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NEWSLETTER FOR OUR MEMBERS
Feb. 1,
2010
By: Gary
Vacin, Publicity Director
The next monthly
meeting of SLAC
Monday, FEb. 15, 2010
Mirror ROOM AT
THE SUN LAKES COUNTRY CLUB PHASE I
PROGRAMS
For information on Programs, contact Gary Vacin,
Programs Director Tel 480-802-2225 or email gvacin@hotmail.com.
Monday Feb. 15, 2010
Rich Hippner, a Sun Lakes resident, will talk about
his experiences
flying helicopters in Viet Nam
Monday, March 15
Member Dan Lance, who will report on construction
and flying his Challenger aircraft on floats
Monday, April 19
Mike England, a professional balloon pilot from Hot Air
Expeditions
ACTIVITIES
Fly-Ins/Field Trips:
Generally the third
Saturday of each month
SLAC fly-ins to select locations.
Field Trips Generally
the fourth Saturday of each month -
SLAC Field trips to points of interest to all members and pilots.
Other Activities
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Fri Apr 23rd
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Tentative – Going away WESTERN cook-out
(for those of you who
leave our great State during the summer months). Will be held at Sisk
Park in Palo Verde. The club
will pay for this event. We
hope all of
you will participate and partake of the great Ribs, and the Corn Bread
cooked by our Activities Director, Earl Cuyler.
WEAR YOUR WESTERN DUDS
The last R
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Publicity.
For information on SLAC Publicity,
Contact Gary Vacin, Publicity Director Tel 480-802-2225; or email Gvacin@hotmailcom
The
following article will appear in the March1st Splash:
Former WASP
Pilot Addresses Aero Club
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“I was at the right place at
the right time,” former WASP pilot Betty Blake told an enthusiastic
audience at the Sun Lakes Aero Club meeting January 18.
Blake described her experiences as a pilot, beginning
with her first flight in an airplane in Hawaii to her years of service as a Women Airforce Service Pilot
during World War II. As part of that elite group, she flew military
aircraft from manufacturers’ factories in Long Beach, Calif and other
locations to Army Air Force bases where the planes were put into service by
military pilots.
We
were in the original WASP class back in 1943, she said. “We were known as
the ‘guinea pig” class because they didn’t know if women could fly military
aircraft. We showed them we could,
and the program became permanent.”
More than 25,000 women applied to the WASPs, but only
1,830 qualified to begin flight training, she said. “I was one of the lucky ones.”
A typical week as a WASP might involve three or more
cross-country flights. Her favorite
flight involved piloting a P-51 Mustang from Long Beach, Calif. to a military base at Newark, N.J., an
eight-hour flight, and then flying a P-47 Thunderbolt back to California
the next day. She flew 78 different
military aircraft, ranging from single-engine trainers and fighters to
four-engine bombers including B-17s
and B-29s.
She
also described her experience as a survivor of the Pearl Harbor attack on
Dec. 7, 1941. “The night before the
attack, I accompanied three Navy aviators to an Officers Club. I had never had a drink before, but had
three Southern Comforts that night, and felt the effects the next day. My father talked one of the pilots into
spending the night at our house and the other two returned to their ships
on Battleship Row. Unfortunately,
one died on the Arizona and the other on the California the next day.” Blake watched the attack from her home
on a hillside overlooking Pearl Harbor the next morning. Blake married the surviving pilot three
months later.
Now
in its 15th year, the Sun Lakes Aero Club meets the third Monday
of each month from October through May at the Sun Lakes Country Club. More
information on the club is available from Bob Walch, 480-895-8869 or Al Galvi,
480-802-0104.
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SLAC Vice-President Al Galvi presented a Cross pen
to
Betty Blake, a former WASP pilot at the Club’s January 18th
meeting.
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SLAC members dine at Marana, view Evergreen
Maintenance facility
Some 16 Sun Lakes Aero Club members and guests
participated in one of the club’s most successful fly-ins in recent years Jan.
16 when the group flew to Marana Airport for breakfast, with a stop at
Pinal County airport to view aircraft undergoing maintenance at the
Evergreen Air Center, the largest commercial aircraft heavy maintenance
aircraft storage facility in the world
Six club members and guests flew their planes to
Marana and five planes made the stop at Pinal County on their way back to
Chandler and Coolidge, where their planes are based.
The stop at Pinal County was most
intriguing. This is a public
airport, but Evergreen offers no
tours of their maintenance facility and does not encourage visitors. However, the SLAC fliers found the ramp
virtually deserted on a Saturday morning, and members were able to walk the
maintenance flight line for about 20 minutes before Evergreen security
folks drove up and politely asked us to leave.
We politely told them we would, and took the
10-minute walk back to the FBO where our planes were parked. During our short time on the field, we
were able to view many wide-body commercial aircraft undergoing
maintenance, including several Boeing 747s, other Boeing and other giant
airlines. All in all, it was a
great trip and one to remember.
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SLAC club
members and guests gather in front of a huge engine
undergoing maintenance at the
Evergreen Air Center at Pinal County airport
Click a video-tape featuring Jessica Cox, our
November speaker.
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Jessica Cox
(Video 4,925 kb) Jessica has had no arms
since birth yet she fly’s a plane in addition to her other incredible
accomplishments. She was the featured speaker at the Sun Lakes Aero
Club monthly meeting on November 16, 2009
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BOARD
MEETINGS ARE HELD ON THE
SECOND
TUESDAY OF EACH MONTH, October thru
May
The
next SLAC Board meeting is on Tuesday, Feb. 9 at
the SLAC Country
Club in Phase 1 at 9:30 a.m. in the Card Room in the Recreation
Center.
You are cordially invited to attend these meetings.
For
information on the Sun Lakes Aero Club go to the website: http://www.sunlakesaeroclub.org/
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