December 15th
Barry Branin will be talking about his 1931 Waco.
January 19th
Rob Swanland will be talking about his addiction to Bellancas! Most of his collection is in some stage of restoration – below is a picture of one of his 14-19-3 models, the last of the “triple-tail” series. The fuselage was then redesigned with a single, more modern vertical tail and became the Viking line.
For many years Vince Rabutsky took careful notes at each of our meetings and published a monthly newsletter that summarized the meeting, added a bit of flying information that you might not have known about, and previewed the next meeting. This page is an archive of his work and will contain a shorter summary of current meetings.
We have a Board of Directors meeting each month where we discuss upcoming events, finances, and actions the board needs to take.
Dan and Joe presented their experiences installing an EDM 900 in Dan’s Piper Arrow.
Dan Hutchinson talked about the history of his 1947 Republic RC-3 and a lot about how he got into seaplane flying.
We had five planes and pilots to give some stick time to six “Old Eagles” on our Fly-In to Santa Ynez.
Liz Dinan, Tom Del Rey, Robert Swanland, and Barry Branin were our panelists for a discussion of AirVenture 2019. TLDR; You should go!
Everything Airplane Pilots Don’t Want to Know About Helicopters
As most of you know Joe Deszo was part of the team that developed the Robinson R22. He talked about the development and some pitfalls that catch unwary helicopter pilots at our June meeting.
Another great presentation by Paolo Iscold—even though it was hard to hear over the downpour. This time he talked about the failure of the wings on Nixus and the process of rebuilding them with the help of Cal Poly students. The sailplane took advantage of the long runway at Castle Airport in Merced and made its first flight in March.
The fog never cleared so we didn’t get to fly.
Colonel James Schaefer talked about Operation Eagle Claw, the training in the desert southwest, the bureaucratic hoops they had to jump through, the sandstorm on the way, and the crash that led to the cancellation of the mission.
About 20 people braved the rain for Liz’s talk about NASA’s SOFIA 747-based telescope.
A very informative talk about issues facing older pilots, hypoxia, and flying to Mexico.
Don talked about ADSB. Click to get caught up before the meeting so you know the terms.
Jim Ratichek talked about his months-long upgrade of the panel in his Lancair. He made a new panel to fit the PFDs, ran hundreds of wires to monitor and control everything, and made hundreds of splices to connect them. After months of the planning and many more months to install, Jim is in the final stages of testing.
Paolo Iscold shared his experiences starting as an undergrad in Brazil to currently teaching at Cal Poly. Read More
Vince put out a newsletter just about every month since May of 2009. I’ll be removing phone numbers and email addresses from them and publishing them here as time permits. Here are a couple to get you started.
September 2018Tom Del Re talked about his time with Northwest Airlines and Oscar Bayer talked about his 31 years of service in the US Air Force, working as a CFI, and building a Starduster.
We visited Bob DeVries’ hangar to see his meticulously restored Ryan STM-2.
Jim Gregory, a longtime Arroyo Grande resident and author of four books about Central Coast people and events, talked about Central Coast Aviators in World War II.
Vance Breese talked to us about things with wings that go round in circles but aren’t helicopters.
Paul Kendrick organized a wildly successful Young Eagles event in lieu of an April Meeting.
We had an informtive talk by Matt Mihalco, Fire Captain and Air Attack Officer, who is based at the Paso Robles Airport. The CAL FIRE Aviation Management Program is a branch of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
We met up with CHP officers Robert Shannon and Shannon Slover and their aircraft, respectively Cessna T206 and helicopter Airbus (AirStar) H125.
We didn’t have any speakers for this month so we talked about our “Annual Experiences”.
2009
The program was a presentation by a Cal Poly Senior Project Team. They call themselves, the Aircraft Performance Data Collection Team.
Dean Billing, Ernie Billing’s Dad talked about “The Fuel Crisis in Sport Aviation”.
This month’s program was devoted to SBP Airport Day planning.
Cliff Clark told us of his 20-ish solo flying trips to Alaska and a couple of flights on to Siberia.
Gary Corippo, a director and one of the founders of the Estralla Warbirds Museum at the Paso Robles airport, spoke to us about the early start of the museum and especially about Glenn Thomson, also a founder of the museum.
Mark took us to his brightly lit, clean, neat and orderly hanger to view his S-51 project. One distraction that was hard to ignore was the beautifully maintained 1964 Cessna 185 that sat proud as a peacock and occupying a good share of the hanger space. Nevertheless, for the moment the disassembled parts of Mark’s S-51 project captured our attention.
Liz Dinan receivedd the Wright Bros. Master Pilot Award and Peter Garrison talked about building the Melmoth at the Annual Dinner.
We meet on the third Sunday of every month at noon in Paul’s hangar. It’s right behind Aerocademy on the west side of KSBP. 4349 Old Santa Fe Rd, Hangar 49
From San Luis Obispo
Head out of town on Broad Street. Turn right on Tank Farm Road and then left on Santa Fe Road. After the bridge, bear right onto Hoover Ave. Pass by the end of the runway and turn left on Old Santa Fe Road. Follow it almost to the end and turn right into the parking lot. Park anywhere and look for the gate between the two buildings. Give us a yell and we’ll let you in.
From Highway 101
Take the exit for Los Osos Valley Road. Turn right and the shortly after turn left on South Higuera. Tank Farm Road is the second light. Turn right on Tank Farm Road and then left on Santa Fe Road. After the bridge, bear right onto Hoover Ave. Pass by the end of the runway and turn left on Old Santa Fe Road. Follow it almost to the end and turn right into the parking lot. Park anywhere and look for the gate between the two buildings. Give us a yell and we’ll let you in.
We post meeting announcements and other stuff on Twitter.
We post meeting announcements and other stuff on Facebook.
Our mailing address is:
901 Airport Drive, Suite 9
San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
Our yahoo.com email address is EAA170.