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Dates to Remember
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FALL
Luncheon -
October 05, 2010
SPRING Luncheon
- March 2011
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Location: -
Sycamore Centre
5000 No. Clark Ave.
Lakewood, California
(click MAP)
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Some New Rules to Improve Our
Luncheon Meetings…
A) You may
have noticed a change in the response card for the October 6 Luncheon. We have
arranged with the caterer the ability to offer choices for your meal: This time
there will be chicken teriyaki, beef meatloaf, and a vegetarian plate (suitable
for diabetics). So please indicate your choice as you send in your
reservation and check using the large part of the card. We’ve added a stub
to your reservation card. Please detach it from the mail-in portion. This
will allow you to keep a reminder of the luncheon date and venue as well as your
meal selection. When you check in on October 6, you will be given a ticket
to give to the waiter. He (she) will use it to get the right meal to you.
B) Further
changes have been adopted for our twice-yearly luncheon meetings:
1. The Luncheon Room itself will be closed to all but Sycamore and
Retiree set-up staff until 10:00 a.m.
2. At 10:00 a.m. the Luncheon Room will be open for Socializing and any
members who choose to reserve tables for themselves and their friends are
welcome to do so any time after the doors are open.
3. To make it easier for folks who don’t have reserved seats to find seating
arrangements, there will be signs on the tables identifying those tables that
have been reserved and those that still have seats available
4. An addition of four extra tables will make securing seating with former
teammates easier
5. There will be a Sergeant-at-Arms in the room to assist with any problems.
Please
cooperate with these new procedures. The changes have been made after careful
thought, and will help avoid inconveniences to our members who have had
difficulty finding seating with their friends.
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October Speaker
- ( TBD )
MARCH
02, 2010 Speaker
Speaker:
Jack McHale, President/CEO Orbis
Internaltional
In the June
2007 issue of RoundUp, the "Just the
Other Year" section featured the Orbis International
(search)
DC-10-10 which had been modified to service as a Flying Eye Hospital.
That airplane, originally built in 1970, underwent its conversion in
1993-94 and is now nearing the end of its economic life. It will
be replaced by an MD-10 next year.
Our speaker
at the March 02 luncheon meeting is Jack McHale, who last August was
named president and CEO of Orbis International after more than twenty
years of being associated with the acquisition and operation of both the
DC-10 and the MD-10 while he was an executive with Federal Express.
Jack joined FedEx after twenty years with Douglas and McDonnell Douglas
mostly in marketing and sales positions.
Jack will
give us a picture of how the non-profit Orbis organization has provided
eye care and surgery in 87 countries to some 9.7 million mostly
impoverished patients, and ophthalmological training to some 234,000
local physicians, technicians and nurses. Join us at the Sycamore
Center to hear Jack explain how the aircraft itself is as precious a
tool as the medical instruments and equipment in this most humanitarian
enterprise!
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October 2009 Speaker
Jonna Doolittle
Hoppes (search)
is an author and journalist. Her first book, Calculated
Risk: The Extraordinary Life of Jimmy Doolittle¸ is a memoir of
her famous grandfather, aviator Jimmy Doolittle
(search)
, and his equally
extraordinary wife, Joe.
Ms Hoppes
represents the Doolittle family at air shows across the country and is a
popular speaker at libraries and air museums. Her articles have appeared
in Smithsonian's Air and Space magazine, as well as other publications.
Join us at Sycamore
Center on October 6 and hear Ms Hoppes tell about a true pathfinder and
his career of audacious, but well-planned aviation feats. You will learn
how her grandfather planned and executed the daring Tokyo raid
(search)
in 1942 by taking a well
calculated risk.
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March 2009
Nick Sparks, Documentary Film Producer,
Presents -
An Hour with Florence
Lowe "Pancho" Barnes
Photo source: http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/images/pancho_5_500.jpg
Our
speaker on March 3 will be Nick Spark
(search),
documentary film producer, who will tell us about the legendary Florence
Lowe “Pancho” Barnes (search),
the aviatrix - saloon keeper made famous by
Tom Wolfe
(search)
in his book, “The Right Stuff.”
Pancho was a pioneer woman pilot, who flew with
Amelia Earhart
(search),.
Later, as the owner of the Happy Bottom Riding Club near Edwards Air
Force Base (search),in
Antelope Valley, Barnes hosted
Chuck Yeager (search),
Howard Hughes (search),
Bob Hoover (search),
Jimmy Doolittle (search)
and a long list of Hollywood
stars, test pilots and budding astronauts in the early years of jet
operations at Edwards.
