MARCH 02, 2010 Speaker
Speaker: Jack McHale, President/CEO Orbis Internaltional
In the June 2007 issue of RoundUp, the "Just the Other Year" section featured the Orbis International (search) DC-10-10 which had been modified to service as a Flying Eye Hospital. That airplane, originally built in 1970, underwent its conversion in 1993-94 and is now nearing the end of its economic life. It will be replaced by an MD-10 next year.
Our speaker at the March 02 luncheon meeting is Jack McHale, who last August was named president and CEO of Orbis International after more than twenty years of being associated with the acquisition and operation of both the DC-10 and the MD-10 while he was an executive with Federal Express. Jack joined FedEx after twenty years with Douglas and McDonnell Douglas mostly in marketing and sales positions.
Jack will give us a picture of how the non-profit Orbis organization has provided eye care and surgery in 87 countries to some 9.7 million mostly impoverished patients, and ophthalmological training to some 234,000 local physicians, technicians and nurses. Join us at the Sycamore Center to hear Jack explain how the aircraft itself is as precious a tool as the medical instruments and equipment in this most humanitarian enterprise!
October 2009 Speaker
Jonna Doolittle Hoppes (search) is an author and journalist. Her first book, Calculated Risk: The Extraordinary Life of Jimmy Doolittle¸ is a memoir of her famous grandfather, aviator Jimmy Doolittle (search) , and his equally extraordinary wife, Joe.
Ms Hoppes represents the Doolittle family at air shows across the country and is a popular speaker at libraries and air museums. Her articles have appeared in Smithsonian's Air and Space magazine, as well as other publications.
Join us at Sycamore Center on October 6 and hear Ms Hoppes tell about a true pathfinder and his career of audacious, but well-planned aviation feats. You will learn how her grandfather planned and executed the daring Tokyo raid (search) in 1942 by taking a well calculated risk.
March 2009 Nick Sparks, Documentary Film Producer, Presents - An Hour with Florence Lowe "Pancho" Barnes
Photo source: http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/images/pancho_5_500.jpg
Our speaker on March 3 will be Nick Spark (search), documentary film producer, who will tell us about the legendary Florence Lowe “Pancho” Barnes (search), the aviatrix - saloon keeper made famous by Tom Wolfe (search) in his book, “The Right Stuff.” Pancho was a pioneer woman pilot, who flew with Amelia Earhart (search),. Later, as the owner of the Happy Bottom Riding Club near Edwards Air Force Base (search),in Antelope Valley, Barnes hosted Chuck Yeager (search), Howard Hughes (search), Bob Hoover (search), Jimmy Doolittle (search) and a long list of Hollywood stars, test pilots and budding astronauts in the early years of jet operations at Edwards.
Mr. Spark, while researching a magazine article, was given access to ninety-two boxes of Pancho’s personal memorabilia, including guest books and diary that were found some time after her death. The material was so intriguing that the producer/ writer recruited filmmaker and friend Amanda Pope to team up for a documentary project.
UPDATE (9/01/2009) on the FILM PROJECT... Our March luncheon speaker, Nick Spark, has let us know that his film, “The Legend of Pancho Barnes and the Happy Bottom Riding Club”, is now finished and will be shown for the first time on September 10 at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica. He invited our members to join him and his partner, director Amanda Pope, to be there at the premiere on that date at 7:30 pm. The cost for tickets is $15, which will benefit the KOCE-TV Foundation.
The film tells the story of the famous aviatrix and saloon keeper, and features interviews with astronaut Buzz Aldrin, test pilots Bob Cardenas, Bob Hoover and Chuck Yeager, biographers Lauren Kessler and Barbara Schultz, and many others. It is narrated by Tom Skerritt, with Kathy Bates as the voice of Pancho. To purchase tickets and get more details, visit http://www.legendofpanchobarnes.com and click on “premiere.”
