From its beginnings in the late '50s, Chapter 54 of the Experimental Aircraft Association has served aviation enthusiasts, dreamers, aircraft builders, pilots and individuals interested in helping young people become aviators in the East Metro of Minnesota's Twin Cities.  We meet monthly at the Chapter House at Lake Elmo Airport (21D)  for informative programs and hangar talk. We provide Young Eagles rides and aviation scholarships. We help people who are building airplanes. And we provide seminars to aviators and others. You don't need to be a pilot to have a home at the airport. Please come to our next meeting or event as our guest. Let us know you're coming so you can be properly greeted and introduced to the chapter. In the meantime, please explore our Web site for details about the many programs and benefits we offer. Select the dropdown menu to the left to learn our history, find out how young people can get a free flight, and the latest chapter news. You can also find flight planning and airplane-watching tools. Find all the details here.

AUGUST MEETING    Our next meeting will be held on Monday August 19 when we debrief the pancake breakfast fly-in. Please note: This is a week later than our regularly scheduled meeting because of the difficulty in setting up the Chapter House so soon after the fly-in and Young Eagles event.

Latest Chapter News

Safety seminar analyzes 2022 fatal accident
At the August 3 session of the Saturday coffee and wings seminar, attendees analyzed a 2022 fatal accident in Cassia County, Idaho when a pilot emerged from IFR conditions only to strike a potato plant tower that was spewing snowflakes into her path.

"Maybe there was pressure from the boss to leave early today," analyst Kyle Lewis said about the corporate flighty. "Always take a step back and say 'is this worth it?' and try to mitigate that."

The pilot had earlier made an approach too fast. On her second try she was about 20 knots slower. Almost as soon as she dropped out of the clouds, she ran into the plume from the smokestack. (See the video analysis)

The crash killed Chelsea Brittney Infanger, a 30 year old pilot with ratings including  commercial, instrument, multiengine, CFI, CFII, MEI, tailwheel, and seaplane. 

The Saturday open house at the EAA Chapter 54 house provides important safety information as well as free coffee and doughnuts and the opportunity for hangar talk.

Those who attend at least 50 minutes of the presentation are awarded Wings credit. Find the date and topic of the next session here.

It's all over but the COVID!  Oshkosh has come and gone for another year. Several members took advantage of the Chapter's group campsite in Camp Scholler, with sites reserved for us by headquarters.  Thanks to Bill Schanks Jr., for again coordinating this year's campsite. You can find his pictures here. At the next meeting of the Chapter, you can hear the stories and experiences of those who attended this year's AirVenture. Why not circle your calendar now and join us in 2005. AirVenture will be held July 21-27. Somewhere around March, we'll open reservations for a Chapter 54 campsite.

Pancake breakfast brings out the volunteers
Things are progressing nicely for next Sunday's (August 11) pancake breakfast fly-in. The big need now is for you to flood your social media accounts with invitations to let people know about it.  You can find a copy of the flyer on the front page of the website. If you visit the chapter house, you'll find things a little bit crowded as we're using it as a staging area for the event, which will be held in a nearby hangar. If you've volunteered, you should have received some communication from the person in charge of your area by now. If not, please let Marlon, Jay, or Bob know. The Board of Directors will go over final preparations this Monday night. We'll begin the set up for the event on Saturday August 10. Chapter 25 at Airlake is letting us use their griddle for the event. We'll test it out on Saturday evening so if anyone wants pancakes for dinner, all you have to do is volunteer to help set up.

Thanks go to these volunteers:
Kitchen team: Dan Theis, Stephen Brown, Vicky Moore, Gregg Adler, John Roznick, Bruce Olson, Bill Schanks, Roger Westerberg, Joe Dekko, Joe Brown (Team lead: Bob Collins
Dining team: Diane Syverson, Linda Amble, Paul Hove, Carolie Collins (Team lead: Jeff Dale)
Auto Parking: Guy Freeman, Harry Holmberg, Mary Holmberg, Alvaro Domenighi
Aircraft marshaling: Jeff Hove, Dave Syverson, Craig Mueller, Patrick Mally, Scott Hanson, Barry Dayton, Dan Bergstrom, Don Wishard (Team lead: Tom Gibbons)
Ticketing and sales: Jay Schrankler, Evanglos Savvas, Al Meuli, Chip Berniard, Ellory Berniard (Team lead: Emma Gaustad)
Chapter 54 Table: Marlon Gunderson, Isaac Knutsen family, Dale Seitzer, Chase family, Leif Erickson, Robyn Stoller, Jay Schrankler
Operations/Safety officer: Paul Rankin
Head chef and planner: Jim Pearsall
Publicity: Leif Erickson
Tables and chairs: Al Kupferschmidt

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