The Crosswind

Correction

Off i c ia l mon th ly p ub l i ca t i on o f EAA Cha p te r 1 23 2 In c lud i ng GF CA News

July, 2014

Volume 2, Issue 7 RV-12 Tour Comes to Gnoss. Sort of.

Wouldn’t you know it? After a month of

planning, arranging, and scheduling, Van’s

Aircraft demo pilots Chris Thelan and Josh

Halemeier ran into some nasty, gusting

winds (18G27) that prevented them from

landing their RV-12 S-LSA (factory-built) at

Gnoss Field as scheduled on the afternoon

of June 24. Instead, they diverted to Peta-

luma where the wind was a consistent 14

kts. right down two-niner, and three of the

four scheduled demo flight recipients were

able to fly with Chris in the late afternoon

from the Petaluma airport.

Later that evening both Chris and Josh

made a nice presentation to twenty-two

EAA members (and Matt Pearson of our

host, C.A.P. Squadron 23), including a slide

show, a couple of short videos, and an op-

portunity to lay hands on an actual Dynon

multifunction display unit. Since the actual

RV-12 demonstrator aircraft was tied down

at o69, Tom Ryan and Ron Jagels were

kind enough to pull their homebuilt exam-

ples over to the ramp area adjacent to the

C.A.P. trailer, and everyone traipsed out

into the twilight to comb over these two fine

examples while Chris and Josh pointed out

some of the more interesting features of the

design. Interestingly, both Chris and Josh

are actively involved in the construction of

the factory-built version (Special Light

Sport Aircraft, or S-LSA as opposed to the

Homebuilt Light Sport Aircraft, or E-LSA)

and had high praise for the construction

and finish on both Ron and Tom’s examples.

Neither Chris nor Josh work for directly for

Van’s. Instead, they are employees of Syn-

ergy Air, a company in Eugene, OR which

had been a training center for RV kit build-

ers, and which in 2012 teamed up with

Van’s to produce the first batch of twelve

RV-12 S-LSAs. Those twelve aircraft sold

within eight hours. Currently Synergy em-

ploys nineteen people to produce three

aircraft each month. Synergy is located on

the same airport as Lane Community Col-

lege, which is using two of the original doz-

en RV-12s in their flight school along with

several 172s.

Lane CC has produced a series of short

videos detailing their experiences with the

RV-12s in their flight school, and the results

have been very promising. The aircraft is

simple and parts are readily available, so

maintenance is simple and relatively cheap,

and the planes are on the line more that

the 172s. Lane is reporting direct operating

costs of $65/hr (wet), and because the

Dynon-equipped, leather interior, bubble

canopy, new RV-12s are more popular with

their students they are able to charge the

same rate as they do for the older, steam

gauge 172s. Subsequently, the RV-12s are

changing the economics of the school, in a

very positive way.

The design itself is similar to most LSA-type

aircraft, with numbers that will sound famil-

iar to anyone familiar with the genre;

1320 lbs. gross (the maximum for LSAs),

740 empty, 20 gallons fuel capacity, 50

lbs. baggage. Both Chris and Josh were

over 200 lbs. and are tall guys, so the

plane’s useful load was visibly evident. Top

speed is 135 mph (designer Richard Van

The “Crosswind Drift” Newsletter-EAA Chapter 1232 July 2014 Page 2

West Coast Factory-Built RV-12 Tour cont’d

Grunsven, the “RV” in the RV series, has

always worked with mph vs. kts), with a

low cruise of 116 mph and a stall of 47

mph. Rate of climb is 900 fpm., fuel burn

tops out at 5 gallons of 91 unleaded mo-

gas at full throttle, and between 3.5 and 4

gph in cruise. The installed Rotax 912 ULS

comes with a 2000 hour TBO.

Oh, yeah-the wings are easily removable

in just a few minutes (five?) with two peo-

ple. Just remove the two spar pins inside

the cockpit, and each wing slides out of the

fuselage using the built-in handles in the

wingtip. The second person grabs onto the

spar at the fuselage end, and the 100 lb.

wing is easily moved removed, allowing

for easy storage in minimal space, or even

trailering should you so desire.

