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Our first dinner meeting of 2014 was a great success with almost 60 attendees. Incoming President Wayne Grau presided over his first meeting in command. Despite all predictions, everything went smoothly. (Although past-President Joe Cogan was overheard murmuring "rookie" on several occasions).

New Fly-In chairman Dave Weir spoke about the upcoming Baja whale watching trip on Feb. 21-24, as we'll as future fly-ins to Grass Valley (May) and Gold Beach, OR (July).

Our speaker was Lt. Col. Dean Hunter (USAF ret.), who gave an excellent presentation on his experiences as a U.S. Marine during the Korean War, and as a USAF pilot during the Viet Nam war.

More than forty DAFers stormed the decks of the USS Iowa for the January Fly-in (or Drive-in, if you want to get technical about it). Led by our able and knowledgeable guides, we toured the ship and enjoyed the perfect blue skies and warm weather. The only setback was Craig Narr's hernia from trying to sneak out with a 16" shell under his shirt.

After the tour, we adjurned to the 22nd Street Landing Restaurant for an excellent lunch. Thanks to Liz and Peter Broen for arranging a great outing!

DAFers ended the year in style at the annual holiday party on December 17 at the Palos Verdes Golf Club.  The wine was flowing, the food was great, and just about everyone made it to the dance floor.

The 2014 Board was announced (see list below) and Joe Cogan said his farewell as he presided over his final DAF event as club President.  We’ll miss you Joe - you ran a tight board meeting and kept club scandals to a minimum.  Incoming President Wayne Grau presented Joe with a king-sized bottle of Jack (with a nice decanter) to help ease the transition into civilian life.

At November's dinner meeting, the eagerly anticipated results of November 9th's Mystery Fly-In were presented. But before the winners were announced, Curtis Hahn was presented the coveted Wings award for "Grilling Services Above and Beyond the Call of Duty".

The Mystery Fly-In winners were Larry and Jodie Chapman, with Steve Sappington and Nancy Schunke coming in second. The Chapmans, who also won 2012's trivia contest, recognized that their days as victors were numbered. "It is only a matter of time before other DAFers gain the ability to access the Internet", Larry Chapman was overheard saying.

We could not have asked for nicer weather for our Annual Mystery Fly-In on Saturday, November 9. Joe, Peter, Mitch, Anne and Wayne dug deep into the aviation trivia world and came up with a great quiz. 28 DAFers participated and all were able to decipher the destination airport without resorting to the only-open-in-an-emergency-only envelope.

A good lunch followed at the Voyager restaurant where the quiz was debated and litigation strategies discussed.

 

October's dinner meeting featured fellow DAFer Fritz Probst, who related some of his flying experiences in the USAF and at Northrop, both in the US and overseas. One of the highlights of Fritz's presentation was describing his long relationship with aviation legend Bob Hoover.

A few attendees wore costumes (though not as many as in past October meetings) - Jodie and Larry Chapman won the costume contest and each took home a bottle of wine.