Meeting Comments

Jerry De Santis · #1 04-25-04, 08:05 AM

Hi All!

It was nice meeting all of you that attended the meeting at PWA. So as to gather information for the 2005 meeting, we sure would like to have your comments regarding this year's event. Please feel free to comment.

Thanks to all the speakers that made 2004 meeting interesting and informative.

Cheers
Jerry
N34EC

FRED-E · #2 04-25-04, 06:34 PM

I HAD A GREAT TIME at the meeting (even with the rain & stuff). Can't wait for the next one. I wonder where it will be !!!!!!
Fred

DHatfield · #3 04-26-04, 08:16 AM

Jerry,

I also enjoyed the meeting and found it very worthwhile. I thought the meeting facilities were excellent. Very comfortable and it was nice to be able to grab a soft drink whenever I wanted one. Don Nieser really out did himself as host; everything was great. The FBO was certainly friendly enough, although it would have been nice if hangar space had been available...

The presentations were also all very good. For example, I learned quite a bit about deice boots from the BootsEdge presentation.

I thought the FAA tours and presentations were fantastic. Everyone at the FAA was as friendly as could be and all of us in that group really appreciate Jenny's efforts in pulling that together.

I was looking forward to the GAMI trip, but could not make it due to weather issues for the trip home. I hope someone that attended will tell us what they saw and whether the gami people had any advise or comments on the (TS)IO-360 engine. There is a ton of gami info on the bigger COntinentals, but I haven't seen much on the 360s.

Thanks again to Jerry, Don and everyone else involved. It really was a lot of fun.

David

Peyton · #4 04-27-04, 04:34 PM

Jerry - Great meeting!! Excellent facilities and a super program. Flying Skymasters to Europe....flying Skymasters to Mexico...Flying Skymasters with GAMI injectors....finding parts to keep our Skymasters flying...and FAA vertigo and smoke training...plus all the other info, round tables, etc. This program will be hard to beat!!

Plus we are all now instrument current and proficient in flight planning on the run and storm avoidance...just an unplanned extra benefit (gotta stay positive about weather).

Looking forward to next year....let's pick a location in the sun if possible.

Regards

Peyton

cgair · #5 04-27-04, 08:45 PM

Hats off to Jerry for putting together the best 337 gathering that I have seen yet. I managed to stop at Owen Bell's place on my way back home. The 550 skymaster is real and the one with the corvette in it is a real gas. Thanks to Owen Many of thoes no longer available parts are now being made again.

It sounds loke there will be quite a few of us going to Oshkosh in 04. Can we talk Jerry into organizing a pre meeting, say at Appelton, followed by a 337 fly in with a dedicated 337 area for parking.

Better yet How about Payton setting up a formation fly in?

Jim Edwardson

Kevin B · #6 04-27-04, 08:51 PM

I'm all for a OSH gathering and common parking aera. Let me know what I can do to help make this happen.
Kevin B

Jim Rainer · #7 04-28-04, 11:28 AM

Jerry, Larry, Keven, Mary (didn't get to meet you), Peyton, Paul, Brian and especially Don Neiser - you did a terrific job of organzing and running this meeting. This was my first as I have missed the previous meetings (my loss.) The whole event was fun, verrry educational, and confirms why I love the Skymaster so much.

Paul and Don, I apologise to the two of you for skipping out Friday afternoon. Get-home-itis got me! I had to be home Saturday and the weather broke (mostly) for a trip Friday afternoon and I took advantage of it.

Don, now I know where the first place to is to you for 337 parts even if you don't have them, you can help one find them. Ernie's presentation about used and PMA parts enlightened me enough to not be afraid of used or other than Cessna parts. Sorry I missed your hangar trip. Owen Bell as well.

Paul, I haven't flown to the Carribean or to Mexioco in close to 40 years but intend to in the near future. I hope you have some slides or handouts or something that'll help when I get ready. At the pace things go for me, we may have another meeting before I get to go. Sorry I missed your presentation. Learned a lot from you anyway.

Those of you who think you don't have time for a meeting, think again! This group event is something you don't want to miss if you own or are going to own a 336, 337 or 0-2!

WebMaster · #8 04-28-04, 03:32 PM

I really enjoyed the entire event. I learned more, this time, as I do every time. The first thing I did when I got home was clean the bugs off my boots. For those who didn't attend, bugs are a leading cause of decay of deice boots.

Owen has some fantastic products for Skymasters. I especially like the A/C system, it is really slick. His extra cooling vents for the rear engine are just the right touch.

The tour of Don's shop was impressive. Hope everyone who was there saw his Silver Wrench. Next time someone says they know lots about Skymasters, ask them if they ever won a silver wrench at Oshkosh. There are pictures, but they do not do his inventory justice, it is just extensive.

The thing that is hard to quantify is all the little tips. Like bugs, or the Foam that protects the trailing edge of everyplane in Don's shop. The speakers were knowledgeable, the interaction between speakers and the rest of us was priceless. Listening to Brian, I was looking on Ebay for a sat phone. I turn off my cell phone, it is known to cause problems with my HSI, but a sat phone won't.

