EAA Chapter 1232 - April 2004 Newsletter

EAA Chapter 1232

The North Bay Experimental Aircraft Association

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April 2004 Newsletter

April 24th, 2004 Meeting of EAA Chapter 1232
The April 24th meeting was held at the CAP Headquarters. Phil Simon chaired the meeting.

1. Meeting opened with the Pledge of Allegiance

2. Members and visitors were ask to sign-in and verify E-mail address

3. Upcoming events:
May 8th, Red Oak Victory ship in Richmond, Ray Brice is coordinating this event
May 22nd, Fabric covering led by Dave Ward – meeting at CAP Headquarters for the business meeting and then the group will adjourn to his hangar
June 26th Young Eagles Day, static planes on display, please volunteer, we still need pilots and planes – what if we get 200 kids?
July and Aug – two speakers on tap and effort to finalize details are underway. Speakers will be:
>Chris Barnes, UAL ETOPS
>Frank Marrero, author of Lincoln Beachey book.

4. Introductions: Each member/visitor introduced themselves and discussed and your project

5. Thanks:
Ken Willoughby for donuts
Greg Felton & CAP Squadron # 23 for use of Building
Ken Mercer for handling publicity and EAA Headquarters paperwork for Young Eagles day.

6. Business meeting:
Is the pledge to flag OK with group? All agreed –YES..

Are introductions OK with group? It is important to know everyone and for all present to participate.

What about Email – fly ins from other chapters, projects for sale, workshops, etc? We don’t want to send out too much E-mail – in discussing this, most members were interested in receiving all the E-mail info. It was agreed that this info would be forwarded to all and if they did not want to receive this they could notify Ron Jagels who would take them off the distribution list for future mailings.

Ron Jagels gave the treasurers report. There was one additional member dues deposited for 2004 and no disbursements leaving a balance of $1042.38 at the end of March.

Ken Mercer gave an update on the Young Eagles/Marin Youth Aviation Event scheduled for June 26th. Still on track with the participants discussed last month. Mike Green added that he is looking at possible sources for stanchions.

7.Guest Speaker:
Author-publisher Dan Poynter gave a Power-Point presentation on parachutes and parachuting. He is an expert parachute designer, tester and author and publisher of related manuals and handbooks. He has often testified as an expert witness in court cases involving parachute accidents. Dan lives in Santa Barbara and has been an EAA member since 1967.

Dan gave an interesting and informative presentation about the role of the parachute in WW-II, noting that 100,000 personnel had parachuted to relative safety in the course of that conflict. Some survived a meteoric plunge to earth without benefit of their parachutes. Of these, seven survived the crash of a piece of the aircraft in which they were trapped during its uncontrolled plunge to earth. Three others survived a free-fall to earth without benefit of any protective chute or aircraft segments.

We learned of the miraculous survival of one of these, an RAF tail turret gunner who leapt from his station as his Lancaster was blasted from the sky in a night raid, 18,000 feet over southwestern Germany in 1944.

Twenty-one year old, Nick Alkemade, could not reach his parachute as the Lancaster erupted in flame after being struck by a hail of bullets from an attacking JU-88. After being stopped by a wall of flame in two tries to reach his chute, he lunged backward out of the shattered Plexiglas of his prison and began his 18,000 foot plunge to the snow-covered forest below.

Fortunately for Nick, he awoke to find he had landed on a bough of snow-covered
evergreens but from which he was unable to extricate his slightly burned and severely bruised body. His next concern was that he might now freeze to death before the Germans could find him. Fortunately, he was able to reach the whistle that was attached to a lanyard and some farmers came to investigate his whistles of distress. The Nazis didn’t believe his story and he was again in jeopardy of being shot as a spy, but the episode ended well when he was able to convince his captors of the truth of his word. From that point on, and until his release at the end of the war, he became a sort of celebrity to friend and foe alike.

Nick was later married and fathered a daughter. He died in 1987, aged 66.

There was a question and answer period following his talk. Once of the visitors at the meeting was Frank Torr. Frank is a WWII aviator who also bailed out of bomber. In and interesting coincidence he was in the same Gestapo interrogation center and POW Camp as Nick Alkemade.

