EAA Chapter 284 will hold its January 2012 Chapter meeting Sunday January 8th at PM at Red Stewart Airfield, Waynesville OH.

I continue to get requests from Zarrick Conner for airplane rides. He is a 14 year old young man from Burlington KY who is eager to fly. He is currently taking lessons as he can afford them. His most recent lesson was at Waynesville with Emerson. He kind of reminds me of the kids who would hang around the airports looking for rides and would do old jobs to get them. Unfortunately there are no small airports near Burlington KY.

Contact one of the chapter officers if you can help. (Remember that he lives in Burlington KY and must arrange transportation.)

Students from the Greene County Career Center will do a presentation on Jessie Maude “Chubbie” Miller, an Australian aviatrix who made an emergency landing in Xenia OH during the 1929 woman’s air race. She was a charter member of the 99’s. IN 1927 she became the first woman to complete an England to Australia flight.

After learning that Chubbie Miller made her landing in Xenia the students researched the event and will present results of their research to the cheaper, and later to the Xenia city council. It is their hope to raise money for a commemorative plaque to be place near the site where she landed. The students are doing this as part of a community service requirement for school.

Let’s have a good turn out and show the students our appreciation for their efforts.
Bob Luken

With his permission a snippet of his blog post is below:

We’re talking about creating videos here, so the video camera is obviously a key element in the process. I purchased a Kodak Zi8 a little over two years ago for two primary reasons. First, I work for Kodak and the employee discount was nice. Second, and more importantly, it has an external mic input that allows me to hook it into the intercom to capture audio. It records in 720p or 1080p HD (I always use 720p / 30 fps) and the quality is more than sufficient for my sharing vehicle of choice, YouTube. Nearly all my flying is during the day so any performance issues in low-light video don’t concern me. I’m not sure that any device in the pocket video camera segment has great low-light performance, so keep that in mind if you want to record at night.

Kodak Zi8 with RAM attachment in the tripod mount

I purchased a portable intercom through the AOPA Classifieds a few years ago. It was mainly because the 172 at Stewart only has a two-place intercom in the panel and I wanted to be able to talk to everyone when flying with more than one passenger. However, it also has an audio out jack that has become quite handy for piping intercom and radio chatter into the Zi8.

Sigtronics SPO-42 Portable Intercom with cable in “Audio Out” jack

Video editing software is an area where I’m currently just making do with what I have. I don’t want to buy anything because I need a new computer and have not decided whether to get an iMac or a Windows machine. The MediaImpression software that comes with the Kodak cameras has been perfectly adequate – after all, every video of mine from the past two years has been edited in it – but some things that should be simple tend to be a time-consuming hassle. If you want to save yourself headaches or aren’t familiar with video editing (which I am, and that’s partially why I’ve continued to work around MediaImpression’s limitations) I’d definitely recommend better software from the get-go.

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We will need to spend part of the time checking our inventory of supplies for the Taildragger Fly-In scheduled for September 4, 2011. I would also like to spend some time talking about Young Eagles opportunities.

We usually schedule Young Eagle flight in conjunction with the Fly-In and that is the plan for this year. For each Young Eagle that we fly we receive a $5 credit to be used towards purchasing some item that can be used in our YE program. In the past we have purchased both tables and chairs. This year we still have $115.00. I am going to suggest a straight leg pop-up canopy. One note, in order to be eligible for the $5 credit the pilot needs to fly 10 Young Eagles. So if one pilot flies 10 and two pilots fly 5 each we will only receive credit for the 10 flown by the one pilot. So far this year I have flown 21 Young Eagles.

For this year’s TDFI Young Eagle rally I hope that all of our pilots who are currently flying will take some time to fly kids this year. I know that some pilots only fly either the Cub or the Champ. If you can fly either the 150 or the 172 consider renting that for the Young Eagle rally. Of course, if you have your own plane please consider fly on Sunday. The Young Eagle rally will be scheduled from 10 AM – 2 PM. Although this is a 4 hour period you will actually fly about 2 hours or less during this time period. I would like to bring my plane down to use, but I have a logistical problem in getting both my plane and food and things to the airport. I would like to fly down a few days early and leave my plane at Waynesville. I will need someone to drive me back to Dayton to get my car. Anytime a few days early will work for me.

As always I worry about not having enough help for the Fly-In this year Rich Corbett has another obligation and won’t be able to help. He has brought his daughter to help in the past so I don’t think that she will be available.

Typically Keith has helped with parking aircraft and Dean has run the sound system. By the way Dean we will need the sound system on Sunday.

As a small chapter we need everyone’s help. I can say that we receive many compliments every year on our Fly-In and pancake breakfast.

In past years we have had raffle for aerobatic rides. This has involved a lot of time selling raffle tickets. Because of the time involved, particularly on Saturday I have tentatively decided to forgo the raffle this year. If there is a demand for the raffle by members we can reconsider.

