"THE ILLINOIS VALLEY BEACON"
the voice of
E.A.A. Chapter 563
February 1977
CHASPTER 563 MEETING
Wednesday, February 8, 1977....Barnes, Torrey, Wasson workshop
227 Sabella, Pekin, Ill...Five blocks south of the Pekin bridge.
BRING YOUR OWN CHAIR....
George "Bill" Maile will demonstrate working with aluminum and
different types of fasteners such as pop-rivets and regular AN
rivets. Bill recently (before the deep-freeze set in) completed
the covering of his Soneral II wings using flush type pop rivets
and turned out a beautiful job. As in last month's demonstration
of welding by Jewett Wasson, those interested can try their hand
at riveting and metal working.
Until a permanent site is located, Harry and Jewett have given
the Chapter the use of their facilities for meetings. Harry also
extended an invitation to the membership to utilize the vast array
of power tools in their shop. Just about anything you might need
in the course of constructing your aircraft in the way of tools
can be found. This is a gesture in the true spirit of E.A.A.
A "PROJECT BOARD" will be posted in the workshop to display photos
of members projects. We have some pictures of the various projects,
but not all. If you have a photo of your (or some other member's)
project and would like to put it on display, bring it to the meeting
or stop by the workshop and place it on the board. The idea is to
get all the projects in the chapter and take the board to OSHKOSH
to be displayed in the Chapter tent. Lets produce a display that
will be the envy of all E.A.A.
Also planned for display will be the Chapter Charter. For those
members who joined the Chapter in our first year but haven't signed
the Charter yet, this will be your last chance to do so.
February is our anniversary month, so all you members come on
down and help celebrate our FIRST anniversary as a chapter of the
finest organization representing sport aviation. ...E.A.A.
Remember...1977 DUES are now due. Your specific dues ware shown on
the front of the January Newsletter. Dues have been prorated from
when you joined and how much you paid to January 1, 1977. If you
have any questions about your dues, see or call Ozzie Beckham at
265-9528 or Eric Manuel at 685-2192. Send your dues to Ozzie
Beckham, 1032 Brentwood Rd., Morton, IL 61550.
The chapter officers and the program committee met and began out-
lining the schedule of programs for the coming year. Many loose
ends have to be tied up at the present time, but if all goes well
we should have a very interesting and full year ahead of us. Keep
watching the pages of the "BEACON" for further developements.
No designee inspections during January (can you blame them)
a while back a race was held in Moscow, Russia. Came the day of
the race and only two autos appeared at the starting line. One
was a popular American model, the other the best of the Russian
design.
The race went on as scheduled with the American auto winning quite
easily. The next day's Moscow newspaper reported:
"....the Russian auto Flaced second, but the American entry
came in next to last."
Although this is intended to be humerous, it is a good example of
manipulation of valid facts to distort and misrepresent the over-
all picture.
A few months ago Piper Aircraft put out a statement saying 5% of
aviation was used for sport flying.
The Bureau of Census more recently issued figures that show nearly
7O% of all aviation is used for sport flying.
Well, somewhere between that 5% and 70% figure lies the true
percentage of sport flying.
With the cry for user taxes and "fair share" cost coverage of a
complex air traffic system, it's readily apparent that the bureau-
crats want to paint a picture to coincide with their desires.
The term "sport aviation" somehow gets lost in the term "general
aviation" when reported figures are quoted by the Federal Bureaucracy.
To point up the "padding" of reported figures, the DOT Cost Allo-
cation study said that general aviation should pick up 30% of the
cost of the Air Traffic Control System. This was a result of
reported general aviation operations figures. One such set of
figures shows that at Miami Dade Collier Airport a total of 50,101
operations was credited to general aviation. On closer examination
these operations were almost exclusively air carrier training
operations. F.A.A. tower personnel had classified them as general
aviation because they were non-revenue. This has been confirmed
by several F.A.A. Region personnel.
Inflated statistics such as these and their overall effect on
sport aviation are what E.A.A. has been fighting. E.A.A. needs
the support of all sport aviators in their constant vigil to
protect our vast ocean of sky from the idiocy of Bureaucratic
blunderings that would strike the sport aviator from existance.
I suppose it doesn't matter if you are reported to be next to last
as long as everyone realizes that you are ahead of the guy in
second place.
An item from "The Homebuilder", Jayhawk Chapter 88 Newsletter, Wichita, KS
A peaceful, small Arkansas town was greatly surprised one day when
frozen ducks started falling all over town. By the time it was over,
almost 1OO ducks lay scattered about. It seems that the ducks had
been skirting a thunderstorm when they were caught in a severe updraft,
carried aloft into the storm, and frozen to death.
Moral: No matter how much of a pro you are, thunderstorms never lose.
A tourist is a person who goes on a thousand mile cross-country to
get a picture of himself standing next to his airplane.
This was the first issue named the Illinois Valley Beacon, a name it kept until 2016 when it reverted to simply the Newsletter.