Chapter Meetings

EAA Chapter 196 holds meetings once a month at Minute Man Air Field on Boxboro Road in Stow, Massachusetts. Meetings are normally held the last Monday of the month at 7:00 p.m. Directions to the airport can be found here.

Next Meeting: October 27, 2008

This is our annual meeting and elections. As usual, it will be held in the airport restaurant.

March 2008 Meeting: Our March meeting was primarily devoted to a presentation by Bill McCandless on the cross country flight he and is wife took to bring their new Light Sport aircraft back from the dealer in California. They offer an online diary and photo gallery of the trip here.

February 2008 Meeting: Our February meeting included an extensive state of the airport report as well as an introduction of John Murray, a new flight instructor who will be operating from the field (John can be reached at 617-429-0056 or jbm_flight@hotmail.com). Meeting minutes can be read here.

January 2008 Meeting: Our first meeting of the year including an annual report on the airport as well as our own planning for the coming year. Meeting minutes can be read here.

October 2007 Meeting: This being our annual meeting the evening was devoted entired to chapter business. Meeting minutes can be read here.

June 2007 Meeting: Our June 25, 2007 meeting was primarily a cookout, but we did have a business meeting first. Meeting minutes can be read here.

May 2007 Meeting: For our May 21, 2007 chapter meeting, we were privileged to have world famous aerobatic pilot Mike Goulian as our speaker. Mike brought along his Extra 300 air show plane and showed us how it was put together and talked about this and also his activities in the Red Bull Air Races.

We also had two reps from Castrol discuss aviation motor oil, including their new Castrol Aviator brand.

More photos from the meeting can be found here.

October 2006 Meeting: Our speaker was CarolAnn Garratt, telling us about her round the world flight in her Mooney. Check out her web site here.

March 2006 Meeting: 6B6 based A&P Bob Booth spoke at our March meeting. We gathered in his hangar where we viewed Bill Greenberg's airplane in the midst of its annual inspection. Bob covered a variety of topics related to inspections and offered some good technical information especially related to engines.

February 2006 Meeting: This meeting was devoted to ideas and planning for the upcoming year.

Full meeting minutes can be read here.

March 2005 Meeting:: Pat Howe, who is an Aviation Safety Counselor, spoke with us about flying safety at our March meeting. Also we had Jack Keenan, Safety Program Manager at Boston FSDO sepaking on the new Sport Pilot rules dealing with pilot certification. Information on this part of the program can be found here.

January 2005 Meeting: The January meeting was held at our usual meeting spot, the Air Field Cafe, at 6B6. Since we are now in the midst of the deep freeze, it seemed like an appropriate time to consider the joys of summer flying. We had for our meeting program a video of flying in Utah's Red Rock country. A lot of beautiful country with runways by riverbeds and on plateaus. It is a tremendously entertaining and totally captivating view of adventure flying.

You can read the complete business meeting minutes here.

October 2004 Meeting: The October meeting was back at our usual meeting spot, the Air Field Cafe, at 6B6. Airport manager Don McPherson gave us a talk to update us on all the construction and other changes being made around the airport.

In addition, it was our annual meeting, with all the attendant excitement of elections.

You can read the complete business meeting minutes here.

May 2004 Meeting: Our speaker this month was talk by Rebecca Harvey. Rebecca has a Grumman based at Lawrence and has been flying for some time with the Coast Guard Auxiliary. She shared with us her experiences as a Coast Guard pilot, including some interesting optional training and described what is involved for other who might be interested in joining.

For more on the Coast Guard Auxiliary, visit their web page:

http://www.cgaux.org/

You can read the complete business meeting minutes here.

April 2004 Meeting: Our speaker this month was Ed Masterson. Ed is a Vari-EZ builder who told about his participation in the AirVenture Cup race last year. The AirVenture Cup is a multiple class race from Kitty Hawk to Oshkosh, with a single stop in Dayton. This is the sort of race that anyone can enter and offers some interesting flight experiences.

Read more about the AirVenture Cup here.

