Chapter 524 - Beginnings
One day in 1974 or 1975, after classes, Bill Mutchsler, who was then Program Manager of the Frederick Community College A&P Program, and I were sitting in the office brainstorming about how to give our new A&P Program more visibility in the Frederick aviation community when Bill blurted out, "Let's start an EAA Chapter." My reaction was somewhat negative since I had already done my EAA thing. My dear friend Bill Davis and I had been charter members of the Delaware EAA Chapter #240 in the mid 60's and from 1967-1970 had built a delightful S1-C Pitts. I had moved on. Despite my reluctance, Bill gave me the task of exploring the possibility of forming a Frederick EAA Chapter.
I contacted EAA headquarters and discovered that there once had been a Chapter in Frederick but it had disbanded. Headquarters also gave me a list of EAA members in the Frederick area. I contacted these people and scheduled a get-acquainted meeting. I forget the actual date of the meeting but about a dozen people showed up at our school facility-we were renting space from Frederick Aviation then-all were in favor of forming a new chapter and not using the original Frederick Chapter number. We proceeded to elect officers and selected a person by the name of Robert "Bob" Aymar, who was not in attendance, to run for President. Bob was selected because he had previously built a Benson Gyro Glider. He was duly elected just as someone was heard coming up the stairs to our classroom meeting place. And who should appear but Bob Aymar. He was informed that he was just elected new Chapter President and, with good humor, we went on from there.
Gerard Blake
