From the Left Seat

Welcome to 2024! We made it past the holidays and parties – and what a party we had at the EAA430/CCPA holiday gathering on December 9th! Over forty people were treated to hors d’oeuvres, a cash bar, served a meal of their choice with dessert. Although Santa couldn’t join us this year, the Toys for Tots table was overflowing with good looking toys. During the meal, our own Bud Davies joined his fellow singers “No Batteries Required” to sing some traditional and some not-so-traditional holiday songs. Then I had the distinct honor of recognizing some of the people who made this such a great year: The Build and Fly boys – Rick, Mike, Kevin and Richard all received “Pilot your own adventure” socks. There were National EAA certificates and pins given to most of the board members and Young Eagle ground volunteers. The Flyout and VMC/IMC coordinators each got a cool logoware fleece, and Young Eagle coordinator Bud Davies received a custom-made aviation quilt with “Bud’s Uber Air Coffee and Pizza Delivery” banner. Joan Miller and Tracy Halsted were presented with aviation scarves for their efforts going above and beyond. Tracy was later recognized as our Most Valuable Person and given the MVP pin and certificate.

Lisa and I had an unexpected offer from our son Dan to join him in a trip to the Bahamas for Christmas in his Glastar Sportsman. We met at Pompano Beach, FL and headed out over the water to Hawks Nest resort on Cat Island. We had a wonderful stay right across from the runway and did some daily trips to other islands. It is always an adventure to go places in GA airplanes!

The greatest Christmas present the chapter ever received came recently. We were presented with a check for $100,000 from Francis J Lyon. The building committee and board of directors are busy thinking up ways to spend the money ꨶ꩚ ꩛ ꩜ ꩟ ꩝ ꩞ Before any money is spent, however, you will be in the know about what is proposed and given an opportunity to comment. I’m sure looking forward to the coming year. I hope to make it to Alaska and Oshkosh, in addition to as much backcountry camping as possible. I just installed a WAAS GPS navigator in my GlaStar, and it’s ready and anxious to go aviating! As Dr Suisse so eloquently wrote: “Oh! The places you’ll go. You’ll be on your way up! You’ll be seeing great sights! You’ll join the high fliers who soar to high heights.”

Ray