April 2004

Happy Spring to Our Members!
Here we are in Spring! Actually, for the most part it has been quite early, providing a lot of good flying weather already. The Purple Martin Flying Club on our farm has been very active. Buzz Thunderbee had better watch out for midair collisions—see and avoid! Some of our members are celebrating the arrival of Spring with really long cross-country trips. Jerry Luna and Clint and Marge Allen have gone to Arizona, hopscotching across the Southwest. We will look forward to hearing all about it when they get back. Jerry joined us for lunch last Monday at KFC (the senior citizens' special day), but had to take the long way around going home. The weather went from clear and sunny to leaden skies with thunderstorms in a very short time, necessitating a diversion to the east and a landing at Horseshoe Bend to wait out the storm before heading back to Gainesville. Smart move.

Coming Activities
Our schedule of activities is filling up. So far, we have Young Eagles dates on April 24 at West Plains Municipal as part of the airport open house; on May 1 at Houston in conjunction with the Emmett Kelly Clown Festival; and at the June meeting on the 12th in Mountain View. An airport work day has been requested for Mansfield Municipal on a Saturday in May. They need to have the windsock pole painted and fence posts set. There'll probably be other things we can do there, too. Roddy and Teresa Clark have offered to provide barbecued burgers for lunch. We'll decide on the date for this at the meeting. Our last airport work day was at Gainesville in October 2002. We had a great turnout and everybody had a fun time spiffying up the place. These efforts are not lost on the townspeople, either. Local newspapers usually include stories on these activities, which helps the airport…and us.

School Days
Two school presentations have been made this Spring. The first one was at Hartville for their Career Day. The team consisted of Mike Vaughn, Bill Ghan, Kent Clotfelter, and Henny Christensen. The flight simulator was introduced in a school setting for the first time. It was an opportunity to see how much time is needed for each student. Henny submitted the following report about the session:

"Bill Ghan was invited to speak in Matt Cardin's classroom about the Wright Flyer and aviation careers at Career Day at Hartville High School on March 19, 2004.

"Bill showed the video by Dave Altis of the Wright Flyer, and led the presentation to four different groups of students. Kent Clotfelter spoke about his experiences in aviation, as did Mike Vaughn. They brought technical drawings, photographs, airplane parts, and years of knowledge to the presentation. I 'shuttled' kids two at a time into the hall for flight sessions in the simulator, so I missed out on their talks. Maybe they can fill in the gaps with their own recollections of the successful day.

"Matt made random drawings for the sim, which worked in four students per 40 minute class session. This routine was about right for timing. I monitored with a small kitchen timer, and each kid used anywhere from three minutes to 13 minutes, depending on crash frequency. We even had a boy in a leg cast who flew with his leg stuck out the door.

	Photographs by Henrietta Christensen
Two Hartville School students get a turn at 'flying' the simulator.	Students exploring aviation in the classroom of Matt Cardin, teacher.

"It seems that the rudder pedals are more trouble than useful, except on the ground maneuvering. They had to be taught to 'think with your feet,' instead of driving with the yoke. Once airborne, there's little time to teach coordinated turns. Just getting them to handle pitch control with the yoke and throttle, to stay relatively straight and level by monitoring the attitude indicator when the horizon disappears (frequently, in the sim), and picking a place to land (almost impossible to find the airport and return to it for landing in the time allowed).

"We set the software default to Mountain Grove, but the terrain has lots of trees, and most kids hit a tree on landing. Perhaps it could be set to a bootheel airport or a western Missouri airport where there aren't so many obstructions, maybe Springfield, or Nevada. Houston airport and Mountain View airports, even West Plains, are going to be similar in terrain to Mountain Grove. In the time allotted, returning to the airport and setting up for successful on-runway landing is too demanding and time-consuming. A landing in a field and not hitting a tree was the best we could accomplish in a short time. A landing in a field and a crash into a tree was almost as joyous an occasion. A couple of boys were overjoyed to auger in (the bell rang and they had to go).

"Even with previous experience playing with flight simulators, not even one of the kids had ever flown with a yoke. So that is a surprisingly unique quality that the sim brings to kids.

