January 2011 Meeting Minutes

January 22, 2011 Minutes

First meeting of 2011 began with the Pledge, Dave Doherty presiding.

First business of the new year was to list officers. This group includes Bill Jagust and Dave Doherty who will act as community liaisons and educational coordinators. Fundraising will be headed up by Dave Doherty; Ron Burnett will continue to handle food coupons. Fred Immen will be chair the Safety Committee. Karsten Kessler is our member at large, and is currently at large in Afghanistan. Jim Bower will continue as editor of our newsletter, Laura Million continues to edit our web site. Bill Jagust remains as flight advisor. Tech counsellors include Rick Galati, Jerry Erickson, Gale Derosier, and Fred Immen.

Next we recognized new visitors and members. Mike Saettel joined our chapter after the meeting. He builds flight simulators and brought one to the meeting, he also brought his son Richard to assist in setup. Tom Jordan attended. He has a Long EZ at Spirit that has flown, though he continues to improve it.

Dave asked for reviews of the Christmas party, and the response was positive. We are considering something similar for 2011, maybe including music and a dance floor.

The Young Eagles organizational meeting took place earlier this month. 118 Young Eagles flew at our events in 2010. This year we are planning at least six events, on the second Saturday of each month starting in April. Registration will be open from 9 to 12 and we'll continue flying until we run out of kids or exhaust our pilots. We are actively recruiting new pilots for the upcoming season.

We are planning to hold more safety-related seminars in 2011. We always hold briefings for both ground crew and pilots before each Young Eagles event.

We're going to have new business cards printed, including the ARC phone number, 636-250-4257. We use this resource to record message regarding upcoming events. Note that the Yahoo group is also a good source of correspondence and communications.

Other outstanding business includes nametags: Dave Doherty is going to procure a machine to produce these. Also, dues are due, if you wish to be included in the 2011 roster.

Our next subject is a big one: events for the coming year. We'd like to do a road trip or fly-out, Zenith in Mexico, Missouri, is one possible destination. We'd also like to hold a fly-in. There are a number of organizations in St. Louis searching for ways to advertise aviation products and services. A fly-in, with booths for these groups, would be a good opportunity for exposure to the local flying community.

We're working on a weekend visit of the B-17, and have applied for a Tri-Motor visit. Another repeat for 2011 will be the July 4 event.

Bill and Dave Doherty plan to schedule workshops to be held on the first weekend of the month.

We'll continue our involvement with Boy Scouts of America with merit badges and attendance at another large event. Dave notes that HQ is also working with the Scouts.

Dave would like us to provide a $500 scholarship for attendance at an aviation-related college program. This will be funded with 50/50 drawings at each meeting, Dave will make up the difference if we come up short. Rod Hightower noted that EAA HQ has scholarship funds available and not enough takers.

We are reaching out to other local aviation groups. We'll have a meeting at the CAF and learn what they do. Last year we worked together during the B-17 visit. Dennis Bampton of St. Charles Flying Service is offering discounts on fuel, rental, and maintenance to members of other organizations, including EAA32. Dennis spoke at the MACTS event the weekend prior to our meeting. EAA32 had a table along with other groups such as the 99's and Parks College. Bob Kraemer attended the flight instructor seminar and briefly reviewed the event for us.

When the weather warms up we'll again address the clean water project, specifically running a line from the main administration building. We'll also try and find out how the administration building is heated; if they use natural gas versus heating oil we might consider a line for that as well if it proves cheaper than our current system.

We're keeping the idea of a ramp in mind, though at this point we don't have sufficient funds for such a project.

Don Doherty gave the treasurer's report, including checking and savings balances. We made just over $600 auctioning Ernie's models, this does not include the $500 we made selling the Cavalier. The Christmas party was a wash. Don discussed getting rid of some excess items, Frank McGhee agreed to take our non-functioning copier. Troy took photographs of the soda machine and will advertise that on Craigslist. We'd also like to get rid of the old lawnmower.

Bud Cole spoke, describing tours that light aircraft manufacturers ran in the years after the Lindbergh flight. They were able to build on the enthusiasm following that historic event, travelling from city to city and displaying their planes. Bud would be willing to host an event at his home to discuss how our organization might "spark plug" a new version of this program.

Frank McGhee updated us on his AW95 helicopter project, for which he is now acquiring materials. He also brought a letter he received regarding the Moller skycar. Interest in the powerplant, which is similar to a Wankel rotary engine, is such that Freedom Motors, who manufactures it, is going public.

Doug Killibrew asked about movie night. Due to the cold movies will resume in March.

Bill Doherty suggested a family night event. He'd be willing to arrange a trip to T.R. Hughes in O'Fallon to see a Rascals ball game.

At 10:55 a.m. motion was made, and seconded, to close the meeting, which was followed by a demonstration of lost wax casting by Frank McGhee, and a demonstration by Mike Saettel of his flight simulator.

Dave Deweese, Chapter 32 Secretary