HARVARD HAPPENINGS
- September 2007 -
www.harvards.com

CHAA
P.O. Box 175,
Tillsonburg, Ontario
N4G 4H5

BACKSEATS:
Contact Leroy Gilmore This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it (519) 895-2717 about backseat opportunities.

CHAA 2007 SCHEDULE:
Harvard backseat opportunities are still available.

SUN, NOV 4 – Shedden (Fingal) Flypast
SUN, NOV 11 – Remembrance Day Flypasts

BINGO:
Contact Bill Scott at 519-474-1731. The remaining 2007 Bingo date is TUES, SEPT 18

CHAA MEMBERS MONTHLY MEETINGS:
Stay informed...plan to attend! Following meeting will be held at Tillsonburg Airport and begins at 1930 hrs: TUES, SEPT 18

During the business section of the meeting, our President, Ray Whittemore, will outline what is happening concerning the T-33 situation as it relates to CHAA. Anyone with an interest in this topic should attend to understand the facts and obtain clarification.

Our guest speaker for this meeting will be Bill Shepard on the topic of the Tuskegee Airmen. For more info on these airmen, go to: http://www.tuskegeeairmen.org/Tuskegee_Airmen_History.html

NOTE THE CHANGE:
The following meetings will be held on Saturdays from 1000 hrs to 1200 hrs:
SAT, OCT 20
SAT, NOV 17
SAT, DEC 15 – SOCIAL TIME SAT
JAN 19 SAT
FEB 16 – CHAA’S ANNUAL BUSINESS MEETING SAT
MARCH 15

Then, returning to Tuesdays and start time of 1930 hrs on: TUES, APRIL 15

OTHER DATES:
SAT, SEPT 15 – SEPTEMBER EVENING AT THE HANGAR
Come spend an evening at the hangar with CHAA friends and guests. For the 2nd year, a CHAA social event, “September Evening at the Hangar” is being held at Hangar 1 in Tillsonburg. Start time 1700 hrs, with dinner (hot buffet) to begin at 1800 hrs; social time to follow with great music for dancing and listening enjoyment. Tickets are $15 and are available from Marg Hollister (519-842-9567) or Eva Hillsdon ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ).

Attire casual. Guests welcome. Last year’s event was a huge success and lots of fun. This year’s is shaping up to be more of the same. To date, we have 70 people who have purchased their tickets! Hope to see you there.

SAT, OCT 20 – HARVARD HAWK DAY
This day will be for our Harvard Hawk teens. Mark your calendars. More details to follow.

SEPT 27-30 -- The highly anticipated GATHERING OF MUSTANGS AND LEGENDS, THE FINAL ROUND UP, is scheduled to be held at Rickenbacker Field in Columbus, Ohio. From their website (www.gml2007.com) we learn they expect over 100 Mustangs and 51 Legends! To all who plan to attend, enjoy every minute of “formation flying, solo demonstrations, as well as an aviation auction and opportunities to meet the Aces, Legends and Heroes who flew the P-51 Mustangs”.

MEMBERSHIP NEWS:
Marion Bennell This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it 519-633-0053 The last weeks have been busy ones for Membership which is a good indicator CHAA is doing well.

FLYDAYS:
13 rides were taken by members during the August 18 Fly Day.

Saturday, September 8 saw two venues being operated by CHAA.

First, two CHAA pilots took an aircraft to Parry Sound for the day and while there seven people had rides. Here in Tillsonburg, it was the first day of DOORS OPEN OXFORD (a yearly event when Oxford County showplaces a number historical buildings as well as industries, airports, nurseries, and this is the second year the Tillsonburg Airport and its tenants have been included), and over 350 people toured our facilities that day. CHAA was offering rides and 17 people took advantage of this opportunity; 14 of those were new members. During all of this excitement, three Harvards left the airport (piloted by Greg Burnard, Johnny Curran and Bill Shepard) and were joined enroute by a Woodstock Harvard (piloted by David Hewitt) to perform formation flights over the Warrior's Day Parade at Western Fair in London (CHAA has flown over this parade many times over the years.).

CORRESPONDENCE:
Following is a letter received from a new member who was in a Harvard backseat for this flight to London:

I just want to express my sincere thanks for signing me up as a new member and providing such a perfect backseat ride last Saturday, Sept.8/07.

It was a most memorable occasion for me (my 80th birthday present surprise) and my family, especially my son, Rick, a piper in the Warriors Day Parade at London's Western Fair grounds; he certainly heard us, but I couldn't quite hear him! He said it all looked perfect to him, beautiful, and was the best Harvard flypast he had ever seen. Also, thanks to the very helpful ground crew members -- most obliging, friendly and on-the-job. They always seemed busy and knew what had to be done.

Last, but not least, a big thanks to Johnny Curran, who piloted Harvard 242 with great skill. I had full confidence all the time and really enjoyed the flight even though the air was quite bumpy. I can now better appreciate the demands on the pilot when flying in such close formation. It was a great experience to say the least. I even managed to take 39 movie clips with a little digital camera, and they all turned out pretty good.

Best regards,

Lloyd Wood (CHAA member 2497)

And here is a letter we received from Mr. Wood’s son, Rick, a bagpiper during the Warrior’s Day Parade:

Well, it was a wonderful day! Saturday was not only spectacular in terms of weather, it was spectacular in terms of our family's connection to the Harvards!

