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
Filed Under: News

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!

Filed Under: News

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.

Filed Under: News

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

Filed Under: News

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

Filed Under: News

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

Filed Under: News

Chapter Meeting this Saturday 9/28 10:00 AM!!!

September 23, 2024 By

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.

 

Filed Under: News

Young Eagles EAA Air Academy from Bob Prange

September 23, 2024 By

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.

 

 

 

Filed Under: News

Young Eagles from Bob Prange

September 23, 2024 By

Young Eagles

from Bob Prange

We flew 47 kids at the August 10 rally at Warrenton and have 50 kids scheduled for Sept 14, also at Warrenton. Our next Young Eagles Rallies are:

Sept 14 – 9:00 AM at Warrenton

Oct 5 – 9:00 AM at Manassas (First Saturday)

Nov 9 – 12:00 Noon at Manassas

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, 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM for the summer months, 12:00 Noon and 2:00 PM in the winter months. 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

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: News

Air Tour Success from Mary Dominiak

September 23, 2024 By

 

Volunteers, Ford Tri-Motor

Air Tour Success!

Our September 5-8, 2024 Ford Tri-Motor tour stop was a roaring success! My thanks to everyone in the Chapter who volunteered to work, bought paying passengers. We did that and then some: our prebook sales – the rides bought on the website in advance of the stop – were 110 people. By the end of the weekend, we had flown 241 total paying passengers! We did a total of 35 flights: 6 on Thursday, 5 on Friday, 8 on Saturday, and a cracking 16 on Sunday. Well done, all! The Chapter should earn $5 per paying passenger, so I’m expecting our flight revenue to total $1,205.00.

On top of that, we will get 10% of the merchandise sold at our stop, including both on- site sales and sales online using our tour stop 20% discount code. We won’t know that total for a while, because our discount code remains active until September 22, 2024, but the on-site sales alone totaled almost $2,700.00, so we’re definitely getting some nice cash back.

We also made a bit of money on our food sales during the weekend. Even without that, it would have cost us more to order out for pizza or sandwiches to feed our crew than it did to do the cooking, so it was definitely worthwhile to have our concession trailer in play.Our pilot, Ed Kornfield, and Tour Coordinator, Pat Polehla, had nothing but good things to say about our organization, friendliness, and competence, so pat yourselves on the back – and know that Oshkosh has us in mind for future air tours, including the B -25.

   Speaking of the B-25, the challenge there is that a chapter has to rack up 60 prebooked seat sales to make a tour stop work, which is a big ask in most markets and explains why we haven’t seen much touring going on. The B-25 is not nearly as well-known or reputationally as sexy as the B-17 – not outside the hard-core warbird afficionado community, anyway – and with ride tickets going for $495 for non-EAA members and $475 for EAA members, the price point is much more painful for a lot of people than the $99 for the Ford. But we’re on the list as a potential stop if she heads in our direction.

In the meantime, celebrate! We did good, and I’m grateful to all of you for contributing to our group success!

Filed Under: News
« Previous Page
Next Page »