One Piece of Straw… Look for a Cub on line during the month of April!
		June 19 – Blue Sky Aero Club event! Fly from Morris to Kalamazoo Rent, borrow, fly your own plane, beg a ride or drive to go to the Kalamazoo Air Zoo Museum. We will meet in the Blue Sky Aero hangar for doughnuts and coffee before proceeding on to Kalamazoo. See the back for details.

During your preflight you see a small piece of straw, only one inch long, laying in the intake. You decide to look in the oil filler door and see nothing, and since you just flew it yesterday you figure it must be ok. It was just one little piece of straw.

You smell something burning during takeoff, so you land right away, remove the cowling and find a massive nest on the left by the firewall. Lesson learned without an engine fire or the engine overheating.

Birds and other crafty creatures can build nests overnight, and not only on the engine. Check your wings and elevator, too. What they leave behind, and I don’t mean the straw, is very corrosive and will do damage to aluminum. After removing as much as possible by hand, you probably should blow any remaining debris with compressed air.

One preventative measure is simple….cover up the holes that give them access. Make sure the covers are red and visible during preflight, though. Being in a hangar helps but is not full proof.

For More information on this subject, please go to Blueskyaero.com and they will be under LINKS OF THE MONTH

Leaseback opportunities! Did you always want to own a plane? Tired of the airline hassle? Have the best of both worlds while taking advantage of favorable depreciation tax laws. Call Cindy@ 941-0063 or read the information on http://advocatetax.com (look for info under Resources on Blueskyaero.com)

Member News

Congratulations are due to the following graduates: Ronnie Mueller and Paul Meyer from Coal City High School, Joe Spear and Matt Gibson from Lewis University.

Come out to the airport on a pretty day and you will probably see Walt Peterson preparing for his checkride, Jason Kinsinger, Denny Thompson, Ronnie Mueller, Matt Koldenhoven or Mark Oldis working on their solo cross countries, or John Rolando and Tom Kasprzyk working on their instrument rating. Joe Bloch might be doing some tailwheel or Arrow flying, Mike Bernier giving a ride, or Brian DePung looking for any reason at all to get up in the air. A beautiful Cessna 195 might land with Mike Kenaga at the wheel, the Stearman could be out with Dave Lindsey, or Matt and Jana Trofimchuck could fly their C-172 for a break from building the RV. You may see Bill Stewart or Harold Booth cruising around in the Citabria, Joe Spear building some Arrow time, or George Wilhelmsen testing out some high-tech avionics for his next article. Or, you may see Joe Suligoy and Greg Granby stop by to fly one of everything, Chuck Erb wave at you when he flies by in his Breezy, or Bill Shain flying the award-winning Atlantis. Mike Halm working on the Stearman for all to enjoy, and Bob Truty planning to work on his plane…tomorrow…. Our mechanic Jack Petit will be busy at work on at least three different projects, and if not with a student Charlie may be helping. Andy will be teaching if not busy building a pond, Stefano will be flying or wanting to fly the Stearman, and John will have his RV out doing circles around a slower plane.

I guarantee that if it is a weekend, the sun is shining and the winds are below 20 knots at Morris Airport, you will see aircraft ranging from a Breezy to a Cirrus, a helicopter to a twin. You are welcome to hang out at the picnic tables and rate the landings, have some lunch at the Café’ Cabaret, and stop in the office to say hi. I don’t think you would have to try too hard to find someone to go flying with you! Consider giving someone an intro ride to share the fun of flight! Remember, a pretty day is reason enough to go fly J

Look for a Cub on line during the month of April!