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April 2004 Newsletter

	April 24th, 2004 Meeting of EAA Chapter 1232 The April 24th meeting was held at the CAP Headquarters. Phil Simon chaired the meeting. 1. Meeting opened with the Pledge of Allegiance 2. Members and visitors were ask to sign-in and verify E-mail address 3. Upcoming events: May 8th, Red Oak Victory ship in Richmond, Ray Brice is coordinating this event May 22nd, Fabric covering led by Dave Ward – meeting at CAP Headquarters for the business meeting and then the group will adjourn to his hangar June 26th Young Eagles Day, static planes on display, please volunteer, we still need pilots and planes – what if we get 200 kids? July and Aug – two speakers on tap and effort to finalize details are underway. Speakers will be: >Chris Barnes, UAL ETOPS >Frank Marrero, author of Lincoln Beachey book. 4. Introductions: Each member/visitor introduced themselves and discussed and your project 5. Thanks: Ken Willoughby for donuts Greg Felton & CAP Squadron # 23 for use of Building Ken Mercer for handling publicity and EAA Headquarters paperwork for Young Eagles day. 6. Business meeting: Is the pledge to flag OK with group? All agreed –YES.. Are introductions OK with group? It is important to know everyone and for all present to participate. What about Email – fly ins from other chapters, projects for sale, workshops, etc? We don’t want to send out too much E-mail – in discussing this, most members were interested in receiving all the E-mail info. It was agreed that this info would be forwarded to all and if they did not want to receive this they could notify Ron Jagels who would take them off the distribution list for future mailings. Ron Jagels gave the treasurers report. There was one additional member dues deposited for 2004 and no disbursements leaving a balance of $1042.38 at the end of March. Ken Mercer gave an update on the Young Eagles/Marin Youth Aviation Event scheduled for June 26th. Still on track with the participants discussed last month. Mike Green added that he is looking at possible sources for stanchions. 7.Guest Speaker: Author-publisher Dan Poynter gave a Power-Point presentation on parachutes and parachuting. He is an expert parachute designer, tester and author and publisher of related manuals and handbooks. He has often testified as an expert witness in court cases involving parachute accidents. Dan lives in Santa Barbara and has been an EAA member since 1967. Dan gave an interesting and informative presentation about the role of the parachute in WW-II, noting that 100,000 personnel had parachuted to relative safety in the course of that conflict. Some survived a meteoric plunge to earth without benefit of their parachutes. Of these, seven survived the crash of a piece of the aircraft in which they were trapped during its uncontrolled plunge to earth. Three others survived a free-fall to earth without benefit of any protective chute or aircraft segments. We learned of the miraculous survival of one of these, an RAF tail turret gunner who leapt from his station as his Lancaster was blasted from the sky in a night raid, 18,000 feet over southwestern Germany in 1944. Twenty-one year old, Nick Alkemade, could not reach his parachute as the Lancaster erupted in flame after being struck by a hail of bullets from an attacking JU-88. After being stopped by a wall of flame in two tries to reach his chute, he lunged backward out of the shattered Plexiglas of his prison and began his 18,000 foot plunge to the snow-covered forest below. Fortunately for Nick, he awoke to find he had landed on a bough of snow-covered evergreens but from which he was unable to extricate his slightly burned and severely bruised body. His next concern was that he might now freeze to death before the Germans could find him. Fortunately, he was able to reach the whistle that was attached to a lanyard and some farmers came to investigate his whistles of distress. The Nazis didn’t believe his story and he was again in jeopardy of being shot as a spy, but the episode ended well when he was able to convince his captors of the truth of his word. From that point on, and until his release at the end of the war, he became a sort of celebrity to friend and foe alike. Nick was later married and fathered a daughter. He died in 1987, aged 66. There was a question and answer period following his talk. Once of the visitors at the meeting was Frank Torr. Frank is a WWII aviator who also bailed out of bomber. In and interesting coincidence he was in the same Gestapo interrogation center and POW Camp as Nick Alkemade.
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