Monthly Meeting Minutes – August 2022

Great Turnout Post AirVenture – 63 in attendance and 50 breakfasts were sold.  Those sitting under the BAF were comfortable despite warm morning temps.  The breakfast crew was feeding the line steady with no waiting.

Call to Order – Dick Keyt called the meeting to order at 9:50. There were several guests in attendance.  Tim Long, a Lockheed Martin engineer, flew in from Parker County with his two daughters in a Mooney.  His daughter Mckenna has soloed and needs to complete cross country before taking her test.  Klint Roberts from Stephenville has a flying RV-9A and is building an RV-10.  Bruce Melberg, a current member who hasn’t attended in a while, flies a Cherokee 180.  Mike Kreuger was another guest in attendance.

Dick noted the outstanding efforts of the Breakfast Crew who had food ready when the first customers stepped to the line.  Dick also highlighted the special “sectional” aprons several were wearing that feature 0TX1 and 66TE in the center.  While at Oshkosh Dick was able to secure an order of 40 more at lower pricing.  They will be available for purchase by members.

Project Reports

  • Jason Tremble – Was not in attendance to report on his RV-10 first flight.  Group thought that he has successfully completed about 7-10 hours of flight time.
  • Glider Project – Dick reviewed some of the recent history with the towplane going down and flight experience with the reverse tow system at Chigger Field.  He mentioned the new Dyneema rope has been a great improvement over the previous rope.  Although it is still subject to breakage if the truck runs over it during the tow.  He expects Carl Keil’s Super Cub towplane to be back in the air soon.
  • 14 Year Old Solo – Dick had a proud moment when 14 year old Andrew Ingersoll soloed the glider on his birthday.  Dick described how they had a rope break just before Andrew was planned to do his solo.  While the rope was being spliced the winds started picking up to 15 gusting 20.  They managed to reduce the crosswind component by landing at a diagonal running off into a hay field.  With one dual flight on the new runway orientation Andrew successfully completed a solo flight!  A link with a complete story on Andrew’s journey is here: 14-year-old completes first solo glider flight | Glider Club works to instill aviation passion in teens | News | hcnews.com  
  • Glider Club Future – Dick went on to explain how he visited a Wassau, Wisconsin Learn, Build, Fly program that is off to an amazing start with a nice facility and several projects to get teens involved.  They are also the beneficiaries of several generous donations to fund the program.  Dick is encouraging the chapter members to get involved so the two other glider donations can be made airworthy.  Concluding the discussion, Ray Lewis highlighted Dick’s dedicated efforts to make the Glider Club a reality – investing a lot of time, energy, and personal money.

Safety Minute – A member brought up a recent experience with a Slick Mag failing after takeoff causing a rough running engine and loss of power.    Mike Robinson had similar experience with a PMag where the controller board was failing and caused similar behavior.  A checklist item needs to be switching over to one of the single mags to isolate the bad one when possible.  It was also suggested by another member that a cruise mag check be performed periodically to assure a latent failure is not present during the lower power ground mag check.

Featured Speaker – Following a short break, Sherman Gardner presented how In The Pattern flight school came to be.  His brother Darren, a partner in the venture was also in attendance.  They flew down together in a Bonanza.  Sherman spent 32 years as a professional minister after graduating from Lubbock Christian University.  He was very familiar with the Granbury area having spent 1986-1993 at the Church of Christ adjacent to the high school on Pearl Street.

Sherman did his solo in a Champ with Mark Zimmerman at Nassau Bay in 1991 and received his PPL soon after.  His brother Darren learned to fly in 2015.  Their first aircraft purchase was a Cherokee 180.  They followed that with a 172 to setup a rental business.  The flight school was started in the summer of 2019 at Denton Enterprise Airport.  They now have 18 aircraft, 16 instructors, and 4 mechanics.  The aircraft are flying 1200 hours a month.  Their students had 80 checkrides this year with a 94% first time pass rate.  He attributes the school’s success to their sense of community and relationships forged in the student/instructor interaction.  The school was rewarded for their outstanding renter and student feedback by being awarded the “Best Flight School in the Nation” for 2021-2022. (The business has a 4.9 rating on Google)

2021-2022 Flight Training Experience Awards – AOPA

In an effort to expand their reach, In The Pattern recently took over the flight school at the Granbury FBO.  They will be operating two 172s from the flight school and the Granbury HS 172 for student and staff instruction.  They are reaching out to the Granbury ISD staff to offer flying opportunities.  Sherman loves Granbury and expects this location to be just as successful.  The office will be attended during normal business hours.

It was great hearing Sherman’s passion for putting aviation in the lives of many more.

About Walkergp

Retired Lockheed Martin Engineering Senior Manager