Chapter Gathering, Potluck and TOA Meeting - Thursday 3/21/24, 6 PM PLEASE BE PROMPT
Hello members and friends of EAA Chapter 770,
This Thursday is our Chapter gathering and potluck, but we also will be holding a Turf Operating Area meeting with the SAA immediately following our event starting at 7PM.
Please be prompt for our 6pm potluck so we can move into the large conference room for the TOA meeting with folks from SAA and FAA discussing the latest plans for the TOA.
All are welcome to stay for the TOA meeting, but feel free to hang around and visit or head home after the Chapter gathering is over.
Both events will take place at the IDOT - Aeronautics office on the north side of the airport. The address is 1 Langhorne Bond Dr, just off North Airport Drive and Estill Road.
Quick updates to chapter activities will hopefully keep this a short gathering.
See you Thursday at 6PM sharp!
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Annual Christmas holiday dinner - PLEASE RSVP
Hope you had a great Thanksgiving! In lieu of our monthly chapter gathering this month, we will hold our annual holiday get together at Chesapeake Seafood House on Thursday, December 14 starting at 6:30pm. Please RSVP so we can get an accurate headcount. Text or reply to this email is fine. If you have already told me you were coming, no need to respond.
As has been our tradition, we ask if you could, please bring an unwrapped gift for Toys for Tots. If you could purchase some sort of aviation related toy, that would be great, but anything you would like to donate will be greatly appreciated! I will post a photo of our donations and deliver them to Toys for Tots the following week, so even if you can't make it to the dinner and would like to make a donation, please let me know and I'll arrange to pick it up from you.
Hope to see you on the 14th
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We will hold our November gathering at the Cardinal hangar (D44) on the Charlie ramp. Potluck will begin at 6pm. Jim & Donna Bildilli are bringing pulled pork BBQ, but we will need a few other main course dishes as well. Appropriate sides would be a great option, but whatever your specialty dish may be (cheesy potatoes for example), feel free to bring that instead! LOL
As announced at last month's gathering, Dan is willing to step aside as Treasurer. I also got word of Scott needing to step down as VMC/IMC Coordinator, so if anyone is interested in either of these 2 positions, please let me know.
We will be electing 2024 officers as well as discussing Ray Scholarship options, preliminary planning for next year's events, preview of Chis Bildilli's 2024 calendar, and other chapter business.
Also, we have reservations for the Christmas Party at Chesapeake Seafood on Clear Lake for Thursday, Dec 14th (2nd Thursday in Dec) at 6:30 pm, so please mark your calendar for that as well!
If you have any questions, please let me know. Enjoy this beautiful fall weather
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Havana Stargazing Camp Out Oct 14-15
In case you're looking for something different to do this weekend, there is a unique opportunity to fly or drive to Havana and camp out Saturday night for their annual Stargazing event, then breakfast will be available Sunday morning.
Good evening members and friends of EAA Chapter 770,
Well, after yet another weather delay yesterday, the RC Club is (patiently) hosting our Fly-out/Cook-Out now planned for Oct 21st. Thanks for everyone's understanding, but it was just too gusty for RC's and even marginal for airplanes yesterday!
This will be the Saturday after our next Chapter gathering on the 19th. As usual for the Fly-Out, plan to arrive at the field by car or aircraft by 11am at the latest. Our friends from the Sangamon Valley RC Flyers Club will do the cooking for lunch. If you have young ones who would like to see some beautiful RC aircraft, and maybe even get to fly one, come on out! Again, the address is 8113 N Pawnee Rd, Pawnee, IL. There is a house directly across the street with a mailbox number of 7990 next to the gate for the RC Club entrance. Their sign is a little hidden by the trees.
Bring the whole family if you like! All are welcome!
Thanks,
John Salz
C 217-483-3238.
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Good morning everyone,
Well, the winds are just not cooperating again today. We will have to reschedule yet again.
Will work out another date and let you all know!
Sorry
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Good morning!
If you have any photos from Wings & Wheels that you'd like to share, please reply or send them to Eric at
Chris Bildilli took several GREAT photos which you can find at:
The debrief meeting last night was very informative. We learned a lot from our first event and already have started making plans for next year!
Additional folks have offered to step up and help, but we can always use more for what we now hope will become an annual event!
More details will be covered at our next chapter gathering on the 19th.
See you Saturday at Holmes Field!
John Salz
C 217-483-3238
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Hello members and friends of EAA Chapter 770,
WOW, what a weekend! If you were not able to attend the Wings & Wheels car show and fly-in, you missed a lot of fun! We had no idea how many would show up, but we believe 90-100 cars and 20-25 aircraft showed up! One pilot in a 172 I spoke to flew in from Waukesha, WI for the event! It was a great success!
