Our next meeting will be held at the Baron's Inn in Greene , NY on March 19th at 11:30 AM. until around 2:30 PM.  Try to come out to this meeting and bring along a guest.   Let's make this club flourish with more new members.  We are glad that Dave Price (one of Tom Lewis's students) was able to come at our last meeting.

    We had a total of 16 pilots attend the meeting, a good increase compared to January's meeting.  The meals were served and everyone was happy with what they had to eat.

    We said the pledge of allegiance to the flag at around 1:15 PM and the meeting was under way.  We started off with John Finn who had brought in his motor mount for his engine. It had been precisely welded and is ready to assemble.

    George Smith is working on his Savannah instrument panel and is coming along great...

    Dave Thomas's jet engine is going to have an after burner put on it in the spring.

    Dave commented about ground affect and wanted to know what it was.  Everyone got in on the definition and added their own to help him out.  He said he is finally getting the idea on how to make a good landing.  He had to go through 5 sets of landing gear to finally get it down.  He said it is a little bit expensive.  He claimed that he has driven a motor cycle 130 mph and it was no problem but flying close to the ground at 30 mph is scary...

    John Torta is going in partnership with Dave Price on a flight star.

    Dave Price said, he has been enjoying the art of flying with his instructor, Tom Lewis and is looking forward to flying again in the spring.

    We got a report on Mel McKinney.  It seems that he likes to fly close to the ground (ground affect) near the gators in Fla.

    John Sherman says it is painfully slow on his project.  His job is taking too much of his time.  He is now taking up the art of aerobatics.

    Don Goodrich has been flying a 172 Cessna with the 180 hp engine.  His 150 Cessna is about finished on its rebuild.

    Don was asked about Tri-Cities Airport and if they were going to close it.  He said AOPA and the FAA will not let the airport close.  Doug Goodrich (Don's Son) is still FBO of the airport and we found out that Ultra-Lights are allowable but Para-sails are not allowed because of their slow speed hampering operations.  He said there are 65 General Aviation crafts on the field.  He also said there are 17 more years on the FAA grant so he feels it will be open for awhile.

    Matt Garbet has been working a lot and flying very little.  However when he did fly last month he experienced a near miss with a jet on landing.  The jet jockey was learning how to fly his craft but for some reason failed to acknowledge Matt's 5 radio transmissions around the Sidney airport.  One of the things that was advised was not to do any straight in landings because someone may be under you in the pattern.

    Tom Botheuser finished the left wing on his Minni-Max.  It still needs to be covered and he will be using a 503 dual carb. for an engine.

    Duane Ross and Alan Huntly have been doing some flying this past month.

    Jim Croisant has been fighting the snow storms and surfing the internet for some great deals on aircraft.

    I have been doing some of the same myself and I have been trying to come up with some ideas with Tom Decker on the proto-type ultra-light legal ship.

    Al Osterhout bought Don Goodrich's Hawk and then was grounded because of his many operations with his cancer.  They claim it is gone now and he is on the mend.  He is asking now for 4700 dollars for his CGS Hawk.

    Tom Hettig has much of the club's equipment in his garage and wants it taken out ASAP, so Al and yours truly will try to get access to all of the club's equipment.

    A couple of members wondered if it were necessary to continue with the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag.  A vote was taken and it was 4 against and the majority overruled to continue with the flag at the beginning of the meetings.

     FINALLY OUR TREASURE GIL AITISON WAS WORKING HARD ON A WINDOW SILL AND LIZ ASKED HIM IF HE HAD MISSED OUT ON SOMETHING TODAY?  He got sooo involved that he accidentally forgot the meeting....  HOWEVER,,, HIS STEP DAUGHTER GAVE BIRTH TO A 2 POUND PREEMIE THAT IS IN EXCELLENT SHAPE.  SOO GRANDPA GIL HAS A GRAND DAUGHTER AND HER NAME IS AVA BROWN, AFTER AVA GARDENER, OR SHORT FOR AVIATION.  GRANDMA AND GRANDPA ARE HAPPY FOR THEIR NEW ADDITION AND LOOK FORWARD FOR SOME BABY SITTING TIME.  I think if half of my mind was on a birth about to be had, I probably would have forgotten to go to the meeting also.

    The meeting closed at around 3 PM and we had a great time in fellowship among pilots.

        Your Secretary,

        Mel Wightman