Chris showed a video of he and Josh ac-

complishing the removal of the wings in less

than two minutes a side. Remounting of the

wings is just as simple, as there are no con-

nections to be made in the process; the

aileron pushrod and wiring for the position

and landing lights are all automatically

made via a single slip fitting and a single,

five-pin electrical connector that require no

“hands-on” attention.

The big difference with this design vs. other

LSAs is that this plane is entirely metal, built

in Oregon entirely with U.S.-made materi-

als. Current price for the basic model is

$115,000, or $123,000 for the “deluxe”

model with wheel pants, three color paint,

ADS-B traffic and weather, and two axis

autopilot. 800 kits of its’ homebuilt counter-

part have been sold since its’ introduction in

2008, and over 300 are already flying,

including at least three on the field at

Gnoss and at least three more under con-

struction here.

There’s no doubt that the LSA market has

suffered with overpriced, somewhat

“dainty” imports, high-maintenance/limited

utility “legacy” designs (J-3, Champ, Er-

coupe, etc.) or expensive copies of legacy

designs (Carbon Cub, et al), and the failure

of the rushed-to-market, Chinese-built

Cessna Skycatcher probably set the indus-

try back several years. The RV-12 is the

first simple, all-metal, high quality, highly-

useful travelling machine to come out of the

landmark LSA regulations, one that might

be just what flight schools need to capture

the interest of the up and coming genera-

tion of new pilots and older pilots, alike.

July Chapter Meeting at San Rafael Airport July 15

Back in November we had the opportunity

to have our monthly meeting on a Saturday

at San Rafael Airport, at the invitation of

owner Bob Herbst., who also provided a

brand-spanking new gas grill and food

supplies for the event. We combined this

meeting with a hangar crawl to take a look

at what members and our hosts had in their

hangars. It was, by all accounts, a resound-

ing success. Jump forward six months and

the opportunity presented itself to hold

another meeting and BBQ at San Rafael,

although this time a regular, evening meet-

ing without the hangar crawl. After assur-

ing everyone that this event would NOT

replace the annual BBQ/hangar crawl on

a Saturday in November, we set the date

for July 15 and we’re ready to go. Phil

Simon will be our chef, so you know we can

expect more than just a limp hot dog.

If you haven’t already done so please

email us at EAA1232@gmail.com if you’re

planning to attend.

The “Crosswind Drift” Newsletter-EAA Chapter 1232 July 2014 Page 3

Family Fun Day at Sonoma Skypark

The folks over at Sonoma Skypark hosted

a family fun day/open house from 11-3 on

Saturday, June 14, and while the event

was very similar in purpose to our April 12

event at Gnoss Field it was obvious they

had put quite a bit of planning into the

day’s activities and had many more volun-

teers involved in the process. There were,

at one time, twenty aircraft lined up along

the single runway with examples including

a Beech Staggerwing, a Waco biplane

(giving rides, no less), a PT-19 Cornell, two

or three Stearmans and several classic tail-

draggers, including a beautiful Cessna 170

that took a skydiver aloft (and pushed him

out) twice to select the winner of a

“skydiver” bingo fundraiser raising money

for EAA Chapter 1268s’ Air Adventure

Academy program (they send six or seven

teens to Oshkosh for two weeks each sum-

mer). Hamburgers and hotdogs were free

and the lines were long, and Young Eagles

sold cold drinks out of a kiddie pool full of

ice. A local R/C club had several models

on display and flew demonstrations all

day, and you could catch a ride on a hay

wagon pulled by an antique tractor along

the display line.

There were several notable features about

the setup of the event, not the least of

which was the fact that the display aircraft

weren’t roped off from the attendees. Hay

bales kept hordes of people from wander-

ing aimlessly into and around the aircraft,

but an individual could still get close

enough to look in the cockpits.

At least one dad with his three year old

son in his arm did just that, and the kid was

transfixed. It appeared that there were just

a few more people at this event at one

time as our event, but with the attractions

spread out over about 1000 feet of run-

way there was less “bunching” and more

room to explore. There were lots of fami-

lies.

One thing they didn’t undertake with this

event? Young Eagles. Chapter 1268 is

known for their twice-monthly Young Eagles

events, though, and they probably felt that

made up for the absence of such flights at

this event. I’m certain that reduced the

complexity of their event considerably.

