From the Left Seat

Happy holidays! I hope you are enjoying the festive season this year. We recently had a great holiday party at the Cedars at Dungeness on December 9. It was a super time to get together with friends and fellow aviators for a great meal and entertainment.

We had an opportunity to talk about the things we accomplished in 2023 and plan for the coming year. This year we had a light aircraft breakfast, flying start program, three young eagle rallies, in addition to our monthly VMC/IMC meetings, fly outs, and Gatherings. We even did our second flying poker run.

The party was a good place to recognize many of the people that make our chapter excel. The build and fly team were recognized for their efforts at starting young people building radio-controlled airplanes and learning to fly them. The team members, Rick Vaux, Richard, Howell, Mike Niewiarowicz and Kevin Tracy we’re all recognized with “Pilot your own adventure “ socks. The Young Eagles ground crew were awarded certificates and pins for their work at the rallies. Tracy Halsted and Joan Miller were given aviation themed scarfs for their organizational skills to run the administration requirements. And YE coordinator Bud Davies was presented a personalized Snoopy quilt with the banner “Bud’s Uber Pizza and Coffee Delivery Service” for his efforts to fly in supplies for the YE volunteers and pilots.

We recognized Dave Moffitt and Richard Howell for completing the build of their own aircraft, and Rick Vaux for the Master Mechanic award and Dave Miller the Master Pilot award this year.

We presented some EAA430 logoware fleece pullovers to Harry Cook for being the VMC/IMC Coordinator, and Barry Halsted for being the Flyout Leader.

Thanks to all who made this such a great year. I look forward to 2024 when we will continue our efforts with young eagles, build and fly, and flying start. We hope to start a Ray Scholarship program in the chapter and continue funding our four scholarship recipients. We may even try a pancake breakfast for Air Affaire this year.

Here’s wishing you a great holiday season and best wishes for blue skies and tailwinds in the new year.

Ray