I changed my mind and decided to prepare a December newsletter after all.
From the Annual Meeting
A new board has been elected: Greg LePine as president, Bob Pegg as VP, Rob Meyer as treasurer, and Karl Kleimenhagen as secretary, plus directors Andrew Barth, Tim Coverstone, Ian Kempf, Dan Talbott, and Ron Wright. To the new members, "Welcome aboard" (so to speak).
The proposed budget for 2019 was reviewed and approved by vote of the members present. Membership dues are now $35 for either individuals or families, and monthly hangar fees are $170 for airplanes and $100 for projects.
This year's recipient of our scholarship fund at Lincoln Land Community College's airplane mechanics school sent a nice letter of thanks, which the treasurer read aloud at the meeting, along with another from LLCC. (More is found below.) The 2019 budget includes $1000 for this scholarship again. It was noted two of the mechanics at the Pekin airport are graduates of the LLCC program, and one of them received our scholarship.
Stewart Systems is looking for people to attend one of their 3 day covering workshops, to be held somewhere in or near Illinois area. Send a note to the chapter e-mail account if you are interested.
Andrew Barth renewed his offer to teach electric welding to any member.
Membership Dues
If you weren't one of the members to renew early, you should have received a renewal letter by now. Let me know if not, so I can correct your mailing address.
On the renewal form is space to make a donation to the chapter's Youth programs. What follows is taken from the thank you note sent by this year's recipient of our scholarship at Lincoln Land Community College, Austin Dulceak:
... I am an Eagle Scout with the Boy Scouts of America, and in my time with the Boy Scouts I realized the one thing I never wanted was a career spent behind a desk... I looked into other career opportunities that LLCC offered, and the moment I saw the aviation mechanics program I knew this is what I wanted to do... I also realized I would not be able to pay for the entire program by myself and began applying for scholarships, which is where I would like to... thank you for helping me make my dreams come true.
And this came from the scholarship coordinator at LLCC:
Many of our students are balancing a job, family and career preparation. Scholarship support not only helps them with tuition and college expenses — it demonstrates that someone believes in them and their ability to succeed in college.
Banquet
The Christmas banquet is again at Bernardi's, far north on Knoxville Ave. in the Lake of the Woods Plaza. It's on Saturday December 8 at 6:00 with food served at 7:00. Three main dishes plus sides will be offered "family style," and the price is $17.78 per person including tax and tip. (Drinks beyond tea and coffee are separate.) Again, the restaurant would like a head count by the first of December.
VMC and IMC Club
The VMC Club next meets this Sunday, the 2nd at 6:00 pm in the hangar. Attendance last month was four people, a step up, but there's plenty of room for improvement. Morrie, the head of this club, has purchased a subscription to the VFR Mastery program from Pilot Workshop to use at the meetings. "They are excellent and much better than the EAA material offered on the national web site." New scenarios are prepared each month. The IMC Club is already using material from this company in their meetings. After requesting preferred dates for these meetings, it was decided to keep them Sunday afternoon for now.
The next IMC Club meeting is Sunday, the 9th at 6:00.
Youth Programs
We hope to send a teenager to the EAA Air Academy this coming summer. Nominations are welcome. In the past, we've covered about one half the expense of this program, and the 2019 budget included funds for this.
EAA has not finalized details for the new flight training scholarship of the Ray Foundation. One hundred kids will be selected to receive $10,000 towards flight training. HQ hopes each chapter will nominate one kid; let any board member know who you think worthy.
Survey
Headquarters wants to know what you think of EAA and your local chapter. A link was provided to you in the e-mail announcing this newsletter.
Pedal Planes
EAA Chapter 333 wants to contact builders of pedal planes:
On behalf of US pedal plane builders, I am reaching out to Midwestern EAA chapters for help in setting a new (unofficial) world record for the largest parade of pedal powered airplanes during Oshkosh AirVenture 2019.
During AirVenture 2018, PedalVenture set a world record for a parade of 28 toy pedal powered airplanes. In September the United Kingdom YES Flyers (Youth & Education Support) topped our record with 31. Now, we are looking for EAA chapters and individuals who can help bring the record back to the US. Why are we doing this? Two reasons. 1) Think of it as a pre-Young Eagles event to get kids 3-7 years old interested in aviation. 2) Bragging rights, we can’t let the Brits have all the fun.
We’re asking that you please bring this up at your next EAA chapter meeting. If your chapter or any chapter members have a pedal powered toy airplane, you are invited to participate in PedalVenture on July 24, 2019 during AirVenture. If your plane has a young pilot, even better! If you have a plane but no young pilot, no problem. Kids attending the airshow can register free for a drawing to fill empty cockpits during the parade. If your chapter or someone you know can help us with our record attempt, please feel free to... contact Rob Peterson... so we can have an idea of attendance size.
A kid who appreciates the Classics
If you're interested, send a note to the chapter e-mail, and I'll forward it on to him.
Members
2018 closed with 66 memberships in the chapter, including 1 complimentary youth membership.
Last month a fellow from Kansas City passing near Peoria stopped in to talk with Greg LePine about his F4U project. Greg was pleased with the "thank you card" Steven Wilkes sent him:
Better than a Hallmark
Projects
November found Karl and Kip Kleimenhagen back working on their RANS S-20 kit:
Mild weather over Thanksgiving break from school allowed us a block of time to work on various half completed assemblies that had been pending replacement parts from the factory. We also finally finished fabric and glue tests on our sample of epoxy primed tubing. The primer used by Piercy passed the tests Oratex recommended, and we will truck the fuselage and other steel parts over to Carlock in early December. The rest of the winter will be more sub assemblies, and we'll be able to fasten them to the fuselage. We hope to be making silly airplane noises from seats in the fuselage as soon as the garage warms up in late winter.
Airport
3MY
The airport authority is holding a Holiday Open House at the FBO on Wednesday 12/5 at 4:30. Refreshments will be on hand, so they want to know how many people plan to attend. Call Lanette at 697-8272 extension 100 to let her know if you'll be there.
Pekin
Pekin Airport will have a Santa Day on 12/8 and needs volunteers to help with the hundreds of kids expected.
Marshall County
On Saturday December 1 at 1:00 PM, Brady Seei from ATC at PIA will be talking about ADSB and how it will affect operations in the PIA Class C.
Havana
For those with larger tires on your airplane, the Havana EAA chapter will be offering their fly in (or drive in) lunch each second Saturday, from 11:00 until 1:30, through the winter months. The strip is grass, so before dropping in, consider recent weather each time. The Havana Airport has a new web page worth a look.
