EAA South Central Ozarks Chapter 1218

Address inquiries, information, suggestions, or criticisms to the editor, Fred Kalhoefer, Route 1, Box 71, Macomb, MO 65702; phone (417) 683-2870; e-mail fkalhoef@goin.missouri.org.

Greetings!
Soon another month will have gone by and it'll be time for a chapter meeting again. If you couldn't make it to the last meeting, you will have a chance again in February to see what you missed in January--a delicious breakfast of sausage, ham, eggs, biscuits and gravy all prepared with great care by Ron White and crew. The good news is, we will do it again on Saturday, February 10th, at 9:00 AM sharp. The guest speaker at our meeting will be Mike Swink, who will talk about his experience with ultralight construction.

We signed up five new members at our last meeting. They are: Ben Hurtt, Dave Altis, and John D. Smith, of Mountain Grove; Chuck Hiett of Willow Springs; and Jerry D. Crum of West Plains. You will note that we now have a strong contingent from Mountain Grove and they promptly asked us to help them with keeping Mountain Grove Memorial Airport open to the flying community. We agreed to help them by coming together with them at a flying event in June or early July. But if you are up and flying anytime now, make a landing or two there to show that there are pilots around here and that the airport is used.

		The guest speaker at the meeting was Don Nevels, who spoke to us about a book that he wrote, "Skylarks," about his youth in Mountain Grove and how he was inspired by a barnstorming group, the Skylarks, who had a wing walker by the name of Kitty Middleton. It fascinated him and aviation. drew him to a career in In March will retire from a great career as a of this year Don captain gave us a preview of a new with United Airlines. He also book that he wrote, and he promised that he will be back for an autograph party sometime this year when the book is finished. I am sure we will see a lot more of Don when he is retired. Look out for him in his Skybolt--or maybe some other airplane because, "Don can fly anything," my friend Bill Ghan told me.

My wife and I had the pleasure of sitting with Homer Johnston during the breakfast. Homer is now in his eighties but that does not stop him. In November of last year he drove to Georgia to take some hang glider dual, and he tells me that he enjoyed it very much and might do it again. I really like to hear reports like that because, as I get older, I find that it all has to do with your outlook and spirit in the end--and no one should give up because the years are creeping up on him or her. Clint Allen is another great example that age is not a factor in your flying hobby. He is still an airshow pilot and he is now in his seventies. My hat's off to you all.

Featured Member of the Month

This month's bio is provided by Len Ahrnsbrak. It tells not only of a great career but it is also a piece of literary artwork in itself.

Leonard L.
Ahrnsbrak

"My first conscious memories of flight occurred while in elementary school. A barnstormer landed at the edge of our little prairie town and sold rides. My older brother and sisters went for rides while I watched, wishing I was older and large enough to see over the side of an open cockpit biplane.

"Our family moved to a larger town the next year where a man had two airplanes. One weekend he and his pilot were giving rides. We had a choice of riding in a beautiful blue Stinson, or a perky little J-3 Cub. I thought that surely an artist had designed the Stinson because her lines were so perfect. Whether she was sitting on the ground or in the air, I thought of her as a masterpiece. It cost a little more to ride in the Stinson, and the smaller people invariably had to sit in the back seats, while the larger person sat up front with the pilot. The little yellow cub, however, took only one person other than the pilot. I opted to ride in the Cub.

"At once I was enamored with the sight of our little city and the buildings, roads, and section lines that ran true north and south between towns and cities. The town and countryside looked so much more beautiful from this perspective that I was "hooked" for life. I felt as though the sky was my real home and I longed to return as often as I could. My next older sister took lessons in a Cub a short time later, and I remember how proud I was of her as, on her first solo, she flew over the house and wagged the wings at us. I knew then, that one day I could do the same.

"It was many years later while in grad school that my flying opportunity came. A group of us formed a not-for-profit association, bought a plane, hired an ex-Navy pilot and all of us began learning to fly. I soloed at the Hayward, California, airport in a Cessna 120 after 7.5 hours. When the radio worked, we communicated with the tower, when it was dead, which was most of the time, we used light signals. They were very lenient in those days; radios were an option. By the way, we flew the little C-120 for $3.75, wet! The instructor cost us more per hour than the plane.

"The start of a career, marriage, and two children later, I was able to resume my dream of flying. While attending post graduate studies in Princeton, NJ, I was able to complete training for my Private license. It was a real thrill to take my son and daughter for occasional airplane rides. I had to work around their schedules, my schedule, the FBO schedules, but for all the hassles, the joy I experienced while in the air made it all worthwhile.

