by Ron Wright

Thanks to all of the EAA Gold members, we are now ready to conclude the purchase of the EAA hangar. There will, however, be a delay to conclude the deal from
our anticipated date of the end of this month due to the City of Lincoln not completing their research into the status of some of the hangars.
The chapter board of directors has decided to continue renting the hangar until all of the issues are cleared by the City of Lincoln.
This delay, from my most recent information, should not last beyond the first quarter of 2017. Updates will be given at member meetings as they happen and/or through the monthly Runway 15 newsletter.

Now that we have acquired a hangar, it is time to look ahead and begin to take the next step in utilizing the hangar in the pursuit of our EAA goals. The Young Eagles program that we placed on stand-by last January might be re-started. However, simply giving a kid a one time ride has had little success historically
in creating a long term interest in aviation. Many chapters have realized this as well as the EAA in general. In the last few years several Chapters across the nation, with the encouragement of EAA, have started a “Young Aviators” youth program that includes Young Eagles as just one element of the program.
The following is a paragraph from EAA Chapter 43 (Denver, Colorado) Young Aviators page describing what Young Aviators is:

“We are a special group formed within EAA Chapter 43 for young folks ages 8-18 whose interest and passion for aviation goes beyond that Young Eagles flight and wants to get together with others their age to work on aviation related projects, volunteer at aviation related events, and in general ‘hang around’ the aviation community on a regular basis.”

Hats off to Chapter 43 for their creative pursuit of helping kids gain access to aviation knowledge and experience. It is worth a moment to go to Chapter 43’s website and see the B-25 replica simulator that they built, which was displayed at Oshkosh this year. I am inspired by their efforts and that of other chapters like Chapter 690 of Lawrenceville, Georgia, and Chapter 838 of Racine, Wisconsin.

Now is a good time to begin the process of discovery into such a pursuit for Chapter 1541. This will be a big project and one that will take several months to organize. However, the talent that we have in our club is amazing and, given time, we can truly make a difference in helping open the doors of aviation to kids in our community. We have just begun to study what others have done, and look internally within our club for talent and resources to make a program like this possible. If you are interested contact me or Bruce Robinson, the point person looking into the feasibility of a “1541 Young Aviators” group.

I believe that there is nothing more rewarding than “opening the door of opportunity” for a kid that demonstrates a passion for aviation.

Ron Wright
President
Chapter 1541