The Smilin’
Jack
EAA Chapter 866 monthly
newsletter
August
01
1st YOUNG EAGLES DAY
While some of our chapter members have participated in the EAA’s
Young Eagle effort before, until July 20th, 2001 the chapter had never sponsored
a genuine Young Eagle event. On the 20th in conjunction with the Titusville
Women’s Aglow, we flew the children of a local Ministry named Christ
Aid to Women and Children. Although the numbers of new Young Eagles may not
be impressive compared to the events that other chapters have held, it was
truly a HUGE success! Members, Steve Pangborn, Gil Jones, Neale Cranston,
Larry and Loretta Gilbert, Ray Thomas, Gene Driggers, and Jerry Russell from
our chapter participated in the event. Several ladies and one husband from
Titusville Womens Aglow assisted by setting up a breakfast for all who cared
to eat at the chapter building. They provided home made muffins, breakfast
cereals, milk, orange juice
and coffee. Because the event was organized and good adult supervision was
provided, all went smoothly. In addition to the plane rides the children
were treated to a tour by Harry Merritt, of the Lear 25 based at Dunn and
were then taken over to Skydive
Space Center’s bleachers to watch
a skydive. The 1st Young Eagle
event for C866 was a Huge success!
See pictures
in back part of this newsletter.
JULY PANCAKE BREAKFAST
This time the Spruce Creek flew in their marvelous variety of airplanes in their typical precision formations. What a sight! I saw Christen Eagles, a Glassair, several Karchinas, and the beautiful new Pilatus that was flown in. Lots of customers from the Dunn Airpark showed up too. Loretta took 42 dinner plates and we ran out of these long before everyone had eaten. No way to check on our creative book keeper this time because we sold way over and above the amount of plates we brought and we had to break out the paper plates. We tore the setup down as soon as it seemed the customers ran out. It was a little early as it turned out because at least two more planes flew in to have breakfast, when we were done. One from Valkaria and one from Punta Gorda. Our gracious Jim Morgan loaded these people into his vehicle and took them to breakfast somewhere in Titusville. We owe Jim our thanks for this because without some kind of special treatment those fly-ins would never come back. Anyway I saw Neale headed for the meeting room with money sticking out of all of his pockets. There should be at least enough to pay one or two months rent on our building. Hey, we even picked up a new member at the breakfast! Great job, chapter 866 faithful!
Presidents
Corner
by: Steve Pangborn
Happy August to you all. Have we had enough of this rain yet? And
to think we were complaining about a drought a few months ago! I believe
I’ll take the rain, thanks.
Our July pancake breakfast was a
resounding success, other than the fact that we ran out of
groceries….twice!! Spruce Creek descended upon us like a locust plague.
I don’t remember exactly {I was too busy burning sausage!}, but there
must have been 10-15 airplanes {Larry, confirm, please} with two or more
occupants each. The rent has definitely been paid for the next couple of
months.
Lily and I have had one heck of a time trying to do any flying of
significance this month. Dratted weather. We manage to scoot around locally,
but I tried three or four times to make some of the distant flyins with not
much success.
On the other hand, we have been flying Young Eagles at a pretty good
clip. I believe we did 9 in July alone. The latest Y.E. was flown last Friday,
7-20-01. A group of children from an abused women’s shelter was set
up to fly by Larry and Lorretta. I was assigned a little gal named Tiffany.
She was I guess 10 or 11, had never been in anything close to an airplane
before, so I didn’t know what to expect. She was rather shy, but she
DID want to go up. So, after a brief ground school presented by Larry, we
were off to find Lily.
Got Tiffany strapped in to Lily, I climbed aboard and Gil Jones did
the honors of propping Lily. As we taxied out, I could see she was a bit
apprehensive. We talked about it a little bit and even though she was nervous,
she was determined to fly……my kind of girl! At the run up area,
I told what I was going to do…run up and check the engine. As the power
came up for a mag check, she confirmed that yes, she could hear the engine!
Always a good sign!
She was a little tense during the take off roll, but just as soon
as we broke ground, she just lit up! It became the best thing that had ever
happened to her. She wouldn’t stop “bubbling” and of course
my grin was from ear to ear too.
We flew out over the river and she just couldn’t get enough of
it. She tried flying Lily for a bit, but preferred to let me do the flying,
while she was mesmerized by the wonders in her window. She even had a throw
away camera with her and was shooting everything in sight with
it.
After 20 minutes or so, I suggested that we head back. She protested,
but I explained to her that there were other kids waiting to go up too, so
she agreed to “share” Lily!
