District XI - 2012/07

Let me first introduce our newest
associate vice president, Gene Stone,
from East Wenatchee, Washington.
Gene has been active in the Red Apple
Flyers of Wenatchee for many years
and I am sure he will be a useful asset
to those of you with questions and/or
concerns in central Washington.
Let me first introduce our newest
associate vice president, Gene Stone,
from East Wenatchee, Washington.
Gene has been active in the Red Apple
Flyers of Wenatchee for many years
and I am sure he will be a useful asset
to those of you with questions and/or
concerns in central Washington.
I am sad to report that two members
from the district have made their final
flights. Floyd William “Bill” Grove and
Sam Arrigo had been AMA members
for many years. My condolences to
their families and many friends.
On hearing of the passing of these
two gentlemen, I did some looking
around and found out that in other
districts, the district vice president (VP)
often buys a brick for the AMA Walk
of Fame, which includes the departed’s
name and AMA number. I am
considering doing that in this district
but would like to hear your thoughts.
The way it might work is that a $100
brick would be paid for by the district
for anyone who has been a member for
20 years or longer. The district would
pay $25 toward a brick for someone
who has been a member for five years;
$50 for 10 years; $75 for 15 years; and
the full $100 for 20 or more years.
Clubs, friends, and/or family would
be expected to pay the rest for those
short of 20 years. I suggest that this
be made retroactive to the first of this
year, when I became the District XI
VP.
I went to the Weak Signals’ show in
Toledo for the first time in many years,
and what a show it was! More than 400
vendors’ models and a large swap meet
filled the Seagate Convention Center.
When you walked up to a vendor
such as Dave Brown Products, there
was Dave Brown in the flesh and ready
to talk. This was also true of many
other vendors. Yes, my wallet is lighter
now, but what I bought was all stuff
I really needed. (My wife loves that
phrase.)
Plenty of merchandise was moving.
The representatives from Nitro Planes
sold nothing after roughly noon on
Saturday, because the company had
nothing left but display models. Nitro
was not the only such vendor.
Many beautiful models were on
display, competing for several hefty
cash prizes. One that caught my eye
was a composite, turbine-powered
dragon that actually breathed fire.
I heard later that this won best in
show. The effort was considerable; the
builder made 62 molds for the various
components.
Toledo is a long way
from Oak Harbor,
Washington. I had to
get home somehow
so I elected to attend
the 70th reunion of the
Doolittle Raiders in the
Dayton area and then
ride home as a crew
member on a B-25.
That was awesome,
especially when the
weather had us so low
around Peoria, Illinois,
that we were navigating by street signs.
Our next stop was at Ellsworth Air
Force Base in South Dakota. We parked
next to and toured one of the base’s
B-1 bombers.
If you’ve forgotten, General Jimmy
Doolittle led a flight of 16 B-25s to
bomb Japan in 1942, knowing they
would run out of fuel before making
landfall. The airplanes were launched
from the aircraft carrier Hornet and had
to get into the air from a pitching deck
in slightly more than 400 feet. Four of
the five surviving raiders (there were
80 on the raid) were at the reunion
and all are in their 90s. Approximately
250,000 Chinese were killed for aiding
the raiders in making their way through
occupied China.
Rob Kurek, AMA’s Director of
Publications, told me that a digital
version of the complete Model Aviation
will be available soon, as will all issues
of MA dating from its inception in
1975. Members will be able to research
and retrieve information that all of
us remember seeing “someplace and
sometime.” Take a look at the latest
MA in digital form; you can find it on
the MA website.
I want to publish information about
activities within the district concerned
with all aspects of model aviation,
but my mailbox and email are largely
empty in that regard. Send me stuff and
indicate that I have permission to use
it—please.
Until next month.