Thursday, January 04, 2007

Sebring U.S. Sport Aviation Expo Trip (2007)


Hello EAA 704!

John Kozal (past president of EAA 704) is writing to EAA 704 to see if anyone is interested in joining me in going to the Light Sport Aircraft Show in Sebring, Florida January 2007? My goals are to:

1) Review the costs and performances of planes built under the Light Sport Aircraft standards.
2) Take demonstration rides of planes that pick my interest.
3) Bring back information to EAA 704 and do a presentation at a future meeting.
4) Try to find interested partners to form an Airplane Club to buy a LSA
ready-to-fly airplane.

I would really appreciate it if something can be written in the next newsletter concerning the LSA show. Thank you.

John Kozal
887-8137

President’s Message (January 2007)


Attention all chapter members:

Happy New Year, fellow aeroplane drivers, fixers, builders, and enthusiastic "wannabes" (like me).

"Out with the old and in with the new" is usually regarded as an optimistic cliche .....but in this case, out with our old (in more ways thanone) chapter president, John Gill, we suffer a great setback. Didn't he do a marvelous job? And of course, if we did adhere to that ol' saying, we would lose most of our membership! I think we all have to agree that the "ol' timers" are the backbone of our local organization. So at the next meeting, seek out an ol' codger and shake his hand and thank him for his contributions.

However, there are some NEW's we can look forward to and appreciate this year. Notice the new runway, PAPI, wind cone, REILs (both ends), and L-M-HIRLs?....we have a new manager that Kathy and the rest of us can abuse.....Dick has done a great job at cleaning up my mess and has given a new, more open look to the lounge. Also we can appreciate the enlistment of a few new 704 members this past year. I think diversity in membership freshens discussions and adds new ideas. So I encourage/challenge each member to recruit ONE person this year, whether friend, relative, wife, or someone you dragged off the street. How about a few more lady members?

Now, to retain our membership, it helps to have fine programs as we have had in the past, such as the last one presented by Larry "Buford" Bauer. So again, we need help from the membership in this regard, as I do not have as large of resource of contacts as John, so I would appreciate any suggestions you have, or projects to share.

Looking forward to a great 2007, Vic Johnston

December (2006) Meeting Minutes

Meeting Minutes December 11, 2006

EAA Chapter 704 held its regular monthly meeting on Monday, December 11, 2006 at the Sparta Paul C. Miller Airport pilot's lounge.

The meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm by President John Gill and the minutes of the previous meeting were approved as printed in the newsletter.

Dennis Byrne, a guest, spoke on behalf of a group of boys who would like to form a new Boy Scout Troup looking for a sponsor. Dennis described a bit of the responsibilities of a sponsor and asked the chapter to consider taking on this task. There was a general consensus of willingness within the group but the decision was made to take it under advisement until we can check with EAA headquarters to see if this sort of thing is approved by them. A decision will be made at the next meeting.

Dennis was quite fascinated by the chapter and EAA in general and has decided to join our group.

President Gill presented awards to the staff of 2006 who had served in various capacities during the past year.

President Gill also advised us that a new updated roster would be in the making soon and asked the members to be sure we had all their information? EAA numbers etc.

Paul Zimmer announced that he and Paul Kovalak are both purchasing RV7 kits and will be starting to build very soon.

Larry Bauer showed the group a number of aircraft parts he is manufacturing and selling for use on experimental aircraft. He is building a somewhat modified PA17 and showed the firewall he had built for it. He also showed brake assembly he makes as well as a rudder for floats, a nose wheel for floats that pretty well eliminates shimmy on the roll out, some tail wheel springs a gas gauge and a master cylinder for brakes. There was also a carbheat box in his collection, His son, Ben, works with him and does a real fine job of welding on these carbheat boxes.

Larry is very innovative and is able to create and build doggone near anything you want for you experimental project.

Meeting adjourned at 8:30 pm

Jay T. Dean Sec pro tem