May's Meeting Minutes
Respectfully Submitted by Jeff Dinius, Secretary

The meeting was called to order by Mike Bond.

Visitors

• Charles Grauer – A Kansas native, Charles obtained his A&P then proceeded to rebuild a bunch of airplanes. Found it difficult to make a living in aviation so moved back to the family business. Charles now lives in Mead.


• J.D.Murphy – Has been an EAA member for some time and is working on an Avid Mk IV. He has the Avid almost complete but not sure whether he wants to finish the Avid or jump into another project. J.D. is a 28 year veteran of the AF and AF Reserves.


• Jim Holley – Jim has been a pilot for 2 years but is not sure about this building thing. He started a kit for an entertainment system for his neighbor 2 years ago and still has not finished it. Jim may be a good candidate for some workshops to find the right working medium.

Treasurer’s report: Ernie had a bill to pay at the meeting for some Young Eagles supplies but told us we were still in pretty good financial shape. Further details are available to chapter members. Contact Ernie for those details.

Young Eagles report

Mike Bond began by thanking Lesley, the ground crew, ground school crew, and pilots for a successful event in April.

Lesley provided a nice summary sheet including the pilot names, ground crew names, and ground school names. There were 24 new Young Eagles flown.

Lesley sent a special thank you to Larry Mack of Allegiant Air for the use of the modular departure lounge. This proved to be an excellent venue for the rally.

A few changes that need to be made were discussed and will be incorporated into the next rally.

Lesley tried to get newspaper coverage but had been unsuccessful. Some of the new small papers covering the area were mentioned as possibilities for the next time.

A suggestion to hold another rally this summer was mentioned. It was mentioned that the Collins Foundation bombers will be back at FNL this July 4th and that might be an opportunity for another event. Nothing firm was decided.

A question was asked as to whether the kids got anything out of the flight. Many of the pilots said the kids were very excited. Dale told a story of one of his employees that took a YE flight and the parents were included. Turned out to be a first trip to the GA side of an airport for this family. Dale invited them to his hanger and found they were all impressed. The daughter has dedicated a portion of her bedroom wall to aviation pictures and wants some sort of career in aviation. We never know what the seed we plant will become.

Announcements

• The EAA B-17, Aluminum Overcast, will be in Denver hosted by the Wings over the Rockies Museum June 4th – 8th. Additional information is available at the web site http://www.eaa.org/calendar/eventdetail.aspx?id=1029.


• The Rocky Mountain Regional Fly-in date has been moved to September 19th – 21st. Additional information is available at: http://www.rmrfi.org.


• There will be an air show during the June time frame when the fly-in was normally held. This will be an air show only and not be associated with the EAA. Details were not available at the time of the meeting.


• Dale mentioned there is a piece of property at the airport that is not suitable for a hanger and might be useable for a chapter meeting/workshop/tool storage building. There was a comment about partnering with the CAP to allow them a meeting location. It was felt this might entice some of the old Greeley chapter members to join chapter 515 as it might be more centrally located. The price might be right as there was mention of it being donated for the right project. This project ties in with some suggestions that were made to promote the chapter.


• Next months scheduled program has been cancelled. Dave Nabors was asked if he could move his program ahead a month. Dave commented that the meeting might need to be held at the airport for his program. Watch the newsletter for next months meeting location.


• A big welcome back was given to Dean Hall. It was good to have Dean back at the meeting.

Homework

Mike had asked the membership to come up with some ideas to promote the chapter. These were presented and discussed:

• Mike has been in discussion with a person that is creating a web based database for local organizations. The project organizer is interested in creating another database containing organization information. This might be a location to place chapter info into a non-aviation specific database.


• A suggestion was made to hold an airplane wash event. The concept was to have a local organization like high school or college group hold a fund raiser centered around washing airplanes like they do cars. The thought was to make a day long event to include a BBQ and some airplane rides.


• Baren mentioned he would like to create a bibliography of all the members in the chapter. This would provide a list of contacts for people searching for specific skills or people with like interests. Derek had the same concept but to a lesser extent. The projects will be combined with Baren taking the lead. He will be receiving a membership list and will begin contacting people for info.


• There was talk of needing a person to head PR for the chapter. This position would put meeting info in the local papers (some of the new papers serving the area may be more receptive than the larger established papers), free electronic news forums (Craig's list), post information about the chapter in local airports, and any other ideas around getting the word out locally.


• The city council members of both Loveland and Fort Collins do not really understand the airport and it’s issues. A suggestion to contact a council member and invite them to the airport for a local flight and to view the airport from the user’s eyes.


• Reach out to the Greeley chapter members. The Greeley chapter turned in their chapter papers to National and closed operations. A suggestion was made to ask National for a list of members in the local region/zip code area (not just Greeley chapter members) and invite them to our chapter.


• Have the chapter begin a project to rebuild/build an airplane to be sold at the end of the build. The previous mention of building a building at the airport and use it as a meeting place/workshop/storage area was an option. Some members had been down the “build a chapter airplane” path before and suggested the building might be a better option.
• The need for more technical programs including a mini workshop type meeting where people could try welding, sheet metal, composite, and fabric covering in a hands on fashion. The formal workshops that EAA sponsors was also mentioned. This again tied in with a chapter building at the airport to provide a location for this type of event.


• A question about the old “Bald Eagle” events the chapter had at one time brought up another chapter’s approach to building relationships within the chapter. It was called a “Buddy” event where chapter members with airplanes plan a fly out to a local destination for lunch. The twist was the pilots would be required to invite a member they do not know well or at all. It would be a way for people to meet more members and get to know them better.

The meeting ended with Hugh Beckham providing details on an Around the World Unrefueled attempt by Jim Bede in the late ‘60s. Hugh was the project foreman and provided some nice pictures along with some very interesting details. Rather than building a purpose built aircraft, they began with a Schweitzer 2-32 sailplane and added an engine, fuel tanks and instruments for the attempt.

The attempt was unsuccessful when the takeoff damaged the compass sensor. Jim did get in the air and flew around burning off fuel to attempt a landing back at the take off point. When he landed, the foreign countries he needed to over fly refused to allow another attempt.

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Pancake Breakfast

What: Buena Vista EAA Chapter 1161 pancake breakfast When: Saturday, June 7, 7:00 - 10:00am Where: Central Colorado Regional Airport (AEJ),               Buena Vista, Colorado Contact: Jay 719.661.4484

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Cool Picture

777 wingtip vortices

 

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