It's Great To Be Back!

Wow! The Big Day fast approached when we had our first post-Covid Chapter meeting and it was a really big deal for me personally. For all of us to be able to gather in one place where the history of aviation in our local area is featured at the Western North Carolina Air Museum, that’s pretty special.

My first view of Oscar Meyer’s airport was probably when my family was driving past on our way to the old fairgrounds south of town. (They used to hold a pretty important regional horse show there every year.)

The thing that really caught my attention as we drove past was the rotating beacon flashing green/white across the night sky. I could see the sweep of the light from my bedroom, about 2 1/2 miles away. Then my Aunt Pete let on that she had started training as a CPTP pilot before The War and used to fly from an airfield just like the one here at home. Now THAT was REALLY something .. And just like that, I was hooked.

So it was pretty special to me to be able to welcome you to our resurgent EAA Chapter and to our long-awaited resumption of regular monthly meetings. We’ll typically have food at $5 per plate beginning at 6:30 or just before and the programs will start at 7:00. You can bring your own to grill if you want and we’d appreciate a donation to cover the fixings.

At the May meeting we heard about the Sun n Fun Fly In from Anton Pretorius and from Jerry and Nancy Marstall’s perspective .. regular SnF attendees and volunteers for many years. A look at Sun n Fun from different points of view and it was special.

The theme of the June 8th gathering will be projects. Bring pictures to share and let us know how you’re doing!

For June 8th, Keith Plemmons, one of our esteemed Technical Counselors, has some 3,000+ slides of his incredible Skyote project and is picking and choosing as of this writing to give us all a glimpse of what he’s been up to in his fully equipped shop. I hear he has a show set to music! Keith is pure EAA. He began his project – and it’s not an easy one – having to buy many of the machines for his shop and learn the skills needed to turn out a myriad of pieces that are actually beginning to come together as an airplane. I promise an interesting half hour or so as we tour his very complex project.

Please set aside the evening of June 8th on your calendar – in ink – and join your friends, old and new, as we continue our 2021 return to happy days of building airplanes, flying them and sharing the ride!

Build light and strong, fly safe, stay well.

Alex