EAA 288 recognized for 30 years of YOUNG EAGLE support

As you know, EAA 288 Chapter meeting are held at 7 PM at Keith's hangar, 222 Cessna Blvd, in the Spruce Creek Fly-in, except when circumstances warrant then we will meet at Doris Kennedy's Hangar, across from Keith's. (Thank you Doris!) 

Our November Meeting was on the 16th: 

John Bakos of ACF-50(A Lear Company) was our presenter and discussed, in great detail, corrosion prevention for aircraft.  You may view his presentation below!

Dues for 2024 are due and they remain at $25.  Please pay them soon!  Our scholarship program funds are dependent on official, dues paying memberships.

You may pay by credit card by clicking the link here:  (Please disregard the 2023 type), your dues will be applied to 2024 by Andi, our treasurer.

https://eaa-chapter-288.square.site   

                                 OR

You may pay by cash at the meeting, just talk with Andi at the meeting.

Our October Meeting was on the 19th:  

JIm Ouri recieved a Quilt of Valor for his service to the USA while in the Army.  More information will be forthcoming.

Our guest speaker was Michelle Leon and Ricardo from Levil Aviation (makers of the BOM). They are a Florida based company (Oveido) that integrates off-the-shelf equipment (like iPad, etc) to provide aviation instrumentation in experimental aircraft. (and standard certfied aircraft as well) It was very  interesting and informative, and provides reasonably priced instrumentation for your home-built.  You can learn more at thier Website:  https://shop.levil.com/

Our September Meeting was on the 21st:   

Laura Kelly received a “Quilt of Valor” for her 22 years service in the US Army as a Warrant Officer flying helicopters in the US and overseas including combat tours in the South East Asia theater.

The main presentation was by Aaron Pierce about his work supporting a team who are trained to provide Search and Rescue for space flights.  

Jay announced that the Gaggle Flight has been invited to fly at the New Smyrna Beach Airport Sky Fest 2024.  The event will be at NSB Airport 5-7 April 2024.  The airport will also welcome static displays of Spruce Creek airplanes. 

We will also schedule our Young Eagles event on the 6th of April.  EAA will have a booth to support out YE Event and do some community outreach for the chapter.  We we get closer to the event we will be seeking vounteers from the chapter to participate.

Our August meeting was on the 17th.   We had a special presentation by Tony Crawford who discussedoptions, here at the Creek, if you lose your engine on takeoff. Jay also updated us on activity regarding our Scholarship program.   

Not just our usual 50/50 raffle:  

Here's an interesting story about one of our great EAA288 members:

Pat Ohlsson won the 50/50 raffle and generously donated the winnings to a young lady (Kyla Moulton) that was in the running for the EAA 288 Scholarship this year.  Kyla is very interested in obtaining her Private Pilot’s license.  Pat also had the opportunity to tell her about the 99s.  

Our July 20th meeting was held in Keith's hangar at 7PM for an Ice Cream Social.  No business, but lots of meeting and ice cream.  

Our June meeting was held Thursday, June 15th, at 7 PM. We were back home in Keith's hangar, 222 Cessna Blvd. 

Les Lowman was presented his Quilt of Honor for his service to our Country. 

Jay Jabour announced that we now have 258 dues paying members and that number could climb higher when others pay their dues:-) Hint?

The guest speaker was our own Jim Stone, US Navy carrier pilot and Top Gun Graduate and the Spruce Creek Airport Manger. He presented many outstanding videos of carrier shots and landings and explained carrier operations from the pilot's point of view.   GO NAVY!!

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We also celebrated Keith's 39th birthday for the 49th time.  

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEITH!!!!!

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Our May meeting was held on the 18th.  

A 'Quilt of Honor' was presented to Naval aviator and Vietnam war hero, J.B. Souder.  

                              Commander James B. “JayBee” Souder Ceremony  

Quilts of valor recognize those touched by War.  JB served 20 years in the Navy as a Naval Flight Officer, 1962 to 1982 achieving the rank of Commander.  JayBee is a Hero.  He has seen more of war than most, and this country has asked of him much more than most veterans.  He served 2 combat tours on three different aircraft carriers in Vietnam between March 1966 to the day he was shot down in North Vietnam in 1972.  His accomplishments included destruction of a NV Mig-21. He earned the Silver Star and the Distinguished Service Medal, two of the highest medals awarded to combat veterans.

