EAA Chapter 563
The Beacon
October, 2024
The October meeting is this coming Saturday, the 5th. The VMC Club meets the following day and then the IMC Club meets the week after that.
In their monthly Chapter Video played last month, headquarters announced Airventure had an attendance of 686,000 with assistance from 6,000 volunteers, both being records. (Note that a week's wristband counts as 7 attendees.) There were women's only forums again this year (but none for men only). Burt Rutan arrived, and a street in Camp Scholler was named for him and his late brother.
We need someone to organize the Holiday Party. Alexander's could work again this year, but it was agreed we'd want a better room this time.
Paxson Wooden from the Zenith Cruzer project helped Greg LePine tidy up the hangar. Paxson also made numerous repairs to the sandblasting cabinet.
This charitable organization offers free flights to needy people around the world. They sent a note to the chapter pointing out their fundraising raffle for a 1964 Cherokee 235.
Greg LePine leads the nominating committee this year and has found that all the current board members were willing to serve an extra year. However, all positions are open if you'd like to volunteer; just let Greg know.
In mid September, a total of twelve Young Eagles and Eagles flights were made.
The next flights are scheduled for Saturday the 19th, and extra pilots and ground crew are always appreciated.
HQ's Young Eagles registration site has new software in test.
At the chapter meeting, the Young Eagles coordinator, Todd Moore, was thanked for the success of the program this year.
Julian Sturm provides an update on his work towards a Private Pilot under the Ray Scholarship program:
Much of my time in the airplane last month was spent doing cross-country prep and working on solo flights in and out of the pattern. Outside of the flight training, I have started getting more serious about preparing for the written exam that I hope to take once Fall Break comes around. Some of my time has been spent on ground training with my instructor which will be helpful in the future. I am at 32 logged flight hours so far, and I am starting to fly more frequently. I have completed one dual cross-country flight and will be doing my solo cross-country flight soon. After that, I have night hours left.
In the past month, work resumed on the doors. The wing is nearly ready to rivet the bottom skins on, and the engine cowl has been fitted.
A recent visitor to the chapter's build session was a coworker of a chapter member, and he wanted to bring his brother and niece to view the goings on. They are from China, and after watching and asking many questions over the course of an hour, they left with the comment that such a project in China was "inconceivable." Appreciate what you have here.
The chapter has reserved a spot for the July 15 to 23 session at the 2025 OSH fly-in. Sessions for 12 and 13 year olds are no longer offered in order to make more room for the older kids, so keep this in mind if you wish to nominate a teen for our slot.
Tim Threw's RV-7 has its Lycoming mounted again. As seen in the second photo, he also prepared the airplane for its annual condition inspection.
Dave Jackson diverted a recent road trip for a stop at the private Rinkenberger airport north of Bradford, and he provided some of the history of the field:
Back in the 1970's, my wife and I based our airplanes at the Bradford Airport, also known as Rinkenberger Airport. It was in much better shape than today. At that time the beacon and runway lights were still operational. We would often fly some place for dinner, turn on the lights before leaving and arrive home after dark, with a beautiful sight of the lights in operation. Those days are gone as the lights no longer work and the boundary markers for the runways have fallen into disrepair. Hangars are still there but no longer are rented and have also not been kept up. It is sad to see this once nice airfield in this condition. I have many fond memories of the days spent at that airport. We based our planes there until 1981 when we created our own airfield on our farm near Elmira and converted an old machine shed into a hangar. We later added a second hangar.
Dave's friend Ross Carbiener also provided a copy of articles from Illinois Aviation dating to 1981. In the Jan-Feb issue, the early history of the field was described.
It was one of three emergency landing fields established from 1930 for passenger airplanes running between Chicago and Kansas City. There were three runways about a half mile long each, but only two remain. This was the era of light beacons for night navigation, and these were placed every 10 miles along the route with the locations at every 100 miles the site of an emergency field. The other emergency fields on the route were at Burlington, IA and Kirksville, MO.
The Bradford field also received a voice communications station in 1931. Not long after, a manned weather reporting station was added which tied into the national network via teletype. In 1957 it was converted to a remote station, and in 1977 the weather station was removed.
At least three DC-3 passenger airplanes had to use the emergency field over the years it was in service. Two were forced in by icing conditions, and one had to land after a large bird—perhaps a goose—hit and bent a propeller. In the latter case, another DC-3 flew in carrying mechanics and a new propeller. That airplane continued on to the original destination, and when the propeller had been swapped, the damaged airplane returned to Chicago for further repairs.
All emergency fields were abandoned in 1951, in part due to their short runways, but Herman Rinkenberger continued this airport as a private landing field.
In the above photo, one is looking east along the E-W grass runway, and the old towers and support buildings are near the junction with the N-S grass runway. The hangars were to the left of the image, actually across the rural road from the towers. Near the base of the nearest tower is a rusty, self propelled lawn roller, which now must be towed to do its job.
This Saturday, the 5th, from 11:00 until 2:00, the Bradley Flying Association has their annual Cookout/Potluck lunch. Their flier for the event, including RSVP information, can be found in the calendar section of the chapter homepage.
The Lacon chapter's Poker Run had to be delayed to this Saturday. Their flier can also be found via the homepage. Hands will be played at 1:00 at the Lacon airport, and lunch is provided.
Also this Saturday is the LifeLine Pilots' Plane Fun Day here at 3MY. Among the available activities will be rides.
An unusual visitor to the field last month was a de Havilland Canada Twin Otter which stopped for fuel on a ferry flight to Arizona:
Mt Hawley International also hosted this Canadian RV-9 traveling from Colorado Springs back to southern Ontario. This photo was taken in low, ambient light. The quality of the cameras built into cell phones today is remarkable:
Midwest Flyer reports the FAA has issued new guidance for airports at which the grass areas beside runways are used for take-off and landing.
They also report that (if you hadn't noticed already) Wag-Aero's parts distribution operation, "but none of the manufacturing operations," has been purchased by Aircraft Spruce. Wag-Aero's Leading Edge Airfoils group, a major Rotax dealer in the US, was not part of the deal either. It is now known as Advanced Powerplant Solutions.
eaa563.org
Mt. Hawley Airport, Peoria, Illinois