EAA Chapter 563 News
January 2018
Chapter
Meetings and Presentations
The board forgot November is the meeting at which the next year's budget is to be presented and voted upon. The new budget will be reviewed instead at the January meeting, Saturday the 6th. We will need a quorum to vote upon this matter, so please attend if you can. The meeting follows breakfast and will start at about 9:30.
The November chapter meeting began with a presentation by Brady Seei and Jon Dewey from PIA's ATC, where Jon is an instructor. They first covered the boundaries of the area's ATC regions. Next discussed were the human factors that affect safety, both for pilots and controllers. The benefits of ADS-B were briefly considered as was how to certify a new ADS aircraft installation. Services such as flight following were reviewed. Separation rules for IFR traffic on opposing runways was next. Use on the ground at 3MY of the 121.6 clearance channel is encouraged. Next up were the C-130 operations at PIA. One runway is closed for these many Tuesday and Wednesday nights, and they fly lights off at times. Questions followed, and the first was for recommendations for practice areas for flight instruction. ATC electronics available at PIA were covered at some length. Once the radar was removed from the tees at PIA, pilots no longer need keep transponders off while on the ground. Pilots were reminded surveillance radar and gyro approaches are no longer supported now that GPS is available, which limits pilots' options in an emergency. Separation of traffic at 3MY and PIA was discussed.
The slate of board candidates for 2018 as presented in the November news was accepted by the membership:
President: Greg LePine
V.P.: Kent Lynch
Secretary: Karl Kleimenhagen
Treasurer: Rob Meyer
Directors: Andrew Barth, Ron Dorn, Dewey Fitch, Bob Pegg, Ron Wright
The annual banquet in December was well attended again this year, with about 40 people present at Bernardi's Pub north of Peoria.
As always, you are encouraged to bring guests to breakfasts and chapter meetings.
Youth Programs
The Dunlap High School Flight Club will be starting on the GAMA Aviation Design Challenge in February. Please let us know if you are willing to be a mentor.
No members inquired about assisting the Dunlap High School Flight Club in building an aluminum airframe kit from the Bede Foundation. This has been dropped from consideration. However, it has been proposed we try to get Flight Club members to do hands on work with smaller projects here in the hangar, for example hammer an airfoil or make an aluminum tool box. Another possibility is a hangar walk-through and discussion. Volunteers are requested, of course.
At the last board meeting it was suggested Young Eagles flights be reserved for days with less wind in order to provide a more enjoyable flight. Standards in the future are suggested to be 10 mph maximum wind, 3000' ceilings, and 6 miles visibility. The Young Eagles coordinator is not yet selected, but it was agreed an active pilot is preferred.
Treasury
Net worth at the end of 2017 was stable. There were 57 memberships in 2017 and 45 so far for 2018. Year to date expenses and income are about in balance near $16,000. Cash on hand (outside of investments) can handle about 4 months expenses, which the board deems an adequate buffer.
At the last board meeting, the Treasurer discussed the differences between last year's budget and the actual tallies. There were few differences, eg hangar utilization by projects instead of finished aircraft, and the differences balanced out nicely. He recommends using last year's budget again for 2018, and this was approved by the board.
Hangar
A station for the TIG welder is one proposed improvement for 2018. We might run a 220 line from the stove receptacle to a new one for the TIG welder, probably south of the kitchen.
IMC Club
The IMC club met on 11/12 at the chapter hangar. Tom O'Toole reviewed an accident report on a TBM caught in icing conditions. The group reviewed one of the EAA videos on incidents in IMC conditions. We are consistently having 5 to 7 members at the meetings which is very good for only having 5 or 6 meetings so far. Anyone interested in flying in instrument conditions is welcome to attend and bring their questions and experiences.
The next meeting is Sunday 1/14 at 6 PM in the hangar.
Volunteers
As always, kitchen help for the breakfasts is needed. The sign up sheet for 2018 is available in the hangar.
Members
Denny Talbott has joined the chapter, and he and his brother Dan have moved their recently purchased AcroSport II project to the hangar, replacing one of Ron Wright's finished projects.
Airport
3MY
Our observer at the Airport Authority meetings reports from their November meeting:
Of interest to the Mt. Hawley community are some early approvals by the board to begin the process of acquiring land from the park district which adjoins the airport. In all probability this will be through a land swap between the airport authority and the park district. These are the initial steps in the long term plan for Mt. Hawley that has been discussed for many years. The goal is to move the airport to a B2 status which would involve widening the runway and building a parallel taxiway that has wider spacing from the runway. This would allow larger turboprop aircraft and small jets. There is some concern that since there are currently these size aircraft using the airport, that there could be some liability in the current configuration. The approvals also include developing the environmental documentation to support these changes. While this is a long awaited first step, the board admitted that actual construction is still years in the future.
Upcoming events
- 1/06 (Sa) 8:00-9:00
- breakfast, in the hangar, to be followed by the chapter meeting
- 1/14 (Su) 6:00 PM
- IMC club, in the hangar
- 1/20 (Sa) 8:00-9:00
- breakfast, in the hangar, to be followed by the board meeting
Editor: Karl Kleimenhagen