Chapter member Joe Bechtold (ATP, CFII, KitFox Amphib) will provide lessons learned from his experience after his aircraft was significantly damaged by a fractional jet and his adventures following the repair. Joe built a beautiful Kitfox and flew it all over the country and added amphibious floats. As you may remember from his talk early last year, he was blown over by a corporate jet and was just beginning the repair process. Now we will get an update on his progress. Join us at 1000 on September 28 for the gathering with coffee, doughnuts and good old aviation fellowship beforehand.

Young Eagles Air Academy

from 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 P

arents 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.

Young Eagles

from Bob Prange

Volunteers, Ford Tri-Motor

Air Tour Success!

The Ford Tri-Motor roared into Manassas Airport, causing those in the area to look up and wonder where the orchestrated sound of radial engines was coming from. The distinct sound of radials cannot be mistaken. A number of folks actually followed the plane back to Manassas Airport and purchased a ride.

Young and old boarded the Ford Tri-Motor.

September 8, 16 fights were made, a new record, we did not see one disappointed rider. The volunteers stepped up to the challenge and got the event off the ground.

Mary Dominiak was again instrumental in getting those ‘I’s and ’T’s taken care of in order for the successful Ford Tri-Motor event. Thank you, Mary. The volunteers did an amazing job with those details no one sees, such as setting up the food trailer, picking up the food products, filling the coolers with drinks etc.

We were able to get a picture of most of the volunteers in front of the Ford Tr-Motor just before taking off on the 16th flight. However, I apologize for not getting everyone. If I missed anyone, please let me know.

Wanted: Chili Cooks

EAA Chapter 186 23rd 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

In the same spirit of volunteerism that we experienced at AirVenture in July, we witnessed an amazing cadre of volunteers earlier this month as we hosted the Ford Tri- Motor tour stop. First of all, Mary Dominiak started working on the operations plan and hangar arrangements months ago when EAA- OSH offered to add Manassas to the Ford’s tour. Between the various ops plans, insurance, contracts, etc. requirements of the Chapter, EAA, the airport, the city and the FBO, Mary wordsmithed many documents and coordinated several efforts to make this tour stop happen.

The ramp always had the required four and often more aircraft and passenger handlers and the administration spots in the terminal were well covered. The food trailer was well-staffed for its two-fold purpose; keeping the troops fed and supplementing the tour income. Hosting the Ford Tri-Motor is a fund-raising event for the Chapter.

Mary can tell us more of the numbers and facts. If I try to thank the volunteers individually, I’ll undoubtedly miss some but I will mention that Pierre Huggins was on the ramp for just about the whole event. Ed, the Tri- Motor pilot gave us very kind complements on our volunteers’ efficient and productive work.

Thank you to all who stepped in to make this another Chapter 186 safe, productive and fun event.

Bob Prange

ONLINE APPLICATIONS:

Click for the online application here.

Click for name badge 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.

Airventure 2024 Pictures!

All female pilots

 

Bob’s MacGyver pose

 

Volunteer for Ford Tri-Motor!

Volunteer sheets are up on our website for the four days of the Ford Tri-Motor visit, September 5-8, 2024: go to https://eaa186.org/participate/ to sign up!

The volunteer opportunities come in two flavors: Ramp and Terminal, and Food Concession Trailer. The Food Trailer shifts are only for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday; Ramp and Terminal shifts run Thursday through Sunday. Except for Thursday, which has only a single long shift (noon to 5:30 PM) because we’re not expecting a big turnout that day, there are two shifts each day for each position, from 8:00 AM to 1:30 PM and from 1:00 PM to 6:00 PM. Every morning shift includes some setup time, and every afternoon shift includes cleanup time.

There’s a small chance that there might be some make-up flights on Monday, September 9, 2024, before the plane heads off to its next stop. If you would be available to help out if that happens, please do sign up.

Finally, here’s the pot-sweetener: volunteers may have the chance to fly on the Tri-Motor, if there are unsold seats on a flight with enough paying customers to make it viable. That’s never guaranteed – we’ll sell every seat we can – but past experience says it’s likely. Interested? Come help!

Ramp and Terminal

Thursday through Sunday, we’re looking for six people on each shift to volunteer for Ramp and Terminal. Duties for these positions will include passenger, bench, and rope escorts to assist with assembling, briefing, and getting passengers safely on and off the airplane; a starter/fireguard to communicate with the pilot on taxi, parking, and ramp safety instructions; and general crowd control. Anyone wanting to work the ramp during the Tri- Motor visit MUST watch the 25-minute safety training video in advance; you’ll find it on YouTube here https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=wfpu3PR1enA.

EAA requires a minimum of four volunteers per shift for these ramp duties. We’ve opened six slots per shift to give folk the chance to rotate duties. The folk not actively doing the ramp work at any given time would help staff our Chapter information table to talk to visitors about Chapter 186, Young Eagles, and EAA in general. The volunteer on that table could also assist the Ford crew with information about ticket and merchandise sales. The Tri-Motor travels with just hats and pins to sell but has information about Tin Goose merchandise available through the EAA website – and the Chapter gets a commission on all such sales for the period around our tour stop! The Tour Coordinator with the plane will handle all the ticket sales.

In each shift, there’s one position we won’t rotate: the starter/fireguard on each shift will work only that position, so they can establish good coordination and a level of comfort with the pilot.

While the Ford Tri-Motor doesn’t offer ground tours the way the bombers do, I do expect that in quiet times between flights we may be escorting visitors out onto the ramp to see the plane up close and take pictures of it. On Thursday, we may also have vintage cars out on the ramp with the plane, and escorting photographers should be an expected duty. Keeping all visitors away from the plane’s propellers will be paramount!

Food Concession Trailer

On Friday through Sunday, we’ll also be looking for cooks, servers, and cashiers to work our concession trailer, which will be parked on the concrete pad between the parking lot and the

Terminal building. We’re requesting one cashier, two cooks, and two servers each shift. Morning shifts include help setting up, and afternoon shift include cleanup. We’d likely stop cooking by around 4:00 PM each day, but continue selling drinks, chips, and ice cream.

The big challenge in our food trailer location is that we’ll have no access to electricity and will have to run a generator during the day to power the freezer and other electronics. Since it will take a few hours for the freezer to get cold, we’ll need to plan on making a run to the Chapter House in mid-morning to get ice cream to the trailer. The burgers and hot dogs can be kept cold in our coolers with ice, but the ice cream is another matter!

Please do sign up for the shift(s) you’d like to work, so we can plan good coverage for this event! It should be a lot of fun, and while we’re not expecting the turnout of visitors to be anywhere close to what we typically see for the bombers, we could be surprised.

I will be there all the time; come keep me company!

Mary Dominiak