"Anyway, we learn as we go along how to manage the sim on a minute-by-minute basis. I left the timer in the box with the extension cords, so it can be used again. I found that it's an individual thing with each kid, much like the Young Eagles flights. Fudge around with the time depending on capability and enthusiasm for flying.

"Hartville teacher Matt Cardin responded after I sent him photos of our visit on March 19, 2004:"

We love that remark about the sim being "the single coolest thing" he's seen! All the students who attended the aviation sessions had chosen to come. There were several career topics from which students could choose during four different time periods. Most of the students were high school level with a few junior-highers mixed in.

Bill Ghan told the students about the kinds of careers that are available in aviation. The obvious one is that of airline pilot, but Bill described many other areas for commercial pilots including agriculture, cargo transport, military flying, and aerospace. He then enumerated many non-flying aviation careers. He told the students that the total aviation industry in the United States accounted for more employment than any other single American enterprise, and went on to emphasize the importance of education for entering these fields, especially in math, science, English (the official international language of aviation), and "people skills."

Mike Vaughn spoke to the students about the path to becoming an airline pilot pursued by his son Eric—the aviation program at Ozarks Technical College, followed by various flying jobs as he worked his way up. This was to impress the students with the accessibility of a career in flying without having to be "a rich kid." Mike then described his own achievement in becoming a certified A&P later in life as an example of lifelong learning. Kent Clotfelter related his career as an engineer, and the special requirements to become a registered engineer. He emphasized the importance of a solid background in math and physics. There were some students who had already taken these subjects and were able to enter into discussion with Kent. He brought along some items as visual and tactile applications of engineering—a wheel pant as an example of composite construction, an aluminum rudder, and a steel alloy I-strut with welded fittings.
Mike Vaughn at Hartville School Career Day.
	Photograph by Henrietta. Christensen

The second presentation was at Summersville School on Monday, April 5; however, there wasn't time to receive a report on it before our deadline.

Aviation Art Calendar
As a point of interest regarding calling school kids' attention to aviation, Mike Vaughn showed me a beautiful calendar in which each month's artwork was drawn by students who competed for the privilege of having theirs included in the calendar. The winning pictures were just wonderful, showing attention to detail that was really astounding. An idea for us to use in schools in our coverage area? Think about it… Seems like a terrific follow-on for the Young Eagles program and the school presentations.

Chapter Hangar Study
The hangar exploratory committee has been hard at work figuring out all the ramifications of building a hangar, as they also review the questionnaires that have been submitted. We are looking forward to their report at the meeting.

The March Meeting
We had guests at the March meeting. Jack Bowman, of West Plains Municipal Airport, made two announcements. First, he will be getting married again on June 19; second, but first, there will be an open house at the airport April 24 from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. He requested Young Eagles flights on that day. Clint Allen will be doing some demonstration flying. There will be displays and refreshments available. Jack asked for the simulator to be brought there, and for volunteers to act as servers. Sounds like the Chapter will be have plenty of work to do that day. Set it aside on your calendar.
 

	Photographs by Sue Kalhoefer
Jack Bowman	Brenda Senter

Our other guest was Brenda Senter, representing Houston Chamber of Commerce, who presented a certificate of appreciation to Chapter President Charlie Ward for the Young Eagles rallies that were held in Houston during 2003. She urged us to return to Houston this year, which we plan to do.

With requests like these for Young Eagles rallies, we will be well on our way to meeting the new goal of 200 for 2004. That goal is 50 higher than the goal of 150 for 2003, but we exceeded that goal by flying 364. For that, we were sent a beautiful flag from national EAA headquarters. The national goal for 2004 is 100,000.

Photograph by Sue Kalhoefer

Member Notes
Two of our members are dealing with tragic happenings in their families. Charles Ward's son, Charles Lee, was admitted to the hospital in Springfield, then transferred to St. Louis, where he is now a candidate for a liver transplant. He is gravely ill. Please pray for his recovery. Charlie and Anna Belle have been back and forth to the hospital as needed.

