The IMC Club’s purpose is to promote instrument flying, proficiency, and safety. The intent is to create a community of pilots willing to share information, provide recognition, foster communications, promote safety, and build proficiency in instrument flying. You don’t have to be instrument rated to come to the IMC Club. Non-instrument rated pilots who want to improve their proficiency now have an excellent new resource through EAA’s VMC Club. The VMC Club is modeled after the popular IMC Club concept that provides organized “hangar flying” focused on building proficiency in instrument flying. The VMC Club will do the same, but for pilots who are not instrument rated and fly primarily under visual flight rules and under VMC.

The next meeting will be June 17, 7:00 pm at the Chapter House.

The annual EAA Chapter 186 Breakfast at AirVenture in Oshkosh will be held this year as usual on Tuesday, July 23, 2024 at the Tail Winds Cafe at 8:00 a.m. The Cafe has changed its name many times over the years, but the location remains the same, over by the Forums and Workshops. PLEASE PLAN TO ATTEND

Utilizing our credits earned for Young Eagles flights flown in 2023, Chapter 186 has paid for the first $500 of camp tuition for two kids to go to the Air Academy camp in Oshkosh this June. Both kids selected have flown on several Young Eagles flights and are excited to participate in the camp. David Gagliardi and Xavier McKee-Wieseler will attend the 12-13 year-old Young Eagles Camp in June. The number of Young Eagles we fly in 2024 will determine the amount we can spend to help send kids to Air Academy in 2025.

The EAA Air Academy is a series of camps (five to nine days long) designed to introduce young people ages 12-18 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.

There are three age range camps, each given twice in the summer:

-Young Eagles Camp for ages 12-13 is five days long, held twice in June.

-Basic Camp for ages 14-15 is six days long, held twice in July.

-Advanced Camp for ages 16-18 is nine days long, held twice in late July.

The Advanced Camp first session overlaps three days into AirVenture and the second session overlaps with the final three days of AirVenture. Click here for additional information on course content, lodge accommodations and registration. Contact president@eaa186.org if you have any questions. EAA has announced that camp dates and registration for 2025 will become available September 3, 2024. One change for 2025 camps: We have learned that the 12 to 13 age camp will not be offered after 2024. Instead, more sessions of the older age range camps will be offered.

We had a successful Young Eagles Rally at Warrenton-Fauquier Airport in April. We flew over 50 kids with 12 aircraft and pilots and 18 ground and admin crew. This rally targeted kids in the area of Warrenton Airport so a great majority of the kids were first-time Young Eagles and in fact many were first time air travelers. We hope to conduct more rallies at Warrenton. Their nice new terminal and ramp are perfect for our operation. It was refreshing for the pilots to give airplane rides in simpler airspace. Thank you to Airport Manager Dave Huss and his staff for making us feel welcome.

Our next Young Eagles Rallies are: 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM at Manassas Airport

June 15

July 13

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.

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. Parents can register at yeday.org beginning at 8:00 AM on the 1st of each month.

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 Young volunteer 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.

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, here.

Chapter 186 Young Eagle Coordinators:

David Richards

Bob Prange

Thank you,

Bob Prange

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

The Chapter 186 selection as our 2024 Scholar for the Ray Aviation Foundation Scholarship is Kobe Kerns. Kobe has been on numerous Young Eagles flights and soloed on his 16th birthday in January. By coincidence, Kobe wrote an article which is featured in the recent May issue of EAA Sport Aviation and is also available here. Last month in this column I highlighted our current 2023 Ray Scholar, Grant Peterson, with his story about his first solo and his passion for flying. This month we have below a letter from our 2021 Ray Scholar, Tony Crupi, to Chapter 186 updating us on his whirlwind journey through his pilot ratings and experiences of the last couple years. Many entire flying careers do not include some of the things he has done before age 21. The passion these young adults and all our Young Eagles have is inspiring. It is great to see younger members helping at chapter events. We are supposed to inspire our youth but it seems to work the other way too. Here’s Tony…

Hello again Chapter 186! I’m Tony Crupi, your 2021 Ray Scholar. It’s been a while since I have been able to attend a meeting in person, but you’ll be happy to know that I have not wasted any time since being awarded the Ray Scholarship. In 2021, I was able to secure my Private Pilot certificate in roughly five months while working full time as a refueler at Manassas Regional. During that time I refueled many of your planes, kept a tab on every pilot on the field, and sat in every right seat I possibly could. On my weekends I would go to the Flying Circus and work with the ground crew, keeping Stearmans, Wacos, and Cubs running, and then do it all over again the next week. I was even blessed with kind mentors throughout these groups that hammered tailwheel flying into my hard head on those grass fields. I often reminisce about the fog burning away in the sunrise over that green strip while pulling out those biplanes. I think this was the absolute best way to be initially immersed in aviation.

In late 2021, I moved to Charlottesville, Virginia to pursue a Mechanical Engineering degree on a full tuition scholarship from the Air Force. I found immense honor in being able to serve and learn at the same time and envisioned going all the way through to a military flight deck. However, my path would shift once again, and had to take the out in the contract. Maintaining a job to feed myself and still doing all service-related activities was unsustainable. Fortunately, I would be once again given an immense aviation opportunity. 

The American Airlines Cadet Academy accepted an application I had filed during my separation from the Air Force detachment in early 2022. I would be flying with CAE-Oxford in the Phoenix region through my Instrument, Commercial, and Multi- Commercial certificates. Touring the partner school with one of my mentors was incredible. Everyone was wearing flight uniforms with their intended airlines displayed, dispatch ran 24/7, and the simulators were just one step under those at American headquarters.

