50th Anniversary of the Skymaster - Dayton, OH
 

We are just over 1 month out for the 2011 SOAPA Event in Dayton, Ohio. This Celebration of the 50th Anniversary Flight of the Skymaster is upon us and closing in quickly.

IS ANYONE ATTENDING????

Please respond to this thread of your position. Please indicate if you will be attending, may be attending or will not be attending. I will continue to update the list so all can see it.

REGISTERED PILOTS

Herb Harney
Bill Taylor
Kenneth Maclean
Larry Bowdish
Jack Wybenga
Paul and Mary Rooy
Dale Campbell
O. Lynn Justice

HOPING TO ATTEND BUT NOT SURE YET

Scott Ashcraft
Dan (ipasgas1) from Cincinnati
Jerry DeSantis
Robert Ottlinger

NOT ATTENDING

Fred Mildenburger
Steve and Sandy Gustafson
Ed Asmus
Thyra and Walt
Wayne Craw
Dave Jarrett
Keven Kennison

Submit your SOAPA registration now and book your rooms at the Double Tree. Your SOAPA registration does not secure rooms at the hotel. The hotel must be reserved BY MAY 9, separate from the SOAPA registration. All the information is on the home page.

http://www.337skymaster.com/

I will be unable to attend due to inability to get time off from work. Have fun everybody. Hopefully one of these years I can make it.

Ed Asmus

It currently looks like I will be able to attend but need to ensure I can get the work schedule to agree...

Unable this year. We're hoping for next year.

Thyra and Walt

Dayton Meeting
 

I am going to try this year to be there. My wife is still under treatment for AML Lukiemia and we can not plan to far ahead. It will be down to the week before the meeting, that I will know for sure. Hope to see you all there. Dale Campbell

Herb & Co.,
I will be attending with my wife, assuming my Skymaster comes out of its annual relatively unscathed (I just dropped it off last week). See you there!
Fred Mildenburger

Dayton
 

Checking my travel schedule...Going to try to make it. If I can, I will take Craig there with me.:)

Check the home page for updated agenda

The event starts on Thursday June 2. We have modified the schedule to allow for more people to join us in Dayton. It will be a special weekend as Skymaster pilots, owners and passionate future owners meet together to share experiences. There is still time to plan to come. See the home page for all the details.

http://www.337skymaster.com/

Hope you can join us Jerry.

I mailed my check and registration last week and made my hotel resorvation. Dale Campbell

Fantastic Dale
It will be great to see you there
You are coming in on Thursday?

I have rented a mini van for Dayton. It will seat 7 plus some baggage. Does anyone else plan to rent a car? We will need at least one more van or 2 standard cars to shuttle everyone. Please respond to this post.

Check with one of the internet search sites like HotWire or Orbitz to see the best deals. Then I go directly to the vender site to secure the car. I got the mini van for $55 a day from Hertz. Hertz is normally the highest cost but not in Dayton, used my AOPA discount too.

http://www.hotwire.com/car/local/res...earchTokenId=1

Car Rental
 

Hi Herb,
I did not rent anything. I figured I would wait for taxi or airport shuttle to hotel. And see what everyone else was doing. Dale

Dayton Update
 

6 Skymasters
1 Malibu
13 Passionate attendees
Perfect weather (tail winds are a myth)
Best reception at an airport ever - refreshments, snacks, our own area with welcome signs, treated like Gulfstream owners,
Hotel is awesome - two room suites, swimming, spa, cookies (warm chocolate chip) and a wonderful reception with eats and drinks on the house
We found the Dark Horse BBQ Pub and had a nice dinner together.

This morning is all business and at noon it's a race to the museum. Four hours of the greatest collection of aircraft in the country.

Here are some photos of the reception and dinner. More to come ................. stay tuned.

We miss you

The meetings on Friday were very interactive and informative. Jack gave a great presentation on the Skymaster wing and the associated issues, A/D's, and other aspects. The group has some good questions and learned a lot about the different wings on the aircraft. The business meeting went well and the group has selected some good potential locations for 2012. We had a lively discussion about using paper charts vs. the new trend of electronic flight bags. I think about 90% of the attendees have iPads in the cockpit. Foreflight was the app of choice. Paul got the spirits running with the Shoot the Bull session. No animals were harmed in this exercise. The discussion of Boom Bounce was interesting. No solid conclusions were made but lots of comments and experiences were presented. Rigging was the focus for best possible cures. Each attendee had a chance for introductions which included aircraft type, home base, occupation, experiences, etc. I attempted to present the SOAPA 2011 Skymaster Montage video but Murphy's Electronic monster reigned as victor of the challenge to play the DVD. None the less, DVD's were distributed so that everyone could watch it once they returned home.