Entering the pattern, I could see the nervousness return, as she started
edging closer to me as we flew towards a landing. She was tight up against
me when we turned final. As we got closer, I could feel this little hand
slide up my side, and by short final, she had a iron grip on my forearm!
I just talked her down and fortunately Lily cooperated with a
“squeaker”. “Tiff” immediately wanted to go right back
up, but I reminded her of our agreement, so we reluctantly came back in.
Lorretta was firing away with her camera, so Tiffany has some memories to
cherish.
Her Y.E. certificate had already been filled out, waiting for my
signature. A picture was taken of she and I with her certificate, and then
she promptly FOLDED it up into a 2” square and popped it into her purse!
She didn’t understand that it was to be framed. Oh well, we try, ha,
ha!
Those are the types of stories that keep me coming back for
more….kids, that is. Lily and I just love doing the Y.E. thing. Try
it whenever you get the opportunity, you’ll love it
too!
“Blue
Skys”
This month’s flying
by Larry Gilbert
Made a flight this month was with the fearless Gil Jones. Gil and I made a local flight in my Skyhawk one Saturday morning. Nothing real exciting about the flight but there are probably no gators left in Harney lake. I flew by myself a couple of times, just for the fun of it and to practice some maneuvers and xwind landings and takeoffs at Dunn. Does X21, the Dunn Airpark identifier mean that there’s always a 21 kt crosswind or that most of the time the wind is out of 210 degrees? The most fun that I had though was flying the youngsters on July 20, our first young Eagle event. On this day I had the pure pleasure of giving first time rides to four children. These kids were from Christ Aid which is a local ministry dealing with abused and troubled mothers and their children. Pasqual Betancourt, a fifteen year old boy was the first to fly “right seat” with me. His comment over and over was “this is awesome,” over the Indian River he said “look, there’s a boat and I can see people in it.” He pointed out islands in the river and noticed the shuttle landing facility. After we’d been up a while I showed him how just a little pressure on the yoke would roll the plane left and right and then he tried a couple of level turns in both directions. He did well and was elated to be able to do this. Another front seat passenger was a 12 year old girl named Calah Marquardt, she too took a turn at the controls and also did well and was elated. I can’t get over the way these children re-acted to their first flight! They were all so excited and happy and appreciative of this first airplane ride and I smile to myself remembering these youth in my airplane. What a privilege to be able to do this!
OCEANSIDE CITY COUNCIL SETS LOCAL PILOTS UP FOR FAILURE..
I think that I got the following off
of the Avweb newsletter - Larry Gilbert
Horror stories regarding the future
of general aviation airports abound, but some aeronautical measures adopted
by the Oceanside, Calif., City Council recently sound more like rules for
a penal colony than for a local airstrip. Besides restrictions on flight
paths and touch and goes, curfews, mandated radio use, a complaint hotline,
and stepped-up monitoring and enforcement, airport tenants can no longer
fly in willy-nilly with nothing but their N-number. Beginning July 1, aircraft
that park at the field must have an Oceanside-issued identification number
affixed to the underside of their wings, so the general public can easily
identify transgressors and report them to the City Council.
...AS THE TRUE AGENDA BREWS...
In the meantime, city staffers will be studying the short- and long-term
economic viability of the airport, and examining alternative land uses and
economic opportunities for the field's 37 acres. The report will include
a time frame and a set of steps to convert the airport property
to a more suitable alternative use, if that's what the council so desires.
Get ready for a strip mall or car dealership.
Man, makes me appreciate what we have at Dunn even more! How bout you?
..........................Larry Gilbert
NEW FAA EXEMPTION ISSUED TO
EAA
On June 18, 2001, the FAA issued EAA a new exemption to FAR 91.319(a)(1)
and (2). This exemption No.
7162A, will allow owners of experimental "crew training," "exhibition,"
"amateur-built" and "kit-built" aircraft to rent (e.g., receive compensation)
their aircraft to other pilots who need aircraft-specific transition training
or bi-annual flight reviews. The exemption was issued
to EAA in response to a request from EAA and
a recent NTSB Safety
recommendation, No.
A-97-55. Pilots must be qualified
under FAR 61.31(e) through (J), as
appropriate, prior to using the
exemption. For more information
concerning this exemption and how to apply to use it contact EAA Safety Programs
at 888-322- 4636, ext. 6864 or e-mail
to:
safetyprograms@eaa.org
GRASSROOTS FUND
MAILING
Chapter Presidents should have received this special mailing in the
last few weeks. It contains
information about the application process for Chapters in order to apply
for Grassroots Funds. This is
an exciting opportunity for Chapters to plan some terrific activities and
projects while at the same time possibly gaining funding to help in the
costs. Send an e-mail to
ttoelle@eaa.org or banderson@eaa.org with any questions you may
have.
