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.

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