The Smilin’Jack |
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| EAA Chapter 866 monthly newsletter April 2002 |
Chapter Meeting Weds. April 3rd at 7:30 PM at Dunn Airpark Bldg. 10
N. Williams Ave, Titusville
Is it really that time again? Yep, we're off to LAL for the big show starting on Saturday April 7. This has been a favorite event of mine for many years. In my old chapter 400 of Altoona Pennsylvania, we for many years organized the annual "Alligator Flight." As many as 7 planes at a time would head down here in the Blue Knob Valley Airport formation (this formation is anytime you have more than one airplane headed in the same direction on the same day!) We would come down as a flight and when transitioning TRSAs and ARSAs etc. and now class B and class C airspace, we would communicate with ATC as a flight of however many us there happened to be flying close enough together to see each other. It was always great fun! Kinda like a motorcycle bunch in the air!
I'm disappointed this year because when we were at Altoona last month, I asked the guys how many were coming down this year. Only one of them plans to make the trip this year because they are discouraged by the price of things there and the attitude of some of the people involved in the operation. I personally have not had any problems with attitudes but I've heard this down here too. Since the price of food and beverage is high I don't buy much. I hope this event isn't dying cause it has always been a lot of fun for me.
The following is comments sent to me by Neale Cranston;
I thought the breakfast was one of the best so far. My comparision is directed toward the "fraternization" which
seem to be running full tilt. We finally closed shop at noon. Furnholm, Driggers, Merle and his brother-in-law, Wayne and myself sat around the table in the meeting chamber and chattered like magpies, probably more imaginative presentation as opposed to truthful accounts, and some great "There I was...." type of dialogue. Personal elation ran pretty high for the most part of the Breakfast attendees. Lots and lots of conversation, some true, some stretched, probably a few bald prevarications, who cares? Thank you all for doing so much to promote the euphoric character of the organization. Anyway, the ship sails more smoothly with everybody indulging in spirited conversations and a fine menu!. You can't believe how long it has taken to finally reach this point.
By Larry Gilbert
Our chapter had the good fortune of having David Edwards, executive director of the Titusville/Cocoa airports, as our guest speaker for this meeting. He expressed his ideas about the direction to take with the three airports under his direction. He went into detail about how the contract for the private operation of the new hangars is being handled and how the deal will provide revenue for the authority without a tremendous outlay of money. After this David explained some options concerning security at Dunn Airpark. Then he fielded questions from those of us attending this meeting, most of the questions were about security in light of recent burglaries of some of our hangars at Dunn. For me, I have a better understanding of why this was done and without an explanation of the facts I can become suspicious of the motives of these deals, especially when they will have an impact on the cost my favorite thing that I do (own and fly airplanes) and a favorite place (a grass roots airport, Dunn Airpark) where I hang out.
After this meeting with David Edwards I asked several members about how they felt about his presentation and answering questions. All comments were on a positive note! Chapter 866 members can feel proud of the way this meeting with David went. He expressed interest in our chapter and seems to be very supportive of us. Ya know, I never saw this C866 bunch act so respectable! Couple of new faces at the meeting too. Things are lookin up. 'Cook the books Neale wasn't there..I think he ran off with the money.
The end of March is fast coming upon us, the first day of Spring has "sprung" and we all know what that means? Sun N Fun is just around the corner…my gosh, has it been a year ALREADY?
Speaking of SNF, be prepared for some changes, some of which are unfortunately a sign of the times. Security will be at an all time high because of world events of the last six months. Some of which include a high law enforcement presence, bomb, drug, and contraband sniffing K-9's, random vehicle and personal searches. Every one, with no exceptions will be required to wear a wristband, ON THE WRIST… not on the hat, belt, etc. that has been done in the past. That is just a slick way to be sure you have paid to get/stay on site. Security will have just one place to look for the band. If you don't have one, you will be politely escorted to a place where you'll be able to purchase one, or to the gate…. your choice.
On a more up beat note, the grounds have again, been upgraded, better access to public parking {the best way in, still, is to arrive by air!}, most of the buildings have a new coat of paint, and the forum selection will be better than ever!
Next year as an advance notice to you all, SNF will run from Wednesday through the following Tuesday, so plan accordingly.