You can read the complete business meeting minutes here.

March 2004 Meeting: Instead of our normal meeting we attended an event held by the Stow Historical Society (which just happens to occur at the exact same date and time as our scheduled meeting). The even was called "Celebrating 100 Years Of Flight" and speakers included Don McPherson, Bob Collings and Rod Albright. A large group of chapter members attended.

February 2004 Meeting: Our February meeting was primarily a planning session for the upcoming year. Our new officers are now in place and we found a volunteer to be the new Young Eagles coordinator. We also had discussions on topics including airport security.

You can read the complete business meeting minutes here.

January 2004 Meeting: Airport manager Don McPherson gave his approximately annual state of the airport presentation and answered questions about expansion (i.e., new hangars) and other exciting things that are happening around the airport including plans to trim trees back from the runways and new events planned for the restaurant.

You can read the complete business meeting minutes here.

December 2003 Meeting: No meeting this month, instead we had our annual holiday party. View the photo gallery here.

November 2003 Meeting: Last summer our long-time member and past Young Eagles coordinator Charlie Smith bought a Grumman Tiger in Mississippi and flew it back home. Charlie told us how he ended up with this particular plane after being a Cessna owner in the past, and the adventures of meeting insurance requirements and getting the plane back home to Minute Man.

You can read the complete business meeting minutes here.

October 2003 Meeting: The program was a demonstration by Bill Greenberg and Nels Anderson of the recently released Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004: A Century Of Flight along with a GoFlight avionics stack and iPaq based AnywhereMap software, all of which makes a useful training and practice environment.

Learn more about the meeting topics:

You can read the complete business meeting minutes here.

September 2003 Meeting: After a series of summer cookouts our first business meeting of the fall was held. Included were discussions of future chapter plans plus nominations for officers for next year.

You can read the complete business meeting minutes here.

Summer 2003: The June cookout meeting was such a glorious success, we did it again in July. This time known as the Pretty-Near-The-Oshkosh-Convention-Celebration cookout. The chapter provided the basics and the rest was pot luck.

Our June meeting was a Pretty-Near-The-Summer-Solstice Chapter Cookout. The chapter provided all the basics: hamburgers, hot dogs, buns, soft drinks, etc. The grill was hot for anything something special.

May 2003 Meeting: Our meeting program was a very informative presentation on formation flying.

You can read the business meeting minutes here.

April 2003 Meeting: Our speaker for April was Bob Glorioso. He talked about the "Fulton Airphibian" the first certificated flying automobile. Wayne Dasher, his father-in-law, was the A&P Mechanic that was involved from the beginning doing some of the design, doing much of the construction and leading the certification process. He also flew in the first flight. He passed away last April but we saw some videos of both the Airphibian and him talking about the construction and flying, along with a variety of printed materials.

You can read the business meeting minutes here.

March 2003 Meeting: Our speaker was Joel Ventura. He is a researcher at Brandeis doing zero-G experimental work for NASA. In this work he has accumulated more time at zero-G than some astronauts, although he has gotten it 25 seconds at a time in the NASA KC-135 affectionately known as The Vomit Comet.

You can read the business meeting minutes here.

January 2003 Meeting: Our speaker for this meeting was Dr. Henry Childs, an AME who discussed a wide variety of health issues of interest to pilots as well as the FAA's handling of medical certification.

For those interested, here is a link to the book Dr. Childs recommended: Eat, Drink, And Be Healthy by Walter C Willett, MD.

You can read the business meeting minutes here.

December 2002 Meeting: No meeting this month, instead we had our annual holiday party. View the photo gallery here.

October 2002 Meeting: We were unable to get a speaker for this meeting.

You can read the business meeting minutes here.

September 2002 Meeting: To take advantage of the last of the summer weather, a cookout was held before the regular business meeting.

You can read the business meeting minutes here.

August 2002 Meeting: Our planned field trip for the August meeting had to be postponed, so instead we ended up having a short business meeting and hangar flying sessions.

You can read the business meeting minutes here.

