September (2005) Meeting Minutes

EAA Chapter 704 held its regular monthly meeting on Monday August 8th 2005 at the Sparta Paul C. Miller Airport.

The minutes of the previous meeting were approved as printed in the Newsletter. The treasurer reported $1692.24 in the checkbook with $31.00 to be deposited and $50.00 in petty cash.

President Ron Fritz commented on the recent pancake breakfast and pronounced it a success. We received a check for $680.00 from the Lion’s Club as our share of the profits. A letter is to be sent to Paramount Aviation in appreciation for the use of their hangar and facilities during the event.

The Poker Run flying event conducted on August 6th by the Sparta Pilot’s Ass’n brought out 14 airplanes with nearly 24 people involved. Linda De Young won the pot for the best poker hand.
Vic Johnston, Airport manager, commented on the new fuel farm being constructed and said it should be operational around 8-15-05. An issue with the insurance has yet to be resolved.

The September 10th chicken BBQ was discussed. Wendell Beuschel will be cooking the chicken again and 704 will be providing the other items on the menu. The serving time will be close to noon with work parties gathering in the earlier hours of the morning to prepare the site. $7.00 was discussed as the price of the meal.

Tim and Lori Layne took a few moments to describe a couple of aspects of their business. They have the FAA approval for selling Sectional Charts at Sparta Airport but they also are starting another chart related service. Any pilot planning a cross country trip can obtain, through them, a flip over book containing all the enroute charts, the communication frequencies, airport information, navigational aids etc one might need. This is a very nicely assembled booklet much like the AAA triptic you get for road trips. This is designed to help the pilot with cockpit management to eliminate the cumbersome chart flipping, folding and unfolding that often creates distractions while trying to maintain control of the aircraft.

They also commented on a new service they have begun called “Pilots for Christ”. This is a mercy flight service to provide pilots and planes to provide emergency mercy services to people in need.

Following their presentation, John Smith spent some time discussing procedures for laying out patterns for making airplane parts from drawings. He used a wing rib as an example and demonstrated how to transfer data using draftsman techniques from the print onto wood to create a template. He stated that the techniques he used are those one learns in any class on mechanical drawing. He showed several of the instruments he uses in the procedures and demonstrated their use. He showed how to use a divider compass to establish a true 90 degree angle with techniques learned in high school plane geometry. He then showed how the French Curve was used to create the proper curves along the upper and lower wing rib. He stressed using quality instruments to insure accuracy.

Our thanks go to John for his presentation and to Tim and Lori Layne for advising us of their activities.

Meeting was adjourned 9:15 p.m.

Respectfully submitted
Jay Dean, Secretary/Treasurer