July 2013 Meeting Minutes

Our July meeting began with the Pledge, Dave Doherty presiding.

No movie night this month. Next month will be "Best Years Of Our Lives".

Don Doherty gave the Treasurer's report, including savings and checking account balances.

Ralph Ballard, a former member from the early sixties, visited today. He's owned various planes and built a Baby Great Lakes. He's working on a J1-B, a wood high-wing design from Europe. Ralph is retired and worked in aviation for years, including with Ozark.

Earlier this month we had the July 4 event downtown near the Arch. We shared a tent with Chapter 64, and three CAP members as well. Doug mentioned that the Sonerai was a big draw. Numbers are not back from Oshkosh yet on the B-17 flights. We made around $1,000 on the raffle and $4,500 on rides, which we'll split with 64. We didn't have the corporate flights this year, but made up with it in ticket sales.  Oshkosh has asked Dave to put together an article for their online edition.

Last weekend we held a Young Eagles event. We flew twenty-three kids including four who president Dave flew in his Taylorcraft. Our next YE event will be the August 10, followed by September 14.

May 2 and 3 of next year will be our next major event: a big airshow at Spirit including the Blue Angels. We've been invited to participate. The B-17, and maybe even the Tri-Motor, are interested in participating.

The newsletter was light this month. Dave reminds us that this is our magazine, and anyone can submit articles. Send submissions to Jim Bower.

It's time to start thinking about our Christmas event. We need an event coordinator. Dave Doherty has done this one year and Bill had done it for three so it's time for someone else to give it a shot. This includes getting the location reserved and arranging a guest speaker.

This being our pre-Oshkosh meeting we have no presentation planned. If you have any suggestions for presentations, workshops in particular, feel free to make a request.

ARC repairs are ongoing. The gutters and the letters need new paint.

We haven't sent anyone up to the Air Academy at Oshkosh. YE flights pay for most of it. Rick has a candidate in mind from last weekend's event. In future events we'll post a flyer regarding Air Academy requesting a written essay. We can evaluate these and select someone for next year.

August 11 is our next Board of Directors meeting: officers and member-at-large. Meeting will be held here at the ARC at noon.

Bud Cole is looking for construction space in the Maryland Heights to build an aircraft. He's ready to start another aircraft but has no place at his current residence to build.