The film immerses the viewer in the adventure, giving them the perspective of a participant. It follows the pilots and the Dirksens as they prepare for the most exciting day of the year. The pilots gather from around the country before flying to the farm, while the Dirksens turn their alfalfa field into an airstrip and prepare a picnic for 200 friends. The film unfolds with ever-increasing anticipation, leading to the annual reunion. The spirit of the film mirrors the spirit of the event itself. As a story of ordinary people who share one extraordinary day a year, the film is a pastoral portrait of the rural American Midwest, the lyrical life of antique airplane pilots, the breathtaking beauty of flight itself, and a celebration of friendship. Its characters are architects, dairy farmers, consultants, jet pilots, parents, school children and laborers every day of the year but one. On the day the planes come, they are all kids again.

The APA's Virtual Pilot Lounge™ is a secure web-based solution where interested parties can post a detailed profile and then search for and be found by other members interested in aircraft co-ownership. You can conduct searches for suitable co-owners based on location, budget, flying experience, aircraft of interest and much more. To learn more about the APA, download this document entitled You Really Can Afford An Aircraft.

Mel continues to educate and guide aircraft builders through numerous presentations in Texas, as well as forums during EAA AirVenture Oshkosh. He has constructed two ultralights and one motorglider, as well as an RV-6 aircraft that has won numerous awards. In 1993 he won the Southwest Regional Fly-In Kit Built Custom Workmanship Award, while in 1994 he won the Best All-Metal Homebuilt Airplane award at the Sun 'n Fun Fly-In at Lakeland, Florida, as well as the Grand Champion Kit-Built award at the All-American Sport Aviation Fly-In. In 1995, he won Homebuilt Outstanding Aircraft at Sun 'n Fun.

Inventor, entrepreneur, scientist. Dr. Porter has a technical background with over 40 years of R & D experience. This was primarily at Texas Instruments, but various other companies have benefited from his consulting : Alcatel, Keeblers, and many others. His patented inventions are extremely varied and include a "photonic bullet", Oil Well drilling Fluid, Laser Photolithographic Writer, Microwave chemical sensor, etc. Currently he takes assignments as an industrial forensic investigator and expert witness. His main project is the completion of the flying car.

SPECIAL NOTE: This months regular meeting date of January 8th was cancelled due to construction at the Collin County Community College. Be sure and tell all of your fellow EAA Chapter friends.

For over 25 years the Smiths have made their home in Plano, Texas. Butch has been active in the community with many organizations including Grace Flight of America/Angel Flight South Central, where he is a volunteer pilot and Chairman of the Board, Boy Scouts, where he was an adult leader and coaching youth sports to name just three interests. As a long time pilot, Butch has thousands of hours as pilot-in-command on aircraft as diverse as corporate jets and rag-wing tail draggers. He has served as a member of the Plano Economic Advisory Board and is currently a member of the Board of Advisors, College of Business, Lamar University and is Chairman of the Marketplace Ministries Foundation Board.

We are truly blessed to live in an age and place where we can get in our personal airplane and go almost anywhere at a time of our choosing. We can experience the sheer joy of flying. But we must be vigilant to keep this freedom. This month, we will explore what flying is all about and how our predecessors made it possible. Prepare to be inspired! Learn the secrets to keeping the dream alive.

Come to our meeting and learn the secrets of painting an airplane. Once you hear from Ken about how he accomplished this all important task, you may decide that you, too, can paint your own airplane. Even if you hire someone else to do the work, there is a lot you can (and should) do to get the plane ready before it is painted. These are things you should know about.

W.B. McDonald is the Managing Director for M7…A Commercial Insurance Brokerage Firm. Mr. McDonald holds a Bachelor's degree in Sociology and Psychology from La. Tech University and has made his home in Plano, Texas over the past 12 plus years.

*Source, Plano Profile - March 2008

Garry Ackerman is a founding member of the North Texas Flying Club of McKinney. He will tell us about the North Texas Flying Club and provide insight on how belonging to it may benefit you. You will learn more about how membership in a flying club is one of the best ways to increase your pilot skills and lower the cost of flying. Remember that our next meeting is upstairs in Room A217, rather than the usual Pike Hall.

