December 2003

Merry Christmas, Everyone!
What a great month this is…the Centennial of Aviation and the Celebration of the Birth of Our Lord.

Centennial Celebration
As you all know, the 1,000,000th Young Eagle was announced well ahead of the Centennial. The Fall 2003 issue of Young Eagles Flight Leader News says, "As we have done for all our other 'milestone' Young Eagles, we will simply make a random selection based on how the mail is processed in our office. We couldn't think of a better method of selecting that person." We were all hoping this method would be used. The Young Eagle is from Illinois. Both he and his pilot will go to Kitty Hawk. We had a Chapter 1218 Young Eagle logged in close to the date of the 1 millionth. Thanks to all the Chapter Young Eagles Flight Leaders (as the program pilots are known) who helped Chapter 1218 reach the goal of 1000 by December 2003. We hope you all found participating in the program rewarding and will now continue to fly kids, either individually or at rallies.

	The Wright Flyer is in the final assembly stage, requiring much attention to detail.
The "boat paddle" props, showing how a few boards become a work of art.

The Wright Flyer
Work on the Wright Flyer project is moving right along, but there are some mechanical problems. One is that there is too much flex between the engine and the main drive shaft sprockets because the wood ribs on which the engine and main drive shafts are mounted need to be stiffened. Berlin Batesel is working on the problem and has figured it out.The other problem is with the wing warping mechanism. The way it is hooked to the yoke
doesn't give enough "mechanical advantage," making it too hard to turn. The ratio will probably have to be changed. The warp cable only has to move an inch in each direction to warp the wings seven inches, but two to three times the mechanical advantage is needed from what we have right now.

Bill Ghan has been working on building the propellers himself. They are a work of art, as is the whole project. Starting with about eight one-by-six maple boards for each prop, Bill cut layers from a pattern and laminated them in offset steps. Then he got out the trusty chain saw and rough-shaped the propellers. It was downright scary to watch. After that, lots of sanding and, in the process, balancing had to be kept in mind. Each prop is sculpted individually because they are counter-rotating, so one couldn't be used as a pattern for the other. They came out at 20¼ pounds each, of the boat paddle type. The next step is applying a layer of the same cloth that covers the wings to the outer end of each prop and doping it on. They will rotate at 425 RPM when mounted on the Wright Flyer.

When the Wright Flyer is ready to fly, Bill will be ready, too. He is now back in the ranks of current pilots with a fresh medical and biennial flight review. Before leaving for a Christmas trip during which he and Barbara will spend a week at Kitty Hawk for the Centennial, Bill Newton took time to check Bill Ghan out in his own personal Cessna 172, his contribution to the Wright Flyer project. Now, if FAA will do their part in just such a timely way when the Flyer is ready, we will be in great shape.

Telling the Story
We are very excited that our Chapter Hangar feature article in Sport Aviation has finally appeared. In order to be presented in the December 2003 issue, the deadline had to be in the middle of October, so any work since then is not depicted. We submitted oodles of pictures and let the editors choose what they liked. As of the writing of this newsletter, most Chapter members hadn't received their copy of Sport Aviation, but they are trickling in this week.

The folks from "Rural Missouri," the magazine that all members of Missouri's electric coops receive, were out to Ron's hangar to collect information for an article. In addition, the PR person, Sherry Wallace, and the lawyer for Springfield-Branson Regional Airport, visited during the project workday last Wednesday. So, we've been on KY3, in the Springfield News Leader, and in Sport Aviation. Maybe Rural Missouri will present the story, too. And you should be able to view the Wright Flyer at any time when you are at SGF. We don't know if Ed Fillmer is finished filming, or has found a buyer for his videography story of the Wright Flyer project. He was hoping for a sale to National Geographic.

November Meeting
At last month's meeting, it was decided to decorate for the Christmas meeting and dinner on the day of the dinner, which is Saturday, December 13. For those who will be coming early and spending the day at the hangar, there will be a small breakfast available, prepared by Tom and Phyllis White. For the meeting and dinner, members should plan to start arriving about 2:00 p.m. for visiting purposes. The meeting will be held at 3:00 p.m., and we will eat promptly at 4:00 p.m. This will allow everyone to get an early start home. Last year, the weather was clear and some night-current pilots had a beautiful trip home.

Greeting...		Meeting...		And eating...at the Vaughns' hangar.

We owe all the members of the White family our thanks for so graciously hosting meetings, breakfasts, woodcutting sessions, and workshop space for the Wright Flyer project this year. You're a great bunch.

The November meeting was at Mike and Sharon Vaughn's hangar in Mountain View. It was a cold and windy, albeit sunshiny, day. We were kept toasty warm in the hangar by heaters and the "Bluegrass Wannabes." Also by a potluck and a good time visiting with friends. The slate of officer nominees was accepted by acclamation. Congratulations to Charlie Ward, Henny Christensen, Kent Clotfelter, Gene Pascoe, Jim Tausworthe, and the newest Young Eagles Coordinators, Dave Altis and Bob Bohemier. Thank you, Mike and Sharon, for hosting us.

