by: Steve Pangborn
Well, the heat is on…looks like another "long hot summer" in central Florida. The time to fly will be early in the mornings, or later in the afternoons for the next few months, especially with the storm activity we've been experiencing lately. I know we need the rain, but jeez, give us a break, will ya? You all be careful out there. This is not the time to be testing "mother nature". She will usually win!
Well, "cook the books" Cranston tells me we had another "in the black" pancake breakfast for June thanks to the loyal following {and appetites} of the chapter faithful. I think we're getting this thing down to an exact science with all of your help. Set up/break down seems to go much faster, except I always end up on the "low end" of the awning {full of rainwater} when we unfurl. Guys…I DO take a bath at home now and then. Give me a break, will you? Anyway, thanks to everyone's participation, we have managed to stay well in the "black".
How about that A/C unit? It's not perfect, but it sure takes the "edge" off the heat. It was needed with Bill Furnholm's wild stories of early nuclear submarining. That was a wonderful presentation of his naval experiences. I just don't understand a guy that professes to be a pilot, goes around telling slightly "tainted" old salt stories…while at the same time wearing a RAILROAD cap? Man, talk about mixing and matching! Wonder what he wants to be when he grows up?
For those of you that missed it, Larry Gilbert gave a great ground school refresher on local airspace usage. I found it very informative and I even learned a few things, so I think the $5.00 was well worth it. Hopefully we can talk him into covering more subjects in the future. How about it Larry? You all need to plan on the next gathering. You might even enjoy the great refreshments that always seem to show up…THANKS ‘RETTA! You're a peach.
I played hooky at this months board meeting, so I'm like that mushroom that's kept in the dark, as far as July's program…. We will have to depend on the chapter "scribe" to fill us in on what's going on for next month.
That's it for this month. See you all at the July meeting, and if possible, bring a chapter recruit. We're doing great in that department, but we can always do better! And oh yes, keep the "blue side up"!
by Larry Gilbert
One flight was a love bug control mission as I eliminated a couple of thousand of the bugs. It is easy cause you seem to always get two at a time. This was on a trip to Merritt Island to do some reconnaissance. On Friday May 25th Matthew Murray who is 16 yrs old had his first airplane ride with me in 52L. I had told Loretta that I'd take him out over to the swamps and if he seemed interested enough then we'd do the Shuttle Landing Facility tour. We did a thorough pre-flight and Matthew was with me and interested and inquisitive with each step. While taxiing out to rway 15 at Dunn, I asked him what he was expecting and he said that he loved roller coaster rides and so forth but he was a little nervous about this. Having done first rides many times I figured that he was expecting high speed and g pulling stuff. I explained that the only sensation of speed he would have would be the acceleration to takeoff speed (Really rocks you back in my 172) and even that was only 60 mph and when we reached this speed we'd start applying some back pressure and in a few seconds we be off the ground and the sensation of speed would diminish. He said he was ready and we started down the runway and as 60mph showed on the airspeed indicator I applied the back pressure and in a couple of seconds we were flying. He had a big smile on his face when we broke the surly bonds of earth! After over 150 Young Eagle flights, I've never flown with anyone as interested as Matthew. He asked a lot of questions and exclaimed "this is awesome" a number of times. He had hishands and feet on the controls and after a few minutes of demonstrations, he was capable of making turns and maintaining almost level flight. He followed rt 46 out to Lake Harney and followed the shore line completely around the lake. At one point he pointed to the VSI and asked "does that tell you how fast you're going up and down?" He had me hooked at this point and we did some maneuvering while observing the changes on the VSI. We did a little pitch and airspeed emonstrations and he understood the demo. I asked Matthew if he was interested in going over to the shuttle landing facility and he said he was so we called NASA tower for a tour of the landing facility. We were cleared for the approach at or above 500'. While we were still at 1,500'. I like to do this and at the approach end of the shuttle strip we descend down to 700 at a steep angle to give some of the effect of how I envision the shuttle approach as seen out of the windshield. This brought another "awesome" statement from Matthew! After the tour we got a right turn out and freq. change from NASA and headed across the river for Dunn. We landed, parked, and he and I posed for pictures taken by his mother. We parted company with Matthew expressing interest in learning to fly. Here's the rest of the story; Matthew has been living here in Florida for 10 months and is from a town in Pennsylvania about 30 miles from where we used to live. He has moved back to Pa. to be with his father and has called me and asked me to help him find a flight instructor up there. I called an instructor friend of mine and he has hooked up with him to begin flying lessons! WOW! I e-mailed Paul Nuss a couple of weeks later to ask about Matthew, here's is his response.
