Hello, Members!
It feels like we are all holding our breath, just waiting for the
wintertime blahs to move out of here. Every time there is the tiniest
bit of sunshine, every airplane is in the air, but that hasn't been too
often lately. Now's the time to get everything ready to fly when the
weather changes.
Wright Flyer Dedication
In the meantime, we've had word of the date for the dedication ceremony
for the Wright Flyer. Set aside Thursday, March 10, at 7:00 p.m. at
Springfield-Branson Regional Airport. Be sure to "RSVP" when you receive
your invitation. We should get some carpooling groups together for this
and go early enough to have dinner together, don't you think? We need to
have a big show of interest in this. The airport has a new interim
manager; Rob Hancik retired in 2004. The new management doesn't really
know who we are.
Do You Know This Airplane?
It is, of
course, Bob Brantley's Falco. This picture was taken by Bill Ghan at the
Young Eagles Rally in Mountain View on October 20, 2001. (Remember how
lucky we were to be flying then?) Take a look later in this issue to
find out the latest about the Falco.
| January Meeting |
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Every year in
January, our new Chapter President gets to try out his "wings"
conducting his first regular meeting. Doc Openshaw did a great job.
In January, we usually don't have any events scheduled, so the
meeting is all business. We talked about locations for meetings when
the weather is warm, and have several places on the list already.
The March meeting is set for Vaughns' hangar in Mountain View. April
will be in Mountain Grove. The weather was pretty bad on meeting
day, and it's a long drive for the Gainesville group—none of whom
made it to the meeting—so we don't know whether we will be going
there for a "return to our roots" meeting this spring. The Mansfield
group was also absent, so we need to hear from them, but right now
May is the tentative date set for a meeting there.
The snowbirds are
still gone, too. It's amazing that we had as many in attendance as
we did, but there certainly were a lot of people at the meeting. It
seems everybody was just glad to get together, because many came for
breakfast, and nobody was in much of a hurry to leave after the
business meeting either, hanging around for lots of conversation.
Much of the talk is of new projects in the works. Doc asked members
with projects to describe them for the group. Seven people
responded: Kent Clotfelter, Bob Brantley, Benny Butler, Gene Pascoe,
Fred Kalhoefer (described by Bill Ghan), Berlin Batesel, and Clint
Allen. We will be looking forward to learning more about each
project.
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Doc Openshaw
presides over the meeting. |
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| January
meeting attendance was great. Do we look for excuses to get
together? I believe we do. |
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Photos by Sue
Kalhoefer |
New Members
Chapter 1218 has several new members. Floyd
Deidiker became a member in December, and Bill Easley, Phill Knott, and
Greg Hansen joined in January. Welcome to all of you. We expect that you
will become well known to all the other members through our activities
in coming months.
Pretty Good Movie
Has it been awhile since you went to see a
good movie? Well, here's one to help the wintertime blahs. On January
18, Henny and I drove to West Plains to see "The Aviator." It turned out
to be a very fascinating story, with lots of terrific cinematography and
music. Recommendation: go see it!
Sun 'n' Fun
Is anybody in the Chapter thinking of
going to Sun 'n' Fun this year? The dates are April 12-18. I have put in
for vacation for that week, and hope to fly myself there. It would be
nice to know of anybody else with plans, either flying or driving.
Sport Aviation
Apparently Bob Brantley is very good at
keeping a secret, because we were all surprised to open the new issue of
Sport Aviation and find the Falco featured in the section called "What
our members are building and restoring." Very nice job, Bob, and
congratulations on the recognition.
Bob told his story in the April 2002
issue of this newsletter, which you can look up on the website. There is also a picture of Bob
and Janet together in the March 2003 issue, in which they are wearing
matching sweatshirts with the Falco on them. |
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Inside Sport Aviation,
February 2005 |
Our Regular Features
Some of the things that make this newsletter interesting are the ongoing
features we like to include. The two main ones are the personal stories
of our members, called "bios," and our newer group of "memorable flight"
stories. We have succeeded in tapping the vast majority of the
membership for their bios—only a few have been reluctant—and I'm sure
we've missed a few who would be willing to tell their stories. Older
members who have been missed should not be bashful about speaking up.
New members are the ones who will be "targeted" this year. Please don't
run away from it when you are asked. This is one way we get to know each
other and appreciate each individual person's contribution to the life
of the Chapter. "Memorable flight" stories are just plain fun reading.
Hopefully, they inspire us to get out there and fly to new places.
Usually, you will be the only one who knows about your flight
experience, so the editor can't chase you down for these stories—you
will have to volunteer them…and I hope you will.
We have a third feature which we include on the website instead of in
the newsletter. It is about the projects on which our members are
working. By including them only on the website, we can do periodic
updates on progress, a sort of chronicle of the project. See me if you
would be willing to submit the story of your project.
Buzz Thunderbee, by Squawk
Even Buzz and the gang know
there are things to be done to be ready for the arrival of Spring.
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