Winter Haven, Florida rwripper@verizon.net

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++NEXT Board Meeting

President--Tom Olson; Vice President -- Luke Bowman;

Treasurer--Warren Krabbe; Secretary----------Ray Mallette

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Thanks to all volunteers including Dick Creswell, Katie Gilbert, Tom Olson, Mike Bauer, Jim Newman, Duke Bledsoe and Luke Bowman for their Tiedown assembly work (sorry if anyone was missed).

A tiedown sales report will be available at the 5/3 chapter meeting but is anticipated to be very bleak from what was observed. It is possible that the long anticipated tiedown saturation sales point (and complicated by the muddy conditions) has been reached after many years. Only reasonable options for the membership and it's level of volunteerism may be "at least double the dues", "dip into savings" or "reduce expenses". The biggest expense is the hanger. Please use the sign-in board located at the front door so member 229 hanger usage can be determined!!! Judged by current records, the hanger and it's resources are unfortunately only used by a very few (with most being coffee drinkers <G>)…

Speedy recovery wishes to Luke's wife, Doreen and her broken shoulder. The Mallette/Krabbe 601HD team extended thanks to Dennis Kochan and Walt Dix for recent input on the Horizontal stab.

Lucky Ray Mallette won a flight in a T-6 at the Teachers seminar at SNF.

Dick Wilbers told an entertaining story about his recently sold Zodiac declaring an emergency and landing in a farmers field. Seems like a pinhole leak in the water hose of the Subaru looks like smoke but is of course really steam. Once having the FAA involved, the plane sat there for several weeks before the new owner decided to truck it the remainder to Arizona.

Some Lakeland fellow with 37 planes(?) and 6 model "T's" stopped by 229 looking for Doug Clukey the other day. Seems like he was an expert in Waco's. Never got his name and couldn't talk him into coming to the monthly meeting and giving a little talk.

Here are my notes of the guest speaker and the 3/5/08 General Meeting:

Mr. Freeman Walker gave a very interesting speech to 23 EAA 229 members on 4/5/08 about his experiences as a B-17 pilot in the 95th Bomb Group during WW2. During informing us of the development of the experimental B-17 and his training culminating in descriptive bombing missions in Europe, several things caught my attention.

Fighter pilots recently transferred to bombers

complained and were given the #4 engine. B-17

4 engine bombers had their vacuum systems operating off the two inboard engines, hence the desire to keep them running in IFR situations. E and F models apparently had turbocharged engines while G models had chin mounted machine guns. Early turbos could possible overspeed and the eraser on a wooden pencil was inserted into a hole in the console to reset the unit to a safe rpm. One of the 95th mechanics actually debugged the design problem and Boeing made the necessary changes. Bomb runs were under control of the bombardier as shown in the movies but he only had left and right control while the pilots held altitude and indicated airspeed. He did have to calculate actual ground speed in order to release the bombs to hit the target. The crew flew in their dress uniforms over long johns. Then a survival jumpsuit followed by an electrically heated "green" suit of boots, pants, jacket and goggles was put with the final covering then being heavy artic clothing. The fact that climbing to a bombing altitude of 25,000' caused a 100 degree temperature drop surprised me. Two additional things were: 1. that B-17's losing an engine could actually hide in the many, many contrails of the large bombing group.

Another was when Gene Abston's head raised up with the mention of the B17 crew seeing P61's at a secret fighter base were they had arrived in an emergency. Gene flew P61's.

Duke Bledsoe is moving his modified T-Raptor LSA with 85hp Jabiru to GIF. Mike Perry's Long-EZ is pictured on the website. It is Mazda Rotary powered: 2 rotor, water cooled, 160hp.

Mike provided the name of a pilot-friendly Senior AME John Shewmaker, DO, has a website www.floridaflightdoctor.com and (Johnathan Cook please note) offered to give talk when requested.

Allen Brown is back from a Germany trip and has his wings on the RV and ran the engine without his Italian hubbed, Sensenich bladed prop. He has installed an autopilot and awaiting his 496 Garmin GPS. Bud Davidson has built a ramp to get his seaplane onto the water next to his house. When the water is high enough <G>. He announced that the SNF Splashin has been relocated from Lake Parker to Fantasy of Flight. I think I heard that Dick Jason and partner Jim Newman have sold the Sonex project. A picture of Kelley Clark's RV project has been put on the website. Steve Megill won the 50-50 raffle.

It was voted that the next meeting on May 3rd would be the last for the summer. Jack Doke will coordinate repainting the compass Rose at GIF. I rode some with Jack on the tiedown trail late in SNF week (when it had dried out considerable) and heard story of his 9/11 flight. Seems he was coming south and had stopped in Georgia for the nite and took off the morning of 9/11. Until he heard Flight Service telling another to land immediately, he had no idea all flights were grounded. Ultimately he was told to land immediately but had to get another 50 miles to Lake City as he was not IFR and over the cloud tops… He picked up his plane 2-3 weeks later.

Upon my returning from a Caribbean cruise, Jim Campbell and wife Ronnie, told of a Zodiac 601 crash in Polk City earlier in the SNF week and glad to see it wasn't me.. Reportedly a wing came off a 601XL.

For the first time in 11 years I actually got to watch many UL's and LSA's perform takeoff and landings, a balloon launch as well as the air show. I also meet the "father of Ultralights", John K. Moody standing alongside an "Easy Rider" powered biplane. He said that North Central US around the Great Lakes didn't have many cliffs to hang glides from <G> and that led him to powered UL's. On Monday the Thunderbirds were only able to get 7 of their 8 off the ground while the old (maybe 30-40's) green and yellow Flying Automobile made it <G>.

A previous 229 member from Grover Summer days named Rubin Shytle stopped by looking for Gene Wooley , wondering if his Glasstar was still flying.. Rubin is considering a 701 or 801 project and has been referred to Mike Hoffman ( a current 701 builder). Having always wondered the status of Jose Marrero's project, someone submitted a photo into the 229 website. Appears to be high wing, steel tubed and tandem seated. There are also some SNF Activities 2008 photos. You all might take a look at the website and update the members project page by emailing webmaster Earle Richardson or myself. It needs updating…