The IMC Club is scheduled to meet on Sunday the 11th at 6:00. The VMC Club organizer will likely have to postpone this month's meeting to Saturday the 10th at 6:30—watch the calendar on the chapter web site.
In their July Chapter Video, HQ reports Young Eagles flights are up to the level before the pandemic.
They are confident the FAA will approve HQ's recommendations for MOSAIC sometime in 2025. These include, as compared to Light Sport, a higher stall speed, 3 passengers, etc. Basic Med changes are in the recent FAA reauthorization and include greater aircraft weights, up to 6 passengers, etc.
Also discussed was the progress on 100LL fuel replacement for which there are 3 candidates.
In mid July, the chapter flew eight kids coming from as far as Lincoln and Normal. Afterwards, five of them toured the hangar to view the Cruzer under construction.
The next flights are scheduled for Saturday the 17th, and volunteer pilots and ground crew are welcome.
The chapter's Ray Scholarship recipient, Julian Sturm, has completed his solo. His father wrote the chapter: "Thanks for all that has been done to help make this possible."
Many of the mentors have been traveling in July (especially to OSH) as have the teens, and not much was finished this month. The avionics have been received, and the process of deciding where to place them all while keeping them easily accessible has begun.
Tim Threw's Lycoming has finally been assembled and is sitting in the hangar. Some of the difficulties encountered in July, including those beyond the engine, were:
Barring any other missing part surprises, should finish up with A&P in Pekin this weekend and bring back to 3MY for install. Would have been nice if AeroSport would have listed non standard locking plates on build sheet. They used lock plates on idler gear shaft mounts, instead of safety wire. I talked to Joe about the xponder test, and I am on the list. I need to talk to Ted to arrange date for CI. I'm thinking plane should be flying end of the month, early August. No OSH for me this year, but hopeful I can do the Petit Jean RV fly-in in September.
Josh Mattson will end up departing the area and the chapter, and he's sent Greg a note describing his current situation:
A few updates for all my good friends at Chapter 563. This ended up being a longer update than I had anticipated, apologies. There's just a bunch going on!
First off, the fun aviation related updates: I'm just now finishing up my first semester of instrument training at Parkland College here in Champaign. The instrument rating program is broken up into two semesters. The first semester is instrument flying fundamentals—learning how to read approach plates and how to fly all sorts of approaches, learning how to fly holds, some basic IFR cross country planning. Next semester will bring more in depth discussions of aviation weather and the introduction of the dreaded partial-panel instrument flying. If any young people are interested in pursuing additional flight training in a collegiate environment, tell them to take a look at Parkland College's program. In my opinion it's a well run program with good value.
In addition to the aviation courses at Parkland College, I've also been taking graduate coursework at the University of Illinois where I'm pursuing my Masters of Engineering in Aerospace Systems Engineering. Being concurrently enrolled in an Associates program (Parkland) and a Masters program (UIUC) has been an interesting challenge. Last semester I took an Aircraft Flight Mechanics class—very interesting stuff. There was much discussion regarding calculating aircraft performance and stability (both static and dynamic). I did a semester-long project that involved some flight testing of an actual aircraft (my friend's Cessna 175). I compared theoretically calculated climb performance to those results obtained from flight test data. If anyone would like to see the report on that I'd be happy to share. I could maybe give a presentation on it next time I'm in town. Pretty interesting results.
While I really valued my time at Scaled Composites last summer (and had a great time hanging out with fellow EAA Chapter 563 member Andrew Barth!), my fiance and I both decided that California wasn't going to be the best place for us at this time. About a month ago I was reached out to by the flight test manager at Bombardier in Wichita, KS. For those not familiar, Bombardier makes the Global and Challenger business jets (they also purchased Learjet some time ago). They are looking for Flight Test Engineers and I managed to make it through the first round of interviews. I am getting flown out next week for a final, in-person interview/meet and greet. If all works out, I may be joining them in Dec/Jan. Fortunately, my Masters program at UIUC can be completed online. Bombardier makes a military version of their Challenger business jet for the Air Force called the E-11, and I have a feeling they may want me to work that program—we'll see.
I've also been in talks with Sierra Nevada Corp for a position with them as a Flight Test Engineer as well. They won the contract to build the Air Force's new "Doomsday" E-4B aircraft. Based in Dayton, that program will be taking some 747-8's purchased from Korean Air and turning them into the next generation SAOC "Survivable Airborne Operations Center". So we'll see which (if any) of these positions pan out.
My last day as a C-130 flight engineer in the Air National Guard was June 6th. As many of you I'm sure heard, Peoria will be trading in the legacy "H" model C-130's for the new "J" model. The new C-130J doesn't retain the flight engineer or the navigator position and that fact, coupled with some promising opportunities in my civilian career, the tough decision was made to separate from the military.
In other news, I'll be missing Oshkosh this year unfortunately. My fiance says we have to go get married in Colorado instead. I suppose this is what everyone says when they talk to me about compromise in marriage, ha-ha! All jokes aside, we're both very excited and the big day is August 3rd in Steamboat Springs, CO. We'll be back in Illinois on the 13th following a honeymoon in Bryce Canyon, Zion, and Arches National Parks.
Hope all is well for everyone at the hangar! Allie and I are tentatively planning to make a Saturday breakfast in August at the hangar once we're back in town from the honeymoon—and before it gets super busy again with the fall semester of school!
Andy P. and his newly retired wife have done a great deal of volunteer work at OSH this year, and of course they attended the show. He sent this image to Greg LePine:
We presume he let Loreena do all the sweet talking to arrange for this photo.
The EAA chapter in Galesburg is helping with the National Stearman Fly-In and is looking for volunteers:
The Stearman Fly-In, hosted in Galesburg (KGBG), is looking for volunteers to help with aircraft greeting during the Fly-In week, September 2nd - 7th!.Please click on this link to volunteer.
Greeters will be the first line of contact with new pilot arrivals. You will show them where the parking area is, give them their arrival packet and point them in the direction of registration.
As a thank you for volunteers, a FREE stearman ride will be raffled off EACH DAY for those who volunteer that day! The ride will take place the day you volunteer, weather permitting.
If you have any questions, please reach out to Phillip Wolford (phillipw@jetair.com). Otherwise, when you register, you will fill in your contact information which will be used by the coordinators to get in touch with you regarding any pertinent information.
Lacon now has Swift 94 UL fuel.
Perhaps due to traffic heading to and from OSH this time of year, July found an unusual number of transients parked overnight on the field, including the above four. Besides the RV is a Cherokee Six, a Cessna 340, and a Beech Sundowner.
One handsome visitor late in the month was this 1950 Ryan Navion from Indiana.
eaa563.org
Mt. Hawley Airport, Peoria, Illinois