From the President, Nov. 2024
November 18, 2024 By
The annual Chapter 186 Officer election process will proceed at the Nov 23 Membership Gathering. At that meeting we will ask the members present to vote yea or nay to the proposed candidates. Any Chapter 186 member who would like to consider filling an officer position should let one of the Chapter 186 Board Members know before that date. The current President, Vice President and Secretary (Bob Prange, Jim Stone and Dan Botzer, respectively) have indicated a willingness to serve in their positions again for 2025. We thank Brian Lester for serving as our Treasurer for the past two years. Brian has indicated he would still like to help in other areas but will step down from the Treasurer position. Member Michael Iachini has expressed interest in fulfilling the Treasurer position. Michael works in finance, has a C- 182RG and flies Young Eagles.
Most of the 2025 Air Academy sessions are full and accepting a waitlist registration but Chapter 186 has three reserved spots for those interested in attending. We’ll pay a portion of the tuition. The two age groups are 14-15 and 16-18. See more info in the Air Academy article if you are interested.
In October we participated with three other EAA chapters in what we called “October Skies,” a joint-chapter Young Eagles mini-workshop plus a one-on-one flight for each participant. See the write-up herein.
The party season continues! We enjoyed some very good chili concoctions and other dishes and desserts at the Chili Cook-Off last month. Please plan to attend the Holiday Party on Sunday Dec 8 at 12:00 Noon. See the announcement and info about bringing dishes in the next couple pages.
Bob Prange
EAA Chapter 186 Holiday Party
November 13, 2024 By
Bring your family to our Chapter House Holiday Party on Sunday,
December 8 from 12:00 Noon to 4:00 pm. We’ll provide baked ham, roast
turkey, and drinks. Please bring a side dish, perhaps your family’s favorite
vegetable, salad, casserole, pie, cake or cookies. Awards and certificate
presentations to follow. We’ll also be collecting for “TOYS FOR TOTS” so
please bring a new unwrapped toy to be given to the less fortunate in our
area by the Marine Corps.
PLEASE RSVP, and either respond on line by
going to EAA186.org and click on PARTICIPATE, and then HOLIDAY
PARTY or contact Judy Sparks,
jhsparks@comcast.net or 703-581-7667.
Chili Cookoff This Saturday 10/26 Sign up Today!
October 23, 2024 By
*** Sign up ASAP on this website under “Participate”***
Wanted: Chili Cooks
EAA Chapter 186 2
3rd ANNUAL CHILI COOK-OFF!
(No Membership Meeting at 10:00) OPEN TO THE PUBLIC!
October 26 at High Noon
There will be four category awards and one main grand prize! Entries can be classic recipes, meatless, no beans, white bean, or even have surprise ingredients. Chili entries will be judged by the following categories:
- Hottest/Spiciest
- Most Creative/Unusual
- Mildest/Wimpiest
- Best Presentation/Most Attractive
- Grand Prize – Best Over All
We need cornbread, side dishes, and desserts!
We also need Chili Judges!
We need FIVE judges, so get in on the fun and put your taste buds to the ultimate test!
RULES:
The signup for Chili Cooks and Chili Judges begins on September 23. Go to EAA186.org and click on PARTICIPATE, and then CHILI COOK OFF. All Chili entries must be at the Chapter House by 11:30 AM on October 26.
Chili entries must be prepared at home and brought to the Chapter House in a slow cooker.
- Be sure to name your chili with a sign!
- Your entry and décor/signage must fit within a 2 ft x 2 ft space.
- Deadline to enter Chili Cook-off is October 23.
- Judging starts at high noon on October 26.
- Please bring cornbread, side dishes
Chili Cookoff October 26!
October 16, 2024 By
Wanted: Chili Cooks
EAA Chapter 186 2
3rd ANNUAL CHILI COOK-OFF!
(No Membership Meeting at 10:00) OPEN TO THE PUBLIC!
October 26 at High Noon
There will be four category awards and one main grand prize! Entries can be classic recipes, meatless, no beans, white bean, or even have surprise ingredients. Chili entries will be judged by the following categories:
- Hottest/Spiciest
- Most Creative/Unusual
- Mildest/Wimpiest
- Best Presentation/Most Attractive
- Grand Prize – Best Over All
We need cornbread, side dishes, and desserts!
We also need Chili Judges!
We need FIVE judges, so get in on the fun and put your taste buds to the ultimate test!
RULES:
The signup for Chili Cooks and Chili Judges begins on September 23. Go to EAA186.org and click on PARTICIPATE, and then CHILI COOK OFF. All Chili entries must be at the Chapter House by 11:30 AM on October 26.
