Breakfasts are on again, with about 15 people at both breakfasts held in July. With the hangar open and the fans running, most people chose to not wear masks for either the chapter or the board meetings which followed. Keep this in mind if thinking about attending.
The 2020 Ray scholar pouring pancakes.
The chapter president appointed Dick Barthel, Rich Gilbert, and Bill Larson to be the nominating committee this year. Greg called for volunteers to join the board, and they should contact the committee to toss their hat in the ring. All current members are willing to serve an extra year but are unlikely to complain if others wish to take their place.
Having moved to California and not wanting to be waken early for board meetings, Andrew Barth has resigned his board position. Greg suggested Todd Moore, the Young Eagles coordinator, replace Andrew, and the board has approved this.
Our hamburger fly-in will be the last weekend before Labor Day, August 29, from 11 to 1, with the rain date two weeks later. The TBM Reunion in Peru is cancelled and will not be in conflict. The expected costs to us will be about $150 providing food for pilots and passengers who fly in. To lower attendance, only a few local EAA chapters have been told of this. We hope to have word back mid month as to how many people from each chapter expressed interest in attending.
To insure us for such an event, EAA requires us to follow CDC guidelines. Both CDC and Illinois guidelines for food service were reviewed. There will be masks for those serving food, and tables in the hangar must be well separated, with hand sanitizer available. We will suggest masks be worn when not eating.
At the first breakfast in July, the chapter presented to Jayson Presley a Ray Scholar shirt for successfully completing his program.
Eliza Fletcher, the 2020 Ray Scholar, helped at breakfast this past month. She soloed this Wednesday and is to take her written exam Friday. Her instructor feels she may be ready for her check ride before leaving for SIU August 13. She's been on an exceptional pace this summer with Sam Neff at BFA—go Eliza!
another Ray Scholar solos
The VMC Club meets in the hangar this Sunday. As an aside, Morrie enjoyed and passed along this tour by drone of the USAF Museum in Dayton.
The IMC Club had a BBQ in early July, attended by 10 people. Their next meeting is a week from this coming Sunday.
The doors for the largest bookshelves in the hangar are finished. Unfortunately one of the doors has warped some. Being thin, an extra magnetic catch will be installed to try to pull it fully closed.
To build the exhaust system for his F4U replica, Greg purchased and donated to the chapter a hydraulic tubing bender.
A push is on to tidy up the hangar and the end cap of things donated or left behind. Do you have stuff lying on the hangar floor?
One item which has been sitting in the end cap for years is a 16 mm film projector. Since we have not been successful in selling this, the Peoria library was asked if they could use it. They were "more than happy" to get such a projector, which they can use to present engineering and historial films. If you have a 16 mm projector moldering in your home, the library would be happy to receive another in donation.
At the July board meeting, the treasurer reported the chapter's long term assets are about where they were before the market fall off this spring. Donations to Youth programs were reviewed, totaling about $4,000. Caterpillar matching funds were just over $2,000 for 2019. Membership is currently at 65 this year. Rob also mentioned his injured knee is slowly healing.
Andy and Loreena have rejoined the chapter, but her job will keep her out east for now. They were introduced at the mid-month breakfast. While the wings of their RV-8 project are in Peoria, the fuselage has been loaded onto a van in Tennessee just this week:
The concrete picnic tables donated by a local Culver's had been stored on pallets near the FBO. This past week, Greg, Karl, and Kip assembled the tables using an engine hoist. This weekend, a friend of Greg's will bring a crane to lift the assembled tables and position them on the pads in front of the FBO. Greg's 12 year old granddaughter Lillian helped paint the metal support brackets for these tables:
The airport authority changed their minds and will not be installing a white circle around the wind sock.
There have been complaints from the management about pilots based here taking over a table in the FBO for hours at a time while playing the TV loudly. They would like to keep this space for visiting pilots or meetings.
This Sikorsky S-61N dropped in for fuel in July, with a suitable amount of chopper noise. It's owned by a Michigan company which rents helicopters for construction and fire fighting:
A new card reader has been installed on the fuel pumps. It needs work, for while the price per gallon is displayed, the amount of fuel pumped and its total cost do not.
In late July a jet and five prop planes stopped in to attend a sales pitch for personal jets, apparently the Cirrus Vision SF50:
The cute little jet is about half the price of a TBM but has a longer takeoff run and shorter range.