PRESIDENT’S LETTER – – Jan, 2020

EAA92 Members and Friends,

As we enter 2020, we look back on another active year that was capped off with our Christmas party and Awards Dinner at the Coto Valley Country Club in Coto de Caza in December.   It was another great evening of camaraderie, excellent food, and a beautiful venue.  Once again, we are indebted to Debbie Cavanaugh and all of her dedicated “Elves” for all their hard work in pulling this great evening together.

I want to thank all of our officers and board members and committee chairs who have served the chapter for the last year, and also those who have volunteered to serve for the coming year.  Steve Livingston has been our VP for 2019, and will take up the job of Secretary for 2020; Dave Prizio served as Secretary; Thom Steury has served as Treasurer and will continue that role in 2020; Brian Mathis served as Newsletter Editor for the last year, and for 2020, a new chapter member, Steve Wilson, has stepped up to assume that role.  Our Elected Board remains the same as last year – Gary Steinke, Don Myhra, Debbie Cavanaugh, and Zack Cavanaugh.  Our Young Eagle leadership switched over at mid-year from Debbie Cavanaugh to Zack Cavanaugh and Jenee Steury, and they will continue running that highly successful program in 2020.  Louis Beaulieu will continue as Membership Chair; Zack Cavanaugh as Web Editor; Gary Steinke as Base Ops manager; Brad Rawls as Builder Center Manager (still looking for a new hangar location); and Jay Steffenhagen as IRWD Liaison.   We are still looking for a new Vice President for 2020, so if any of you would like to become more involved with running the chapter, please contact any of our officers or board members.

Our October Young Eagles event at Yanks Air Museum went well except for the fact that several competing YE events in the area resulted in a shortage of pilots – leaving us with only two – Jeff Swedo and Jay Steffenhagen.  So we owe a very special thanks to those two aviators for going above and beyond the call of duty and getting all of the Young Eagles in the air.  For the year, we flew a total of 135 Young Eagles, with the indispensable help of many enthusiastic ground volunteers and pilots.

Planning for our new youth event, Build & Fly, is coming along nicely.  We are embarking on the new youth program, jointly sponsored by EAA and AMA (Academy of Model Aeronautics), as a follow-on activity to Young Eagles, to provide an opportunity for a group of selected kids to experience the aircraft building process on a small scale by building a radio-controlled model aircraft and learning to fly it.  We are currently in the planning stages of a cooperative effort between EAA Chapter 92, and the Trabuco Flyers, a local RC model aircraft club.   The effort is being led on our side by Zack Cavanaugh, with the help of Thom Steury and Brad Rawls.  We now have the aircraft build kit in hand and are eagerly awaiting the start of the building process.  Stay tuned for further details as the plans are solidified.  For further info on the national program details, look for Build and Fly on the EAA national website.  BY THE WAY, Trabuco Flyers is looking for a low-cost trailer or storage container that can be moved to their airfield site and used as a location for the building and meeting activities for this project.  So if you know of a source for one, please contact Zack Cavanaugh or any of our officers.

As mentioned previously, we unfortunately had to vacate our Builder Center hangar space in February, 2019 to make way for more maintenance space for Chino Aviation.  We continue to scout for a replacement hangar for our builders, so if you find a possible hangar, please let us know.

My ink bottle is running low, so I will close until next time.  – – – – Jim Randall, President, EAA92