EAA Chapter 186

August 29 Movie Night at the Chapter House
7:00 PM

Join us next Friday night to watch:

Apollo 13

From Wikipedia:  The film tells the story of astronauts Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise aboard the ill-fated Apollo 13 for the United States’ fifth crewed mission to the Moon, which was intended to be the third to land.  En route, an on-board explosion deprives their spacecraft of much of its oxygen supply and electrical power, which forces NASA’s flight controllers to abandon the moon landing and improvise scientific and mechanical solutions to get the three astronauts to Earth safely.

Feel free to bring snacks to share.  Popcorn, sodas, and water will be available.

Manassas events are held at:
EAA Chapter 186
10629 Observation Road
Manassas, VA  20110

Park in the lot near the FAA Control Tower but do not park in the spaces marked “FAA.”  Walk through the pedestrian gate toward the “EAA 186” sign.

Young Eagles Air Academy from Bob Prange

Parents: Updated information (course content, ages, costs) and on-line registration for the June and July 2026 camps will be available beginning September 3, 2025. Registration will fill up very quickly in early September. Find information on course content, lodge accommodations and registration at https://www.eaa.org/eaa/youth/eaa-aviation-and-flight-summer-camps. Take this link now and click on Air Academy. You can get a
general idea about these camps now by reading about the recent June and July camps. Then on September 3 you can read the updated information for the 2026 camps. Once registered for a camp, there are EAA camperships which help pay for the tuition. EAA Ch 186 also has provided tuition assistance in the past years.

Scholarships
Below is a list of scholarships from other organizations in Virginia plus the bigger EAA and AOPA lists. Many of these are for application during the high school senior year. The AOPA and EAA lists have quite a few that do not apply to everyone (geographical or age/gender restrictions) but are worth searching through to find the applicable ones. Some are for all ages! These are not Chapter 186 scholarships but are presented here as a resource. Instructions are found in the linked information.

Virginia Aviation Business Association:
Charles J. Colgan Scholarship – https://www.thevaba.org/colgan-application

Virginia Department of Aviation: https://doav.virginia.gov/virginia-aviation-scholarships/
Willard G. Plentl Sr. Aviation Scholarship
John R. Lillard Foundation Aviation Scholarship
Kenneth R. Scott Aviation Scholarship
Chad Weaver Aviation Scholarship

Virginia Aeronautical Historical Society:
Captain Earle Worley Scholarship https://www.vahsonline.com/programs/aviation-
scholarships/

AOPA:
Numerous aviation scholarships https://www.aopa.org/training-and-safety/students/aopa-
flight-training-scholarships

EAA:
Numerous aviation scholarships https://www.eaa.org/eaa/learn-to-fly/scholarships/eaa-
flight-training-scholarships

Ray Scholarship
Our 2025 Ray Scholar Cliff Storey has been officially approved by EAA Headquarters so he will begin his training in August. Cliff has been flying gliders at Petersburg, WV and more recently at Front Royal. He recently passed his Private Pilot-Glider checkride and is ready to get going on powered flight instruction.

Our 2024 Ray Scholar Kobe Kerns is finishing his cross country requirements and awaiting his checkride with a DPE. He is doing his Private Pilot training with the CAP Winchesterm Composite Squadron.

August 23 Member Gathering
Our speaker was Erica Gilbert (https://www.gilbertaviation.com/), a CFI / CFII, FAA Safety Team Representative, and Part 91 commercial TBM pilot. Erica’s passion project is AeroSafe, her YouTube series discussing aviation weather to help pilots fly more safely. She spoke about key weather safety topics for pilots. This was posted as an FAA approved safety seminar which offers one FAA Wings credit. Gathering started at 10:00 AM with coffee and doughnuts at 9:20 AM.

September 27 Member Gathering
How and when should we hang up the airplane keys? Member Glenn Shields will lead a panel consisting of a cross-section of our membership discussing aging and flying and figuring out how and when to call it quits. We have pilot members of all ages and those in their later years may be considering the issues of FAA medicals, insurance, health and abilities. Join us for this gathering, it is sure to be a vibrant discussion.

July 22 Member Gathering
Our July member gathering was breakfast at the Tailwinds Café at AirVenture on Tuesday. We had about 18 or 20 members attend. Many more were at other events or classes so we probably had about 30 Ch 186 members at AirVenture.

Judy has (mostly) retired from several decades of being our Membership Chair. Jerry Stueve is stepping up to the plate for this very important duty and we thank him for doing so. Jerry joined EAA in 1979 at AirVenture and camped in Paul’s Woods at Camp Scholler for the week. He returned a few times to gather buttons pressed from tags and then in later years getting the wrist bands (not as collectible). He soloed in 1985 at Manassas with Squadron Aviation. During that time he also got in a couple of high speed, short runway landings at Dulles with his instructor. After that, life got in the way, he met his wife and the flying was history. The first trip she took to Oshkosh she was pregnant with their first child. Later times at AirVenture his second son accompanied him, first when he was about six. He’s a Software Engineer in his day job and has been doing that for a few companies over
the years. Thanks to Jerry.

ONLINE APPLICATIONS

https://eaa186.org/events/eaa-chapter-186-
membership-online-application-2025/

To order a nametag, go to https://eaa186.org/events/eaa-chapter-186-name-tag-order-form-
paypal-only/.

CHAPTER MEMBERSHIP FEES
$30 Jan–Dec Single Member Dues
$35 Jan-Dec Family Member Dues
$12 for Name Tag and postage
$12 – hard copy of Directory (printing & mailing)
$2 surcharge if paying by PayPal

DID YOU CHANGE YOUR E-MAIL?
Please advise Jerry Stueve, 703-624-0781 or
g.stueve@ieee.org if any of your membership
directory information changes. Thanks.

