| Membership Meeting – April 2021 |
| Monday evening’s April Chapter Membership Meeting attracted our largest Zoom audience to-date, with 53 attendees and a lot of interaction! We opened the session with a briefing on the Chapter’s overall status, as Melissa (Treasurer) walked us through the state of funds for the Chapter, noting the current bank balance, recent expenditures, upcoming commitments and projects underway (bathrooms and kitchen refresh, repainting and more). We’ve had very limited opportunities for our usual fund-raising activities but, following the sale of the PA-22 Project and very positive 2021 membership renewals and new members, space renters income, plus generous donations from members, we continue in overall good state. We continue to cover our operational costs and to undertake maintenance projects. Octavian (Chapter VP) described his efforts to organize great topics and speakers for the May and June meetings, inviting the Wilmington Tower team and FAA to present of their TFR experiences and ‘best practices for pilots’, followed in June by a presentation of Falcon Jet operations. I, (for Paul – Membership Director), reported that Chapter membership now stands at 168, with several new members joining in recent months. I commented that, in this very challenging period, this level of membership – while still short of our 2020 membership level – showed a good deal of confidence in the Chapter, it’s direction and value to local pilots and general aviation. But the main discussion and highly relevant key topic of the evening was Jon Martin’s (Airport Manager and EAA240 member) discussion of recent and significant airport enhancements, plus the response to TFR procedures and the impact to the airport operations. Given the extent of the impact of TFR’s there was much discussion and audience interaction on this topic. Jon has been very proactive in working to reduce the effect on airport operations and airport users, including securing temporary places at local airports not affected by the TFR coverage for N57 plane owners. Additionally, Jon is working with other impacted airports to ensure the operational and financial impact is known by the authorities and increasingly considered when TFR’s are planned. There was much discussion on the topic, and the effect on pilots, local aviation and airports was very evident. The zoom session wrapped after 85 minutes. A recording of the meeting is here, for those that couldn’t join us. (it’s incomplete, but covers much of Jon’s discussion). Password is V9z8U1$^ There’s lots happening at EAA240! Stay tuned, and join us Monday May 3rd for our next EAA240 Membership Meeting via Zoom….with even more on TFR’s from the team at Wilmington Tower and the FAA. You shouldn’t miss this one! Fly safe.  Mike Parry President EAA Chapter 240 President@eaa240.org www.eaa240.org |