.Hi Larry! Yes, Matthew Murray and I have hooked up. He seems a very nice young man. We met yesterday, June 11, and had our first flying lesson. The weather was a bit stinko, but we got in a short demo flight so he could actually get hands on controls a little. He did fine, and seemed to enjoy the experience. We've scheduled forward, and all is a go! I want to thank you for your kind recommendation of me to Matt. I'll do the best I can to bring him forward enthusiastically and safely. Hope you and Loretta are fine down there in the land of the palm trees.
Paul Nuss
And if that ain't enough Matthew called me himself and told me about his first lesson!
NEALE'S RESPONSE TO NEWSLETTER
Our Chapter secretary/treasurer has a humorous way with words. This is an e-mail note that he sent top me this month. Just want to share the humor with you.
Larry:
I spake with Wayne, he received the first 49-50 words and then received a mssg declaring the rest was "trucated" due to a lack of space available on his ancestoral equipment. He leaves on the morning tide tomorrow so twill be several days before he reaches Emerson, a very very small metropolis in the south western corner about three E/W roads up from the bottom of the state!!! This station has been down for several days due to a rearrangement program initiated by the First Sergeant and followed forthrightly by the Private. Thus, had oodles of mail and received a message declaring too much in the storage bin. This happened very close to the end of your publication. Boy, you have onehelluva mailing list don't you? After you and Bugsy Seigal delivered the filing cabinet I noted the key lock protruding, sans an attached key. Went over to Gene's and told him I felt like the friend whom the Knight had designated to watch over the Knight's wife during his absence on his pilgimage to the Holy Land, and had received the key to the wife's chasity belt. As the Knight was leaving town his friend came running after him to let him know the key didn't fit!!!! He didn't have a key either. Lo! All is not lost. I do have the key for the old one and thus will remove, but not discard, the lock from the jewel you to left. Did you happen to see all the hanging folders? I learned about hanging folders whilst gainfully serving at KSC. I have a couple of hanger units so plan to utilize the new addition forthrightly! (And wear my green visage during the process! Isn't that something that Jim's wifey-poo would find one. The search goes on though, I am looking for the one with a transparent dark green visor. (Mayhap I couldn't locate much on the tube as I may have spelled it "visar". Tweedle dee &Tweedle Dum!
Jim Webb called today. He is ready to commence work on his Pietenpol now that the walls of his newly constructed work shed appear to be set and the roof appears to be stabilized. He wondered what was going to happen now that Wayne is Tally Ho in the western sunset. I informed him the wing would not be started but that we had some itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny- drollish tasks to accomplish, i.e. excavate the aperatures in the tail surfaces for the insertion of the hinge plates. Practice sessions on waste spruce will be in order, no butchering of the finished product. Hard to get QA to buy it off then. Mentioned the call to Wayne and he cited the tasks already posted, good for a couple of work sessions. A general clean-up is certainly within scope. There, that should give you double vision by now.
Neale
The good news is that we'll be able to pay the rent again! Neale will have the figures for the June meeting. It looked to me as though we did all right again though, I realized this when Loretta and I washed the 25lbs of dinner plates from the breakfast. The setup crew puts the canopy and hardware together like a well oiled machine and the cookers and servers make the food fit for a king! The only thing missing are the fly-ins. Next time I go to another chapters' breakfast I'm going to tell them if we don't start seeing some fly-ins from their chapters I'm going to boycott theirs. Sour grapes on my part? Maybe! As long as we're making the rent we probably should'nt complain.
by Larry Gilbert
You know, the indivduals who saw to it that we were evicted from our chapter hangar may have done us a favor. In the building that we know occupy, we have a good place to work on the Pietenpol, our meeting room is more comfortable than the hangar was and we even have air conditioning now. The membership continues to grow even with or maybe as a result of those who like to cause turmoil. One time, before we moved to Titusville, I stopped at Walkwitz aviation while Ray Walkwitz was the operator and I asked him if there was an EAA chapter on the field. He told me that there is and he let them meet in his building because he appreciated what they did for Arthur Dunn Airport. He said without the members of Chapter 866 this airport would not exist! He told me of the proposal to make a sports complex of the place a few years back and how the effort put forth by our chapter members was instrumental in rescuing the airport from that demise. As I understand it, this was the reason that our chapter had been allowed to use one of the new hangars at a very reduced rent rate. It was appreciation for the effort that got the chapter use of that hangar. We're still probably the best contributors to the cause of general and recreational flying of any organization in the area. We can be proud of ourselves!