We meet on the 4th Tuesday each month. IMC Club at 7 PM. VMC Club at 8 PM. Come for one or both sessions; we usually meet beforehand at 5:30 PM for informal dinner at the Panera Bread at Bristow Center.

The IMC Club’s purpose is to promote instrument flying proficiency, safety and education through a community of pilots sharing information and fostering communications. You don’t have to be instrument rated to come to the IMC Club.

The VMC Club, for pilots wishing to improve their VFR flying proficiency, is modeled after the popular IMC Club providing organized “hangar flying” with a focus on VFR procedures, regulations and publications.

TR Proven and Chuck Kyle are our facilitators for these meetings but the attendees are encouraged to participate with their knowledge and experience. Each one-hour meeting earns you one credit toward the FAA Wings Pilot Proficiency program.

THIS SATURDAY!
August 23 Member Gathering

Weather Briefings and Safety with Erica Gilbert

Join us at 10:00 AM for the meeting;  9:20 AM for coffee and doughnuts.

Erica Gilbert is a CFI / CFII, FAA Safety Team Representative, and Part 91 commercial TBM pilot. Erica’s passion project is AeroSafe, her YouTube series discussing aviation weather to help pilots fly more safely.  Erica will speak about key weather safety topics for pilots:  How to obtain a complete – and legal – weather briefing; Understanding various types of clouds and how to handle them; Thunderstorm formation and how to remain safely clear of dangerous storms; Caution around outflow boundaries.  Join us for weather education from a passionate speaker.

Also, Young Eagles member Dag Guessford will give a Powerpoint presentation of slides about his attendance at Air Academy in July.

We will see you tomorrow!

Bob Prange

50th Anniversary at AV 2025 by Angela Satterly

Fifty years ago, Jack, EAA Lifetime 69122, and Anne McCombs, EAA Lifetime 78375, honeymooned in the most fitting place imaginable for two aviation lovers: the EAA Oshkosh fly-in. In 1975 they attended their first EAA convention and started a lifelong adventure, and they made sure to come back to celebrate their 50th anniversary. Jack soloed in 1969 after years of waiting. His love for aviation began as a toddler, sparked by his father, a pilot, who took him flying in his 1930s Alexander Eaglerock biplane. But when his dad gave up flying, young Jack was left building model airplanes, dreaming of the sky until he had the time and money to return to it after serving in the military.

Anne was already a pilot when they met in 1973. A glider club notice in her college newspaper had drawn her in. She learned to fly in a Schweizer 2- 33 and a 1-26 glider. “I may be one of the last people to literally solo out of a hayfield,” she said. That same passion led her to a job with EAA’s buildings and grounds team, eventually moving into the museum.

Jack built his aviation career teaching others to fly, becoming chief instructor at Basler Flight Service in 1978 before taking to the sky in DC-3s. Anne enjoyed working with EAA, but in 1988 she began a career for the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. “That is like a baseball player being called up to the majors. You don’t say no,” she said.

Her work at the Smithsonian was remarkable. “I’ve had my hands on the Spirit of St. Louis and the Wright Flyer,” she said. “I’ve walked on an SR-71 wing and spent hours and hours and hours of time in space shuttle Enterprise.” But her favorite she worked on was Charles and Anne Lindbergh’s personal seaplane, a Lockheed Sirius named Tingmissartoq.

Together, Jack and Anne have cared for their homebuilt Pazmany PL-2 and continue to immerse themselves in aviation, trying to come to as many AirVentures as possible. Jack is also currently building a gyroplane, always chasing the next project.

Fifty years after their AirVenture honeymoon, the McCombs are still soaring side by side.

Our next movie night takes us to the Moon via an Australian sheep station! Well, sort of ….

In July 1969, the 64-meter (210 foot) Murriyang radio telescope dish at isolated Parkes Observatory in Australia was the primary receiver in the southern hemisphere for live television signals from Apollo 11. The Australian comedy-drama film The Dish,
released in 2000, tells the story of the role the observatory, its staff, and the nearby town of Parkes played in enabling the worldwide broadcast of the first Moon landing mission.

The quirky characters in the movie are fictional and some historic details were tweaked or manufactured for dramatic or humorous effect, but most of the story is true, the control room set was absolutely authentic, and much of the movie was shot on location at the dish, although the quaint architecture of the small town of Forbes stood in for Parkes.
Sam Neill stars, with Patrick Warburton, Tom Long, and Kevin Harrington. The film has a “96% Fresh” approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s rated PG-13 and has a run time of 1 hour and 40 minutes.

Come to our Chapter House Theater for the 7:00 PM show on Friday, August 1, 2025. See if you can figure out which story details were real and which were created in the script!

Judy has (mostly) retired from several decades of being our Membership Chair. Jerry Stueve is
stepping up to the plate for this very important duty and we thank him for doing so. Jerry joined EAA in 1979 at AirVenture and camped in Paul’s Woods at Camp Scholler for the week. He returned a few times to gather buttons pressed from tags and then in later years getting the wrist bands (not as collectible). He soloed in 1985 at Manassas with Squadron Aviation. During that time he also got in a couple of high speed, short runway landings at Dulles with his instructor. After that, life got in the way, he met his wife and the flying was history. The first trip she took to Oshkosh she was pregnant with their first child. Later times at AirVenture his second son accompanied him, first when he was about six. He’s a Software Engineer in his day job and has been doing that for a few companies over the years. Thanks to Jerry.

CHAPTER MEMBERSHIP FEES
$30 Jan–Dec Single Member Dues
$35 Jan-Dec Family Member Dues
$12 for Name Tag and postage
$12 – hard copy of Directory (printing & mailing)
$2 surcharge if paying by PayPal