Our speaker this month will be Chapter member John Fontaine sharing the journey of building his RV-12iS. John grew up in an aviation family with a father and uncle as airline pilots and helped his father build a Varieze in 1977. He now has a son flying for Delta Air Lines. John retired from a 33-year career with United Airlines two years ago and first flew his RV-12 in December 2023.
Join us at 10:00 AM for the meeting and 9:20 AM for coffee and doughnuts.
Bob Prange
The first movie night at the chapter house for 2025 will be this Friday, January 31st at 7:00 pm. Popcorn and soda will be available. Feel free to bring treats to share. Movie will be a 1980s aviation classic!
Joint Chapter Young Eagles Workshop
by Ann Toole
OctoberSkies was a great joint chapter experiment. It was a gathering of talent and resources with the aim of providing a deeper and more involved aviation experience for high school students interested in aviation.
When four Virginia EAA chapters — 186 National Capital-Manassas, 231 Richmond, 1099 Shannon, and 1563 Gordonsville — that value education and enjoy sharing their knowledge with our youths joined forces with Luke Curtis and his daughter, Kristen of Shannon Airport, Kim Anderson and the Virginia Department of Aviation with the Icon seaplane and a flight simulator, and Jeremy from Appalachian State University, magic and synergies happened.
This was the brain child of Judy Sparks of EAA Chapter 186. Her dedication over the years to promoting aviation is unmatched.
On October 12, 2024, 13 high schoolers worked to create a lighter-than-air aircraft. The lesson came from AeroEducate.com, and Jeremy and his team did a great job with this lesson! Lots of smiles, fun, and learning were had by all!
After completing the task (all groups came up with different ways!), the groups flew their aircraft around a predetermined course. Courtesy of Luke and Kristen, the students enjoyed a free tour of the Shannon Air Museum and learned more about the history of aviation!
After lunch, students received individual Young Eagles flights, spending lots of time with their pilots and learning more about airplanes and aviation. Students also spent time learning how to read sectional charts and plotting a course to familiarize them with the procedures involved in typical cross-country flights.
At the end of the day all students and adults were happy, satisfied, and exhausted! Everyone left with big smiles and students were overheard saying, “That was great!”
This was a first for us and we can’t wait to do it again!
Happy New Year! Thank you to our outstanding Chapter membership for making 2024 a fun and successful year. Our speaker program continued to enlighten and inform us in a wide variety of aviation topics. Last year we helped create
another Private Pilot through the Ray Aviation Scholarship, our fifth in five years, and selected a sixth Ray Scholar. We flew over 350 Young Eagles, including three rallies at Warrenton Airport and participated in a four-chapter Young
Eagles workshop at Shannon Airport. Kids, and adults, spent countless hours on our two PCs with flight simulator and RC flight simulator software. We spent our Young Eagles credits earned from EAA to help towards tuition expense for two kids to attend Air Academy in Oshkosh. Chapter 186 had two homebuilt first flights: John Fontaine’s RV-12 (late 2023) and Bob Corriveau’s RV-8, and quite a few more getting close. In June, several members
helped staff the Women Can Build workstations at the Women Can Fly event.
Members continued to use our project trailer and extensive tool crib including aircraft scales, prop balancer and numerous power and hand tools. We sponsored the Ford Tri-Motor in September earning $1,300 in commissions. Chapter 186 conducted monthly flight safety meetings through the IMC Club and VMC Club, open to the aviation community. We held several Friday night movies, held a couple pancake breakfasts and met for Tuesday morning breakfast at AirVenture, held a Chili cook-off in October and a Holiday party in December. Our technical counselors, flight advisers and DAR continued to assist and educate homebuilders and certified aircraft operators to keep our fleet safe.
Our website, membership directory, monthly Stick and Rudder Newsletter were supplemented with increased postings of our Facebook page. We managed to keep a warm and welcoming Chapter House in our aging facility. Best of all we have had wonderful fellowship throughout in our participation in these programs.
