Hello
Again, Members and Friends!
Here we are in November already, the start
of the holiday season. Halloween was fun, everywhere pretty yard
decorations and costumes were seen. Now everybody will be making family
plans for Thanksgiving and Christmas, either here or there, but we will
also be making plans to get together and celebrate the freedom to fly
and give thanks for our many blessings.
October Meeting at Willow Springs
The October meeting,
in Ron White's hangar, was held on a beautiful day with mild weather. It
may be the last meeting for a while where we could have the doors open
and wear short sleeves. The food served by Ron and his family for lunch
was absolutely stupendous. Beef brisket is such a delicious cut, so
tender and flavorful, cooked just right. Thank you, Ron, for hosting so
many of our meetings, and serving all those great Saturday breakfasts.
Our member from Downers Grove, Illinois, Arnold Zimmerman, flew his
meticulously restored Aeronca Champ all the way to the Ozarks for a
beautiful fall week on his ranch in Douglas County. Heading back home,
he stopped for a Saturday breakfast, where we got to take a good look at
the pretty bird.
We also want to thank every member family who has opened their hangar to
the Chapter for a meeting during the year. We love living with the
airplanes.
One thought: we have some members whose health problems are making it
harder for them to attend meetings. If you live near any of them, invite
them to ride with you, please, whether you are flying or driving. I'm
sure they will appreciate it and they still like to be among us as much
as we like having them.
 |
|
 |
|
Bill Ghan gives a progress
report on the Wright Flyer |
Business meetings in the
"natural habitat" of EAAers are
very easy to take |
November Meeting at Mountain
View
Our November meeting is being hosted by Mike and Sharon Vaughn at their
hangar in Mountain View. The date will be Saturday, November 8, 2003, at
11:00 in the morning. We are to bring covered dishes. The Vaughns will
provide meat and sodas—and music. The business meeting will be held,
then we will enjoy our meal. Everyone is invited to arrive as early as
9:00 a.m., visit, listen to music— and we hope it will be good flying
weather as there might even be a few Young Eagles to fly in that case.
The November Election
The nominating committee of Mike and Sharon Vaughn, Bill Newton and Sue
Kalhoefer has been working on a slate of candidates for Chapter officers
for 2004. Our operating premise has been to involve as many new faces as
possible, so that we don't fall into the habit of relying on the same
people year after year, which is not fair to them, even though we
appreciate their willingness to serve. There will be plenty of
opportunity for us to pick on them again in the future. Each of the
nominated candidates has agreed to serve if elected. This does not
preclude nominations from the floor, or volunteers from the floor,
either. If anyone is nominated from the floor, it would be polite to ask
them if they are willing to serve. Here is the slate presented by the
nominating committee: for President, Charlie Ward; for Vice President,
Henny Christensen; for Secretary, Kent Clotfelter; for Treasurer, Gene
Pascoe; for Board Member at Large, Jim Tausworthe; for Young Eagles
Coordinators, Dave Altis, Bob Bohemier, and Sue Kalhoefer; for
Newsletter and Web Editor, Sue Kalhoefer. All the officers of our
Chapter benefit from having a membership of self-starters who give them
lots of help all year long. Thank you to all the 2003 officers for
serving this year, and to all the willing helpers in the Chapter.
Young Eagles Will Continue
The results of the
Young Eagles Rally at Willow Springs was a little baffling, to say the
least. They just didn't come to our "Field of Dreams." There was only
one Young Eagle, a young lady. Kind of anticlimactic after the huge
turnout the week before at Mountain View. Oh well, you just can't win 'em
all, I guess. The important thing to remember is that there will always
be kids who dream of flying and we will continue the Young Eagles
program in EAA for those kids. Certainly, there will never again be the
big push or high level of interest that there was for the Centennial
Year of Aviation. Our Chapter will continue to fly kids wherever we hold
fly-in meetings. There are plenty of kids who were seven years old this
year, but will be eight next year. They are waiting for their chance.
Since the last Rally, we have added three new Young Eagles to the
roster, flown individually by member pilots. This type of flight doesn't
add phenomenal numbers to the roster, but they are quality experiences
for the kids, which is what really counts. So, pilots, keep on flying
Young Eagles.
There is a new, smaller, fast-to-download application/registration file
on the website so you can print them when you need them. Return the
application to the Young Eagles Coordinator after the flight; it will be
logged in, a certificate printed for you to give to your Young Eagle
(unless you prefer to fill one out by hand), and the registration will
then be forwarded to Oshkosh. A new survey has been posted on the
national Young Eagles website for Young Eagles to answer. Try to
remember to ask your Young Eagles to go to this website and fill out the
survey about their experience. You might also tell them about the
summary roster of all Chapter 1218 Young Eagles on our own website. They
can browse it to find their own name, and maybe some of their friends.
As of this weekend, the national tally is 994,958 Young Eagles—only
5,042 to go to make one million. There might be that many registrations
already at Oshkosh just waiting to be added to the World's Largest
Logbook. They're inundated with them right now and more are arriving for
processing every day.
Time for Dues
I have a little
chore to take care of here, that of reminding everyone that Chapter dues
are due not later than January. Now is a good time to start paying them.
Chapter dues are not keyed to the time when you pay your national dues.
Those are the rules according to Oshkosh. We accept $money$ in the form
of greenbacks or checks. In person or by mail. Sooner rather than later.
