General Membership Meeting - 25May2017

The 2nd quarter General Membership meeting was held on Thursday, May 25th and started around 1730 in the club hangar. Master Chef and club member Joe Rector had the grill going around 1700 and filled the place up with the delicious aroma of burgers and brats. Well done once again Chief Rector.

About twenty-five (25) people showed up to listen to our guest speaker and local aviation hero Mr. Harry Andonian. A small bit of club business preceded Harry's talk but it was a small price to pay for a burger and the chance to listen to Harry. The President, Mr. Dennis Mathis opened up the meeting with a few introductions. Treasurer Mr. B.J. Finney presented the Financial report (the club is in fair shape financially), Secretary Mr. Dennis Harwell may have said a few words, Mr. Mathis, in the absence of the Maintenance Officer Dennis Guinn, presented the status of the aircraft (both up and flying), and Vice President Denis Rottler presented a list of upcoming club events (see the Event Listings page on this website).

Club member and flight instructor Mr. Don Reeder gave a nice safety presentation regarding the preparation and planning required for a cross country trip. Many small items are overlooked (drinking water, signalling devices, emergency blankets, first aid provisions, etc.) when planning a cross country trip. A lot of very useful and practical information was presented. Thanks Don.

Two club members, Ned Howard and Tom Hubert, were recognized for obtaining their Private Pilot Certificate. Dennis Mathis presented his student, Ned Howard with his framed Private Pilot certificate from the MFC and Don Reeder presented his student, Tom Hubert with his framed Private Pilot certificate from the MFC. Well done to both the new pilots and their instructors!

Our guest speaker, Harry Andonian took the floor and ran through a presentation documenting his aviation career including multiple slides of all his military assignments, the hundreds of planes he has flown, and the thousands of hours in his logbook. The list of accomplishments on those slides is beyond impressive even without Harry saying a word. Harry entertained us with his F4 exploits and stories and graciously answered all of our questions. It is always a thrill to listen to Harry speak. For this presentation the MFC gave him a black glass engraved memento. Thank you Harry.

The meeting was adjourned around 1900. Thanks for the folks who stayed around and helped clean up and put the hangar back in order. It is much appreciated. While the meeting and presentation are enjoyable, this part of the evening is really fun. With all the work completed, we almost always end up hangar flying for a while after the meetings. You can hear some really interesting stories, like stealing Navy P3 engines for example, at these after meeting sessions.

All that was left was to close the hangar doors, turn out the lights, and divide up what remained of Mr. Gordon Hay's custom crafted Ghirardelli brownies. Those bad boys are dangerous! Thanks Gordon.