Prop Wash. Experimental Aircraft Association Chapter 517 October President s Message

Transcription

1 Experimental Aircraft Association Chapter 517 October Steve Rossiter President Bob Kline Vice President Don Lorenzen Secretary Young Eagle Coordinator Sherry Rossiter Treasurer Youth Education Coordinator Frank Tremper PropWash Editor Gary Weyermann Fly Out Coordinator Bob Brunson Fly Out Coordinator Craig Purdy Ultralight Coordinator Zane Rebenstorff Adult Education Coordinator Facilities Coordinator Don Eicholz Fund Raising Coordinator President s Message September Meeting: We had a good time at the meeting at the MSO Airport conference room. We updated the status of the KitFox and the folks that went to Seattle talked about the trip supported by a couple of pictures, well maybe more than a couple! It is not enough to just ride this earth. You have to aim higher, try to take off, even fly. It is our duty. Jose Yacopi, Argentine luthier. KitFox Update: We advertised the airplane again on ebay. We set up a lower starting price although we kept the reserve high. We did get quite a bit of action on the airplane, but people are trying to steal it. The high bid was only $30,000, way less than the reserve. We now are going to Plan B and we will do a raffle for the airplane to generate a better, more appropriate return for this donation. You can get the rules and entry form on our web site if you wish to purchase a ticket. The higher we soar, the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly. Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche. Seattle Trip: Gary and Judy Matson, Gary and Mary Ellen Weyermann, Frank Tremper, and I made the trek to Seattle for a Mariners game and a dose of aviation history. As a result of the weather that weekend, we had to go via one Ford monomotor and a rice rocket. We arrived on Friday afternoon and proceeded directly to the Museum of Flight at Boeing Field. We spent the afternoon touring Concord, the first jet Air Force One, the new Air Heros exhibit, the Red Barn, and the main pavilion. Sensory overload! On Saturday morning we explored the Museum of Flight Restoration Facility at Paine Field in Everett. One of the museum volunteers took us under his wing and allowed us to get into locked buildings and aircraft including serial number 1 Boeing 727, a DeHavilland Comet, a Beech Starship, and the museum s Boeing B-52G. We took a vote to be late for the ball game in trade for the B-52 tour; there were no dissenting votes. For me the Buff (B-52) was the opportunity of a lifetime. Old Army pilots only dream of eight throttles. The Mariners lost, but we enjoyed the ball game and Safeco Field

2 Page 2 anyway. We headed back on Sunday and checked out many of the en route airports, for future reference of course. We found a couple of interesting airplanes stashed away in various states of refurbishment. Everyone that went enjoyed the trip and are ready to go again next year. The great bird will take its first flight...filling the world with amazement and all records with its fame, and it will bring eternal glory to the nest where it was born. Leeonardo da Vinci SpaceShip One: Remember the year before last when we first became aware of SpaceShip One and talked about it at one of our meetings? Our first reaction was, You ve got to be kidding. Then we considered the fact that it was Burt Rutan, and if anyone could do it, it would be Scaled Composites. Unless you ve been unconscious for a couple of weeks, you know they did it. The X Prize is no longer available for winning. A sky as pure as water bathed the stars and brought them out. Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Southern Mail, 1929 You Can Go Too: Virgin Group CEO Richard Branson hopes to have cornered the suborbital tourism industry by signing an agreement with Paul Allen s company, Mojave Aerospace Ventures, to build more spacecraft similar to Space Ship One and rocket the public to the edge of space at a cost of $190,000 per person. Virgin Galactic will open for business in 2005 and start flights in Time to start saving your pennies and nickels. Take possession of the air, submit the elements, penetrate the last redoubts of nature, make space retreat, make death retreat. Romain Rolland, 1912 Space Prize Offered for First Orbit: Now that Burt Rutan has won the Ansari X Prize, space entrepreneurs are looking to the next challenge: orbital flight. Budget Suites of America mogul Robert Bigelow plans to fund half of what he calls America s Space Prize, a $50 million award to the first team building a craft that can put five to seven people in orbit. News of the award was first reported by Aviation Week & Space Technology. Bigelow wants to lease to the government inflatable space station modules made by another of his companies, Bigelow Aerospace. Flight is the only truly new sensation that men have achieved in modern history. James Dickey, July 15, 1979 October Meeting: This will be our official Annual Meeting. Although we have no serious issues to deal with, it will be official. For the program we will get a report from Greg Lee about Reno and do an overview of the Space Ship One accomplishments. I think we have some video that most people have not seen.

3 Page 3 Live thy life as it were spoil and pluck the joys that fly. Martial, Epigrams, A.D. 86 Breakfast at the Airport: Saturday, October 23, 2004, is the monthly EAA Chapter 517 Breakfast at the Airport. Breakfast will be served from 0800 until 1100 hours at the Chapter hangar at the Stevensville Airport. Same question as last month: Will we do this with the hangar door open or closed??? There shall be wings! If the accomplishment be not for me, tis for some other. The spirit cannot die; and man, who shall know all and shall have wings... Leonardo da Vinci Christmas Party: Please mark your calendar. The Chapter Christmas Party will be Friday, December 3, 2004 at the Grant Creek Inn. As we did in 2002, we will have a catered buffet with three entrees with fixin s. We will also have the white elephant gift exchange with other members, so collect your really good stuff for this event. But whether [the source of lift] be a rising current or something else, it is as well able to support a flying machine as a bird, if man once learns the art of utilizing it. Wilbur Wright, September 18, 1901 Meeting Schedule for 2005: As we have been doing for the last couple of years, we will continue to alternate our meetings between MSO and 32S: odd months in MSO and even months at 32S. We are switching the meeting to the 2 nd Monday of the month due to an on going job conflict for me. We will also plan to send out the newsletter around the 1 st of each month, so you will have it before the meeting. It seems to me that the conquest of the air is the only major task for our generation. T.E. Lawrence Call for Newsletter Bits: I invite all readers to please consider submitting tidbits to be included in Chapter 517 s monthly newsletter. Those of you who regularly fly out often come back with great stories and pictures. Please write up a paragraph or two and feel free to include pictures. For those of you who are members of other Chapters, if you have an event coming up, please feel free to submit something we can include in our newsletter the month before. Please try to have submissions to us by the 15th of the month if we are to work it in. You may send them to me or Frank Tremper, the newsletter Editor. Speed is life; altitude is life insurance. Aviation Axiom Help! What would you like to see as programs at our monthly meeting? I m running out of ideas. Please offer up suggestions and help put together a program you feel is worth while. Those of you that have been in the area a long time may have connections that would make a great program. Please let us know what they are. Let s be creative. No one has ever collided with the sky. Aviation Axiom