July 2002 Meeting: In July instead of our normal meeting we had a pot luck cookout and hangar flying session. The chapter supplied the grill along with burgers and hot dogs. Members brought side dish and lots of deserts. It was a bit cool for mid-July, but overall it was a very pleasant day and everyone enjoyed the food.

Thanks to Hector Constantzos for coordinating, Mike Doyle for picking up the food (and delivering it in his 1931 Model A pickup) and to everyone else who helped.

A small photo gallery of the cookout can be found here.

June 2002 Meeting: Instead of a normal meeting, the group took a field trip to visit Nate Mayo. Nate is a former Navy pilot but is best known for his work in restoring aircraft. Most of his restorations are planes owned by the Collings Foundation and include a B-24, TBM, Bleriot and several others.

Now retired, Nate is currently building, completely from scratch and from his own plans, a single engine plane based on the P-26 Peashooter. We were able to see the nearly completed fuselage, wing framework and various parts currently under construction in Nate's extensive machine shop.

For additional photos of this visit, go here.

May 2002 Meeting: Our May speaker was be Gary Devendorf, from the jump club at Orange.

"Orange Traffic, jump activity 2 minutes at Orange." As a pilot taking off, in the pattern, or 3 miles out, what can I expect? This wasn't covered in my BFR. Don't panic or head for the hills. Gary who is a pilot and sky diving instructor at Orange (www.jumptown.com), covered how to safely fly around a drop zone and also offered a number of interesting and sometimes amusing stories about skydiving.

You can also read the business meeting minutes here.

April 2002 Meeting: Our speaker for April was Glenn Davison with "Kites in the Year 2002". Attendees were amazed by the wide variety of kites in use and enjoyed learning more about this type of flight.

Glenn Davison is a kite designer, builder, lecturer and workshop leader. He has been featured in the Boston Globe, Kiting Magazine, and many other publications. A featured flyer at the Verdun International Kite Festival, Wildwood International Kite Festival, St. Placide Winter Festival in Canada, Kites on Ice Winter Festival in Wisconsin, and Soundwinds Kite Festival in CT. He is also a Rokkaku Kite Battle Champion having taken first place in the AKA Nationals, Wildwood, New England, Black Ships, and Smithsonian Festivals. In Indian Fighter Kites, Glenn took first place in Fighter Kite Precision at the National Convention. Glenn is Vice President of the Kites Over New England kite club, Secretary for the American Kiteflyers Association (AKA) Fighter Kite Committee, and Director of Workshops for the AKA. Glenn has been a curator for multiple kite art galleries and has displayed his work at the Air & Space Museum in Washington DC. At the AKA National Convention he displayed the largest gallery of miniature kites ever assembled. Glenn's "Bee Mine" kite took first place in the Great Miniature Kite Contest held by the Drachen Foundation for the category called "best in flight."

For more photos from this meeting, and more information about kites, go here.

You can also read the business meeting minutes here.

March 2002 Meeting: Our March speaker was Anne Umphrey, who talked about helicopters. Anne is a commercial pilot who flies an R22. Anne described some of her experiences as a helicopter pilot as well as covering what helicopter flying is like. She also fielded many questions from the audience.

You can also read the business meeting minutes here.

February 2002 Meeting: At our February meeting airport manager Don McPherson spoke, giving us an update on new security issues and other airport happens including some plans for restaurant expansion and airport safety improvements.

You can also read the business meeting minutes here.

January 2002 Meeting: For our first speaker of the new year we had Mike Abelson who gave an introduction to AirLifeLine. Mike is the New England director of operations for this volunteer organization that provides medical flights to patients who cannot afford the cost of travel. The pilots donate their time, aircraft and fuel to make this air transportation service totally free for patients who qualify.

Flying for the public benefit has a number of immediate benefits for all of us in the flying community. People who are ill get help that simply would be impossible to provide in any other way. It is a good deed and would be seen as such by the general publich. Pilots get to fly more hours. And it is one of the few things that general aviation pilots can do that is tax deductible.

