March 2016 Minutes

March’s meeting began with the Pledge, Dave Doherty presiding.

February meeting minutes approved.

Bill Bould, a new member in attendance, is building a Sonex. Chris became a new member, he’s a transplant from Jefferson City. New members see Bill Doherty for door codes, if you’re an existing member and are not paid up your door code will become inactive.

Rick May addressed us regarding Young Eagles. First event is April 9, Joe Miano will be out with Rick Friday night setting up, Rick will be playing a bigger role in addition to being a pilot. We’ll start taking signups at 8:00 a.m. Saturday. Much of last year’s crew of pilots will be active again this year, and the RV project will be ready to fly in a month or so and will be giving rides soon. Please let Rick know if you’re going to participate and have completed the online checks. Pilots need training and the background check, it’s possible for ground crew to just do the training. This year we technically need two Youth-Protection trained on premises at each event.

 We’ve got two new freezers and need to move the old unit out. (Though the broken unit still works as a great mouse-proof chip storage.)

We’re setting up a separate fund and committee for handling memorial wall additions.

Chapter 32 will have a roughly 50x75’ section at the air show and we’ll give two seminars. We will need lots of volunteers to meet the public and recruit new members. 

Joe Miano will take over Safety at the YE events, replacing the late Bob Kraemer.

Dave updated us on the RV project. Among other jobs they’re filling the outside rivet holes with epoxy in preparation for painting. (Using Polyfiber Aerothane.) The plan is to set up a paint booth in the ARC. They’re using a 16 gauge needle with two part epoxy for rivet after rivet after rivet. 

Avionics will ship next week. Further updates will be posted on the Yahoo board. Sign up if you’re not a member, link is on the chapter site.

Dave turned the meeting over to Don to cover last year’s expenditures and the projected expenses for 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.

January 2016 Meeting Minutes

We held January's meeting in the airport administration building, the ARC being full of airplane refugees from the recent flood.

Dave Doherty presided. We forgot to bring the flag over so we faced the flag on the CAF building for the Pledge.

All the hangars were inundated by the flood. With the hangar doors open they let in most of the corn cobs and stalks in northern St. Charles County. The airport will take care of power washing them. Jim Hann covered the tentative schedule from Dennis. When the hangars are dry from the power washing they'll come back again for disinfecting. If your plane is in the hangar at this time they'll disinfect  around it. We've got some stuff up on tables in the chapter hangar, if someone could come out and move it prior to the power washing that'd be helpful: Dave will be in Florida.

We're shooting for the end of March to finish the RV. Charlie Becker was interested to hear about the project and the flying club, and would like to see it at Oshkosh. Bill's involved with this year's air show at Spirit. (May 14 and 15) The Snowbirds will perform. We'd like to have a presence, possibly working with the STEM group. Dave has met with these people before, and they've expressed an interest in aviation projects for young people.

The Fly Baby project has stalled, Jim Hann has offered to buy it for $600 and the Cavalier project in trade. We discussed and decided to go ahead with the deal.

We had a chapter "compound" at Oshkosh last year and would like to do that again in 2016.

We plan on doing movies again, March through October. We'll try to have a fly-in.

Our meeting was postponed today as Dave was attending Howard Henderson's funeral. He was a founding member of the chapter and built a number of planes. Dave, Bill, and Don, among several others in attendance, all knew Howard.

Ron Burnett has food coupons. He advised everyone to come right after the meeting and see him, as he'll be heading home to watch his new favorite football team, the Chiefs.

December 2015 Holiday Meeting Minutes

Dave Doherty presided over the Christmas party/December meeting.

Don Doherty reported the checking and savings account balances.

Dave ran down the state of the RV-12 project at the 6 month mark. He’s got the engine waiting at his house.

Rick May reviewed the year of Young Eagles’ events: we had 1 rain-out and 7 events, and flew over 250.

The Pumpkin Drop in October went well.

This spring the airport put in a new well and we were able to tap in at the administration building. We now have fresh water that does not smell of iron and sulfur, and also installed an on-demand hot water heater.

We officially installed Vice President Bill Doherty and Treasurer Don Doherty as returning officers. Don notes that we’ll need to do some fundraising in 2016 to refresh our funds.

Next on the agenda was the presentation of chapter service awards, followed by our guest speaker: Charlie Becker, who gave a presentation on the One Week Wonder project at Oshkosh.

Following the presentation was the 50-50 drawing and gift exchange, after which we parted until 2016.

November 21, 2015 Minutes

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

We approved October's minutes.

Don Doherty gave the Treasurer's Report, including checking and savings account balances. He reminds us that the weather's getting colder so remember to close the bathroom doors. He also mentioned that we've dispatched 18 mice this season so far, so please keep food properly stowed.

Visitors include John Housely, our speaker. John flies a Pitts S2B. Pete Farber found us on the internet. He's retired from the Air Guard and came to check out the chapter. Christopher Ward and his wife Victoria just moved up from Jefferson CIty where Christopher was the Young Eagles coordinator. He's building a 750 Cruzer.

Old business. Jeff Stephensen held a geocaching event at the ARC. When he was at a national event in Seattle they discussed holding similar events across the country; they presented the chapter with a $100 donation. About 80 attended.

Rick May reports that 18 pilots flew 250 kids this year, 185 were first-time flyers. Both numbers are the best we've had in the last 3 years. We also flew 35 parents. Laura Million gave out 122 merit badges. Ground crew participation includes 140 attendees over 7 events. Rick notes that Bill Doherty contributed much to the effort by managing food. Note that we have 2 spots reserved for the advanced air academy at Oshkosh. We're not sure who yet, let Rick May know if you have a candidate.