Cheryl Butler lost three members of her family in a plane crash in Kentucky, her brother and his wife, and his wife's sister. The funeral was held Friday, April 2. This entire family is in need of your prayers. Children were left behind. The Chapter sent flowers, but there is also a request for a donation for the children.

Newsletter & Web Features…About You!
Narrowing things down…we find that there aren't many active members who haven't written their bios for the newsletter. Our newer members may not be aware how long we've had this feature in the newsletter. It goes back to late 1999, when it was started by the first editor, Len Ahrnsbrak. It has been, by far, the most popular feature. That's probably because it has gone a long way to help us become acquainted with one another much faster, and to appreciate each other's background in aviation. All the bios remain accessible on the website in the newsletter archive. We don't get a bio every month, and it's been a few months since the last one. Fair warning to newer members: you will probably be asked sooner than later! Don't worry, we make it easy, with some guidelines set for you to help focus on what to cover, and full editorial service so you don't have to pay strict attention to details such as spelling, grammar and punctuation, if you don't think those are your strong points. We'll get a "mug shot" of you, and would like to have a couple of other pictures to go with the story.

We also solicit your voluntary submissions for our newest feature called "One of My Most Memorable Flights." So far, we've had two of these, and they make great reading.

The third feature that we do is for the website only, and that is the story of your homebuilding or restoration project. Ask Gene Pascoe about the results of having followed his project. He has made new friends through some very interesting and unexpected contacts.

Homebuilder's Corner
Quietly sitting to one side during the March meeting was the Eggenfellner-modified Subaru engine that Benny Butler bought for his RV-7, which is nearing completion. This engine is loaded with redundancies and self-diagnostics, …and power.

Photographs by Sue Kalhoefer
Eggenfellner/Subaru engine for the RV-7 being built by Benny Butler.

Safety First—Always!
Many of you are members of AOPA. Did you know that AOPA's Aviation Safety Foundation puts on some pretty nice free safety seminars? The latest one, "Maneuvering Flight—Hazardous to Your Health?" will be available in Springfield at the Lamplighter Inn on April 26 (a Monday) from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. ASF describes the seminar thus: "Maneuvering Flight is not just about buzzing. When you operate in the traffic pattern, do aerial work or formation flying, or practice stalls and spins, you perform maneuvering flight. This NEW Safety Seminar will give you the information you need to: * Make a correct base-to-final turn. * Avoid distractions before landing. * Improve skills in formation flight. * Avoid stalling at low altitudes. * Avoid overstressing your aircraft. Maneuvering Flight—Hazardous to your health? Yes, maneuvering can be hazardous if you don't keep your flying skills and knowledge up to date. Refresh your piloting skills by attending this FREE 2-hour safety seminar. Remember…less than 1/3 of 1% of the U.S. adult population is certificated to fly. Have a FUN evening and enhance your skills and meet others who are in this ELITE group." Recently, ASF has been developing seminars on DVDs for the FAA. Experimentally, they have made random mailings to some active pilots (active meaning a current medical on file with FAA) to try out the DVD and send back a comment card. I received one called "Lost and Crossed." It's about keeping up your basic, really basic, pilotage and dead reckoning skills for when your GPS or other electronic stuff, maybe even the VOR signal, fails; and reviewing crosswind landing skills. Trouble was, I didn't have a DVD player—but I went to Wally World and now I do—and found the "seminar" to be well presented. And for my Wings this year, I did an online seminar by ASF, also free, which is eligible for Wings credit. This one was called "Say Intentions," which is about using Flight Assist. It even prints out a certificate of completion that you submit to FAA with your Wings booklet. In addition to attending safety programs, it's time to check out things on your airplane, and take care of some of the maintenance and housekeeping that didn't get done over the winter 'cuz it was too cold.

The April Meeting
The April meeting will be in the pilots lounge at Mountain Grove Memorial Airport (1MO) on Saturday, the 10th, at 10:00 a.m. There will be a potluck lunch after the meeting, so everyone should plan on bringing a dish. Fly in or drive in. See you there! As they say in that travel commercial, "Don't forget your hat!" Hmm, now which one should I wear?

Buzz will have made his selection by Saturday's meeting. Don't forget to bring a dish. See you then!

April Meeting Announcement