President’s Corner

By Darren Coomler
Welcome Chapter 1541 Members and Friends,

Wow what a month, since the state lifting the face mask mandate allowing use to meet face to face and EAA’s AirVenture resuming since last year’s hiatus. It feels great to get things going again.

First, let me express my joy in seeing many of you again in person, “without a mask”. Imagine that, a conversation with another human without having to say excuse me can you say that again. The chapter has resumed our first Saturday of the month pancake breakfasts and our third Saturday Display Day support breakfasts.

The Lincoln Regional Airport Association (LRAA) has dissolved, so our chapter has moved the Display Day breakfasts to the hangar and invites anybody that may fly in and display there plane a place to get a great meal.

The Third Wednesday evening member meeting continue to be virtual, due to the excessive heat and the convenience to the presenters. We will continue online meetings until the Fall, and have conducted some successful tests of the technology to have “hybrid” meetings with some participants in the hangar and others online.

I encourage members that have not come out for one of our breakfasts to do so. We have the hangar doors open and are basically eating outside; it’s a nice change. Along with a great meal both simulators built by our young Sim Team members are up and running. Take a spin (literally or figuratively!). You’ll be very impressed with the experience they have created, as I was.

In other news, our chapter has the opportunity to put forward another candidate for the Ray Scholarship this year. The application period will be closing soon so if you have a candidate in mind, please get them in contact with us ASAP. Our current scholarship recipient Hannah Trehan is scheduled for her check ride the 17th of this month. Good luck Hannah!

The chapter Board of Directors has a new Board member, Mary Wick joins the board after the departure of Cheryl Andrade. Cheryl was a big part of the chapter, basically solely organising and running the Young Eagles events. Cheryl’s contributions will be missed, and we wish her well. Mary joins the Board with ideas on how the chapter can become more relatable to new, upcoming pilots, both new and old. Welcome aboard, Mary!.

Our chapter IMC Club meetings on the first Wednesday of the month at 7pm will now be IMC/VMC club meetings! All pilots are invited to join in these sessions that have a ‘Special Topic’ presentation followed by a “What Would You Do?” scenario based on an actual flight that encountered unexpected difficulties. CFII Scott Thompson and program coordinator Dan Masys present material of interest to all aviators. I find that many of the scenarios test my training and judgment skills.

As many of you know I’m a relatively new pilot — started flying about four years ago. So, when I joined the chapter, every June I’d start hearing talk about “Oshkosh.” Well, after folks would return from AirVenture with their stories, I did become interested in attending. And this year it happened!

This was the first time at AirVenture for me and my wife. Wow, hard to explain. You can’t imagine the size and diversity of planes, people, and aviation products until you attend. We were only there for three days and barely scratched the surface. I will be sharing more of my experience with the chapter in this months online chapter meeting on Wednesday, August 18th at 7 pm.

I’m looking forward to seeing more of you at our upcoming meetings, both in our hangar and online. Be well. Thank you.