Our Chapter dues are among the lowest in the country, but they aren't
zero. $10 for an individual or $15 for a couple. If you are going to be
doing the snowbird thing, you can mail them at any postal drop box for
the small price of 37¢ if you forget before you leave. The address is
Gene Pascoe, HCR 79, Box 3010, Dora, MO 65637. Just a second here, while
I get down off the soapbox. OK, what comes next here…oh yeah, the Wright
Flyer.
Wow, It's Almost Time!
As you may know, we
have sections of the Wright Flyer project scattered everywhere right
now. Outboard wing panels are in Bob Brantley's hangar in Mountain View.
Center sections are now in Ron's hangar at Willow Springs. Everything
will start moving toward Willow for final reassembly this week. If
you've never been able to make it as far as Mansfield to help so far,
now is your opportunity to come help in Willow Springs this Wednesday.
 |
|
 |
|
Some likely...Gene Pascoe...and
some unlikely...Kent Clotfelter and John Smith...suspects were
involved in completing the rib stitching of the wing panels |
The next major hurdle will be the props, which have no formal
specifications, and no patterns. Can't even make one set, then use them
to duplicate the other set as they are counter-rotating. This will be
Bill's own handiwork—and hand work, a real challenge because of the size
and the aerodynamic considerations.
Members of the Chapter, aware of how short time is now, have done a
really nice volunteer action for Bill. The group must subscribe to the
Tom Sawyer theory of work: make it into a fun session. Knowing that Bill
has an outdoor wood burning furnace and the weather is turning, they cut
his supply of wood fuel for the start of the season, split it and
delivered it. Now he can concentrate on those props. Pictures of the
group at work were supplied by Ray Fine, one of the woodcutting group.
Article for Sport Aviation
We got our text and
pictures in to Brenda Anderson, the Chapter Administrator, for the
Chapter Hangar section of Sport Aviation one day ahead of the deadline
she gave us to appear in the December issue. We have had periodic
communiqués from her, asking little detail questions, especially about
some of the pictures she is considering using. This is exciting and we
are looking forward to seeing the finished product. Her emphasis is on
the volunteerism practiced by members of our Chapter, as demonstrated in
the building of the Wright Flyer.
|
One of My Most Memorable
Flights |
|
By Don Anderson |
| |
Don Anderson came through in response to our
new feature about "one of my most memorable flights." He wrote his
story for us to enjoy. It puts me in mind of those most enterprising
Young Eagles who manage to get more than one flight, with more than
one pilot, in more than one airplane, at more than one airport.
Bending the rules? How about just in love with flying? Here is Don's
memorable flight:
"My most memorable flight was my FIRST solo in my Dad's Aeronca
Champ. My Dad, Andy, bought the Champ new in 1946. He started
teaching me to fly it when I was 10 years old. The solo occurred in
1952 while we were working in North Carolina. Dad was spraying
tobacco for worms. We were at a little spray strip that he was
working out of at the time. A farmer came along and had Dad go with
him to look at the fields he wanted sprayed. It was a beautiful
sunny, still day, so I decided I would take a little ride. I took
off and flew around the field and landed O.K. I made sure to park
the plane right back like it was. When Dad got back he asked me what
the airplane was he saw flying around. I told him that I had not
seen any plane. He walked up and laid his hand on the cowling of the
Champ and exclaimed, "She's still warm." I knew at that point that I
had been caught!! Dad never said another word about it all the rest
of the day so I thought I got away with my UNAPPROVED flight. After
we had gone to dinner and gotten back to our motel room, Dad said,
"Now I know you flew the plane today. You better not do it again. I
am making a living with the plane and something COULD happen. You
wait UNTIL next year when you are 16 and then you can do it right."
I soloed again on my 16th birthday at the Willow Springs airport. I
have had many flights since then and I am proud of the fact the
Anderson family now has four generations of pilots—Andy (my Dad),
me, my son Mark, and my grandson Andy."
We love these stories. Thank you, Don, for jumping right in with
yours. I hope Fred's and Don's stories have started YOU thinking
about your own memorable flights. Please write some down and get
them to the editor. Let everybody else enjoy them with you. We tell
these stories in the hangar to small groups of people, so why not
share them with everybody? (Member bios will continue, too, but the
majority of the members have told their stories by now. If you
haven't told yours, speak up, the editor can miss people, you know.)
The Chapter Website
(www.eaa1218.org)
For those of you who haven't taken a look lately, we occasionally
add something new on the Chapter website. You know about our own
Young Eagles roster, and the printable files related to the
paperwork for Young Eagles. The links for following a standard brief
with approved government graphical and text reports has been updated
as we chase the changes being made by FAA. And we've put up a page
showing the cookbooks and Jim's books for sale. The newest item is a
file to print on business card blanks which you can hand out to
prospective visitors directing them to the website for information
about our Chapter. Keep a handful in your wallet, write your name,
phone number, and e-mail address on the back and hand one to someone
you meet who is interested in becoming one of the local aviation
community. In turn, get their name and address and we will send two
consecutive monthly newsletters as a friendly gesture to invite them
to join us.
Buzz Thunderbee by Squawk
This is the time when the ducks and geese and other migratory birds
head south. Buzz must have seen that story where people trying to
return some geese to the wild taught them to fly south alongside
their ultralight. Buzz thought he could adapt that to teaching bee-gles…
|
See you all at the
meeting Saturday!
|