4 Page 4 October 8 th, 2004 Dear Friends of Utah Back Country Flying, We will need to generate some letters, to the BLM, from our members and supporters before the deadline of October 15 th, 2004 in response to the Price Field Office s Resource Management Plan or RMP ( A lot of federal lands across the western United States are controlled by various field offices of the BLM. Periodically they review their management philosophies for the lands under their jurisdiction, and currently they are doing so at Price, Ut. Make no mistake, there will be others that will write letters strongly opposing the visitation of public lands by airplane. This is not a voting contest per se, but we do need to show that we are legitimate users of public lands. The BLM is looking for substantive comments regarding the use patterns of their backcountry runways, and they need to hear why and when you visit, and what you enjoy about airplane access. We need to show that we are a low impact, responsible user group that just happens to chose to visit public lands using airstrip trailheads. There are some points below to which you can add to your own feelings. This RMP area contains quite a few backcountry airstrips including some of our favorites. Here is a list of the ones that are on Federal land managed by the Price Field Office of the BLM: Mexican Mountain, Hidden Splendor, Cedar Mountain, Sage Brush Flat/Peter s Point, Horseshoe Canyon, Stone Cabin Gas Field, Sagebrush Bench, Cliffdweller Flat, Gruvers Mesa, Sweetwater Reef, and Temple Wash. A support letter is not as hard to write as it seems. It should take just a few minutes, and can include one or more of the following aspects. 1. You appreciate that the BLM staff has included continued use of the top four airstrips (in bold above), in the Support/Transportation portion of the new RMP and that you support their own preferred Alternative D. 2. Name airstrips, in addition to the first four, that you have enjoyed visiting and how long you have been visiting them. 3. Point out that there are airstrips in use on lands within the RMP, other than the above bold list, and respectfully request that either they be mentioned in the Plan or that some sort of official language be included in the RMP to safeguard the future casual visitation of appropriate parts (airstrips) of the RMP area. Not all airstrips have recreational value. In this case, try to be specific about which ones are your favorites and why. 4. Explain how, as a pilot, you and your family enjoy landing at these airstrips and hiking, camping, or exploring. Explain how you consider yourself to be as any other hiker or camper, except that you access public lands with a low impact method from the air. There, that wasn t so hard! By taking a little time to give your input to public lands planning, you can help to secure the freedom of use of the Utah backcountry airstrips for ourselves and future backcountry pilots. Thanks a lot for the help. The UBCP Board Please send your letter before the Oct. 15 th deadline to: Price Field Office RMP Comments, Attention: Floyd Johnson 125 S. 600 W.

5 Page 5 Saturday Fly-outs For the past couple of years a group of us have joined up with an active flying group in Kalispell flying out to various destinations each week. Most of the group belong to EAA and one of the local chapters. One goal is to arrange various types of outings throughout the year, hopefully covering a wide enough range of events that everyone would find some they would like to attend. This year covered the gamut; breakfast at restaurants on or near airports, air shows, fly-ins, Young Eagle flights, back country airstrip work parties, aircraft collection tours, Museum of Flight visit, Lost in the 50 s days, parachute competition, couple hour events, 1 & 2 night campouts, Alaska Salmon barbeque, and more. Not too bad for a year with more than normal non-flying days. A rough count of at least 25 different airports, airstrips, or other landing places. Another goal is to get people out flying for the joy of it. Warning, if you go once, you will go again. Most of the time I am flying with pilots who are more experienced, better trained, have more aptitude, more skill, fly nicer and better equipped airplanes, but it is a great time and I have the opportunity to improve my flying skills (or get some, as the case may be). There are regulars who attend most of the outings, some who can only attend infrequently, and still others who are first timers. If you are interested in joining the fun, or just want to keep up with what is going on, send me an at and you will be added to the list and get a notice most every week about what is planned for the coming Saturday and a short note (sometimes with a picture or two) about the past Saturday fly-out. This past Saturday neither Bob Brunson, or I were able to side-step some conflicts, and had to miss what sounded like a great time at Hot Springs (S09) Airport Days.

6 Calendar 2004 October 18 Meeting 32S Stevi Breakfast Sat. 23 November 15 Meeting MSO Breakfast Sat. 20 December 3 Christmas Party No Breakfast December 25 Merry Christmas Next Meeting: 19:00 Monday, October 18th at chapter hanger Stevensville Next Breakfast: Saturday, September 25th Stevensville 32S That s right, I ve been to Butte! EAA Chapter 517 Frank Tremper 2628 S 3rd St West Missoula MT 59804