Chapter 54 NEWS

 

 November  2001

Volume 44, Issue 11

November Gathering
                           will be held on:

Date: 11/12/2001

Time 7:00 pm Social

          7:30  pm Meeting

Location: EAA Chapter 54 Chapter House
                 100 feet South of the Rotating Beacon at 21D

Topic: Elections and 'To Be Announced'

 

 

                President's Corner
 
Here it is Nov. 1st and the temp. was near 70 today. I planned to go flying in my bi-plane but the dummy that flew it last put it away with the master switch turned on. Dead Battery! I’ll have to put a charge into it and see if I can revive it. I do have an L-2 Taylorcraft, also, that I can fly. So I can get some therapy in that airplane while waiting to see if my battery will charge up. It’s a Gell Cell battery and it’s about 5 years old. They generally are expected to only last a little more than two years, so I suspect I need to purchase a new one. My flying season is lasting a little longer than usual this year due to the good weather hanging around through the early part of November. Good thing too, what with our having lost some valuable flying time because of the airspace shutdown. We’re now going through another little bit of an airspace shutdown since the government has temporarily restricted flight in the airspace surrounding all the Nuclear Plants. One thought that I wonder about though; if you have access to the inter-net and you are a potential terrorist, they have provided you with a detailed map of where all the Nuclear Plants are exactly located and have even conveniently provided cross-hairs right on the targets.

The Chapter House is nearing completion. John Schmidt has finished painting the ceiling and Paul Anderson has donated enough sheetrock to finish off the inside. On Tuesday last Dave Fiebiger called in some volunteers to install the sheetrock and a great many people showed up and made short work of it. All the walls were covered by noon. As it stands now, the building has been connected to a transformer and the electricity is turned on. The meter’s running. The interior wiring is roughed in and has been inspected and approved. The gas is connected, turned on and the furnace is running. The carpet for the floor lies somewhere in a warehouse ready for delivery and installation. We still need to tape and paint the sheetrock and finish installing the light fixtures, switches and receptacles. Never the less we definitely plan to conduct the November meeting at the building. So plan to show up for the meeting. We will have heat and will be able to jury-rig some light.

And speaking of a meeting, this one is important. It’s election time so for your own protection show up or you may get elected for something. Come prepared to vote for new officers. Dick Wicklund and Dale Rupp are the nominating committee and will have a list of candidates and some ballots for you to cast your vote. I haven’t heard from Nick yet as to whether or not we will have a program. The meeting will start at 7:30 on Monday, November 12th. It will be held at the Chapter House, which is located at the Lake Elmo airport. Come in the “B” entrance and go to the building that has the deck. We generally show up starting at 7:00 in order to socialize a little. See you there.

---- Bill Schanks

 

 

Treasurer’s Report: 11/1/01

Money Market $2,781.02
Operations        $ 626.98
Cash                  $ 25.00
=====================
Total               $3,433.00

Collected $180.00 dues. Paid $64.44 for the Newsletter. Bought $275.00 worth of Calendars. Paid $33.52 to Excel Energy. Checking account changed from a $500.00 minimum balance (no interest) to a $1500.00 minimum balance. We have switched to a different type of account, where we will pay $.40 for each check that we write and each check that we deposit, if more than twenty checks.

 

October Meeting minutes

19 Members and 4 guests in attendance, called to order at 7:33PM.

Guest introductions-Keith Bogatt - going to sign up, interested in building a Challenger ultralight/lightplane; Brian Shalles - owner of a Fisher Horizon at New Richmond; Jim Rush, also out of New Richmond - owner of a GP-4 and Cessna 182E. Also a guest was Jim Frantz, out speaker.

September 10th meeting minutes accepted as published in newsletter. Treasurer's report accepted as published in newsletter.

Jerry Sarracco on behalf on the Lake Elmo Airport Association thanked highway cleanup helpers. He also talked about the RACC (Reliever Airport ? Commission) meeting held at Gatis Valter's hanger. Quite a few Lake Elmo people came to the event, and were well noticed and appreciated. Jerry ordered 50 EAA 2002 calendars, which will be sold as $8.00 each, as decided at the meeting.


A petition was passed to change the name of Lake Elmo Airport due to the reasoning that it is not held with high regard to the town of Lake Elmo, and the airport physically resides in Baytown. A few names were suggested, but Jerry added he is only a messenger, and that the petition is only to change the name, not on what the name should be. Jess Black commented that having a short name would be advantageous.

Dave Feibiger- housing committee. Nothing new with the building...no electrical in our chapter building yet, and was hoping to wrap up everything on the outside of the building by the following week, before it got too cold.

Al Kupferschmidt had nothing on Young Eagles...due to the standing flight restrictions at the time, banning VFR flight within the "Enhanced Class B"

Marlon Gunderson reported for the housing funding committee. $2650 has been received with an additional $250 in pledges, with a total of $2900, which is 2/3 of the chapter's original goal.

