Newsletter Issue #114 USUA Club #66
Richard E. Miller Chapter
December/January, 2003/2004

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Our next meeting will take place on Saturday, Jan. 17th at Tom Hettig's place and Mel McKinney will provide us with the picnic lunch.

    Our Christmas December 20, meeting was a huge success. Fifteen members and 8 wives attended. Everyone met at Gill and Liz Aitchison's home in North Colesville, and again we thank them for their great hospitality.  We have to realize the amount of work our hosts go through to make things comfortable for us.  We want all our hosts to know how we appreciate what they do for the club. 

    Many of the women went to the Windy Hill Candle Factory before the start of the feast.  We shared all our dishes to pass and had a great amount of food to eat.  Everyone enjoyed the fellowship and much propwash was shared while we ate.  Liz took our wives upstairs where they could chat and enjoy each other's company.

    The meeting was started at around 1:10 PM by Ray Osterhout our President, we first gave the pledge of allegiance to the flag.   

    The very first order of business was to reduce the amount to give our hosts.  Gill Aitchison made a motion for it to go from 40 dollars to 20 dollars.  The motion was seconded by Norm Dibble and was carried and duly recorded in these minutes. 

    Ray asked who would be willing to have us next month?  Norm Dibble said he'd be glad to have us but we'd have to take our shoes off and bring our slippers.  He said, he would provide pizza for the group.  Then Norm said, he forgot, he has to be in Florida next month so things were sounding pretty good until Norm decided he would rather be a snow bird.   We'll take you up on your hospitality when you get back home Norm.  We'll all be ready for pizza when you get back.  Enjoy your trip.... 

    We had our usual round table review,  Paul Nulton was giving us an example of his early flights as they were in his log book and comparing them to the trials of the Wright Brothers.   There were a few parallels in their saga of flights.  It came to Dave Thomas's turn and he wasn't there to give us his latest.  We want you to know you were missed Dave and we hope you will be able to make the next meeting. Ray talked about Flight Simulators and how it would be nice to try one sometime.  Mel McKinney and I think it would be nice to start some ground school sessions.   We feel a review would take care of some of those who might become lost in flight  when their GPS goes bad.  The familiarization of charts, using check points and dead reckoning,  weather and pre-flights in general could be advantageous.  We talked about the aviators who grew up in our area such as Ed Link and Glenn Curtis.  Everyone gets something out of these review sessions.  It is what I call the icing on the cake when we can share our dreams and aspirations in flight.  

    We all had a great time enjoying one another's company and our meeting broke up around 2:30 to 3 PM. 

    At our next meeting, bring a friend and a chair and let's start the New Year off right by getting more involved in aviation. 

    See you all at Tom Hetigg's place on the third Saturday of the month.   Mark your calendars for the 17th for our next meeting. 

        Your Secretary,

            Mel Wightman