EAA Chapter 563

The Beacon

November, 2023

Chapter

Annual Meeting

This Saturday is the annual meeting at which the membership votes for a new board of directors and approves their budget for the upcoming year. Please attend if you can, for we'll need to meet quorum to hold votes.

Directors Josh Mattson and Andy Plouse have stepped aside, and the slate prepared by the nominating committee is: JJ Hoevelmann (president), Bob Pegg (v.p.), Rob Meyer (treasurer), Karl Kleimenhagen (secretary), and Killian Madeley, Todd Moore, Mike Simmons, Nick Sturm, and Dan Talbott (directors).

Rob has prepared a budget for 2024, and it can be found in the Members section of the chapter web site. It will be also be displayed for discussion at the meeting.

VMC and IMC Clubs

Neither the VMC nor the IMC Club meet at their usual time this month. The VMC Club meets one week later than usual, on Sunday 11/12 at 6:30, in the hangar. Instead of a meeting, the IMC Club is having a field trip this month.

Breakfasts

Volunteers are always welcome (and needed).

Hangar

The Zenith 701 wreck given to the chapter by member Rich Gilbert proved worth some money beyond scrap. Several chapter members looked at the salvage value of wheels, bearings, etc and decided to list the wreck on Barnstormers. Two fellows purchased the remains and hauled them away October 12th.

With the great increase in chapter assets as represented by the airplane building for teens, the board approved the purchase of hull insurance for the project. While we thought we had liability insurance for the project (and even have an insurance form from HQ), a phone call to HQ revealed the chapter insurance doesn't cover such. The company which is providing the hull insurance also offered a liability policy for the build, and this has also been purchased.

From Headquarters

In the monthly Chapter Video (which wasn't shown at the last chapter meeting), HQ discussed again its AeroEducate program, the goal of which is to give kids of all ages exposure to aviation. The activities available vary with the age of the kids. They also pointed out the availability of the Siemens Solid Edge 3D design software, which they hope kids in the AeroEducate program might want to try, although it's available to all EAA members. Regarding the Young Eagles program, Fred Stadler of the Oshkosh chapter has now given 10,000 Young Eagles flights. That's an average of nearly one a day over the 30 years of the program—amazing. Also, the Aurora, IL chapter has reached 20,000 flights.

Youth Programs

Ray Scholarship

The chapter's most recent Ray scholarship graduate, Killian Madeley, used his wings to visit and tour the factory in Missouri at which the Cruzer kit he's helping to build was manufactured.

Airplane Building

The teens have been working on the firewall area of the cabin. The work on the modified elevator bellcrank assembly, as designed by Mike Simmons, is finished. The mains should be mounted yet this month, and once the firewall is riveted in place, the nose gear comes next, followed by the engine.

The engine arrived from Belgium mid October. The teens have inventoried the crate contents and set it aside until the engine is ready to mount early in the new year.

Dan Talbott works for FedEx and applied for a company grant to the project. The treasurer worked for several hours to supply FedEx with the information they requested. It will be many weeks before a decision is made by FedEx.

Members

Welcome goes out to our most recent chapter members, Lisa Creger and Korrey Varwig. Lisa is an engineer at Caterpillar and an old friend of a chapter member. She admires the chapter's efforts in the teen airplane building project and has previously made a donation to it. Korrey and his son Mason attended the last chapter meeting and was introduced to the members present. Mason is a student at Lewis University, and they keep a Citabria here.