"I joined the Navy in 1961 and spent a good portion of my career with the Marines. In the 20 years of service, we had 12 different assignments. Check this out: 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, Cherry Point, NC; Destroyer Squadron 24, Newport, RI; Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, CA; 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines, Republic of Vietnam; Naval Amphibious Base, Coronado, CA; Naval Training Center, Orlando, FL; Post Graduate School, Princeton, N.J.; 3rd Marine Division, Okinawa, Japan; Office of The Chief of Chaplains, Washington, DC; Naval Education and Training Center, Newport, RI; USS Kitty Hawk CV-63, San Diego, CA; and Armed Forces Staff College, Norfolk, VA. All my flying has been civilian, general aviation, single and multi-engine fun stuff. I did get an hour's worth of turns in the right seat of a Marine R3D (DC-3) over the Carribbean on the way to Puerto Rico, and a thrilling, fun- filled back seat ride in a Grumman TF-9J Cougar. A little stick time in the Cougar was the thrill of a lifetime. Aileron rolls were so effortless, and quick!

"Because of change of station orders and deployment schedules, the flying was put on hold for another few years. During my longest assignment, which was in Washington, DC, I was able to complete my Commercial, CFI and CFII Licenses. I loved teaching, and the flying on the weekends compensated for the grueling hours commuting throughout the week from the Virginia suburbs to DC. After flying on Saturdays and Sundays, I was a far more pleasant person on Monday mornings than I was on Fridays.

"While the constant change of station moves had their negatives, it provided me the opportunity to give flight instruction in the Washington, DC, area, Newport, Rhode Island area, San Diego, CA, area and the Chesapeake Bay area of Virginia. During my final tour in the Navy while attached to The Armed Forces Staff College, Jean and I bought a new Cessna 172 Skyhawk. Along with another couple from AFSC, we flew to the Bahamas for a nice, sunny, vacation. I used the 172 as an instrument trainer and enjoyed exploring the east coast on short and medium trips.

"After retirement we brought the plane to Theodosia. We hired a retired builder from St. Louis to build our retirement home. After the home was built, I fished, hunted, and mowed, built stone walls and got bored. I took the airplane to a well known FBO in Springfield to get the oil changed. While there the maintenance person sat in the front seat with a screwdriver in his back pocket and ripped the seat. It dawned on me that I knew more than to do that, and asked myself why I was willing to pay someone to do what I could do better. I began checking around as to what was the best school around that had an A&P program within a reasonable distance.

"I enrolled in Spartan School of Aeronautics and began as a 'senior citizen' A&P student. I learned that another Navy retiree had preceeded me through the program, was on the staff, and discovered he had his own airplane as well. I met our own Bill Newton there who built and conducted the Helicopter Specialty program. Shortly after having enrolled as an evening student at the technical school, I began instructing during the day at Spartan's flight school. That was an enjoyable experience! I have an abundance of "hangar stories" that relate to flight instruction, especially those that involve international students and the situations that language barriers involve.

"Near graduation, I had to choose whether to stay on at the flight school, or to began instruction at the technical school. Wanting to become as proficient as possible at maintaining my own aircraft, I opted to teach in the Airframe Department of technical school. It was rewarding to be able to teach the entering students in Basic Mechanics, and those in the final course in the airframe curriculum, Aircraft Inspections. What a difference a few months make in the lives of those students! After two years, I became the Director of Education of the North Campus with responsibility for the A&P Programs, Quality Control and Non-Destructive Testing Programs. A highlight of that time was the awarding of an A&P scholarship from Spartan to a deserving student in the Theatre of the Woods during an EAA Convention.

"While in the Tulsa, OK, area, Jean and I had a home built on a private-public use airstrip northeast of Tulsa called Gundy's. We were members of EAA Chapter #10, which is full of wonderful people, and boasts a number of fantastic airplanes. Chapter #10 has their own hangar on the airport and annually sponsors one of the finest fly-ins offered in these parts. We also joined the Rogers Air Federation (RAF) which consisted of fellow aviators in the Claremore, OK, area.

"In 1992, I went to Rogers State College to develop a curriculum for an A&P Program for that institution. It was approved by the Oklahoma Board of Higher Education and the FAA. Then budget cuts curtailed all new higher education programs. At that time, we decided it was time to re-retire and come back home. We had kept our house in Theodosia, and flew back when the weather was good, drove back when it was not so good. While we enjoyed our friends in Chapter #10 and the RAF, the lure of the lake and our home became too much to ignore and, in 1994, we came back for good.

"We sold the little 172, built a hangar, and began a search for an airplane. We took a trip to the Northwest and attended one of the builder's forums at Van's garage in North Plains, OR, primarily to see the operation and how the aircraft kits were produced. I purchased three of the four kits for an RV-6 while there and had them shipped to Theodosia. Knowing that it would take some time to complete--I no longer set deadlines--we looked for a fun plane to hop around in. After traveling to Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas and Iowa, we discovered the truth of used plane ads, that is, one person's 10 is another person's 5-. We finally got a little Cessna 140 with which we have a lot of low, slow flying.

