President’s Message

Well the month of September brought some interesting weather and 2 contrasting fly-ins. The first was a re-scheduled Garnsey’s fly-in, due to bad & potentially bad weather the week before. The Cooperstown contingent actually showed up (they didn’t check the go/no go), all 3 planes! Then came the following weekend along with perfect weather and wouldn’t you know it – 2 planes flew in!! Rico Cannone flew in from Saratoga, N.Y. in his Tri-Pacer and I flew in with Marc Pekowsy & Ivy Blum from HPN. Steve & Joyce Sevits drove up and Marcia & Zene Garnsey live there. We had a great time, swam, ate, couldn’t conduct any business, & hoped that the next fly-in would bring some people out.

The weekend of the Kline Kill EAA fly-in breakfast had some dire weather to deal with. The folks cancelled the Saturday due to the remnants of Hurricane Ivan moving thru the area. We really got pounded down in the NYC metro area. Sunday dawned pretty clear but windy with the winds gusting to 30 at White Plains. With the strong, gusty winds and a strong winds aloft forecast along with turbulence, I decided to drive up to kline Kill. Some of you might have experienced difficulty with the phone line but Steve Sevits got it up and running. I was out of the house by then.

As I drove up to the airport, I saw Rico’s Tri-Pacer along with a white Tri-Pacer that I didn’t recognize. The turnout was not what Kline Kill is used

to at these fly-in breakfasts because of the low clouds, wind & turbulence. I drove up and saw Mike Archambault parking planes, Rico & Wes Morris and Joyce & Steve Sevits eating breakfast & joined them. It was a true fall day with a distinct chill in the air (helped by those winds). I met the owner of the white Tri-Pacer, Charles Boehlke, who may or may not join our chapter. He’s got a Cub and Ercoupe also and seems timid, but we’ll work on him. He seems like a good guy. Mike introduced me to the line “chief” who lives in Pittsfield, Mass. And has a Clipper. We hope he’ll join us as well.

Speaking of Mike, He sold his Tri-Pacer and I met the fellow who bought it. We hope he joins us. Again I must tell you that Margaret Archambault has resigned her position as treasurer. We will really miss her tireless efforts. There aren’t enough thanks to go around!! If she can’t be persuaded to stay on, we might have someone who could take that position; more on this at a later date.

After a quick breakfast, 2 SWPs entered the pattern and Dave Adams & Dave Dudley landed in Dave’s Clipper (that he will probably sell to Mr. Dudley) coming across the hills from near Taunton,Mass. , followed by Mike Hirsch, Bruce Clark, & Sue Meltenson in Mike’s Pacer, from Beverly, Mass. It was great to see all these folks that braved the wind and bumps! You just never know what kind of turnout to expect, even when the weather is severe clear. It’s all part of flying – we all have different schedules – I know!!

We all finished our breakfast and schmoozing (hangar flying) and went from the hangar into the office to conduct our meeting and get warm. The calendar was set thru Dec. 2004. Our next fly-in comes right up on Sat. Oct. 2 withy the 3rd the rain date to good old Basin Harbor, Vermont (B06) on the east shore of Lake Champlain. We’ll meet in the Red Mill Restaurant at noon adjacent to the great turf strip. Remember that Basin Harbor does not have fuel, so plan accordingly. The leaves are starting to change down here so I think that all the way up north, it might be great. I appologize for the early October date, but it’s the only weekend I have free until our November date.

The November fly-in will be Sat. Nov.20th with the 21st the rain date at the Hampton, New Hampshire airport (7B3) and Bruce Clark will try to get the EAA building available for our meeting. We’ll meet in the restaurant at noon. Our annual holiday fly-in will be at Meadowgreens at Columbia County airport (1B1) in Hudson, N.Y. on Sat. Dec. 18th with Sun. the 19th the alternate. If we go with Sunday, they have the famous buffet brunch. Steve Sevits is going to try to arrange to have 2 presentations at this fly-in. One by Al Miller from the FAA Albany FSDO and the other by a person who has come up with some good flying apparel (shirts, hats, sweatshirts, etc. with our chapter logo embroidered on). Of course we’ll have our holiday $$$ drawing for paid up members.

Speaking of paid up members, please check your expiration dates on the mailing label. Most of us are paid up. Let’s see if we can make it 100 per cent by the end of the year. I desperately need your e-mail addresses so we can start e-mailing the newsletter and any other correspondence to you. To this date, I only have received 10 addresses and can not proceed. Please e-mail me

at: noelanderson@charter.net Andytuba@optonline.net so I can save your address. My computer crashed this summer and I lost the e-mail list. Also we need this information so we can update the chapter’s website. Please, Please, Please e-mail me.

We discussed the usefulness or uselessness of the manifold pressure gauge in the Short Wing Pipers. Why do we have them when we don’t have a constant speed prop? I know that this was a factory option but the vast majority don’t have them. While most disregard them and often get rid of them, it pointed out a problem to me on the flight home from Garnsey’s a couple of weeks ago. I noticed after takeoff that the gauge was registering about 16 with 2500 RPM in cruise. The engine didn’t sound right but seemed to run right (it had better after just getting a Mattituck major). You guessed it, I had blown a manifold exhaust gasket. Shouldn’t I have guessed that after seeing the (what I thought was) erroneous MPG indication? Well ……….

Steve Sevits and Bruce Clark discussed the vagaries of the vertical card compass. It seems to be more trouble than it’s worth. Both had adjusting problems. I guess it’s odd to have to make a 20 degree correction for a common heading. They sure look neat in other planes. Mike Hirsch brought up the ever popular Lake Winnepessaukee ice fly-in and we agreed that if the ice is good, we might try it not on the weekend of their big fly-in – it gets crazy!

As we were getting ready to split, Fabio Schulthess arrived in his sharp Pacer. Of course we had to join him for one more coffee. Great to see this great guy who’s a Swissair Capt. and spends all his free time in Sugarbush, Vt. where he is building a house. Maybe a barbecue in Vermont next summer? I hope to see you in Basin Harbor 10/2.

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