INTERESTING YOUNG EAGLES TIDBIT

Many of you have asked if we know if any

of our Young Eagles have gone on to be-

come pilots, and the truth is we don’t have

any specifics as by law we’re not allowed

to keep the kind of personal data that

we’d need to track the individuals. We do

know from a recent FAA/EAA study that a

growing number of former Young Eagles

are getting their pilots licenses as they

reach their 30’s. However, this little tidbit,

buried in a recent Young Eagles newsletter,

gives another perspective on the effective-

n e s s o f t h i s p r o g r a m :

“Last year proved to be another successful

one for the Young Eagles program. The

Young Eagles Flight Plan experience solid 8

percent increases in both student member-

ships and Sporty’s Online Learn to Fly course

enrollments. Sporty’s course completions

increased an amazing 47 percent! These

increases signify a better understanding of

our Flight Plan program by both the volun-

teers and participants, and deeper levels of

engagement in our offerings.”

For those of you who may not know, the

Young Eagles Flight Plan extends far be-

yond the child’s first flight, and offers:

free EAA student membership, good

until the Young Eagle turns 19

the ability to take the Sporty’s online

ground school for FREE,

reimbursement for the cost of the writ-

ten exam (when passed),

an hour of free flight instruction at a

local flight school,

the chance for one of over 20 (and

increasing) flight training scholarships.

The “Crosswind Drift” Newsletter-EAA Chapter 1232 July 2014 Page 4

Not Your Traditional “Barn Find”

At the June meeting Ted Pugh told the story of how he came in contact with a bit of WWII history that few of us would have ever seen otherwise. On the surface it looked like Ted had found a binder full of newslettters/training documents published by Lockheed specifically for P-38 pilots, but further examination of the history of this binder proved to be even more inter-esting. Ted initially sent an email looking

for help in determining just how scarce this

booklet was:

“...I believe the P-38 info manual from WWII that I mentioned at the May meeting, owned by pilot-Col. Oliver Taylor, I 'm able to bring to the meeting with permission from his daughter. Do you know the EAA archi-vist? I'd like to get the lowdown on its scar-

city from the EAA warbird folks…”

A couple of phone calls to EAA HQ indicat-ed that the best bet for this type of evalu-ation would be the executive director of

Warbirds of America, Bill Fischer:

“Thank you for your inquiry. We have a library of technical/flight manuals of the various warbird aircraft. I'd be able to help

your Chapter member with any questions.

See my contact number below…”

Ted sent a couple of scans of his find to Bill, who responded, noting that it was an al-most complete collection of 28 individual

documents ( it was missing the one on spins-he provided a photocopy to complete the collection) published over a two year peri-od to specifically address some of the unique flying qualities of the P-38 which, due to it’s radical (for the time) design, was presenting some unique “challenges” to relatively low-time pilots flying them in operational settings. These documents fo-cused on specific issues such as decreasing

the radius of turns, braking, spin recovery, etc., and included easy-to-read technical information supported by simple line illus-trations and softened up with some really

good cartoons.

Ted passed the book around at the June meeting, and it was interesting to see just

what good shape it was in.

But the book itself is only part of the story. It seems that Ted found it behind some fur-niture in the home of a client, where it had apparently fallen and remained for quite some time. The client turned out to be the daughter of a WWII P-38 pilot, Col. Oli-ver B. Taylor, who was an actual ace in the P-38 with five combat victories. In fact, one of the P-38s he flew was memorialized by Corgi Manufacturing in a finely-detailed

die-cast model.

Col. Taylor commanded the 14th Fighter Group in Triolo, Italy, where he earned both the Distinguished Flying Cross AND the Silver Star for his “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in connection with military operations against the enemy while serving as Commanding Officer, 14th Fighter Group, Fifteenth Air Force…” Accordingly, the handwritten notations in various por-tions of the book take on a whole new sig-

nificance.

Ted proposed, and the members present agreed that it was a good idea, to give a brief, ten minute highlight of two chapters of the book at each month’s meeting, not

quite a full presentation but enough to ex-tract and focus on some of the more inter-esting aspects of the documents, include slides with scans of some of the illustrations, and fill in some of the details of Col. Tay-

lor’s career.

