Chapter members also contributed toward
the fund. One member made himself famous
by offering to double any donations by the
membership up to $12,500. Members did and
he did, and we were on our way to renovation.
To cover operating expenses, we planned to
rent hangar space to a lucky airplane owner.
RENOVATION
Getting volunteers is not always easy. We
decided to only ask for work on Saturday
mornings. As it turned out, many of the pilots
in our group were also skilled in construction
trades, so we were able to do a lot of the renovation work ourselves.
We began in September 2005 by replacing
all of the electrical and removing about 40
years of accumulated junk from the building.
One of the first tasks was the floor. It had been
known to flood during the spring rainy season,
so we raised the floor 8 inches, by laying 2
inches of construction foam on top of the
existing floor and then 6 inches of new, reinforced cement flooring. Concurrent with this
was the new hangar door footing.
Next came the roof, and unfortunately,
the original owners had covered the corrugated roof with compressed construction
board. Removing the construction board
was a dirty and difficult job done on scaffolding. The roof turned out to be in good shape,
and the few leaks were soon sealed. Then we
decided to have the entire inside of the building coated with insulated foam. This was more
expensive than fiberglass batting, but the
increased R-factor, noise reduction, and sealing effect won.
There was still a lot to do: installing a
second exit door; adding new windows; sheet
rocking, mudding, and painting the walls;
sealing the floor; installing the hangar door;
and installing a drop ceiling and a furnace.
After the lighting was installed we had what
looked like a finished room. Over the next few
weeks we transferred the club’s paraphernalia
from the president’s and newsletter editor’s
hangars, and it began to look a lot more like
home. By the end of 2007 the inside was
complete with a full kitchen and working
bathroom. Our first meeting was held at the
hangar in February 2008.
This chapter hangar took the dedication
and perseverance of some 150 members of
EAA Chapter 13 who put their hearts, minds,
muscle, and money into the project. I hope
that through our story other chapters will see
that projects like this can be accomplished!
New private pilot Emily Lokes poses with
her first passenger, her mother, Cathy. Emily,
18, took a Young Eagles flight in December
2007 and passed her checkride November 2,
2009. Next on the list is a tailwheel endorsement so she can fly the family Citabria and give
Young Eagles rides herself. She is enrolled in
the aviation program at Lehigh Carbon
Community College in pursuit of her dream of
becoming an airline pilot.
EAA Chapter 382 in Xenia, Ohio,
celebrated its 1,000th Young Eagles flight in
September 2009 when Young Eagles
Coordinator Wayne Moyer, EAA 595240, flew
Florencia Padilla in his American AA- 1 Yankee.
Florencia was presented with an embroidered
“EAA 382 1,000th Young Eagle” hat, a YE
certificate, and a logbook. The chapter began its
YE program in 2002, developing a 20-minute
ground school syllabus to teach kids about
flight prior to their ride.
