FEBRUARY 2009
OFFICERS: PRESIDENT- BRIAN KISSINGER,
VICE PRESIDENT- DIANE EARHART
SECRETARY-BILL AANSTAD
TREASURER - RON PEEK
WEBMASTER-BOB MCDANIEL
PROGRAM DIRECTOR – TODD DRENKHAHN & RICK REHG
FLY-OUT CHAIRMAN – BERT HAMPTON
MARCH MASCOT – DAFFY DUCK

Meeting Minutes:

Introduce new members/guests: Aaron Schlemmer: Aaron is a MidCoast machinist, flies an Afordaplane and a Rans S-10 (upgrading to 100hp engine), John Tyner; John has a Cessna 150 with several mods including a 150hp engine and he is currently building a Zenith 601XL; Dale Loyet, Dale joined us too this evening and owns a Quicksilver and his own grass field just north of Scott Field (AFB) O Fallon.

33 members/guests signed the attendance sheet. Not too bad for a bitter cold night!

A special thanks to Bill Rohland for coming early and devising an innovative technique to route the heating flow to make sure the room to stay warm. It may not have looked nice but we were warm!

Secretary’s Report: no minutes from January (Christmas/Hanuakkah/Kwanza/Holiday party), accepted December minutes as mailed.

Treasurer’s Report: read report, accepted as read

Correspondence: Received our approved DD Form 2535 for authorized fly-overs for our June fly-in at SAR. Next step is to get on the SAF-PA list for approved sites and to solicit units for their support. Also received our invoice from EAA for paying for 1 AeroScholar scholarship.

Old Business: Brian asked to wear name tags, check box for tags by Diane; had exec board meeting at Schiappa's, what came out was focus on foundation of building & restoring flying machines, build m/ship, focus on young members, increase & improve programs & workshops, rotating meetings location, how as a chapter to make flying more affordable, helping members finding ways to increase flying.

New Business: Museum trip -- Bill Bucholz not here, tabled until next meeting. Survey from Survey Monkey, Brian asked to fill out on line or pick up hard copy to fill out. Need help to direct future efforts to make chapter energetic & make things happen.

Plaque program discussed, voted to re-institute tradition of plaque for projects. We are one of 15 chaps to have logo on the wall at EAA HQ, out of over a thousand. Request info be sent in on completed projects, to put together & get the plaques done. In addition, we will start a “Wall of Fame” to place a picture of a builder and their airborne steed on the wall.

New eaachp64@yahoo.com email established by prez, also new group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/eaachapter64/ to augment our current website and to help get info out quicker to the chapter members. Join it if you haven’t already.

Programs -- need building project coordinator, newsletter editor (not just secretary), membership chairman, VP Diane volunteered to head up welcome wagon for new people; fly boy (fly-in & out chairman), and student training director to coordinate training. Ed Hase could use help with the library. Please call Ed for info, 314-787-8183.

Fly-ins/outs -- Ercoupers 1st week in June, Dayton; Sparta Fly-In June 6th; info on any events should be sent to Bob McD to put on calendar/website

Surveys -- Brian read excerpts from surveys on how members got interested in aviation

Presentation/discussion on autogas STC & checking gasoline for ethanol -- demo on testing with olive jar, local sources for non-ethanol autogas.
Around the room -- Bill Rohland reported on Fergy update, ready to put wings back on & resume flying, now has 582 Quick in it's way; Dale waiting for warmer wx, Thurm too on Luscombe (no date from Wally, but April sometime); Smith Mini ready to go sez Bob; Bert took delivery of Dave Sneddon's Thorpedo from Dallas with updated canopy, fairings, all updated at no charge by Indus; Larry L still has Minimax project…not progressing (sounds like a good opportunity to help him get it jumpstarted!); Jim Stoops found seep on wing tank on RV, fixed it; John Tiner updated Zenith project, interested in buying true ultralight (Bert said he has one); Walt sez too cold to work on Sonex; Skybolt project update by ?, got parts from B&B in Kansas, will provide info., cheap, nice, pay after receiving parts; Don H. ready to cover wings on J-4; Russ still has Chief, not much work lately in the cold, ran the engine last week.

Membership motion by Bill Rohland to allow a credit on full dues ($12) for a current member who recruits a new member -- motion 2nd & carried – So bring in those new members and get a year’s fee dues!

Meeting Schedule: next meeting Tuesday March 3 at Hangar 2, food by Mike Lotz, and after-meeting program by Mike Brenner & Todd Drenkhahn on “How to Wire your Homebuilt Airplane for Dummies”; April meeting TBD location and we are checking
into having a program by Superflite covering systems.

Committee Reports
Librarian- 4 Tony Bingelis books donated to chapter
Technical Advisor- no report
Program Director- need survey input to develop programs (name?)
Young Eagles- no report
Projects – see above
50/50 Drawing & Raffle!!! - Dave Walter won $24, $24 to club. Also raffled off several items from EAA HQ with Ed Hase donating the signed 1st copy of the Experimenter back to the chapter…thanks Ed!

