In my first few messages to you in this newsletter I will try to help you get to know me and ask for your help in keeping this an active and vital chapter. The first thing you need to know is that your new president is not the aviation professional you have grown used to. We all need to be thankful for the years that we have had Gus as our leader. It is not every chapter that is fortunate enough to have a leader with experience as a professional pilot, an FBO and an intense interest in general aviation and especially homebuilding as Gus has. In addition to that Gus brought with him experience in all areas of EAA leadership. I hope each of you will make it a point to thank Gus for his leadership in some way that is appropriate for you. We will continue to treasure Gus' leadership in his new position as a director of our chapter. Thanks, Gus.
January's meeting
January's meeting was held January 6, 2010, 6:30 p.m., in the Operations Building at Hendricks County Airport, and chaired by Chapter President Vern Sullenger.
In Attendance: Paul Berg, John Broyles, Mark Eminger, Troy Grover, Dale Gustafson, Mike Laurenzano, Dirk Melchior, Doug Moncreiff, Michael Mossman, Vern Sullenger, Gary Reynolds, Mark Rinehart, Bryan Ruberson, John Saalwaechter, Jim Snyder and David Stucker. If you were there but we didn't record it, let us know.
Guests: None recorded.
New Aircraft: John Saalwaechter flew his "new" Beechcraft Bonanza to 2R2 for the meeting. He says he was "bummed" about the old Bonanza but the new one is nicer, It came from Wisconsin, where its owner was afraid of it.
Vice President's Report: Not given.
Treasurer's Report: Doug Moncreiff reported that the chapter has $2,015 in the new checking account and collected $197 at the meeting, plus $79 to transfer from the old checking account.
Secretary's Report: Michael Mossman read the minutes from the November and December 2009 meetings.
Tool Box Report: Vern Sullenger reported that at the last meeting we agreed to create a third toolbox in memory of Paul Vogel. Paul's family will look though Paul's tools to see if there is anything that they'd like to contribute. Dave Clark will buy a toolbox and get a dolly underneath it. Gary Reynolds has an eye on some tools. If anyone wants to contribute, send an email to Gary Reynolds. According to Dave Clark, both of our current toolbox scholarship students are doing OK in the A&P program.
New Business: Dale Gustafson motioned to offer some chairs to the EAA, with Gus delivering them. Michael Mossman seconded the motion and amended it to include the chapter contributing to the gas to get the chairs delivered. Mark Rinehart seconded the amended motion. All present voted in favor of the motion.
Board Actions: The board of directors met and took action on several items, which are detailed in the board minutes in the January newsletter. By unanimous email vote, the board of directors extended a lifetime chapter membership to Dale Gustafson for his years of service as chapter president.
Chapter awards: Dale Gustafson presented the EAA Chapter recognition awards to the recipients who were not able to attend the Christmas Party in December. Troy Grover received recognition as a Tech Counselor. Gary Reynolds received recognition as a Tech Counselor and Flight Advisor. Also receiving recognition: Bob Braaf, Tech Counselor; Doug Hatfield, Vice President; and Chuck Long, Young Eagles Coordinator.
Wright-Patterson Bus Trip: Jim Snyder reported that the Hendricks County Aviation Association is planning a bus trip to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Museum for Saturday, May 8, and has extended an invitation for Chapter 1311 members to join them. The plan is to leave at 7 a.m. and stay at the museum until closing, then stopping for dinner somewhere on the way back. Projected cost for the bus would be $25 per person; entrance fee and meals will be at the riders' expense. Snyder says the 55-passenger bus will cost about $1,200 flat fee, so filling it will help reduce the cost per rider. The bus company has the option to downsize the bus to a 45-passenger version if fewer riders sign on. David Stucker suggested going on a Friday if people can get off work, as the museum can open the restoration shop to pre-registered visitors.
John Beetham Update: Dale Gustafson saw him at the license branch in Brownsburg. John is thin but says he is doing OK.
