E-Beacon - January 3, 2024

E-Beacon is a monthly email newsletter from Chapter 54 of the EAA

E-Beacon January 3, 2024

This is the monthly email newsletter from the Experimental Aircraft Association of Lake Elmo, MN. If you have difficulty reading this information, view it on the chapter website.

January Board of Directors meeting
It was a working meeting on Monday January 2 and members of the Chapter 54 worked through several issues and events facing the chapter including improved WiFi at the chapter house, financial issues, late dues payments (please renew your membership), the membership roster, recruiting volunteers, the creation of a survey to be sure Board efforts align with member wishes, and the process to ensure that new members are properly introduced to the chapter. Ed Trudeau's minutes have been posted.

First newsletter of the year published
Beacon front page

Newsletter editor and chapter president Marlon Gunderson has some things to say as he outlines issues facing the chapter and Lake Elmo Airport. He's posted the January newsletter. Highlights: Marlon pays tribute to Leif Erickson; the new leadership; who are we and where are we going? Chapter House updates. Hybrid meetings now offered. A review of previous meetings. Lake Elmo Airport noise plan. Find the issue on our newsletter page or wherever fine manuscripts are sold. At the same time, all available hard-copy editions of the newsletter are being digitized. You can find links to the archived newsletters at the bottom of any page in the newsletter section. At present, we've scanned copies back to 1977, when the newsletter was called "Speed's News." The first newsletter was published in 1968. Many of these old newsletters have disappeared, including most from the '80s. If you have any you'd like to donate to the chapter, kindly contact Bob Collins.

January chapter video released

(Dec 27) In the latest episode, EAA boss Jack Pelton looks at what's coming in 2024: leadership academies, MOSAIC's timetable, advocacy efforts, Young Eagles recap, the 70th anniversary of chapters, Homebuilders Week, ultralight days. Watch video >>

Chapter House renovations completed in time for January meeting

(Dec. 20) After about a month of work, this phase of the renovation of the Chapter 54 house has been completed. The effort involved repainting the walls and reimagining the space to make it more comfortable and welcoming. It's also to move us forward as a chapter, thinking about who we are and where we're going. The history of the chapter is certainly properly preserved and acknowledged -- possibly more so -- while allowing us to use the space to declare who we are now. Here's a tour >>

Wouldn't you like to be on the Wall of Fame?

(Dec 17) The wall full of pictures at the EAA 54 headquarters has been moved from the north to the west wall. Culled from the group, however, are planes from people who are no longer active members of the chapter. That amounts to the majority of the pictures that were hanging. We want to display only the planes built/owned by active members. Presently, we have 19 such pictures and we know there are many more planes in the chapter's fleet than that. How can you get your plane added to the wall of fame? Simple. Read more >>

Important update for Uavionix owners

(Dec 16) Chapter member Dave Syverson has called our attention to an important update for those pilots using a particular component for ADSB-Out:|

"A lot of folks have installed Uavionix echoUAT in their aircraft for ADS-B out compliance. There is a very necessary update people need to be aware of since there is a chance of equipment users getting put on the ADS-B non compliance list in the future - FAA is likely to issue a mandatory SB in the future; and, the company has put together several options for users/owners to work off. One of the solutions is Uavionix will deliver an encoder which can be added to the Echo UAT at no cost to the owner (except for installation - which us EAB-types do for ourselves anyway)."

The link can be found on the Uavionix website by drilling down through "support" and "echo uat"; however, the excact location is here:

https://uavionix.com/echouat-update/

This only affects Echo UAT equipment and not their other products such as Tailbeacon, etc.

Effort to reopen chapter house on Saturdays hits a snag

(Dec. 13) The idea of opening the chapter house on Saturdays during the winter for coffee, doughnuts, and the local safety seminar has hit a bit of a snag. The plan would have allowed attendees to receive Wings credits for watching Laura Hermann's excellent Saturday morning "coffee and wings" seminars. However, we would not be allowed to get Wings credit unless one of the attendees is a FAASTeam representative (do we have anyone?). Alternately, she said, attendees wishing credit could log on to the seminar through their own device, but that would rather defeat the purpose.

The few, the proud, the chapter presidents
The history of Chapter 54, of course, is a constant work in progress. History is like that. Our online version is constantly being added to and rewritten as more shreds of the past become clearer and other mysteries are solved. The recent addition is a list of people who have served as president of the chapter. Early details are little sketchy because the minutes are incomplete. We know, for example, that Chet Klier was the first official president of the chapter but it's unclear how long he served. Norm Weston is listed as the organizer of the chapter, but that was before Chapter 54 got its charter from Oshkosh. Then he made a return in the '60s, presumably after Klier moved to Alabama to work on the Saturn V rocket. But we have no record of exactly when that was.

The thing that's most interesting (to me) is this fact: there haven't been many presidents, even though the chapter will celebrate its 65th anniversary in March. And there is no record that anyone was ever opposed when running for president (and, by the way, there's only one known - so far - instance of any chapter officer or would-be officer being opposed).

PRESIDENTS OF CHAPTER 54
1957-59 Norm Weston
1959–66 Chester P. Klier
1966-67  Norm Weston
1968-70 Gil Leiter
1970-71 Gary J. Wirth
1972     Roger Gillerman *
1972-73 Gary Wirth
1973-74 Jack Hickey
1975-77 Chuck Larsen
1977-81 Gerald Laundry
1982-83 Pat Driscoll
1984-86 Mike Fox
1987-88 Gene Frank
1989- Roger Westerberg
1996-99 Dick Wicklund
1999-2001 Bill Schanks
2001-03 Dale Rupp
2004-07 Paul Hove
2008-09 Dale Seitzer
2010-11 Leif Erickson
2012-13 Bettie Seitzer
2014-17 Jim Pearsall
2018-19 Jack Miller
2020-23 Leif Erickson
2023-     Marlon Gunderson

* Elected but did not serve

More presidential trivia. Unless there's an inaccuracy here (entirely possible so send me corrections. The area between 1989 and 1996 is poorly documented in our archives), only one president in the chapter's history has served a subsequent, non-contiguous term as president: Leif Erickson.

Monday's Meeting
Join us in person or virtually on January 8, 2024 at 7:30 pm when chapter member Jim Pearsall discusses the aviation benefits of 3D printing. See you then!

The E-Beacon is a monthly newsletter highlighting news items from Chapter 54. If you no longer wish to receive the email, you can unsubscribe by sending an mail to facilities@eaa54.org.

E-Beacon January 3 2024