Monthly Meeting Minutes – August 2021

14 August 2021

Pancake Breakfast – I failed to get a count, but sales were “brisk”.  I’m guessing it was well over 60 served by our fine group of volunteers.

Meeting

Dick Keyt called the meeting to order.  New members and guests included John Mann who is a long time Pecan resident just getting involved in flying.  He has a Super Cub on the way!  Mike Kirk brought his 12 year old son who is interested in airplanes and flying.  You might recognize the name, as it is Mike’s brother, Mark Kirk, who heads up the very successful Eagles Nest project at Granbury High School.  And Don Gardner just moved into the Todd Baker house on Taxiway.

Projects – Keith Brown is starting a new RV-14 project.  He and Chris simply enjoy the build process.  Tom Thibault has his Lancair back flying and was able to ferry it home last Friday.  You might recall Tom experienced a catastrophic engine failure and was able to dead-stick safely to the Weatherford airport.

Glider Club – A new instrument panel has been fabricated.  The glider is very close to being ready to fly, but they really need someone to step up with a tow-plane!  More about the club can be found here:  https://eaa983.org/wp1/2021/01/01/brazos-river-glider-club/.

Volunteers – As we all know, EAA thrives only because we volunteer.  This month, we want to recognize

  • Paula Houston – Our new Pancake Breakfast Coordinator.  Paula is considering adding scrambled eggs to the monthly menu!
  • Dave Smith – Fly-In Coordinator.  Please let Dave know how you can help!  The Annual Fly-In is  a huge undertaking where we need all hands on deck for set up, auto parking and people moving, car show management, aircraft parking and safety, food and refreshments delivery and vendor management, silent auction, sponsor solicitations, flight-simulator, Eagle Flights, Young Eagle Flights, tear-down and cleanup, and much, much more.
  • John Bowen – John is our new Young Eagles coordinator.  We plan to kick things off off with our first YE post-COVID event at the Fly-In.  John needs both ground crew and pilots to step up to make this an ongoing success.  Since our chapter was formed in 1992, we have conducted over 3,600 YE flights!  That’s about 135 per year average (with a big fat zero since Feb 2020).
  • Konnie Sasser, Claudia Sutter, and AnnElise Bennett – Christmas Party.  We’re planning on the PPOA Clubhouse and Catering.  Konnie has spent a great deal of time looking for other options, but they’re simple are not any in the area that will work out.  If PPOA cannot come through with catering (hiring food service staff has been impossible in this era of government boondoggles), we are hoping to gain permission to use the Clubhouse Ballroom for a PotLuck Christmas dinner and party.  Failing that, we might still try something like a Hangar Pot Luck Party.

Lancair Project – We have the 80% done airframe and 2 engines.  We need volunteers to complete this project so that the Chapter can offer it for sale!

CAD/CAM presentation by Jimmy De La Garza

If you have any interest at all in building or restoring an airplane, you need to see the video posted on our Facebook page!  (Click Here and scroll to the 1 hr 21 min mark). Jimmy started working for Dick Keyt at Ryan Machine about 2 or 3 years ago.  In that time he has brought in a whole new level of automation and cool-tools to get the job done.  Give Jimmy a call if you need a part made.  If Ryan Machine can’t do it, they probably know who can.  Jimmy demonstrated how he used flatbed lasers, 3-D printers, scanners, mills, lathes, and a machine I had never seen called a Shaper Origin (basically a free-hand, CNC router!) to build a new instrument panel and several other parts for his Grumman project.

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