Project Report: Gary Reynolds and Dave Clark met with Jeff Vogel, who has questions about Paul Vogel's Sonex. Jeff would like to finish it and work on a Sport Pilot's license.
50/50 Drawing: Gary Reynolds won half of the $22 collected and donated his winnings to the chapter.
Program: In lieu of a regular program, Vern Sullenger led the group on a general discussion of the chapter's future direction. See story towards end of newsletter.
To get a downloadable PDF membership application see http://www.eaa1311.org/PDF_files/membership_application.pdf
Dues are Due!
Please send your $15 dues to the treasurer: Doug Moncreiff, 8113 Traders Hollow Lane, Indianapolis IN 46278, or give it to Doug at the next meeting. Make your check out to EAA Chapter 1311.
Chapter Board Of Directors Meet
Chapter Meeting Schedule: The chapter will remain on the same monthly meeting schedule, with the regular meetings occurring on the first Wednesday of the month, 6:30 p.m., at Hendricks County Airport. The board of directors will continue to meet quarterly.
Chapter Dues: Chapter dues will remain at $15 per family for 2010. The chapter has been coming out slightly ahead each year with dues covering expenses.
Lifetime Membership: By unanimous email vote, the board of directors has extended lifetime membership to past president Dale Gustafson.
Newsletter Editor: Michael Mossman will remain in this appointed position.
February Meeting: Vern will be in town for the meeting; the program will be about first flights for homebuilts and rebuilt aircraft.
Additional discussion: Gary Reynolds suggested a meeting about planning programs. Michael Mossman recommended checking old newsletters to refresh past programs for new members. Gary Reynolds suggested hosting a closed Young Eagles event for chapter members' families. Vern Sullenger would like a new chapter logo for hats and shirts and is recommending that chapter members send their ideas for consideration.
Editional Opinion
One area that has been difficult to improve is the photography, simply because EAA's published photos are among the best in the industry.
The January issue's cover has a great photo of a Pitcairn Autogiro, along with a feature story on the aircraft. Other feature content includes a story about the huge Gweduck twin amphibian homebuilt, the Cessna Skycatcher, a review of the PIper Cherokee's 50-year history, and a listing of 10 Dream Airplanes to Rent.
Sport Aviation adds its tradition of publishing its regular columnists with more guest columns and articles, homebuilders "how to" stories and other new or continued content.
Basically, the new design is beautiful, elegant and contains great content.
To house all of this content, the EAA increased the size of the magazine. The old format was a 200 x 266 mm publication (7.875 x 10.500 inches) while the new format is now 230 x 276 mm (9.0 x 10.875 inches), or about a 19% increase in page area. The January edition has 128 pages, while the December 2009 edition had 112 pages, so there definitely is more area for content.
One parameter where the new magazine scored a miss is on the type size. With increased content, something had to give, even with larger pages. They could either increase the number of pages beyond what advertising supports (too expensive), decrease the size or quantity of advertisements (financial suicide), shrink the size of the photos (are you kidding?) or shrink the size of the type. At first read the type looked much smaller as I struggled to get through Tom Poberezny's opening article. I like to read the magazine during breakfast, so my eyes weren't quite warmed up yet. I gave it a couple hours then came back to it, and the type is definitely harder to read than the previous edition. Upon further investigating, it appears that they changed the body copy typeface to one that appears to have about the same height for capital letters, but the "chi-height" of the lower-case letters is definitely much smaller, yielding more characters per line of type.
Sport Aviation's new body copy type gets content onto the page much more efficiently, but there is a penalty, and that is in readability. The new typeface might be appropriate for a young readership, but EAA average membership parallels that of the general aviation's age, and we're getting older as a group. Some of us need a little reading assistance (bifocals or trifocals), and reducing the effective size of the type isn't helping. While I don't think that a large-type version would be an appropriate solution for a group that should (by-and-large) be expected to pass an FAA medical, this new wrinkle isn't an improvement.
