by: Steve Pangborn
I do believe summer is upon us¼. man, it's hot out there! Going to have to get up even earlier to have any chance against all the convective activity that will be here shortly. I live to take kids up for their Young Eagle Flights {read about one such adventure elsewhere in this newsletter}. I sure don't want a bumpy ride for their introduction to the wonderful world of flight!
The month of May started out with a bang. Our pancake breakfast was well attended by the local "chow hounds", both from the chapter and other non-member airport tenants. We turned a profit of $80, according to "deep pockets" Cranston. Speaking of which¼thanks to Jim Webb's wife, Neale now has his much-coveted "green" visor¼. so watch the finances folks. He's been known to juggle two sets of "books" while in possession of that visor!
The chapter meeting was well attended also, with a "hands on" work session, giving Wayne Bullington and Neale a much appreciated hand with the Piet N Pol project. The fuselage is really starting to shape up nicely. Unfortunately for the chapter, Wayne will be leaving us this Wednesday for his annual trek to Iowa. He says he won't be gone so long this year. That remains to be seen. Jim Webb has been seen hanging out at the Piet N Pol factory, so maybe he can keep Neale inspired to "push forward". Wayne says he expects the wings to be finished by the time he returns!
The Nieuport factory is turning out parts at an alarming rate also. Two fuselages have been completed up to the point where they have been removed from the jig. Patti Patchs' fuselage is next up for assembly. We're going to have to get serious now about getting the spar tubing ovalized before we can continue much further.
I had an interesting flight in Lily on the 12th. We went up to Melrose Landing for their annual flyin. It was well attended by Arthur Dunn folks¼. Larry Gilbert, Gene Driggs, Larry Bierman, and a few other non-chapter folks. They had a great breakfast, all for donations, and they had raffle drawings for some really nice items.
After breakfast settled, I scooted "further up the hill" to a private flyin community called Little River, located halfway between Lake City and Live Oak. A beautiful setting and really nice residents that sponsored the monthly FSAACA fly out. They had facilities for those that wished to camp {restrooms and showers} next to their airplanes. The lunch they served was absolutely delicious and plenty of it, for those that wanted seconds! By this time, Lily and I would have been getting pretty close to gross weight if it hadn't been for the fuel we were burning off. She has long legs {longer than my capacity}, able to range out almost 6 hours non-stop.
After departing Little River, we decided to head due south and check up on a former member, Ross Quarno, and to also check out my little piece of property next to his. Flying over, I couldn't see any signs of activity, so we opted to not stop and continue home as we were both pretty worn out. We arrived back at ADAP around 4:45 p.m. I put around 5 hours on the old girl that day, but I haven't heard a complaint from her yet!
The June meeting should be interesting, as Bill Furnholm is going to enlighten us with a presentation on the first underwater navigation of the North Pole. Be sure to attend, as this will be an interesting talk, I'm sure. Bill says we even get to watch a video!
I'd better quit for this time¼I keep getting threats from our "scribe" to hurry and get him a column, OR ELSE! So, everyone fly safe¼and keep the "blue side up".
Steve
by Larry Gilbert
After having been away from our beloved Cessna for almost a month Loretta and I decided to fly to Pierson on Saturday April 28. We'd heard there was a restaurant within walking distance of the airport and we wanted to check it out. We used flight following on the way to Pierson and were given traffic advisories that did come in handy. I really like places like Pierson that have turf runways. This one is at a crossroads with a traffic light and it looks like a step back in time. On the intersection is a convenience store, a feed store, a Mexican grocery store, and a little restaurant called Carter's. After breakfast we headed home to Dunn (crosswinds)Airpark.
Some neighborhood children have been bugging me for a plane ride, so one evening I took them out to see the Shuttle strip. One of them actually was interested in the fact that we were talking to NASA tower and that the runway we were over was where the Shuttle lands. The 747 that brought Endeavor back was still parked on the ramp.
