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November/December Meeting
The next meeting will be held Wednesday, December 14th at 7:30 PM in McElmurry Hall. The program this month is a continuation of "Failure is Not an Option". These are interviews with Gene Kranz, former Head of Mission Control at Houston. There will be lots of footage from the fifties. Prez Sez
Hi Guys and Gals, Thanks to all of you that participated in the B-17 Bash. I'm not sure how much money we made. But, a good time was had by all. I have received no additional nominations for the board. However, as in the past, nominations can be made from the floor at this month's meeting. Due to elections there was no board meeting in November. Your humble servant and Rob Brooke journeyed to Tampa for the AOPA Convention. It was ok. However, it was not nearly as comprehensive as either Sun 'n Fun or Air Venture. I did manage to button hole Ian Twomby over at the airport. He is the AOPA Government Relations guy. As usual he was long on excuses and short on action. He seemed put out with me for asking embarrassing questions like: What is he doing to help us in the Class C controversy? You may recall that Bob Mattingly sent a note to all the pilots with hangars at the airport. He recapped that rather disastrous, so-called, pilot's forum hosted by Ms Laurie Zugay, aka The Dragon Lady. What piqued my attention was his reference to soliciting assistance from Twomby. That note was dated September 27. I spoke with Twomby on November 5. At that time he had done nothing. Bob Mattingly, to his credit, has sent a rather pointed missive to The Dragon Lady. I have enclosed it with the newsletter. I think what everyone needs to be reminded of is this: Chapter 180 has submitted a draft solution to the problem. So far we have received no response. The airport is seeking to turn back the clock. So, while they are our allies in the overall objective, they do not (and most likely will not) embrace our solution. Time permitting, I will send a note of my own to William Kribble, TDL's boss, in Miami, on behalf of Chapter 180, asking for support of our draft proposal. I would appreciate any "incidents" (time and date) you have to report regarding the poor service from Tampa. Incidents that compromise safety are the best. I also have contributed $100.00 (My own money, Rob) to the AOPA Safety Foundation with the understanding that they will kick Ian in the rear. I received a nice note from the mother of Steve Jones, the Venice Chapter Pilot. You may recall that Steve crashed into the Gulf of Mexico in October. Chip Miller and I attended the Memorial Service. The Memorial Service for Skip Staub was well attended by our members. It was a fitting tribute. This month's program will be a continuation of "Failure is not an option". Your humble servant has procured a new DVD player. I hope this one works better than the last one. Your humble servant, Dave Bothe 5029 Hanging Moss Lane Sarasota, FL 34238 941 927 5448 Home 941 922 4974 Fax 941 468 0305 Cell Minutes of the October Meeting
President Dave Bothe opened the meeting with the 'Pledge to the Flag' at 7:34pm. 38 members and guests were present. Dave introduced the chapter officers, followed by an introduction of guests. Builder Reports: Steve Walters reported more work is being done on his Queen Air. Rob Brooke has the Tiger Moth's fuselage largely together. Jim Ellis is finishing up the last 10% of his RV-9A. He guesses about two more months to completion. Dave Bothe's RV-8A will be getting a 'glass cockpit'. He's also excited about the Lycoming O-390 engine. Treasurer's Report: No report was given other than the one published in the October newsletter. Secretary's Report: The minutes of the September meeting were accepted as printed in the October newsletter. Young Eagles Report: Scott Becker said 23 Young Eagles were flown at the last event. Frank Szachta is back for the winter. Cessna was showing off new aircraft during the event and furnished lunch for the group. Tool Committee Report: Nothing new was reported. Old Business: The EAA's B-17 tour will stop in Sarasota November 14-17. Dave told the group that there is still a big problem with Tampa control of SRQ airspace. He urged pilots to document each time they are inconvenienced during a flight around the SRQ area. They should report the incidents to Dave to help change the current situation and return to locally controlled airspace. New Business: Four directors will be needed as directed by the recently adopted chapter by-laws. Scott Becker, Jon Neary, Walter Grabenstein, Mike Weed, Brad Smith, Blaise Pierson, Steve Walters, Frank Szachta and Tom Sell are candidates for the positions. The voting will take place at the next chapter meeting, December 14th. A membership package is being put together. It will include a list of current