Join us at the July BBQ at San Rafael Air-port for the first installment in what promis-

es to be a very interesting monthly series.

-photo from forums.army.com

-from the book P-38 Aces of the ETO

The “Crosswind Drift” Newsletter-EAA Chapter 1232 July 2014 Page 5

CALENDAR

July 11-13 30h West Coast Cub Flyin, Lompoc, CA 75-110 Cubs! Lompoc Airport (KLPC) 231 NM, 154 True

July 12 GFCA Breakfast Meeting, Scanlon Hangar, 9:00 a.m.

July 12-13 Flying Legend Airshow, Duxford Air Museum, Cambridge, England http://fighter-collection.com/cft/flying-legends-

2014/ . Also see video trailer under WebGems. 5735nm/Great Circle Route

July 13 3rd Annual Internation Wings and Weiners Fly-in, Ukiah, 11a.m.-3 p.m., KUKI 66nm, 333 True

July 15 EAA Chapter 1232 meeting and BBQ, San Rafael Airport Pilot’s Lounge, 6:30 RSVP to eaa1232@gmail.com

July 16 GFCA Board Meeting, Pilot’s Lounge, Administration Bldg., Gnoss Field. Members always welcome!

July 17 Gnoss Field Visioning and Stakeholders Meeting, hosted by Marin County Department of Public Works, 7:00-9:00

p.m., Council Chambers, City of Novato City Hall (901 Sherman Avenue, Novato

July 19 Old Time fly-in, Colusa, Free Breakfast for fly-ins, Colusa Airport o08, 68nm, 023 true

July 19 P.A.P.A. Display Day, Petaluma Muni (o69) 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

July 28-Aug 3 Oshkosh! (KOSH) 1568 nm/066 True

August 8-10 GFCA Flyout to Sunriver Resort, Hood OR (4S2) 454 nm/005 true

August 15-17 Van’s Homecoming, Independence, OR 7S5, 405 nm, 356 true

Aug 9 GFCA Breakfast, Scanlon Hangar 9:00 a.m. TBD

Aug 12 EAA Chapter 1232 August Meeting, Oshkosh Reports, CAP Trailer Gnoss Field, 6:30 p.m. dinner, 7:00 mtg.

Aug 20 GFCA Board Meeting, Pilot’s Lounge, Administration Bldg., Gnoss Field. Members always welcome!

Sept 27 12th Annual Young Eagles Day and Airport Open House, 10 a.m.—2 p.m. Gnoss Field

Oct 4 CalPilots Annual Meeting, Castle/Merced KMER, 105nm, 115 true

Page 6

Web Gems-This Month’s Best (if clicking these links doesn’t work copy/paste them into your browser’s address window)

Magnificent high-definition airshow videos from Budapest http://youtu.be/0px9HFIVYjY via John Lannom

Nice color WWII air combat footage http://youtu.be/_fuWrdSdlRs

CubCrafters Ozark flyin http://youtu.be/bupYSigTVq8

Great advice, via John Lannom: http://www.1232.eaachapter.org/MilitaryAdvice%281%29.pdf

Neil Armstrong, Lunar Lander trainer crash 1968 http://youtu.be/mBlNfFcV6ns

Different look at the Boneyard http://youtu.be/0B7VA4SOftY

100 Fantastic photos from early aviation, via Ernie Ganas: http://www.faa.gov/about/history/celebration/media/LaGuardia%

20Exhibit%20Album.pdf

Bruce Bohannon Dead Stick in a Cub http://www.flyingmag.com/videos/video-channel-flyingtv/dead-stick-cub-0?con=outbrain&dead-stick-cub-

0=&obref=obnetwork&src=related&con=outbrain&obref=obnetwork#ooid=RiMm0wbDq664kjK1D2js1_OOImDFDpSn

River Running, Judith River, Montana http://vimeo.com/98450665

Rio Vista Sonex fly-in 5/31, notice a familiar RV-12? http://youtu.be/OVIVQ44fE-0

Pietenpol fly-in at Frazier Lake, 6/7/14: http://vimeo.com/97680971

Duck! (Gooney, actually) Low flyin’ DC-3! http://youtu.be/F8kt2vDm3Mw

Cubs in a downburst, or “this is the STO part of STOL: http://youtu.be/b_WmjWAGkLI

