2025 Ray Aviation Scholarship

Thanks to the high level of volunteer activity in the various functions at this Chapter, the EAA has once again selected Chapter 186 to administer a Ray Aviation Flight Training Scholarship this year.  The amount for 2025 is $12,000 toward Private Pilot training.  EAA and the Ray Foundation have a goal of 80% completion in the overall program.  We are five for five for scholarship completion since the program began in 2019.  Our past Ray Scholars are:

2019 – Carter Allain
2020 – Seth Kissell
2021 – Tony Crupi
2022 – Juliette Burton
2023 – Grant Peterson
2024 – Kobe Kerns (Currently on track with Solo and Written Knowledge exam completed)

We will begin the selection process with a questionnaire for scholar hopefuls.  That tool will help us find a motivated, serious candidate.  The scholarship allows one year from beginning of funding to checkride completion.  EAA requires a current FAA medical (minimum Third Class) to be considered for the scholarship.   Please let me know if you know of an aviation-minded likely candidate.  Thank you for being part of our Chapter 186 successes!

Blue Skies,

Bob Prange

Young Eagles rally for 3/8/25 cancelled due to high winds. Please join us for our next rally at Warrenton-Farquier Airport on 4/12/25 at noon.

From the President

by Bob Prange

At the end of 2024 we awarded members either for a position they held in the Chapter or for something extra they did to further the Chapter’s purpose. In the December newsletter I discussed the George Lutz Awards given to Brian Lester
and Judy Sparks. Last month I highlighted the Chapter accomplishments for 2024 but did not mention names since
so many people help in so many ways, there will always be names left out when we start listing awards and giving thanks.

Here’s a list of the certificates and plaques given out at the Dec 2024 Holiday Dinner:

George Lutz Award – Brian Lester
George Lutz Award – Judy Sparks

The following six recipients were given a plaque:

Volunteer of the Year – Tim Nash – More than once Tim has dropped everything to make a repair or to replace an item to keep things moving. He has made runs to Target, Home Depot, his hangar, etc. to find a tool, part or printer ink when he saw the need. And always with cheer. And he flips a mean burger.

Young Eagles Pilot of the Year – Darrel Watson enthusiastically shares his Kitfox experience with the kids at our rallies. As a Designated Airworthiness Representative for E-AB and E-LSA Darrel keeps us apprised on the latest in regs and procedures in aircraft building, testing and certification.

Young Eagles Crew Member of the Year – Our 2023 Ray Scholar Grant Peterson has been volunteering at our rallies helping marshal and keep the ramp safe. He is taking college classes, works at an FBO at HEF and is working on his instrument rating.

In Appreciation – Richard Long is stepping down from his role in Chapter House Support that he has done for several years. Richard, I hope you will keep coming out when you can and just sit back on the deck and watch the planes.

Ford Tri-Motor Volunteer – Pierre Huggins volunteered with tons of energy with the Ford Tri-Motor tour stop. He
signed up for every day except for the last shift on Sunday. Even then he hung around during that shift anyway, in case we came up short on keeping the aircraft launch and recovery positions staffed. Pierre was quite instrumental in staffing the Builder Table at the Women Can Fly event in June at Warrenton Airport.

Junior Volunteer of the Year – Cliff Storey has been helping at our Young Eagles rallies while also active with his sailplane training. He made a presentation at our April meeting about winch-tow launch operations and has since been training at Skyline Soaring at FRR.

Award certificates were given to:

Air Tours Manager – Mary Dominiak worked wonders with securing a necessary hangar again for the Tri-Motor visit as well as dealt with the EAA and HEF paperwork to make the tour stop a success. Mary also keeps us safe and orderly at our monthly Young Eagles rallies, runs our raffle table drawings, keeps us informed on Air &Space Museum happenings. Mary is also one of our FaceBook contributors and is still the only one that has the knack for storing 100
chairs in a space where I could only fit 30! Mary is a docent at the Air and Space Museum.

Website Assistant – Meredith Richards has been helping to update the Chapter website with current articles and upcoming calendar events as well as helping with admin at our monthly Young Eagles rallies.

Newsletter Contributor – Dave Farrell created a lifetime supply of pilot cartoons and shares them with us in our monthlyStick and Rudder newsletter. Dave has also spent time and talent repairing our aging
Chapter House windows and doors.

Information Technology Coordinator – Sam Bingham keeps our computers, Live ATC feed, TV, internet, WiFi and printers running smoothly and puts on a neat Movie Night. He also volunteers at Young Eagles rallies and is a great photographer and is one of our Facebook contributors. He isn’t yet convinced that plumbing pipes are in his department.

Events and Sunshine Coordinator – Cathy Carey is involved with planning all of our Chapter events, works with our monthly Young Eagles rallies and is one heckuva party hostess!

Flight Safety Contributor – John Zinkus has helped promote flight safety among our group with both making presentations and arranging for others to present at our IMC and VMC safety meetings.

