Wow, from the comments Loretta and I received, everyone had a good time at our party. Many, many thanks to all who attended. Next year's party should be a little easier to organize now that we see how much fun this can be. What more could you want, good food, great camaraderie, wonderful entertainment, and a night out for our spouses. Ain't we a respectable lookin bunch when we dress up?
Mike Herring received well deserved recognition and an award for being president and shouldering the burden of a job nobody else seemed to want for the last three years. He stepped up to the plate and helped to bring our chapter to the point where we are now. Wayne Bullington received an award for his efforts in building the chapter Pietenpol and getting it to its current stage of construction which is, a complete fuselage, wing ribs constructed, tail feathers constructed, and acquisition of an A75 Continental engine for power. Neale Cranston received an award for his job as secy/treas And PR "Eveready Bunny." "He just keeps going and going" Steve Pangborn said when he presented the award. Gil Jones got an award for his role as technical advisor for the chapter. Loretta received an award for "Culinary Artist" for providing all of her cooking talents for our meetings and our Smilin' Jack fly-in event. Jim Morgan got his award for serving as chapter vice president. Sam Beddingfield was presented with a special award and trophy for his generous donation of cash to buy the engines for our chapter airplane project. Steve Pangborn rec'd an award for fly-in chairman. Larry Gilbert received his award for serving as newsletter editor for the past year.
A new trophy and award has been designed by our chapter! This is a beautiful large trophy that is inscribed with the words "EAA Chapter 866 Service Award" it is 20" high and about 7x7 square at the base and on one side of the base are name plates to be inscribed with the winners name for the current year and passed along each year to the current winner. (Hopefully the picture will do it justice) This trophy was awarded to Larry and Loretta Gilbert for their efforts to energize our chapter for the year 2000.
Now, I shoulda been taking notes cause I may have missed one (or more) of the award winners at this party. If I missed mentioning someone let me know and I'll include in next month's letter.
Numerous door prizes were given to the lucky people who's names were drawn for this.
The crowd seemed to enjoy the entertainer Anthony Franco as he did his "Buddy Holly" impersonation and comedy routine. Our chapter sure has some good sports who agreed to participate in the show when they were called out of the audience! Colleen Betts, chapter VP, was called to participate as Buddy Holly's girl. She did a wonderful job just sighing and crying, on cue, as Buddy sang to her while sitting on her lap. She was wonderful! Mike Herring, Sherry Pangborn, and Marge Kutsche were called up and did their rendition of the hand jive to Buddy's music. This was a sight to behold because Mike was outfitted with a leather helmet, flying goggles, and a pencil thin mustache to give him the appearance of ole Smilin' Jack himself. Just picture it in your mind, enough said! We're laughin with ya Mike! Franco did his impersonation of duets such as Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis, Sonny & Cher, and Archie & Edith Bunker. Just as it seemed that the show was over the sound system came alive with Elvis Presley music and soon Franco leaped onto the stage as a Japanese warrior singing Elvis Presley songs with a Japanese bent to them and I heard the words "wook out smywin Jack" in his Japanese accent worked into the song. Cracked me up!!If you weren't there you missed a lot of fun.
Herr Engineering was approached by this writer this a.m.{01?04?01} and without batting an eye gave us 3 LaserCut kits for our banquet door prizes. A Gee Bee R?1, a Pitts Special, and a J?3 Cub. You could have knocked me over with a feather. Most cordial guy, interested in what we're doing, etc. Will invite to join as he flys{has a Shinn{used to be Varga, I believe}. Anyway, I told him he would receive a letter of appreciation on a chapter letterhead as soon as we can. Invited me back at a later date{TBD} for a tour of his facility. Sounds interesting.
When I arrived at the chapter meeting room on January 3, already seated at the head table (only table) was the new prez., Steve Pangborn, New VP Colleen Betts, old/new secy/treas Neale Cranston, and Larry Bierman. Steve called the meeting to order at 7:27PM so he could sneak some stuff through before all of our members were present. Naw, not really, his watch may be fast or he's just plain energized about his new position. Really, it was an excellent meeting and on display was the right side of the fuselage assembly for the Nieuports being built. Bill Furnholm gave a report of the progress being made on this manufacturing effort that he and the others are making on the five Nieuports. He said that they had three of five the right sides done and all of five of the tail feathers are made. The construction and workmanship is impressive and it looks like they will be sturdy airplanes. Steve said that they're stressed to six positive and 3 negative Gs so they must be strong! Steve is going to install a G meter and see if his'll stand all that stress during his test flight. (Yeah right). Neale announced that we've sold 41 tickets to our 1st annual winter party so far. He also said that we are in the black as far as our regular expenses go. He threw out a bunch of figures and I think we have something like 800+ dollars of regular operating capital and still have the $2,500.00 for the completion of the Piet. Things are lookin up! Steve announced that FSAACA inquired about us making the Smilin' Jack fly-in a two day event as they enjoy camping under the wings (Haven't they heard about the fire ants?) of their planes when they travel to these events. A discussion was held and the idea was put to vote by attending chapter members and was voted down. Steve brought in a couple of model plane kits that are being manufactured right here in Titusville. One was the Gee Bee racer and the other a Ryan ST trainer. These kits are balsa and paper models powered by rubber band. Larry and Loretta have everything in place for our winter party on the 13th, the entertainment is lined up, food taken care of, and so far seven door prizes have been acquired.
