April & a Half 2006

Hello, Everyone!
We are back from Florida and Sun 'n Fun. We had a wonderful time, and everything went about as perfectly as we could ask. Thank you all for being patient about not having a newsletter before the April meeting.

The Sun 'n Fun Story
The first hurdle in any trip is the weather. We started out on Saturday and made it as far as Talladega before having to settle down for the night. There were ceilings all the way, but we were able to keep good forward visibility and made it to 3,500 feet for most of the day. We had a little shower of rain coming over the last ridge before Talladega. That night, we had the thunderstorm that brought all the tornadoes to Missouri and Tennessee. We were in a "bed and breakfast" that we just chanced to find, which was really a beautiful three bedroom modular home with all amenities—all to ourselves–on spacious grounds near the airport and motor speedway, for $55 for the night. The lady picked us up at the airport and took us back the next day. We sat on the screened porch and watched the thunderstorm. We were joined by her English Springer Spaniel, who was scared by the lightning.

"Our house" in Alabama, just a stone’s throw from the airport and motor speedway.	The storm that brought many tornadoes to Missouri and Tennessee caught up with us.	The kitchen, fully equipped, and stocked with groceries. We couldn’t ask for better accommodations.
Photographs by Sue Kalhoefer

There were IFR conditions the next morning, which never did completely clear, some of which remained in our route. In the meantime, convective activity was developing north of us. I checked with Flight Service three times, and finally the briefer was able to give us alternate routing which would take us north of the IFR area and south of the convective area. It worked very well, and we were out of the weather by the time we were over Americus, Georgia. The rest of the way to Tampa was uneventful. We stepped down incrementally beneath the Class B airspace and landed at Peter O. Knight Airport in south Tampa in the late afternoon. Our son, Craig, picked us up.

Monday was a family day, as was Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. On those days, we did things like attending our granddaughter's softball games, our grandson's BMX track where he is learning, visiting with the larger family, going to nice Florida restaurants, swimming in the pool, and out on the boat at Tarpon Springs.

Tuesday, Craig and the kids came with us to Sun 'n Fun. That day, we looked mostly at outdoor commercial exhibits which had a heavy emphasis on light sport aircraft. Some of them are really nice. We bumped into Arnie Zimmerman. In the afternoon, we sat on the ground and watched the air show.

No charge for kids under 12. They get ID bracelets all the same.	The traditional opening of the air show, both here and at Oshkosh.	T-6 trainers fly over in formation shortly after the opening. Beautiful.
Photographs by Sue Kalhoefer

On Thursday and Friday, we returned to Sun 'n Fun. I attended the Young Eagles Coordinators gathering. (I think we are among the most imaginative Chapters when it comes to working with kids, with our simulator and school programs added to the Young Eagles rallies.) The point was made that we can never know exactly how much impact we make on youth with the Young Eagles program, but there are a lot of personal stories coming back of young people now beginning aviation careers who were first influenced 10 years ago when they took a Young Eagles flight. In the evening, Fred and I attended the EAA Chapter Leaders barbecue, good Oshkosh-type food of course, and a short address from Tom Poberezny. Very good.

Who is this mystery man? You all know him. (Tents are terrible for taking pictures!) He spoke about the future of general aviation, attracting new pilots, the sport pilot certificate, and the Sun ‘n Fun/EAA relationship. We also put faces to other names: Troy Toelle of the Chapter office, and Steve Buss of Young Eagles.
Photographs by Sue Kalhoefer

Friday was AOPA Day. We listened to Phil Boyer's address and Q&A session. Also very good.
	Phil Boyer explains how the roles of EAA and AOPA complement each other, rather than overlapping.
Photograph by Sue Kalhoefer

We went through the exhibit buildings and collected a lot of useful information, some of which will be helpful in improving the Tomahawk. Of course, we had the inevitable few remarks of, "You flew a Tomahawk all the way from Missouri to Florida?!!" We saw Jerry Smith, and bumped into Bob Obert and Bobbie. (On Sunday afternoon, Bob called to say he had bought an LSA. I couldn't quite hear what kind he said it was, because we were in a noisy environment when he called, but Bobbie will learn to fly—she's already started in the Cub—and Bob will become a light sport pilot instructor using this new aircraft.)