Mr. Spark, while researching a magazine
article, was given access to ninety-two boxes of Pancho’s personal
memorabilia, including guest books and diary that were found some time
after her death. The material was so intriguing that the producer/
writer recruited filmmaker and friend Amanda Pope to team up for a
documentary project.
UPDATE
(9/01/2009) on
the FILM PROJECT...
Our March luncheon
speaker, Nick Spark, has let us know that his film, “The Legend of
Pancho Barnes and the Happy Bottom Riding Club”, is now finished
and will be shown for the first time on
September 10 at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica. He invited
our members to join him and his partner, director Amanda Pope, to be
there at the premiere on that date at 7:30 pm. The cost for tickets is
$15, which will benefit the KOCE-TV Foundation.
The film tells the
story of the famous aviatrix and saloon keeper, and features interviews
with astronaut Buzz Aldrin, test pilots Bob Cardenas, Bob Hoover and
Chuck Yeager, biographers Lauren Kessler and Barbara Schultz, and many
others. It is narrated by Tom Skerritt, with Kathy Bates as the voice
of Pancho. To purchase tickets and get more details, visit
http://www.legendofpanchobarnes.com and click on “premiere.”
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Dr. Fred Culick (October
2008)
(Photo credit:
http://www.wrightflyer.org/ )
Dr. Culick is a professor of aeronautical engineering at
CalTech. He is also Project
Engineer and First Pilot of the AIAA 1903 Wright Flyer Project
(search)
which has been underway for many years in Southern California. There
have been several attempts by others to duplicate the original Flyer,
most of which are for display only. Of the flyable replicas, successes
are rare and the aircraft have been significantly modified. The AIAA
project has been meticulously researched, both historically and
scientifically, and has only a few altered details which were adopted
for safety of flight. The first flight of the Flyer is scheduled for
early nest year.
Dr. Culick will have slides and movies to accompany his story of the
project at our Fall Luncheon on October 14. Be sure to send in
your reservation to join us. |
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Speaker Vern Raburn: Something New in the Air
March 2008
Our March luncheon speaker is
Vern Raburn, founder and CEO of
Eclipse Aviation.
Raburn was the 18th employee at Microsoft in the late 1970s. He
went on to establish his own palm-top computer business, then heard the
call of aviation and applied his creative energy to the formation of
Eclipse with the participation of such investors as Bill Gates, his
former boss at Microsoft. A man of big ideas,
Raburn decided to work at the low end of the jet market.
We hear a lot about the big jets, like the 500+ passenger A380 and
747-8, and some aviation observers’ thoughts that depending on the
jumbos and superjumbos may not be the best way to plan the future.
Mid-size jets such as the 787 and A350 seem to represent some carriers’
thinking that point-to-point travel, bypassing the big gateway
airports, is what passengers will prefer.
Raburn’s Eclipse brings a new, radical thought about how people will
want to travel in the coming years: Very Light Jet air taxis
"VLJ's"
(also known as “Microjets.”)
Eclipse Aviation Corp. is based in Albuquerque. Its minivan-sized twin
jet, the Model 500, has earned airworthiness certification, and first
deliveries are now in service. The company says it has taken nearly
2,500 orders for the five-to-six seat plane, which runs about $1.52
million a pop. (Corporate jet prices run between $4.5 million and $50
million.) Its BMW-designed interior has no lavatory, but the little
jet’s operating cost is figured to be around $4 per mile, vs $10 per
mile for most corporate jets on a 400 mile trip.
Image source - http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/spinoff2002/images/063.jpg
Eclipse’s VLJ
operates with one pilot, and has a range of 900 to 1,400 miles. Speed
is around 425 mph at altitudes typical for commercial airliner use.
Don’t miss the chance to hear the story of a new phase of civil
aviation from the man who dreamed it up.
Think small.
Related Info - 500 Club
(Link); Test
Flight on YouTube (Link
1) (Link
2)
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Women’s Role in Aviation
October 02, 2007
 If
you want to get a thorough briefing on women in aviation from someone
who wrote the book, you will enjoy our October speaker,
Iris Cummings Critchell. Iris was a member of the U.S.
Olympic Swimming Team in Berlin in 1936, and reigned as U.S. women’s
200-meter breaststroke champion from 1936 to 1939. Then she turned from
water sports to flying.
