From Kent Lynch, one of the organizers with the IMC Club:
Members of the IMC Club participated in a fly out to the Janesville, Wisconsin airport for lunch on September 10. Three airplanes from the group with six members filed IFR flight plans and converged on the airport restaurant (Bessie's Diner) at 11 AM for a nice breakfast/lunch. In addition, four other chapter members participated VFR in two airplanes. It was enjoyed by all and the club will discuss at the next meeting whether to do another fly out this year, or wait until next year. With four of the five airplanes coming from the Peoria area and one from Galesburg, on return, the Peoria approach controller wondered what was going on in Janesville! We told him the chapter went up for lunch. His reply was that he would have liked to go along!
There is no VMC Club meeting this month.
Walking out of the last VMC Club meeting, we noticed at the north end of the field what looked to be a homebuilt taildragger turning into a parking space, with lightning in the skies to the west and north. We walked up to see what was the plane and ask the pilot if he needed anything. The fellow, Eric (we didn't exchange last names), was ferrying a Sportsman to Iowa for a friend and had to land for the evening due to the weather. We pointed out the Americinn nearby and noticed the airplane wasn't yet tied down. There were no ropes in the plane, so we made a few phone calls. Given the weather, I'd hoped to find him a hangar, but the one I had in mind was already full. We drove him to Wal-Mart to buy rope, and after tying down the airplane, drove him to a late supper. Fortunately the service was abysmally slow, so we had time to talk further with this pilot, who we soon learned was a test pilot with the Navy. Topics ranged from carrier aircraft to the TBM (he helped the factory evaluate a recent model) to the Bonanza (his favorite after the F-18) and on to sundry homebuilts. When discussing favorite airplanes to fly, we did manage to find one bit in common: His favorite is the F-18 and ours is the T-18. He even bought our supper. The rewards to being nice come in many forms.
Youth Programs
Dunlap High School's Flight Club reports their principle projects will again be the GAMA Challenge plus fixed wing RC instruction for all members. They will give us a presentation later this year. They will have a booth beside ours at the Open House.
Treasury
The Treasurer again finds no significant change in the chapter's financial position.
National
This was received from EAA national: "As part of our partnership, Ford Motor Company provides EAA members the opportunity to receive preferred pricing on the purchase or lease of a new vehicle through the Partner Recognition Program. This year Ford is offering an additional $750 incentive through 1/2/19... After signing in to your account and getting your PIN, be sure to click on the $750 banner to get this very special offer!"
To obtain the magical PIN, they direct you here.
Elections
Nominations for directors are still welcome and can be presented to the board at their October meeting. Members can also volunteer to serve at the election meeting itself.
The October board meeting will this month be held on the 2nd Saturday, 10/13 at 9:00, in the hangar. Besides the slate for the election, the 2019 budget will be considered.
Members
New member Will Staelens has offered a brief biography:
I earned my private pilot license in 1972 at Mount Hawley airport, taking my ground school at ICC. I continued to take instruction at Mount Hawley, working toward a commercial pilot rating, with the end goal of flight instruction. In that period I co-owned a Cessna 172 which I flew to visit family in Colorado, Michigan, and Arkansas. I rented and flew a Rockwell Commander 112 owned by M.H. FBO on a few trips in the middle '70s and earned an endorsement in a v-tail Beech 35 in the same period. The plane belonged to a friend who had not earned his license, so I flew him to Detroit and Michigan's U.P. In 1978 I married, and life changed. I sold my share of the Cessna and tabled flying for later. I had dreamed of building an Osprey homebuilt in that time but never got that dream off the ground.
Progress was slow in September for Karl and Kip Kleimenhagen in the build of their RANS S-20.
We had become rather discouraged by the low quality of the expensive RANS kit we purchased. We thought we'd step away from it for a week, which become two, and then three. What little was done was to bring a short length of 4130 tubing to the paint shop as a test of their epoxy primer. Placed in salt water at the concentration of seawater it rusted in many spots. It appeared not all the fine particles of steel from the sand blasting had been blown off, and particles caught in the primer had rusted. We'll need to have the shop apply two coats of primer to be safe. Replacement spar doublers were finally received from the factory in late September, and that got us back into action, with work progressing on seat and rudder pedal assemblies, testing strips of Oratex fabric, etc.
The Talbott brothers have had a change in plans and are selling the partially finished Acrosport Biplane project they acquired last year. It's a two place airplane, and the fuselage tubing as well as the wood work in the wings is, for the most part, done. It's available for $2,500 or the best offer received. Call Dan at (309)868-8539.
Greg LePine's F4U is entering its third year with much progress on the wing center section this summer:
June – July: After all stub wing aileron attach points mocked up it was time to finalize the wing carry thru attachment along with stub outer wing solid rib. Also made and attached stub leading edge ribs. Took 4 days off to visit family and Oshkosh.
August: Time to fit up flap attach angles and entire mechanical flap internal working. Also made and installed four flaps, two per stub wing, adjusted to 20 and 40 degree down.
September: Stub wing leading edges were formed using sheet aluminum three pieces per side. With a home-made leading edge former made from 4x4's and 4" PVC, along with an English wheel and Bead Roller with custom dies, this really went fast. The hard part was making the right side first then turning the patterns over and doing the same for the left side.
October: Enlarge all holes and deburr for riveting. Where the hell did the summer go?
not so plain flapsThe chapter's English Wheel...... forming a leading edge.
Airport
3MY
The Open House the Airport Authority planned to host for September 8 was cancelled due to weather. They do not plan to reschedule for this year.
The AOPA Safety Seminar 9/25 was not particularly well attended, but several members from 563 were there. AOPA would like to move these to an airport location, and inquiries are being made by the Chapter. These seminars are Use It or Loose It: Attendance was low enough that Peoria is in danger of being removed from their circuit.
Havana
The Havana EAA chapter is hosting an outdoor showing of the movie Dunkirk on the field at 7:00 on Saturday 10/06.
stargazing at the Havana airport
The weather cooperated for an overnight stargazing meet held on the Havana airport in September, when Chapter 1420 hosted the UIUC Astronomical Society. Besides 60 members from the Society, about 100 people from the local community joined as did many pilots who flew in and camped overnight.
Their next "Grill-bana" fly-in lunch is 10/13 from 11:30 to 1:00.
