world has changed far faster than our bodies can adapt.

So what?

lf you get to a junction and move your head right and left to look for oncoming traffic, you need to un-derstand that you cannot guarantee that you have seen approaching traffic. It is entirely possible for our eyes to ‘jump over’ an oncoming vehicle during one of the saccades. The smaller (and, specifi-cally, the narrower) the vehicle, the greater the chance that it could fall within a saccade. You are not being inattentive; you are physically incapable of seeing anything during a saccade. Remember the ‘Think Bike!’ adverts, where a driver pulls out into the path of a motorcycle? I am convinced that it is the phenomenon of saccades and fixations that is most likely to lead to this sort of accident. It gets worse. The faster you move your head, the larger the jumps, or saccades, and the shorter the pauses, or fixations. So, you are more likely to jump over an oncoming vehicle and less likely to de-tect any movement in your peripheral vision (because there is even less time available for slight, relative movement to become apparent). It gets even worse. Not only can we not see though solid objects; research has shown that we tend not to look near to the edges of a framed scene. In plain language, we tend not to look at the edges of a windscreen. So, not only do the door pillars of a car represent a physical blind spot, but our eyes tend not to fixate near to it, leading to an even bigger jump, or saccade, past a door pillar. This is called windscreen zoning. One further point of interest, our ears usually contribute to the process of building up a picture of our surroundings, too — the snap of a twig from an unwary paw is another prompt for us to direct our vision towards something of interest. But in our metal cocoons, with the radio or MP3 device playing, this is yet another cue that we are denied. So, you are approaching a big roundabout or junction, looking ahead of course, and the road seems to be empty. As you get closer, you look right and left as a prudent, final check. You see no other vehicles and proceed. Suddenly, there is a blast of horn and a car flashes across in front of you, missing you by inches. Sound familiar?

So what happened? On the approach, you did not see that another car was on a perfect collision course, with no relative movement for your peripheral vision to detect — possibly compounded by being behind the door pillar. Lulled into a false sense of security you looked quickly right and left, to avoid holding up the traffic behind you, and your eyes jumped cleanly over the approaching vehicle, especially as it was still close to the door pillar in the windscreen. The rest of the road was empty, and this was the scene that your brain used to fill in the gaps! Scary, huh?

A Fighter Pilot’s Guide to surviving on

the roads

You were not being inattentive — but you were being ineffective. Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, there is also the phenomenon of ‘expectation’—your brain is less likely to recognise something that you are not expecting to see. This now enters territory that pilots prefer to leave to a scary breed of creature called the aviation psychologist, but suffice it to say that, if you think that the road is empty, you are less likely to register that a vehicle is actually present.

So, what can we do about it? Well, quite a lot actually, as forewarned is forearmed.

Drivers

Always slow down as you approach a roundabout or junction, even if only by 20 mph or so, even if the road seems empty. Changing your speed will immediately generate relative movement against a vehicle that was otherwise on a collision course — not only are you then more likely to see it, but you are no longer on a collision course! Never just glance right and left — this leaves it entirely to chance whether you see an approaching vehicle or not — and if you glance quickly, the odds decrease markedly. Always look right and left methodically, deliberately focusing on at least three different spots along the road to the right and three to the Left — search close, middle-distance and far. With practice, this can still be accomplished quickly, and each pause is only for a fraction of a second, but this means that you are now overriding the natural limitations of the eye and brain. Fighter pilots call this a ‘lookout scan’ and it is vital to their survival. Always look right and left at least twice. Not only does this immediately double your chance of see-ing a vehicle, but, if you repeat the same scan as you did the first time (which, when it becomes a well-practiced habit, you almost certainly will), an approaching vehicle will have moved to a different part of the windscreen by the time you look the second time and is less likely to be masked by a sac-cade. Just note that this will not work if you charge into a junction at a constant speed because any vehicle on a collision course will stay in the same position in the windscreen — if you miss it the first time, you will probably miss it the second time too! Make a point of looking next to the windscreen pillars. Better still, lean forward slightly as you look right and left so that you are looking around the door pillars. Be aware that the pillar nearest to you blocks more of your vision. Fighter pilots say ‘Move your head — or you’re dead’. Clear your flight path! When you change lanes, especially into a slower lane, you should, of course, check your mirrors,

and will undoubtedly have been watching the road ahead of you, naturally. Your last check must be to look directly at the

spot into

A Fighter Pilot’s Guide to surviving on

the roads

which you are going to maneuver otherwise you could easily have missed a slower motorbike, cy-clist or even car in that lane, one that was only in your peripheral vision as you looked ahead, and over which you ‘jumped’ as you looked over your shoulder or checked your wing mirror.

A Fighter Pilot’s Guide to surviving on

the roads

Drive with your lights on or, if this seems extreme, have daylight running lights fitted — if you don’t already have them. Aviation research shows that contrast is the single most important factor in determining the likelihood of acquiring an object visually. This is why military aircraft camouflage is designed to tone down their contrast. On the ground, dark-coloured vehicles or clothing will re-sult in reduced contrast against most usual backgrounds, and this is why high-visibility clothing (for pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists) and/or bright lights are so important, in the daytime as well as at night.

