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March Meeting -
Pelion Airport - 3/20/2016
Chapter VP, Leonard Self
Our March meeting was again held at
the EMT/Deputy Sheriff substation at Pelion Airport (6J0) on March
20, 2016. Our guests and members enjoyed a meal of pork loin,
smoked chicken, baked beans, pasta salad, slaw, iced tea, cornbread,
and strawberry cake provided by Kathy and Leonard Self. Thanks also
to Glenn Temples for the banana pudding, Tony Speranza for the
cookies. and others who contributed to the meal. Vice-President,
Leonard Self, conducted the meeting today in the absence of
president, Rusty Nance. Leonard and Kathy Self discussed their
recent trip to Puerto Rico on a C-17. The group voted to proceed
with a chapter Facebook page. Randy discussed AMEs in the local area who could perform
flight physicals, since Dr. Frank Young has retired. Randy also
mentioned that he planned to attend Sun-N-Fun Fly-in the whole week
of April 4th through April 10th and invited anyone who had an
interest in going to let him know. Eddie Price asked if anyone was
interested in more chapter shirts or caps. He also reported the sad
news that Richard Miranda had passed away and plans for Richard's
requested memorial arrangements. Don Schmotzer talked about the new
phenomenon of drones. Tony Speranza is a CFI and invited anyone
interested in obtaining an instrument rating to let him know. We
also discussed the prospect of a fall fly-in at Gilbert
International Airpark (GIA), so Randy indicated that he would talk
with the officers at GIA about that prospect. Click the thumbnail
above to see photos of the meeting.
February Meeting -
Pelion Airport - 2/21/2016
Eddie Price's award for his service as
chapter president during 2015
Our
February chapter meeting was held at the EMT/Deputy Sheriff substation at Pelion
Airport (6J0) on Sunday, February 21st. Randy and Libby Berry
provided the main meal of spaghetti, vegetable beef soup, green salad and
dressings, rolls, iced tea, birthday cake, and ice cream. Glenn
Temples brought banana pudding, Don Schmotzer provided ice and soft
drinks, and Leon brought a soft drink and tea. After lunch,
Leon presented awards to Eddie Price (see
above) and Pelham Moss for their service as president and treasurer,
respectively, during 2015. Next, Rusty conducted the business
meeting. Leon gave a financial report, which indicates our
treasury is very healthy, and the minutes of the January meeting
(which are posted in the MEMBERS ONLY area) were approved. After the
business meeting, Don Schmotzer gave us a safety presentation and
announced that the FAA had contacted him and asked him to be a FAAst
(FAA Safety Team) representative, and Don accepted ... quite an
honor. He spoke on the fact that GA is "in the crosshairs" of the
FAA due to continued instances of "controlled flight into terrain" due to
causes such as inadvertent flight into IMC, improper control inputs, inadequate
preflight, stalls, spins,
inattention/distractions, low level flying, aerobatic maneuvers,
equipment failure, and similar other causes.
Don also had some FAA handouts for members. Lastly, Rusty gave us a video annotated presentation on his
extensive past experience with gyroplanes and his involvement as chief test pilot for
3 years in
the
CarterCopter
program (click for more info), which is still
ongoing. We also had a birthday cake with ice cream to celebrate
Randy's birthday (Feb. 15th) and Ron Johnson's birthday (Feb. 21st).
To view photos of today's meeting by Eddie Price, click on the thumbnail above.
January Meeting -
Pelion Airport - 1/17/2016
2015 President, Eddie Price (left) & 2016
President, Russell Nance (right)
Our first
chapter meeting of 2016 was held at the EMT/Deputy Sheriff
substation at Pelion Airport (6J0) on Sunday, January 17th. The
weather was a bit cool, windy, and cloudy, but we had a great meeting, nonetheless. Thanks to Leon,
Myra, Tony G, Glenn, Kelsie and others who brought food items for
the meal.
Previous 2015 TTF president, Eddie Price (left above),
kicked off the meeting by welcoming everyone and then turned over
the gavel to new TTF president for 2016, Russell "Rusty" Nance
(right above). Randy Berry gave an overview of Rusty's impressive background
and credentials. Rusty
is a Chief Warrant Officer 5 with a 34 year
career as, and still is, a current active SC National Guard member, Apache
AH-64 pilot, Standardization Instructor Pilot (SIP) and military Instrument
Flight Examiner. He's had numerous deployments including Iraq
(twice), Kuwait, Bosnia, Hungary, Germany, and Korea. He is the
southern SC National Guard regional standardization officer for 11
southern US states and territories. On the civilian side, he holds helicopter CFII, gyroplane CFI, and
private pilot SEL ratings. Further, he was previous national president of
the Popular Rotorcraft Association (see
www.pra.org) based in
Mentone, Indiana for several years in the late 2000's. He also
served as chief test pilot on
the innovative CarterCopter project for 3 years (see
www.cartercopters.com). Vice-President, Leonard
Self, of Wexford Airpark and Secretary, Kevin Wallace, were officers
in 2015 and will continue in those respective positions in 2016. Leon Strock is our new Treasurer for 2016.
Rusty then proceeded to get minutes for our last meeting in
November, 2015 approved, and then gave member, Bud Coward, the floor. Bud
is SC Region #2 representative of the SC Aeronautics Commission
(SCAC), so he gave us an update on a bill related to
funding of local airports (HR4577) through aviation fuel sales, and
he asked for our help in contacting our representatives for support
on that bill. Next, chapter safety advisor, Don Schmotzer, gave us a
safety presentation on "Becoming Too Complacent", citing some
examples and scenarios to consider. We then discussed the prospect of
having future meetings at various airports in 2016. Everyone agrees that those excursions are great fun which we would like to
continue this year. Leon gave us a treasurer's report, indicating that our
treasury is very healthy and well into the black. Eddie Price had invested his own funds in 22 new
TTF caps and
has already sold 12 at the meeting today. He still has some in
various colors, so if you don't already have one, you'd better get
one fast, as this is likely to be the last batch for awhile. The chapter voted to reimburse Eddie
for his expenditure on the caps. Leon Strock also had TTF decals for
sale.
Our next meeting will be on Sunday, February 21st at Pelion
Airport (6J0). Randy and Libby Berry volunteered for the meal at
that meeting. We'll be announcing plans to hold future meetings at
other airports/locations as they are confirmed and the weather warms
up a bit. To view photos of
today's meeting by Eddie Price, click on the thumbnail above.
Click the image below for 2015 and earlier
chapter news, meetings, and photos.
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