2008 SOAPA Fly-In.

[WebMaster]

Our latest confirmed speaker is Grand Rapids Technologies, who, oddly enough are here in Michigan

They make stuff for experimental airplanes, but their equipment has been installed in certified aircraft as "Entertainment Systems". Now, personally, I'd rather have one of these in front of my wife to watch. She has quietly told me she doesn't like watching the fuel gages. This would help answer the age old question of "Where ARE WE".

And, incase my old wet vacuum pumps fail, it might also be handy. Of course, it's a bit more than a portable DVD player, but a lot more functional.

[WebMaster]

You know, we should have really made it for 3 days. Maurice Hovic, down at HovAir, wanted to show us his paint shop. They used to specialize in Piper Mirages, but now they are painting all kinds of things, including a Jet Ranger.

Anyway, the latest speaker to sign up, (boy the schedule is getting full), is Xerion. They make the Xerion AuRicle engine monitoring device. It's a fully electronic replacement for all the steam gages.

[WebMaster]

The attendee list is an excel file. I made one called attendee.xls, and one called attendees.xls. I have been updating attendees, while the website says attendee. It's fixed. I'll continue to update it.

[hharney]

Well with just 10 days until SOAPA 2008 starts, the Michigan Flyers are ready to host a fantastic meeting. If you haven't looked at the agenda recently you really should because we have a full menu of great information, entertainment and speakers like never before. Get your suitcases packed and we'll see you in Kalamazoo.

Come early and join us for the Mackinac Island (pre SOAPA event) on Wednesday morning June 11. We will be departing AZO promptly at 0800. If you want you can meet us in the air, Freq. 123.40.

[hharney]

Here is just a taste of the dynamic keynote speaker, Thomas Van Horn, scheduled for the 2008 SOAPA meeting in Kalamazoo next week. You can still register to come because you won't want to miss this great event. If you are close enough to KZoo and can come over for just the Friday night banquet please do join us at 6:00 PM Friday night at the Kalamazoo Air Museum "The AirZoo".


In the early afternoon hours of February 24th, 1996, three civilian, unarmed, twin-engine Cessna 337 aircraft from the group Brothers to the Rescue were flying what should have been just another search and rescue mission in international airspace off the coast of Cuba. It was a volunteer, humanitarian operation that had begun in 1991 and had averaged 450 flights a year. It was also a mission that had saved the lives of over 17,000 Cuban refugees, the so-called balseros or the Cuban rafters.



For years, the balseros had slipped away in the dead of night aboard tiny, makeshift rafts, rowing to liberty from Fidel Castro’s Cuba. It was a journey three out of four did not survive. Between Cuba and the United States, over 20,000 rafters have died trying to make it across to freedom in the USA. And for many years, their best hope was to be found by the Skymasters flown by the pilots of Brothers to the Rescue. For the Cessna 337, the mission of search and rescue over the Straits of Florida is probably the airplane’s finest hour, closely rivaled perhaps only by its extraordinary record as a Forward Air Controller over Vietnam.



That February day, however, no lives would be saved. Instead, Cuban Air Force MiGs shot two of the group’s Skymaster aircraft from the sky, killing four Americans. A third Brothers to the Rescue Skymaster, with four people aboard, fled northward and somehow escaped, despite being chased by two other Cuban MiG-23 fighters.



Many who watched the news of the day’s events unfold on CNN were shocked to see the video of a black smoke trail from the mid-air explosion of one of the planes, filmed by a tourist on board the cruise ship, Majesty of the Seas. On the decks of the ship people had been sunning themselves and enjoying afternoon cocktails in their deck chairs, and were now all unwitting witnesses to death.



The fiery wreckage of one plane crashed a few hundred yards from a small American fishing boat, Tri-Liner, whose captain quickly turned to search the last bits of wreckage on the sea for any survivors; then he watched as the other plane was struck by a missile and exploded nearby.



Yet the full story of what happened that day not only cost the lives of four Americans and the loss of two airplanes – it involved a tale of intrigue, at the highest levels of the governments on both sides of the Straits of Florida, and a ring of Cuban spies who had infiltrated not only Miami’s Cuban exile community, but even into the heart of the Defense Intelligence Agency where skewed intelligence reports carefully manipulated U.S. policies to Cuba’s benefit and, ultimately, set the stage for the shoot down itself.



Speaker Thomas Van Hare, a former SAR pilot with Brothers to the Rescue and its one-time director of operations, takes you from the pilot’s last meal in their hanger to their final seconds aloft. He dissects ten years of data from media coverage, court transcripts and testimony that bear witness to the infiltration by Cuban spies of U.S. military installations, the Brother’s flight organization and more – as new information is made available and released with every passing year.



Van Hare describes the inner workings of the Clinton Administration, as officials wrestled with the knowledge of what was coming in the days leading up to the shoot down – and yet issued no warning – a story that seems so incredible that it seems impossible, except that every conclusion is backed up by meticulous research, sworn testimony, radar plots and official records. He takes you behind the scenes into the planning of the shoot down itself and into the heart of Clinton Administration, detailing who knew, when they knew and what they knew at each critical juncture of the story, leading them to a choice that ultimately would be betrayal, death and a cover-up that has lasted 12 years.

[hharney]

http://www.chippewahotel.com/Pink-Pony-Bar--Grill-11/


Mackinac Island Venturers

We will plan to assemble for lunch at the Pink Pony Bar and Grill on the island at or around 11:00 AM Wednesday morning June 11. See link above. Those that are departing from AZO at 0800 on Wednesday morning will arrive Mac Island at or around 0930. It will take about 30-45 minutes to get down to the harbor and we should have a little time to shop, take in some touristy stuff before lunch. Those that are not leaving with the group from AZO, when you arrive at Mac Island call me (616-890-0854) when you arrive or try to be at the Pink Pony around 1100 for lunch with the group. We need to be back in the air with a southernly heading by no later 1530. This means be at the airport by 1500 so that we can all leave together by 1530. This should put us back in AZO by no later than 1700. After the lunch at Pink Pony we can mingle around the harbor and main street, go upto the fort and watch the cannon shoot or just relax at one of the many fudge shops. We should have a couple of hours before you need to head for the airport. It's about a 40 minute walk from town or catch a horse taxi up the hill. You may want to leave enough time on the trip back to the airport to just walk through the Grand Hotel. This is all depending on weather Wednesday as there are some thunder bumpers forcasted at this point. If the weather looks iffy we won't go. Although most of the time the fronts are moving from the southwest to the northeast and it may be that the northern routes will remain clear. If flying north looks questionable we can opt for a more local day trip for lunch.

Keep Michigan Green...................................Bring money :-)

Frequency 123.40

Herb Harney

[Dale Campbell]

Hi Herb,
I got your message. I planned on arriving Tuesday 10th, but the weather you just had is coming east to Penna. which they predict will get here Tuesday to screw up my plans. We will probably not be able to leave until Wed AM. If we can get out real early say at 5AM maybe we can fly direct Mac. Island. We can only wait for weather to be right. Dale Campbell.