SW Chapter President's message
aahfswops
We had our final public fly day this last Saturday, the 9th of May. It was a bittersweet day that went very quickly. We flew 10 lifts and every customer that I interacted with was excited before the flight and had huge smiles after. I hung around the hangar until everyone was gone just so I could spend some quiet time with the “tools” that let us bring the history of Army Aviation alive to the Southwest. I realized some “truths” as I was wandering among the aircraft.
While things did not turn out the way we wanted and worked so hard for, there was very little we could have done differently that would have impacted the outcome. The two simple facts we could not overcome was cost and market environment. Hangar rent at Falcon is six times more expensive than it is in the Southeast. East of the Mississippi our sister chapters literally have over a dozen airshow opportunities and events they can fly within a fuel load of their home airport. We have two airshows and we lose money servicing one of them. Cost and the huge distances were things we just could not overcome.
As I stood in the quiet of the hangar, I realized that up until that point I had looked at the aircraft as ours, the Chapter’s; mine if I am honest. I brought 589 out from Atlanta, did the first flight with Pacheco on 315 after the chapter restored it. The majority of pilots we have I taught and brought online for the chapter, so I was feeling a bit possessive, very much sad, and a bit angry.
Then I began to wonder why I never felt that way about other aircraft that I had a long history with. The first D model production Longbow aircraft was heavily instrumented, and I did flights 2 through 30 in it doing the initial envelope expansion. Later on I worked with others to do the final flight control law development, strain survey, structural demonstration, initial development on the new rotor blades, and the aerobatic envelope expansion. I watched, worked on, and flew that aircraft from the day the bare airframe rolled into the assembly hangar until it was finally loaded up and sent east for destructive testing. I never felt as possessive about PVD-1 as I do these aircraft. Why, what’s the difference.
It’s the people that the Foundation attracts, the mission of sharing with and educating the public, and the sense of worth and being able to contribute to something important long after our “productive” years are supposedly gone. The people we have supporting the chapter are simply wonderful. From our octogenarians to our EVIT teenagers they are all there because they want to be, want to help, want to contribute and participate. What they have accomplished is simply amazing and what we have become is something that will impact all of us way into the future. Because, what we have become, is stewards of these wonderful aircraft and the history of Army Aviation. Like a beloved child we know they are ours, and not ours, and when they do slip from our supervision, they need to be as well prepared to carry on as we can possibly make them.
I am so very proud of the professionalism that our members have shown from the day we started with a Cobra and a set of ground handling wheels until today. Make no mistake we did some monster restoration and depot level repairs on our aircraft to keep them going and improve them. Most importantly we maintained a level of professionalism and attention to detail that let us fly thousands of people in our aircraft with not one incident. That is a record to be proud of and one that is only set if everyone takes their stewardship seriously. The Southwest Chapter has the best folks, and I simply want to say thank you for all you do.
We will continue to be stewards of our static aircraft and the mission of the Foundation. Every event that we attend has requested that we continue to support them with our Mike Model gunship and OH-6 Little Bird. Later this year we will be adding another OH-6 to our static lineup mounted to a specially designed trailer that will allow us to easily attend more events and allow easy access to the public. Our next two events are 6 June at the tower on Falcon Field for Cockpit Closeup and the 4th of July celebration at the Scottsdale Princess. Come on out and participate in our 250th celebration.
We have one more chapter flight on Saturday the 16th at about 08:00 followed by maintenance on the Huey and welcoming the team who will move 589 and 315 to their new homes. The aircraft will depart around 08:00 on Sunday the 17th. We still have lots of stuff to ship out and things to do as we switch to a static only chapter but if you would like to spend a bit of time with the aircraft Thursday or Saturday this week will work and if you want to see them off early on Sunday. We sure enjoyed being stewards to these beautiful aircraft
My sincerest heartfelt thanks for your support.
Mark Metzger
Dave Sale
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Tom McNamara
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