On the second Saturday of ea month there is a fly-in breakfast at Melrose landing. Gene Driggers and I flew my Skyhawk there on May 12th. This time I had co-ordinates plugged into the GPS and we flew right to the place. That place is one the hardest airports to find if you've never been there before, I think. Gene and I heard a lot of people on the radio trying to find it. In fact we were within 2 miles before we saw the cutout strip in the trees and we wouldn't have been sure about it even at that point if we hadn't seen all the planes in the pattern. It was a fun trip and Dunn Airpark was well represented there. I saw 5 planes from Dunn there.
by Larry Gilbert
Probably many of C866 members remember the show "Twilight Zone." It was usually about some person or couple being stuck in time in a place and they couldn't escape, and every time they turned a new problem confronted them. Loretta and I were on our trip from Pa to Fl in our minivan and found this "Twilight Zone" place... It is Smithfield, NC! Our problems started when we punctured the fuel tank on I 95. The rest of the story involves getting the van towed and fixed for our return to Titusville. Do you remember all of those characters in some of the old TV shows like "Boss Hog", "Goober," and the sheriff that Jackie Gleason played? Well we met a lot of characters that fit those descriptions! After relieving us of a considerable sum of money and wasting a lot of our time (days) we finally made it home. Many times I've heard the term "laid back" used to describe the attitude and pace in sleepy Southern towns. I guess we're just not used to the way business is done in some places. The Northeast and Southeast have different concepts about "customer service" I guess.
Short Final...More from our "Big-sky Theory" file...Omaha Approach: "Southwest 405, expedite your descent though 3,000. Traffic at one o'clock and seven miles; a Citabria northeast-bound at 3,500."
SW 405: "Roger, expediting through 3,000. Is the Citabria doingaerobatics?"Omaha Approach: "No, but he will be if you don't expedite below 3,000."
Couple of guests were present at the meeting. Alan Johnson, son of member Jim Johnson who resides in Beaver County, PA was there and Ray Hudson was also there. Ray is restoring a Piper PA 22 converted to a PA 20.
Neale reported that our treasury is up to $3,274.00 now after we sold some of our stuff at Sun N'Fun. How's that for good news?
Bill Furnholm gave a report on the Nieuport progress. As you know there is a group of C866 members building 7/8th scale Neiuport 11s. They have completed the structure of one fuselage and are finishing the second now. The next step, according to Bill is to have some tubing formed to an oval shape to use in the wings and landing gear.
Jim .... reported that he turned his Pietenpol project into tomato stakes and kindling. Chaulks it all up to experience!
Ray Thomas reported that they have located Blatnick #5 and it is incomplete but has a round Continental 220 mounted on it. It seems that Mr. Blatnick died a couple of years ago and his project has been locked away, just as he left it two years ago. Ray and his partner Mark Barnett are going to fly their Blatnick (#4) out to Tyler, TX and see about possibly purchasing this.
Hey, we can still call it a fly-in breakfast! We can always count on Jackie Johnson to fly his Subaru powered Zenair in to our breakfasts and the May 5 event was no exception. As usual he amazed those who were watching by pulling up and aligning his plane with the parking space then put it in reverse and backed into the spot.
The chapter faithful (a couple were missing) showed up between 6:30 and 7:00AM to set up and get ready for the crowd. Windy as all getout probably was the reason more fly-ins didn't show up. The Dunn Airpark regulars were there and provided us with enough business that we profited enough to pay the rent again! The profit was less this time because we purchased two new cast iron griddles for cooking our famous Smilin' Jack Pancakes. This time Loretta brought her finest china for the customers to dine off of. This is nicer than the old styrofoam plates that the sausage was always melting through. Besides this it's a check on Neale who collects the money for the breakfasts. You see, all we have to do now is count the used plates. We caught Neale trying to dispose of one of the plates so that it didn't show up in the count too! Next move....... security cameras.
This may be what they are calling themselves now. Who I'm talking about is of course, the chapter 866 bunch that are building a fleet of Nieuport 11s. I stopped in the workshop to try to calm things down one morning when Bill Furnholm was in there carrying on like he was he was tangled in some kind of net or something. When I saw him he was contorted into the structure of an almost complete Nieuport fuselage trying to drill a hole through a gusset while keeping this aligned with a piece of round tubing. The look of pain on his face was awful and the words he was using would have made his old Navy shipmates proud! Finally he got the hole drilled and used a term I'd never heard before. "Tlar" is what he said and when he was asked what he'd said he explained that was a term for doing those kind of fittings and the word was actually an acronym that stands for That Looks All Right. I guess it really means precision fit! Their supervisor, Norm has gone back up to New York and won't be back till the snow begins to fly again. They appear to be lost without him!
By Steve Pangborn
A young, single mother that works as a server at one of the local restaurants that some of the Arthur Dunn "bunch" frequents had been asking me to take her little boy Buddy up for a Young Eagle Flight for quite some time. Having to work all kinds of different hours {usually late hours}, it was hard for us to coordinate our free time to get Buddy his ride.
