The Hutchinson Chapter of AMBUCS: Jim Seitnater – editor
Welcome Guests: Dean Brigman introduced Peter Miller Airport Manager and Jim Kicklighter introduced Rory Woods.
Sergeants: Sergeant John Knipp started by fining the late arrivals and offered a music trivia question to Larry Sloan and his table. Believe it or not, the entire table failed to answer his question about the rock group Jefferson Airplane. Could you? Question: what was the name of the groups most famous song and what inspired it? Answer: Grace Slicks song White Rabbit, inspired by Alice in Wonderland. Jim Jacobs, pilot and rock music historian knew both answers, impressing members and segueing into todays program. To save time the Sergeant called for a pin check and tuit report.
Tuit Report: Monte McConnaughy brought the tuit and reported that his spam e-mail attempt failed except for the lucky Curtis Mitchell, who paid his dollar and got the tuit too. Monte reported good news to the club that he re-organized his warehouse to accommodate the Ambucs stuff on the ground floor. Thanks Monte!
Presidents Message: Vice-President Rick Mitchell (who discovered he was in charge when he walked in the door) asked Dennis Reiser for an update on the t-shirt special project, Dennis reported that things were proceeding as planned and that teams were now qualifying. Eric Steinle (volunteer recruiter and owner of the OSSS still needs help on the final Saturday evening and tear-down shifts. The latest OSSS is available on our website of give Eric a call.
Special Care & Prayers needed for Mark Clark and his family, who has been diagnosed with renal cancer. Jim and Maria Kicklighter are close friends with the Clarks and are keeping us updated through e-mails.
Program: Jim Jacobs introduced Peter Miller, the Hutchinson Airport Manager Peter, who has been in this position since May of 2009, originally from Salina, where he grew up hanging around the airport, talking with and watching the pilots, mechanics. He graduated from KSU with a degree in engineering He is president of Hutchinsons pilots club and a pilot himself for over 3 years. Peter gave a great slideshow presentation on the history and recent projects at the Airport. The Airport is under the Parks & Recreation Department of the City, which purchased the 130 acres from the Carey family in 1927. Roland Wells built the first hanger in 1929 at the corner of 4th & Airport Road. The WPA paved the first runway by hand and the Navy bullt a 2nd & 3rd runway during WWII After the war was over, the Navy sold the entire facility back to the City for $1 and moved to the base south of town near Yoder. The terminal was built in 1953 and several airlines provided commercial flights – Continental for a few months in 1948 and then Central, Frontier, and Air Midwest from 1970 to the early 1990s, when our proximity to the Wichita airport ended their service. Peter explained that most projects were 95% funded by the FFA with the exception of the taxi-way Charlie Project which K-DOT funded at 50%, with the other half coming from the City..
Drawings: Duke Wiggins won the 50/50 pot ($22) and Jim Kicklighter couldnt answer the newsletter question. Pot goes to $15 at the next meeting. The Newsletter question for the next meeting on March 12th is Who was the first commercial airliner to fly into the Hutchinson Airport in 1948? The Answer: Continental Airlines
Next weeks program will be Capt. Steve Lutz, who will review the Scholastic Crime Stoppers Program.