Thanks to everyone who came out to help! The committee meets tonight to debrief and start planning for next year! If you have any suggestions, please let us know! We got several suggestions already and will incorporate all we can for the future! We will provide a full report at the next chapter gathering on Oct. 19th.
AND FINALLY, hopefully you didn't miss the note I sent out last week that we were able to reschedule the Fly-Out/Cook-Out to Holmes field for this Saturday, Oct. 7th.
The address is 8113 N Pawnee Rd, Pawnee, IL.
For those flying out, please try to arrive before 11am so the field is clear for RC's over the noon hour. We'll have a cookout and get to see some beautiful RC's fly and if you'reinterested, adults and kids can fly an RC under the guidance of one of the pro's there using dual controls. It's really cool!
This will be our last major event for the season, so come join in the fun!
Any questions, please give me a call or reply.
Thanks!
John Salz
C 217-483-3238
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Good morning everyone,
We are closing in on our first scholarship fundraising effort, and all indications are that a lot of folks are planning to attend, so we are super excited!
Just a reminder that if you are able to help out, we can always find something for you to do. The sign up sheet is almost filled out, but come join in the fun whether you signed up or not.
The times were on the sign up sheet, but in case you missed that or could not open it, initial set up is tonight at 6pm and final set up at 9:30 tomorrow morning. The event itself is 11am - 3 pm., all at Hangar 1 of Stellar Aviation FBO.
Thanks in advance for all your support!
Scott, Steve, Val, Liz & John
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Holmes Fly-out/Cook-out
Sorry we didn't have a fim date last Thursday, but just confirmed the RC Club would like to host the Fly-out/Cook-out to Holmes Field on Oct. 7. It should be a great chance to recap events of the Car Show, for which the weather looks great, so we should not need this planned car show rain date. This will still give us options to still get it in during Oct in the event the weather prevents us from proceeding on the 7th.
For those who may not have ever been to Holmes field, it's a beautiful grass strip just south of Lake Springfield on Pawnee Road. The Sangamon Valley RC Flyers operate their ever growing fleet of Radio Controlled airplanes from there. It's a great opportunity for everyone to see their incredible aircraft and maybe even get to fly one using dual controls with an experienced RC Pilot. Come on out for some fun starting about 10am with lunch starting about 11 or so.
If you need further details, please let me know.
Thanks!
John Salz
C 217-483-3238
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Chapter Gathering Thursday, Aug 17th
Hello members and friends of EAA Chapter 770,
The weather is looking really nice for Thursday, so we will gather at hangar F44 on the Charlie Ramp for potluck at 6pm. As always, text or call when you are near Gate 18 if you don't have a gate pass.
The meeting portion should start by 7pm.
We will do burgers, brats and hot dogs (one more time at least) so bring your favorite side to go along with your preferred choice!
We had a super successful Young Eagle rally on Sunday during the SAA 75th Anniversary open house weekend, flying 53 kids! Since the last 2 rallys, we've added 3 new YE Pilots to the ranks as well! Very exciting! Full details of final results will be discussed, along with these upcoming events:
Aug 19th - IJX Poker Run (email forthcoming I've been told)
Aug 19th - Havana's YE Rally (9I0)
Aug 26th RC Club Fly-out/Cook-out at Holmes Field (3IS5)
Aug 27th - Shumway BBQ (at 1H2 this year)
Sept 4-9 - National Stearman Fly-in (GBG)
Sept 7-9 - Midwest LSA Expo (MVN)
Sept 16 - Our next YE Rally (planned before the Anniversary) at LLCC Hangar - Rain date Oct 14th (See attached)
Sept 21 - Chapter Gathering (location TBD)
Sept 30 - Our first Fly-in/Drive-in fundraising event at Stellar Hangar 1 (see attached)
As always, we look forward to seeing you Thursday!
As Charlie Wells used to say…"Happy Flying!"
John Salz
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EAA Air Venture 2023 photos
Hi everyone,
Chris Bildilli sent me a link to his fabulaus photo's from AirVenture. I was there all week and can't beliveve all the stuff he captured in photos that I didn't even see!
So if you didn't make it to OSH, here's a sampling of what you missed. If you did make it to OSH, I'll bet Chirs has a picture of something you didn't see either!
Great stuff Chris! Thanks for sharing!
John
Several thousand photos accumulated over 9 days at the show whittled down to a couple hundred... Some different aircraft this year and interesting weather made for a few unique photos...the tri-motor for instance appears to be a sunset shot, but is actually Canadian smoke.
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Link to the Student Profile for Marco of Italy
Hi everyone!
