You may recall at our April 27 Member Gathering we had a pancake breakfast in lieu of guest speaker. Young Chapter member Cliff Storey asked if he could bring some slides and present a few minutes of information about his sailplane experiences at Grant County Airport, WV. His topic was so riveting that the attendees kept him for 45 minutes with questions and discussion points. Now Cliff’s dad, John, has informed me that Cliff has been awarded a $2,000 scholarship from the Soaring Society of America (SSA). I believe that will help him finish his glider training at Front Royal. Congratulations Cliff!

Our May 25 speaker was our very own Chapter 186 member, Al Lawless, speaking about the Perlan 2 Project – the world record holding sailplane, the team who built it, and its adventures up to the middle stratosphere. Al Lawless was on the all-volunteer team to help with flight testing and envelope expansion and relayed first-hand accounts of these remarkable people in action.

In the classified section this month look for tools and an RV-10 empennage kit from Chapter member, Ryan Kensrud, relocating to Florida soon without space for a homebuilt project. It looks like a great selection of tools and parts.

We are planning a double event on June 29 both a Young Eagles Rally from 0900 to 1300 as well as our regular monthly member gathering at 1000 which will be a hamburger/hot dog cookout in lieu of a guest speaker. Please come out as we welcome the official start of summer with a cookout. If you haven’t seen a Young Eagles Rally in progress, this will be your chance. Many of our usual grilling and cookout experts are signed up to work the Young Eagles Rally so we are seeking volunteers to help with the cookout. We will have canopies near the builder hangar door to shade dining tables and the grilling station. So, at least come out and eat and if you feel like helping with the cookout, let me know at rsp10000@aol.com or Judy Sparks at jhsparks@comcast.net.

Blue Skies,

Bob Prange

Due to excessive heat we must cancel the Saturday June 22 Young Eagles Rally at Manassas Airport. We plan to have a rally on Saturday June 29. Parents, please watch YoungEaglesDay.org for registration to open at 8:00 AM on this Sunday or Monday. Volunteers, look for an email request to volunteer for the June 29 rally. Thank you for understanding.

Due to a water leak, water to the chapter house will  been turned off this afternoon.  We expect the water will be off until early next week when the city is expecting to make repairs.

In lieu of a guest speaker, we plan to have a cookout, burgers and dogs.  We will need a cadre of volunteers to set up and grill, separate from our pilot and ground volunteers for the rally.  The YE Rally will be the usual 0900 to 1300.  The cookout meeting will start at 1000 with coffee and doughnuts and start to serve burgers and dogs at about 1030.  If you can help with the cookout, watch this website for a volunteer sheet.

The Young Eagles Rally for June has been rescheduled to June 22. Registration begins June 1.

May 25 Saturday 10:00 AM Member Gathering, coffee and doughnuts beforehand:

May’s featured topic follows last month’s discussion about glider flying. This time we’ll hear about the Perlan 2 Project – the world record holding sailplane, the team who built it, and its adventures up to the middle stratosphere. Chapter member Al Lawless was on the all-volunteer team to help with flight testing and envelope expansion and will relay first-hand accounts of these remarkable people in action. Al is a flight test expert for Aurora Flight Sciences, Technical Fellow for Boeing, a Flight analyzer DER for the FAA, and holds tickets for commercial instrument MEL, gliders, and motor gliders. He is between airplanes, looking for the next partner.

Due to the forecasted low cloud ceiling and visibility for Saturday we must cancel the May 18 Young Eagles Rally.  The next Young Eagles Rally at Manassas Airport is June 15 (Note that is the 3rd Saturday of the month).

Young Eagles and Parent: Registration for June’s Young Eagles Rally will be available at the beginning for June.

Volunteers: We will build the June rally in the yeday.org system next week and send out the requests for volunteers.

Thank you for your patience as we deal with Spring weather.

Thanks,

Bob Prange

Airbase Arizona of the Commemorative Air Force is bringing its gorgeous B-17 Sentimental Journey and stalwart B-25 Maid in the Shade to Warrenton- Fauquier Airport for tours and revenue flights from June 18-23, 2024. We don’t yet know whether they’ll want us to support them (and ourselves!) by bringing our concession trailer to sell food on Saturday and Sunday, but if that transpires, we’ll put out a call for volunteers. In the meantime, though, put these dates on your calendar and plan to visit two classic warbirds. The current schedule has ground tours on both planes on Tuesday and Wednesday all day from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, and on Thursday through Sunday only in the afternoons, from 2:00 pm to 6:00 pm. Ground tours cost $15 per person and $30 for a family of four, and are purchased at the gate. Revenue flights are scheduled Thursday through Sunday from 9:00 am until 2:00 pm, which explains the lack of morning ground tours. For each plane, the price varies with the location of the seat you’re buying, and you stay in that section of the plane. On the B-17, it’s $475 for each of the 6 waist compartment seats, and $850 for each of the 2 bombardier/navigator compartment seats. On the B-25, it’s $375 for each of the 4 radio compartment seats, and $590 for each of the 3 jump seats. For more information and to book your seats, click here. Keep ’em flying – even the ones that aren’t ours! Every ticket sold for any tour – ground or flight – helps keep these warbirds in the air.