Greetings, Members!
Are you ready to fly? The season is rounding the corner and we will be
looking for days between spring rains and thunderstorms instead of low
overcast, cold and snow. Sometimes, it will be blustery winds. But, all
in all, the flying season is here.
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This is how the hangar looked at the time of the
February meeting... |
...And this is how it looks now, the first
weekend of March.
Photographs by Sue
Kalhoefer |
Hangar Work Resumes
With better weather, Benny Butler and his crew have begun putting up the
steel framework for the hangar. You can look at it and imagine how big
the completed hangar is going to be. The Howell County news ran an
article and picture of the work of the trussess going up. It made a nice
front-page spread, which gave us positive publicity in the community. We
have a copy of the newspaper page for the archives scrapbook. I've also
made a .pdf file of the article, since newspaper tends to darken and
become brittle with age. If you'd like a copy of the file, let me know
and I'll e-mail it to you. In addition to the newspaper article, radio
station KUKU in Willow Springs told about the building of the hangar.
They have asked that Ron White come to the station during the Saturday
morning feature about Willow Springs and give a little history of the
development of the EAA chapter and aviation in Willow Springs. Ron, in
case you didn't hear this, call Fred! He was milking the cows when he
heard it on the radio in the barn.
Ceremony at SGF
Groups are starting
to form to drive to Springfield for the Wright Flyer Dedication
Ceremony. Hopefully, you RSVP'd when you received your invitation. It is
to be held at 7:00 p.m. in the terminal ticket-counter area where the
Wright Flyer presently is on display. Most the groups who are driving in
will be planning to eat somewhere in town first. One group is planning
on Ryan's on Kearney, just east of Glenstone, at 5:30 p.m. Another group
is planning on eating earlier at the Olive Garden on Glenstone at 4:00
p.m. From there, just an easy hop back onto the James River Freeway and
around the southwest corner of town to the airport in plenty of time to
find a parking space and get seated for the ceremony.
We've heard some groups planning to make a day of it, with shopping for
the boys at such places as Grizzly and Harbor Freight, while the girls
go to the malls. Get out your Chapter directory, contact others, and
make your plans.
The Big Shows
We've also heard conversations about
Lakeland and Oshkosh. Not too many solid plans yet. I still hope to have
the airplane back in time to fly to Sun 'n' Fun, and am making plans as
though it will happen. I've already made one minor route change based on
a suggestion from Henny. The Tomahawk has a four-hour range, but I'm
planning two hour legs, with a fuel stop at each one. I'm also allowing
at least a day and a half in which to complete the trip there, and up to
three if necessary because of weather glitches. If I'm really lucky the
trip can be made in one day, as it is eight hours of flying time, 742
nautical miles. There's thirteen hours of daylight at that time of the
year, and I've already made one trip in which I did eight hours of
flying in one day. I'm open to suggestions from all of you with a lot
more experience than I have.
Bob Brantley has definite plans to take the Falco to Oshkosh, since this
year the Falco owners group will be gathering and showing all the
beautiful Falcos. We expect to start hearing of more members making
plans as the time approaches.
New Projects
Last month, we listed some of the members
who have projects in the works. Since then, Bob Brantley has actually
started on his. It is a Pober Junior Ace. He can be seen carrying wing
ribs around, with brochures and plans describing the airplane and how it
will be built. As Bob stated in the article for Sport Aviation about the
building of the Falco, he approaches it as a hobby rather than a project
to get done. As such, he makes each detail an exercise in improving
skill and technique. Oh yes, he has a general timeframe, which is three
years. Of course, this also becomes an opportunity to acquire some new
toys, er, tools to use in the building of the project.
February Meeting
The meeting in February followed
breakfast at Ron's hangar. It was a chilly winter day. One airplane and
two helicopters flew in—that's different! The business agenda was brief,
centered around the Wright Flyer dedication and the progress on the
hangar. As usual, we just enjoyed being able to gather and visit. Ron
and Tom continue to improve their sausage gravy and biscuits. They are
the best that can be found in all of Missouri—the best I've ever had,
for sure. I think everybody else feels the same way.
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| Gene Pascoe gives the
Treasurer's Report during the February meeting. |
Phyllis White, Secretary,
reads the minutes of the January meeting while President Openshaw
looks on.
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This is Orv
Neisingh taking off in his Robinson R22 after the meeting. Orv
travels a lot these days, so we are always happy to see him and
Sheila at a meeting
Photographs by Sue Kalhoefer |
March Meeting
Our meeting this coming Saturday will be in Mountain View at Mike and
Sharon Vaughn's hangar. Sharon has announced that we will gather for
breakfast starting at 8:00 a.m.— fly in if you can—and the business
meeting time will be 10:00 a.m. Sharon also says she doesn't need you to
bring anything, just yourselves. Mountain View is MNF on the sectional,
runways are 10/28, 5005 feet by 75 feet, elevation 1181 feet, pattern
altitude 2181 feet, CTAF 122.8. Most of you have been there.
Buzz Thunderbee, by Squawk
Hey, Buzz, with all that
good information coming from the ATIS service at the hive, could you ask
Clem to publish the frequency?
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