Saturday, February 20, 2016

February 2016 Minutes

February's meeting began with the Pledge, Dave Doherty presiding.

Last meeting's minutes approved.

Don Doherty reported checking and savings account balances.

John Knight is visiting, and thinking about joining. He's got a RANS S-12 with a Rotax 912. Bill Bould is halfway through building a Sonex, his first project was a Quad City Challenger.

Rick May reported on changes to the Young Eagles program. Events for this year start in April and run through October. All will be held the second Saturday of the month, except for May, which will be the 21st as the prior weekend will coincide with a large air show at Spirit. The Youth Protection Policy went into effect with EAA at the beginning of the year and will be official in May. Ultimately there will be three, with one for Young Eagles will pilots and coordinators. Second-tier management covers some others. The policy will require training and a background check. Per Rick this is a simple and quick process that you can get to through the YE site in the volunteer section. A number of chapter members have already completed the process. If you complete the questionnaire you'll receive a certificate via email, please forward a copy to Rick May. There was discussion around a requirement for more than two people in the airplane, and how this relates to two-place machines.

Bob Kraemer passed in January, and Dave would like to get his name, along with Howard Henderson and Bud Cole. Motion made and seconded. We discussed the possibility of an automatic process for members who have been with the chapter for a certain number of years. Due to the cost we should look at options: another type of memorial or a special fundraiser, or memorial fund, for this purpose. We'll discuss this in the next Executive Meeting.

Libby was in attendance and noted that this is the organization that he spent the most time with in recent years. Bob had been looking forward to big year of flying as he'd gotten some significant maintenance issues squared away, and had just bought a new log book to fill in 2016.

Dave Doherty noted that Bob made many contributions to the chapter, noting in particular the Tri-Motor visit, during which he bought out an entire flight.

The RV-12 is looking nearly complete with wings, canopy, engine and cowling all mounted. All the controls are hooked up. The flood set the project back a bit but the progress is still impressive. April may be an aggressive goal, but it should be close. The club is awaiting some electronics from Dynon.

There will be a big air show on the second Saturday in May (14,15) at Spirit of St. Louis. Bill Doherty is involved, and will be the ground support coordinator for the Canadian Snowbirds. Blue Angels will attend as well. Fat Albert, the CF-18 Hornet demo team, Skip Steward and his Pitts, Sky Soldiers will attend with their helicopters, the F-22 will do a flyover and be based at Spirit, a number of Boeing products. B-1 and B-2 flyovers. A C-17 Globemaster will attend, the largest plane ever to land at Spirit. The CAF will be there with FiFi and all the players from Smartt.

Bill notes that there's a new taxiway where they'll park the big, heavy planes. Taxiway delta will hold static displays. He's not sure where we'll be stationed. Volunteers should arrive early as parking will be an issue.

We'd like to be involved in the STEM area. We'll bring flight simulators, and would like to include small construction projects. Zenith is interested, Dave's has already been working on a student-built aircraft but notes that it would require corporate sponsorship.

There will be a celebration for Bob at Creve Coeur in June that will coincide with our meeting, so it will be held there.

Ron Burnett has food cards.

Newman Richard [sp] has donated a freezer.

Jim Hann bought the Fly Baby, trading a bit of cash and the Cavalier project, which is now sitting in the Fly Baby's spot. The Cavalier's for sale, see Dave if interested. The BD-4 project is also for sale, Art Zemon notes that Jim Bede's company now sponsors a charitable project that takes back unfinished projects, refurbishes them, and donates them to schools. Art feels the project itself is worth 3,000 to 5,000 dollars if sold on the Bede forum.

Dave asks, as he does each year, what the membership would like to see from the chapter. Free food forever was mentioned. Work parties for painting the ARC was suggested. Don notes were down about 6,000 from last year. He'll do a financial presentation next meeting. While food's not an option there might be fundraising opportunities at the air show. Ron suggested raffling off a ride in one of their aircraft. We probably won't have the TriMotor or the B-17 in attendance, and both are solid money makers. Workshops are a good activity, though participants will need to chip in enough to cover materials. Jeff suggested getting several chapters together and doing a poker run.

Bob was always a good source of speakers so we'll need new ideas here. Jeff suggested having Dr. Miriani back to speak again.

Don suggested a field trip to the tower at Lambert, though there are some security restrictions involved, Bill says we could also tour the facilities at Spirit.

We voted on the Memorial Wall, Don noted that we have some money left over from last years donations to the fund, and Dave will put

Libby had an announcement. On 4/25 David Moore's holding an auction night for 3 days at Oshkosh for two including a flight there in a light aircraft, funds to COCA. They're looking for a legal pilot and aircraft to fly the auction winners. COCA will pay fuel, tie-downs, etc., plus admission for the pilot and two nights in a hotel.

Dave got an email from a headhunter looking for drone pilots with a high-res-equipped drone. An example of an application would be cell phone tower inspection. See Dave if interested.

Motion made and seconded to adjourn.

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