...and this is the “L” part of STOL (this is NOT a Cub): http://youtu.be/x9tvdjDAr1U

The very first Air Force One, current condition http://youtu.be/ehwvZXVKmPU

The “Crosswind Drift” Newsletter-EAA Chapter 1232 July 2014

The “Crosswind Drift” Newsletter-EAA Chapter 1232 July 2014 Page 7

Gnoss Field Community Association News

New Board Member-Stewart Emery

Among other things, at the Annual Meeting

held in conjunction with the June 14 break-

fast meeting, Stewart Emery was elected to

a one year term on the Board of Directors.

Stewart brings a ton of energy, experience

and expertise, and we’re very happy to

have him on the Board!

President’s Report

Board president Mark Sheron then gave

what turned out to be his last annual up-

date (see note, below), listing the past

year’s accomplishments:

Creation of teams that have met with

Supervisors

Cooperation with EAA and incorpora-

tion of GFCA as a section in the EAA

newsletter.

Rain-soaked Wings over Marin

Revamped web site marincountyair-

port.org (Thank you Tom Schiff)

Board meeting with Judy Arnold and

DPW staff.

Paving of Airport Road.

Informal BBQ/Open House as part of

community outreach including Young

Eagle flights.

GFCA members spoke in favor of the

adoption of the runway extension EIR.

In addition, Mark noted the following goals

for GFCA in 2014/15:

Organize flyout to Sun River, OR

August 8-10

Educational flights

Scholarships

Keep fighting to get the AWOS fixed,

taxi ways and ramp paved, runway

repaired.

More Open Houses.

New Board President

At the end of the June 18 meeting of the

GFCA Board of Directors Mark Sheron

announced his resignation as Board presi-

dent . When you think of how far this or-

ganization has come during Mark’s five

years as president it’s amazing, really.

We’ll miss his leadership, drive, and deft

and understated “touch”, but luckily he will

remain on the Board as Vice-President.

Board member Ken Mercer was elected

new Board President.

Again, from Mark:

Dear members and friends of GFCA:

It has been an honor and a privilege to serve

as your President since the inception of

GFCA. Much has been accomplished since we

began five years ago. But the time has come

for new leadership to carry forward what

has begun. Accordingly, your Board of Di-

rectors has elected Ken Mercer to assume the

role or President as of July 1. I will remain

on the Board as Vice President and Secre-

tary. I'm sure that I speak for the entire

membership in wishing Ken great success in

his new role. I know that he can count on us

to work together to build an even brighter

future for GFCA.

Thank you and best regards,

-Mark Sheron

Membership Update/Report

There are many others who have put in

huge efforts on behalf of GFCA and who

therefore deserve some credit for the asso-

ciation’s growth and success. One of those

people is our Membership chairperson,

Marilyn McConnell. If you’ve joined in the

past couple of years you KNOW how per-

suasive and persistent Marilyn can be when

it comes to “selling” membership in GFCA

and its’ benefits. As a direct result of her

hard work we’ve seen significant member-

ship growth (20% this last year alone), and

we now have over 160 members. Being

able to cite these kinds of numbers gives

us HUGE credibility when we advocate to

the County, general public and media on

your behalf.

Change of Airport Designator to KMCA

As part of the annual meeting a discussion

was held to determine whether or not mem-

bers would support a request to change the

airport designator from KDVO to KMCA, to

emphasize the fact that Gnoss Field IS the

Marin County Airport. There was some dis-

cussion and it was determined that the

“pros” outweighed the “con’s” by quite a

bit, and the members present voted to sup-

port this change.

Accordingly, GFCA has made a formal

request to airport manager Dan Jensen to

seek this change in designator, while noting

that the name of the airport should retain a

significant reference to its’ founders, the

Gnoss family. The name “Marin County

Airport/Gnoss Field” was proposed.

This change could take some time and is not

a “done deal”, but we’ll keep you posted

as the request moves through the system at

FAA.

