South East Idaho Officers:
Austin Moses, President
Jerry Phillips, Vice President
John Bakken, Treasurer
Harold Mothersill, Website
Dale Cresap, Newsletter
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President's Message:
Saturday, December 9, 2006 will be our annual Christmas Party and year-end social. It will be held at AeroMark in Idaho Falls at 6:00 p.m. Bonnie and I will bring the turkey and ham. Please bring a pot-luck dish to share as well as your own table service. We will have a gift exchange. Please keep the cost under $10 and mark them for either man, woman or child.
As an additional part of our meeting Saturday, I would like to invite those of you who have either finished a project or made significant progress on one, to bring pictures and plan to take a couple of minutes updating us on them. Two that I am aware of are Hal Johansen and Tom Strong, but I am sure there are others.
Thank you to John Bakken for taking care of the November meeting. It was reported that there was not enough for a quorum of the Chapter, therefore a vote for new officers was not held. This will be our first item of business on Saturday. Nominees from the nominating committee are as follows:
President: Natalie Bergevin
Secretary: Dale Cresap
Additional nominations may be made from the floor on Saturday.
Also, appointed to finish Jerry Phillip's term as Vice President is Pete Stewart. Newsletter editor is Carol Strong. Thanks to all for your willingness to participate and support the Chapter!
See you on Saturday!
Austin Moses
President
News of
Note:
Tom Strong finished his RV-9A and is flying the first 40 hours on it.
Congratulations Tom!
Editor's Column
I am taking the position of secretary and will no longer be newsletter editor, so this story will be my last. My daughter Hannah worked as a counselor at a Girl Scout Camp last summer, and I wanted to deliver some treats to her:
Errol has an opening to fly on 7-29 and we agree to meet at 0700. I bought some 5 gallon gas jugs, and spent more to fill them than I did to buy them. I arrive just before 7 to find the plane still in the hangar. Errol has just finished working on it, and I pour in 9 gallons of gas to fill it. I can tell Errol is tired. He doesn't want to answer his phone, but does anyhow, to do some consulting for his boss.
When we start up the plane Errol thinks it is noisy. He shuts it down, and I remove the cowl, while he gets some tools to attach the muffler pipe. Then we put everything back together and take off. I recall from our last attempt that some bombing practice would be helpful, so I brought some Zip lock sandwich bags full of water. The temperature increases as we climb, and it is hazy, especially toward the Tetons, which we never see.
At 2000 feet over some dry farms, I decide to give them a little spot irrigation. Errol is not sure we will be able to see the bags drop. The good news is that we can follow them visually. The bad news is that they are about a mile off target. The motion of the plane makes them appear to move backwards and in a spiral as Errol circles to keep them in sight. These results are not at all encouraging. I should have bought that Norden bombsight on e-bay. There is a large risk that the Rice Krispy treats I brought to drop for Hannah will not find their mark, but it is worth the risk. There is little invested in them, and it will be great if it works. We are almost to the camp, and Errol spots it right away. Is there any sign of life? Yes, a large group of girls is marching down the road. We circle overhead as they wave at us, then I drop the package. It follows the same peculiar visual path, but appears to land near the road just ahead of the girls. This is the best result I could have hoped for and I give rousing cheers of victory. I won't know if it worked until Hannah comes home.
I give one last wave, then close the door, and look ahead out to see that we have a ridge to clear just ahead. Errol clears the ridge and flies over Palisades reservoir, then hands the controls to me at Alpine. This flight therapy seems to be cheering him up. I ask which way he would like to go. Apparently he has not developed a sudden interest in Jackson because he says down Star Valley. I fly over Afton, then ask Errol how soon to head back. He thinks this would be a good time, so we follow the GPS course straight home, over Wayan and Gray's Lake. I am too high as we go past Ririe Reservoir, so I make a long descending left turn over Heise to set Errol up for landing. There is still a strong east wind, so Errol comes in over the wires, with a brief hard slip once he is past them to git 'er down for a perfect landing. We pull the cowl off again for Errol to change oil, and I notice that some of my practice bombs leaked, soaking a roll of paper towels in the back. I'll have to find a better grade of containers.
Epilog
Hannah comes home to say that she saw us flying overhead, waved, and saw us drop the package, yet they were unable to find it. After she returns to camp it occurs to me to send her a treasure map in the mail. The red X marks the spot. When she comes home to stay, she reports that the treasure map helped, and the girls were able to find the package. Success at last! They didn't eat the Rice Krispy treats because the mice found the package first, but they were still excited at the find (the mice probably were too)