Cleared for Takeoff – April 2005
by Jon Cumpton, Chapter 25 Vice President
from On Final April 2005
The primary role of the Vice President is to step in when the President is otherwise engaged. Pat is wrapped up with annual training at NWA, so he asked me to write this column. Looking back at March, it was a great month for flying, especially so early in the year this far north. I can remember past Marches when there was so much snow on the ramp in front of my hangar it required excavation equipment just to make a path to the taxiway!
It was a unique month for me since I managed to fly more than 25 hours. Usually, this takes about six months for me. (Pat reminded me that he does that in a week.) On March 15th, I had the opportunity to take delivery of a Cirrus SR20 up in Duluth. I had the good fortune to be accompanied by my friend Byron. Byron is the Director of Training for Lynn University’s aeronautical program. We are in a sort of partnership that will share use of the airplane during the year. I was elected to take the Cirrus transition training, and Byron accompanied me to observe the training and then to assist me in ferrying the airplane to Florida. Needless to say, we had a great time, even considering we spent a week in Duluth. Although it managed to snow almost every morning, it magically cleared up every day around 11:00 in time to go flying. Besides the normal stuff in this type of training, we also did three cross-countries, which wound up covering most of northern Minnesota, including a brief over flight of Canada. Pattern work at Duluth was made more interesting this particular week by Air National Guard training — F16’s scrambling and C130’s doing touch and goes.
We then flew the aircraft to south Florida. All I can say is that the glass cockpit approach to cross country flying is definitely the way to go. I also had the benefit of having Byron in the right seat with roughly 50 years of flying experience. We were fortunate to have VFR weather most of the way. When we hit thunderstorm activity around Tampa, we were able to use the XM Weather overlay on the moving map to steer around the bad stuff. All in all, it was a great experience. Now, for the time being, I have managed to transition back to my tail dragger with a lot less help from the panel!
This month we also selected our candidate for this summer’s Air Academy Camp. We had a group of potential candidates, so asked each of them to write a short essay describing their interest in going to the camp. The response made us wish we had more money to spend, but we were able to select one deserving candidate. He is Noah Lorsung and he is a student at Washburn High School. We met him through Peter Denny’s aviation class, where he is helping build the Sonex. Speaking of the Sonex, Peter’s class continues to make progress. The parts are beginning to look like an airplane. I urge you to visit Washburn  Peter will be glad to see you too.
As you probably know, during the winter months we hold our Young Eagle events over at the Airlake FBO, operated by the Aircraft Resource Center. They have been great hosts, especially for our YE events. Since the beginning of the year, the facility has been managed by Franco Fiorillo. Please be sure to say hello when you visit there and thank him for his support.
ARC was the host when we held our latest YE Rally on April 8th for the Boys & Girls Club. At this point in the year, we already have a good flight count — almost 40 kids. By the time you read this, we will hopefully have flown even more at our regular third Saturday event.
Please note that this month’s chapter meeting will be at a different location! We have been invited to visit an aircraft restoration facility at Fleming Field. We will meet at the terminal building, and then go visit Sierra Hotel Aero — look for details on page 3. Next month, we will be returning to the chapter hangar for the summer meetings. We hope to see you there!
Jon Cumpton