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:
Our Arco breakfast fly-in was cancelled due to adverse weather.
The next meeting is at Idaho Falls Aero Mark at 6 PM on October 28. Note that this is a week later than our usual scheduled meeting time. Carol Strong is doing a graduate study on general aviation aircraft icing and needs some pilots to make some visual estimates. This is an opportunity for us to help Carol with her study and do something useful for aviation safety.
She will ask you to fill out a 2 1/2 page questionnaire and take a look at 4 airplane wing sections that she has built with simulated ice on the surface. These will be at the meeting. The questionnaire also asks for visual observations on the ice/frost on her wings. This is to record when pilots see ice/frost, how much they see, what they do about the ice/frost, and their personal reactions to the ice/frost. This should be fun. Carol will bring homemade goodies to share with everyone as her thanks to you for participating.
Reed White will be flying Young Eagles at Lava Hot Springs on the morning of October 21. The response was small enough that he expects to be able to fly all the kids himself, but I'm sure he would welcome some company if you have the chance to go there.
Austin Moses
President
Stop Press!
I saw Hal make the first flight in his recently completed HATZ. If he flies this open cockpit biplane through the winter he will win the brass monkey award.
Helicopter instruction will soon be available in Idaho Falls. Those interested should come to an introductory meeting at the Red Baron Hangar at 6 PM on Friday 10/20.
The press coverage of the recent crash in New York reminds us that we may have to become advocates for general aviation if we want to preserve our right to fly when and where we want without asking for permission in advance.
Editor's Column
Career day Flight presentation
Hal is scheduled to give a career day presentation to sixth grade students on 9/22. This is to be an outdoor event, and the weather is bad, so the event is postponed to 9/29. Hal can't make it on that day, and asks me to fill in for him. I put together a presentation and head over, not knowing what to expect. This event is held in a big open field, and we are to operate out of our vehicles. I park behind a sheriff deputy who has guns, body armor and a drug sniffing dog. It is hard to compete with that for the attention of sixth grade kids.
The event runs smoothly for such a large crowd. The career presenters form a large circle, and the classes of kids advance around the inside of the circle from station to station in 10 minute intervals. The organizers say that the turnout is 600 kids, but I would estimate that I spoke to 16 groups including 400 to 500. The event starts with a life-flight helicopter landing in a field. After they talk to the chopper pilot they start to circulate between presenters.
I show the kids a GPS receiver, headset, and sectional, and talk about flight training and the ratings progression. I don't claim that this is an easy way to get rich and make the standard joke about how to make a small fortune in aviation (start with a large one). But if you love to fly, you will think you are getting a sweet deal if you get paid to do it. Then I meet a teacher whose husband just got his ATP. He is expecting to make $100,000 a year at his first job. Good luck.
There wasn't enough room for me to land a Cessna here, although Errol could have landed easily, so I bring a small model of an Me-109. I apologize for bringing an 'enemy plane' since my dad was a B-24 pilot, but it still works to explain basic flight controls
I pass out flyers and circulate a sign up sheet for young eagles, since these kids are all in the right age range. A sack lunch is provided, which I share with some of my fellow presenters. During lunch, John Bagley (or someone else flying that yellow mustang) makes several passes overhead, and pulls up sharply for his departure. That should give a boost to the interest in aviation. Later I get a nice poster of thanks from the kids. It is clear from what they write that the helicopter made the biggest impression. I wasn't really involved with that, but the aviation connection is still there.