This past Wednesday, our chapter hosted 20 students from Snowflake Junior High School. Along with science teacher, Mike Eilertson, the students were able to see first-hand the chapter’s Youth Build Project, restoration of a Kitfox aircraft.
During the visit, chapter Youth Build participants Matthew Robinson, Gwen Phillips, Isaac Tudur and Jordan Pariga took the lead and described the restoration process to the those in attendance. The old fabric has been completely stripped from the wings and fuselage, which gave the students the rare opportunity to see the actual tubing structure.
Afterwards, EAA chapter members Pat and Dave Forbes displayed their Van’s RV-12 SLSA. As the students gathered around, Dave presented information about the aircraft, kit-building and aviation in general. Mr. Eilertson volunteered that the school would like to possibly build an RV-12 as part of an after-school extracurricular activity in cooperation with other organizations such as our EAA chapter if grant funding could be secured.
Other chapter members also were present and spoke with the students about the aviation field as a career or avocation. Topics included flying professionally for the airlines, aeronautical and electrical engineering, aircraft maintenance, air traffic control, and “just flying for fun” as a private pilot. Ellen Randoll, chapter Secretary-Treasurer, followed up with a brief summary of the imminent workforce shortages in every area of aviation, both commercial and military, and the abundance of career opportunities looking forward.
Before leaving for the day, the students visited the nearby hangar of chapter member Dennis Collins, who is currently building a Van’s RV-8, and got to see up close the aluminum fuselage – often called the “canoe” – under construction.
Based the interest and enthusiasm of the students, aviation’s future is definitely looking bright!
This past weekend, 10 people in five aircraft ventured up to Durango, CO to take in the local sights and experience a “blast from the past” – a picturesque train ride through the San Juan National Forest. Powered by a coal-fired steam locomotive, this historic railroad has been in continuous operation since 1882! Both the locomotive and “rolling stock” are well-maintained examples of a bygone era when mining was the primary business in the region. These days, tourism provides most of the commerce. And, with a daily round-trip schedule between Durango and Silverton, passengers can enjoy a brief retreat from our high-tech “civilization.”
2018 marked the return of the EAA Chapter 1044 Pancake Breakfast Fly-In to Mogollon Airpark. The event was a huge success by any measure, thanks in no small part to all of our wonderful volunteers… over 40 in total. Hundreds of breakfasts served and dozens of airplanes from around the state flew in to celebrate the event.
Four local youth are currently working on restoring our chapter’s KitFox. First steps are to remove the old fabric covering in preparation for recovering and painting. Be sure to check out all of our photos by clicking