PENNSYLVANIA PILOT Vol 25 No 2, Summer 2014
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AERO CLUB OF PENNSYLVANIA PENNSYLVANIA PILOT Vol 25 No 2, Summer 2014 www.aeroclubpa.org Published quarterly by the Aero Club of Pennsylvania for those interested in aviation in the Greater Delaware Valley AERO CLUB NEWS Carson Helicopters brings the S-61 back to life Carson Helicopter Tour Reading Museum P-61 Project Scholarship Dinner The Annual Aero Club of Penn- In late February, with snow coating In 1980, WWII Navy veteran Gene sylvania and Eastern PA Chapter the fields, 15 Aero Club members Strine, a CAF Associate, was deter- Ninety-Nines Scholarship Dinner travelled to Perkasie, PA, to visit a mined to rescue a P-61 from an the manufacturing operation of Car- Indonesian mountaintop. The Strines will be held on June 19 at son Helicopter, a 40 year old compa- founded the Mid Atlantic Air Muse- Wings Field in Blue Bell. The ny specializing in rebuilding helicop- um, in no small part to facilitate vari- Aero Club and the Ninety Nines ters. At the time of our visit there ous needed governmental permis- will once again award numer- were 34 S-61 helicopters in various sions for a rescue attempt of the ous scholarships to deserving stages of reconstruction, from bare remains of the P-61. aviators. See the details and a hull to ready for flight testing. dinner invitation on page 7. Thirty-four years on, the museum has Our guide was Executive Vice Presi- a hundred airplanes, produces a fabu- Member wins B-24 ride dent Jeff Hill who showed us lous airshow each June and has a rec- Aero Club member Werner Volk- around the 70,000 square foot main ognizable P-61 fuselage, sitting on its mann, a private pilot who flies building which houses a large open own wheels, missing only engines and a Cessna 182 out of Brandywine assembly area and various subassem- outer wings. In 2012, the Aero Club Airport was chosen as the recip- bly rooms, including engine, trans- visited the P-61 project and got a ient of a ride on a B-24 this mission, machining, upholstery and personal tour by Russ Strine, Gene’s summer. The ride was given to a avionics shops. The paint shop is in son and president of the museum. member in good standing as of an adjacent building. Carson does it January 31. Originally, it was all on the premises. The York Daily Reporter recently going to be a B-29 ride, but Fifi printed an article about the project, is not flying the east coast this Founder Frank Carson has a life-long including a short video of Gene career in rebuilding airplanes and recounting the rescue of the season. See photo below. designing ingenious solutions. One Northrop night-fighter. To see the milestone included sponsoring the video, go to http://www.ydr.com, ISSUE HIGHLIGHTS replacement of radial engine Siko- and search for “P-61 recovered”. President’s Message, pg 2 rsky S-55’s with a twin-turbine engine transmission combination. The museum has a campaign under- Event Calendar, pg 3 way to raise funds for the restoration Marcel Dassault, pg 4 Carson employs about 150 people, with a matching grant of $35,000. If Airport News, pg 5 most of whom are A&P mechanics. realized, this will help complete the Carson Helicopters, pg 6 Scholarship Dinner Invite, pg 7 Read a more detailed story about project. See the details of the cam- Flight Safety, pg 8 Carson Helicopters on page 6. paign at: www.maam.org/p61.html B-24 Liberator “Diamond Lil” Carson/Sikorsky S-61 P-61 at Reading PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Bruce Thompson This is both a busy and exciting time of year for the Aero Club of PA. By the time you receive this newsletter Debbie Harding and her capable team will have ORGANIZED: Dec 17, 1909; CHARTERED: May 10, 1910 completed their annual task of screening and interviewing candidates for the PO Box 748 Aero Club of Pennsylvania Memorial Scholarship (ACPMSF) and the Shannon Blue Bell, PA 19422 Memorial Scholarship (SMS). I have it on www.aeroclubpa.org www.facebook.com/AeroClubOfPa good authority that once again the field is This is both a busy [email protected] ripe with outstanding applicants. 