Site Last Updated: 12/05/12

President's Hot Seat :
Rick Crisenberry

I am writing this a few days after Christmas and I hope that those of you who are not in Hawaii had an enjoyable holiday with family and friends.
Pat and I had a houseful on Christmas Eve and spent Christmas day with
good friends. I neglected to report the outcome of the November Chapter elections last month so please congratulate the newly elected members of the board.

Jack DiMarchi is the new Treasurer and Phil Schaefer and Mark Morlino are new board members. The By-law revision to remove the requirement
to be an IAAAF member to be elected to the EAA passed unanimously. Unfortunately you are stuck with me for 2 more years as President.

The next major chapter event is the Annual Banquet and Silent Auction. It will be held at Pikes on February 24th. Rick Kreofsky is the chair and I know he can use some help, particularly with the Silent Auction. If you know of a business, aviation or not, that might contribute an item to the
auction, if you can contribute a few hours of your time to solicit items for the auction or if you have something to donate to the auction, please contact Rick or myself. The Silent Auction is the only major fundraiser for the
Chapter and the proceeds go to support the Ed Gelvin scholarship at Hutch and the Young Eagles program, both of which are very important to
your chapter.

I have not gotten anymore survey forms but will wait one more month before complying the results and sharing them with the board and then the
membership. The board hopes to use this survey to shape the chapter goals for the next few years so if you haven’t completed one the forms,
please do so. If you have misplaced your copy of the survey please call me at 388-3191 or e-mail me at crisenbery77@mosquitonet.com and I’ll get a survey to you.

The next meeting will be at Hutch, upstairs in the aviation department, Room 201 at 6:45pm on January 5th, hope to see you there.

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Disastrous Paint Job

Vickie Domke

No mechanic wants to condemn an airplane. Especially when that airplane is a new owner’s
pride and joy that has been a sacrifice for the family to obtain.

But one airplane has been condemned in the Anchorage area and another was very close to condemned locally due to someone using a sander to remove paint. This aggressive paint removal also removed much of the rivet head material on the majority of the rivets.

Yes, someone used a sander of some sort and ground off the top of the rivet heads. Both airplanes are Cessnas with new paint jobs from different shops in different states. Neither
owner recouped their losses. The condemned airplane was unrepairable due to the damaged rivets included the entire gearbox and A-pillar
support structure. The other airplane is undergoing replacement of the rivets and many skins and will hopefully survive to fly again.

I questioned several experienced sheet metal
specialists about how much rivet material can be removed on a rivet without compromising its
strength with no consensus. The AC43.13 reads that there will be no damage. Realistically
there are one or two damaged rivets here or there on most used Cessnas. However, the
“zipper effect” of one damaged rivet popping apart and causing stress on the next and then
the next to progressively fail has to be considered when deciding how bad is bad.
All in all, get a pre-purchase inspection and be sure to question how the paint was removed from an airplane with a new paint job.

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Chapter By-Laws

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Chapter History Lesson

Vickie Domke

EAA Chapter 1129 was founded in 1996 as a result, as I recall, of an offhand comment, “How come we don't have an EAA Chapter in Fairbanks ?”

Actually there was a chapter, but due in large part to the devastating economy in the 1980's the chapter had basically disbanded and disappeared.

The treasurer of that chapter gave the new EAA Chapter over $2000, the sum total of the previous chapter's bank account. That seed money allowed us the ability to incorporate, start a newsletter, pay our national dues, pay the mandatory insurance, pay postage and primitive advertising costs and basically get the ball rolling.

Each of the Chapter 1129 presidents has left an impression. Sterling Muth introduced us to ultralights long before the neighbors in North Pole ever began complaining about the noise. I remember him as an optimistic character, with a conservative don't-change-anything policy contrasted with his wild off the wall purchase of one of the first modern ultralights in Fairbanks.

Clay Cranor had the unglamorous task of wrangling the paperwork and incorporation paperwork to ground. His trademark laid-back style of leadership peaked with his presentation of how he preheated his Cub in the Early Days. “I just ran a hose from the car exhaust and up into the cowling…” We were a very low-budget group.

Dave Gardner probably wrote the second more modern edition of Robert's Rules of Order. His incredibly stable personality, sport coat and tie and look-you-right-in-eye honesty secured our honorary status with the IAAAF museum.

My presidency was built on the foundation of the previous presidents and supported by the solid Board of Directors. I learned that is ok to cry and show emotion when bad things happen to good people.

Pete Haggland has spearheaded our first really big project, building the Jenny wings. His booming voice is a great attribute at the Annual Banquet and he has reached out to other aviation organizations and helped our EAA chapter reputation as one to be considered when making aviation policy in the North Land .

Most of the original early 1996 members still regularly attend meetings, participate in Young Eagle events, eat pancakes at the Annual Breakfast and go to the Board Meetings even when they are not on the Board. Our Chapter has grown to almost 90 members with a reliable newsletter, bills to pay, wings to build, T-shirts to sell, kids to fly and a much anticipated Annual Banquet.

So, fellow EAA members, what's the Next Big Project?

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