This is my third, and I learn something new with each gathering. I look forward to seeing you all at the next one

Oh, and lest I forget, the FBO was wonderful. They had 2 guys on each plane tieing it down as soon as engines stopped. They set up a wine and cheese tasting area for us. They had Wi-Fi access inside, comfortable area, fuel was cheaper than the other FBO. The staff was friendly. I had oil change while I was there, rates were reasonable, and they washed my plane when they were done. The ServiceCenter was just fantastic for us.

Don Nieser · #9 05-02-04, 11:58 PM

Thanks for all your nice comments. It was my pleasure to meet everyone. I learned a lot from the discussions. Sorry I could not control the weather. I was to have some gratuities to give out but they did not arrive in time, but I will send them to everyone if you will send me your address. If Lynn Justice from Guatemala is on line, I misplaced your address and phone number.

Paul462 · #10 05-06-04, 09:10 AM

Fellow Argonauts,

Well done, everybody! Apparently this year's meeting was an unparalleled success. There was a good feeling in the air from the start, when two or three attendees introduced themselves and their aircraft, and then said simply "I'm glad to be here!" Lynn and Rodrigo flying up from Guatemala City was a nice touch, also. Maybe next year we should have an award for the furthest flung attendee (although if we have the fly in in Key West next year I don't think I'LL win...)

Three Skymasters and eleven attendees made it to the GAMI presentation, which turned out to be very informative. Tim Roehl showed us the T-34 wing spar AMC (Alternate Means of Compliance) fix he designed - a triangular re-inforcement plate whose bolt holes (and the spar bores) are cold-worked after emplacement to increase the bore diameters approx. .010 in., which has the effect of deflecting stress paths (and subsequent possible cracking) away from the bores themselves. Neat! We also saw the engine test cells, PRISM (GAMI's solution to the comming unleaded AvGas problem, at "less than $10,000 per engine..." Ouch!), and GAMI's turbocharging retro-fit. The engine management session itself was very informative, with George going over time about an hour to answer questions. It turns out running lean of peak decreases CO emmissions by about 80%, and increases NO2 emmissions (laughing gas). So if you suspect a CO leak from your heater exhaust muff, run lean, and it DOES become a laughing matter! No, seriously, there isn't enough NO2 to affect you, darn it.

Payton and Kevin, and Mary and I flew together eastwards after the GAMI presentation (good BBQ!), and overnighted at Ft. Smith, AK because of bad weather ahead. I should say we actually overnighted mainly at a beer garden featuring an 11-piece horn band playing for a Special Olympics benefit - excellent!

Payton called Monday morning to advise he and Kevin made it back safely after dodging some thunderstorms; Mary & I likewise stayed out of the T-storms, and made it back to Daytona Beach in time for the Inlet Harbor shrimp festival - TexMex, Italian, and Coconut shrimp with cold beer, island music, and sunset over the Intracoastal Waterway from the deck!

Congratulations, everybody, especially Larry and Jerry and Don - you guys did a great job of running the show.

Paul & Mary
N462DA

kevin · #11 05-07-04, 01:18 PM

Folks, we're still missing the identity of some of the people in the meeting group picture shown on the Home page. These people have a white line in the two picture elements below. See if you can match these faces with these names: Rick Galvin (Maryland), Steven Gustafson (New York), James Henderson (Texas), Gordon Humphrey (New Hampshire), David Jarrett (Montana), David Littlefield (Minnesota), Jim Rainer (Tennessee), Hugh Wilson (California).

Thanks,

Kevin

Jim Rainer · #12 05-07-04, 02:43 PM

Kevin, I am in the picture on the left with 7-8 folks in it. I am the last person on the right on the top row (with a white line pointing at my head.)

Let me know if that makes sense. I cannot match anyone else up though.

Jim Rainer

skymaster · #13 05-07-04, 03:34 PM

howdy:

my PWA /337 trip cancelled. although nearby , nw. kansas ranch. First rain we had since last july. planned to come over to conference but rained 2 inches and could not leave. we expected to receive cattle for grazing but they got stuck too. However we needed rain. This would be considered a million dollar rain.

wed. nighht flying north from tx gulf coast saw the trs's on the storm scope near gage ok.

we had a goat roap with the rain and cattle trucks. keep me on the list.james henderson

hewilson · #14 05-07-04, 05:15 PM

The ex's aunt was admitted to a hospital out of town near death two days before I was to leave so I ended up with kid duty. I'm sorry I missed the meeting. It sounds like it was a good one.

Richard · #15 05-09-04, 12:55 PM

Should have gone. Dang!

Not that it's really justified, but I have 5 young children and they needed some dad time.

Don is a great guy. I can imagine that it isn't that easy to put something like this together. Together we a adding some life to these dinos roaming the skies.

Thanks to everyone keeping Skymasters alive.