Personal;
Loretta and I have made quite a few friends in aviation circles, especially in our past while we lived in Pennsylvania. In the last two months we've lost four of our friends from the "old chapter 400." Two fellow instructors, one died of a massive heart attack, (still had an airman's medical) another to a short battle with cancer, a friend (saw him at Sun n Fun) who struck power lines with his C150, and another pilot friend who hit a car that pulled out in front of him while he was on his motorcycle.
Can you tell that sometimes I am desperate for things to put in this newsletter to keep it interesting? Please contribute a story or article once in a while when you see or do something interesting.
A United Airlines 747 captain tries to make light banter with Sydney Australia, Approach Control...
Captain: "Good morning, Sydney, this is United XXX, we're 50 miles out and have your island in sight..."
Approach: "Roger, United... you're cleared to circle the island twice, then it's okay to land."
Spotted the Gene Drigger Titan flying again one day this month! Gene and his plane were grounded due to broken main landing gear. He fixed it and this time, rather than the composite material legs he is using aluminum. He told me that the new gear seems much more solid and doesn't shake like the old did. Good to see him and his Titan flying again! Larry Gilbert
by Larry Gilbert
The first "ground school" for our planned "Private Pilot Refresher Course was conducted at our meeting room on June 12. In the session we covered the airspace system that we operate in as pilots. There were eight pilots ranging from student to ATP in attendance at this session and everyone seemed attentive and responsive. As the instructor, I need to know if you are interested in more of these and what subjects you would like to cover. You can contact me by phone (385 1908), e-mail legilbert@juno.com, or find me around Dunn Airpark some morning. If you still believe in the postal system, you can mail me at the address for newsletter editor on this newsletter.
On Friday July 20th our chapter will do our first Young Eagle event. This event is co-sponsored by Titusville Aglow and our chapter. We will be flying approximately 6 youth. A group from Christ Aid have some children that are in the right age group for the Eagle flights and they have agreed to show up at our building at Dunn for this. I have sent for the paper work to be completed before and after the flights. So far Steve Pangborn and I have agreed to do the flying. If you want to participate in any way, please show up at our meeting building at Dunn before 8:00 AM on this day. If you have a plane to use and you want to fly great. Otherwise be prepared to help with the paperwork etc. Prior to the flight we need to conduct a ground school for the participants showing them the various controls and explaining the basics of the airplane to them.
More from our "open-door policy" file...
Tower: "Airline XXX, it looks like one of your baggage doors is open."
Captain (after quickly scanning the FE panel): "Ah, thanks tower, but you must be looking at our APU door."
Tower: "Okay, Airline XXX, cleared for takeoff."
Captain: "Cleared for takeoff, Airline XXX."
Tower, during the takeoff roll: "Airline XXX, ahh ... it appears thatyour APU is leaking luggage..."
Ray purchased the basket case PA22 converted to a PA 20 from Ralph Moore a couple of months ago and has been diligently working on it at Dunn ever since. I've stopped a couple of times to check on the progress and he's doing well. He has the whole frame zinc chromated, installed a new headliner, has the instrument panel mounted, new rudder cables installed, new brake lines fabricated, and intends to start on covering the interior soon. It is going to be a nice plane when he is done with it.
by Larry Gilbert
Bill Furnholm is working on these almost every day. You ought to see these assemblies, they are very sturdy. The gang of 5 are doing a good job on these, surprisingly too since their supervisor is still up in Binghamton, NY. I hope this letter prompts him to come back early to help boost morale in the NAB. (Nieuport Assembly Bldg.)
One Saturday morning I watched as Jim Garrison taxiied his Bonanza in to the hangar. There were several of us standing around just shooting the breeze when he pulled up. He had a guy in the front with him and Patti sitting behind the passenger on the right side. One of the guys I was with said, "huh, Patti is in the back seat," another said yeah but I'll bet Jim could still hear her," another said Jim shoulda put her in the back row. (6 pas. Plane) Jim got out and mumbled something about being told how to fly. Sometime later, while swapping lies about flying and wars and all of that stuff Bill Furnholm was telling a story about some kind of military reunion he attended. We're talking about men 70+ years old remember. One of the speakers started by saying "do you guys remember that stuff that they used to put in our food?" ( it was a substance to subdue the male sexual drive) He said " well it has finally kicked in!" Bill said that he coulda been a millionaire if he could have thought about anything besides women when he'd been younger and that the stuff the Navy had been feeding him had worked. Gil Jones sitting close by, said, "yeah you probably wished that they had neutered you instead of the family cat when you were a kid!" Funny bunch of guys!
