Cooler weather for a crowd
Our November meeting opened up on a crisp, clear morning. We had a good sized crowd, and the Breakfast Bunch did a fabulous job preparing pancake platters for 65 people.
Call to Order
Dick Keyt opened our meeting with a hearty thank you to the Breakfast and Set Up crew and a warm welcome to any new people in the crowd. We were all thrilled to meet our new neighbors, and boy were there a lot of new faces.
Mark Brown flies a Columbia 400 and is building a home in Landings East.
Joe Bocanegra and his son Jonathon are new to West Landings. He is one of the new members of the medical staff at our local Pecan clinic, and his son aspires to fly airplanes.
Gordon and Angie Porter are also new to the neighborhood and EAA.
Mike and Renee Davidson have purchased a lot in the Landings. Mike is a new pilot enjoying building his hours.
Jeff Jennings is also a new pilot, he’s retired from Dow Chemical, and is living off Weatherford Highway.
Last, but certainly not least, Dan and Brenda Roberts live in DeCordova. They fly a G3 Cirrus, and he works in the oil/gas industry.
Announcements
99s: Barb Wilson announced the opportunity for any new ladies to the neighborhood and surrounding areas to join the Brazos 99s group. It is a great way to support women in aviation, and they have many opportunities to get together as well as provide support for women pilots.
GPS Approach: Bob Pastusek asked if anyone interested in applying to fly the GPS Approach to 0TX1 should email or text him. He will add them to the list. rpastusek@gmail.com
Christmas Party: Claudia Sutter announced that there are still available seats for this year’s EAA soiree that will be held on December 13 at the Clubhouse. Price per person is $40 and includes either a chicken marsala or lemon butter redfish meal. Please pay Claudia Sutter or Konnie Sasser directly and don’t forget to pass this information on to your spouse!
Jim’s F-100 metal art: Charlie Kearnes announced a donation to EAA of Jim Crain’s F-100 “Susan Constant” metal cutout. Members voted on whether they wanted to hang it in the hangar. Grace Neely made a fabulous suggestion of backlighting it with LED lights.
Elections – Every two years officers are elected to serve our chapter. Last month 71 of our 175 members voted on new board members. Here are the results: President – Dick Keyt, Vice President – Bob Pastusek, Treasurer – Carl Keil, and Secretary – Erin Hollis. They will assume responsibilities in January.
Youth Programs – The Young Eagles program is a fantastic program meant to inspire younger kids and teens to fly. As we all get older, it is so important to create opportunities to pass on our own love of flying as well as provide occasions for students to learn about aviation.
John Bowen announced that our chapter received 3 applications for the EAA Airventure camp that will be held at Osh Kosh in 2026. The current board will make their final selections by the end of November.
The Young Eagles rally is cancelled for this month due to time conflictions with the GHS JROTC and Thanksgiving holiday week. They will reschedule it for either December 6 or 13th. It will be a private event but any EAA member kids/grandkids are welcome to sign up. John mentioned a possibility of a hot dog lunch, but that has not yet been confirmed.
Program: Jerry McMillan and the Samson Sky Switchblade
Artist rendition of Samson Switchblade from website
Jerry McMillan has always been in touch with aviation. Born at the airport on an American air base in France, he grew up exposed to flying at a young age, soloed at age 16, and received his PPL at 17. He flew for and retired from American Airlines after 36 years, but his flying days continued and he has never stopped dreaming of the future.
Currently, he and his lovely wife Tracy are on the list to purchase a Samson Switchblade, the world’s first flying car. Samson Sky, a company out of Redmond, Oregon, is in the final stages of development and production of a “builder assist” model of aircraft that is poised to marry two forms of transportation into one appealing vehicle.
As an aircraft, the experimental category Switchblade will require a private pilot license to operate as well as 5 hours of training in the airframe. It has a ceiling of 13,000 feet, cruises around 160 mph, and has a max range of 450 miles. It has a ballistic parachute as well as a regenerative braking system that harvests power to the “Skybrid Technology” engine. Seating 2 people comfortably in the car-like interior, you can imagine sitting in a Honda Accord. It has a steering wheel, and three pedals which have different functions depending on if you’re airborne or on the road. The glass instrument panel has the ability to switch between aviation and road instruments.
As a road vehicle, the Switchblade easily navigates day to day driving on its three wheels. If landing at an airport, there’s no need to rent a car! Simply fold up the tail and swing the wings underneath to convert it to car mode.
As Jerry mentioned, he is super excited about the prospect of completing the builder assist program that Samson has to offer. Though this has been a dream since we all watched “The Jetsons” as kids, he feels confident that Samson Sky will succeed because of their slow, methodical progress through multiple redesigns and reengineering. I think we are all excited to see the new Switchblade come to Pecan. Happy building Jerry!
VMC/IMC Club
Our VMC/IMC club met right after the main EAA meeting. Dick Keyt led the discussion of the VFR scenarios and provided an off the cuff coffee filter demonstration as to why compass readings may be inaccurate during acceleration/deceleration. Tom Woodward led the IFR discussions and a lively chatter on the age old question “What would you do…?”
Thanks to all who stayed to store the tables and chairs and help put the airplanes back in the hangar.
Until our January meeting, happy flying!
Nicely done. I like the bold subject highlighters. I look forward to more of these well done newsletters!
Excellent recap Erin