After abruptly arriving in North Vietnam on April 27th 1972 he served 335 days in captivity as a Prisoner of War.  During that time in the Hao Lo prison, he was the Group Medical Officer, caring for wounded American Airmen, Marines and Naval Aviators.  Tirelessly demanding and obtaining improved medical treatment for them from his captors. Jay Bee’s efforts saved fellow prisoners lives. He served with Valor despite brutal treatment and constant harassment from his captors.

We were honored to present the Quilt of Valor to Jaybee!!!

Our 2022 Ray Scholarship Award winner, Justin McGonigle passed his private pilot check ride Monday April 3. He finished his training with Jim Guldi in the Citabria in a fantastic 43.5  hours.  Justin presented us with an excellent review of his private pilot training and thanked everyone for the honor and privilege he has had to represent EAA 288.

Our keynote speaker was Jeff Schans, Manager of Customer Development at Lycoming.  Jeff provided everyone with an outstanding overview of the history of Lycoming, the product line and helpful hints for operating your Lycoming engine, such as:

* Keeping your oil temperature at about 180 degrees F to boil out any water that may be in the engine.  But wait, doesn't water boil at 212 degrees?   Well, Jeff noted that in normally aspirated engines, the internal temperature is 50 degrees hotter than the gauge indicates and that in turbocharged versions, they run about 75 degrees hotter.

* Most Cylinder Head Temps (CHT) should run from 150-435 degrees F with a max of 500F.  there are some exceptions.  Check your operating manual.

*  This is very important!!!  Check your Oil Suction Screen!  To learn more about this go to your operating manual for details!!  In fact go read it the whole document - this could save you a lot of money and possibly a forced landing.

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Our April meeting was a SPECIAL TAXI-IN meeting held at 6:30PM Thursday, April 20th on the eastern side of Cessna Blvd.  

The event was open to all EAA 288 Daytona Beach members. The intention was to give chapter members an opportunity to look at aircraft the chapter members are flying or those that have been built by members and ask questions of the owner.

As seen by the pictures on the Home Page, the event was held on Cessna taxiway and started at 224 Cessna Blvd and expanded to the west. 

Thanks to Andy Weingram for these outstanding DRONE VIEWS of our Taxi In Meeting

Go here to view these videos:  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLl_KnvycmgflRO3qLX42U3KouCZhFrOhM

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Our March program:

Spruce Creek's HERO, Tom Romkey (TR), a WWII and Korean war veteran was presented a Quilt of Valor from the Florida Chapter of Quilts of Valor.  Some time ago Tom's incredible war time history was shared in an interview done by Spruce Creeks Bob Gandt (BG) for his series 'The Spruce Creek Living History Project' that he wrote by interviewing war time heroes.  Thanks to Bob for sharing this with EAA288.  Excerpts from this interview are below:

BG: Tom’s long military career took him from flak-filled skies over Germany to the forbidding landscape of North Korea to far flung outposts of the Cold War.  We also learned that Tom is an experienced pilot, owner of multiple airplanes, and a connoisseur of rare automobiles.  

TR:  I flew my first combat mission in August, 1944.  Altogether I flew about 20 missions—you had to have 25 to come home.  Flak was our biggest problem.  My B-17 took several hits, and on one of those occasions I was in the tail gunner’s station.  The gunner’s perch was like a bicycle seat, and we had electrically-heated boots and suits to keep us warm.  A flak burst came up through the tail, through the heel of my boot, up the inside of my fur-lined jacket, leaving a red mark up my back, went out the top.  (Grins and shakes his head).  The worst part was that the flak took out the electric heat in my boot.  I got frostbite on my foot before we got back to our base.

TR:  I survived two crash landings—and managed to walk away from both.  The first one was after our #4 engine was hit by flak over Germany and was on fire.  A P-51 escorted us to a mat-covered runway in France.  The pilot made a beautiful landing, but the steel mat was wet and slippery.  We slid off the end of the mat and went into the woods.  That B-17 was mostly destroyed.  The next time was returning from a mission in bad weather and a low ceiling.  The pilot came in too low on final approach and we hit a hedgerow.  Trashed that airplane too, but everybody walked away. (Grins again).  I only had good crashes.

TR:  In 1951 I heard they were looking for flight engineers on B-29s.  I volunteered, so they sent me first to Randolph Field in Texas for training, then to Escape and Evasion school in Nevada.  After that I went to Travis AFB in California, where we picked up a revamped B-29, which we were supposed to fly to the Far East in company with three B-26s.  We got to Hawaii, then on to Johnson Island, where we had to do an engine change.  And then another.  And when we got to the Philippines, we did a third engine change.  Finally got to Okinawa, and after four missions changed yet another engine.  