members, chapter by-laws. a tool list, and Young Eagles information. The package will be handed out sometime after the first of the year. The Tampa Historical Aircraft group is putting together a sport aircraft publication and wants a correspondent from each area airport for monthly reports. The annual chapter dues will be raised from the current $15.00 per year to $25.00 in January. The cost increase is necessary to help balance the chapters budget. Wray Whiting suggested the chapter sell its English wheel. Discussion of the suggestion was tabled until the next meeting. Steve Walters is still looking for volunteers for the B-17 visit. Volunteers will be needed on November 15 and 16, 8am to 6pm each day. A break was taken for refreshments and a 50/50 drawing. The evening's program was the showing of a DVD titled 'Failure Is Not An Option'. Included were interviews with Gene Krantz about the early years of the U.S. space program. Dave closed the meeting at 9:30pm. Respectfully submitted, Rolf Bostrom, Secretary Skip Staub
From the Kolb list on Matronics Kolb Listers: I Regret to inform you of the passing of "Skip" Staub on 02 November at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa. It was a long, hard fight and Skip gave it his usual all-out, max effort. Skip was a long-time Kolb Ultrastar owner-pilot, a pioneer member of this Kolb List, and an American Patriot. He served 20 years as a U.S. Naval Aviator and was one of that services' highest time pilots in the Vought F8U Crusader, the last of the Navy's single-engine "hot" gunfighters. To give an idea of the kind of man he was, please permit me to offer a brief war-story on Skip...I read the narrative about it one time when he wasn't looking and he's not here to raise hell with me for telling it, so here goes... One rainy evening about 40 years ago, while serving as an exchange pilot with the USAF, flying the F-100D fighter-bomber from Tuy Hoa air base RVN, he was launched, along with one wing man, in response to a call for help from a small U.S. Special Forces camp. The camp was located in bad terrain in a neighboring country close to the Viet Nam border and it was in the process of being overrun by a large force of North Vietnamese Army regulars. As Skip's flight arrived in the area, the thickening weather forced the forward air controller and a flight of F-4's which had been orbiting over the camp to break off and go home with their ordnance undropped. Skip made FM radio contact with the camp commander and could hear the intensity of the firefight in the background. The man said words to the effect that it was all going to be over soon unless some close air support materialized... He only had about 60 guys and some local irregulars facing what appeared to be a full regiment of NVA... The enemy had closed to within about 100 meters of the front gate and it was getting dicey. Skip told him that all he had were "dumb" Mk 82 iron bombs and even if they could figure out a way to get down into the valley under the overcast, that was far too close to be delivering them, particularly attacking up the valley toward the friendlies. The camp commander radioed back that they would "rather be killed by Americans than by these bastards" and to bring it on... Skip asked his Air Force 1LT wingman if he was game to try it and got an affirmative response. For the next fifteen minutes, Skip and his wing man alternately pressed home bombing and strafing attacks in the failing light under the 300 foot overcast ceiling in the mountain valley. Forced to trust the notoriously inaccurate tactical maps of the area, they used the peaks of the mountains they could see poking through the cloud tops to orient their timed dead-reckoning descents at 400 knots through the solid clag, breaking out just above the valley floor on each pass and following the river to the fight at the camp. Each made four descents into the weather and four attacks... dropping two 500 lb. bombs on each of the first two passes, and strafing with their four 20 mm cannon on each of the last two passes. The NVA attack was disrupted and then aborted... the enemy forces withdrew as darkness fell. Because of the accuracy of the delivery and some deep digging, no serious friendly casualties were taken from the bombs or the strafing. The camp was relieved the following morning. Each and every American in the camp wrote a personal letter to Skip, and the same for his wingman. There are some Americans (and their children) walking around on this planet today because these two pilots refused to leave 60 guys behind that evening. The Silver Star Skip received for his deeds that day earned him admission to Arlington with full honors. That's where he wanted to go, and that's where he will be taken, probably in January 2006, at a time and date to be determined. Skip is survived by his loving and courageous wife, Ann... His beloved 180 horsepower Globe Swift (he owned and flew it 41 years), his trusty old Kolb Ultrastar, and his big yellow Honda Gold Wing. This man lived life on his terms right up to the end. Correspondence Regarding the Class C Airspace