by Larry Gilbert as I remember the story as told to me by Bill. Long time chapter member Bill Mitchell and Robert Decatur of Tuskegee Airman fame had a personal invitation to fly into Kermit Week's strip at the Fantasy of Flight Museum at Polk City, FL. On this Saturday morning they checked the weather through regular aviation services and even called over to Polk City to check on smoke conditions there as there had been some problems due to a fire nearby. Every report they got called for good weather and no visibility problems. Light winds out of the Southwest were in the forecast and visibility 5+ miles everywhere. Feeling good about the flight conditions they launched in Bills' 150 Aerobat and were on their way. To keep from having to deal with the class B airspace at Orlando International they climbed to 2,500' flew to Holopaw and took up a heading of about 270 for their destination. Bill said that it was a lot hazier than he had expected it to be but things were going well and he was keeping track of his position with landmarks.When they were just about due South of Orlando Airport, poof, the outside world disappeared and they had flown right into the smoke from the fires! It was such a surprise that it took a few moments to get his wits together and get on the gages. From the time they lost sight of the real estate until seriously on the gages they were in a steep right turn and the altimeter was unwinding fast! Bill correctly interpreted the instruments and rolled the plane level. Imagine you, yourself having to do that! He was on a course of North and headed for Orlando International. With his wits about him now he again turned West to his original heading of 270. He descended as low as he dared, hoping to get out of the smoke but at 1,500' and still in the stuff and thinking about towers he made a 90 deg. Turn to South and maintained that heading for 3 or 4 minutes and when he hadn't flown out of it in that time, decided that another left turn to 90 degrees was in order. Robert suggested that maybe they could climb out of it so they climbed to about 3000' and popped out of it. They were close to Holopaw again. Bill decided that he'd had enough and flew back to Dunn. Hey, is there a lesson here? You bet. Bill is a long time pilot and didn't panic and read the gages correctly. Imagine what would have happened if he'd used the seat of his pants instead of the gages to fly the plane. If the winds had been out of the SW as forecast, the smoke wouldn't have been there because the fires were North of Polk City. How could one have found about the smoke conditions enroute? There is probably no way unless there had been a pilot report given to FSS or Flightwatch. When you can't see the horizon it is easy to fly into that light colored smoke. Bill did a commendable job of saving himself, Robert, and the Aerobat!
Shortly after this flight Bill encountered a health problem and promptly had the problem taken care of and is back in the saddle again.
Member Jerry Russell has a recently acquired Cessna 140 hangared at Dunn. The plane is a good looking cream color trimmed in red.
Continental A65/75 unassembled all parts + are there. $2,000. Chapter 866
Dunn Airpark
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GPS Garmin 195 with computer cable and recent up-date. $ 700.00
HangaR Winch 100.00
Tie-down Kit, 3-corkscrew anchors and ropes 10.00
IFR Practice Hood, Grey 5.00
IFR Practice Hood, Black 3.00
Call 386-761-1061
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Rotax 40 HP used 30 hrs. Price $550.00 Call Faye Skidmore 267 6936
2855 Shady Oaks Dr
Titusville, FL 32796
July 20 Dunn Airpark bldg. 10 at 8:00AM Young Eagle event.
1st. Saturday every month Dunn Airpark pancake breakfast.
2nd Saturday every month Tampa EAA Chapter 175 fly-in breakfast & Young Eagle event. 813 654 2921
2nd Saturday every month Charlotte County Airport, Punta Gorda EAA Chapter 565 pancake breakfast & Young Eagle event.
Saturday after every third Tuesday, Kissimmee Airport EAA Chapter 74 Pancake breakfast and young eagle event.
Every third Saturday, Valkaria Airport pancake breakfast/Young Eagle event.
Every 4th Saturday Orlando EAA Chapter 74 pancake breakfast/Young Eagle event
Lenny Duncil (Chapter Webmaster) tries the chapter Pietenpol on for size.
Wayne Bullington (Piet. Project manager) checks fit. Wayne said that he
had to cut the knee holes out a little more.
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Setup starts about 7:00 AM & breakfast starts as soon as we are set up
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 |
The chapter newsletter is published monthly to inform members and friends of our chapter about activities of our chapter and members. Our chapter is open and we welcome all who are interested in aviation 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 via e-mail, on a computer disk, in writing, or by word of mouth. Please get the information to me by the 19th of the month. We meet on the first Wednesday of each month.
Larry Gilbert
2002 Malinda Lane
Titusville, FL 32796
legilbert@juno.com