March 2003

We were honored to have Fred and Sharon Harms as our guests last month. Fred, the STL FSDO Safety Program Manager, talked about and showed pictures of his earlier days in aviation. He had a lengthy background in Army Aviation, flying helicopters in Vietnam through the Desert Storm era, as well as in civil aviation. Fred's exploits as a civilian helicopter pilot in St. Louis were interesting not only for what he did (legally flew through the arch and landed on top of it), but for the notable personalities that he flew with including Capt. Don Miller of KMOX fame and Allan Barklage. When Fred finished, he said "notice that I didn't say 'safety' once"! Fred is also the first annual recipient of the Jim Byrnes Excellence Award which he was presented at the January Super Safety Seminar. He brought the plaque along to share with us and some pictures of them are in this newsletter. We really enjoyed listening to Fred's stories, the good food and seeing our flying friends again.


Also at the February Valentine's Day meeting our Gateway treasurer, Tony Petruso, and his wife, Rosemary, owners of Overlord Military Collectables, brought a small portion of their sweetheart jewelry collection. Enough jewelry to fill two six foot tables! For the uninitiated, sweetheart jewelry was worn by wives, mothers and girlfriends of G.I.'s in WWI and WWII. They have thousands of examples in their collection and they permitted us to view them during and after the meeting. Tony also has made available 8.5" x 11" paper reproductions of the American Service Flag that families displayed in their windows during WWI and II to show they had a family member in the armed forces. The current flag is for operation "Enduring Freedom". Since Desert Storm, Tony and Rosemary have provided more than 165,000 Service Flags to families of service men and women in the U.S. They will be glad to send you one if you will send them a stamped, self-addressed business size envelope to: SERVICE FLAG, 3008 Woodson Rd., St. Louis, MO 63114. As if Tony and Rosemary don't have enough to do, they also bring the extensive Gateway video library to most of our meetings also. Gateway Chapter appreciates their hard work. [see more pictures below]







This has been a tough winter to hang around at the airport unless you are fortunate enough to have a heated hangar! With the hope that spring will arrive someday, our fly-out chairman, Brian Brinker, has released the 2003 fly-out schedule! The schedule is included in Gateway's Calendar of Events in this newsletter and is posted in the Gateway Chapter's web site at www.mopilots.org. You should really check out the web site since it is full of information about the state activities, convention information, the convention registration form and agenda, legislative action, scholarship information, several other chapter's events and, of course, Gateway's current newsletter as well as those going back a few years.


Third Annual Youth Aviation Day at Spirit Airport is May 10!. The MPA will again be assisting the EAA with their Young Eagles Program. All enjoyed the free Hot Dogs & Soda, checking out the aircraft on display, etc. Volunteers are needed to help with registration, escorting the kids, serving hot dogs & soda, driving a van to and from the Flight Service Station, etc. If you would like to help, call Richard Baricko at 636-458-4576 or sign up online at www.spiritairport.org. Click on the Youth Aviation button which has information about the prior years as well as a "Click Me to Volunteer" button. This is a good opportunity to help the community, Spirit Airport and to introduce young people and their parents to the world of general aviation.

Details of the 2003 MPA State Convention are coming together. When you read this, the convention will only be three months or less away! There was an informational flyer in last month's MPA News and the Registration Form and Agenda should be included in the March MPA NEWS. The registration form is also available on the MPA web site, in three versions, at www.mopilots.org. We ask that the registration forms be returned to us by May 31, so we can provide the information to the food preparation and tour people. Please join us in celebrating one hundred years of powered flight and fifty years of MPA on June 6, 7 & 8.

The next convention planning meeting will be March 20, at Jean Murry's home starting at 7:00 PM. Planning time is short, so please be there!

Many Gateway members have really worked hard setting things up and we can use more volunteers. We need drivers for the tour vans and to shuttle members arriving at Creve Coeur Airport to the DoubleTree Hotel. We need several more members to help man the registration table at the hotel even if only for one or two hours, that will be a big help. I really hope many Gateway members will participate this year while enjoying the fun and friendship of other MPA members from all around the state.

Our March meeting at The Columns in St. Charles will be an FAA Safety Seminar hosted by Steve Long from the STL FSDO. We always enjoy Steve's presentations and notice that this is becoming an annual event for Gateway since this will be his third visit. The program will qualify for a WINGS seminar and also will count towards the MoKan Trophy for our non pilot members. As this is being written, the planned topic will concern safely preflighting your aircraft. Join us on March 12.

Please join us at The Columns in St. Charles. The dinner will consist of: Mandarin orange salad, potato soup, corned beef & cabbage, baked sole w/ dill sauce, parslied potatoes, rolls and key lime pie. Dinner is still $13 per person. Social time begins at 6:00 PM, the serving line opens at 6:30 and the program begins at 7:30. Dinner reservations are required and can be easily made by calling, this month only, Jan Pocock at 636-394-5734. Call by Monday evening, February 10, or better yet, call now - before you put this newsletter down! Please come and bring your friends for the food, fellowship and education.

Click for Map of the Columns

Chuck Maggart
Gateway President
(314) 731-0199

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