While it is generally understood that a low sun can make it difficult to see, it is probably not gener-

ally understood why; driving into the sun reduces contrast, especially when vehicles and pedestri-

ans fall into the shadow of larger, up-sun objects. You must beware that even large vehicles, and

especially motorbikes, cyclists and pedestrians, can become completely impossible to see under

these circumstances, and you must moderate your driving accordingly. This is why fighter pilots

attack from out of the sun!

Keep your windscreen clean both inside and out! Seeing other vehicles can be difficult enough, without tipping the odds against you by having to look through a dirty windscreen. You never see a fighter jet with a dirty canopy. And finally, don’t be a clown — if you are looking at your mobile telephone then you are incapable of seeing much else. Not only are you probably looking down into your lap, but your eyes are fo-cused at less than one metre and every object at distance will be out of focus. Even when you look up and out, it takes a fraction of a second for your eyes to adjust. This is time you may not have.

Motorcyclists and cyclists

Recognize that you are especially at risk — not only are you more vulnerable but the narrow pro-file of a motorbike or cycle makes it far more likely that you can fall into a saccade. So tip the odds in your favour — always wear high-contrast clothing and use lights. Flashing LEDs (front and rear) are especially effective for cyclists as they create contrast and the on-off flashing attracts the pe-ripheral vision in the same manner that movement does.

A Fighter Pilot’s Guide to surviving on

the roads

Deer Versus Motorcycles By Tom Harrison, Chapter E Resource

In recent history, I have received suggestions for safety articles from Morgan Reynolds and Vin Hayes. I deeply appreciate their interest and encourage others to join them in sharing safety information. Today’s topic was contrib-uted by Morgan Reynolds with additions made by me. I hope is helps you to be a safer rider. Facts: Deer are the third most common thing struck by motorcycles behind other vehicles and fixed objects. University studies have proven that deer whistles DO NOT WORK!! Deer have the same hearing range at humans so if we can’t hear it, they can’t either. 74% of deer collisions result in personal in-jury or death. Strategies to minimize deer hazards:

Avoid riding at dusk, night or dawn when deer are most active. If you must ride at night, use you high beams as much as possible. Favor the center of the road to allow more reaction time and if riding in a group, keep your intervals so you don’t crash into another rider who is trying to avoid a deer.

Wear all you protective gear – all of the time! Slow down! Cover your brakes e.g. be prepare for quick braking. Brake firmly and then swerve if necessary. An alternative strategy, which I

have used is to think like an NFL running back and be prepared to shoot the gap on a string of deer. Aggressively accelerate and try to brush the hair on the rear of the leading deer in the chosen gap. (You need to men-tally practice this so that it is stored in your subconscious and will hap-pen without hesitation if conditions call for it.) I have done this and so has Frank Fowler and it works.

If you spot a deer in the road, flash your headlights to break the spell of the “deer caught in the headlights”.

Winter Riding Tips By Tom Harrison, Chapter E Safety Resource

With winter coming, here are some tips to ride safer: - First, it is important that we check our tires and make sure the pressure has been ad-justed for the temperature change. Cold tires have less adhesion so adjust your speed to compensate. Be careful not to apply to much power in the corners. Note: Tire mainte-nance is probably the most important thing you can do to stay safe. Frequently checks for damage to your wheels and the presence of nail, wear or cut damage on your tires is rec-ommended. - Be alert to deer and other animals darting into the road. With hunting season in full swing, a deer can appear without notice. To avoid a collision, adjust your speed taking in account your field of vision (how open are the sides of the road). In the Village, for in-stance, it is not uncommon to have brush cover clear up to the side of the road. In these cases, it is wise to slow way down. Envision a deer darting out from side cover and ask yourself if you could avoid it. Also favor the left track to give yourself a split second more reaction time. Train your eyes and peripheral vision to pick up any signs of movement on both sides of the road. If one deer darts across the road, it is likely that others will follow, count on it. - Be aware of wet leaves and black ice. Both are potentially deadly, particularly for two wheelers. Remember that temperatures at the top of our mountains is generally 10 de-grees colder. - Wear good protective clothing including good gloves. Carry extra clothes/rain suit/jackets on your motorcycle. A cold winter rain will make you wish you had! I rode home from Oklahoma City in a 50 degree rain and proper protective gear including a rain suit saved me. In some cases, finding a hotel room versus a long ride home might be your best choice to avoid hyperthermia. - Wear a helmet that does not fog up! I have a full coverage helmet that is worthless in cold weather and rain because it fogs to the point where vision is impaired. I purchased flip front full coverage helmet that works very well. Generally speaking, half and a three quarter helmet also work well but the amount of cold air they let in can be a problem.