The next meeting of EAA 251 will be Oct. 13 at 1800 hrs. in the pilots lounge of Alamogordo-White Sands Regional Airport. After the business portion there will be a short showing of some 1966 or so experimental airplane flying at the old Midway Airport with pilot Ishmael Boles at the controls. Refreshments will be provided by Ken Henderson.
Chapter 251 held a YE Rally on 9/26/09. We flew 16 “legal young eagles”, several enthusiastic young eaglets, and a few “old crows” for a total of 23 people experiencing aviation at its grass roots level. One young man even brought us back a “Thank You” card for flying him. While we didn’t have the turn-out that we had hoped for, which was unfortunate considering we had 5 pilots at the ready, all attending had a great time. A special thanks to our pilots; Bob Hurd in his Beech, Kevin Dunshee in his C-140, Dave Stevens in his C-180, Randy Bailey in his C-182, and Dieter Gerthe in his C-206. Some of these pilots flew down from SRR to help us out and we could have flown over twice as many persons if they had been there to fly. We had a lot of good discussion about how to get the YE message out there and we will be discussing this at the next meeting. All of you that had ideas on this matter are asked to write them down and bring them to the next meeting. We also signed on two new members for EAA. Welcome Bill Farley and Dieter Gerthe.
Lime green proved to be the crowd favorite again at the YE Rally. We sold five t-shirts, all green, 2 patches, and received some generous donations for our photos of the kids and their pilots.
Chapter 251 is sponsoring a YE Rally at Sierra Blanca Regional Airport (SRR) on Oct. 17, 2009 from 0800 to 1200 hrs. All help, both air and ground, would be appreciated. I’m going up in my truck and I can ride 4 comfortably, if two are 5’ or less (kind of like a C-172), or 6 if we want to go “smuggler mode”. OK! I’m kidding, sort of. If a lot of kids show up I know I could use some help and I’m not sure how many pilots Dieter has lined up so far, but you can never have too many. They came down and gave us a hand. Let’s return the favor. You know how to get hold of me. Enjoy a day in the “cool pines” helping fly some kids.
Member Maurice Morgan and I flew up to the SWRFI in Moriarty on Sept. 12. It was a short 45 minute trip in Maurice’s RV-6, and yes, it only requires the thumb and forefinger to fly it. We saw some great aircraft and headed home early to avoid the nasty weather building up. Another short 45 minute hop and we were safely back at ALM. Thanks for the ride Maurice!
Christmas is on the way and with it our annual party. It will be on Dec. 8 at 1600. We will probably hold it at Memories Restaurant as we have in the past. Details will be discussed at the next meeting.
I received the order form for the annual EAA “World of Flight” Calendars last week. We will be taking orders at the next meeting. For the small price of several gallons of 100LL you can enjoy a different aircraft each month. Purchasing one of these calendars supports the chapter and EAA National so dig deep and get one for the workshop, hangar, and wherever else you need one. Don’t be a “Jack Benny”. Support the economy.
Old business consisted of making the last minute plans and arrangements for the upcoming YE Rally on Sept. 26.
A new list was started for providing refreshments at the monthly meetings.
In at SRR was discussed. Chapter members approved 251 to sponsor a Young Eagles Rally at the Fly-In on Oct. 17.
Attending the Southwest Regional Fly-In in Moriarty was discussed.
Government’s use of Japanese Balloon Bombs, Nazi Horton Glider, and deformed Japanese POW’s rescued from the Germans as an answer for the “Roswell Incident” was discussed. These “conspiracy” guys always have a logical answer.
Ordering more lime green chapter t-shirts was discussed and approved.
Meeting was adjourned at 18:53 hrs.
Taken and submitted by Ken Henderson.