Dr. Fred Culick (October 2008)
(Photo credit: http://www.wrightflyer.org/ )
Dr. Culick is a professor of aeronautical engineering at CalTech. He is also Project Engineer and First Pilot of the AIAA 1903 Wright Flyer Project (search) which has been underway for many years in Southern California. There have been several attempts by others to duplicate the original Flyer, most of which are for display only. Of the flyable replicas, successes are rare and the aircraft have been significantly modified. The AIAA project has been meticulously researched, both historically and scientifically, and has only a few altered details which were adopted for safety of flight. The first flight of the Flyer is scheduled for early nest year.
Dr. Culick will have slides and movies to accompany his story of the project at our Fall Luncheon on October 14. Be sure to send in your reservation to join us.
Speaker Vern Raburn: Something New in the Air March 2008
Our March luncheon speaker is Vern Raburn, founder and CEO of Eclipse Aviation. Raburn was the 18th employee at Microsoft in the late 1970s. He went on to establish his own palm-top computer business, then heard the call of aviation and applied his creative energy to the formation of Eclipse with the participation of such investors as Bill Gates, his former boss at Microsoft. A man of big ideas, Raburn decided to work at the low end of the jet market.
We hear a lot about the big jets, like the 500+ passenger A380 and 747-8, and some aviation observers’ thoughts that depending on the jumbos and superjumbos may not be the best way to plan the future. Mid-size jets such as the 787 and A350 seem to represent some carriers’ thinking that point-to-point travel, bypassing the big gateway airports, is what passengers will prefer.
Raburn’s Eclipse brings a new, radical thought about how people will want to travel in the coming years: Very Light Jet air taxis "VLJ's" (also known as “Microjets.”)
Eclipse Aviation Corp. is based in Albuquerque. Its minivan-sized twin jet, the Model 500, has earned airworthiness certification, and first deliveries are now in service. The company says it has taken nearly 2,500 orders for the five-to-six seat plane, which runs about $1.52 million a pop. (Corporate jet prices run between $4.5 million and $50 million.) Its BMW-designed interior has no lavatory, but the little jet’s operating cost is figured to be around $4 per mile, vs $10 per mile for most corporate jets on a 400 mile trip. Image source - http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/spinoff2002/images/063.jpg
Eclipse’s VLJ operates with one pilot, and has a range of 900 to 1,400 miles. Speed is around 425 mph at altitudes typical for commercial airliner use. Don’t miss the chance to hear the story of a new phase of civil aviation from the man who dreamed it up.
Think small.
Related Info - 500 Club (Link); Test Flight on YouTube (Link 1) (Link 2)
Women’s Role in Aviation October 02, 2007
If you want to get a thorough briefing on women in aviation from someone who wrote the book, you will enjoy our October speaker, Iris Cummings Critchell. Iris was a member of the U.S. Olympic Swimming Team in Berlin in 1936, and reigned as U.S. women’s 200-meter breaststroke champion from 1936 to 1939. Then she turned from water sports to flying.
She learned to fly in Piper Cubs from Southern California grass strips. Then she became a member of the first Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP) at the University of Southern California (USC), graduating from the Advanced Acrobatics course in 1940. She was member of the second class of women recruited by Jacqueline Cochran for Army flight training in Houston, earning her wings in May 1943 as a member of WASP Class 43-2. She was assigned to the 6th Ferrying Group at Long Beach, California, serving as a civilian ferry pilot with the Air Transport Command Ferrying Division until the WASP were deactivated on December 20, 1944. She flew 18 types of military aircraft as pilot in command, including the A-24, P-39, P-40, P-47, P-51, C- 47, A-20, B-25, P-38, and P-61.
Critchell has been active in the Ninety-Nines since 1952. She competed in the All Woman Transcontinental Air Race (AWTAR) 15 times, placing in the top 10 five times.
Please join us on October 2 to hear Iris trace the role of women in the development of aviation.
March 06, 2007 - Old DC-10 as a "Fire Bomber"
Old DC-10s go back to work. Hear about it at our the March 06 retirees luncheon meeting. With the curtain falling on the DC-10's schedules passenger service (see next article below), it seems appropriate to get a picture of the airplane's current status in aviation. Our speaker will come from the company that has put a 32 year old ex-American Airlines "Luxury Liner" back to work as an aerial fire fighting tanker able to drop 12,000 gallons of fire retardant on a single pass. Don't miss it! (related blog) October 2006 “The Long Beach Years”
At our October meeting, we showed an edited version of a Boeing film, "The Long Beach Years". This production was part of the company's observance of the closing of the main Long Beach factory, and showed some historical pictures of Douglas, McDonnell Douglas, and Boeing products that were built there. The final deliveries of the commercial transports to Midwest and AirTran last May 2006 are also shown.