So, how did we do on the pancake breakfast? Since I haven't been to the last two, I haven't kept up. I, once again won't make this coming breakfast either as I'm scheduled to drive at SNF Saturday a.m. at 9:00, but you're in good hands, being fed by the submarine service, a.k.a., "box car Willie". It can't be too bad as I haven't heard of any deaths attributed to pancakes….yet!
No flying to report as Lily has a fuel leak that I finally decided to fix. It's not bad, but sure smells bad!
Guess I'll quit while I'm ahead. Come out and support the breakfast as you faithfully do each month {not like ME!}, and be sure to attend SNF. With all the changed, I believe you'll still enjoy yourselves…I know I will. Stop by the depot, save those tired "dogs", and I'll give you a lift.
Blue skies, and fly safe!
One windy day (they're all windy) I flew down to Space Coast to get a new Jax sectional nice 12 knot wind out of 010 degrees to make for a slow touchdown on runway 36. I had a coffee at the Outer Marker and enjoyed looking out of the window at the little helicopters busy training pilots. They reminded me of when I was a kid and watched dragonflies flitting about a small pond. I had a camera with me with a zoom lens and was trying to put together what would make a good picture of the scene I was watching. While watching all of this, a couple of dragonflies flew by and I was inspired to go outside and try to get the picture. Wanted the dragonflies in the foreground and the little helicopters in the background. So I stood out there in the wind under the wing of the C123 being restored, for about 10 minutes and the helicopters had quit flying and there were no more dragonflies either. The picture is in my head and no-one else is gonna see it. Flew back to Dunn where the landing on runway 33 was a lot more of a challenge than at Space Coast. We didn't break or bend anything or leave any parts on the runway so it was an OK landing. Now for the chart story.... I'd been over to Discovery at Space Coast earlier in Feb. and they had Jax sectionals but they didn't become current till Feb. 21 and it was only Feb. 12. They wouldn't sell me one cause it wasn't current. OK, so I guess I'll have to come back later for this. March 5 and I decided it was time to buy my sectional so that was an excuse to fly back over there and get it. This time, "sorry were out of those and won't have till Thurs." As I left I was thinking to myself, OK, next Sept. 5, when the next sectional comes out, I'll have to stand in line on that day to get mine to be current at all times with my charts. Kind of like in Russia! So we'll fly over there that day with no sectional so we don't get caught with an expired one.....That day the control tower or ground freq. will change and I'll get busted for not having current data. Maybe we should drive over. Naw, I think I'll get them through the mail instead of dealing with my hometown folk. I'm not really that cynical about all of this and I really don't care that much since I only fly for fun but I can't see where buying and having a chart with me that doesn't become current for a couple of days makes my flying any safer.
A pilot friend came down for a couple of days and we went up to Deland for the big sandwich and watched motorcycle drag races on a closed runway there. It was Bike Week.
Bill Mitchell and I flew 52L for an hour one day just boring holes and checking things out in the area. Went up along the west bank of Indian River and out to Lake Harney and South over the St. Johns River through a rain shower and back to Dunn. When I pushed her in the hangar I noticed there were no bugs to clean off. Musta been the rain that cleaned em off. Then another windy morning Bill and I flew up to New Smyrna for Bill to buy an oxygen set up for his Aerobat or something.
Wayne Bullington and I flew down to Valkeria to their breakfast one Saturday morning and handed out a bunch of flyers about our Piet. Fly-in on May 18. Got some promises for fly-ins too! One is a Fischer Celebrity, a beautiful all wood and fabric bi plane. WE visited with a couple of Wayne's friends and they also said that they would tryto make our Piet. Fly-in. Larry Bierman also flew his Mooney down and we all ate pancakes and sausage. I'm envious of their gas fired griddle and I think that if we continue our breakfasts we oughta git one of these. I'm lookin around for one now.
The Worlds Greatest Collection of Aircraft is what FA08 airport is named on the Jax sectional I have but this place is officially known as The Fantasy of Flight attraction and is located at Polk City Florida. For the first time ever, on March 24th the flying public was invited to fly into this attraction and fly in we did along with 185 other aircraft.
