SOAPA 2005 Meeting in Key West, Florida
 

In case you come directly to the messages section of our site with a favorite, I wanted to let you know that SOAPA has announced their 4th annual meeting will be held in Key West. Check out the home page of this site for more information.

http://www.337skymaster.com/

Blue skies,

Kevin

And, you can sign up easily on the Web, and pay using your credit card, via PayPal. Quick and Easy.

Jim,

Will you and Jenny get to MIA soon enough to go to Great Harbor Cay or need a lift to KEYW?

Joyce and I have a couple of seats.

Jim Muse
Skymaster 1952M

Afraid not. The Skymaster is still out of commission. We have booked airline tickets directly to Key West.

Liza and I will be arriving on Delta 4421 scheduled to get there at 6:40PM. Jim, Jenny, you aren't on the same flight by chance are you?

Kevin

Getting there
 

For those of you flying into Key West, here's a message I posted several months ago.

"You raise some issues about flying VFR to Key West which I was going to cover as we get closer to the SOAPA meeting, but let me identify them now and we'll review them again in May. BTW, you will want to come in VFR, for maximum sightseeing.

There are only two things noteworthy, and both are shown in the Sectional (figure below).

First, as Pat points out there is a tethered balloon about 20 miles before you get to EYW. It has radars for drug interdiction and is shown as a hashed circle and identified as R2916. It's easy to circumvent just by staying south (or wide north) of the Keys, as Pat indicates. South is prettier.

Second, the Key West Naval Air Station is just 3 or 4 miles before you get to EYW. There is a note on the Sectional alerting you to intensive military flight activity and giving you the freq for EYW approach. Interestingly, when you call Approach you won't be talking to FAA ATC but Navy ATC. They'll assign a squawk code, and route you around the base and then hand you over to the EYW tower. You can come in north or south of the base.

On the matter of fuel, 100LL is now about $2.70 self-serve and $3.00 full service at Marathon, about the same price as TMB in Miami (for those coming into Miami Sunday for the Bahamas trip or Tuesday for the see-Miami-like-a-native stop). It's about $4 at EYW (note, however, that Paul Rooy has negotiated a 24 cent discount for SOAPA attendees and a halving of tie-down price -- from $30 to $15 -- if you fuel up at EYW). Cheaper fuel can be found in Central Florida ($2.40 at ZPH and $2.50 at OBE)."

Fuel is somewhat higher now, but the trend is right (cheapest in Central Florida, cheaper at TMB, higher at EYW).

Ernie

Kevin,

Jenny and I will be arriving a little earlier than the conference. We are arriving on Sunday, May 15 at about 10:00 AM on Delta flight 6295. We will spend Monday with an old friend of mine from our Air Force days. We have not seen each other in 35 years. (Hope I haven't changed as much as I'm sure he has.) We will be going boating for his grandson's birthday.

This will give us a couple of days to look over Key West before everyone else arrives. I will have a cell phone and if Sprint works down there, the number is (804) 647-2461. Actually, that's still the number even if Sprint doesn't work down there.

Assuming we have a high speed Internet connection, I will also be monitoring e-mail at Jim.Stack@comcast.net.

We are looking forward to meeting you and Liza.

Jim

Excellent. We'll give you a ring when Delta deposits us in Key West.

Thanks,

Kevin

They must be having to much fun.

Oh yes. Great meeting presentations during the day, Key West nightlife at night. No time to upload pictures...

Census: 14 Skymasters and Peyton and Keven Kenison arrived in Peyton's Cherokee 6 in addition.

45 attendees plus several speakers.

Tired. Must sleep...

Kevin

Couldn't resist.
I recall someone saying that when we were at Treasure Cay.

What an active and wonderful day... I'm so tired... must s.l..e...e....p.....ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

I wanted to apologize to those at the meeting that I didn't say good-bye to. I hung around the airport until 3:30 to see you all, but had to leave for reasons many of you know. It was my privilege to meet (or see again) all of you. Hope to see you soon.

Ernie

Oh well . . .
 

Gerry, Larry, et al.,

We hate that you had to miss it! Great presentations, great participants, just a great meeting overall. Kudos to Paul and Mary for their efforts.

Of course, we had to overcome the terrible location at Key West, but . . . we are all troopers, and have suffered through the bad environment so far. Hmmphh.

It was great to see everyone again. The good news is that a year seems to fly by pretty quickly. Allie Cat and I look forward to seeing everyone again next year.

Well, off to Duval Street, Blue Heaven, and The Green Parrot!

Cheers.

Keven
________
Vaporizers

You know, this morning in Key West it is 72. That's not a lot warmer than the 44 we have here in Kalamazoo.
Well, maybe it is.