Finally, May 5th, a Sunday morning was to be his big day. We were to meet at the airport at 8:00 a.m. I was as excited about the flight as I imagined he would be. 8:00 a.m. came and went. 8:15, ditto. I thought they weren't going to make it, so I wandered over to the local gathering spot {Patti Patch's hangar} to have coffee. Finally, around 8:45 a.m., they pulled up to the hangar. It had been another long night and they had just gotten up.
Off we went to my hanger, to get this little guy his first airplane ride. Excitedly, I opened his door and asked him if he was ready to go¼which he promptly told me "NO!" Well, his mother got angry, because he had been asking for this day for at least three months. As she started to really "come down" on him, I asked her to let me try and see if I could change his mind. She said, "have fun".
After questioning him repeatedly as to why he didn't want to go, he finally told me that he wasn't dressed to go flying. I asked him what he meant by that, and he finally admitted to me that he was embarrassed to go because he had his "jammies" on! This from a seven year old! I smiled and told him that no one would know except he and I¼.and Lily. He asked, "who's Lily?" I told him that's the name of my airplane. His eyes got as big as saucers and said "mommy, his airplane's name is Lily? She agreed that was the name. I told him to put his shoes on, and I took him around to the other side of the airplane, and sure enough there was "Lily" painted on the side. His comment was "cool".
Now that I had him out of the car, I asked if he would at least like to look inside Lily, which he decided wouldn't hurt. As I opened the door, he couldn't get close enough to see everything, so I suggested he get inside for a better look?see.
Well now, the questions started¼what's this, what's that for¼on and on. For 20 minutes we studied Lily's instrument panel together and answered ALL his questions. By now, he was showing some enthusiasm, so I asked him if he'd like to help me push Lily out of the hangar, to which I received a vigorous nod "Yes!"
Out of the hangar she came, with Buddy pushing for all his worth. I asked, "what do you think? Want to give it a try? He thought for a second and said o.k.
So into the cockpit, I got him strapped securely in, after putting him on a pillow to sit him "up in the world" a little higher. I explained how I was going to hand prop Lily to get her started and that if would get a little noisy until I could get the headset on him.
Thankfully Lily cooperated and started on the first pull. I got in, adjusted his headset, and started to taxi out to the active, which in this case today was our favorite¼the grass runway. All the while we were taxiing out the questions kept coming at a "machine gun" pace, to which I carefully answered so he would feel comfortable.
After explaining and performing the run up, we were ready to go. I told him it would get noisier, but that the headset would keep it down to a reasonable level. "All set?" to which he nodded yes! So off we go, building speed. I was watching him out of the corner of my eye, and his eyes kept getting bigger and bigger. We broke ground and weren't anymore than ten feet in the air when he exclaimed, "This is the COOLEST thing I've ever done!".
We flew around, showing him his house from the air, where his mom works, and where he had a birthday party the week before at Fox Lake Park. He got to feel the controls by flying Lily for a while. Three times before we got back to Arthur Dunn, he wanted to know when he could do this again? We stayed up for almost an hour¼.he didn't want to come down{I know the feeling}. Sounds like I "hooked" another one!
Taxiing back to the hangar, he said he was ready to go again, right now! But mom had other plans, so I gave him a rain check. Of course he had to help me push Lily back into the hangar before we filled out his Young Eagle Certificate. He told his mother that they just had to stop and buy a frame for his new certificate!
That "boys and girls" is what it's all about. Relating the story to Neale Cranston one evening, he told me "when that little boy is eighty years old, he will still remember the man that gave him his first airplane ride!" I'd like to think that is true. How great to be remembered in a positive way, don't you think? Psst¼give a kid a ride.
Did you know that our chapter has a member who was on the first submarine to go under the Polar Ice Cap? Man, you talk high adventure, how'd you like to have done that? Well member Bill Furnholm did it and Bill has agreed to tell the story for this month's meeting. You don't want to miss this month's meeting!
Come to the monthly meeting on Wednesday, June 6th and take part in this discussion. Member, Neale Cranston has come up with the idea of a special fly-in and this is one of the items for the June meeting. Also, how about a "Youth Day" at Dunn or how about a factory tour at the Steen Skybolt factory? All this and more to talk about at the June meeting.
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. ¼
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
DON'T FORGET ABOUT CHAPTER FLY-IN BREAKFAST ON SATURDAY MORNING JUNE 2ND AT CHAPTER 866 BUILDING