The EAA's proposal to allow VFR flight in the Enhanced Class B was brought up by Ed Peiffer and John Schmidt. It consisted of pretty much a squawk code for each airport, so ATC can differentiate where traffic should be going.

Jim Frantz from Proprietary Software Systems was introduced by Nick Stolley as the night's program speaker, and showed a presentation on what benefits knowing your Angle of Attack has. It helps both safety and efficiency of flight, without any computations from the pilot. Jim also showed off his company's product line...two Angle of Attack indicators, the Sport and the
Professional. Both can be seen at www.angleofattack.com.

Minutes by Nick Stoley

 

 

 

This from our Young Eagles coordinator, Al Kupferschmidt:

Finally got into my e-mail and this new WindowsXP program. The only thing I have for Young Eagles would be -if anyone would like to do Eagle flights on an individual basis they are welcome to do so. Just have them call me for the name and phone # . I have several names from the flights we had to cancel because of the 9-11 event. The month of November for me, will be filled with other things so will not be doing an organized flight.

Al K

 

 

 

 

This from Mick Supina:

Continental - 125 - 2 engine. Approx. 850 hours TT. Includes carb heat box,
exhaust stacks, starter, generator, mags. $2300.00. Contact Mick Supina at
masupina@mmm.com or 651-439-2106 after 5:00 PM.

 

From member Dan Bergstrom:

I still have room in my hangar for a small homebuilt aircraft ( wing span of 24 ft. or less ) if any of our members are interested. Rent will be $ 75 per month.

Thanks,

Dan Bergstrom

 

 

From Al Kupferschmidt:


Just thought I would like to tell all the willing volunteers that were planning to fly Young Eagles on the 15th of September a big Thank You ! for their patience during the crisis. Sorry we had to cancel but will try to rescedule when things settle down - if that ever happens!!! 

Thanks, Al K

 

From member Mark Holliday

FOR SALE :Wind damaged 1946 Cessna 140, less firewall forward, instruments and radios. Good paperwork $1,950.

Midget Mustang, 100 hp Continental, $12,000. or $7,500 less engine.


Mark 651-770-3881, 651-270-1318

 

 

Calendar:

 

Nov 12 Chapter Gathering EAA Chapter 54 Chapter House

 

 

 


From Marlon Gunderson:

November Building Fund update and (final?) appeal for funds.

To date we have received money donations from 28 individuals in amounts
that vary from $50 - $200, with $100 being by far the most common contribution,
for a total of $2800.

We also have outstanding pledges of $350, for a current potential total of $3150.

The rate of incoming donations has trailed off to a trickle at best and yet we are
some $1400 short of our goal.

So let me make an appeal to those of you who have not contributed either financially or with volunteer labor in the effort to complete the chapter house. If you are member without the time to provide volunteer labor in the finishing process, then a donation is the perfect way to do your part in helping to establish a chapter house.

The return on this fundraising investment is tremendous. Chapter 54 has spent about $12,000 to get where we are on this building, and we are only looking for $4500 of that in donations from our members. To purchase that structure built new could easily cost 3x or more of what we have invested.

We as a Club are proud of the financial footing we have enjoyed and of our history of supporting local youths as cadets each summer at the EAA Air Academy. While we are not in the red financially yet, we will be soon, or close enough to preclude our ability to sponsor cadets, at least in the short term. We would like to avoid that by generating an appropriate amount of the building cost through member donations.

We'd like to close the fundraising soon, as we will complete the work, and begin occupying the building, and immortalize those who have contributed, financially and otherwise, with a prominently placed list of names who helped make this happen. So please, if you haven't yet, respond with your support.

Thank you,

Marlon Gunderson
Building Completion Fund Committee member

Reminder; please send donations to:

EAA Chapter 54 Building Fund Committee
c/o Marlon Gunderson
2986 Lake Elmo Ave N
Lake Elmo, MN 55042

or bring your donation to the next chapter meeting.

 

 

From Paul Hove:

The pilot of Cessna N12345 had read back his IFR clearance four times without getting it correct. It finally seemed he had it but, alas, he asked:

N12345: "Ah, Clearance, what was that squawk code again?"

Clearance: "Cessna 345, squawk 3423."

N12345: "Clearance, we need a squawk code that ends in zero."

Clearance (instantaneously): "How about 1200?"

Published in
Avweb.com

 

 

From Bob Collins:

I went to the EAA Sportair workshop on RV assembly during the weekend of October 19-21 at Oshkosh. There were about 16 people there, some who had started an RV project, most of whom, however, were thinking about it.

I have a limited amount of experience working with tools, let alone building an airplane. And others I'd talked to said the workshops were more about confidence building than anything else.