"I cannot imagine what it would be like not to fly, to see round rainbows in rain showers and to see God's handiwork. It is as though my completeness depends on the ability to see the earth from above. Were it not possible to be able to fly, I would have to move to the highest mountain I could find, there to live out my life."

Now, wasn't that a terrific story to read? Thank you, Len, for taking the time to write it for us. (For more about Len's RV-6 project, see the Members' Projects page.)

The "Gadget Talk" Department
Sue and I went to Ron's hangar a day before the last meeting and there I met Chuck Hiett (Lt.Col. USMC Ret.) Chuck was a member of the Navy's Blue Angels team during his career and also taught at Pawtuxet NAS as an instructor. I told him that I had a biplane and a Midget Mustang that needed to be flown at some time but that there were few people that could give me advice on the corrrect V numbers for the planes, and his reply was to get an angle of attack indicator (AOA). With the help of the AOA you can fly any airplane and do not have to worry about stalling. When he said that, memories of my pilot training came back. When I was learning to fly, at the same time on my job, I was involved in work on a one-of-a-kind angle of attack indicator to explore the performance envelope of one of the late sixties x-fighters. I wondered why all the Cherokees and Cessna 150's didn't have an AOA. So I set out to design one and got it to work but the project died because of lack of funds, lack of time and lack of interest on the part of flight instructors.

Homemade Angle of Attack Indicator ("AOA")

I searched through some of my old stuff and found the indicator--that went with the flag type vane that goes on the outside of the aircraft. As you can see, it was also intended as a teaching aid to demonstrate the aircraft's attitude in flight. Now there are two types of angle of attack indicators on the market that can be retrofitted to your aircraft. One is a vane type that is very good for "low and slow" types of aircraft. The other is one that works on differential pressure and would be well suited for aircraft like Midget Mustangs and the "RV" family of airplanes and the like.

You can read more about these instruments at the following websites: www.oneillairplane.com and www.angle-of-attack.com. I highly recommend reading about these instruments even if you don't intend to buy one just to get a better understanding of the relationship of aircraft attitude and flying performance. As you can see, I am sold on the value of the AOA. In fact, an AOA is so valuable in your aircraft that you even don't need airspeed indicator if you have an AOA. However, I can imagine the following conversation between ATC and my aircraft:

ATC: "00 Kilo say your airspeed."
00 Kilo: "Uh, I'm in the green field."
ATC: Silence, then: "Uh, 00 Kilo meet our car at the ramp after landing."

This would probably not have a good outcome, so maybe you better keep your airspeed indicator also. For those of you who cannot get on the Web, maybe we can get Chuck to be our guest speaker at a meeting. I know that he could teach us a lot about AOAs and how they can make very sharp and snappy pilots out of us. Again, I would like to tell you that I have not talked to the people at these websites and they don't know me. I merely want to point out the benefits of an AOA to you, so I share the results of my surfing with you.

Taking Care of Business...
Did you know that you can now place an ad in the "On Top" newsletter? The price for an ad for aviation-related items only is: $1.25 for a 1-inch column ad, $2.25 for a 2-inch column ad, $4.25 for a half-column ad and $8.50 for a half-page ad. All prices quoted are per issue and the proceeds go to defray the cost of printing and mailing. A "business card" ad would be equivalent to the 2-inch column ad.

I've been asked by Gene Pascoe, our treasurer, to once again remind everyone to pay dues for this year even if you can't come to the meeting. Just mail them to Gene at HCR 79, Box 3010, Dora, MO 65637. Thank you to everyone who has already paid.

February Meeting Announcement

Again, our meeting is on Saturday, February 10th at the White's hangar, on Willow Springs airport at 9:00 AM sharp. If you are flying in, you'd better know how to find the airport. If you are flying in, the hangar is located at the northwest end of the runway (17-35) and if you are driving in, turn northeast at the stop sign in the center of town (Hwy 137) and then right at DD Highway. Just before you get to the airport, turn right again on Sunshine. Make a left on Bryan and go to the hangar.

Should the weather not be good for flying, drive on over anyway. If you don't, you will have really missed out on a great Saturday morning.

Red in the morning...
Sailor's warning!


Disclaimer: The content of this Newsletter is to provide information, schedules, and biographies of chapter members, and information of interest to aviation enthusiasts in the south-central Ozarks. No technical information or direction is offered or implied. If, by some strange coincidence, a personal opinion or observation be found, such does not necessarily reflect the position of EAA Chapter #1218 or Experimental Aircraft Association.

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