Octavian Codreanu

October Membership Meeting – Designing Your Own Parts

Join us Monday, October 6th for our first official meeting after the summer break. We’ll gather downstairs for food (we’re grilling hot dogs!) and hangar flying around 6:30pm, with the meeting officially starting at 7pm.

We’ll start with a quick recap of our summer activities, followed by an update on what’s coming for the end of the year and our 2026 plans. We’ll discuss the upcoming November elections for the Chapter Board and our volunteer situation, before switching to our main topic for the evening: Designing Your Own Parts (and Building Them).

Have you ever thought about using CAD (Computer-Aided Design) to create a part or tool? Is the idea of 3D printing such parts or tools something you’d like to know more about?

Octavian Codreanu, our chapter VP, will give us a quick primer on what it takes to start designing a part or tool, discuss the pros and cons of some of the CAD packages available today and start the conversation on how your design can become a 3D printed reality. 

See you Monday – bring your appetite and your curiosity with you!

Visitors & guests are welcome. We’ll be complete no later than 9pm.

Octavian Codreanu

Chapter Deck Party – Tuesday, September 2nd

Annual Chapter Deck Party! 
The day after Labor Day

TUESDAY, September 2nd @ 6:00 pm
Chapter Hangar Deck

With the Airshow behind us, it’s time to relax and party! A big THANK YOU! to all the volunteers who provided their assistance over the four days of set-up and support. We couldn’t have done this without their help!

You and your family are invited to the EAA240 Annual Deck Party. Come enjoy a late-summer evening of camaraderie and fun.  No presentations, no speeches, no Chapter business – just good foods amongst good people. Our newer members will be particularly welcome. The deck party replaces our normal monthly meeting for September. As it is Labor Day weekend we’ll gather: 

TUESDAY (NOT MONDAY!), September 2nd at 6:00 pm

The Chapter will serve hot dogs, chili, baked beans, side dishes, sodas, water, coffee, tea.

Please bring a dish (side dishes, salads, desserts, etc) or make an appropriate donation in lieu of a dish. BYOB. 

We’ll see you 6pm Tuesday, September 2nd, rain or shine, for one of our most popular and best attended events of the season!

We’ll also be selling excess inventory from the airshow:
Hot Dogs – $5 for a pack of 14 (bring a cooler and ice)
Buns – $0.50 for a pack of 8
Chips – $10 for a box of 45 small bags

Questions/More Information?

Octavian Codreanu

June Membership Meeting – Ask a CFI

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.

Octavian Codreanu

Monthly Membership Meeting – May 5th

 

  

 

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.

Questions? E-mail us
Octavian Codreanu

It was a full house! April membership meeting report.

We had a great chapter meeting last night! After plenty of hangar flying, we gathered in the freshly recarpeted meeting room and started the evening with the FAA Safety Team presenting Captain Robert Newman with the FAA Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award for over 50 years of safe flying.

Following that, we introduced our newest flight scholarship recipients to the membership.
Nicolas Guzman has been selected by the EAA 240 scholarship committee as our 2025 applicant for EAA National’s Ray Aviation Scholarship, which will grant him up to $12000 to obtain his private pilot certificate.

The scholarship committee also awarded Carrigan Taggart $3000 from EAA240 funds (thank you to all of our members for your renewal dues and your donations to the scholarship fund) to finish her flight training.

Following that, Jon Martin, New Garden’s airport manager, gave a presentation on upcoming airport construction projects, his trip to Sun ‘n Fun and his aircraft restoration projects.

We wrapped up the evening with a quick VMC/IMC club session, where we discussed a couple of flight scenarios, sharing ideas and discussing what would be the best way to recover from electrical or autopilot failures in flight. Participants received Wings credit from the FAA Safety Team. Thank you to Bob Huxter for organizing these sessions.

Thank you all for joining us. See you at our next meeting, scheduled for Monday, May 5th.
And if you haven’t renewed your membership for 2025 yet, please use the link below to do so:
2025 EAA 240 Membership Renewal

Octavian Codreanu

Membership Meeting – Monday, April 7th 2024

 

  

 		Join us Monday, April 7th, for our Monday chapter meeting! Gather at 6.30pm at the Chapter Hangar & Meeting Room for coffee and snacks. Monthly meeting will start at 7pm in the Chapter Meeting Room.

