If you’ve had the luxury of having a flexible schedule, then I think you would agree that we have had a great summer for flying. There have been many different events already this summer and perhaps you have attended some of the fly in breakfasts or perhaps some of the airshows. Whether or not you’ve made it to an event you can be sure of one thing… in the aviation community, there’s no shortage meeting and making new friends. My experience has been those aviators, and those who hang with them, are a pretty friendly bunch. On this note I’ve had the opportunity to fly with some of my friends and enjoy their airplanes too. It’s refreshing to take control of a different aircraft every now and then and to put it through some paces. I can’t think of a better way to put one’s skills to the test and continue to learn something along the way as well. It’s always good to practice upper air work in one’s own aircraft, but when you get to do it in a different aircraft, and do it well, that just inspires confidence that we all should possess while flying in any cockpit.

For those of you that don’t fly that often, perhaps you would consider a refresher lesson from an instructor or join a friend and go along for a flight. Either way, you would benefit and I’m sure you would enjoy the flight, nonetheless.

We will start another season of meetings on September 9th at our regular haunt. We won’t have a guest speaker for this meeting as we will consume quite a bit of time just getting caught up from all the summer activities. Speaking of friends, I‟d like to take the opportunity to thank Bernie Kespe for all his contributions over the years. Bernie has been involved in the club for many years and has held various positions in helping the club and its members. Bernie will be moving to warmer climes and enjoying his retirement, I hope he will visit us from time to time.

With Bernie leaving us, that leaves the club without a director at large and I welcome anyone who would be willing to work with our current executive to fill the soon to be vacant position.

With all that being said, be safe, have fun…. and take along a friend!