December 5, 2005 William Kribble P.O. box 59-1345 Miami, FL 33159-1345 Dear Mr. Kribble: I am writing to you concerning the problem we have, as pilots, with the current Class C Airspace surrounding the Sarasota Bradenton Airport. Prior to a rather unfortunate incident at SRQ Class C Airspace (VFR) was handled by the local tower controllers. Because there were four deaths in that incident, someone determined that it would be safer if Tampa Approach took over. As pilots, who use the airport facilities on a regular basis, we have been subjected to this so-called solution for about four years. Besides the inconvenience of waiting for clearances, we are concerned with the safety of pilots. The current departure route when heading south sends one out to a radio tower that is higher than the assigned altitude. When coming inbound many times the controllers are overwhelmed with requests. They either refuse to acknowledge a request, or suggest the pilot try back in ten minutes. This requires one to hold at some point outside the Class C Airspace. Student pilots holding in the same area cannot be a good idea. Many times we are vectored out over the Gulf of Mexico, too far away to make landfall in an emergency. We have tried and tried and tried to engage The FAA in general, and Tampa Approach in particular in meaningful talks to solve this problem. We understood that Ms. Zugay and her staff would meet with us in June. At the last minute the Class C Airspace meeting was turned into a “FAA Safety Seminar” with restricted attendance. During the question and answer portion there was much buck passing. Un-named bureaucrats were blamed for the situation. Ms. Zugay promised “I’ll get back to you right away on that one” endlessly. We are still waiting. I have enclosed letters previously sent to both the Manager for the Eastern U.S. Terminal Service Area and Ms. Zugay. I called New York several times. Each time the last person I spoke with was not there any more. No one could find any documents that were sent. Therefore, there has been no response. To suggest that Tampa and New York are dragging their feet is to be kind. On behalf of EAA Chapter 180, which represents about 85 local pilots, I appeal to you to help us move this process along. We are not asking the FAA to accept our solution. But, we sure would like to talk about it. Yours truly, David Bothe, President EAA Chapter 180 Home 941 927 5448 Fax 941 922 4974 Cell 914 468 0305 bothe@comcast.net B-17 Visit and AOPA Convention Report
Richard Wilke I had a great time the AOPA Convention in Tampa on November 5. At the members' session, Phil Boyer introduced his top people and highlighted AOPA's programs for the coming year. The Exhibit Hall was filled with lots of glass cockpit stuff and GPS's, and even fuselages with equipment on display. At the Maule Aircraft booth I was lucky enough to meet Ray Maule, son of founder B.D. Maule. I told him about my Michigan friend, Merl Trowbridge, who worked for B.D. before WW-II, and was a Navy aircraft mechanic and B-26 air crewman in the South Pacific. . Ray seemed very interested, and gave me a catalog and a magazine with a great article on the history of Maule Aircraft, which I've passed on to Merl. At Peter O. Knight Airport I had .a chance to see everything from modern versions of the J-3 Cub to Very Light Jets. Randy Schlitter of RANS Aircraft, maker of my S-6S Super Coyote II Kit, had flown in from Hays, Kansas in their S-7 Light Sport Aircraft. I told him that my airplane is ready for final assembly next Spring, and asked him to say hello to the folks at the factory, many of whom I've met, and have helped me with my project. While there, I met an F-4 pilot from Vietnam who was interested in an S-7 with full IFR panel. The next week I went to Wimauma and got my airplane ready to show to a fellow from Crestview whose son has a Cessna 172 near mine. We got it ready for an annual, and he decided to buy it. I am sorry to see it go, but have decided that you only need one airplane, unless you're Kermit Weeks! It was a very rewarding experience to help out with our Chapter's hosting of the B-17 "Fuddy Duddy" on November 15 and 16. I enjoyed talking with the volunteer crew and a number of WW-II and later flyers and air crewmen who came to see the airplane. Six of us were lucky enough to fly to the next stop at Lakeland on the 17th. The ceiling was low both at Sarasota/Bradenton and Lakeland, so we didn't depart until 2:17 pm, and flew at 1600 to 1700 ft., so we got a good look at Florida close up. What a thrill!
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