DUNN AIRPARK ENGINEERING SOLUTIONS
The following text is a letter submitted to me by Bill
Furnholm
A really disgusting situation arose
the other day while Gene Driggers and I were evaluating the performance of
my aircraft radio.
We had wheeled our planes out and fired up the engines in order to
be able to check out ignition interference if any. We did a number of long
counts and all seemed OK with my radio, with the exception of quite a bit
of wind noise my radio was picking
up. I taxied down to Genes hangar so we could discuss the
test.
In the process of taxiing down I found my plane was being followed
by an not to be named man driving a Jeep. I won’t use the mans name
for obvious reasons, but shall refer to him as N. C.
I arrived at Genes hangar row and
shut down the engine. Then Gene and I and this other fellow got into a
conversation re: elimination of wind noise while
transmitting.
It seem this N. C. was an experienced HAM radio operator, and he without
being asked of course, offered this as a possible solution to my
problem.
He said “What you need to do is to get a used old jock strap.”
This to negate the expense of buying a new one ‘ I presume. Heavily
starch it and strap it to your helmet and place the cup over your mouth!!!
I said “hold it, hold it, hold it that’s
enough.”
Now man and boy for forty six years I have ridden many ships both
Navy and Merchant Marine. Of course I have had to put up with lots of very
strange fellows, to put it mildly. But never have I ever run into anyone
that would stick his nose into old ie: used jock straps, then brag about
it.
So Larry I felt that I had to let you as the editor of the 866 newsletter
know some of the seamier things hanging around our beloved Dunn
Airpark.
Sincerely
Bill
Furnholm
SPORT PILOT
NEWS
On July 5, EAA's Government and Industry Relations Office learned
that the sport pilot/light sport airplane proposal has taken another significant
step. The FAA reports that the Office of Management and Budget has received
the proposal from the Department of Transportation (DOT). DOT reportedly
approved the document with no changes. OMB now has up to 60 days to review
the proposal, after which it will be returned to the FAA for publication
as a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM
Maybe there will
be a reasonable sport pilot rating after all!
SCHEDULE OF
EVENTS
MARK
YOUR CALENDAR FOR THIS ONE!!
SEPT.
15TH - DUNN AIRPARK (X21)
CHAPTER
866 ANNUAL SMILIN’JACK FLY-IN. CONTACT NEALE CRANSTON 321 269
0803
Every First
Saturday Dunn Air Park, EAA Chapter 866
Pancake Breakfast.
Every Second
Saturday, Charlotte County Airport,
Punta
Gorda, EAA Chapter 565
Pancake Breakfast/ Young
Eagles,
941-575-6360.
Every Second Saturday
Melrose Landing (FD22) Hawthorne, FL full breakfast
352 475
2078
Every Second
Saturday, Tampa, EAA Chapter 175 Fly-In
Breakfast/Young Eagles, 813-654-2921.
Every Second
Saturday, Homestead, Fly-In and "Chikee
Chat" Seminar,
305-247-7886.
Saturday after Every Third
Tuesday, Kissimmee Airport,
EAA Chapter 74 Pancake Breakfast,
321-678-5873.
Every Third
Saturday, Valkaria Airport, Pancake
Breakfast/Young Eagles, 321-724-8671.
Every Fourth
Saturday, Orlando, EAA Chapter 74
Pancake
Breakfast & Young Eagles,
321-841-7981.
Every Fourth
Saturday, Crestview, EAA Chapter 108
Pancake
Breakfast, 904-862-2673.
Every First
Sunday, Ft. Myers Airport, Chapter 66 Pancake
Breakfast, 941-945-7000.
Every First
Sunday, Punta Gorda, Lo and Slo Flyers meeting,
941-505-0493.
Every Second
Sunday, Naples Airport, EAA Chapter 1067
Fly-In Breakfast, 941-261-5701.
Every Third
Sunday, Kissimmee Municipal Airport, west side of
the field, 9 am on.
Every Third
Sunday, Sebring Airport, EAA Chapter 803
Pancake Breakfast, 941-465-6996.
Every Fourth
Sunday, Bob Lee Airport, De Land, EAA
Chapter 635 Fly-In
Picnic, 904-734-1032.
Every Last
Sunday, Quincy, FL, EAA Chapter 445
Pancake
Breakfast.
…