Certificates for the Chapter Board positions were given out as follows:

President – Bob Prange

Vice President – Jim Stone has irons in many fires. He helps with our monthlyspeaker program, tools, facilities, Young Eagles rallies, movie night, cook trailer and everything we do. And he is an expert A&P mechanic.

Treasurer – Brian Lester received the George Lutz Award, see December newsletter. Brian is building an RV-10.
Michael Iachini has stepped in as Treasurer or 2025 and is maintaining our payments, books and accounts and helping with the membership renewal process. He is a Young Eagles Pilot as well.

Secretary – Dan Botzer keeps us honest with minutes of our business and membership meetings but is also involved
with the cook trailer, Chapter House facilities and furnishings and everything else we do. And he flies lots of Young
Eagles.

Young Eagles Coordinator – David Richards manages the check-in process of the pilots, kids and parents and assigns kids to flights, keeping sanity to the whole rally process. He has helped move us to using a tablet to minimize paperwork and to the new registration system.

Eagle Flight Leader – Paul Schafer manages the flow of information from adults who want to discover or re-discover
flying to our Eagle Pilots. Paul is on the board at EAA and keeps us apprised of news from headquarters and is an
enthusiastic Young Eagles Pilot and a docent at the Air and Space Museum.

Membership Coordinator – Judy Sparks has held this position for several years and is involved with planning and carrying out our Chapter events. Judy received the George Lutz Award, see the December newsletter.

Newsletter Editor – Danny Miller has been compiling this important part of our communications for several years and as past president and vice president has great knowledge of chapter operations. Danny is also our coordinator on matters with the FAA and ATC.

Technical Counselors – Ralph Hoover, Dick Koehler, Lee Ragsdale, Rob Brooks and Danny Miller each use their vast knowledge and experience in aircraft homebuilding in advising the building community. I would venture to say that this level of expertise in Chapter 186 is unmatched.

IMC Program Coordinator – TR Proven keeps the information interesting and flowing at our monthly instrument flying based safety meeting. As TR always says, he is not the instructor here, just the facilitator for the discussion.

VMC Coordinator – Chuck Kyle continues to bring a variety of topics to generate productive discussion at our monthly visual flying based safety meeting. Chuck also volunteers often at our Young Eagles rallies.

Scholarship Coordinator – Bob Prange

Young Eagles Coordinator – Bob Prange

We are still in need of a webmaster. The EAA186.org website needs maintenance so that we can keep our membership informed and up-to-date with announcements, calendar items, membership renewal screens, sign-up sheets, etc. Please let us know if you would like to help in this area.

We are finishing the annual Chapter 186 membership renewal process. Chapter 186 membership is for the calendar year. If you renew now you will reduce our postage expenses and mailing efforts. To renew right now on line and pay by PayPal or Zelle, click here: https://eaa186.org/events/eaa-chapter-186-membership-onlineapplication-2025/. Or if you prefer, print and fill in the 2025 membership renewal form in this newsletter and mail it with your payment. Or bring your form and payment with you to the Feb 22 meeting.

Blue Skies,

Bob

Ray Aviation Scholarship

from Bob Prange

In January 2025, Chapter 186 will apply to EAA to administer a 2025 Ray Scholarship for a $12,000 flight training scholarship. If we are selected to give another Ray Scholarship, we will begin a search in March for a motivated youth aged 16 ½ to 19 who would like to participate in a concentrated one-year effort to acquire his/her Private Pilot License. The selection process will begin with reviewing questionnaire responses from scholar candidates. We look at a candidate’s motivation, participation level in Chapter activities, level of completion in the Sporty’s Learn-to-Fly video series, participation in Young Eagles flights and Oshkosh Air Academy and any accomplishments toward flight training preparation. Possession of an FAA medical certificate is required for scholarship consideration. That is, a scholar hopeful should already have an FAA medical certificate in March for us to consider him/her. We cannot propose a Ray Scholar candidate to the EAA without an FAA medical certificate.

The scholarship gives $4,800 to start flight training, then requires soloing within 4 months to receive the next $4,800 and then requires completion of the FAA Knowledge Exam within 4 more months to receive the last $2,400. The Ray Aviation Foundation has partnered with EAA’s chapter structure to find and mentor flight training scholars with the goal of an 80% completion rate. Chapter 186 is 5 for 5 with our Ray Scholars beginning in 2019 when the program began. Thanks to all of our Chapter 186 volunteers who keep our Chapter active and visible. That helps us earn the privilege of administering this scholarship.

Chapter 186 applied in January 2025 to EAA to administer a 2025 Ray Scholarship for a $12,000 flight training scholarship. If we are selected in late February to give another Ray Scholarship, we will begin a search in March for a motivated youth aged 16 ½ to 19 who would like to participate in a concentrated one-year effort to acquire his/her
Private Pilot License. The selection process will begin with reviewing questionnaire responses from scholar candidates. We look at a candidate’s motivation, participation level in Chapter activities, level of completion in the Sporty’s Learn-to-Fly video series, participation in Young Eagles flights and Oshkosh Air Academy and any accomplishments toward flight training preparation. Possession of an FAA medical certificate isrequired for scholarship consideration. That is, a
scholar hopeful should already have an FAA medical certificate in March for us to consider him/her. We can not propose a Ray Scholar to the EAA without an FAA medical certificate.