Our father greatly enjoyed his experiences with your team, from the brief tour the week before, to the briefing itself, and then the flight over the farmlands and into the city. I can tell you that from below, your team looked great! Beautiful blue sky, white wispy clouds, and the yellow Harvards overhead: lovely! Dad hasn't stopped talking about it, and we know that we found an appropriate way to recognize his 80th birthday.

Thanks so much for your help in organizing his participation, and to all your team for offering such an opportunity!

Best wishes and I'll see you from below on November 11,

Rick Wood

(The words of those letters say it all.)

The second day Sunday, September 9 was wet! Unfortunately there was no flying due to this inclement weather, but approximately 200 people visited our facilities and many CHAA volunteers were kept busy showing them around, talking of our airplanes with pride and answering all their questions.

Brandon Zimmerman patiently explained the workings of the Link Trainer to many dozens of folks on both Saturday and Sunday. (The pilots say he has put more miles on the Link than they have put on the planes this season.) Thank you to Brandon for all his hours of sharing the experience and information with so many.

Thank you also to Al Spiers who shared the workings of the electrical panel with so many visitors.

To all the other members of CHAA who spent Saturday and/or Sunday at the hangar, thank you, thank you; when everyone does their part and works as a team, the job gets done.

MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL:
It is RENEWAL time again and the Renewal form will be in the September ROAR. Several members have already renewed for 2008 and renewal stickers will be sent with their ROAR.

KEEPING IN TOUCH:
As always, our thoughts are with those who have recently been ill, had surgery or have lost loved ones. We hold you in our hearts and wish you better days ahead. FYI: On behalf of CHAA, cards are sent to thank our guest speakers and to CHAA members/their families who are ill or have lost loved ones (or are celebrating a special birthday). If you know of someone CHAA should be remembering, please do not hesitate to let Sandra know and a card will be sent ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ).

Until next month, remember: TOGETHER WE WILL KEEP THE "YELLOW BIRDS" FLYING!

ADMIN OFFICER REPORT:
Roy Venn ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) - 519-842-3813

ADMIN ROOM BOOKINGS: should be done through Roy at email above.

OUR WEBSITE:
It has been a very busy time since the last issue of Harvard Happenings. Along with the day-to-day operations that we normally go through there were two training dates for interested individuals to learn how to enter material onto the Website.

Bill Tully (CHAA Recovery Team) did a great job of teaching his students and as a result we should be able to keep the site up-to-date on a daily basis. Since the training, Bill has made himself available both by phone and email to get us over those little glitches we all run into. Thanks Bill – great job.

It now comes down to you, the members, to feed us the information, dates and photos you would like to see become a part of our website. All of you are sources of information, all of you have a story and we have the technology at our fingertips to let the world inside our organization and find out who we really are...it’s up to you.

The following individuals have been trained to enter information on the website: Walther Irie, Roy Venn, Mike Merlo, Wayne Wilkins, Tom Smith and Sandra Sparkes.

Information may be submitted via email, snail mail or by hand. All of us will do our best to get the information out to the world accurately and in a timely fashion.

DOORS OPEN OXFORD:
Our second year into Doors Open Oxford was every bit as good as last year with one exception – the weather on day two. On Saturday we got in 17 (seventeen) rides and saw 592 people visit the facilities for the weekend. That brings the total of people touring CHAA this year to 928 and we still have a visit by the Tillsonburg Probus club to look forward to on the 18th September.

A big thank you to all those who took part in this event – you did a great job and made it the success it was. We aren’t sure where we are going from here to attract the public to our site but are confident our team will come up with a plan.

HANGAR CHAT:
The MTX project is moving along very nicely. The new ribs are in place on the left wing and it should be off the jig in a week or two so that the right wing can be done. Cleaning is a major ongoing thing with various parts.

HAPPENINGS:
On Sun, AUG 12, CHAA participated in the taping of a segment of the new CBC television show "NOW --- No Opportunity Wasted" which will premiere in October.

According to CBC’s website (www.cbc.ca/now/ ), NOW is inspired by the book and personal life philosophy of "The Amazing Race" host Phil Keoghan.

In each episode, two challengers will be surprised by Canadian adventurer and author Bruce Kirkby and asked to take on Phil Keoghan’s 72-hour NOW challenge. The two challengers, total strangers with a common goal, must work step-by-step to complete a series of time targets that will push them to the extreme and help them complete their challenge.

CHAA’s segment was part of a show dealing with those challengers who have a fear of flying; they were challenged with a couple of flight experiences before moving on to a backseat ride in a Harvard.

This was an exciting adventure for CHAA, and we will be watching CBC to see our Harvards being piloted by Greg Burnard, Tony Donnelly, Greg Tyrell and Dan Cameron.

Following is a letter received from the Associate Producer of No Opportunity Wasted:

I wanted to say thank you again for all of your time and help to make yesterday happen. It was a perfect day and a great finish to the episode; we couldn't have done it without all the pilots and everyone at the CHAA.

The challengers in the show have truly gone through a life changing experience and much of it is owed to you and you team.

Thanks again, looking forward to the next time,

Jordan Junck
Associate Producer of No Opportunity Wasted www.noopportunitywasted.ca

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Until next time, clear skies, safe flights and smooth landings!

Sandra Sparkes, CHAA Member