At the chapter meeting this Saturday, Mike Perkins from the Havana EAA chapter will give a presentation on their airport's original use in radar astronomy. He'll also describe the new camping facilities for pilots at their field as well as other activities in the chapter.
The VMC Club meets this Sunday in the FBO lobby, or if access is not available then in the hangar. The latest scenario from Pilot Workshop, "Runway Roulette at Hobby," will be debated:
What started as a favor for a friend has turned into a confusing mess of ATC instructions and attempts at landing. How much PIC authority will it take to straighten this out? And more importantly: Which choice gets you down and safe without causing a pilot deviation—or turning you into a 737 hood ornament?
The IMC Club meets Sunday the 9th this month, in the hangar. They are planning a trip to Chicago Center in the spring, as well as another fly-out.
This month's VFR refresher question has to do with maintenance records, and rental aircraft in particular:
The airworthiness of an aircraft can be determined by a preflight inspection and a
- Statement from the owner or operator that the aircraft is airworthy
- Log book endorsement from a flight instructor
- Review of the maintenance records
The answer is near the end of this newsletter.
Jayson Presley has met all milestones in the Ray scholarship and has spent about $6,000 of the $10,000 awarded by national. He is making flights cross country in preparation for his solo cross country, and after that it will be on to the check ride.
The chapter is sending Eliza Fletcher to the aviation camp at OSH this summer. She had tried to get in on her own and contacted us to let us know there were no slots available. Our chapter, though, had already paid to reserve a slot, and it was offered to her along with scholarship funds.
At the January chapter meeting, it was agreed to increase youth funding to the Allen fund to $1,000.
Todd Moore has volunteered to be the coordinator for the Young Eagles flights. A call for pilots went out, and we have about a half dozen. Support from national was reviewed, including insurance and scheduling software. Todd suggested setting up a chapter account with the social media that younger people use, which is not Facebook. Instagram, Twitter, and SnapChat were mentioned. Jayson will work on this with Todd and Tim Coverstone.
Members who work with youth are reminded to get up to date with the Protection program at national.
National has described the new chapter websites. The switch-over will come at the end of March.
Several useful features from the old system were not retained in the new. In particular, password protection of individual web pages will not be supported. This feature was used to keep web crawlers from inspecting member's e-mail addresses as stored in the chapter Directory, and it also kept from public view board minutes where chapter finances are discussed. National suggested coding all pages as PDF files and using the password protection feature in those, but this means keeping track of all such passwords over the decades. The board will have to ponder this.
The new web sites are supposed to reformat automatically to support various devices from smartphones to desktop computers. Also, there is no longer a limit on file storage, so larger file formats can be selected if necessary.
At the chapter meeting, the treasurer reported net assets are up, mostly because long term investments are in the currently buoyant stock market. For 2019, income exceeded expenses. Youth expenses were reviewed including OSH camp, Charlie Allen, LLCC, etc. Due to Caterpillar gift matching to non-profits, we should receive about $1,400 from them, and he thanked Ann Lynch for her help in setting us up for the Caterpillar matching.
All three members—Dick, Morrie, and Ann—from last year's Audit Committee agreed to do so again this year.
Keith Claypool has been organizing the large library of donated aviation books. Have a look through the shelves.
There are a number of items donated last year yet to sell, including a bicycle and an airplane tug; see Greg for a list. Will Staelens will inspect the condition of the engine in the donated welder cart.
More than 57 members have renewed for 2020. Please do so if you haven't already.
Greg recently described the progress with his scaled down F4U. He hopes to begin testing the engine soon and to taxi by late fall.
At the retirement community where he lives, Dick Barthel finds there is a nicely equipped wood shop, and he invites members to join him there to construct anything in wood they might need.
Tammy has been back at work. Greg found her to be in good spirits, but she has to wear a soft helmet.
Ann Lynch helped at the Pekin airport's Santa fly-in and described the event at the last chapter meeting. About 600 people from the community attended.
Answer C is correct. (14 CFR 91.417)
As pilot in command you are responsible for determining whether your aircraft is in condition for safe flight. Only by conducting a preflight inspection and a review of the maintenance records can you determine whether all required maintenance has been performed and, thus, whether the aircraft is airworthy.
Answer A is incorrect. A statement from the owner or operator that the aircraft is airworthy does not ensure that all required maintenance has been performed. Answer B is also incorrect. A log book endorsement from a flight instructor does not give any assurance that the aircraft has received required maintenance, and it is not required for determining airworthiness.