At the Annual meeting in early November, all members of the current board were elected again for 2025. The treasurer was not present to give a budget for 2025, but it was agreed the budget is last year's budget plus 4% for inflation.
A motion to sell the donated PL-4 project was made and approved. The board will decide when it is ready to market. The donated 601-HDS project will have to be inventoried before it can be decided whether to use it as a project for the teens, use it as a chapter build project, or be sold as is.
There is no increase in chapter dues this year, so renewals remain $40, individual or family. You can leave your check in the mailbox or send it there via the Post Office: EAA 563, 1320 W Bird Blvd, Peoria, IL 61615.
If there is no change in your address or e-mail, there is no need to send a renewal form. If you need to update your contact information, you can use the application form from the Contact page of the chapter web site—see the section labeled Join.
The airport is having to replace the gate card system, and you will need to acquire a new gate card by December 31. If you lease a hangar at 3MY, you will receive a free card as part of that lease. For chapter members without a lease, this isn't as simple as before:
The new card will have your name on it and will also have a PIN. It will remain valid so long as you remain a chapter member.
This year, the Caterpillar 2 to 1 gift matching runs from Monday 12/2 through Thursday 12/6 (or until the allotted double match money runs out). This has proven popular in the past. When applying for the match, the chapter's entry can be found by searching for "Experimental Aircraft" in Illinois and then selecting Chapter 563. Alternatively, our tax ID can be used: 371404957.
The VMC Club will meet this Sunday at 6:30 in the hangar. The IMC Club meets the following Sunday at 6:00.
The annual banquet is Friday December 20 at the Lariat Steakhouse on Glen in Peoria. Socializing begins at 6:00, and we'll be seated to order supper at 7:00. After supper, there might be a brief review of the year at EAA 563. More details can be found in last month's newsletter.
Julian Sturm has passed his written exam. "I've also been completing all dual and night cross country flights."
On the teens' Zenith Cruzer project, the lower left wing skin is riveted in place and fitting of the fuel tank, pitot system, and landing lights are well along. The avionics tray is nearly complete, and the last antenna has been fitted to the fuselage. Work on fitting the stops and cables for the rudder and elevator has also begun.
You can follow their progress on the airplane's Build Log on the chapter web site.
Dewey Fitch passed away last month. He'd been involved in aviation for most of his 92 years and had long been a chapter member. Visitation and services start at 10:00 on Saturday, December 14 at Westminster Presbyterian, on Moss Ave.
In early November Killian Madeley earned his Commercial rating.
Tim and Claudia Threw are visiting friends in Italy and sent along this photo from the Venice-Lido airport, Giovanni Nicelli (LIPV), which is a 3261' grass strip with a 13' elevation. It's located at the mouth of the entrance to the Venice lagoon.
Mike Tillman, who ran the mechanic shop in the hangar by the FBO, has retired. Rumors have it that Nick Keith plans to move back to the area from Florida and take over this space. Nick formerly ran the shop at the Pekin airport and was a chapter member.
A Zenith 601-XL from Kentucky visited the field last month. This is the somewhat infamous, initial version of their low wing airplane designed to the then new LSA specifications. A number of these suffered structural failure of the wings in flight, apparently due to flutter. The factory demo airplane had around a thousand hours, so builder error—either in the metal work or in the rigging of the ailerons—might have been a contributing factor. Regardless, after the wing structure was modified, the failures ceased.
Other changes created the 650B, and the factory has recently announced they have changed the tooling for this model from pilot hole to matched hole construction throughout. It's a candidate for the next teen build project, after the Cruzer now in progress is sold. It has a simpler primary structure than the Cruzer and should go together quicker. Other candidates are the low and high wing models from Sonex plus the donated Zenith 601-HDS.
While there is a 601-XL hangared on the field, there isn't one of these, which was a visitor in early November:
eaa563.org
Mt. Hawley Airport, Peoria, Illinois