Adjourned business meeting at 7:54pm, followed by presentation on Wings of Hope.

Brain’s Bites (a.k.a. your Prez’ notes)

February 3rd was a very cold day but it was warm inside our little meeting room in historic hangar #2. Thanks again to Bill Rohland for showing up early to make sure the space was warm and to Bob McDaniel (CPS Airport Director) for providing a wonderful space for our chapter.
Feb & March birthdays (that I know of—please email your birthday to me at eaachp64@yahoo.com):
Don Karr: 2-18
Diane Earhart: 2-24
David Walter 3-1
Randy Ganey: 3-3 – the day of our next meeting!
Brad Jones: 3-16
Happy Birthday to you all!!!!!!

By the way our VP, Diane Earhart, will be swapping out one of her original issue knees for a fancy hi-tech model on 3 March at St Anthony’s in St Louis. Diane will be in the hospital (St Anthony’s) for a few days then at home to continue rehab for a couple weeks. She says she will probably get bored real quick so if you have any minor sub-projects for your airplane you might want to contact her. It could help her to stave off boredom.

In reading every survey you’ve completed on-line, I see some common themes. One is that we need to maintain our focus on our foundation, namely building and restoring airplanes. That is definitely in our control and you will see more programs focused on many aspects of building and restoring airplanes in the coming months. Mike Brenner & Todd Drenkhahn will be conducting a “How to Wire Your Homebuilt Airplane for Dummies” course at the next meeting. You won’t want to miss that! We will also have a number of off-site meetings at various airports and workshops. It will be fun! Bob has or will be posting the survey results (minus any personal data) on our website for all to see. We will also discuss the results at the next meeting.

I also heard you loud and clear when some of mentioned that our regular meetings often get bogged down with lengthy business discussions. (Also that it is hard to hear in our room -- I already have a plan to fix that!) While often the discussions are a necessary evil, it does distracts from our primary focus…. building and flying airplanes. Also, some of you were concerned about the impression lengthy/boring business discussions leave with our guests and new members.

So we are going to try something different in March on a trial basis. The Monday before our regular meeting the officers, and any other member who would like to attend, will meet at Oliver’s restaurant from 6 – 8 pm in the back room for a business meeting. Anything of significance discussed at the Monday meeting will be summarized at our regular meeting. Hopefully that will make our Tuesday meetings more efficient, interactive, and focused on airplane building. We will see how it goes in March and either keep this new meeting or trash it and go back to old way of doing things.
Another theme in your surveys was that our meeting room is too small and we need a bigger space. I agree. I also want to put this matter into perspective. As you probably heard me say before, we need to know our history. In our chapter’s history we’ve tried at least twice, unsuccessfully, to build or buy our own hangar or chapter home. Some very smart individuals worked very hard towards this goal and that is one of the reasons why we have over $30,000 in our chapter’s coffers. That was the most money, by far, of any chapter I informally surveyed at the January EAA chapter’s leaders conference in Oshkosh.

Why did the chapter hangar home fail before? I don’t know. But often large projects fail because of a lack of broad support or a common vision.
There are some things in the works that may eventually change our meeting place and we can talk about this at a later date. That said, I want everyone to please remember one thing……great things can be accomplished when we work together. It’s not enough that just a few members want a nicer place to meet and work on airplanes. The majority of us have to want it and be willing to work together towards that goal.

To put it plainly (and as the old military saying goes), as chapter members we need to lead, follow, or get out of the way.

Lead: Volunteer for a chapter officer position, hangar committee chairman, or other appointed position in the chapter.
- We still need a newsletter editor and Bob could use help with the website
Follow: Ask those who are in the officer/appointed positions how you can help.
Get out of the way: Think of your chapter first and yourself second, be constructive in your criticism and look for ways to help others.

We are a positive and energetic organization focused on 3 primary activities: 1. Building airplanes, 2. Helping our Youth to learn more about Aviation and 3. Seeking ways to make Flying more affordable! I believe we do these things best when we work together in positive ways and when we ask ourselves, “What can I do to help others?” I guess I always work and do things with passion and as if I am under deadline…since I really am. The deadline is called Life, which is a limited engagement. When it’s the right thing to do I just do it. Some people simply don’t get that concept and instead wait for things to happen to them. I challenge you to make something happen today in a new & positive way and to “Keep ‘Em Flying!”

WE STILL NEED A NEWSLETTER EDITOR….
Did you pass Hi Skhool Inglish? Do you know how to use a computer & Microsoft Word with spellcheck? Then you qualify to be our Newsletter Editor!!!!!
PLEASE VOLUNTEER TODAY…YOUR CHAPTER NEEDS YOU!