She learned to
fly in Piper Cubs
from Southern California grass strips. Then she became a member of the
first
Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP) at the University of Southern
California (USC), graduating from the
Advanced Acrobatics course in 1940. She was member of the second class
of women recruited by
Jacqueline Cochran for Army flight training in Houston, earning her
wings in May 1943 as a member of
WASP Class 43-2. She was
assigned to the 6th Ferrying Group at Long Beach, California, serving as
a civilian ferry pilot with the Air Transport Command Ferrying Division
until the WASP were deactivated on December 20, 1944. She flew 18 types
of military aircraft as pilot in command, including the A-24, P-39,
P-40, P-47, P-51, C-47, A-20, B-25, P-38, and P-61.
Critchell has
been active in the Ninety-Nines
since 1952. She competed in the All Woman Transcontinental Air Race (AWTAR)
15 times, placing in the top 10 five times.
Please join us
on October 2 to hear Iris trace the role of women in the development of
aviation.
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| March 06, 2007 - Old
DC-10 as a "Fire Bomber"
Old
DC-10s go back to work. Hear about it at
our the March 06 retirees luncheon meeting. With the curtain falling on
the DC-10's schedules passenger service (see next article below), it
seems appropriate to get a picture of the airplane's current status in
aviation. Our speaker will come from the company that has put a 32
year old ex-American Airlines "Luxury Liner" back to work as an
aerial
fire fighting tanker able to drop 12,000 gallons of fire retardant on a
single pass. Don't miss it!
(related blog) |
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October 2006 “The Long Beach Years”
At our
October meeting, we showed an edited version of a Boeing film, "The Long Beach
Years". This production was part of the company's observance of the
closing of the main Long Beach factory, and showed some historical pictures of
Douglas, McDonnell Douglas, and Boeing products that were built there. The
final deliveries of the commercial transports to Midwest and AirTran last May
2006 are also shown.
We have been
able to get permission from Boeing to reproduce the film as shown at the meeting
and are offering a DVD copy to interested retiree club members. We will
have a limited supply of DVDs available at the March 06 luncheon meeting
available for the price of $7.00 each. That amount is necessary to cover
the cost of making and handling the DVD copies.
Please note the
response coupon in the printed version of the "RoundUp" newsletter sent to your
home. If you would like to buy a copy of "The Long Beach Years" (edited),
but you are NOT going to attend the March luncheon, you can order one sent to
you. Just enclose a check for $7.00 and fill out your name & address on
the coupon. If you are attending the meeting, you can pay then if you
wish, or add $7.00 to your luncheon reservation check. |
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March 2006 Speaker -
John Durant (newsletter #135)
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The Berlin Airlift
- a Memoir |
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John Durant is a retired personnel director for a
world-wide telecommunications company, he has an MBA and a Law Certificate. But
as one reads his biography he quickly grasps the fact that John is a certifiable
Airplane Nut. He spends his time hanging out at
Flabob Airport in Riverside,
teaches ground school and aviation basics to young people who he also helps them
restore classic airplanes. He was on the team that sent
Burt Rutan’s GlobalFlyer
around the world non-stop last year. John is connected with the
Planes of Fame Museum in Chino, the
Flight Path Museum at LAX, and is a
“Scorekeeper for the So. Cal. Balloon
Association.” However, he never forgot his time in Europe after WWII, when
he participated in the Berlin Airlift.
We found him at the
Grampaw Pettibone Squadron of the
Naval Aviation Association Orange County,
where he spoke recently about his experiences with the Airlift in 1948-49. We
liked what we heard enough to ask him to tell it to our Spring Luncheon group on
March 14. Be sure to send in your reservation. After all, we Airplane Nuts have
to stick together.
Post-Meeting Notes - The Airlift that Saved Berlin
At our Spring 2006 luncheon meeting, we heard John Durant's account of what
it was like to be involved in the Berlin Airlift in 1948-49. In his role as a
facilitator (read that as "ace scrounger"), Sergeant Durant used his instincts
and cunning in the historic effort to relieve the blockaded Germans in the
Soviet-occupied city. While he was equipped with official statistics and photos
of the Airlift, his personal recollections of the events at the operational
level helped us get the picture of the obstacles and the inventive ways they
were overcome in those critical days.
Among those present to hear John
Durant was DAC pilot Stan Forster who flew in the Berlin Airlift. Forster
and Durant are both active in various commemorations that celebrate the historic
milestone in the Cold War. Also at the meeting were others who contributed
to the Airlift by providing technical support needed from the Douglas factories
and DAC field offices. (Photo:
Forster and Durant, left to right.)
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Page last updated:
05/02/10 12:52
Jim Burton - Newsletter Editor
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