Tuesday, August 08, 2006

A Message From Our Chapter President, John Gill (August '06)

Members,

The excitement of air venture has come and gone. I spent three day's looking at all the new and expensive gadget's and airplanes in all the displays. The Honda display was most impressive with their new jet and all the other toy's.

It was awesome to get a first hand look at the B1 bomber.

On Wednesday evening, Ford hosted the chapter President's with drinks and food. It was a pleasure talking with Caroll Shelby, Jack Rouch, and Edsel Ford.

The program for our meeting is Lincoln Electric demonstrating their welders. If you have any extra pieces of 4130 steel, or any small project, please bring it along and try out the new machines.

Looking forward to seeing all of you.

Your president,

John Gill

July (2006) Meeting Minutes

Meeting Minutes July 10, 2006

The regular monthly meeting of EAA Chapter 704 was held on July 10 at the Sparta Paul C Miller Airport pilot’s lounge. There were 16 members and 2 guests present. Secretary Kathy Hakeem was absent and Jay Dean was appointed secretary pro tern.

The meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m. by President John Gill. The minutes of the previous meeting were approved as printed in the newsletter. In the absence of Treasurer Hakeem there was no treasurers report.

Old business concerned the pending closing of the runway so reconstruction could begin. The proposed closing date is on or about August 1 (2006).

President Gill held a discussion on possible programs for future meeting. Touring some local industries was suggested along with a chapter picnic.

Larry Bauer has been appointed chapter Flight Advisor. The flight Advisor would, amongst other things, assist in preparing students for upcoming check rides. Larry reports having assisted several pilots in achieving their floatplane ratings.

He also described a recent flight where he helped Dan Carlson take delivery of a float plane over in Wisconsin and accompanied him on his flight back to Michigan. He spoke of flying across Lake Michigan staying close to the surface of the water in order to maintain visual awareness of the horizon —there being no artificial horizon in the panel. Having no Wisconsin Flight Chart they flew East from their departure location knowing they would eventually encounter Lake Michigan and then continued East across Lake Michigan knowing that Michigan had to be there somewhere. They made landfall and were able to identify the sand dunes in the Hart/Shelby area.

President Gill brought up the Pancake Fly in to be held this coming Sunday in conjunction with the Sparta Town and Country Days. Chapter 704 along with the Sparta Lion’s Club will provide the breakfast. 704 will do the set up —tables, chairs, etc — and the Lions’ Club will do the cooking.

Again, as in times past, Paramount Aviation is graciously providing their hangar to house the event.. Our thanks goes out to Tom Owens and his organization for this kind gesture as it provides a most pleasant and impressive site for townspeople and visiting pilots to enjoy a nice breakfast.

President Gill also reminded pilots to be aware of local TFR’s that pop up around the area in this season of air shows and special events. He noted that violation of a TFR could result in serio1JS consequences. In this regard the chapter is attempting to notify all local pilots via e-mail whenever a restricted area is created in and around Michigan.

After a break for snacks, a couple of aviation related videos were shown

Meeting adjourned 8:30 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Jay Dean, See pro tern

Addendum to the minutes of July 10, 2006 meeting of EAA Chapter 704.

Tech Counselor, Dan Bauman, held a discussion and demonstrated the construction of hydraulic hose end fittings showing how to correctly accomplish this at a cost much less than those commercially available. If one is faced with having to do this, Dan is available to assist as needed.