EAA Chapter 25

Chapter 25 Secretary Craig Nelson has been working on his Kitfox for some time, and is getting close to completion. Craig reports, “The Kitfox has emerged from my basement workshop not to return. While it was in my basement I had the fuselage on a fabricated wood landing gear. I could not install the actual spring gear in the basement because it was too wide to get out of the double doors that I installed before starting the project. This past Saturday, my brother Mark came over and we successfully rolled the plane out the doors and into postion under my deck which we then used to hoist the plane up and put the gear on. The plane is now in the garage where I will continue final assembly in preparation for moving it to Winsted Airport.” We plan a visit to see Craig’s airplane in the near future.

Each year, Chapter 25 awards a $500 scholarship to a Lakeville High School student. This year’s winner is David Stark. David will be attending the University of Minnesota in the fall. David joined us on May 20th at the Chapter hangar at Airlake for an airplane ride.

This year we have awarded our Air Academy Scholarship to Raynor Poehls. Raynor is a student in Peter Denny’s aviation class at Washburn High School in Minneapolis, where he has distinguished himself as a class leader in the construction of Washburn’s Sonex project.
Raynor will attend the EAA Advanced Air Academy, which provides an atmosphere for students to become totally immersed in the world of flight. Ground instruction and introductory recreation flight experiences highlight this meaningful, action-packed camp. It combines “in-the-air” and “on-the-ground” hands-on activities.

Several years ago, Chapter 25 took stewardship of the Gusty, a historic homebuilt aircraft created by the late Gus Limbach in the 1960’s. Gus was not only an active and well-known Minnesota aviator, but a creative builder who started with a Belgian homebuilt design (the Tipsy Nipper) and created his own unique design with this aircraft. After Chapter 25 acquired the airplane, Peter Denny’s Washburn HIgh School aviation class did the initial restoration work. Late last year, the pieces came to our chapter hangar at Airlake. Then in January, a team led by Bert Sisler started the completion work. They have been working diligently, as this recent photo shows. You can see their completed work at the Chapter Picnic on Saturday, June 17th.

On May 3rd, Phil Boyer, President of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, visited Minneapolis to conduct one of his town meetings. A packed room listened to Boyer warn pilots to be alert over the next year or so regarding FAA and airline – backed proposals to change funding of FAA programs. According to Boyer, a key date will be September 30, 2007. That’s when the current financing system ends. AOPA’s concern (along with others) is that the FAA and the airlines want to replace this financing system with one that creates user fees for general aviation pilots. There is also concern that the FAA is using smoke and mirrors to create the impression that FAA trust funds are not well funded, and that the FAA wants to eliminate Congressional oversight of FAA activities in the future. Of course, between now and then the 2006 Congressional elections will take place, and the composition of the new Congress could have an impact on the FAA situation. To monitor developments in this area watch the EAA and AOPA websites — www.eaa.org and www.aopa.org.