On Friday, we got together with Bob Brantley and Berlin Batesel and went to lunch, then came back and spent some time looking at the homebuilts, went to the fly market, and took a tram tour around the grounds. The homebuilts were heavily represented by RVs and Vari-Ezes, but there was a good variety of others, including Glasairs, Lancairs, Midget Mustangs, a Dyke Delta JD2, a KIS TR1, a KIS Cruiser, and a Thorp.

Midget Mustang	KIS TR1
Dyke Delta JD2	RV-6
In the Homebuilt Corner
Photographs by Fred & Sue Kalhoefer

 We didn't find a Falco, but Bob and Hokie "visited" one in Wetumpka, Alabama, on the way to Sun 'n Fun. The one thing we hadn't done by the time we were out of time was spend time in the warbird area. Next time. We did see quite a few of them in the air show. And demonstration flights included the F-22A Raptor, which was a stop-whatever-you-are-doing-and-watch occasion for almost everybody whenever it occurred.

We missed any connection with Jerry Luna and Bill Newton, or Len Ahrnsbrak, but we know they were there. Jerry said Goldie forgot she was a 150, speeding along like a migrating bird on the wind, nonstop from Walnut Ridge, Arkansas, to Perry, Florida. Jerry and Bill went deep sea fishing one day, checked out the warbirds and classics at Sun 'n Fun, then headed for the naval museum at Pensacola. They picked their way among the coastal weather to get there, but they report they had a great time.

Over the weekend, we checked the weather forecasts several times with an eye to the timing of our trip home. We finally settled on Monday and Tuesday as our window. When Monday came, it was clear all the way. We started out, thinking we'd wait to see at each stop how our timing and the weather were going, and fly as far as we could that day. It ended up being all the way home, with our landing at Willow Springs at 7:30 p.m., just a few minutes before sunset. We flew at our intended altitude of 6,500 feet and never saw a single cloud. What we did see everywhere was smoke. Wherever we looked, there were grass and brush fires. It created a continuous layer of haze all along our route. While we didn't have a headwind, neither was there any wind to break up the haze.

Peter O. Knight Airport in south Tampa. This is where we parked the airplane. You can see the building hit by the kid in the Cessna in the background. Note the blimps. Monday was a beautiful clear day for the flight home.
Photographs by Fred Kalhoefer

The Meeting
Henny reports that 32 of you showed up for the meeting including some guests. That's great. She says you did some planning for the Young Eagles Rally at Houston in May. Remember, this Rally occurs the Saturday before our next meeting, so I hope there will be several of you planning to fly. I will send out an e-mail reminder during the week preceding the Rally. If we have enough pilots, we will finish easily before it gets too hot.

Henny also reports that Ron and Mike put up some lettering on the front of the hangar and that it looks impressive. I can't wait to see it.

Courtesy Crew
Following up on the suggestion made by Jim Vokac at the March meeting for a Willow Springs Airport "courtesy crew," he has done some serious thinking about how to manage this so as not to place a heavy burden on anyone. He is now taking sign-ups for this volunteer project. When you become a member of the courtesy crew, you may specify when you are available or when not. This service could be especially useful in making sure that visitors to our airport get a needed bite to eat in town. This was the one thing we found seriously lacking along our route to Florida. Sweet snacks are available at airports, but what we really needed at least once each way was a burger or sandwich.

Gene Pascoe's Story
Once again, a Chapter 1218 member's project story has appeared in Sport Aviation. Gene Pascoe's EAA biplane was detailed in the March 2006 issue in an article entitled, "Long Time Coming." Three different builders who have spent years with their project airplanes were featured. They all wove their airplane building into their work and family commitments, but stuck to it in spite of everything. Gene is only an engine away from getting the EAA biplane flying, and that is in progress now. More pictures are on the Chapter website under the Members' Projects section. Congratulations on your story and the near-completion of your airplane, Gene.

We Celebrate

April Meeting Announcement