2014 will be a banner year. Due to strong financial and exciting time of The Aero Club of PA was formed in 1909 to promote aviation in Pennsylvania and the results from donations and investments year for the Aero Club. Greater Delaware Valley. We are a social we are in a position to award in excess of and civic organization which plans field 30,000 dollars. I would be remiss though if I didn't ask you, the membership, to trips, holds an annual dinner, sponsors pre- continue to support the scholarship funds with your donations and please con- sentations, awards aviation scholarships, and produces this quarterly newsletter. sider including the ACPMSF/SMS in your estate planning. This year, one of the major projects we have embarked upon is reviewing and Membership is only $30 Signup at www.aeroclubpa.org updating the By Laws of the Aero Club of Pennsylvania. It has been quite some time since a thorough review was done. The committee created to per- OFFICERS form this function is staffed by eleven, very gifted people and capably chaired President Bruce Thompson by Jim Kilduff, our past president. Secretary Elaine Farashian Asst. Secretary Nancy Kyle The other project the Aero Club has undertaken is membership. Mike Little Treasurer John O’Toole has worked tirelessly adopting new methodologies to provide capable data base Asst Treasurer John Stubbs management of current and future members. Mike has performed an intensive VP Membership Michael Little review of our financials with our treasurer John O'Toole. It is imperative that VP Spec Projects Walt Ellis VP Scholarships Debbie Harding we employ strong cost controls to keep our membership fees as low as feasi- VP Communications Robert Dant ble. Postage and printing costs continue to rise, so we must be diligent to find VP Airports Elaine Farashian ways to mitigate those costs. Solicitor Paul Heintz, Esq. I live in rural Southern Chester County, PA. The other day I was doing some BOARD of DIRECTORS yard cleanup after the historic winter of 2014. While toiling near the main road 3 Year Term: Debbie Harding in front of my property a car pulled into the driveway. Roger, the driver, whom Jeff Kahn, Esq I knew from my days in the Air National Guard, stopped to say hi. He then Carol Knight mentioned the Aero Club and the terrific tour he had taken at the Boeing Erik Kocher Jonathan Martin Facility in Ridley Park, PA courtesy of the club. Walt Ellis, our go to guy for 2 Year Term: Robert Dant field trips, does a fantastic job finding places of interest for the Aero Club to Steven Lindrooth visit. Walt is only one person though and he is reaching out to ALL of you for Laren Pitcairn suggestions and ideas of new places the club could visit. Please contact Walt John Stubbs through our website for any and all thoughts you may have. I wish all of you Bruce Thompson blue skies, calm winds and a terrific summer! 1 Year Term: Michael Dunleavy Timothy Fields BOARD OF DIRECTORS REPORT Dan Kurkjian Michael Little Elaine Farashian, Secretary Robert Smith The Aero Club Board of Directors dinner is in the planning stage met at Wings Field on April 17. and will be held at Wings Field TRUSTEES VP Walt Ellis presided over the on Thursday, June 19. Aero Club Mem. Scholarship Fund: meeting in the absence of Presi- The board discussed ongoing Bruce Thompson, ex Officio, Chair dent Bruce Thompson. Michael Dunleavy, Trustee review of the Aero Club Bylaws Dan Kurkjian, Trustee Elaine Farashian presented the and plans to update them. Also, minutes from the January meet- the group agreed to increase PENNSYLVANIA PILOT ing. The group discussed finan- membership dues to $30 after Editor/Layout: Robert Dant cials, membership and newslet- being at $25 for the last decade. Contributors: Bruce Thompson ter details. Michael Little report- The board talked about the Nancy Kyle ed that the membership stands recent tour of Carson Helicopters Debbie Harding at about 123. Photographer: Robert Dant and planning for upcoming trips. Printed by: Graphic Impressions Next, Debbie Harding reported The meeting adjourned for din- on the 2014 Scholarship pro- ner and a presentation by Dick Editor: [email protected] gram. The scholarship commit- Graves about flying helicopters 610-909-4467 tee will interview candidates on most all of his life. Published Quarterly: February, May, August, November May 10. The scholarship awards 2 PENNSYLVANIA PILOT Aero Club Scholarship Report AVIATION EVENT CALENDAR By Debbie Harding, VP Scholarships MAY 17-18 Ninety-Nines Pennies-a-Pound, Heritage Airport (PTW) At the time of this writing, the Scholarship 17 EAA 240 Pancake Breakfast, New Garden (N57) review board has only just begun the review 31 FlyIn Footlong Hotdog Day, Sugar Hill, DE (17DE) of candidates for the 2014 Scholarship JUNE Awards. We used an electronic submission 6-8 Reading WWII Weekend, Reading, PA (RDG) program this year and as evident from the 7-8 EAA 216 Pancake Breakfast, Cross Keys (17N) numbers alone, the program worked well! The 7 EAA 540 Pancake Breakfast, Smoketown (S37) 14 EAA 240 Pancake Breakfast and Airport Open House, Scholarship Review Board was in receipt of New Garden Flying Field (N57) 40 applications, 38 received electronically. 13-14 Chester County Balloon Festival, www.ccballoonfest.com at Plantation Field, Rt 82, Unionville, PA About half the applicants applied for a post- 19 Annual Scholarship Dinner, Thursday, 6PM solo scholarship opportunity.