Chili entries must be prepared at home and brought to the Chapter House in a slow cooker.
- Be sure to name your chili with a sign!
- Your entry and décor/signage must fit within a 2 ft x 2 ft space.
- Deadline to enter Chili Cook-off is October 23.
- Judging starts at high noon on October 26.
- Please bring cornbread, side dishes
Become a Member!
October 16, 2024 By
ONLINE APPLICATIONS
EAA 186 Membership: click here.
Name Tag Order Form: click here
CHAPTER MEMBERSHIP FEES
$30 Jan–Dec Single Member Dues
$35 Jan-Dec Family Member Dues
$10 for Name Tag and postage $10 – hard copy of Newsletter (printing & mailing)
$10 – hard copy of Directory (printing & mailing) $1 surcharge if paying by PayPal
Contact Judy Sparks for Membership info: jhsparks@comcast.net
DID YOU CHANGE YOUR E-MAIL? Please advise Judy Sparks, 703-581-7667 or jhsparks@comcast.net if any of your membership directory information changes. Thanks!
Air Academy, 2025 from Bob Prange
October 16, 2024 By
Young Eagles EAA Air Academy
by Bob Prange
Registration is available and EAA has announced the 2025 dates, prices and changes to the course content for the EAA Air Academy, a series of camps designed to introduce young people ages 14-18 to the aviation world. Kids stay at the EAA Air Academy Lodge in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Experienced aviation instructors help them delve into flight through studies, hands-on demonstrations, flight simulation, and other exciting activities. Campers will receive a ride in a Cessna Skycatcher or Skyhawk or a helicopter, weather permitting.
Explore Aviation Camp is equivalent to the previous Basic (14-15) and Advanced (16-18) Air Academy Camps.
All sessions offered are the same camp.
*Session 1 (ages 14-15) – June 20 – 25, 2025 – $1,300
Session 2 (ages 14-15) – June 28 – July 3, 2025 – $1,300
*Session 3 (ages 16-18) – July 15 – 23, 2025 – $1,650
Session 4 (ages 16-18) – July 25 – August 2, 2025 – $1,650
Discover Camp
All sessions offered are the same camp.
Session 1 (ages 14-15) – June 12 – 17, 2025 – $1,300
Session 2 (ages 16-18) – July 7 – 12, 2025 – $1,300
Parents interested in Air Academy camps can click here for additional information on course content, lodge accommodations and registration. Contact president@eaa186.org if you have any questions.
*Chapter 186 is prepared to help pay for part of the camper tuition for one camper in Session 3 of Explore Aviation Camp (Age 16-18) and two campers in Session 1 of Explore Aviation Camp (Age 14-15). Please contact Bob Prange if interested.
Young Eagles from Bob Prange
October 16, 2024 By
Young Eagles
by Bob Prange
We flew 33 kids at the Sept 14 rally at Warrenton and 28 kids at Manassas on Oct 5.
Our next Young Eagles Rallies are:
Nov 9 – 12:00 Noon at Manassas
Dec 14 – 12:00 Noon at Manassas
On October 12, Ch 186 participated in “October Skies” a joint 4-chapter Young Eagles mini- workshop at Shannon Airport. Each chapter had about 4 or 5 attendees from each of 4 chapters for a total of 16 to 20 kids. In the morning there was a hands-on exercise to modify a miniature RC model with a helium balloon and fly it around an obstacle course. After lunch each attendee got a Young Eagles flight. The other chapters participating were 231 Richmond, 1099 Shannon/Fredericksburg and 1563 Gordonsville.
To become a Young Eagles volunteer, ground or pilot, proceed to yeday.org and use the “sign-up” feature. Let Bob know you have signed up so we can send you an invitation to volunteer. If you volunteer without being signed up, you will not get important changes/updates about the YE rally.
Ground and Pilot Volunteers: About two/three weeks prior to a Young Eagles Rally, we prompt the yeday.org system to send an email to everyone in our Young Eagles volunteer database, inviting you to click on “confirm” or “will not attend.” This helps us determine the staffing level so we can set the number of kids that can register for a ride. Expect an automatic reminder email on Wednesday three days prior to the Young Eagles Rally asking you to confirm again that you are still planning to volunteer. This gives us updated staffing level info.
Young Eagles flights are available to kids between ages 8 and 17. We normally hold our rallies on the second Saturday each month. We use two time slots 12:00 Noon and 2:00 PM starting in November. Parents can register at yeday.org beginning at 8:00 AM on the 1st of each month.