Liz has passed along a unique opportunity for someone involved in aviation to host a foreign exchange student from Italy. The 16 year old young man is interested in aviation, as well as a number of other things a person his age would be interested in. Please reach out to Stacy Bowman if you would like to help out.
Thanks Liz!
John Salz
Here is a web link to the student Marco we discussed: https://services.aspectfoundation.org/st/index.php/st_search/profile/UY3-IWP-026-M
I greatly appreciate your help to find a willing host family in the area for this aviation loving young man from Italy.
Springfield area Public schools still accepting high school foreign exchange students for the upcoming school year are:
Williamsville, Athens, Pawnee, North Mac, Jacksonville, Taylorville. Interested host families can be empty nesters, families with younger or older children.
For more information, please contact me at: (217)741-7764.
Thank you!
Stacy Bowman
Aspect Foundation.org
Local Coordinator
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We did it!
Well, after 3 weather related cancellations, we were finally able to pull off a very successful Young Eagle rally Saturday! We had to wait almost an hour for the ceiling to rise, but it turned out to be a beautiful day, with the puffy clouds just high enough for us to safely fly our precious cargo!
Thanks so much to all who were able to help out! Pilots Chris Bildilli, Chuck Buscher, Jamie Rabins and John Salz made a total of 15 flights, with 24 boys and (only) 1 girl getting to fly, 15 of them for the first time! Special thanks to a first time YE pilot (retired United 777 pilot) Chuck for taking a young autistic boy with his mom in the back seat and brother in the front. He loved it!
As always, a special thank you to Gregg Benshoof for being our super duper YE Coordinator! (He brought Mel-O-Cream donuts too!!) We couldn't do it without you, Gregg!
And of course, our host, LLCC Aviation Program folks Dave Pietrzak and Rudy Houston. They provide a perfect location for a YE Rally, and always bend over backwards to assist however they can! Thank you so much!!
But as everything EAA, we can't do it without all the volunteers! This weekend (the 15th) the volunteers were the pilots mentioned above, Dan Kerns, Val Nester, Larson Nester, Kenny Spaniol, Liz Bron, Chris Bron, Ayden Miller, JIm BIldilli, John Templeton and John Evers from the Sangamon Valley RC Flyers Club, who manned the RC flight simulator to the delight of many young (and maybe a few older) folks!!
Almost everyone mentioned above were here on the 8th as well, but there were more folks helping out that day, but unavailable this past Saturday. Those included pilots Terry Bloome, Jeff Brown, Steve Cook and Jeff Hoffman, along with Eric Fromm, Brayden Cook, and Oliver Gross, who manned the Build & Fly station and RC Flight simulator and Christy Courier and Rudy Houston from LLCC.
Thanks so much to everyone who helped either weekend to make this such a successful event!
Next up for YE's is the SAA 75th anniversary open house. We will need all hands on deck for this rally, planned for Saturday, Aug 5th with Sunday the 6th as the rain date. This will be our contribution to the weekend celebration. More forthcoming on that soon.
If I don't see you before...I hope to see you at AirVenture!!
Blue skies!
John Salz
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Rain delay again July 15 Young Eagle Rally
Well, it's now beautiful outside, but unfortunately, the higher clouds didn't arrive until 2pm at the airport! It was really a nice day, but those low clouds just would not go away early enough! So we are falling back on the rain date of July 15. "Same Bat Time....Same Bat Station"!
Thanks to all who came out today to set up and help out. We had a great group of very enthusiastic kids (and adults) who waited patiently, so we really hope to get to fly them next week! Thanks again!!
I know a number of folks who were there today can't make it next week, and I'm sure there are others who were not available today who can come next Saturday. Unless you've already told me you can't come, please let us know if you can help out on the 15th. We had 32 kids checked in and more arrived after we decided to delay, and all but one that I spoke to plan to return next weekend, so we will have a good crowd ready to fly!
See you next Saturday, July 15. Set up 8:30. Rally 10-2.
Next rally at SPI's 75th Anniversary Open House on Aug 5 & 6. We plan for the 5th with a rain date of the 6th.
Thanks again! Enjoy the beautiful day!
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6/30/23 = Liz Eilers Bron
I wanted to give credit where credit is due. The credits in the original video ran way, way too fast, so I re-edited it so it was slowed down enough for people to read them. So I took the original video down and re-posted it.
Again, my thanks to the EAA chapter 770 Singers for participating in the video! And a big thanks to President John Salz for flying our videographer.
How many EAA Chapters have a singing group? I think we are unique!
Please share this with your aviation friends.
Liz Eilers Bron
Nana Liz with I See Deer
www.iseedeer.net
www.iseedeer.net