IRCHA Concerns – Two Weeks Later

By | August 31, 2022
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Hi everyone, I hope that you are doing well! I’m getting ready for Heli Extravaganza but before I got on the road I wanted to give you some updates and clarifications.

Updates

So far, I have not seen much movement regarding the organization being formed. Instead, I’ve been asked multiple times by Dan, Wes, & Tim to make edits to various posts which I’ve made because they were immaterial but did help with some precision. Also, I wanted to keep the spirit of progress going so I agreed to make the minor edits.

I have not, however, seen any movement or progress from them. This is disappointing to say the least.

I have also been contacted by several people with concerns they have about announcements surrounding IRCHA West. I guess we’ll have to add that to the list of things we need to discuss but right now I believe the priority is to get the organizational issues resolved and then hold a fair and transparent election.

At this point, I believe everyone who would like to see change happen should begin contacting them at:

  • dan.lucente@ircha.org
  • wes.minear@ircha.org
  • tim.diperi@ircha.org
  • craig.bradley@ircha.org

Be respectful, do not be accusatory, but do ask the following:

  1. When will the organizational problems will be fixed?
  2. How quickly can we get to the elections after that?
  3. Who will be able to be nominated?
  4. How the elections will be held? Will they be done via an independent website?

Feel free to ask them additional questions but I want to stress that this should be done with respect. The goal here is transparency and to get answers.

Clarifications

I have been engaged on the Helifreak post about the IRCHA issues and have seen some misunderstandings about all that has transpired so I wanted to help bring some clarity.

  • The court case (INTERNATIONAL RADIO CONTROL HELICOPTER ASSOCIATION, INC. v. ANDERSON, Case No. 1:20-cv-02082-TWP-TAB) ended on July 18 with the withdrawal of the case by IRCHA. In other words, IRCHA ended the lawsuit. No decision was made by a judge or a jury and the case did not go to trial.
  • Charles Anderson was offered a settlement prior to dismissal, which he rejected. The details of that settlement can be seen below. In that settlement, Charles was not offered any money, however, IRCHA offered to dismiss the case where IRCHA alleged that Charles stole over $70k, organizational records, and various pieces of equipment that IRCHA claimed he never returned. Charles was not offered any money in this settlement and IRCHA did not ask for any money. Instead, IRCHA asked for silence, return of the equipment and records, and to stay away from them.
  • Charles Anderson rejected the settlement. Charles Anderson’s own words to me were that he rejected the settlement so that this could come to light and so that the hobby could continue with transparency.
  • Charles has not filed any countersuits, he has not received nor was he offered additional monies from IRCHA in a settlement, and to the best of my knowledge no criminal charges have been pressed for any of what happened.

Conclusion

I want to thank the guys at RCHN v3 for having me on their second episode. I enjoyed chatting with them and I appreciate the interest that they have taken in the situation!

Also, I encourage each of you to hold Dan, Wes, and Tim accountable for what they promised me at IRCHA (I wrote about it here). This is not going away and I intend to continue reporting on any progress (or lack thereof).