Our next meeting will take place at Gil Aitchison's home.  He has the runway all rolled down and the grass is clipped for aircraft to land.  The meeting will be at 11:30 am on Saturday the 21st of May.  Our food will be prepared by Jim Croisant.  Many thanks for his volunteering.

    Our meeting on April 23rd took place at the Baron's Inn in Greene NY .  We had 12 pilots show up for the meeting.  Though there wasn't any flying taking place we had lots of good eats and some news to share on the Florida Sun and Fun. 

    The meal was over at 1:30 PM and the meeting was underway.  Our President Mel McKinney was in Florida enjoying the weather and flying and he also went to the Sun & Fun, hopefully he will be back to fill us in with a report.   

    Since we didn't advertise with the regular newspaper John Torta has volunteered to check with the Penny Saver to see if an ad could be put in at a reasonable price.   

    Al Osterhout got another application from the USUA.  We promptly voted it in and we will assume the same number USUA Club 66.  So it looks like we will become a club again legally.  Gil Aitchison saw to it that the application was sent out with the 45 dollars.  This will in itself be a form of advertising to let people know we exist in the Southern Tier.  The USUA called my home to make sure my address was correct for publishing; I hope I won't be sorry.  My wife was wondering about that too.  Well if it means we get more members that is a good thing. 

    We started off our round table review with Jim Croisant.  Jim bought a brand new lawn mower so he can mow his 1400 foot runway.  I personally took a peek at it and found it to be a 54 inch cut.  It shouldn't take anytime at all to cut his runway. 

    Gil Aitchison finally took off his skies and put his wheels and mud flapps on.  He'd been flying approximately 16 to 17 hours since January. 

    John Torta has been letting his work get in his way and has had little time to work on his Flight Star with Dave Price.  John was talking about the old times he had going out to Wisconsin to the EAA FLY-IN.  The first craft he went out in was a Bonanza and the second was a Twin Apache.  Both airplanes were owned by friends of his who are no longer in the area.  The second time that he went out he witnessed two tornadoes.  They were near the airport and caused some damage to aircraft at the end of the field.  They were able to continue flying in without incident.

    Allen Huntley put the new Rotax 503 on his Hawk.  He also plans to extend his runway to 1400 feet.

    Matt Garbett drove to the Sun and Fun and said while it was pretty windy for flying ultralights, there were some very interesting sites to take in.  One was the P-38 called Glacier Girl; it was in a glacier for over 50 years and was found 260 feet down.  They had beautiful pictures showing the expedition on how they retrieved the aircraft.  The P-38 was flying in and out of the airport putting on quite a show.  He concluded that the biggest thing that makes airplanes fly is MONEY and LOTS of IT!!!   When he got home he flew his C-150 which, by the way, is for sale.

    Norm Dibble has been working on his Ultra-Cruiser.  He has it one tenth built.  It will be all aluminum and be powered with half of a Volks Wagon Engine.

    Duane Ross took nice pictures of the flood around the Whitney Point Reservoir and the Upper Lisle Bridge which was almost fully under water except for the last 3 feet of the upper part of the bridge.  Boy did we ever have water and just think how it would have been if there wasn't any dam.  He also has been flying around 10 or 11 hours.  It seems that the Hawks always fly just like the bird itself.  They are enclosed and offer more environmental protection.  I can only picture how one could read an air chart in an open cockpit.  I guess if we have our GPS's we're ok....This could be scary...

    George Smith flew his Quicksilver for about 3 hours in April.  He got a bubble for his Quicksilver but it didn't feel the same to him, not enough wind blowing in his face on landings.  He said, it is a real performer with the 503 Rotax.  George has also been working on the instrument panel of his Savannah Aircraft.  A Rotax 912S 100 hp. should be enough to get this plane in the air and will have enough fuel to get to the next Ultra-Light meet.  It will require a Sport Pilot License and is a 2 place.  He has been working on the craft almost everyday.

    John Finn has a need for more hardware for his engine mount.

    Al Osterhout picked up a book on Sport Pilots.  He has to hold off for 6 months because there aren't enough instructors around to teach.  It seems if they are licensed, they need a plane to operate so he is on hold until some action can occur with the establishment for Sport Pilots.

    Tom Botheuser has been busy working on his craft.  He hopes to have it flying this year.

    Gil Aitchison gave us a treasure's report, we now have $1108.60 in the bank and $113.00 in cash 21 members paid this year we had 31 last year.  Many have either moved, quit, or died.   

    If anyone would like to borrow a tape on ultralights that the club has in their library please let me know.  I haven't looked at them myself but we can get a list out so that everyone can know what is available.  Like signing out a book at the local library. 

    Your Secretary,

        Mel Wightman

To get to Gil’s use the following directions:

Going east on rt 88, get off at exit # 3, Port Crane. Turn left on to rt 369.  Go to the end of 369 which runs into rt 79.  Continue east on rt 79 and when you go past the Windy Hill Candle Factory, take the second road on the left, which will be Babock road. 

Continue left at the "Y" in the road.  Continue on and the road, the name changes to Palmiter Road .  The address is 416 on the right hand side of the road. 

I will have streamers at the end of driveway, park on the side with the mailbox, (more room).   

Rt 12 north to Greene, at light turn right on to 206 east.  Go thru town and about 3/4 mile make a right turn on to Hartman hill road.  Travel to the end and make right turn.  Go 200 feet, make left turn and go 2 miles to my 416 address.

Gil