A new year and some say a new millennium has started out on a positive, exciting note for Chapter 866!
First activity this month was our regular gastronomical experiment into the various ways we can turn pancake fixings into "carbon dateable" material. The morning started out with our group of nay saying, non-believers, with comments heard about how cold it is, don't bother to set-up the awning because the turnout can be handled inside the chapter building, and on and on. Oh ye of little faith!
The loyal chapter members showed up and were fed while warming themselves around Jim Garrison's much appreciated propane powered "camp fire". First to fly in was Jackie from New Smyrna in his Zenaire CH601. I don't believe he has missed one of our breakfasts since starting them and he is very much appreciated. Then, around 9:00 a.m. they came in a gaggle of two sets of four, out of the north. Our Spruce Creek friends were back in force! Sixteen hungry folks arrived, so back to the stove!
After the dust had settled once again, we tallied up approximately 39 breakfasts, which really helps the chapter coffers. Thanks to all that attended and especially to all that helped with the setup/tear down. Couldn't do this without your participation.
The next extravaganza to occur was the Chapter Banquet on January 13. What can I say, except to give a hearty thank you to Loretta and Larry Gilbert for going above and beyond the call to pull this off. Without their perseverance, it would never have happened.
Everyone seemed to have a wonderful, fun filled evening , with a good meal, wonderful door prizes, awards ceremony, entertainment with some very talented {sign, boo hoo} audience participation! The highlight of the evening was awarding the chapter "Service Award" to two outstanding members, Larry and Loretta Gilbert. I just want to again thank them for their dedication and hard work for the chapter.
Well, I have rattled on enough. Larry is waiting for this for the newsletter publication, so .CAVU to all. See you at the next breakfast February 3.
It was great to get back down here out of the weather and do some flying again. Some flying and just some hanging out, One Saturday morning I went to Dunn and saw that Patti's hangar was the place to be. Free coffee and a Kerosun heater going to warm yer ankles. Someone made a suggestion about going to breakfast and we all piled into vehicles and drove to the Village Inn for breakfast. On the way there, we were stopped at a traffic signal and we were laughing about a young black boy standing near the road to solicit car washes for a fund raiser. He was holding a paper sign about 2' x 2' advertising the car wash. The only problem was he was holding the blank side out and the printed side towards his body. Pangborn brought our attention to this and as the boy held the sign up to attract attention he saw what he was doing, he looked over the sign to see the blank white paper towards the traffic and made a face like "oh S-" and turned the sign around. You had to be there to appreciate it, it was a "Kodak moment!"
Larry Bierman and I were out doing stalls, steep turns, simulated emergencies, and all of that fun stuff for his flight review one cool morning. We wound it up with a stop at The Outer Marker for a coffee and discussion about the flight. I had fun! Flew with Bill Aven in his Cardinal (flight review) He owns a Cessna 177B Cardinal with the 180HP. This a good airplane and having no struts out there in a high wing Cessna is a little different and having those big doors to climb in and out of is nice. Bill Furnholm and I flew 52L around and Bill showed me some grass strips that I'll be visiting soon. You know, it was good because I learned a couple of things from Bill. He told me that he used to land his ultralight on the sand along the river bed of the St. Johns river and when I asked him if that was good solid sand to make an emergency landing on he said that it is. In my mind I was thinking that the only place to put down out there in the swamps was on a track made by motor vehicles in the grasses. The sand might be a better choice! He pointed out another good piece of solid ground on the North end of Lake Harney. After we did the swamp tour we went down to COI to check things out there, from there to TIX and the Outer Marker again for coffee and back to Dunn to land on the sod runway there. Life is good!
The following article was garnered from Av web and sure sounds positive to me. Gotta be skeptical though, remember the Recreational Pilot rating? This has been around for about 10 years now and only 333 of these have been issued. One of them was a student who I signed off, two weeks later after a little more training and written out of the way, he passed the Private.
