EAA Chapter 25

by Jon Cumpton

from On Final March 2006

Last Saturday I attended the Minnesota Aviation Safety Seminar at Flying Cloud. I believe this was the first time in recent years when it was held at the airport instead of a hotel. I have trouble getting excited about going to an aviation seminar unless there are airplanes there! The venue was the new ASI hangar, which was stuffed with a very cool collection of airplanes. I also found a friendly bunch of human inhabitants.

There were several Chapter 25 members, as you would expect, including two former Chapter presidents – and no, their names weren’t Frank and Pat. In fact, they were Phil Schaffer and Tom Kerns. I wasn’t surprised to run (Read on …)

by Jon Cumpton, Chapter 25 President

from On Final February 2006

I remember my mother telling me two things to remember for good health. She told me not to ride motorcycles, and to take good care of my teeth. At our meeting last month, Dr. Phil Sidell told us if you want to be healthy enough to fly, don’t smoke and don’t get overweight. (He also told me I talked too much).It’s nice to only have to remember two things to be successful. The other day I was flying over to St. Paul Downtown, and I was a little edgy because I hadn’t done it in a while and hadn’t talked to anyone in a tower for a while. But I just had to remember to report “abeam 3Mâ€? and that I was number two for landing. Now the controller assumed I knew where the heck 3M was, but I’m sure they are willing to tell tourists who don’t know to “report three milesâ€?. As in, “Excuse me sir, but what does 3M look like?”

One nice thing about recreational flying is that (Read on …)

by Jon Cumpton, Chapter 25 President

from On Final January 2006

Eight years ago, I joined my first EAA Chapter, Chapter 790 in Barrington, Illinois. It wasn’t very long before I began to realize that the members of that chapter were very special, interesting people, who shared a love of all things aviation. I got to know them while I also learned to fly - from one of my fellow chapter members. Although I had been to Airventure several times, these people showed me a new way to enjoy the event by volunteering. 790 members were instrumental to a group called EAA Ambassadors, and at one of the Airventure events I met a guy from far off Minneapolis, who had been similarly attracted to the group.

A couple of years later, I moved to the Twin Cities area, although admittedly on the eastern fringe in Cheeseland. I remained a member of Chapter 790 (as I still do today), but realized I needed to establish a local relationship with EAA folks. I remembered the guy (Read on …)

by Pat Halligan, Chapter 25 President

from On Final December 2005

It’s hard to believe that this is my final newsletter column. I’m happy for John as he takes over the Presidency and at the same time I’m sad that I no longer get to communicate with you via the column or lead the monthly chapter meetings. During the past three years I’ve come to enjoy both of these jobs and part of the reason is, all the words of encouragement from you about what I was writing in my column and how I handled the meetings. I want to thank my wife, Sandy, for proof reading a number of my columns and correcting the mistakes or you would have THUNK English was my second language. Please allow me a moment to look back on the past three years before I look ahead.

Even though we acquired the hangar before I started my term in office, I want to thank Mark G. one more time, for stepping forward and allowing us the opportunity to purchase the building. In the past three years the members have installed the ceiling, insulated the door and one wall, put up lights, fans and hung the heater. During that time we’ve used your chapter money to pay down the mortgage from 37k to 10k. What a great place to meet and it truly is a fantastic chapter asset. (Read on …)

by Pat Halligan, Chapter 25 President

from On Final November 2005

You’re all invited to the Chapter 25 Christmas party. That’s right, a Christmas party! It’s almost that time of the year again and I want to be the first to invite you to a party and wish you a Merry Christmas. Ho, ho, ho, bah humbug.

For those of you who made it to last years party, you know the routine, but for those of you who didn’t, here is how it works. We (plus spouse, friend or family members) will meet between 2 and 3:30PM at the American Wings museum at Anoka Airport for a tour. After the tour we will head across the field to Dan Carroll’s hangar for our party. If you can’t make it to the museum, you can head straight to Dan’s as he should be ready for us after 2PM. See the map on page 8 for directions. (Read on …)

by Pat Halligan, Chapter 25 President

from On Final October 2005

I’m excited to think that in a few days I’ll be enjoying a wonderful evening at the Eagan Community Center with so many of you at our annual awards banquet. I think everyone will enjoy the buffet, silent auction, awards, door prizes and the highlight of the evening will be our guest speaker Mr. Kenneth Wofford, a Tuskegee Airman.

These past few years I’ve tried to make the banquet a little bigger and a little better, but it is getting almost too much for one person to handle. So, if you think it is a wonderful event and like the way it’s been going, please let me know if you would be interested in joining me next year on a banquet committee.

At our next monthly meeting on Oct 19th we will hold nominations for chapter president and vice president. We have some very smart and talented members and this is your chance to share those gifts with chapter members, especially the slower less talented members like Peter Denny and myself. (Peter, I’m just kidding about you, but I don’t want to be the only one everybody is pointing at.) In November we will hold elections.

Last month I said a few “thank yous” and I’d like to continue by thanking all the members who have made our Young Eagle program such an important part of Chapter 25. Nothing I do for the chapter brings me more happiness than sharing an airplane ride with an excited young aviator. A few years ago John Koser and Jon Cumpton took over a great Y.E. program from Mike Dolan. Now John and Jeff Coffey are doing a wonderful job every month with the help of a good group of pilots like Don Eide, Pete Gavin, Jon Cumpton, Gary Rosch, Mark Kolesar, Norm Tesmar, Frank Hanish, Dan Carroll and yours truly. The ground crew makes everything run smooth and John and Jeff get plenty of help, especially from Ron Oehler, Bill Brown and lately Andy Hutchinson. Thanks to all who are involved in making the Y.E. program such a success. Keep in mind the coordinators are always looking for more pilots and ground crew, so just show up the third Saturday of the month between 9 am and noon at the hangar.

Last month I asked for some ideas on what to do with our money in regards to our hangar. The feedback I received from most people was to pay off the hangar loan first and then we can deal with other projects later, so that is what we plan to do (the respondents would not make very good federal government employees-what ever happened to spend, spend, spend?) Speaking of the hangar, I’d like to thank the hangar committee members, Lee Hurry, Bert Sisler, Ron Oehler, Harvey Havir, Ron Hoyt and Bill Brown for making the president’s job a whole lot easier.

For your information we plan to have another Christmas party at Dan Carroll’s hangar in December, probably on Sunday the 18th. We will tour an air museum at Anoka Airport first and then go to Dan’s hangar.

The banquet kid, Pat

P.S. We held our banquet last night and I had a wonderful time! I have the feeling that most of our guests enjoyed themselves according to the comments I heard as they were leaving the banquet hall last night. I want to give a special thanks to Ed Hansen for obtaining a number of the door prizes.