EAA Air Academy 

from Bob Prange

If your child has already been accepted to any 2025 Air Academy session, either Explore Camp or Discover Camp, please let us know. We may be able to help with your tuition expense. If you would like your child to go to one of the
sessions we have already reserved and partially paid for (see below), please let us know. EAA Air Academy is 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. All sessions are full however EAA Chapter 186 has three spots reserved
for kids that would like to attend. We can pay $500 of your child’s tuition. The child’s family will be responsible for transportation to and from the lodge.

Find additional information on course content, lodge accommodations and registration at https://www.eaa.org/eaa/youth/eaa-aviation-and-flightsummer-camps.

Explore Aviation 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

Session 1 (ages 14-15) – June 12 – 17, 2025 – $1,300
Session 2 (ages 16-18) – July 7 – 12, 2025 – $1,300

*Chapter 186 has reserved spots for two campers in  Session 1 of Explore Aviation Camp (Age 14-15).
If interested in sending your child to this camp, contact president@eaa186.org

**Chapter 186 has reserved a spot for one camper in Session 3 of Explore Aviation Camp (Age 16-18). If interested in sending your child to this camp, contact president@eaa186.org

Young Eagles

We had several aircraft and over 50 kids registered for Jan 11 but cancelled for high winds and icy ramps and have also had to cancel the February rally.

Our next Young Eagles Rallies are:

March 8 – 1200 Noon at Manassas

April 12 – 1200 Noon at Warrenton

May 10 – 0900 AM at Manassas

We are now using the EAA’s new website for event management for our Young Eagles Rallies. To become a Young Eagles volunteer, ground or pilot, proceed to events.eaachapters.org and use the “sign-up” feature using your eaa.org login info. That just gets you on the list of possible volunteers. Let Bob know you have signed up so we can send you
an invitation to volunteer for a specific event. You can volunteer without signing up, but 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 events.eaachapters.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.

Pilot Volunteers: EAA requires current EAA membership and current Youth Protection Program training and background check to fly Young Eagles. Unfortunately, no notice is given before your 3-year YPP training expires, so it can be a surprise to discover you are not eligible just before a Young Eagles Rally. Please go to your EAA.org account and look under “My Account” and “Training Information” to see your YPP date of expiration. When training is needed, a link will take you to the training module.

Ground Volunteers: EAA requires a minimum portion of our ground volunteers to have current
Youth Protection Program training and background check. Please go to your EAA.org account and look under “My Account” and “Training Information” to see your YPP date of expiration. When training is needed, a link will take you to the training module.

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 in the colder months. Parents can register at events.eaachapters.org beginning at 8:00 AM on the 1st of each month.

Chapter 186 Young Eagles Coordinators
David Richards
Bob Prange

IMC and VMC Meetings

with special note from TR and Chuck

Jon us for our monthly IMC and VMC Meeting today starting at 7:00 pm! Optional informal dinner at 5:30 at Panera at Bristow Center.

We meet on the 4th Tuesday each month. IMC Club at 7 PM. VMC Club at 8 PM. Come for one or both sessions; we usually meet beforehand at 5:30 PM for informal dinner at the Panera Bread at Bristow Center. The IMC Club’s purpose is to promote instrument flying proficiency, safety and education through a community of pilots sharing information and fostering communications. You don’t have to be instrument rated to come to the IMC Club. The VMC Club, for pilots wishing to improve their VFR flying proficiency, is modeled after the popular IMC Club providing organized “hangar flying” with a focus on VFR procedures, regulations and publications. TR Proven and Chuck Kyle are our facilitators for these meetings but the attendees are encouraged to participate with their knowledge and experience. Each one-hour meeting earns you one credit toward the FAA Wings Pilot Proficiency program.

*Folks, at this time TR and Chuck are sort of a single point of failure for IMC/VMC Club activities. We have found on occasion that we each have activities that conflict with Club meetings. So far other activities have been optional and Club meetings proceed as usual, but this may not always be the case. Having a third Club Coordinator as backup would be very helpful to us. If you would like to help out by becoming IMC/VMC Club Coordinator and (optionally) an FAA SafetyTeam representative, please give Chuck Kyle a call at 703 439 0836 or email to deke.kyle@gmail.com. It’s a great way to be more involved with the Chapter and meet some great Chapter members.

Thanks! TR and Chuck

Our speaker this month will be Chapter member John Fontaine sharing the journey of building his RV-12iS.  John grew up in an aviation family with a father and uncle as  airline pilots and helped his father build a Varieze in 1977.  He now has a son flying for Delta Air Lines.  John retired from a 33-year career with United Airlines two years ago and first flew his RV-12 in December 2023.

Join us at 10:00 AM for the meeting and 9:20 AM for coffee and doughnuts.

Bob Prange

The February 8th Young Eagles rally has been cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances. Please join us for the March 8th Young Eagles Rally.