EAA Chapter 84 Podcast

This month's podcast will be an interview with chapter member and former chapter secretary Bob MacDonald. Bob tells us about his interest in aviation as a youth while growing up with a family that was constantly on the move, and how he eventually ended up going to school at MIT for aeronautical engineering. Bob then shares with us how he eventually became part of a small group working on the development of the Lear Fan aircraft which now hangs from the ceiling at the Museum of Flight in downtown Seattle. We also get deep into the details of Bob's own designs, the S-10, S-20 and S-21. The S-20 now resides in the Port Townsend Aero Museum and is still flown today. Finally Bob wraps up the interview talking about his passion for designing safe aircraft and what he thinks can be done to promote safer aerodynamic aircraft designs.

In this episode we will sit down for a conversation with World Record holder Arnold Ebneter. Arnold gives us details on the E-1 airplane he designed, built and flew to set a world record for flight distance of an aircraft weighing less than 500kg. After we finish up with Arnold we talk to young 14 year old Ishitha Arekapudi who has been appointed Chapter 84’s Young Eagles Youth Ambassador. We close this episode with some chapter news and updates.

In this episode we talk with EAA Chapter 84 member Hank Schilling about such things as growing up in Ontario Canada, his early attempts at an aviation career in the CAF and then we get into 72 years of piloting such planes as the DC-6 and 727. We finish off the interview with some sound advice from Hank for future aviators. The podcast is capped of with the latest chapter news including our April speaker former NASA Flight Director Paul Dye.

In this episode we double the conversation with 35 year chapter member Dan Thomas and Jim Morgan who has been involved with the chapter for over 25 years. Dan tells us about how he fed his aviation dreams growing up in rural South Dakota and how his family, for good or bad, helped encourage his aviation dreams. Jim tells us about winning a school competition early in life and how that lead to private pilot lessons. Both members share their early memories of the chapter events and members all the way back to the early 80's. Finally, we wrap up the episode with some aviation and chapter news.

This is the first in a series of podcasts that will bring you some of the history, news and current events of EAA Chapter 84. For our first episode we brought in chapter elder Nick Gentry to share some of his 35 years of history with the chapter. We also touch on a little aviation news and give you an update on what the chapter will be doing with "in person" general meetings.