Guest Speakers and topics this month:

Eric Sieracki (FAASTeam Program Manager) will present a local pilot with the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award, followed by a couple quick VMC/IMC scenarios (if time permits).
Jon Martin, New Garden’s Airport Manager, will give us a presentation on his  trip to Sun ‘n Fun and how the airport construction projects are going. 

You can also renew your 2025 Chapter Membership at the meeting. Visitors & guests are welcome. We’ll be complete no later than 9pm.
Octavian Codreanu

We picked the wrong day to quit sniffing glue!

Joking aside, what a great start to our regular meetings! We were joined by Jim Boxmeyer, who had an excellent presentation on composite lay-up and materials.

Jim started with a practical demonstration in the hangar, where he showed us how a practical composite structure can be put together using simple tools and techniques available to the average builder.

Once the demonstration piece was prepped and left to cure, we moved to the meeting room for a brief chapter business presentation to the membership.

We were also joined by our three 2024 scholarship recipients (two of which have already taken and passed their checkrides), who thanked the membership and the chapter for the opportunity they were given and discussed their flight training experiences and future career plans.

After that, Jim continued with his presentation, including a show and tell of different materials and construction techniques. We were quite impressed by beams using carbon fiber rods in a truss configuration, embedded in a foam matrix. You think you’ve seen everything in carbon fiber? Well, we got to see a few carbon fiber nails, driven into a 2×4.

After the presentation we went back to the hangar to take a look at the finished and cured demonstration piece. This was also a great time for a Q&A session, before calling it a night around 9pm.

Thank you all for joining us tonight, and a special thank you to Jim for delivering a very interesting presentation for us. We have a couple fly-outs scheduled in March, as well as a VMC/IMC session, before we get together again for the April membership meeting. Check our events page and we hope to see you at one of these events!

Octavian Codreanu

Membership Meeting – March 2025

Join us Monday, March 3rd for our first regular Monday meeting of the year! Gather at 6.30pm at the Chapter Hangar & Meeting Room for coffee, snacks, side-bars and hangar flying.

Monthly Meeting commences promptly at 7pm in the Chapter Meeting Room.

Guest Speaker and topic this month:

We are excited to have Jim Boxmeyer as our guest speaker for the evening.
He will do a presentation on composite construction, including a hands-on portion in the hangar before moving to the meeting room.

We have also extended an invitation to our 2024 EAA 240 scholarship recipients, so you will be able to meet them and welcome them to the EAA family. 

You can also renew your 2025 Chapter Membership at the meeting.

Visitors & guests are welcome. We’ll be complete no later than 9pm.

Questions? E-mail us

Chapter Events Calendar

Octavian Codreanu

February meeting – Flying in the Soup

Join us Saturday, February 8th at 11am for a new chapter event – Flying in the Soup! 

Bring a pot of your best soup (and an IMC story, if you have it) and join the competition! Or bring your appetite and be one of the tasters/judges. We’ll be ready to serve the food by 11:30, with judging occurring throughout the food service.

Following the food we’ll hold a very brief and informal chapter business session, updating members on what’s happening with the chapter. We’ll have an ‘open floor’ session for members to share their views and desires for the chapter, before wrapping up no later than 1pm.
 

NOTE: this meeting replaces the regular Monday meeting.

We hope you’ll join us for a fun and relaxed event, good foods, information sharing and camaraderie. 

As always, visitors & guests are most welcome.

More information, or questions? email us

Octavian Codreanu

First meeting of 2025!

It was a chili day to fly! On a cold morning, with fresh snow on the ground, chapter members gathered at the hangar for our first meeting of the year (albeit informal in nature) and our chili and cornbread competition. We had quite a few choices to sample from and at the end, when the votes were tallied, the two winners were announced: Brian Wheeler won the award for the best chili, and Bud Swenson won the award for best corn bread.

It was also a good time to recognize Mike Parry, our outgoing president, for all his years of service to the chapter. Dan Gutierrez, our incoming president, offered him a plaque and a memorable gift as a thank you for his efforts and dedication.

Thank you for joining us for this first chapter event of the year. There are many more to come! Check the website and e-mails and we hope you’ll join us for the next round of events as well.