One of the most enjoyable and useful “tools” available to anyone considering building or buying an Experimental aircraft, or even any general aviation aircraft, is membership in a local chapter of the Experimental Aircraft Association. These are usually located at any airport large enough to support its own community.
I happen to be a member of two such chapters, one at my home airport and one at our vacation airpark property. Both are unique in their activities and traditions that reflect their locations and membership demographics, yet both adhere to the criteria established by the EAA for chapter operation. One of the primary objectives is supporting those members involved with E/A-B but all are welcome who share an interest in flying.
Almost all chapters support the Young Eagles program and schedule these events in season for their location. Other chapter activities, aside from monthly meetings, include breakfast flyouts, excursion tours, hangar coffee klatches, group dinners, etc. Some chapters have recurring specialty events unique to the chapter like Chapter 75’s operation of the Emergency Aircraft Repair station at Oshkosh and the rotating chapters that provide breakfast services at Camp Scholler during AirVenture. There are hundreds of other examples.
About the Eats
On Saturday, July 13, our EAA Chapter 1044, in association with the airpark HOA, held its annual pancake breakfast fly-in, affectionately titled “Flapjacks and Fly-Ins,” at our otherwise private Mogollon Airpark airfield that is opened to the public during these events. Events like this are a lot of fun to participate in and also a lot of work to organize and plan. This year, our chapter president, Mark Brown, and his wife, Brenda, put together a terrific plan and pulled it off with aplomb. Forty-five local volunteers took on tasks as diverse as food prep, front-line cooks, servers, setup and takedown, ticket sales, runners, Unicom operators, ramp traffic directors and so on.
Yours truly was assigned to the pancake griddle team. That, like most aspects of building or operating an Experimental aircraft, can be humbling at first, stressful at times, eventually mastered with practice and experience…and often requires a long nap after the task at hand is complete.
Forty-three non-resident aircraft flew in for the event and an uncounted but surely equal or greater number of “drive-ins” came from the local community. More than 300 people were well-fed as well as all of the volunteer staff. Several vendors, sponsors and supporters attended, including the local Heber-Overgaard Fire Department and representatives of the Forest Service and Fish and Game, who came to interact with the visitors and share community outreach and information. The Baja Bush Pilots and the Arizona Pilots Association also set up displays and information.
Proceeds from the modest $7 breakfast primarily go to supporting the Chapter’s Youth Scholarship Program, which sponsors a local youth to attend the EAA Youth Academy Camp in Oshkosh in conjunction with AirVenture.
Safe Grounds
Of all the stats and reports from this year’s event, the most important stat of all is safety, and we are thrilled to report that even though our lovely airpark sits high in the tall pines at over 6600-foot field elevation, which can make for some scary density altitude considerations, the event was well attended by fly-in visitors and no accidents or incidents were reported.
I have mentioned a few times over the years that I have a firm belief that one of the greatest pleasures of being involved in this unique avocation is the association with great and interesting people. The airplanes that we are passionate about are simply an excuse—a vehicle, if you will—to meet and associate with others of mutual interest. One of the first things that anyone with the slightest interest in building, buying or flying an Experimental aircraft should do is to reach out and join their local EAA Chapter. You can call EAA at 800-564-6322 or visit www.eaa.org and look under the Chapters menu.
