From the Left Seat

For the first time this year, we’re enjoying some good flying weather! Barry jumped right on that and held the March fly out to Tacoma Narrows on the 14th. His report is later on in the newsletter.

It was great to see so many 430 members- (about 30) at the Northwest Conference and Trade Show last month. I thought it was a good show.

At VMC/IMC this month, 18 members were regaled and challenged about aviation by Harry Cook. Come early for a seat at the Mariners Cafe on April 10 at 7:00 pm for the next meeting.

Although weather prevented us from flying, I joined Richard, Barry and Tracy, as we drove to Harvey field to attend the EAA leadership boot camp on Saturday the 9th. It was a full day of briefings and meeting with other chapter’s officers in the region. It was a long but worthwhile day.

We received the great news that our chapter has been approved to administer a Ray Foundation Scholarship. The scholarship pays up to $10,000 for flight training to earn the Private Pilot License. We have selected Gunner Rogers as our first candidate. He came to know aviation through our Young Eagle program. He’s a high school senior in Forks and wants to be an airline captain. He has begun flight training and has already soloed. He’s been attending the chapter FAA written discussion group with other students from our last year’s Flying Start program. By the way, this year’s Flying Start program, led by David Woodcock, will be at Fairchild conference room on Saturday, May 18 at 1 PM. Tell your friends and those that say they always wanted to fly to come check it out. We hope to offer Eagle Flights afterwards if we have enough volunteer pilots. You just have to be an EAA member offer an Eagle Flight. All are welcome to attend our discussion of all the ways to get into aviation. The building committee has been busy getting concepts and quotes for a possible clubhouse. There should be a “concrete” proposal to the membership in the near future. Once we know the costs, we will start fundraising to make it a reality. One of the fundraisers we’re planning is a multi chapter poker run later this summer.

I hope you are able to attend Barry Halsted‘s presentation on the restoration of his PA 11 on Saturday, March 30 at our monthly gathering. It will start off at 09:30 a.m. with another delicious breakfast.

Having fun with airplanes! Ray