YOUR EAA CHAPTER 17 IS HAVING A 60th BIRTHDAY PARTY!
By Jerry Depew
You are invited to celebrate the sixtieth birthday of EAA Chapter 17 with us on Monday, February 1st, 6:30 PM at Sky Ranch airport. Our Chapter was born January 1st, 1956 at Sky Ranch airport (then Cox Skyranch) and we are now one of the oldest EAA chapters in existence.
It is our hope that you will join us for a celebration, and to share your stories. Help us update our Chapter’s history with our surviving founders and new members. Please bring any materials of historical significance to share.
We will create a benchmark in time, preserve our rich history, and create material for an article to send EAA National in Oshkosh for inclusion in a future Sport Aviation Magazine. Photos and videos will be taken by Karen Meyer and Robert Berlin. We would like to include as many chapter Presidents, Charter Members and early members as we can gather for a portrait.
Our chapter has been active, and over my years of involvement recall that we hosted the EAA B-17 Flying Fortress “Aluminum Overcast” at McGhee Tyson airport, and numerous visits of their 1929 Ford Tri-Motor. We have had airplanes and ultralights erected in the West Town Mall. We weighed and registered Ultralight airplanes under FAR 103 and that story and pictures were published in Sport Aviation. We have supported Remote Area Medical and their annual D Day tribute for our veterans.
Ferris Thomas was an early member who built airplanes as well as the Montvale airport (TH87). PS Engineering ‘s Mark Scheuer has been a big part of our chapter, and instrumental in securing banquet speakers including EAA founder Paul Poberezny, astronaut “Hoot” Gibson and “Miracle On The Hudson” Jeff Skiles and Cirrus Aircraft founder Dale Klapmeier.
Please share this with other members that you may know beyond our current mailing list. Some, like Stan Johnson, who published “Just Plane Stories” and introduced me to the chapter newsletter have disappeared. Others like Bill Kulibert have moved away and still others have Gone West.
Please RSVP to me so we may better plan.