We have been able to get permission from Boeing to reproduce the film as shown at the meeting and are offering a DVD copy to interested retiree club members. We will have a limited supply of DVDs available at the March 06 luncheon meeting available for the price of $7.00 each. That amount is necessary to cover the cost of making and handling the DVD copies.
Please note the response coupon in the printed version of the "RoundUp" newsletter sent to your home. If you would like to buy a copy of "The Long Beach Years" (edited), but you are NOT going to attend the March luncheon, you can order one sent to you. Just enclose a check for $7.00 and fill out your name & address on the coupon. If you are attending the meeting, you can pay then if you wish, or add $7.00 to your luncheon reservation check.
March 2006 Speaker - John Durant (newsletter #135)
The Berlin Airlift
- a Memoir
John Durant is a retired personnel director for a world-wide telecommunications company, he has an MBA and a Law Certificate. But as one reads his biography he quickly grasps the fact that John is a certifiable Airplane Nut. He spends his time hanging out at Flabob Airport in Riverside, teaches ground school and aviation basics to young people who he also helps them restore classic airplanes. He was on the team that sent Burt Rutan’s GlobalFlyer around the world non-stop last year. John is connected with the Planes of Fame Museum in Chino, the Flight Path Museum at LAX, and is a “Scorekeeper for the So. Cal. Balloon Association.” However, he never forgot his time in Europe after WWII, when he participated in the Berlin Airlift.
We found him at the Grampaw Pettibone Squadron of the Naval Aviation Association Orange County, where he spoke recently about his experiences with the Airlift in 1948-49. We liked what we heard enough to ask him to tell it to our Spring Luncheon group on March 14. Be sure to send in your reservation. After all, we Airplane Nuts have to stick together.
Post-Meeting Notes - The Airlift that Saved Berlin At our Spring 2006 luncheon meeting, we heard John Durant's account of what it was like to be involved in the Berlin Airlift in 1948-49. In his role as a facilitator (read that as "ace scrounger"), Sergeant Durant used his instincts and cunning in the historic effort to relieve the blockaded Germans in the Soviet-occupied city. While he was equipped with official statistics and photos of the Airlift, his personal recollections of the events at the operational level helped us get the picture of the obstacles and the inventive ways they were overcome in those critical days.
Among those present to hear John Durant was DAC pilot Stan Forster who flew in the Berlin Airlift. Forster and Durant are both active in various commemorations that celebrate the historic milestone in the Cold War. Also at the meeting were others who contributed to the Airlift by providing technical support needed from the Douglas factories and DAC field offices. (Photo: Forster and Durant, left to right.)
October 2005 Speaker- Dick Ewers (newsletter #134)
Twice a year we get together at the Sycamore Center in Lakewood to reacquaint ourselves with old friends and swap memories. On October 4, 2005, the attendees at the Fall Luncheon had a chance to see another old friend from the past: a DC-8 which still is earning it keep as a research airplane lately in service for NASA at Dryden Flight Center out at Edwards in the Antelope Valley north of Lancaster and Palmdale. And a friend of our old friend is its pilot, Dick Ewers.
Using slides to illustrate his talk, Ewers told us of how the old girl (Fus. 458 - delivered as a DC-8-62 to Alitalia in 1969, and later modified to a -72 with CFM-56 engines) was used to perform atmospheric experiments for some 19 years. From probing hurricanes to sampling air for pollutants, Ewers took the DC-8 into conditions "never envisioned by the designers."
Although he flies other, more exotic airplanes, Ewers has a special fondness for his DC-8. He was sad to see it leave NASA's fleet in September after it was acquired by the University of North Dakota and scheduled for continued scientific atmospheric studies there in cooperation with NASA.