Bio:
Aileen Duc has several degrees in geology from SUNY at Buffalo, Indiana University and University of South Carolina, respectively. Aileen was introduced to the joy of flying at USC in the late 70's. As a student of coastal geomorphology, Aileen often flew the coast of South Carolina to make observations of coastal features such a barrier islands, tidal inlets and tidal creeks. Her first 2 flying lessons were through the USC flying club with a fellow geology grad student as instructor. Between those first two lessons and now, Aileen has raised three kids, worked as a geologist for ARCO, lived in England for 5 years, taught middle school science in Plano, and is now back in the oil industry as a consulting geology tech. It's taken 27 years for her to get back in the left seat, but she's enjoyed riding right seat beside her husband during all that time. With the kids grown and her husband Chaz a part-owner of a Mooney 231, Aileen is enjoying flying now more than ever.

Dave Honaker, owner of Four Winds Aviation will describe what is involved in learning how to recover from unusual attitudes in your airplane. His company, Four Winds Aviation, located at Aero Country, McKinney, Texas, uses an aerobatic Super Decathlon and a Pitts S2B to provide a wide range of training to pilots wishing to learn more about upset recovery, as well as tailwheel instruction and aerobatics. Check out their website at: Tail-wheel.com. Dave is also a simulator instructor at CAE SimuFlite, DFW airport.

You will learn about the work and coordination that goes into creating a successful EAA fly-in, much of which you can use for your local chapter fly-in. Also, you may discover opportunities to participate in an important EAA event attended by pilots and aviation enthusiasts from all over the United States. SWRFI is like Oshkosh in our own backyard - don't miss an opportunity to learn more about it and possibly get in on the action.

Herb has been a Pilot for 37 years, Commercial Instrument SEL and SES, CFI and CFII since 2006. 2000+ hours total time, 400+ on Floats.

Corkey has agreed to make a presentation on the LoPresti Fury at our September meeting, which should be fascinating. As you may know, Corkey is famous in his own right. He has more than 15,000 hours in over 287 different types of aircraft. He has been around the world in major airshows and as a test pilot and corporate pilot. More interestingly, Corkey has been involved flying as the stunt pilot in numerous Hollywood movies, which he talked about at our May 2005 meeting. Corkey has filmed all over the United States, Mexico, New Zealand, Australia, Costa Rica, Argentina and Thailand.

The Frontiers of Flight Museum was founded in November 1988, by Kay Bailey Hutchison, Jan Collmer, and William E. Cooper. Their initial intent was to exhibit at Dallas Love Field the priceless artifacts, documents and photographs of the History of Aviation Collection donated to The University of Texas at Dallas by the legendary aviation historian George E. Haddaway. Since then, the Museum has added extensive artifacts dealing with the history of aviation from earliest days through today's modern military, commercial, and aerospace vehicles.

PCAS, which stands for Portable Collision Avoidance System, is a trademark of Zaon Flight Systems for technology similar in function to TCAS (Traffic and Collision Avoidance System). TCAS is the industry standard for commercial collision avoidance systems. The original PCAS technology was developed in 1999. Now, the MRX/XRX line of collision avoidance systems incorporates the fourth generation of PCAS technology. Through this technology, transponder-equipped aircraft are detected and ranged, and the altitude is decoded. PCAS G4 technology has advanced to the point that highly accurate range, relative altitude, and quadrant direction can be accurately detected in a portable, all-in-one cockpit device.

Rick Amber, the founder, established Challenge Air with the belief that, "every disabled person should see the world from a different view… out of their wheelchairs and crutches and from the sky." This belief of Amber's came from his life experiences. As a fighter pilot and training officer in the US Navy from 1967 to 1971, Amber lost the use of his legs when his jet crashed during a landing attempt on the aircraft carrier USS Hancock. He was returning from his 109th combat mission over Vietnam, in high seas, when the ship's landing system failed. He was twenty-six years old.

The DARS supports several kinds of activities associated with rockets and rocketry. They hold a regular schedule of launches for both model and high-power rockets. DARS is also very active with outreach to the schools, scouts and youth groups in our area. You can learn more by visiting the DARS website at: www.DARS.org

You can view the Sport Aviation Specialties website at: SportAviationSpecialties.com.

The program for our March 8 Chapter meeting is presented Mr. Paul Bailey, the airspace manager for the 301st Fighter Wing at Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth, Texas. He will explain what you need to know before entering and while flying through a MOA or crossing a Military Training Route ("MTR"). After attending this presentation, you should be more capable of avoiding a mid-air collision with military aircraft that may be maneuvering along your intended flight path, day or night. Since, in many situations, you have to share airspace with these extraordinarily fast military aircraft, you should know as much as possible about how to fly safely in such situations. You are invited to an informative presentation that can make you a smarter pilot.

Some members want to start their own project, or compare notes, and this will be an opportunity for them to see what is involved, before they take the next step. Several of us have already committed to bringing information about their labor of love, and even if you were not at the January meeting, you are invited (no, requested) to do the same.