It's simply too much to expect that every change would be wildly accepted by every reader; we're too varied in physical traits, interests, tastes and abilities, and we all seem to be a very opinionated bunch. I hope that when the EAA accepts the suggestions and input from its readers, it mulls them over and takes them to heart. They appear to have listened intently to the comments over the years when they came up with this new version. I hope they can find a way to fix the type readability problem. In the meantime, I'll emulate my grandfather, get out the magnifying glass to enjoy the rest of this great edition.
Laurenzano Buys Another Aircraft
Laurenzano says that the aircraft's reputation as the "Traumahawk" is largely underserved. He had another one many years ago and was confident enough in the aircraft's design that he bought this one.
Congratulations, Mike, on the "new" aircraft. We look forward to seeing it at a chapter meeting and on the regional fly-in circuit.
New Chapter Logo Sought
Once we've settled on a design, the chapter will select a company to stitch them onto some hats, which will be offered for sale at chapter meetings and other events. We would also like to offer chapter shirts, too. Because of size issues, we will have to order commitments for the shirts before we order them.
Logo ideas: Check out other chapters and aviation associations for their logo ideas and see what works, what doesn't, and what might be adapted for our use. You can also visit the chapter locator on the EAA website. From there, find the chapter websites and see what they have used. You might need to go as far as checking out their newsletters for logos. If you have an idea but can't draw very well, sketch out your idea; we'll find someone to help bring it to life.
Correspondents Needed
We are looking especially for correspondents for some of the upcoming fly-ins. If you are heading to any fly-ins this coming year, would you please consider submitting a story and photo or two about the event? We'd love to hear about it and hope that one of our members or readers will be there and write about it. Please contact the newsletter editor at michaelandkatie1@comcast.net.
Chapter 1311 Builders' Local Resource Directory
Check out our online directory at http://www.eaa1311.org. Click on the link "Homebuilder's Resources" on the left. Note that all resources listed are merely suggestions; as a chapter we do not endorse any of them. Our recommendation: "Caveat Emptor" (let the buyer beware).
Boone County Airport News
Young Eagles News
In just a few months the good weather will return. Let's make 2010 a banner for year for our Young Eagles efforts.
Calendar of Events
January 21-24 — Sebring FL — U.S. Sport Aviation Expo, Sebring Regional Airport (SEF), http://www.sport-aviation-expo.com
April 8-11 — Friedrichshafen Germany — Aero Friedrichshafen, Messe Friedrichshafen, http://www.aero-friedrichshafen.com/html/en
April 13-18 — Lakeland FL — Sun 'n Fun Fly-In, Lakeland Linder Regional Airport (LAL). http://www.sun-n-fun.org
May 22-23 — Suffolk VA — Virginia Regional Festival of Flight, Suffolk Executive Airport (SFQ). http://www.virginiaflyin.org
June 11-13 — Marysville CA — Golden West Regional Fly-In and Air Show, Yuba County Airport (MYV). http://www.goldenwestflyin.org
July 7-11 — Arlington WA — Arlington Fly-In, Arlington Municipal Airport (AWO). http://www.arlingtonflyin.org.
July 26-August 1 — Oshkosh WI — EAA AirVenture Oshkosh, Wittman Regional Airport (OSH). http://www.airventure.org
TBO — Denver CO — Colorado Sport International Air Show and Rocky Mountain Regional Fly-In, Rocky Mountain metropolitan Airport (BJC). http://www.cosportaviation.org
For details on EAA Chapter fly-ins and other local aviation events, visit http://www.eaa.org/events
Newsletter continued on Section 2
Web Newsletter in Two Sections
The web newsletter is divided into two sections to take some of the sting out of the download time. If you receive only one section of the newsletter, or if the sections you receive are missing the embedded photo attachments please contact the newsletter editor at michaelandkatie1@comcast.net. The PDF version that gets posted on the website will remain as one file. See http://www.eaa1311.org/newsletters.html to download a PDF newsletter.
