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joomplu:2628 Our June dinner meeting was the first to be held at our new venue - the Palos Verdes Golf Club.  It was by far our best attendance for the year, and everyone seemed to enjoy the new facilities and services.  New name badges were introduced, designed and produced by Maria Grau (with a little help from Wayne).  For these efforts, as well as the highly effective Fly-In photo boards that she created for the DAF Meet & Greet BBQ, Maria received the highly-coveted Wings Award.  Congratulations, Maria!

The program was an aviation photography presentation by Frank Mormillo, who is currently associated with the Planes of Fame Museum in Chino.  Thanks to Frank for showing us some stunning shots.

On June 16, 22 DAFer's departed through overcast conditions at Torrance to a much sunnier situation at Fox Field for a Trivia Contest/Lunch fly-in.  Prior to leaving Torrance, organizer Peter Broen explained the contest's rules (basically none) and handed out a multi-page questionnaire to be filled out by participants in each aircraft.  After a very nice lunch at Foxy's Landing restaurant, Peter collected the forms and promised to reveal the winner at the June dinner meeting.  Thanks to Peter (and the other trivia question creators) for organizing this great event.

 

...They May Turn Out Like This

An outstanding turn-out of over 30 DAFer's attended May's fly-in to Santa Paula on May 18-20.  Friday evening started with Happy Hour on the patio of the Santa Paula Inn followed by a group dinner at the Familia Diaz restaurant.  On Saturday morning, everyone headed to Santa Paula to board the Murder Mystery train ride.  Just about everyone (except for a certain Canadian-sounding gentleman), got into the mood by dressing up in their finest cowperson gear.  Our group pretty much took over the dining car, where we ate, drank and bore witness to an unfolding drama (and eventual murder!).  Over 16 minutes of high-quality story and acting was crammed into the four-hour train ride. Back home in Santa Paula, another great Happy Hour on the patio, followed by a delicious tri-tip dinner overseen by chief griller Mitch Taylor.  The evening closed with awards given to best costumes (Dan and Lori Delane).  Jerry Stephens' evil twin also accepted an award on behalf of his brother.   A big thanks to Jim and Diana Morino who not only organized the trip, but provided most of the food for Saturday night's dinner.  

joomplu:2568Joe and Mitch with Speaker Nissen DavisThe May dinner meeting was the last DAF dinner meeting at Los Verdes Country Club (beginning in June, our meetings will be held at Palos Verdes Country Club).  The presentation was by Nissen Davis who, alarmed by the high suicide rate among active and recently-discharged veterans, helped organize two inspirational tours among military bases in Europe and the Middle East.  The first group was headed by astronauts Neal Armstrong, Jim Lovell and Gene Cernan; the second included celebrities from the racing world including Mario Andretti.  Attendance at all of the tour stops was standing room only, and seeing the conditions in which our military live and work reminded everyone of the enormous sacrifices these men and women make every day.