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Chilly Greetings, Members!
What a month January’s been. Thunderstorms,
tornadoes, ice, wind and snow all packed into the same month. Has Mother
Nature checked the calendar lately? Well, here we go into February with
the snow melting, but who knows what will come next. The airplane roosts
in the hangar with a small heater and battery maintainer in place.
Waiting.
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Winter scenes of trees and the runway and hangars
at Gainesville during the snowstorm. No, the tree shots were not
taken in black and white. The storm total was five inches on
Thursday, all gone by Sunday night. |
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Photographs by
Sue L'Hommedieu |
Dreamin’
One thing winter is good for, though, is
planning spring and summer trips you’d like to take in the airplane.
Places to which you’ve always intended to go. Or check out the lists of
events at the end of your e-mail newsletters from EAA and AOPA. Find
those places on sectionals, figure out distances and fuel stops, how
long it will take at your cruise speed. Start watching weather patterns
in those areas. Make the trip in Flight Sim. Try writing practice
scripts of what you’ll say when you need to talk on the radio in
unfamiliar places. When you find a place that looks like a real
possibility, get serious and order new charts from NACO. (Yes, you can
do it online at http://avn.faa.gov/index.asp?xml=naco/ecom, and there is
no shipping charge.) Don’t rely solely on the GPS. But be sure the GPS
database is up to date. Are you thoroughly familiar with the operation
and features of your GPS?
There are all sorts of helpful places on the web. Did you know that you
are automatically a member of aeroplanner.com by virtue of being an EAA
member? You have to enter through eaa.org, an easy thing to do. You can
print out entire TripTiks complete with chart chunks from current
sectionals showing your course line; and you can print a Nav Log to go
with the TripTik. The Nav Log shows radio frequencies for airports,
radar service (flight following), flight service, and navaids. You can
specify if you want no-wind figures, or the wind factored in. You can
even save a performance profile for your airplane. The site offers
weather information for the flight, too.
There is another flight planning program available for download from
aopa.org. It is AOPA’s Real Time Flight Planner. This is front-end
software that you download and run on your own computer while connected
to Jeppesen’s server. Enter a profile for your airplane, then enter
departure and destination airports. From there, you can “rubber band“
intermediate points. This program also uses your DUAT or DUATS member
login info to get official weather info, and calculates a nav log and
flight plan that you can file online if you so choose. If you click on
an airport and select properties, you will get a summary of information
on the airport, or you can go directly to AOPA’s online Airport
Directory.
Airnav.com is the site of choice for checking current fuel prices. It’s
still a good idea to follow up with a phone call before starting out.
For instance, the little airport with the cheapest fuel turned out to be
unmanned on Thursdays, so you are out of luck there unless you have one
of their fuel cards in your wallet. There’s no one to call to open the
pump, and they don’t take regular credit cards.
The last thing to check before taking off is your own proficiency. Rust
accumulates when you haven’t been flying very much lately, so call your
favorite CFI and do an hour of Wings, preceded by a safety course at a
meeting or online. It just feels good to do this.
(The URLs in the paragraphs above are all clickable live links to the
respective web sites.)
Young Eagles Update
Eric Fremgen is taking over duties as Young
Eagles Coordinator for the Chapter. This is good because he is based at
Willow Springs, where most of our flights originate. He will need the
same help as always from our volunteers. So, pilots, ground crew,
registration, computer, and flight simulator volunteers will continue in
their positions. Ground crew members are crucial to the success and
safety of Young Eagles rallies. We like to see one ground crew volunteer
for each pilot who is flying kids. They escort youngsters to and from
the airplanes, help get them seated and buckled in, act as liaison
between pilots and parents, “shepherd“ them into position for pictures,
make sure they get their certificates, and perform other unexpected
duties they may see are needed. Unsung heroes, for sure.
Of course, pilots may give rides to Young Eagles on an individual basis
at any time. Then the pilot must act as his own registration person, his
own ground crew, make out certificates after flights, and be responsible
for getting the registrations in to the Young Eagles Coordinator on a
timely basis. You may recall that HQ revised the
registration/application form last year, adding a full page of legalese
to it. They also stipulated that no other previous forms would any
longer be acceptable. If you have any forms other than the trifold
leaflet with the waiver on the back of the application, discard them
please. Also remember that pilots now have to sign every form as a
self-certification of meeting all the requirements of being a Young
Eagles pilot. (This means you are a certificated pilot with a current
medical and with insurance, and your airplane is airworthy — the same
requirements needed to fly anyway.)
A couple of pilots turned in their paperwork for rides given at the end
of 2007. This changed our total numbers for the year, which is nice. The
total number of Young Eagles flown by Chapter 1218 members from the
beginning of the program now stands at 1466. Lest you think we have
slowed down, consider this: We flew a little over 1000 kids in the first
ten years of the program, reached on the Centennial of Aviation December
17, 2003. If we reach 1500 (only 34 more) by December 17, 2008, we will
be proceeding at the same rate in the five years since as in the first
ten years. In 2007, we flew 70 kids.
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It was nice to have Jim and Tina Evertsen back at
a meeting. They have been busy establishing their helicopter tour
business in Branson. Welcome to new members Mike Noonan and Andre
Caldiero. |
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Photographs by
Sue L’Hommedieu |
January Meeting
The Mexican theme of the potluck at the
last meeting was a big hit. There were several excellent dishes to
choose from, and they all went well together. At the business meeting we
decided to keep the aviation history DVDs and the pedal plane in the
Chapter for all to enjoy. It was announced that we will keep a basic
tool set, and we will be having skill workshops after meetings during
the year. Looks like plans for using the Chapter hangar are falling into
place. And we will be extending the use of the hangar to our “alter ego“
selves as members of MPA!
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We ate good Mexican food and now we meet. |
Eric Fremgen is the new Young Eagles Coordinator. |
The basic tool set which will be in the
storeroom. |
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Photographs by
Sue L’Hommedieu |
February Meeting
Our meeting on Saturday, February 9, will
be at noon. We are to bring Italian-style dishes and chocolate desserts.
Umm-yum. Once we are full and feeling good, we will have the business
meeting. After that, there will be the first of a series of building
skill demonstrations which will be presented this year. This one will be
on gas welding. If you have ever thought of starting an airplane
building project, now is your opportunity to start learning some of the
skills you will need.
Member Memos
We were sorry to hear of the passing of Doc
Openshaw’s mother, Phoebe. It is always a sad time when we lose one of
our parents. We know it has to happen sometime, but one is really never
prepared for it, and it affects us very deeply. We offer our thoughts
and prayers for you, Doc and Linda.
Remember, the meeting is Saturday, February, 9, 2007, at noon. Bring
Italian-style dishes. Fly in or drive in. See you there. Until then,
tailwinds!
We Celebrate
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February
& Early March
Birthdays
February 15: Berlin Batesel
February 17: Linda Openshaw
February 17: Ron White
March 8: Lloyd Darter
Anniversaries
February 14: Bob & Janet Brantley
February 18: John & Jean Zook
March 6: Jim & Tina Evertsen
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