Thanks to all of you for a good day. We gave rides to 65 Young Eagles, plus
many of those had more than one ride. I did not see one unhappy Eagle when
they got out of the plane. You made their day and gave them something to
remember for a lifetime.

We also flew one fish. This was a stuffed fish, named Henry. Henry is the
mascot of a local school class. Each student in the class keeps Henry with
him or her for a week and then must write a story about what Henry did
during the week. I think this will be Henry's most exciting week of the
whole year!

I will have more details in the next couple of days. I will also let you
know how much gas was pumped - remember, everybody got some free gas.

Thanks again for you help. We made a lot of kids happy.

Bobbi 12/13/03

The Valiant Air Command (VAC) and EAA Chapter 724 will conduct a “Young Eagles” event to be held at the VAC’s museum at the Space Coast Regional airport (Titusville) on the 13th of December 2003. The VAC museum’s address is 6600 Tico Rd, Titusville and is located just south of State route 405 on the northeast side of the airport on the perimeter road (Tico Rd).

Children between the ages of eight to seventeen are eligible for an introductory flight in a general aviation aircraft. The members of the EAA and the VAC will donate their time, aircraft and fuel costs to introduce young people to the world of flight hoping to encourage them to learn more about the fields of aviation and aerospace. They must be accompanied by a parent of guardian to authorize the flight. The young eagles and a parent/guardian will be admitted to the VAC museum free of charge. Other family members or friends may attend for the normal museum fees ($9.00 adults, $8.00 seniors or active military).

Registration will start at 9:00 AM and end at 3:00 PM. The flight will be approximately 15 to 20 minutes. All flying will terminate an hour prior to sunset.

A pancake breakfast will be available for a small charge ($3.00) and consist of orange juice, pancakes, sausage, and coffee .

Carol Ann Garratt, who recently completed a solo flight around the world in her Mooney will fly some of the Young Eagles.

Another success!!!
13 pilots flew 113 Young Eagles on Sept 20 at Valkaria Airport. 80 of these
Eagles had never flown in a small plane before. Thanks to all the pilots,
registration crew, meal providers, ground crew - we couldn't have done it
without you. GREAT JOB!
(Click here to view pictures of the day on the EAA Chapter 724 web site)

Here's the final tally
Tom Angello 14
Tom Bauer 1
Dan Beard 4
Joe Blaha 4
Jim Daron 10
Richard Kane 15
Jeff Lammers 1
Bobbi Lasher 4
Russ Minton 20
Greg Popp 3
Rich Steidl 12
Linn Walters 5
Tony Yacono 18

See you on October 18th, same time, same place.

Bobbi
09/20/03

Here are the final numbers:

17 pilots
217 Young Eagles - 178 had never flown before.
Most were from the Melbourne, Palm Bay area - 2 from Liverpool, NY

Here's the breakdown:

Tom Angello 10
Steve Bedwell 9
Sam Collura 9
Jim Daron 7
Rick Dove 19
Chuck Downing 0 6
Don Fritsma 23
Chuck Green 8
Holly Hallenbeck 0 12
Jeff Lammers 6
Rick Lasher 0 5
Russ Minton 15
Vic Poor 30
Greg Popp 0 11
Bob Whalen 9
Don White 0 21
Tony Yacono 0 17
TOTAL 145 72

Each pilot's total gets credited to the chapter that he is a member of.
(same happens at Merritt Island when we fly there.)

Bobbi (07-20-03)

____________________________________________

Dear Catherine,

Please extend my heartfelt thanks and appreciation to all the Merritt Island (EAA Chapter 724) and BAA people who participated in our YED Rally, July 19. We could not have done it without you!

Dr. Russ Minton
EAA Chapter 1288
07-20-03

______________________________________

Here are the final numbers, 345 Young Eagles flown; 82 had flown before which means we introduced 263 youngsters to aviation. JOB WELL DONE!!!!!

Click on photo to enlarge

If you are ready to do it all again, Young Eagles will be flying at Valkaria Airport on July 19th. To volunteer, contact Russ Minton at scalpel876@aol.com.

Again, a great big THANKS to all of you for your help and enthusiasim.

