Cleared for Takeoff – January 2005
by Pat Halligan, Chapter 25 President
from On Final January 2005
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Around the holidays I received a number of e-mails from members and they all said something to the effect; we’re glad we belong to an active chapter and we think the officers are doing a good job. I thank you for the kind words and rest assured we do spend some of our waking hours thinking about how to make a good chapter even better.
Last month in our newsletter we looked back at 2004, now let’s look ahead. We’ll start with the web site. On New Years Day I sent out an e-mail that Jeff Coffey had the site up and running. Jon Cumpton got the ball rolling and then Jeff did the design work. It looks wonderful, so check it out at www.eaa25.org, keeping in mind we still have some fine tuning to do. The city of Lakeville will open its second high school this fall and we plan to offer a scholarship to the new school, in addition to the one we already offer at the original high school. You should be very proud your chapter is doing something about education, instead of just talking about it like a lot of politicians.
The Sonex airplane will be getting closer to its first flight as the year progresses and we will need to form a flying club with chapter 25 members in order to know who will be flying the plane and when. A membership in the “flying club” will be one way to keep flying affordable without putting your first born up for adoption. With the flying club, nobody will be able to walk around the hanger and say they can’t afford to fly.
We will continue to fly Young Eagles every third Saturday of the month. Hopefully more members will become involved and discover the joy of bringing a smile to a youngster’s face as they go for their first airplane ride.
Sport pilot/light sport aircraft will continue to grow and we should see a new group of aviators interested in flying and interested in our chapter. We’ve been adding approximately two new members each month and I expect that number to increase. Our new membership coordinator, Rich Monteleone, will be working hard to make sure our guests and new members feel welcome. Please go out of your way to introduce yourself and make everyone feel welcome.
We will need to become more involved in community issues, like the mess at Crystal Airport, because in a roundabout way these events affect all of us. We will need to attend meetings and hearings to stay abreast of these issues. How many of you know that on December 20, 2004 the M.A.C. doubled the square foot storage rate at Airlake?
We are considering a private pilot ground school at our hanger during the summer months that would be free for our members and their kids/grandkids. I need your input as to your level of interest as a student, instructor, etcÅ
I will continue to work hard at getting an interesting guest speaker for each monthly meeting, because I figure if you’re going to take time out of your busy schedule to attend a meeting, the least I can do is make it enjoyable. For the past two years my “old” V.P. Jeff Coffey has made the meetings very enjoyable when I’ve been out of town and I want to say “Thanks Jeff, you did a wonderful job.” You all know my new V.P. Jon Cumpton and his passion for flying and for our chapter, so as a team you know we are going to keep right on having fun.
How was that for a quick look ahead? I could write about more subjects, but my space is limited so we’ll talk about them at our next meeting or in another column.
Looking forward to 2005, Pat