The Cystic Fibrosis bike ride day coincided with our last YE event. We provided cooking services. They raised $143,000.

We raised $1,300 at the October airport open house. Bob brought his Pitts for display and thanks those who helped plant flags around it.

Food cards are another part of our fund-raising. See Rob Burnett.

Tell Bill Doherty if you need a lock code... email

The RV-12 is almost ready for attachment of the tail cone. It's also time to test the fuel pumps. Testing of the anti-servo tab was successful. Chuck spent almost a week inside the plane trying to get wiring completed. Dave reports the engine is on order. Target completion date is 4/2/2016, with 5 month behind the team.

Speaking of Chuck, he finally got married, and soloed November 1. Bill Doherty took care of the traditional, civilian solo ceremony, presenting Chuck with a chapter t-shirt and then cutting the tail off it. Last weekend he completed his cross country to Litchfield.

We need at least 50 attendees to break even on the holiday. Charlie Becker from Oshkosh HQ is our guest speaker. Location is the same, tickets are $25 in advance, $30 at the door. Email Don if you plan to attend.

Our old upright freezer has died and we've got an offer of a donated unit.

Jim Hann bought Ernie's old Cavalier project and has been trying to figure out how to complete it: the wing is one piece and would require a climate controlled 30 foot space. He's offered to swap the Cavalier and some cash for the Fly Baby project. Dave talked with John Thayer, who's been heading up the project. Not much has happened. John was interested in the Cavalier at one point but not any more. Dave is open to Jim's idea. Jim will need to do a thorough inventory of the Fly Baby to give us an accurate offer.

Today is election day for Vice President and Treasurer. We handed out paper ballots to add to 14 electronic votes.

Chuck mentioned that we could use new seals on the bottom of the garage doors.

Meeting's adjourned and will reconvene for our presentation on aerobatics.

October 2015 Minutes

October's meeting began with the Pledge, Dave Doherty presiding. Parking was dicey today and attendance light, as we were sharing the airport with the Cystic Fibrosis Cycle for Life event. In spite of the chill two Stearmans did a flyover.

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

Ronald Twente, who works at Flight Safety International and has an IFR-certified Cessna 150, is with us as a new member. John Bruell( ask Gale) who retired from Boeing and is getting current again is visiting.

The back wall and flagpole base have new coats of paint. Thanks to all who donated their time and effort.

The FlyBaby and Sonerai projects have not changed recently, though the RV-12 is progressing quickly. The group is working on the wings, they've requested the finish kit early. They're planning to paint the plane here, building a paint booth in the ARC with an appropriate exhaust strategy. Decision on the paint system is still in discussion.

We're looking for the chapter's approval to make new member packets. These will go the entire current membership.

Food coupons are available after the meeting from Ron Burnett.

Rick May debriefed us on the end of the YE season. For this year 245 kids flew from the ARC. We flew 30 last Saturday. This will add to the total of 200 Oshkosh has recorded for our chapter, so we'll have 230 points at 5 dollars a point for next year. The new flat screen on the back wall is a Young Eagles expenditure; we ran the YE introductory video during October's event. We're considering sending two kids to Air Academy next year, and have a couple of candidates in mind.

Vice President and Treasurer are up for election this year, nominations will be closed at the end of the meeting. Don and Bill Doherty are our current nominees, no others were put forward.

Tonight is Trivia Night at CBC. Chapter 32 has a table reserved for this year, last year we took second place.

Next Saturday is the Smartt Field Open House and Pumpkin Drop. We need volunteers to staff the ARC. We made around $700 serving food.

Later that evening we'll show First Light, a movie about a pilot in the RAF.

After the meeting we'll be cooking hot dogs for the cyclists, but before that Tom Sparr will speak about his career with the Air Force.

September 2015 Meeting Minutes

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

Don gave the Treasurer's Report, including checking and savings balances.

Chuck Gorman is now a member. He's been around as president of the new flying club.

Rick May was absent so Dave gave the numbers for last week's Young Eagles' event. We ended up flying 38 eagles and 9 adults, thanks to 5 pilots and 21 ground assistants.

Bob Murray has done some research on our water heater project. He's concluded that an on-demand heater would be a good solution.

Jeff and the membership committee will be auditing to make sure all new members for 2015 have information packets and door codes.

Ron Burnett has food coupons.

October 3 will be a work party for ARC improvements. We'll install the water heater if we have it. We'll paint the flag pole base and building trim. The garage door could use some paint as well. For 2016 we'd like to paint "EAA32" on the roof and paint the interior metalwork brown. The airport will be sealing asphalt.

Troy chapter 1387 will have a Young Eagles event on October 3 at H19.

The flying club is making impressive progress on the RV-12 project. Gale has inspected and approved the work so far. There are six equity members, about the max for insurance purposes, though all are welcome to work on the project. We've got one possible paint scheme but may
have a contest for more options. The group has gotten 32YE as the registration number.

Dave got a call from a representative of the NHRA, they're looking for some planes to do a flyover in conjunction with the National Anthem. 9/17 at 10:58 a.m. Let Dave know if you'd like to participate.

Zenith Aircraft fly-in is today until 2:00 p.m. CAF Hangar Dance is tonight.

October 17, our next meeting, will be elections for treasurer and vice president. Currently Don and Bill Doherty are the only nominees.

The Aviation Business group will hold their annual trivia night, also on October 17.

Next Young Eagles, our last of the year, will be held October 10.

Our upcoming movie will be Island In the Sky, September 26, starting at 6:00 p.m.