All this was possible only because our member volunteers continued to do their part to keep Chapter 186 successful and growing. Your volunteerism is priceless. I look forward to another productive and fun year with all of you. Please
give us your ideas on where we can improve our Chapter and programs.
We are still in need of a webmaster. The EAA186.org website needs maintenance so that we can keep our membership informed and up-to-date with announcements, calendar items, membership renewal screens, sign-up sheets, etc. Please let us know if you would like to help in this area.
We are in the annual Chapter 186 membership renewal process. Chapter membership is for the calendar year. If you renew now, you will reduce our postage expenses and mailing efforts. Click here to renew on line https://eaa186.org/events/eaa- chapter-186-membership-online-application-2025/ and here to order a name tag https://eaa186.org/events/eaa-chapter-186-name-tag-order-form-paypal-only/.
If you prefer, print and fill in the 2025 membership renewal form in this newsletter and mail it with your payment. Each renewal done now will preclude our mailing you a renewal form. Or bring your form and payment with you to the Jan 25 meeting. We will be glad to process your renewal on the spot. We also have renewal forms at the Chapter House.
Bob Prange
The following are the updated prices and links for membership dues, name tags, and the directory; effective immediately:
E-mail: jhsparks@comcast.net
www.EAA186.org
The following are the updated prices and links for membership dues, name tags, and the directory; effective immediately:
E-mail: jhsparks@comcast.net
www.EAA186.org
We flew 32 kids at the Dec 14 rally at Manassas. We had several aircraft and over 50 kids registered for Jan 11 but cancelled for high winds and icy ramps.
Our next Young Eagles Rallies are:
Feb 8 – 12:00 Noon at Manassas
March 8 – 12:00 Noon at Manassas
April 12 – 12:00 Noon at Manassas
We are now using the EAA’s new website for event management for our Young Eagles Rallies. To become a Young Eagles volunteer, ground or pilot, proceed to events.eaachapters.org and use the “sign-up” feature. That just gets you on the list of possible volunteers. Let Bob know you have signed up so we can send you an invitation to volunteer for a specific event. If you volunteer without being signed up, you will not get importantchanges/updates about the YE rally.
Ground and Pilot Volunteers: About two to three weeks prior to a Young Eagles Rally, we prompt
the events.eaachapters.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 in the colder months. Parents can register at events.eaachapters.org beginning at 8:00 AM on the 1st of each month.
Pilot Volunteers: EAA requires current EAA membership and current Youth Protection Program training and background check to fly Young Eagles. Unfortunately, no notice is given before your 3-year YPP training expires, so it can be a surprise to discover you are not eligible just before a Young Eagles Rally. Please go to your EAA.org account and look under “My Account” and “Training Information” to see your YPP date of expiration. When training is needed, a link will take you to the training module.
Ground Volunteers: EAA requires a minimum portion of our ground volunteers to have current Youth Protection Program training and background check. Please go to your EAA.org account and look under “My Account” and “Training Information” to see your YPP date of expiration. When training is needed, a link will take you to the
training module.
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 in the colder months. Parents can register at events.eaachapters.org beginning at 8:00 AM on the 1st of each month.
Chapter 186 Young Eagles Coordinators
David Richards
Bob Prange
Our planned speaker at the Saturday January 25 membership gathering is Chapter member Dan Botzer (DB). DB will present information on the option of renting aircraft and flying club ownership. Dan has been a member of the FAA Flying Club for years and previously owned a Piper Comanche so he has experienced both ownership and flying club rental. Dan has held Chapter 186 Secretary and Treasurer positions and is a Young Eagles Pilot. Join us at 10:00
AM for the meeting and 9:20 AM for coffee and doughnuts.
If you have not renewed your 2025 membership renewal yet, please bring your payment and the form printed from this newsletter to the meeting. We can process your renewal on the spot. This will save us postage and supplies expenses and will expedite our renewal season. We also have forms at the Chapter House. You can also renew on line now at https://eaa186.org/events/eaa-chapter-186-membership-online-
application-2025/.