The Battle of Doe Run
You all know of the mishap suffered by the float we have with the South Central MPA chapter. It has been dubbed the Battle of Doe Run. The float was turned down by West Plains for their holiday parade, but was being transported on the first leg of the trip to Branson for theirs. Along about Hillbilly Junction on Highway 60, a deer decided the time was right to cross the highway AND the float. She struck against the front of the plywood cover which shields the wooden airplanes during transport. The impact crushed the little airplanes and pretty well destroyed them. They can be copied and reconstructed, but we'll miss all the Christmas parades this year.
 

Damage to float airplanes

Member Bio: Jim Vokac
After listening to Jim talk about his aircraft and seeing him give a ride to Kathy Bohemier in Gainesville, I knew we needed to know about his flying experience. Here is his story:

Jim Vokac

"My earliest memorable encounter with aviation was in 1958, having a tour of the first U.S commercial jet airliner, a Boeing 707. Because my father worked for United Airlines he was able to arrange for us to get on board when they arrived at O'Hare Field. Unfortunately, my mother was afraid of flying so we never made any trips as a family. I was the first to take advantage of flying for the cost of the excise tax. When I had a choice of a nonstop or a 'puddle jumper,' I chose the latter so I could experience more takeoffs and landings. "It wasn't until I had been teaching (school) for 15 years that an opportunity presented itself for me to become more directly involved in aviation. Our high school offered "Aviation Science," which was ground school plus optional simulator training and individual projects. In 1985, the teacher who started the class was about to retire and, if no one offered to take it over, the class would be dropped. I volunteered to do it, and passed my ground school instructor's tests and logged the required ten hours in a light plane. A couple of those hours were with Ron White, and most of the rest were with Lloyd Darter. But I didn't have the time or money to commit to earning a pilot's license. As part of the class, I had various aviation speakers visit and we made field trips to airports. As I searched for interesting topics to add to the curriculum, I remember being impressed with the relatively new flex-wing powered hang gliders. Again, the limitation of time and money kept me from pursuing that interest. A number of my students, however, pursued their aviation interests in college or attended aviation mechanics schools. "As I neared retirement I made plans to fly a 'trike.' Those plans accelerated in 1998 when my wife learned of a trike for sale by the husband of one of her teaching friends. Sadly, he had developed MS and had lost the strength to continue flying. After speaking with him we decided to travel to Michigan to see the aircraft and possibly take lessons. We weren't disappointed. My wife even enjoyed flying in the trike. So I began taking lessons, but that was interrupted by an Achilles tendon injury. (The most painful part was remembering my wife's warning that I had ignored! I haven't played volleyball since.) I finally soloed on September 14, 1999. Then I pursued qualifying for the basic flight instructor's certificate, which took place on Memorial Day in 2001. For that, I needed a minimum of 100 hours of solo time, sufficient dual instruction to be endorsed for the flight test, and passing the written test and the flight tests. I flew out of Cushing Field, 60 miles southwest of Chicago. There were about 15 trikes and another 20 ultralights hangared there. After I earned the BFI certificate I established Ozark Ultraflight, knowing I would be moving to the Ozarks soon. "In the summer of 2001 my wife and I visited Japan. During our visit I wanted to make contact with ultralight pilots to learn about flying in Japan. It was surprisingly difficult, but I eventually ended up visiting with an official of Japan's equivalent of our FAA. He owned two Challengers and showed me a model of an airplane similar to a Wright Flyer. He said its inventor tried to convince the Japanese military of its military value but was rejected. He wondered out loud how that might have changed the outcome of World War I. Later, I wrote an article based on that interview, which was published in "Ultralight Flying." I also had articles published on trike flying in Iceland (I spent a year there on a Fulbright Exchange), and on a device to assist lifting the wing into place on a JJ Tukan trike. (It is the device used on garage door springs.) "Now I have my Airborne Edge X hangared at Willow Springs. I've given lessons to 33 people and have 268 hours as pilot in command. I really appreciate being part of the aviation community here. Many people have been very welcoming and helpful. Ron's breakfasts are a real treat. I was very impressed with the organization of the Young Eagles program. I look forward to being more involved in our Chapter as I make the transition to living full time in the Ozarks."   Jim prepares to introduce Kathy Bohemier to "ultraflight" at Gainesville.   Jim and his fellow ultralight enthusiast in Japan.

See you all Saturday at the meeting and dinner in Willow Springs. Bring a nice covered dish or dessert. May you have a blessed and peaceful and memorable Christmas.

Photo Montage
As in 2001 and 2002, we had many more pictures than we could use in the newsletters. I've assembled some of my favorites into this year's montage, which members received on hi-res coated paper with the printed version of the newsletter. If anyone would like a copy printed on photo paper, let me know and I'll bring it to the meeting. They are $1 each to cover paper and ink. Here is a "screen shot" of the montage.
 

December Meeting Announcement