BG:  What was the worst experience you had there?

TR:  We had just dropped our bombs one night when we lost #4 engine.  We decided to go back to Kadena instead of making the shorter trip to Japan.  But just after we passed the equal time point, I had to shut down #1 engine.  We were on two engines, still 30 minutes out of Kadena, when #2 engine failed.  On the way down I restarted #1 engine—and it caught on fire.  So we landed—not a good landing—and veered off into a swale.  (Grimaces, remembering).  That B-29 never flew again.

BG:  Tom, you’ve had an exemplary life both in an out of uniform.  Thank you for sharing some of the stories from that life.  And thank you, sir, for your service.

ALSO:  Chuck Aaron - Red Bull Aerobatic Helicopter Pilot and now a Spruce Creek resident, presented an outstanding program about his career as the world's first Helicopter Aerobatic Pilot.  He showed us a number of videos of his absolutely incredible, outstanding, and breath-taking flights from inside and outside of his helicopters. 

See below for some pictures from our March meeting and our March Young Eagle flights.

Our NEXT Young Eagle event will be Saturday, APRIL 22nd, 2023. 

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THANKS, AS ALWAYS, TO DORIS KENNEDY FOR ALLOWING US TO USE HER HANGAR.

YOUR VOLUNTEER HELP IS STILL NEEDED!!

We need qualified pilots to lead the VMC Program (excellent program material is provided by EAA Headquarters).  

We also have a need for a new Chairperson of Youth Programs.

For our February 16, 2023 meeting:  We proudly had Terry Burtchell of Quilts of Valor (Florida Chapter) present a quilt to member Ed Dunn for his outstanding service to our Country.  Ed is a hero from our greatest generation and a WWII B-29 Pilot 

Our guest speaker was Duncan Koerbel, Manager of the Extra aircraft facility which has moved to DeLand Airport.  Duncan provided a most interesting overview of Extra's new operation in Deland and invited any member to come over for a tour.  More info will be forthcoming.  His presentation may be seen 3 sections below.

Joel Sami, ERAU provided an overview of a study he's working on involving risk management for pilots and asked for pilot volunteers (over age 19 - no problem in our membership)  to complete a questionnaire for him, in support of his work.  Many members took advantage of this at the end of the meeting.

Thanks to an anonymous donor, our 50/50 raffle included 2 sets of 2 tickets to the Daytona 500 - WOW!

Quilts of Valor Florida state coordinator,Terry Burtchell (also a Spruce Creek resident). The Quilts of Valor Foundation began in 2003 with a dream, literally a dream. Founder Catherine Roberts’ son Nat was deployed in Iraq. According to Catherine: The dream was as vivid as real life. I saw a young man sitting on the side of his bed in the middle of the night, hunched over. The permeating feeling was one of utter despair. I could see his war demons clustered around, dragging him down into an emotional gutter. Then, as if viewing a movie, I saw him in the next scene wrapped in a quilt. His whole demeanor changed from one of despair to one of hope and well-being. The quilt had made this dramatic change.  The message of my dream was: Quilts = Healing.

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FOR YOUR VIEWING PLEASURE - EAA has monthly Chapter videos that are very interesting.  In this month’s Chapter Video Magazine, Charlie Becker gets you up to date on EAA happennings

: 

• EAA Non-Builder Owner’s Guide to Amateur-Built Aircraft
• Young Eagles Credits
  • Webinar November 16: Hosting a Young Eagles Rally — Advanced Best Practices
  • Request Ground Volunteer Recognition Pins and Certificates
• Ray Aviation Scholarship
  • Application opens November 1, 2023, and closes January 31, 2024
  • Webinar November 2: EAA Ray Aviation Scholarship — 2024 Update
• Ray Foundation 600K Matching Challenge
• EAA Aviation Scholarships 
  • Applications Open November 1, 2023 
• Chapter Renewal
• Service Awards
• Farewell to the Liberty Ford Tri Motor

In addition, there is a feature video collection and Hints for Homebuilders section on the video site, which includes a variety of interest areas. There you can pick which video in each category you want to show that month, and you'll have the ability to download those videos.   See this, other and previous Chapter videos by clicking on the button to the right> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>