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

The meeting was called to order by Mike Bond. The meeting was a week later than normal to accommodate the person delivering the program.

Visitors: Mike asked if there were any visitors. There were no new visitors. There were some that were still visiting but not first timers.

On the Spot: Derek Johnson was the featured person this month. Derek is an electrical engineer and is currently designing gas ignition controls. Derek had always been interested in flying but never had the time until 2001 when he was released from his previous job. He was taking lessons and progressing until a forced stoppage on 9/11/2001. He resumed flying and finished his license.

Derek is currently building a Sonex slowly. They recently had an addition to their family. Getting sleep has become a higher priority than building an airplane. 

Derek had an interesting experience on his first solo cross country. He had departed the downtown Fort Collins airport in a C152 headed east. He had reached cruising altitude when he heard some noise through his head set. It was a steady thumping sound. He adjusted the radio but with no change. He removed his headset and the noise was very loud. His first thought was engine. He looked around for a place to land and had plenty of options. He carefully turned around to head back to the airport as it was the nearest approved landing location. Derek got the airplane on the ground and shut down. As he opened the door to exit he noticed the tail of his seatbelt was outside the airplane and had been drumming against the side of the fuselage. That was the noise he had heard. When he calmed down he restarted his cross country.

Next month Tom Barlow will be the person On the Spot.

Treasurer’s report: Ernie Stevens gave the treasures report. We are still in the black. Ernie also mentioned we had received a $10 rebate from National. Seems we had a person become an EAA member during some sort of promotion that was taking place. Any income is welcome.

Young Eagles: Dave Nabors flew a couple new Young Eagles this past month. Lesley mentioned there was only one person waiting for a flight.

We had a short discussion about having a rally this fall. Nothing was set at this time as we did not have names of prospective Young Eagles. Lesley passed her contact info to a person that had contacts with the local girl scouts groups.

Of Note: People had been trying to contact Tom Lucas but his email was incorrect. This is a good example of the communications today. A phone number is not enough.

Old Business: Revisited the promoting the chapter topic again. There was effort made to get someone to put an article in the Reporter Herald and some of the other local newspapers. There was also more discussion on the topic of Greeley members being contacted. It was again mentioned that National would provide contact info for National members in several different formats.

There was also discussion of a Bald Eagle gathering this fall. October was the month discussed but no dates were set. Comments about adding a burger BBQ to the event were made. Also included was possibly adding other local chapter members (primarily Greeley) to the list of invitees.

New Business: It is the time of year when a nominating committee needs to be formed. There was a call for volunteers but no one accepted. The topic was tabled until next meeting.

The lack of programs for the rest of the year was also mentioned. If you have a suggestion, contact Mike.

Program:  Mooney World Flight for ALS  Feb – Oct 2003 By CarolAnn Garratt

Flight numbers: 36,667 nm. 300 hrs flying time over 7.4 months

CarolAnn explained why she accomplished the flight and many of the stops along the way. The trip was without incident except for a couple failed starters. The trip had many side excursions for site seeing purposes and to visit friends and family around the world. CarolAnn was amazed at the outpouring of support by local pilots everywhere she went. They offered everything from words of encouragement to places to stay, food to eat, a place to hanger her airplane, maintenance, and flying along with her.

CarolAnn is planning a speed run around the world in 7 days. She will be taking a second pilot along plus reconfiguring the fuel cells in the cockpit for this run. The course will also be different focusing more on the equator. This run is planned for December of 2008.

To learn more visit the web site at: www.alsworldflight.com.

---

---

---

Return to Top