EAA Chapter 563
The Beacon
October, 2023
The VMC and IMC Clubs meet at their usual times in the hangar this month. This is a month where the first Sunday is ahead of the first Saturday, so the VMC Club meets six days before the chapter meets.
Greg LePine has mentioned he should be able to form a full slate for the November board election. The positions held by Josh Mattson and Andy Plouse are available, and it's not too late to volunteer.
The Audit Committee has submitted their report for the 2022 fiscal year, and a copy has been placed in the Members section of the chapter web site. The committee found no irregularities.
A budget for 2024 is being prepared by the treasurer and will be discussed by the board ahead of the Annual Meeting next month.
Yes, volunteers to work the breakfasts are still needed. Regarding eating, we also need a volunteer to organize the chapter Holidays Banquet.
A Zenith 701 here in Illinois recently had a very bad off-field experience (in which no one was injured). Rich Gilbert bought the wreck for its engine and has donated the badly damaged airframe to the chapter. An effort is being made to sell off the hull, which should fetch more than scrap value.
In their monthly Chapter Video, HQ discussed the proposed rules for the MOSAIC extension to LSA and Sport Pilot, which turned out to be more generous than EAA was expecting. The proposed clean stall speed is 54 kt, which would allow an RV-9 to qualify. Four seaters could be flown but only with one passenger. There were so many campers at OSH this year they had to cut back on public parking. A new display at the EAA museum includes the work from WW-II of North American Aviation's draftsmen.
Finally, the Camp Scholler pancake fundraiser made $28,000 for the chapter which manned the kitchen. In the past, our chapter has considered applying for this position. They do allow chapters to join together in manning the kitchen and splitting the proceeds, and there are many chapters in this area we could work with.
Congratulations to Killian Madeley who earned his Private Pilot certificate on the 25th, flying with Denny Taft as his examiner. Killian is the 6th graduate of the Ray Scholarship program at the chapter. He's already taken up his first passengers, including his sister.
He has sent along these thoughts on the Ray program:
I am incredibly appreciative of the opportunities the Ray Foundation has provided to me. The flight training scholarship lifted an incredible weight off my shoulder and I feel good knowing I was very prepared for my checkride and not just in a rush to get the 40 flight hours minimum required for the PPL due to costs. My Lightspeed headset I received is also way better than the previous one I was using, and I'm going to look into seeing if it can record audio or anything since it hooks into my phone. I'm very happy that I was able to continue our streak of Ray recipients who went on to get their licenses, and I hope next year we can do a similar thing and that I can provide some advice using my own personal experiences. In about a month's time, I plan to start work on my instrument (however I will still do ground school and all my other aviation-related activities until then). Hopefully, I will get either a post-secondary flight training scholarship from the EAA, AOPA or another organization.
Thanks again to everyone that made it possible.
Killian M.
Thanks go out to the chapter membership for reaching our fundraising goal for the Zenith Cruzer build. Beyond a single large gift, another $5,000 was needed to qualify for the $15,000 matching grant from the Ray Foundation, and this has been reached. The Foundation prefers to match a wide base of donations instead of that from a single donor, and we qualified. The treasurer prepared a report for the Foundation, and the match has been received.
At this point, no further fundraising for the teenager's Cruzer build should be needed; there are enough funds to cover the airframe, engine, and avionics. As has been mentioned before, sale of this completed project should provide all the funds needed to build another airplane with another group of teenagers, and so on down the years ahead.
Not a great deal of progress was made on the build in September. Many of the kids were on holiday over Labor Day weekend, then it so happened the next weekend found enough mentors out of town the build session had to be canceled. The next Saturday was lightly attended, and the teens present volunteered to work at the LifeLine Pilot benefit (see below). On the final Saturday of the month, the teens should be able to fit the firewall to the forward cabin. The UL Power engine is expected to arrive in late October.
We have made a deposit for a 2024 Air Academy slot. A candidate must be selected by March.
Welcome goes out to our most recent chapter member, Andy Meinert from Metamora. His interest in building a Zenith Cruzer brought him to the chapter. In September, he went to the factory to build his rudder kit there and to attend the factory Open House. To learn the ropes, he'll be working alongside the teens in their build of the Cruzer. He's an engineer by trade and has designed and built a CNC router for his home shop.
At the Kewanee airport early in September, chapter member Dave Jackson snapped this 1931 Waco QCF2 owned by Chad Pobanz of Bartonville.
Dave also attended the Old Fogies fly-in at Geneseo: "The Vagabond is from Davenport and the Champ from a private strip south of Rock Falls."
Dave's soft spot for old tube and rag airplanes must be obvious. He's restoring an Aeronca and is also on the board of the Antique Airplane Association. The AAA puts on the annual Blakesburg fly-in and operates the Air Power Museum there.
The Flagship Detroit Foundation brought their restored DC-3 to Galesburg in late September, coinciding with airport's public Open House. It was one of the earliest DC-3's built and is the oldest still flying. The pilot described it as a "mid-time" airframe with about 50,000 hours on it. It was completed and entered service with American Airlines in 1937, and the restoration has brought it back to this configuration.
Plenty of radial engine start-up smoke
At least three chapter members took rides on it. For $100, they gave you a sightseeing tour at 1000' of the Galesburg area, including the BNSF rail yards.
The public fundraising event for the LifeLine Pilots in mid September was a success. The chapter's airplane building project for teenagers was one of the many aviation displays up by the FBO. Paxson and Ishan from the project volunteered to man a table for the entire four hours, and Andy Plouse rolled his RV-8 fuselage next to it. A few parts from the Zenith project such as a cowl, the main spring landing gear, and a portion of the flaperon were on display. The teens brought scrap aluminum, shears, drill, rivets, and a rivet puller to demonstrate the basics of aluminum construction to the kids interested. They also distributed fliers regarding the project.
Lindsey Kerr, the executive director of the LifeLine Pilots, sent along a note of thanks:
It was great that EAA was able to have a few items on display at Plane Fun Day! Thank you very much to everyone who participated, especially the kids. They were fantastic! I had great interactions with them, they were good at talking to both kids and adults, and I loved their hands-on activity. We had more than 1,100 people attend our event and your displays were great, especially for older kids.
At the last chapter meeting, Kent Lynch noted the airport now has a defibrillator at the FBO.
eaa563.org
Mt. Hawley Airport, Peoria, Illinois