Join us Monday, June 2nd for our last membership meeting before the summer break. We’ll gather downstairs for snacks and hangar flying around 6:30pm, with the meeting officially starting at 7pm.
We’ll have a pretty busy agenda for the evening. We’ll start with a quick membership update (which will be a good chance to renew for 2025 if you haven’t done it yet), followed by a quick outline of our upcoming events and volunteering needs. We’re looking at a busy summer and we will need your help.
Next, Carrigan Taggart, one of our 2025 scholarship recipients, will join us to showcase her freshly minted pilot certificate and share her checkride experience with us.
We’ll then get going on our main topic for the evening: Ask a CFI – Establishing Personal Minimums.
Harold McCanick, one of our New Garden CFIs, will join us to discuss what it takes to be a safe pilot, how to determine the answer to the “are you proficient or just current” question, and will then lead a “there I was” session, sharing some personal “lessons learned” stories, and encouraging the audience to share theirs.
See you Monday – bring a good story with you and share it with us.
Unfortunately, the high winds forecast for the weekend force us to cancel this fly-out. Thank you to all that signed up, we’ll try to make this happen at some other time.
Mark your calendars for our next planned fly-out, scheduled for Saturday, June 7th at 10am. We’re going to Kentmorr Airpark (3W3) for some grass field practice and some of the best crabs and crab cakes in the Chesapeake! Polish those soft/short field take-off and landing skills.
The changing weather forecast didn’t discourage us! With Saturday weather looking much better, we decided to move the fly-out back to its original date, and we’re glad we did.
Five aircraft carrying a total of fifteen people departed New Garden Saturday morning on the way to Delaware Coastal airport. The ride was smooth despite some stiff headwinds, but nobody complained. It was good flying time. We all arrived at our destination shortly after 11am, and after a group photo we headed to Arena’s for lunch.
(didn’t realize you could fit that many people in a Skylane)
We all arrived at our destination shortly after 11am, and after a group photo we headed to Arena’s for lunch. The staff there was very accommodating, and we were quickly seated in a private seating area, sharing all sorts of aviation stories as we waited for the food to arrive. It’s amazing how quiet things get once the food arrives.
After lunch, we walked over to the Delaware Aviation Museum. Our hosts shared plenty of stories and details about Panchito and the rest of the exhibits, while our group scattered about the hangar, looking at the exhibits. It was nice to hear the story of how Panchito got its name, and how it went from a WWII bomber to a fire bomber, then crop duster (can you believe that??) before being restored to its current appearance. Also, we found out that for less than the cost of a PPL (but you have to have one and a multi-engine rating to start with) you could get type rated as Second-In-Command to fly Panchito. Any takers?
After spending a good amount of time at the museum, we thanked our hosts and their volunteers for their hospitality and their dedication in keeping the museum aircraft flying and we headed back to New Garden. The stiff morning headwind had turned into a moderate tailwind (it’s never the other way around, is it?) and after an uneventful flight we were all back on the ground.
Many thanks to Bob, our flight leader for this event, for organizing it and keeping a close eye on weather, readjusting plans accordingly when the forecast changed. Thank you to all the pilots who joined us for this event – we couldn’t do this without you.
Our next fly-out is Sunday, May 18th – we are going to Gettysburg to visit the battlegrounds and have lunch at the Dobbin House Tavern, a place built “four score and seven years” before President Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address.
Join us Monday, May 5th, for our monthly chapter meeting! Gather at 6.30pm at the Chapter Hangar & Meeting Room for coffee and snacks. The meeting will start at 7pm in the Chapter Meeting Room.
We’ll talk about a proper aviation mystery, and see what the real story is. Our guest speaker for the night is Richard Gillespie, who has spent almost four decades researching the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of Amelia Earhart. The latest findings, including the most probable location where Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan ended up, are documented in Ric’s latest book, One More Good Flight.
The son of a decorated World War Two pilot, Ric Gillespie grew up around airplanes and learned to fly while he was still in high school. In 1985, he left a career as an aviation accident investigator to found The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery. Known by its acronym TIGHAR (pronounced tiger), the nonprofit foundation has an international membership of several hundred scholars, scientists and enthusiasts whose volunteer expertise and financial contributions support the organization’s mission to change aviation historical mysteries to documented history.Visitors & guests are welcome. We’ll be complete no later than 9pm.
