Welcome to EAA Chapter 551

August 19th EAA 551 Program Meeting

Doug Weiler - An RV Story

Doug is president of the Twin Cities RV Builder’s Group with 280 members and over 100 flying RV aircraft.  He is the builder of two RVs: a tandem RV-4 and his current RV-7 which he has been flying since 2013.  He has made the initial test flight of 15 RVs and has logged about 2500 hours in just about all the RV models. 

Every pilot has a story….   Doug will talk about the trials and tribulations of his “pilot story”  from flight instructing, corporate flying, and “heavy-equipment operator” at NWA to the joys (and frustrations) of RV building and flying.

EAA Chapter 551 Program Meeting

Tuesday August 19th

Food 6:00 pm
Program 6:30 pm
EVERYONE WELCOME
SCSU Aero Club Hangar
St. Cloud Airport

Doug took his first flying lesson at age 14 in an Aeronca Champ from a grass and gravel airstrip in Michigan.He has been a flight instructor since 1969 and has flown over 100 different aircraft types from that first Champ to the Boeing 757.A graduate of Embry Riddle University, he spent four years in the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio teaching aerospace physiology.In 1976 he began an 12-year stint as a corporate pilot.In 1988, he hired on at Northwest Airlines in flight simulation development and pilot training.In 1994 he moved to the line pilot ranks at NWA where he flew the Boeing 727 and 757 until retirement in 2008.In 2015 he was awarded the FAA’s Wright Brothers Award for 50 years of accident-free flying.

Doug and his wife Jean have owned 11 light airplanes over the years having dated in a Piper Vagabond back in high school. Doug restored three classic aircraft: a 7AC Champ, a Cessna 140A, and a 1959 Cessna 180B which won an Outstanding Workmanship award at EAAOshkosh in 1994.The RV “bug” bit hard shortly thereafter and he bought a “ready-built” RV-4 which sparked the next 30 years of RV building and flying.

EAA 551 YOUNG EAGLES FLIGHT SIMULATOR

EAA Chapter 551 has assembled a new flight simulator for
Young Eagle Events and member use.

It runs the newest very excellent X-Plane 12 with three monitors,
yoke, throttle quadrant, joystick, and instructor station.

The simulator is available to all EAA 551 current members (dues paid) in the Aero Club Hangar at KSTC.