Cessna was asked to participate but declined to join us. However, they did send a beautiful coffee table book on the history of Cessna and these were given to each person attending. Thanks Cessna, it even has a small section on the Skymaster. Lynn Justice from Guatemala brought calendars and a book he wrote for each person. What a treat, thanks Lynn, you are a true Skymaster gentleman. After the meetings it was northbound to the United States Air Force Museum.

Air Force Museum
 

If you have never attended the USAF museum it has to be one of the best, if not THE BEST, aircraft museums in the world. Most of the SOAPA members had not been to this spectacular facility, so it was really fun to attend with the group. We arrived in our 15 passenger chauffeured (Herb) van right at about 1 PM. This gave us a full 4 hours to check out the displays. Unfortunately, it takes about 12 to 16 hours to really see all that this available at this fantastic facility. One of the greatest parts of the tour, it's FREE. The whole place is free to attend, except the iMax theater, which some SOAPA members did. We attended the special on base tour which requires security clearance, so that ate up some of our time but was well worth the look. It's like the back stage tour. We are bussed through the gate onto the actual Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to a twin adjoining hanger that features Presidential planes on one side and closet cases on the other. The Super Constellation, Columbine III that Eisenhower used, a DC-6 that Truman had and the 707 that carried Kennedy from Dallas in a casket. Along with other presidential and political aircraft scattered about the floor of the hanger.

On the adjoining side was a collection of wanna-be's and historical record breaking planes. Towering over all the interesting aircraft was the venerable XB-70 Valkyrie super-sonic bomber. Also seen was the XB-1 that broke the sound barrier, the x-15 and many aircraft that had great intentions but just never made the cut. It was a once in a lifetime chance to see these unique aircraft in one location. The collection was phenomenal. Everyone enjoyed taking the extra base tour. We then returned to the museum and scattered to various points of interest within the 3 enormous hangers that separate the aircraft displays in era's of use and time. Early years, European Campaign, Pacific Campaign and the Cold War days. Just to get a perspective of the size of these hangers, the cold war sections has a B-36 Peacemaker, B-1B bomber, C133 Cargo Master, B-50 and dozens more all in one of 3 hangers. It was truly a visit that all will want to come back to spend more time in the future.

I took some time and visited the memorial park that is just outside the museum which features memorials from all the different bomber and fighter groups. There must be 3 or 4 dozen granite and bronze memorials that recognize these brave men and their tribute to the fight for freedom that we enjoy each day. It really stirred my emotions several times while taking at least an hour to visit this dynamic holy ground. I humbly walked through alone only imagining the lives that have been touched by these memorials. It is something everyone should take time to experience, Lest we never forget.

Memorial Park
 

Some of the memorials

Saturday Breakfast and Excursion
 

On Saturday it was up at 8 AM and back to the airport to Commander Aero. i really can't say enough about the warm reception and support that this FBO provided for our event. The folks at Commander Aero were one of the best FBO's we have ever had. They put on a pancake breakfast Saturday morning just for our SOAPA group. There were a few other pilots that also joined in so the event actually touched people that were not even part of SOAPA. John, Sherry and Mike (and their crew) went beyond the call of duty to support this event. If you are ever in the area please stop in, buy some fuel, visit the FBO, take the Lexus courtesy car to the museum or just stop to visit. They are really a huge part of our event this year.

After the terrific breakfast at Commander Aero some of the folks walked over to the Wright Flyer museum next door and checked out the displays. They were going to test fly one of the replicas that morning but we had planned to depart before the test flight. We all loaded up the aircrafts and headed south for Sporty's Hot Dog Feed. We actually met Dan and Diane at Clairmont County airport when arriving at Sporty's. Dan is a Skymaster owner that regularly participates on the message board. They tried to make the meeting but because of conflicts could not but it was great to meet them at I69 that morning. It was a fun excursion and each Skymaster departed I69 to their respective destinations either home or otherwise closing the 2011 SOAPA event.

Stay tuned for the 2012 location and agenda.

Photos from Mike @ Commander Aero
 

The folks at Commander Aero are just the greatest. If you are ever around the Dayton area stop in and visit. They have a Lexus for a courtesy car, will treat you like you drive a Citation and good fuel prices.

Thanks again to all at the FBO especially Mike.

I have a disc with all the photos that Mike shot if you want one just let me know

It was great to meet you guys too. I wish we could have made some of the meeting as well. Excited about next years meeting in the Bahamas (keeping my fingers crossed as my wife may want to fly if we have it there). It was great watching you guys fly in and then take off. Trying to talk Diane into doing the Guatemala flight...not having much luck :O(
When do we open voting for next year's location???? Again, great to put some faces with the names...getting ready to start reading my book...Thanks all.

Dan

Typically the voting is posted in January, sometimes a little earlier.