May 2007

Hello, Members!
The “flying season” is finally here. It has been interspersed with storms, but thankfully nothing severe, and we do need rain after all. People are doing some flying, doing Wings, doing annuals. We are reminded by recent events that keeping up to date on all of this is important to safety. You are also going through a preflight checklist and a weather check before every flight, right?

April Meeting Notes
Our meeting in April was a bit stormy to say the least. Have we forgotten who we are? Hopefully not. Chapter 1218 is a great group of people — not a building, not a place — but people. Special and diverse people, with a wide range of backgrounds, interests, and abilities. In a lot of ways, we have become a family.

Everybody’s favorite part of meeting day is the food.	It didn’t take long to move things from ordinary to extraordinary. More business to take care of means longer meetings sometimes.
Photographs by Sue Kalhoefer

More of a family than a lot of families, in fact. Families can squabble, but they are still a family. None of us knows what can happen to any one of us tomorrow, so let’s be respectful and caring of each one of us today. Let us be thankful for each thing a member does, and careful not to complain about anything a member doesn’t do. Let us listen and consider and weigh every opinion. With these things in mind, we can work our way through the necessary decisions. Maybe we ought to slow down the pace a little; neither of our two big projects, the Wright Flyer and the hangar, have been accomplished quickly. In fact, we are still finishing the details of the hangar project: the bridge is no small thing. Phyllis provided some nice pictures, with descriptions, of the progress of the bridge work.

Ron White and John Smith are building forms for the bridge supports.	The curved structure on the floor is one of the bridge beams. Fred Kalhoefer works on a section.
Two of the rail sections ready to paint. There are eight of them.	Mike White is welding some of the rail spindles. Note the weight and strength of the bridge structure.
Photographs by Phyllis White

May Meeting
“March winds and April showers bring (guess what?) May flowers.” May the May meeting bring forth some “flowers.” The discussion will continue, and we may arrive at some workable solutions. Come prepared to offer well thought out suggestions from notes you make beforehand. We’ll have some fun with Young Eagles in the morning from 9:00 to 11:00, then have a lunch of barbecued brats and potluck at noon, followed by the meeting. It will be this Saturday, May 12, 2007.

Speaking of Young Eagles
On April 24, in preparation for having our first Young Eagles Rally of the year in Houston for Emmett Kelly Day, I prepared an e-mail to all of our pilots and ground crew volunteers to inform everybody of technical changes to our routine. Depending on who your Internet service provider is, and how the ISP handles potential Spam messages, members may or may not have received the message. Hearing that some didn’t get it, I sent it out again; again, some report not getting it. I checked with my ISP and Phyllis checked with hers. We haven’t found any answers. So, here is the message that I sent:

“Dear Chapter 1218 Young Eagles Pilots & Ground Crew,

“I have been reviewing the new 2007 packet of materials sent from HQ and find a few procedural changes to the program. The most noticeable one is the new registration form, which is now a trifold. The application/registration part is a tear-off two-sided form. The front is where the YE information is filled out at the top; the pilot information goes at the bottom, all as usual. BUT, now the pilot is “self-certifying” that he meets all the requirements for flying Young Eagles. On the back of the form, there is a whole bunch of legal mumbo jumbo specifying who has legal liability (mostly hoping to absolve EAA and its members) and then the place for parental permission is at the bottom. We ABSOLUTELY must get this signed. Furthermore, only this current and “official” form will be accepted by Oshkosh from now on. (If you have any old forms, or have made copies of forms, throw them away as they will not be accepted.) The first four pages of the form are the brochure which is to be given to the Young Eagle.

“It is preferable, although not mandatory, that the preflight briefing be conducted by the pilot giving the ride to the Young Eagles. We are going to try to do it that way. Ground crew should introduce the Young Eagles to their pilot in the sign-up area. Also, when the ride is completed, the pilot should invite the Young Eagles to stand with him by the airplane for parental picture taking. A ground crew member should deliver the certificates to the pilot, who will hand them out to the Young Eagles for them to hold in the pictures.

“None of our members have more than four-place airplanes, so the next item won’t affect us, but you should be aware that there is now a written rule that no more than three Young Eagles can go on any one flight. HQ prefers one-on-one rides as much as possible, but acknowledges that this is not always practical (or cost effective with high gas prices).

“We will have a yellow do not cross tape (or rope) in place for waiting participants for added safety. The certificate printing table will be away from the sign-up table. There will be folding chairs inside the open hangar area for waiting Young Eagles and their parents. Ground crew should call out the names when it is time for the Young Eagles to meet their pilot. The flight simulator will be available during the waiting time.

“It is our goal to have at least one ground crew member for each pilot who is flying. This is in addition to two people at the sign-up table and one person to print certificates, and one person to supervise the flight simulator. Other members are invited to be on hand to talk to parents and kids about EAA, Young Eagles, or aviation in general. Because it is important to have so many ground crew volunteers, I implore pilots to let me know if you will be flying at least two or three days ahead of time. (Of course, if you can’t make yourself do this, I’d rather have you come than not!!!)

“I hope we will have a successful Young Eagles 2007 program — not so much in terms of numbers, but in terms of the quality of experience for the kids. Remember, the first Rally will be at Houston on Saturday, May 5 from 9 to 11. The next Rally will be in Willow Springs on meeting day.

“Sincerely, Sue Kalhoefer, Young Eagles Coordinator"

Unfortunately, it was foggy last Saturday, and we never got to fly at all. A contingent of members drove to Houston to be on hand, and the simulator was there, manned by Bill Ghan.

Work, Work, Work
There’s always work to be done. Write your name on a duty roster calendar for kitchen, bathroom, and meeting room cleanup; preparation for meetings; hangar work area cleanup; or grounds care. You know what times you have available, so fill them in and come. You can work by yourself or in groups. Leave notes for the folks following you as to what has been done. Details at the meeting.

Member News
We have several new members since the last update of the list of birthdays and anniversaries was compiled. If you have not given us these special dates, please hand either Phyllis, who acts as our hospitality person, or myself a little slip of paper with the information. It goes on the activity calendar with each month’s newsletter.

Tom, Hokie and Jeffery building the form for the concrete pad for the air compressor.

Photograph by Phyllis White

We have our very own “airport kid” now. Jeffery Gordon, who lives next door to us (the hangar, that is), took a Young Eagles ride with Tom White. Now he is on hand for lots of our activities. Don’t forget to say ‘hi’ to Jeffery whenever you see him.
That’s all for now. We’ll see you at the Young Eagles Rally, lunch and meeting on Saturday. Don’t forget your potluck dish. Till then, tailwinds!

Till then, tailwinds!

We Celebrate

May Meeting Announcement