For more information, visit:
www.airlifeline.org

You can also read the business meeting minutes here.

November Meeting: Our November meeting was held two weeks early because of the holidays. Being the end of the year, pins and certificates were awarded to the officers who served the chapter during 2001. Thank you to everyone who participated, as well as everyone who keeps showing up to the meeting and YE events too!

Our speaker was Tom Witkin. Tom is an instructor in both airplanes and gliders. Power pilots think a lot about emergency landings following an engine failure. Yet glider pilots make thousands of successful dead stick landings each year, without a single go-around. Tom introduced us to some ways that glider flying techniques can change the way we think about and successfully execute a forced landing. In this photos he is demonstrating "TLAR" ("that looks about right"), a visual means of judging a proper landing.

You can also read the business meeting minutes here.

October Meeting: Bill Greenberg gave a presentation on IFR training and specifically on the 10 day courses available. He also presented the "On Top" IFR computer training simulator. In addition, Nels Anderson presented the just released Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002 and demonstrated its ATC capabilities.

You can also read the business meeting minutes here.

September Meeting: Samuel Corner, one of our Young Eagles, attended the EAA's Air Academy this past summer. The chapter helped sponsor his attendance through the pilots' Young Eagle credits. Samuel gave a very nice detailed report on the activities during each day at camp.

You can also read the business meeting minutes here.

Speaker Jeff Simon at the August 2001 meeting August Meeting: Jeff Simon gave an informative presentation about aircraft ownership and maintenance. Jeff is based at Stow and owns and flies a Grumman. He is also the creator of The Educated Owner series of videos, which currently includes two volumes: Vol. I - Preventative Maintenance and Vol. II - The Annual Inspection.

As part of his presentation Jeff showed short clips from both volumes. He offered tips on annual inspections. He also included an interesting discussion on the various types of maintenance that aircraft owners can do themselves...some of which are quite surprising.

For more information on The Educated Owner video series, visit the web site at: www.ApproachAviation.com

You can also read the business meeting minutes here.

May Meeting: Bob Burke, EAA 196 charter member, was a B-24 pilot in the Pacific theater during WWII. He talked about his experiences and answered questions. Steve Muza converted some old photographs that Bob took and displayed them in a slide show.

Bob flew in the Pacific during WWII. He was the pilot of the "Dragon And Its Tail" which many people know because the Collings Foundation currently flies a B-24 around the country painted in that scheme. It was interesting to see photos of Bob standing in front of the original "Dragon" during WWII and in front of the Collings plane in recent years. Bob continued flying in Korea and was in other planes including the giant B-36.

You can also read the business meeting minutes here.

April Meeting: Jim Ellis gave a talk and slide presentation on hot air ballooning. Read the meeting minutes here.

March Meeting: Airport Manager Don McPherson spoke on the subject "State of the Airport". Read the meeting minutes here.

February Meeting: Our speaker at the February meeting was John Weigel with the topic "Across the USA the old fashioned way - a map and compass flight from Marlboro, Masssachusetts to Portland, Oregon in a non-electric Champ". Read the meeting minutes here.

January Meeting: At this meeting we finished up some chapter business from last year, including a special election for chapter president. Outgoing president Jon Engvall spoke on his recent search for an aircraft. Read the meeting minutes here.

October Meeting: Prior to the October meeting we had a cookout to use up some extra supplies purchased for Myricks and Young Eagles events. With some exceptionally nice weather for this time of year everyone had an enjoyable time, as can be seen in the photos. It was even nice enough that we just stayed outside for the regular meeting.

June Meeting: Discussion of chapter future plans and a walk around of possible chapter trailer sites.

May Meeting: The May meeting allowed the members to relate some of their interesting flying experiences. We have many within the chapter who have experienced a wide range of flying "thrills and chills".

April Meeting: Ray Pratt arranged the April speaker, a very interesting individual who gave a first hand presentation of his experiences with para-sailing.

Need directions? Then visit Mapquest for a road map of the area.