Within the next year, some aviators could be able to take off into the wild blue yonder with nothing more than a steed to fly, some basic training, and a valid U.S. driver's license (flattering photo preferred) as their medical ticket. EAA and several ultralight organizations havebeen working with the feds to institute a Sport Pilot certificate -- which would require written and practical tests, but no medical exam -- and it is close to becoming a reality. Such a category, filling the gap between unlicensed ultralight flyers and recreational or private pilots, would allow a pilot to fly and carry a passenger in VFR daytime conditions in unpowered or light single-engine two-place aircraft that don't quite fit into FAR Part 103....DETAILS ARE STILL IN FLUX...The FAA is still working on details, so all of this is subject to change, but here's what will likely happen. A subcategory to FAR Part 21 will allow "light" aircraft -- under 1,232 pounds and with a stall speed of 44 mph or less -- that exceed the limits of FAR Part 103 to be certified as experimental "light" aircraft that can be operated by sport pilots. A new category under FAR Part 21 would allow the "light" aircraft to be sold as ready-to-fly by
manufacturers....BUT THE GOAL IS FLEXIBILITYEAA's goal is a flexible pilot certificate that would allow current ultralight pilots and future sport pilots to fly and carry a passenger without the need for a third-class medical and what EAA calls "financially burdensome, unnecessary training requirements." EAA is expecting that the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) will be published by early April, and is asking the ultralight community (where rumors about the NPRM are rampant) to wait until they see the rule before commenting on it. Once the NPRM is published, interested parties will have 90 days to speak their piece, and by late 2001, there should be a sport pilot rule on the books.NOTE: For additional details on how the Sport Pilot certificate willwork, go to AVweb's NewsWire <http://avweb.com/n/?02a
When Steve announced that he had a very special award to present at our party and that it was for two people, my curiosity was piqued because hey, the newsletter editor ought to know about these things to include this information in the letter. Steve then produced a very large trophy and announced that this was an award that would be passed along from the current winner to the next winner each year and that this years winners were a couple and that it was Loretta and me. We're overwhelmed and the trophy with the words inscribed on the front are, EAA Chapter 866 Service Award. On the side are plates for the inscription of the name (s) of the winners for each year. The first plate reads, Loretta and Larry Gilbert "2000". This trophy has been sitting on the center of our dining room table since we got it home. We are including a picture of this on the printed copy of this letter and sending a "JPEG" to Lenny Duncil to post with the website version of the newsletter. Check it out.
Loretta and I thank you chapter 866 members for this prestigious award, it is beautiful!
A new twist to our fly-in breakfasts was decided upon at our board meeting on Jan. 17. The monthly fly-in breakfast, held on the first Saturday morning of each month will now include biscuits and gravy as a choice along with pancakes. In other words it is a pancake OR biscuits and gravy breakfast. We'll still have the famous Smilin' Jack pancakes of course, but if pancakes are getting old as a fly-in breakfast, try our new biscuits and gravy. Colleen is going to stir up a batch of good old southern style sausage gravy and Loretta is gonna do the biscuits. This oughta be a real winner and pilots and planes will be flyin in from far and near, I'll bet.
Hey, all C866 members, lets show up for this event on Feb. 3rd it's lots of fun!
Our own Ray Thomas has the program for our Feb. meeting and Ray, as you know is a retired U. S. Air airline pilot and drove big airplanes all over the place for a long time. You know that when you fly for a living long enough, there are always some interesting stories. Ray has a good story to tell about a hi jacking that he experienced and even has a transcript on tape of the communications involved. Don't miss this meeting.
Did you know that Mr. Morris Worley has donated to our chapter, a 225A 230V welder, a heavy duty band saw, a shop vac., wood planer, and later on a rolling tool box full of tools? He made this known to Neale Cranston at our winter party. A work detail of chapter members went to Mr. Worley's house and picked up some of the stuff already. We just keep getting luckier and luckier!
Steve was working diligently on his Pietenpol that he's building when I stopped by while riding around Dunn on my bike one day. He has a Subaru engine mounted in the plane with a reduction belt type drive attached to the engine. He gave me the ratio of the drive but I've already forgotten the numbers he gave me. The plane will have an electrical system and needs to be equipped with a transponder, Steve said. An electric starter is included and this will be a much better way of starting the engine since it has the reduction drive on it. He was working on a throttle linkage arrangement the day I stopped and he showed me a couple of neat throttle cable connectors, one to connect the cable end to the throttle linkage and the other was a bulkhead fitting. They work like a collet. First I'd ever seen these, Any way it is a wood construction airframe with fabric covered wings. Looks like 6" wheels and will have Cleveland brakes. Gear is Welded tube with bungee shocks. At our November chapter meeting Steve told the story about he and his father starting this project and when his father passed away, Steve couldn't bring himself to work on it and it sat for nine years.