Additional Young Eagle Information:

In October we have normally scheduled our meeting off site to avoid the traffic associated with the Sauerkraut Festival. We have tried to have a picnic type of meeting at Ross Field where Bob Wilson lives, but it has been poorly attended. This year I am suggesting that we do another Young Eagles rally at the Georgetown Airport. Mitch Katz is the library manager in Georgetown. While there is an airport in Georgetown there is little flying activity for the community. This would be the perfect opportunity to bring aviation to that community. In addition to pilots we would also need some assistance with registration and safety management at the airport.

Sunday is not always the best day to have a Young Eagle rally because of conflicts with those who attend church services. I would propose that we have the Young Eagle Rally on either Saturday October 8^th or 15^th. Our normal meeting date for October would be the 9^th. We should be able to start flying at 9 AM to take advantage of the calmer winds that we would expect in the morning. In October I don’t expect to have any really hot weather. Georgetown is a 3o minute flight from Moraine in my 172 and probably about the same from Waynesville in the 150. So if you are an active pilot please consider being available. If you are not active please help with the ground activities. On Sunday July 3^rd Mitch and I flow both Young Eagles and adults at Georgetown. Between the two of us we flew about 75 people, including 12 Young Eagles.

Next year the Young Eagle program will expand to include adults. The reason for this is that the segment of the population that provide the most new recreation pilots is the 45-50 year old demographic. The aviation industry would like to target that group. Without new pilots the skies will get less and less crowded. I should have more information on this in January.

A Skybolt Project:

A new member, Tom Johnson, is working on completing a Skybolt. I have been to his shop on several occasions to both watch and lend some assistance. He is currently covering the tail feathers and is using the Randolph system. Randolph is a little different from Polyfiber so I have found our session together very informative. Interestingly Tom is left handed and starts his rib stitching away from himself and works toward himself.. He will be covering the fuselage and wings in the near future. This will be a good opportunity to get some practice with the Randolph system before you begin you covering job. Randolph is the system that Kathy prefers. All covering systems have the basics in common but there are some significant differences. Unfortunately Tom will not be able to attend Sunday’s meeting, but he has assured me that he will be helping at the Fly-in. Tom works on his project from about 3:30 -7 Pm week days and on Saturday and Sunday. If you are interested in helping an learning I will give you Tom’s phone number.

Crash kills 2 in plane based on Wright ‘B’ Flyer

GREEN TWP., Clark County — Two local pilots died Saturday morning during a test flight of the Wright ‘B’ Flyer’s Silver Bird.

The plane went down before 11 a.m. in a field about two miles west of 7391 Pitchin Road. Ohio State Patrol Sgt. Brian Cook of the Springfield Post said a call came in at 10:56 a.m. and troopers arrived at 11:39 a.m. He said all-terrain vehicles were needed to get authorities to the crash site. Media on the ground were not allowed on the property.

The president of Wright B. Flyer Inc. identified the pilots as Don Gum and Mitchell Cary. Phil Beaudoin said both men were volunteer pilots and members of the group’s board of trustees and that Cary was a former president of the organization.

“Wright B. Flyer Inc. and its members extend our deepest condolences to the families of Mitchell Cary and Don Gum,” Beaudoin said Saturday. “Mitch and Don were highly competent pilots with extensive experience flying Wright “B” Flyer airplanes and other experimental aircraft.

“They always observed the highest standards of safety. They made enormous contributions to our organization and to the aviation heritage community. They were good friends and we will miss them dearly.”

The coroner arrived at the scene at 1:45 p.m. and Cook said investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration were on the way. The plane had taken off from Springfield’s Beckley Municipal Airport, where Beaudoin said all test flights occurred for the Silver Bird.

A witness who lives nearby indicated that a small plane was sputtering and flying very low and then he heard the cracking of trees.

Beaudoin said the Silver Bird, call sign N453WB, is a slightly smaller version of the Brown Bird, the Model B replica Flyer that has been flying in shows for the past 25 years.

He said the plane had 25 hours of flight time before Saturday’s flight. Beaudoin said the aircraft received its FAA air worthiness certificate for test flights last fall.

Authorities did not address who was flying Saturday and Beaudoin said he did not know. Gum was quoted in a March 2010 article on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base’s website describing what it was like to fly a Model B replica.

“With other airplanes you have a reference out front, you have instruments,” Gum said during a show at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas. “In (the Wright “B” Flyer) there is nothing around you, no cockpit; it’s beautiful, you can see directly below you.”

Beaudoin said the Silver Bird had been built during the past four years by volunteers and that it was constructed to modern standards. A third, non-flying Wright ‘B’ Flyer replica is housed at Hoffman Prairie.

Dayton Daily News