To Young Eagles and Parents: The Sporty’s Learn- to-Fly course ($299 value) is available free after just one flight. The access code is on the back of your logbook. This will prepare you for the FAA Private Pilot Knowledge Test, “the written.” Every FAA written exam (private, instrument, commercial, etc.) requires an endorsement from an instructor stating you are prepared to take the exam. Passing this course with at least an 80% grade lets you skip that step and gives you the required endorsement to take the Private Pilot written test. For more details about the Sporty’s Learn-to-Fly course, click here.
Chapter 186 Young Eagles Coordinators
David Richards
Bob Prange
Star Wars X-Wing at Udvar-Hazy from Mary Dominiak
October 16, 2024 By
Sometimes, Fantasy Flies
The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum collection includes not only artifacts representing major milestones in aviation and aerospace, but artifacts of imagination paying tribute to how ideas and stories inspire the people who achieve such goals. They include the original Star Trek TV starship Enterprise (on display in the South Lobby of the Mall museum); the alien Mothership from Close Encounters of the Third Kind (on display in the Space Hangar at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center); and even the fantastical sculpture of La Minerve, a golden ship suspended under a balloon envisioned as a self-contained aerial community by Etienne Robert in 1803 and rendered into three- dimensional art by N.A. DiRaddo in the late 1970s based on an engraving done in 1820 (on display just inside the Early Flight gallery in the Mall museum).
Screenshot
And they include *two* X-wing fighters from Star Wars: a full-scale physical model used on-screen in The Rise of Skywalker movie, and a smaller, SUV- sized X-wing model that was never in the movies but actually flew at the opening of the “Rise of the Resistance” experience at Galaxy’s Edge, the Star Wars world at Walt Disney World in Orlando, FL!
Poe Dameron’s X-wing – with its 37-foot wingspan! – has been hanging just outside the Planetarium since the west end of the museum on the Mall reopened on October 14, 2022. If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s definitely worth a visit; just get your free timed admission tickets from the museum website in advance of your trip. And don’t miss the signs for the X-wing! It’s the only artifact in the museum with two distinct signs. One is written in the real world (“This is a film prop”) while the other is written inside the world of Star Wars, as if it’s all real (Armaments! Engines! Poe Dameron flying it in battle!).
The flying X-wing is a much newer acquisition, now on display at the Udvar-Hazy Center (no tickets required!). To see it, head for the nose of the Concorde. You can get great views both from the ground and from the high catwalk above. It’s also a unique display, because its donation credit comes in two pieces: to Lucasfilm and Disney for the lightweight, mostly mesh, white and blue X- wing “costume,” painted to virtually glow when hit with UV spotlights, and to Boeing for the big flat- black cargo drone that enabled the costume to actually fly. Here’s a cute funny: for the X-wing to fly nose-forward, the drone had to fly sideways! Footage of the brief flight is readily available on YouTube; the Disney Live TV feed runs here. Fans enjoying the experience also posted their views; here is one showing the crowd reactions to seeing X-wings fly! Click here!
You never know what you’re going to find at the Air and Space Museum. Sometimes, it’s fantasy that flies … and ignites the imagination.
Mary Dominiak
From the President
October 14, 2024 By
We are once again at the time where we conduct the annual Chapter Officer election process. Any Chapter 186 member who would like to consider filling an officer position should let one of the Chapter 186 Board Members know. The current President, Vice President and Secretary (Bob Prange, Jim Stone and Dan Botzer, respectively) have indicated a willingness to serve in their positions again for 2025. We would like to thank Brian Lester for serving as our Treasurer for the past two years. Brian has indicated he would still like to help in other areas but will step down from the Treasurer position. Any Chapter 186 member interested in fulfilling the treasurer duties can contact Bob or Brian to learn what the position entails.
Bob presents Ray Scholar polo shirt to Grant Peterson upon completion of Private Pilot check ride.
EAA has published the dates and tuition costs for the 2025 sessions of Air Academy. The two age groups for attendees are 14 to 15 and 16 to 18. Parents can learn about these 6-day and 9-day camps at EAA Headquarters in Oshkosh, WI by clicking here. We plan to help some attendees with credits we have earned by flying Young Eagles.
Congratulations to Grant Peterson, our 2024 Ray Scholar! Grant earned his Private Pilot certificate in September. Grant has volunteered often at our Young Eagles events as well as attending school and working. He completed his flight training at Aviation Adventures.
Please plan to attend the Annual Chapter 186 Chili Cook-Off on October 26. This event always involves some great dishes in addition to fantastic chili concoctions. To enter your chili, bring it by 11:30 AM and make sure you name your chili but leave your name off. The judges will lock the hangar door and do their magic to choose the winners.
Bob Prange
