ITS A GO!! The wheels are in motion, and the National Bi-Plane Fly-In will Happen on June 4th and 5th. The next scheduled meeting of 1364 "Wing Nuts" will be Thursday evening, February 25, at 7:00 p.m. at the EAA hanger in Junction City. Meetings have taken place with representatives from Flint Hills Flyers, Abilene Aviation Association and the Convention & Visitors bureau. We have a lot to discuss and plans to finalize. Be there to see what your part will be in this historic aviation event.
Marvin

At the Junction City Commission meeting on February 16th the commissioners voted unanimously to replant grass in the parking areas needed to host the National Biplane Fly In at Freeman Field. Areas to be replanted are marked 1 &2 on the photo below:

Area 1 will be showplane parking and area 2 will be visitor parking.
A web site will be posted ASAP to secure the event. Now its time to go to work.

An Ottawa, Kansas, pilot will have 15 months to think about all the work she and her husband put into building the experimental aircraft that was briefly theirs. Sandra Brandes was sentenced to a year and three months in prison last week for stealing $77,000 from her former employer, Kansas City, Mo. dentist Dr. J. Daniel Fleming. The court was told she used the money to buy the airplane kit, which, from the photo that appeared with the story by KCUR FM, looks like an RV-9A. Now, the dentist might consider getting his pilot certificate because the judge ordered that he be awarded the newly completed aircraft as restitution.
Dan Nelson, the assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted the case, said the airplane offers the dentist a fair chance at getting his money back since it's worth $70,000 to $80,000. "In fact the government pursued this restitution arrangement, which was to say the least unusual because we thought it was the way to maximize how much money the victim would receive back," Nelson told the radio station. Brandes wrote herself checks on the dentist's account while she worked in his office. According to the FAA registry, the aircraft hasn't been registered but N523RV was reserved by a Matthew Brandes, who lives at the same address as Sharon Brandes.

Freeman Field, Junction City Airport, from 10:00 to Noon. EAA 1364 volunteers will be working with the young airplane builders on the Bowers Fly Baby project, and theJoy Rider Flight Simulator. Join us Saturday at the EAA Hangar.

Thursday, February 18, 2010, 7:00 pm Abilene Airport

Steve Mills has asked Tim Rainey to speak. Here is a brief description of his program: A DAY IN THE LIFE OF AN ACCIDENT INVESTIGATOR. Ever wonder how they find the cause of a crash? Hear the process of what happens from start to finish till they get the initial cause figured out. Tim is an accident investigator from Hawker Beechcraft and will give his presentation on how the cause is found. Tim has been with Hawker for over 10 years and will walk us through an investigation. It promises to be an interesting process, bring your questions too.

Hope you can attend! Al & Rose Shippy will bring refreshments.

EAA 1364 Chapter Meeting, January 28, 2010
President Marvin called the meeting to order and thanked the hearty crowd of 13 members and 1 guest that braved the cold weather to attend. Marvin introduced Steve Hudson, a local aircraft owner, pilot in training and owner of Security Solutions here in Junction City and Manhattan. Steve flies a Cessna 150 and will be working hard with Sam Finan to finish up his ticket this summer.
Jim Clark reported on the opportunity available with the Grand Finale of the National Biplane Association Biplane Expo that took place on the first weekend of June in Bartlesville, OK for the last 23 years. The key question is; could a Midwest aviation organization capitalize on the good will and desire for biplane enthusiasts to gather created by this annual event? It was agreed that the only way to find out is to have a fly in modeled around this great Biplane Expo event and see if it works.
For this to event to even be considered, and before any further planning could take place, we would need to determine if some of the area now farmed could be taken to grass to facilitate aircraft parking. I have marked the below photo, photo courtesy Lewis Thomas, with a RED square marking the crop area needed to be planted in grass to even consider pulling this off. The area marked with the YELLOW square would be needed in grass if the turnout is good and the PINK square would be for future expansion of the event.

Marvin and Jim will be communicating with city officials regarding the need for this additional grass space. We will report on this as soon as we have information. If we receive positive response and commitment on this we will take the event planning into high gear. EAA 1364 would be the lead organization in this event and would take responsibility for insurance coverage through the National EAA. However, if this event is embraced by the biplane and general aviation community it would quickly outgrow the capabilities of our local chapter so we want to involve aviation groups from our area immediately. Participation and involvement with the Flint Hills Flyers and the Abilene Aviation Association would be very important.
The very tentative general plan for the event would be as follows:
Midwest Biplane Fly In
Friday, June 5th  early arrivals and casual hamburger feed on the field for pilots and passengers.
Saturday June 6th  major fly in events, plane rides, static displays, aircraft judging, vendors, public encouraged to attend. Saturday night catered banquet on the field, guest speaker and awards.
Sunday June7th  aircraft departures.
I would encourage you to click here to go to Biplane Expo website.
There will be more information to come so stay tuned and get ready for a great season.