Click on photo to enlarge

YOUNG EAGLES PILOTS AND
# OF Young Eagles flown

Tom Angello 9
John Casey 33
Jim Daron 10
Chuck Downing 11
Wayne Eleazar 3
S.M. Hallenbeck 15
Mike Katz 36
Ric Lasher 10
Oeter MacKenzie 26
Jeff May 16
Russ Minton 20
Johnny Murphy 39
Vic Poor 27
Don Runaas 13
Ron Shanz 4
Linn Walters 9
Don White 31
Tony Yacono 32


Bobbi
6/15/03

Click on photo to enlarge

Click on photo to enlarge

A young, single mother that works as a server at one of the local restaurants that some of the Arthur Dunn "bunch" frequents had been asking me to take her little boy Buddy up for a Young Eagle Flight for quite some time. Having to work all kinds of different hours {usually late hours}, it was hard for us to coordinate our free time to get Buddy his ride.

Finally, May 5th, a Sunday morning was to be his big day. We were to meet at the airport at 8:00 a.m. I was as excited about the flight as I imagined he would be. 8:00 a.m. came and went. 8:15, ditto. I thought they weren't going to make it, so I wandered over to the local gathering spot {Patti Patch's hangar} to have coffee. Finally, around 8:45 a.m., they pulled up to the hangar. It had been another long night and they had just gotten up.

Off we went to my hanger, to get this little guy his first airplane ride. Excitedly, I opened his door and asked him if he was ready to go…which he promptly told me "NO!" Well, his mother got angry, because he had been asking for this day for at least three months. As she started to really "come down" on him, I asked her to let me try and see if I could change his mind. She said, "have fun".

After questioning him repeatedly as to why he didn't want to go, he finally told me that he wasn't dressed to go flying. I asked him what he meant by that, and he finally admitted to me that he was embarrassed to go because he had his "jammies" on! This from a seven year old! I smiled and told him that no one would know except he and I….and Lily. He asked, "who's Lily?" I told him that's the name of my airplane. His eyes got as big as saucers and said "mommy, his airplane's name is Lily? She agreed that was the name. I told him to put his shoes on, and I took him around to the other side of the airplane, and sure enough there was "Lily" painted on the side. His comment was "cool".

Now that I had him out of the car, I asked if he would at least like to look inside Lily, which he decided wouldn't hurt. As I opened the door, he couldn't get close enough to see everything, so I suggested he get inside for a better look-see.

Well now, the questions started…what's this, what's that for…on and on. For 20 minutes we studied Lily's instrument panel together and answered ALL his questions. By now, he was showing some enthusiasm, so I asked him if he'd like to help me push Lily out of the hangar, to which I received a vigorous nod "Yes!"

Out of the hangar she came, with Buddy pushing for all his worth. I asked, "what do you think? Want to give it a try? He thought for a second and said o.k.

So into the cockpit, I got him strapped securely in, after putting him on a pillow to sit him "up in the world" a little higher. I explained how I was going to hand prop Lily to get her started and that it would get a little noisy until I could get a headset on him.

Thankfully Lily cooperated and started on the first blade. I got in, adjusted his headset, and started to taxi out to the active, which in this case today, was our favorite…the grass runway. All the while we were taxiing out the questions kept coming at a "machine gun" pace, to which I carefully answered so he would feel comfortable with the flight.

After explaining and performing the run up, we were ready to go. I told him it would get noisier, but that the headset would keep it down to a reasonable level. "All set?" to which he nodded yes! So off we go, building speed. I was watching him out of the corner of my eye, and his eyes kept getting bigger and bigger. We broke ground and weren't anymore than ten feet in the air when he exclaimed, "This is the COOLEST thing I've ever done!".

We flew around, showing him his house from the air, where his mom works, and where he had a birthday party the week before at Fox Lake Park. He got to feel the controls by flying Lily for a while. Three times before we got back to Arthur Dunn, he wanted to know when he could do this again? We stayed up for almost an hour….he didn't want to come down{I know the feeling}. Sounds like I "hooked" another one!

Taxiing back to the hangar, he said he was ready to go again, right now! But mom had other plans, so I gave him a rain check. Of course he had to help me push Lily back into the hangar before we filled out his Young Eagle Certificate. He told his mother that they just had to stop and buy a frame for his new certificate!

That "boys and girls" is what it's all about. Relating the story to Neale Cranston one evening, he told me "when that little boy is eighty years old, he will still remember the man that gave him his first airplane ride!" I'd like to think that is true. How great to be remembered in a positive way, don't you think? Psst…give a kid a ride.