January 22, 2006 Meeting Minutes

Turnout was good for the first meeting of 2006: around fifty people in attendance. Unfortunately our regular keeper of the minutes, Mr. Bower, was under the weather and could not make it. Therefore it fell to your new Vice President try and scribble down as much as possible. Food was good and disappeared quickly. The shiny new grill seems to work well on hotdogs. Mr. Bill provided mealtime entertainment with an Oshkosh 2005 DVD.

The meeting began at 2:00 with the Pledge of Allegiance. Karsten then briefed the group on the letter sent to Bryan Cave in response to their accusations towards Gale. An attorney is on retainer, and the motion was made to cover the fee. The motion passed.

Gale then spoke to the group regarding acquiring a bending brake. Several are available that used to belong to TWA, but now are in the posession of the city of St. Louis who is auctioning them off via silent bids. We agreed to bid on an eight foot brake, a potentially useful item that is a bit too big and heavy for the typical home workshop. In fact, from Gale’s description, it sounds like it’ll take a trailer and a sizable crew to get such a monster into the ARC if and when it
becomes ours.

Karsten then asked the group for nominations for standing committees. The Membership Committee is taken care of: Gale and Dave are already conspiring to expand the ranks. Bill Jagust was nominated to head up the Education Committee, although he has previously compiled a good bit of documentation so that any one of us should be able to act as presenter. George will
again be on the Young Eagles committee but suggested that it might be time for someone new to help out and provide some fresh ideas. Gary Unruh volunteered to work with George in this role. Fund Raising Committee stays in the same hands as well. Ron Burnett and Dave Doherty were both on hand with Dierbergs and Schnuck’s coupons, as well as extra Entertainment coupon books. Dave has some of these left at $25 apiece. There were no nominations for Executive,
Communications Liaison, Safety, or Scholarship committees. If you have an interest in heading up any of these groups please let me or Karsten know.

Young Eagles Pilots are reminded to update their information.

Leo Lang has stepped up as our point of contact with the AOPA. They can be a more effective resource if a member is able to act as a representative of a particular airport.

At this particular moment a buzzer sounded and a yellow light flashed. This was the signal that the sceptic tank was full. As the membership was conveniently present the motion was made to approve the necessary expenditure to have it pumped out. Motion was seconded and approved.

Gale Derosier then introduced new members. Tom McFadden’s been in the area about a year, working as a contractor. When this turned into a permanent position Tom bought a lot at the Troy Air Park and soon his family (currently in Virginia,) will join him. He has a Zenith 601XL homebuilt. Terry Lahey is a Boeing mechanic. He currently flies a 150 but is planning to construct a homebuilt. Neil Wall moved to the area a few months ago and is taking flight lessons. He has a good bit of experience with ultralights and plans to apply his skills to a Sport Pilot category vehicle, something with folding wings. Dave’s Ridge Runner was nearby to provide futher inspiration.

Karsten asked if there was further business, and George asked if we could revisit the water purification issue we discussed in 2005. We went over some of the ideas and concerns covered at that time and agreed to bring this up again at our February meeting.

Roger Moore brought up an RV-4 issue. He was looking at his firewall and found cracks near the attachments. When he called to report this to Van’s they suggested this was the result of flying from a rough, grass strip, (despite the fact that the plane has always flown from asphalt,) and also denied knowledge of similar problems, (even though Roger knew of several similar
instances). This is apparently an issue with early RV-4’s since the firewall was been redesigned.

Jim Hahn arrived in full pilot regalia, having landed scarcely a half an hour before. He fulfilled his role as the new treasurer by reminding us that dues are, well, due. He’ll have a treasurer’s report for us at the next meeting.

Gale asked if someone could build a box for a 2-way radio we have available at the ARC. It needs a battery and a speaker, and would be handy to have at Young Eagles events for communicating with pilots in flight. Bob Jude will take on this project.

This was the last bit of business, after which the meeting adjourned.

Thanks to VP Dave for taking great minutes - ed.