Meeting Minutes from the 8/5/2015 Meeting

EAA Chapter 31 Meeting, August 5th, 2015
The dinner portion of the meeting started at 6:00 PM hosted by the wonderful Virgil and Bridget Pratt. There was Corn on the Cob, hamburgers, Costco hot dogs, chips and a drink for only $5. Another triumph in culinary excellence!!

The business and entertainment portion of the meeting was called to order at 7:00 PM by President Gary Ludeke, with V.P. John Kuehl and Secretary / Treasurer Randy Stout also present. There were 23 members and guests in attendance.

After the pledge of allegiance, President Gary asked the guests in attendance to raise their hands. We hosted John “Frenchie” Marcel, a 24 year Flight Engineer veteran with 2 tours of Vietnam, and the current District 13 VFW Chaplain, and member of Post 3965 VFW. He is a private pilot and has flown many airplanes since very early (did I hear 10 years old?) in his life. We also recognized Paul Lauer, a friend of Ray Morse, Steve Didman, a student of Gary Ludeke’ s, Bruce Gustafson, Chapter 1457 representative (see his request in the minutes in a bit), and Larry Lowencron, Creswell Airport Commission member (here for the ADS-B info talk). Welcome to all and we hope you come again!

President Gary then spoke about the RV-3 project. It is now in his hangar for easier access and tools, and now has a cowling coming from Van’s. Jim Beale is working on the tail wheel. Ray Morse will blast the bigger parts. Alan Weider has been working on the Horizontal Stabilizer. Virgil Pratt is now working on the Fuselage and Canopy. Thanks to you all for keeping this project on the front burner.

Next Chapter breakfast is Saturday, August, 15th, which is coincidental with the RV fly-in at Independence. Come out to the clubhouse in the AM and pay $5 for an all you can eat breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, OJ, coffee and camaraderie!! Starts at 9:00 and runs to about 10:30 or so. Bridget Pratt said that she would not be there, so she asked for volunteers. No one immediately raised their hand, but hopefully we will have a full crew on Saturday. Otherwise, we might go hungry!

Randy has called Shelly Humble to find out about the bricks she said she will be ordering for Jug and Crash. He has not had a return call at this time. We want to get the Dave Heisley and South Lane Modelers bricks ordered and installed ASAP.

Speaking of the Honor Garden, Doug Kindred and Bill Dewey have put in the sprinkler system to keep the plants alive during the summer. That was a lot of work with ditches and piping etc. Thanks guys, and great work!!

President Gary then spoke about our Young Eagles event that took place on July 4th. We gave 96 Young Eagles the ride of their lives, along with 5 CAP members. Great work by everyone involved, especially the ground crew. The pilots had the fun, but the ground crew had to handle a lot of detail work to make that happen. Special thanks to Ken Schmidt, the air boss who also gave the pilot briefing for all the YE and Parade Pilots. He made sure that the qualifications necessary to be a YE pilot were enforced, and we all stayed safe and legal!!

Tom Preuss, longtime EAA Chapter 31 friend, announced that due to health he will be unable to continue to fly. He is going donate his airplane to the Museum and to have a hangar sale (to be announced to the group when the date is set), and has offered a few items as a donation to Chapter 31. Thanks Tom, and don’t be a stranger. We can always use more ground crew.

Gary noted that at the September meeting, author Lauren Paine will give a talk. If you have read Lauren’s monthly articles in Sport Aviation, you know that you don’t want to miss this meeting!

Bruce Gustafson, a chapter 1457 member, mentioned that 1457 will have their YE flying day on August 29th at Eugene Airport. It will be held along with the “5K on the Runway” and pancake breakfast. They would love to have some Chapter 31 pilots join them (just as he helped with our July 4th event)

Alan Weider was then asked to come forward and give his Power Point Presentation on ADS-B. He had so much to say that I am sure I would do him a disservice attempting to put it all down here. Suffice to say, if you are flying in class A, B or C airspace that requires a transponder, you will need to have an ADS-B capable unit by 2020. Thanks Alan for a very thorough and enjoyable presentation (even when the computer malfunctioned!!)

There being no other business, President Gary suggested we view the Chapter Video next month, as we were running a bit late tonight.

The meeting was then adjourned at 8:26 pm
respectfully submitted, Randall Stout, Secretary/ Treasurer

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