I lost track of time, space and my own existence flying for the next year with the Cadet Academy. We were on reserve for over a year, sometimes flying over a week straight, and other times enduring sizeable scheduling delays. I began to practice for competition in the Primary IAC category with a Super Decathlon, got my high- performance endorsement from a DPE mentor in his North American T-6, and flew that same T-6 in formation all the way to Tucson and back for a missing man memorial.

I did not fail a single check ride in those CAE-Oxford planes, having been partnered with arguably some of the best flight instructors in the country. However, worsening delays saw me depart the standard track that most of my fellow cadets were following to instructor school. I picked up a job like many other cadets who had showed up living on savings to work with the reserve schedule. I worked at Chandler Airport as an apprentice A&P – and much to their middle management’s disappointment – learned, wrenched, and screwed up my way through hundreds of hours of signed-off aircraft labor. There’s a photo of me somewhere on here standing next to an engine I pulled off a 140 on my own during an annual. I can’t express how valuable and rewarding this work was – all while scampering around to comply with reserve- scheduled flights.

I started to get the idea that the Cadet Academy’s partner, CAE-Oxford, would be delayed well past initial estimates for instructor schooling and began to make other plans. A mentor of mine was a glider tow pilot at a sailport southwest of Phoenix – forty years and two owners later, the operation was still in business. A call to that airport netted a visit, which turned into an interview, which involved a loop in a Schleicher ASK-21 glider. To date, it is still the coolest interview I have ever attended.

I am now a full-time instructor and tailwheel tow pilot. I’ll fly Piper Pawnee cropdusters one day, and the next morning be backseating in a Schweizer 2-33A trainer glider with an overloaded student in the front. Around lunch I’ll probably be inverted in our waivered aerobatic box, on board a Grob G103A with a paying thrill seeker. I drive to work in disbelief regularly.

I do not know exactly where I will end up securing my Airline Transport Certificate, but I am certain that my involvement in aviation is due to Chapter 186 offering me a hand, literally from the clouds, and pulling me up. The rest of my success is from my tailwheel mentors making me into a capable pilot, my Cadet Academy instructors making me into a professional pilot, and the glider school making me into a trusted pilot. I am immeasurably excited to continue being shaped into a career aviator. For at least my story, the EAA’s mission can be considered a success. It will soon be up to me, and those like me, to carry on the mission for future young aviators. I cannot wait. Thank you for your trust, teaching, kindness, humor, friendliness, resilience, history, and patience. 

Feel free to email me at crupianthonyj@gmail.com if you, a family member, or a friend would like advice in starting out in avation. -Toni Crupi 

Blue Skies,

Bob Prange

We have a need to cancel our May 11 Young Eagles Rally and operate instead on May 18. On May 11 a mass flyover will fly over the DC Mall and proceed through the same airspace where we operate. Air Traffic Control can not handle both events.

You must register again to participate on May 18. On May 18 we will operate from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM with time slots at 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM. Registration for parents will be available on youngeaglesday.org at 8:00 AM on Tuesday May 7.

In lieu of a guest speaker this Saturday we are planning a pancake and sausage breakfast.  We’ll have breakfast ready for you at 10:00 and keep serving until all are satisfied.  So come by for viddles and to share your flying stories.  Young member John Storey has a quick presentation to show about his glider instruction he has been doing at Petersburg, WV.  We would like to stream a Powerpoint of pics and vids while we eat so if you have any pics or quick videos of your project, aircraft, flying antics, etc. please send them to rsp10000@aol.com for inclusion.  If you can help with mixing batter, cooking on the griddle, etc., please email rsp10000@aol.com to let us know.  We need volunteers to show at about 9:15 AM to get started with preparations.

Our March 9 Young Eagles Rally was cancelled for low visibility and ceilings. We had several aircraft and over 60 kids registered. Our next rallies are:

• April 20, 12:00 PM to 4:00 PM at Warrenton Airport*
• May 11, 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM at Manassas Airport
• June 15, 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM at Manassas Airport (Note: Third Saturday)

*We have been invited by the Warrenton/Fauquier Airport to conduct a Young Eagles Rally on April 20. This event will be open to kids from the Fauquier area local schools.

Young Eagles flights are available to kids between ages 8 and 17. We normally hold our rallies on the second Saturday each month. Registration for kids begins at 8:00 AM on the 1st day of the month for that month’s rally. We use two time slots, 12:00 Noon and 2:00 PM for the fall/winter months and 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM for the summer months.

Parents can register at yeday.org beginning at 8:00 AM on the 1st of each month.

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 all 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 that you are still planning to volunteer. This gives us updated staffing level info. To become a Young Eagle Ground or Pilot Volunteer please go to yeday.org and use the Sign-up feature to provide your information.

To Young Eagles and Parents: -to-Fly course ($299 value) is available 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, go to here.

Wednesday April 3

IMC Club Meeting at 7:00 PM

VMC Club Meeting at 8:00 PM

Join us Wednesday night for one or both of our monthly safety meetings.  Attendees receive one FAA WINGS credit for each session.

 IMC Club meeting topic:

You are flying an instrument approach to a runway where the crosswind component is stronger than the demonstrated crosswind capability of your aircraft. Is it legal to use this runway?  Are you operating outside the limitations for the aircraft?  We will discuss these questions and scenario to ensure your understanding.

VMC Club meeting topic:

EAA/VMC Club provides organized “hangar flying” focused on building flying knowledge and skills.  This meeting offers an opportunity to share in-flight experiences and valuable safety tips.