From the president’s shop.
It’s finally here, the month of AirVenture. The great news is that we’ll have at least 4 of our members attending this year. Drew Gillett and Peter Bruckner are flying out it Drew’s flying club Cherokee and Pupae and myself flying out in the Waco D. The campsite is all staked out and there should be lots of aviation passion for all to enjoy. If you’re on the fence on attending, pull the trigger. You will love it! This will be the third fly-in this season for the Waco D. The first was the American Waco Club fly-in in Creve Couer, MO at Dauster Field. The second was at the National Waco Club fly-in at Mt. Vernon, OH.
The Waco D had a major transformation over the winter with ‘period’ gyros added and the GPS-Nav installed last fall. It has increased the utility of the Waco with the capability of IFR flight and no ‘scud running’. I have enjoyed the versatility and taken advantage of 50 knot tailwinds at altitude the would have been unattainable with the VFR version of the airplane. The flight back from the Chicago area, with a detour to attend the NWC fly-in at Mt. Vernon whisked by in 5 hours and 50 minutes. Not bad for a 83 year old biplane. There are occasional questions from controllers about a biplane at 11,000 feet. The most common is if we have our heads hanging out in the breeze. With the sliding canopies, even 0 degrees celsius outside air temps are comfortable.
This month’s meeting will recap the trips with a slideshow and some pictures of the incredible collection of antique airplanes at Dauster Field. The other highlight of the meeting will be EAA’s Chapter Video magazine. The meeting is on our normal meeting night of Tuesday, July 11th. BBQ starting at 6PM with the meeting to follow at 7PM. I will try to have the Waco on display on the ramp. The meeting will be held in the FBO office due to construction on the ramps at Skyhaven. Upon completion of the Skyhaven construction we will try to keep the meetings in the FBO pilot’s lounge as the lavatories, climate control and wifi make it a much better meeting location.
That’s all for now. Come on out and enjoy your fellow chapter members. Hope to see you all there.
Happy building/restoring and safe flying,
John Ricciotti
EAA225 Chapter president
(603)781-6572