The original plan was for Mike herring and Lenny Duncil to depart Space Coast and orbit over South Lake until the Dunn contingency were airborne, then form up with Gene Driggers in his Titan, Jim Garrison in his Bonanza and me in my Cessna and head for the fly-in. Didn't quite work out thata way for a variety of reasons but, anyway here's how it went...... The plan: Meet at 1230 Zulu (0730 local) to prepare for the 0800 launch, flight of four, all take off and head SE to Lake X then West on to FA08 where we would fall into line and land as a flight of four maybe. The execution: Mike and Lenny decide not to come up to Dunn and meet us and head on out before we do. Just as he's ready to climb aboard his plane, Jim Garrison gets a call from his wife to explain that his daughter is broke down on I95 and needs help. OK that left a flight of two, Driggers in the Titan and Bill Mitchell and Bill Furnholm and me in the Cessna. We were on the roll about 0800 and on our way as a flight of two. The morning was a chamber of commerce one as we climbed to 2,500'and switched to 122.75 for air to air communication. We soon heard from Mike and Lenny stating they were already turning West at Lake X. Gene and his Titan kept up quite well with us and we were cruising at about 120 IAS. We slowed up to let Gene get close enough for an air to air photo near Lake X then turned toward Fantasy. We watched MCO and the Kissimmee airports drift by North of us and were soon tuned to the freq. for the fly-in and looking for I4 to follow to the attraction. We crossed Route 27 and in a couple of minutes were over I4 looking for the airport. The freq. was very busy and it sounded like a hundred planes all in the pattern at the same time but we had yet to see any of them. Ah, the checkerboard water tower came into view and now we could see a couple of planes. So we slipped in on right downwind for Rway 4, landed long so as to let Gene in behind us and so we wouldn't have to taxi as much to parking. We were parked at the Westernmost part of the airport next to a lake and Mitchell said " geez, they put us in the penalty box." No problem, there was soon a van there to pick us up and take us in.
The Fantasy of Flight collection is a sight to see for sure! We were treated to a special tour of the warehouses where the stuff that Kermit Weeks owns is stored. There is one building with 279 engines in it! Others are full of rare planes and parts in line for restoration someday. The museum itself is wonderful and worth the price of admission. I could go on and on about the sights there but it would take a book to write it.
The flight back was nice, we just reversed our route to come home. If you've ever made the trip down around Lake X from Titusville, you may have seen what looks like a long runway out in the middle of nowhere. We decided to check this out on the way home by altering our course a little and flying over this strip of pavement. Strange it is, it is tapered so that it is about twice as wide on one end as the other. There is a large solid red circle on it and a couple of slanted white structures that look like airplane antennae maybe 20' high, one on one end and the other in the center. The strip is at least 3,000' long and isn't identified on the sectional. Oh yeah, there is an X on it too. We shoulda shot a picture of it. Do you know what this is? While we were at Fantasy, we saw Mike and Lenny and Jim Garrison showed up with Patti and Tony.
A good time was had by all!
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Thanks to the efforts of Neale Cranston our fine secretary and noble treasurer, a new Y-E co-ordinator has been appointed in our chapter. The new co-ordinator will be attempting to organize some sort of Y-E activities with our chapter probably some time after or maybe during our Piet. Fly-in. When Wayne and I were at Valkeria, there was a Y-E rally going on. It was well organized and there had to be over 100 kids waiting for rides. The people involved were having a good time too! I noticed a pilot from Merritt Island there whom I recognized flying a Citabria. Apparently they organized this rally and recruited pilots from other locations to participate. When the time comes for our rally please volunteer to fly or handle ground duties so we can make our contributions to the Y-E program. |
By Larry Gilbert
The bored board met on Weds. March 20th and discussed the following. For the upcoming April 3rd regular chapter meeting we'll be making a proposal to the membership about tee shirts that we'll be selling at our Pietenpol Fly-in on May 18. We may be able to make a couple of bucks selling these too if we approach it properly. We talked about the possibility of advertising our engine in Trade a Plane. Discussed changing the hours of operation of our chapter breakfasts and decided to start later and stay later to accommodate those who show up for the breakfast after we've decided to close it down. We will be asking Chris Garrison if he's interested in doing decals for the Piet. Fly-in. I think that's it, so be prepared to talk about these things at our April 3rd meeting. See ya there.
