President’s Corner

by Scott Thompson
Chapter President

Spring is almost upon us and, for aviators, that means good weather and more flying. Thus for our chapter also, as we have an uptick in activities and events as spring gets going. Let’s go over a few of these coming attractions.

First off, beginning in April, we will move our monthly member meetings back to the chapter hangar. We had four months of Cattlemens which I thought worked out nicely, but we do have different kinds of meetings at Cattlemens vs. what we have at the hangar. It’s a different environment and we have a bit more latitude in our meeting structure.

Also in April, we return to support our friends at the Lincoln Regional Aviation Association (LRAA)…many of us are members too of LRAA. But, with the LRAA display day on the third weekend of each month, our chapter will provide a pancake breakfast alongside the LRAA display day. All proceeds from the pancake breakfast support our Aviation Scholarship program. We are spending a good chunk of money out of the program to send two young people to the EAA Air Academy this summer, so we need to replenish our fund to help send some more next year.

Also, a bit of a different event will be held on Saturday, April 13. This will be a chapter sponsored Airport Fun Day. We will be having a hot dog lunch but, more importantly, we will be offering activities for the whole family with an emphasis on youth. We want to spread the word on what our chapter is doing and provide some information about the opportunities of aviation.

It is no accident that the Airport Fun Day is three weeks before our chapter’s next Young Eagle Rally. Beginning March 26, we are accepting sign-ups for Young Eagles to get a ride in a plane, as well as sign-ups for pilots and volunteers to help out. It is our intent to fly 80 kids at this Rally…broken down into 20 kids in four blocks of 90 minutes each. This will be our third Rally in the prior 12 months…the other two Rallies were filled to capacity and we expect the same this time around too.

So, looking at the big picture, we are quickly spinning up the activity turbine for April and early May. Lots of opportunities for jumping in and helping make these events, our chapter’s events, a success. This should be a fun season for our chapter. And, we have just the right place for all our chapter members to join in on the fun.