April 13, 2002

What a standout day! The weather that was projected to be a wash-out (rainy) turned out to be calm and quite nice. New club member, Doug Tiner, who volunteered to take on the bar-b-que’ing, started up his “state-of-the-art” barby at 8:00am. Doug, might I add, you did a superb job on the chicken, as most of us went back for seconds (and thirds). Thank You for all your hard work…..the buying of the chicken..the set up…the cooking and the clean up….Thank you, especially from those of us who have had the job in previous years, we can’t tell you how much your effort was appreciated. This turned out to be one of the biggest events of the year (so far), many people attended and hardly anyone came empty handed.

MEETING:

The meeting came to order at 2:30 pm by President Dick Moore. The subjects presented were as follows:

Attendance: We had 41 members, in attendance, of which included our club’s very own, Harvey and Shirley Richardson, who joined us in celebrating Chapter #73’s 13th year anniversary….and who have been an integral part of our club for many years. Also we had 8 guests attend: Don and Diane Waggerby (Hubbard, OR), Doug Stiner (Banks, OR), Earl and Jan Bennet (Portland, OR), Mike and Lynn Patterson (Warrenton, OR), and Martin Peck (Astoria, OR).

Evergreen Airshow: Member Wally Foss, who is also a long standing member with the NWAAC announced that the NWAAC is still unsure about holding their annual airshow at Evergreen Airport (in Vancouver..and where it has been held for years) this year. He said that they are preparing Scappoose for a possible designated airport to host future airshows. He’ll keep us updated.

PRA National Convention: The convention is held in Waxahachie, TX, this year on May 22-26th, the weekend before Memorial Day! The great thing is the location, at Midway Airport (4T6), four miles northwest of Waxahachie, a town 28 miles south of Dallas. “Bring in your Rotors’, get in free!” is the slogan of the PRA 40th Annual International Convention. This means you bring a full-sized gyro or helicopter and your personal $15 Adult Event admission fee is waived.

For further information please contact Kelly Vanek, @ 503-543-7000 and she will be glad to send you a brochure or answer any questions you may have.

Arlington Airshow: Dick, once again, made the updates on this upcoming event. It is held on July 10-14th and we (PRA #73) have volunteered to take Kathy Fields place at this event and represent the PRA. In exchange those who help get their entry fees paid for a full week. We, as a group, decided that we would accept the responsibility of selling the National PRA merchandise. The National PRA will pay for the booth and supply us with $1,000. worth of jackets, hats, t-shirts, and other PRA amenities. Club members who have volunteered to represent the PRA at this event are: Dick Moore (President), Brad Crenshaw, Gary Kaminski (Club Webmasters), Dan and Tammi Jordan (Secretary and Treasurer, respectively) John Kotoyo, and Bob Johnson (Vice President, who can make it for only one day). We need four more volunteers who can help out, so if you are interested please notify Dick Moore @ 503-472-5040. We agreed that this would be a great forum to hand out Chapter #73 applications and generate some interest!

Internet Conference to begin for PRA Chapter Presidents: One of the PRA chapters has suggested that the Chapter Presidents’ or a person to represent their Chapter, participate in a forum with other PRA Chapter representatives. This would allow other chapters to conference on how each individual Chapter feels about ongoing issues. This would help to make a stronger voice, for the individual chapter, when confronted with proposals set before the National PRA Board of Directors. We all agreed that this was an excellent idea and the club nominated Vice President, Bob Johnson as our “Internet Conference Ambassador”. He will exchange our ideas with the other chapters, on our club’s behalf, and discuss the issues at meetings. Thank You Bob for accepting this position and representing us!

Sport Pilot NPRM: I (Kelly) have been in correspondance with Greg Gremminger, who is heading up the PRA committee for the push for gyroplane inclusion in this new FAA proposed category. Jim Vanek is one of the 4 gyro manufacturer’s who plan to attend the ASTM meeting regarding the “Consensus Standards’, which is held April 29th and 30th in Osh Kosh, WI. He will give us a full report at our next meeting. Please see Sport Pilot NPRM Updates on our website.

Oregon Air Fair (Albany, OR): The discussion arose as to whether or not Chapter #73 should have a booth. Last year, Sport Copter displayed their gyro and chapter volunteers handed out club information. We decided that we would try to work something out with Sport Copter this year, to save costs.

Safety Video: Club member, Wally Foss, brought up a great idea to introduce the average “fixed wing” pilot to gyroplanes and dispel the negative “myths” which have surrounded them, in the past. He suggested that a video be created, discussing the safety features and flight aspects of gyroplanes. This video could be playing at various events, in which pilots who normally would not show interest in gyro flight might get interested after viewing the fun that gyro flight has to offer. This would include insurance availability and the PRA Chapter affiliation. We decided that this might be a good suggestion to bring to Kathy Field’s (“Rotorcraft” magazine, Editor) attention.

NEXT MEETING: MAY 11TH AT THE SPORT COPTER HANGAR

The meeting adjourned at 3:40pm and Jim Vanek, club Safety Officer, offered to give rides in the Sport Copter two-place Trainer. Rides, for members and guests, were only $5.00 (to pay for fuel). He gave 13 rides and just as he came in from the last flight, …….the rain came,…..the weather was truly in our favor.

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