Welcome New Members
We have had many guests over the past few months and many people have expressed an interest in our organization. Look around and see if you have any friends, family members or acquaintance that are interested in aviation. Take the time to invite them as a guest to the next meeting. If you see somebody new, introduce yourself, welcome him or her, and invite them to sign up.
Once again it's time for Chapter 1311 members to ante up with dues. The chapter's board of directors will again set the 2010 dues at $15 to help meet the chapter's on-going expenses. Since we don't have any chapter fund raising events, we need to pay our EAA assessments, insurance, web site maintenance, and other internal expenses with what we raise from dues.
EAA Chapter 1311's board of directors met on January 6, 2010, immediately before the regular chapter business meeting. Business conducted:
EAA Debuts New Version of Sport Aviation
By Michael Mossman
Starting with the January 2010 edition, the EAA has launched its highly-anticipated new Sport Aviation magazine. The new Sport Aviation retains the content of the previous version plus merges in the new content of the Sport Pilot magazine. Since Sport Aviation and Sport Pilot contained much content in common, the resultant product is an easier read for those members who were receiving both magazines.
In the premier issue, EAA Chairman Tom Poberezny writes about the extensive efforts of the magazine staff to achieve the new design. The new magazine features a new graphic appearance facelift, bringing it in line with many of the most modern print publications available, both general distribution and association owned. It definitely has an attractive appearance.
EAA Chapter 1311 member Mike Laurenzano bought a 1979 Piper Tomahawk on January 7. on January 6, Laurenzano went to Georgia, where the aircraft was based, to test fly it with the intentions of flying it home that day. He passed on the airplane and came home empty handed. After considering a few others available within a closer-to-home radius, he called the seller again, who still had the airplane and struck a deal. The Tomahawk is IFR-equipped and in annual. Laurenzano plans on heading down to Georgia in a few weeks to pick it up and fly it back to Indiana, where he will base it at Pegasus Farms, where he and his wife Livia built a new home a few years ago.
Chapter 1311 President Vern Sullenger would like for the chapter to get some new hats in a summer-sun-friendly lighter color. He would like to see the chapter have its own logo on the hats and potentially on shirts and other apparel that the chapter members might like to buy. If you have an idea for a logo, send your sketch to Vern Sullenger or Michael Mossman, or bring it to the February meeting for consideration. Your logo should be simple and easily reproducible in embroidery. As an official chapter logo, it would also appear on the chapter website, monthly newsletters and official correspondence.
Chapter 1311 is always looking for correspondents and contributors to our monthly newsletter. Whenever you have a story or photo that would be of interest to our readers, we would like to publish it.
Start thinking of the places where you locally buy for AN hardware, sheet metal, paint, tools and other items. We'll need an address, phone number and web site, if they have one. Be sure to let us know if you would recommend them to others or not. The idea here is that members should be able to look to suppliers that you trust and would continue to do business with. Please forward your ideas and recommendations to Michael Mossman at michaelandkatie1@comcast.net
Hangar Space: All hangar spaces are occupied. Anyone desiring to base an aircraft at the airport or use the maintenance hangar will be required to join the association. For more information contact Michael Mossman, association secretary, or see the website at http://www.booneairport.org.
EAA Chapter 1311 held a successful Young Eagles David Stucker's son's Boy Scout Troop on 305. 7 chapter members flew 14 kids that day and a few more parents and troop leaders, too. The scouts were so appreciative that they all wrote "thank you" letters to Chuck Long, Young Eagles Coordinator, which Dave Stucker scanned and emailed to the volunteers. There are too many to reproduce in this newsletter, but this one shows that we made a real impact.
EAA Young Eagles Update: By newsletter publication date more than 1,523,947 Young Eagles have taken their first airplane ride.
Chapter 1311 will try to list the aviation-related events in Indiana and surrounding states, plus the major events across the country. Do you know of an event that isn't listed? Please inform the newsletter editor to get it included.