EAA Chapter 25

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

by Pat Halligan, Chapter 25 President

from On Final March 2005

Some people might say this is a bad time to be in the aviation business with a gallon of aviation fuel at $2.50 a gallon, hangar fees rising and insurance continuing to climb. But then we see Steve Fossett fly around the world solo or White Knight launch Space Ship One into outer space and I think how cool it is that we are alive to witness these events. I have the funny feeling AirVenture is going to be one exciting place this summer. You should feel proud to count yourself among the group known as “aviators”.

A few days ago I had an email from Phil Schaffer about a meeting regarding the closing of the Grantsburg, WI airport and I also recall hearing some talk about closing the Buffalo, MN airport a while back. You might recall I wrote about the Crystal Airport meetings at the state capitol recently and how we needed to keep an eye on events that affect us general aviation folks. These are the kind of events I was referring to. It looks to me like there are people (developers, politicians, commissioners etc…) that would like to close an airport here and one there, for their own personal gain. They might say it is for noise or safety or whatever, but usually it is because there is something in it for them. MONEY? We need to become involved.

Last month I received a mailing from MN State Senator Mike Jungbauer on a couple of bills he has sponsored that are favorable to our general aviation cause. I was pleased when I picked up the February issue of the Midwest Flyer to see some good legislative articles that affect us both locally and nationally. A few days ago I was reading my copy of AOPA and I saw how they teamed up with Senator Jungbauer on a couple of his aviation bills and yesterday AOPA was in Minnesota testifying on our behalf.

What I’m hoping to get is a few chapter members that have the time to attend meetings and hearings and then keep us informed on the aviation issues that affect us. They could keep us informed via our newsletter, website or maybe bring a legislator to one of our monthly meetings. They could give us a heads-up on when or to whom we should send an email that could help our cause. If this sounds like something that would be of interest to you, please let me know as you would be doing a great service to your chapter. Our hangar is a fantastic asset and I would hate to see it disappear in ten years because we didn’t get involved and someone built a casino with a stadium for the Vikings and the world’s largest Wal-Mart right where we used to fly airplanes. (Don’t forget there used to be an airport on Cedar & Co. Rd. 42–Southport.)

By the time you read this our annual chili feed will be over for another year. The chili feed to me is like seeing the first robin of the year; it means spring is just around the corner. Don’t forget that when you come to these chapter events you can bring family, neighbors or friends. The more the merrier.

We are always looking for more of our members to become Young Eagle pilots. I can’t put into words how much fun it is to give a youngster a ride. I know some of you have thought about it, but you are not quite sure how it would go, so you haven’t tried it. Trust me, you’ll love it. Give it a shot.

Happy St. Paddy’s day from Patrick Ohhhh Halligan

by Pat Halligan, Chapter 25 President

from On Final February 2005

You’ve all heard of cabin fever; well I think I had hangar fever if there is such a thing. I hadn’t flown the Cessna since the first weekend in December when my black lab Molly and I flew to Faribault for the Tree of Hope gathering. Even though I’d only been to the hangar once to shovel snow, I found myself thinking about a peaceful ride above the white countryside on some smooth winter air. The problem was either the weather wasn’t cooperating or I was too busy. Last weekend we were in Grand Forks celebrating my daughter’s 21st birthday. If she is getting older, I must be getting older too. Before that I was in Colorado skiing with my family. Then there was Christmas and New Years. This weekend we were going to go snowmobiling, but surprise surprise the weather was too warm, so we stayed home and I got to go flying this morning.

My lab Molly was the only one home when I decided to go flying, so her and I headed to the hangar around 10am even though it was a little windy- south at 18G24. It was very bumpy during the climb, but not bad at 2500′. It was fun to be flying the Cessna again even if the ground isn’t white and the air wasn’t smooooth.

Some great news from the Lakeville airport. Matt Ketcham and Chris Damlo (two of our members) both got hired by Mesaba Airlines in the past month. These two fellows are the ones who own and operate the Airlake Flight School. Chris will be flying the Avro jet and Matt will be flying the manly Saab. And don’t worry, they are going to keep the flight school open.

I’m sure some of you have found a used book store or good website where you get a great deal on aviation books. I became one of those lucky people last week. I was on a layover in San Francisco wandering the streets after lunch when I went into a used book bookstore called Acorn. I found the aviation section and for the next hour or so I looked through a lot of old/used books and I ended up buying two. One was about the life of Charles Lindberg and it was a first print-first edition book in good shape. I paid $12 for a book that was $30 new. The second one is titled The Leading Edge by Walter Boyne and it has some absolutely beautiful aviation pictures in it and to top it off, it is signed by the author. That one was $7. If you know of any websites or stores in our area, just let me know and I’ll pass it on to the rest of the members.

Another way to spend an enjoyable hour is to take a morning out of your busy schedule and go to Washburn High School and visit with Peter, his kids and checkout the Sonex. If you wait until the airplane is flying all you’ll see is a finished airplane, but if you visit now you’ll see kids building it piece by piece and then when you see it fly you’ll remember the faces and work that went into the building process. This is not a Cessna coming off an assembly line; it is an expression of love being shaped by teenagers.

When the weather warms up a little more, we will have a work day at the hangar and clean it up and organize the books, magazines and videos. If you plan on donating something to the chapter let one of the officers know ahead of time, and don’t just drop things off as the hangar starts to look like a flea market. Or is that a fly market. Thanks for your consideration.

I’m already thinking about our banquet later this year and if you have something to donate that would make a great door prize or silent auction item, please let me know. I already have a new set of headphones, but we will need more items to make it as enjoyable as last year.

If you know of any company that would like to be a newsletter sponsor please drop me a line as we are always looking for ways to offset the cost of the newsletter. With our new website their ads will be seen by more people.

Pat and my backseat co-pilot Molly.

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