From the President
The Chapter 186 Holiday party was a great success. As always, the food was great and the fellowship and conversation were even better. Thank you to Danny Miller and DiDi Crowder for bringing the ham and Ralph and Laura
Hoover for bringing the turkey. Members provided a wide variety of delicious side dishes and desserts. Each year a highlight of the party is the opportunity to award the George Lutz Award to a deserving Chapter 186 member. This award
is the highest accolade we bestow upon a member for their dedication and endless support to the Chapter. Colonel Lutz was a founding member (1963) and six-term president of National Capital Chapter 186 of the Experimental Aircraft
Association.
George W. Lutz’s love of aviation inspired him to dedicate his time and efforts to improving safety, education and the enjoyment of general aviation through his work with the FAA, Experiment Aircraft Association and the Quantico Marine Corps Flying Club. Chapter 186 organized, developed and managed the long-running and very successful Winchester EAA Fly-in during his tenure. In the early 1960s he also helped found a flying club at Rose Valley Airport (Potomac Airfield) which then moved to Quantico Marine Base. He served as Chief Flight Instructor and Supervisor for Standardization of the Quantico Marine Corps Flying Club, which maintained 17 airplanes, carried 26 instructors on staff and had a membership of over 550 pilots. George Lutz served as an FAA safety counselor for 20 years, beginning in 1980. He was instrumental in the planning and presentation of safe pilot programs for the Dulles FSDO for 22 years. He initiated the planning, research and development of Advisory Circular 90-89A – Amateur-Built Aircraft and Ultralight Flight Testing Handbook. The Advisory Circular is recognized throughout the world and has provided a recognized safety program for the flight testing of amateur built aircraft. He served as official EAA liaison with FAA headquarters on sport aviation issues, National Aviation Weather user forums, traffic at non-towered airports. GPS and other FAA programs.
George Lutz was born in Buffalo Prairie, Illinois. Lutz joined the Army Air Corps in 1942 after graduating from the University of Iowa. In 1946 he mleft the service and moved to Seattle where he went to work for Boeing as a staff engineer. He re-entered the service when the Air Force was created and went to Air Force flight school in San Antonio.While serving in the Air Force he received a master’s degree in engineering administration at George Washington University. While in the Air Force, Lutz served as a B-47 test pilot, held a number of staff assignments at the Pentagon and Andrews AFB, and was base commander at Nakon Phanom Airbase in Thailand in 1970/1971. He retired from the Air Force with the rank of Colonel in 1972. While in the service he received two awards each of the Legion of Merit medal and the Air Medal. Since his military retirement he provided flight instruction to about 600 students inthe Washington area. Colonel Lutz, a resident of Springfield, had lived in the Washington area since 1956.
As a civilian flight instructor, he was chosen twice by the FAA as East Coast flight instructor of the year. He received two Sport Aviation Major Achievement Awards from the EAA. He was a member of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, the National Association of Flight Instructors, the Order of Daedalians and Quiet Birdmen.
In the past you may have heard me say that the members on the Chapter 186 Board each step forward to do more than their title suggest. This cannot be truer than with our Treasurer, Brian Lester. In addition to his duties as Treasurer, Brian
has worked hard to keep our website secure and migrated it over to a new host. He has taken on many of the tasks of the open webmaster position to include coordinating importing from member website contributors and keeping event news and the calendar current. He has done this while paying our bills, keeping our accounts secure and reconciled, reporting to the board and coordinating with the CPA for our annual tax filings. Of course, all this is while he builds an RV-10, works and raises a family. Congratulations Brian and thank you for your display of volunteerism.
There is a board on the wall in the Chapter House showing the names of each Lutz Award recipient since 2002. With Brian Lester added this year, the plaque is left with one remaining blank plate. One more name will complete that board. To me that blank space would be a glaring empty space for a year waiting for the next Lutz Award. There is no rule stating that we cannot give two awards in one year. Twenty years ago in 2004, the Lutz Award was given to Al and Judy Sparks. Judy has been our Chapter Membership Chairperson for many years but that does not begin to describe what she
does for Chapter 186. Behind the scenes or in plain view, Judy is involved with every event at the Chapter. Over the years she has worked on our holiday parties, anniversary parties, Young Eagles rallies, cook-trailer events, fly-ins and airport open houses and bomber and Tri-Motor tour stops. This, of course, is in addition to managing the membership registration and renewal process and creating the directory. She takes the time to welcome every new member as well as each renewing member. Judy has been working on reviewing and cleaning up our historical records and documents and in the process, we are learning more of our history. But she keeps looking ahead to the future and is full of ideas and new things to try. This last October we held a four-chapter mini– Young Eagles workshop and rally which she was instrumental in developing. Her energy knows no bounds. I enjoy our talks about what we should change or not change, what we should try and what we don’t need to try. Volunteerism does not begin to describe Judy’s level of Chapter activity.
Congratulations Judy and thank you for your efforts to keep Chapter 186 moving ahead.
Bob Prange