Ken Scott from Van's was the instructor. We spent Friday night kicking around the performance of the RV-7 primarily. Ken is something of a minimalist. He scoffed at the work that goes into priming alcad ("unless you live on the Gulf Coast") and warned people not to fall into the "bigger engine" trap. He said the
ideal engine on an RV is a 160 hp, with the performance of larger engines not much of a trade-off for the increased cost and weight. He also said people should avoid spending too much time on the Internet RV lists ("they should spend less time on the computer and more time building their planes."). My take is most people on the RV lists on the Internet are building during building hours, but writing about building during normal work hours.

On Saturday we got used to a few metalworking techniques, made a small project, then started on a larger project (basically, a small control surface). By Sunday around 3:30 p.m., everyone was gone, except for me. I flunked shop class
in high school too.

Other highlights of the weekend included a tour of the set of the Discovery Wings Channel program "From the Ground Up," in which they're building an RV-8. It's being assembled in a hangar at Pioneer Airport and was farther along, of
course, than the current episode. The paint job is done and it appeared they're working on auxiliary fuel tanks in the wing tips. It generally looks to be within a month of starting flight tests. For some reason, I took some delight in seeing some drips on the paint job.

I took some pictures of the plane, the panel, and the engine assembly and will send copies to anyone who's interested. On Saturday night we also got an after-hours tour of the EAA museum. For some reason, I stopped and looked at Ken
Brock's gyrocopter, which I've seen perform at AirVenture many times. None of us knew at the time, of course, that Ken had been killed in an accident a day earlier.

As for the project, the workshop worked. I got home and have a much clearer idea of what needs to be done and have gotten some actual work done on the horizontal stabilizer. I'm hoping to get that done before I clear out the jig in the garage so my wife can get her car in for the winter.

Bob Collins
bcollins@visi.com

 

 

This is also from Bob Collins:

There may be a lot of folks who have enjoyed watching EAA's Sport Aviation program on SpeedVvision. Last week, that show, along with all the aviation programming on SpeedVvision disappeared. I talked to EAA and they said that it was a decision from Fox, which just bought the channel. They're looking around for a new network to place EAA TV programming on, but don't have one yet.

Bob Collins

 

 

 

This from Bill Schanks:

This article appeared in the Stillwater Gazette on Monday, October 28, 2001. 

BOMBERS IN LAKE ELMO? 

LAKE ELMO--- The War Department is seriously considering a tract of land east of Lake Elmo as a great base for bombing planes, according to information released by Rep. Richard P. Gale of the 3rd District.

            The army is making a survey of available sites in the middlewest for a big port for top-flight fighting planes.  Also considered in this region is a site near Osseo.

            The Stillwater Association and the St. Paul Association have joined Lake Elmo in the effort to get this big military development.  The project is for an airport with about 3,500 personnel.

 

                                                            -Research by Chris Baldus, managing editor

 This article originally appeared in the Gazette on Thursday, Oct. 30, 1941 and is a reprint.

 

 

EAA Chapter 54 is located at
3275 Manning Ave. N. Suite #7
Lake Elmo, MN 55042

EAA Chapter 54 NEWS Published monthly by Chapter 54 of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) for the use, education and enjoyment of chapter members and others to whom it is provided. No claim is made for the accuracy of the materials presented. Editorial content is the opinion of the contributor and does not necessarily reflect the policies of Chapter 54 nor the EAA.

Submissions for publication are encouraged, and should be sent to:
EAA Chapter 54 Editor
3275 Manning Ave. N. Suite #7
Lake Elmo MN 55042.

or emailed to: rjwaldron@mmmpcc.org

Permission for other EAA Chapters to use portions of this publication is granted, as long as credit is acknowledged.
Chapter 54 gathers at 7:30pm, on the Second Monday of each month, at an announced location (we lost our Chapter House during the storm).

Officers

Bill Schanks 651-645-2420
President - FrBilly@EarthLink.net

Dan Parker 651-430-1532
Vice President - ParkerDc@quixnet.net
Bob Waldron 651-430-9178
Treasurer - rjWaldron@mmmpcc.org

     Directors Class II
Jim Lund 651-645-1408
Publicity and Promo Lund@isd.net

Tim Reberg 651-730-8574
Events Tim2485@Juno.com

Nick Stolley 651-702-9331
Programs AirplaneIT@aol.com

     Directors Class III
Art Edhlund 651-439-5912
Education aEdhlund@HotMail.com

Ed Peiffer 651-462-2517
Housing Peiffer21D@Prodigy.net

Scott Hutchinson 651-777-1872
Membership sHutch@lrData.com

     Young Eagles Coordinator
Al Kupferschmidt 651-777-9257
RaeAndAl@usWest.net

     Flight Advisors:
Bill Schanks 651-645-2420
Dale Rupp 651-653-1054

     Tech Counselor
Bill Schanks 651-645-2420

Newsletter Editor:
Bob Waldron 651-430-9178 rjwaldron@mmmpcc.org

Visit our WEB site at www.eaa54.org

 

 

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