___________________Short Final...More from our "I am what I am" file...Heard on the frequency while en route in the northeast U.S.:XYZ airline: "Center, say again that heading?"Center: "I need you on your present heading!!"XYZ airline: "Roger, I am on my present heading."
This article submitted by Bill Furnholm and is from the Bellanca-Champion club newsletter vol. 10, No 2.
Question: I wonder about the long time condition of Cruisair wooden wings. I imagine, if looked after they should be as durable and strong as metal wings. Is there anything special one needs to do to maintain wooden wings?
Answer: The information is applicable to all low wing bellancas and to spars on our high wing models too.
1. Many engineers believe wood is a better load bearing material than aluminum. The natural qualities of wood are that it doesn't automatically deteriorate with age, fatigue or crack. It handles abrupt loads with greater integrety and is very good at taking shock loads. Wood is also not scratch or notch sensitive. The question of durability is one that has made wood less popular with the pilot population. This is the direct opposite of what the facts indicate they should believe. If wood and metal are stored and maintained properly on an aircraft and the glue used on the wood is a resorcinol-type (for bonding) as on the Bellancas, then the wood can last indefinetly. Aluminum on the other hand, will work hardenin use, making high stress concentration areas more likely to crack regardless of storage and use conditions. Flight causes vibration and resonance that fatigues metal quickly. Add the conditions of intergranular atmospheric and alloy migration to the experience, and durability becomes a real issue, especially as metal a aircraft reaches high cycle times or is many decades old. Once again, if a wood wing is stored and maintened properly and not subjected to loads beyond it's designed parameters (exceeding the G limits on the type certificate), it should last forever. My favorite example of how wood handles vibration or age are the Stradivarius violin and wood beams in European churches that are over a thousand years old.
2. Wood is less popular in aircraft construction because it is dimensionally less stable (shrinks a bit with age), it needs some handwork on the assembly line, and the raw material is variable, requiring rigorous inspection before use in the manufacturing process.
3. Both materials require that moisture contact be kept to a minimum. Wood prefers to be at a moisture content of 8 to 12 percent, and most Bellancas are stored and used in a manner that easily keeps the wood in that state.
The only thing that happens when the wood gets drier than 8 percent is that the butt ends of the spar are more likely to develop small drying cracks. There is an AD requiring that the butt ends of the spar be seaaled with a compound that eliminates moisture egress into or out of the spar at that point.
4. Wood wings are incredibly strong compared to aluminum partially because the metal skins can't take a strong knock without deforming. ( you would not throw a baseball at the wing of a Cessna.) But the ply skins on a Bellanca are very good at this, which is a factor that engineers call buckle strength. Some aircraft, such as high wing models, have their spars tested for this shock resistance before being passed for use in the aircraft's construction. This is called a "brashness test" test.
You can see wood is a very good material for spars if kept dry and selected correctly before construction.
Chapter 866 has an A65 Continental for sale!
This engine is complete (unnassembled) with an extra cylinder (brand new).
Contact us if you're interested.
YOU DON'T WANT TO MISS THE FEBRUARY CHAPTER MEETING!
CHAPTER MEMBER, RETIRED AIRLINE CAPTAIN, RAY THOMAS TELLS THE STORY OF A HI- JACKING OF HIS FLIGHT TO CUBA
RAY WILL HAVE AN AUDIO TAPE OF THE ACTUAL COMMUNICATIONS WITH ATC & AUTHORITIES DURING THIS DILEMMA
CHAPTER MEETING FEB. 7 AT 7:30 IN CHAPTER MEETING ROOM BLDG. 10 AT DUNN AIRPARK
FREE REFRESHMENTS WILL BE SERVED!
The Chapter 866 newsletter is published monthly to inform members and friends about activities of our chapter and members. Our chapter is open and we welcome all who are interested in aviationn activities of any kind.
This newsletter will be mailed prior to each monthly meeting. We need your input so PLEASE SUBMIT MATERIALS FOR THIS NEWSLETTER. When you have something for this, you can submit to me via e-mail, computer disk, (most any word program) in writing, or by word of mouth. Please get information to me by the 19th of the month. We meet on the first Wednesday of each month.
PresidentSTEVE PANGBORN 4625 JAMES ROAD COCOA, FL 32926
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Vice PresidentCOLLEEN BETTS 4801 DOREEN ROAD COCOA, FL 32927
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Secretary/TreasurerNEALE CRANSTON 2021 MALINDA LANE TITUSVILLE, FL 32796
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Newsletter Editor
LARRY GILBERT 2002 MALINDA LANE TITUSVILLE, FL 32796 321 385 1908 |