New Year Recovery Dinner
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The 2023 Annual New Year Recovery Dinner is now in the books and it was one not to be missed! All 44 attendees enjoyed an excellent meal at the Brigantine La Mesa this past Saturday. The event was kicked off by a happy hour that was punctuated by spirited conversations amongst old friends with some new ones added in to make it even more interesting. Karl's pre-dinner presentation began with a Gone West tribute to members Joe Pribilo, Bill Dutton and Sherman Smoot (past member). Joe's family hosted a celebration of life open house in December at the Overson's hangar. He kept a number of photo albums that we all enjoyed turning the pages of "the walk through life with Joe". Great guy, was a friend to all and will be missed.
This year's "member focus" was Waldo Waterman, an AAASDC member back in the 60's. Waldo was a businessman and inventor and his most noteworthy project was the flying automobile. Using his autobiography provided by Bill Allen, I was able to share some photos of the cars capped off with numerous quotes from Waldo's sessions with pilot friends. Waldo had 3 primary vehicles, the Autocar, the Aeromobile and the Chevy Duck (his foray into amphibians). A couple of Waldo's quotes we all enjoyed were:
Landing through an archway or a large doorway was ideal, go right on through, wiping the wings off in the process.”
“This would absorb the shock while letting the body of the aircraft with the pilot safely inside, come to rest inside of the building.”
“In a forested area, land between two substantial trees to remove the wings”
After an excellent dinner, the second half of Karl's presentation focused on our scholarship awards program. AAASDC member Rich Kenney was introduced to the audience. Rich works in the marketing and promotion field and has recent years co-founded the the company AeroSTEM with a specialty in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maintenance). Their primary focus is on education and developing more interest in technology fields with pre-college youth.
Rich also works closely with the organization that runs the La Jolla Concours d'Elegance vintage car show. Through Rich's efforts along with Phil Kendro (also an AAASDC member) and Bill Allen some 6 years ago, we began flying our vintage aircraft as a fly-by performance for the car show on Sunday (the car show is generally held in April). Over the succeeding years, the relationship matured into a more formal process with expanded benefits to both to our chapter as well as our participating pilots.
This year, we will receive a $1500 donation to our scholarship fund from the car show organizer as well as special VIP tickets to the car show and private events on show days. We also received approximately 300 “tickets" that entitle the buyer to a $5 to $20 discount of regular/VIP priced admission to the car show that we can pass on to friends and neighbors and for each ticket purchased and using our AAASDC "purchase code", our Chapter would receive $10.
A big Thank You to Rich and Phil for their efforts on our behalf. BTW, when work schedules permit, Phil has been the show ground announcer, using the public address system to tell the car show audience a short story about each aircraft and its pilot as they fly over the venue!
The last item on the agenda was the awarding of $1500 scholarships to three (3) talented and deserving young pilots. First up to receive her award was Lindsay Grant, followed by Casey Jacobs and Yelena Kozekova. Speaking for the membership, we were all very pleased to make these awards and look forward to hear how each of them progresses toward their goal of IFR, commercial, and ATP. Each also receives a free year membership in the Antiquers and we certainly look forward to seeing them at some of our 2023 events.
