Wednesday, September 14, 2016

August 2016 Minutes


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

We approved last month's minutes as posted in the newsletter.

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

Today's visitors included (Frank McGhee Wilson AW-95 helicopter) Alex Baldwin visiting, has a J-3 Kitten and a Javelin ultralight he's reworking. His kids are starting to get out of college so more money is available for aviation.

Ron Burnett has food coupons, see him after the meeting for Shop & Save or Dierberg's cards in $50 or $100 denominations.

Our BD-4 is still available, Dave's going to reach out to the fellow who originally expressed interest to let him know. Ron Wright bought the Cavalier. Lindy Mueller, a former chapter member who worked with the SkyCoupe, built both a full and a scale model of a Cavalier. Dave received the scale model from the family as a donation.

We're planning to fill gravel in between the sidewalk and building. The east garage door needs new paint, as does the inside of the ARC. We're also planning to paint EAA32 on the roof.

EAA32 has absorbed the IMC organization, the local "Gateway Chapter" is meeting September 6 at Creve Coeur at 6:30 p.m.

Next month, September 17, is the CAF Hangar Dance: big band music, dancing, period costumes, silent auction. If you haven't attended before it's worth checking out.

Our airport is holding an Open House October 29, we'll open the ARC and sell food. St. Charles Flying Service will hold their annual Pumpkin Drop.

In October we're electing the President and Secretary for another 2 year term. If anyone's interested in running for either office let Dave know.

Now's the time to start planning for the holiday banquet. We're trying to get Bob Schepp, who worked for McDonnell Douglas on the Mercury project, to speak. We're tentatively planning for December 3 or 10.

August 27 will be our next movie at the ARC. This month is the Dam Busters.

A recent test of the airport water found some bad stuff, though the last test was good. The airport suggests running water to clear out our end.

Frank Baldwin's coming out Thursday for the airworthiness inspection. The club is anticipating approval, after which they'll fly off the initial 5 hours. We had a round of applause for the builders. Gale Derosier had done at least 5 inspections, and there's a written 30 page acceptance checklist that goes with the aircraft. The test pilot is TBD. Charlie Becker has invited the group to fly the plane to Oshkosh and put together an article in Sport Aviation. Dave helped Charlie out with a presentation on forming flying clubs.

Dave Doherty passed the "50 Young Eagles" threshold and received a 50-mission cap.

There were 13 members in the chapter picture at Oshkosh. A number were both attendees and volunteers. Dave reports it was quite a show and enjoyed the Martin Mars. Bill reports an incident in which the water bomber struck a rock on landing, they had to run bilge pumps in order to perform repairs. Dave flew his Taylorcraft, it took 5 hours total engine time, including a stop at Poplar Grove for fuel. He arrived Thursday before the show to avoid the prospect of hundreds of planes behind his empennage. He departed Tuesday after a maintenance class and spent the night in Poplar Grove.  The next day he got as far as Jacksonville as weather closed in. It took around an hour for the clouds to clear away, He received a plaque for the Taylorcraft, which he presented for judging in vintage aircraft.

Ron Burnett got to listen to Richard Cole, Jimmy Dolittle's copilot. He's just short of 101 years old and the last survivor of the mission. They bailed out and it took around a day for the crew to join back up. After that mission he spent another two years flying the hump.

Chuck Gorman got to drive a Gator all over, including visiting Dave's plane. Rich Emery noted dodging thunderstorms. Joe Sargent noted that this is the second year in a row he's damaged his nose fairing going to Oshkosh. "Go slower," Rich advised.

Brian Borton from the IMC club spoke. The organization formed to help pilots stay current in IFR. They meet twice a month in an open forum with a presentation on a flight situation that did not turn out well. He advises that this is valuable for any level of pilot, from VFR sport to airline pilots. You can find them on meetup.com. (Any month with a 3rd Tuesday will include a fly-out, weather permitting. August's will be to Alton.) His company does recurrent training for corporate pilots, and working on a current project he's discovered that many of the same accidents have the same causes as they did 20 years ago: loss of control on takeoff and landing.

Rick May debriefed on last week's Young Eagles event. We got a late start after low ceilings, ended up flying 28 kids over 21 flights: 187 over 148 for the year to date. Don Jonas has 45 this year alone. September 10 and October 8 are the last two events for 2016. The 10th will coincide with the Ozark reunion. In October we'll have 30 American Heritage Girls at the least, so this one will be a big event. The 99s will be here to work with Laura on the presentation. Chris and Victoria will there along with the Miano's and Jeff: Rick will be absent for a work obligation.