Our chapter donated $50.00 to the Special Olympics Committee based in Washington, DC in memory of Hal Springer who died in his plane in January. The committee sent us a special thanks for this in the form of a letter.
At least that's what we called it when I was in the USMC.
We are fortunate to have a nice public rest room built into the West end of the new hangars and our own Chapter 866 Secretary/Treasurer came up with the idea of the people using this facility being responsible for cleaning it. There is a sign up sheet posted in the room and so far it has been kept sparkling clean by members and a couple of non members who appreciate the facility. This takes some of the burden off of our authority paid maintenance people at Arthur Dunn Airpark. All of those who have signed up and kept the place cleaned are to be commended for doing this job. On the sign up sheet, you sign up to be responsible for it for one month and so far it's worked great! I have noticed however, that the sign up sheet is only covered until May. If you're a user of this how about committing to the cleaning chore for a month? It only takes about one or two cleanings per week because everyone who is using this is being responsible and not leaving a mess.
ttolle@eaa.org
Come join us for the EAA Chapter Leadership Forum at Sun N Fun, Lakeland, Fl, on Thurs. April 11th from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. in forum tent #10. This forum will be a fun and interactive presentation that will allow you to take away some ideas on how to make your Chapter more effective and more satisfying for your members! We will be discussing several different tools and tactics that can help your Chapter be more successful including: Promoting your Chapter Why Fun is such an important ingredient to a successful Chapter Building great Chapter LeadershipMost importantly.....FUN! We look forward to a fresh exchange of ideas and information.
No registration necessary.
P.S. Chapter Newsletter Editors; please add this notice to your next Chapter
Newsletter if possible ? thanks
It is a 1/3 scale model WWI Avro
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The engine is a rotary radial, yep, the whole engine turns! It is completely machined to scale by hand and of course it runs! This was built by friends of Jim Garrison. I think the intend to fly this at Dunn soon. |
| Photos by Bill Mitchell | |
The engine is a rotary radial, yep, the whole engine turns! It is completely machined to scale by hand and of course it runs! This was built by friends of Jim Garrison. I think the intend to fly this at Dunn soon.
Photos by Bill Mitchell
By Mike Herring
I have lived just south of runway 36 at TIX for about 9 years now. Every year when the TICO airshow comes around, I drool with envy as the warbirds make their short approach for 36.
This year, I could not control myself anymore. My family and I went to the airshow on Sunday, March 10th. I had already informed my wife of my intentions to buy a ride in a T-6. Warbird Adventures, based in Kissimmee, had set up a tent at the airshow and were selling 10-minute rides for $99. Gulp! That's a bit steep. However, I whipped out the plastic and signed on the dotted line. I even spent an extra $30 to have it videotaped. The plane had three on- the plastic and signed on the dotted line. I even spent an extra $30 to have it videotaped. The plane had three on board video cameras and also recorded radio and intercom communications.
It turned out to be the best $129 I ever spent flying. After departing 36 and turning downwind, the flight instructor in the back asked me if I would like to fly the plane. Now that's a dumb question to ask a pilot. Of course I wanted to fly the plane.
We flew about 7 miles south and then made 2 clearing turns. He then started to talk me into a "wing over". Those of you who have flown with me know that I am a big fan of straight-and-level flying, so I had him perform the maneuver. We did two, the first to the left, and the second to the right.
We then flew back to TIX were I did a fly-by over runway 36 at 1,500ft. I did a right break followed by a 360-degree turn for a short approach to 36. He actually let me fly it to the threshold. What an awesome experience!
If you have a couple hundred bucks burning a whole in your pocket, I strongly recommend the experience. Check them out at http://www.warbirdadentures.com/.
This chapter newsletter is published monthly to inform members and friends about activities of our chapter and it's members. We welcome to our chapter anyone who is interested in aviation activities of any kind. This newsletter and the electronic version sent out prior to our monthly meeting. We need your input so please submit materials for your newsletter. When you have something for this, you can submit via e-mail, computer disk, writing, or by word of mouth. Please get your submission to me by mid month.
BIG PIETENPOL /ANTIQUE
(AND EVERYTHING ELSE) FLY-IN
MAY 18, 2002
ARTHUR DUNN AIRPARK (X21)
TITUSVILLE, FLORIDA
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