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Our June dinner meeting was a little shorter than usual since our scheduled program did not occur as planned.  There was a miscommunication with our scheduled speaker that resulted in his absence - but the good news is that he has been rescheduled for next month's meeting.  

In a ceremony filled with pomp and pageantry, President Joe Cogan presented Marvin Thatcher with an honorary Del Amo Flyers membership in celebration of Marvin's recent 98th birthday and his extensive aviation experiences in Southern California.  You can read more about Marvin's aviation-filled life through his interview with Anne O'Brien by clicking here.

Our May dinner meeting featured Rick Lach of the Recreational Aviation Foundation (RAF). The RAF's mission is "Keeping the legacy of recreational aviation strong by preserving, maintaining and creating public use recreational and backcountry airstrips nationwide". Rick's presentation focussed on the RAF's efforts to both expand and maintain backcountry airports in California and the West, including the recently-reopened Chicken Strip airport in Death Valley.

May 10-11, 2013. A dozen DAFers touched down in Oceano (L52) to help celebrate the annual Airport Appreciation Day. Six of us camped out on the airport property, the other six stayed in a nearby hotel.

A hamburger grill took place on Friday night, followed by dance music from the San Luis Jazz Band. On Saturday morning, we woke up to a Lions Club pancake and sausage breakfast and a chance to look at the aircraft static display (which included quite a few Mooneys). A full 16-piece Swing music orchestra entertained everyone until a tri-tip lunch was served by the local Elks club.

Unfortunately, a low cloud layer that stuck around all morning prevented a few DAFers from flying in and joining the Saturday events. This was a nice low-key event that let everyone appreciate our small, local airports.

In the past we've had programs on how to avoid crashing your airplane, and recently had one on how to survive if you do crash your airplane, but our April dinner program focused on something different - finding the wreckage of unsurvivable airplane crashes.  It wasn't a topic that you would normally expect a group of active aviators to enjoy, but our speaker, G. Pat Macha, delivered a very informative and entertaining presentation: "Mysteries Mitigated".  Pat is the author of three books in the field of aircraft archeology, has produced a video on wreck finding and hosted the History Channel program, "Broken Wings".  Pat detailed the tedious work of finding the wrecks, and the emotional experience of connecting family members to their departed loved ones.  After Pat's presentation, the remainder of the meeting was devoted to consoling the hysterical sobbing of some of non-pilot flying companions in the audience.