Directed “Brainstorming” Session

Rick Beach, who brings a whole range of

talents as a GFCA member, led a directed

brainstorming session during last month’s

breakfast meeting focusing on ideas for

our OWN vision of what Gnoss Field can

and should be in the future. Rick got short-

changed on time because of other discus-

sions during the meeting, but in a relatively

short time he was able to get the group to

The “Crosswind Drift” Newsletter-EAA Chapter 1232 July 2014 Page 8

Gnoss Field Community Association News

move from current hot-topic items such as

bringing the airport up to the level of other

airports in the area to items that are truly

visionary. Here’s a summary of the ideas

that came out of this session, which will be

communicated by members and Board

members during the upcoming July 17

Stakeholder and Visioning workshop:

We will know that Gnoss Field has been

successful when:

Marin County and Neighbors …

Public supports the airport and shows

a positive attitude towards general

aviation.

The airport is known as a fun place for

everyone, perhaps with a restaurant or

an observation area to hang out.

The County views the airport as an

asset, incorporated into the emergency

response plan for law enforcement,

disaster preparation and fire fighting,

and becomes part of the County trans-

portation plan.

Airport Services …

The airport has a full-service FBO.

Aircraft have self-serve fuel.

People have a restaurant with sewer

services.

Young Eagles have a demonstration

and training hangar.

The airport has a remote communica-

tions outlet for FAA Oakland Center.

Security …

The airport has crime deterrents from

a mix of evening patrols and video

surveillance tied into monitoring ser-

vices.

Runway Improvements …

The airport has an extended and re-

surfaced runway

The airport has an alterative landing

runway for high crosswinds.

The existing runway compares favora-

bly with nearby airports with a level

and un-cracked surface.

Ramp Improvements …

The pavement on the ramp and taxi-

ways is rated as excellent or good

condition.

The ramp is filled with aircraft at tie-

downs.

Some of these are “pie-in-the-sky” (pun

possibly intended), but ALL will be useful in

moving the Visioning discussion along.

Many thanks to Rick for so ably conducting

this exercise.

August Fly out to Sunriver OR

...is ON for August 8-10. Contact Steve

Isaacs at shisaacs@gmail.com for details or

to get on board. At this point we have at

least 6 planes headed up.

Gnoss CTAF now on LiveATC!

It’s not archived yet, and you can’t get

there through the LiveATC main page yet,

but here’s a direct link to the live feed:

http://d.liveatc.net/kdvo.m3u

Emergency Text/Call Opt-in for Members

One of the great suggestions that came out

of the brainstorming session was the need

for a notification system for airport tenants

that could be activated in an emergency

such as a breach of a dyke, flooding, etc.

(thank you, Sandy Walker!). Because not

all airport tenants keep their contact infor-

mation updated with Dan Jensen, and be-

cause not everybody wants to be part of

such a system, it needs to be an “opt-in”

arrangement where the individual asks to

be included in any notification. Also, since

Dan’s up to his eyeballs in demands this is

something we want to set up and adminis-

ter ourselves, for GFCA members initially.

There are several good options for services

to fulfill this function and we’re looking at a

couple now. We hope to roll this out to

members in the very near future.

Volunteers Needed Now for Open House!

If we’re going to pull off another open

house in September, as planned, we’re

going to need to have several “lead” vol-

unteers in place by August 1 to organize

key areas. Those areas include:

Organizing visitor food area, including

setup and removal of tables and

chairs, trash pickup and disposal, coor-

dination with food vendor, staffing

with volunteers as needed

Organize static displays, including

setup up and removal of safety barri-

ers, and recruiting, guarding and mar-

shalling display and transient aircraft,

staffing with volunteers

Organize docent crew to assist and

inform visitors about Gnoss Field/

airport ops, work with static display

lead to highlight information about

display aircraft, organize vendors and

other displays

Remember, this event will be on the scale

of our April 12 Open House, NOT a Wings

Over Marin-sized event. To volunteer for

one of these “lead” or key positions contact

Ken Mercer at mercer.k@comcast.net

Don’t Miss the 7/17 Stakeholder Meeting

We’ll talk strategy for a few minutes at the

July 12 breakfast meeting, but we want to

pack the actual Visioning/Stakeholders

meeting on the 17th, so plan to be there.

The meeting is scheduled from 7-9 p.m. in

the Novato City Council chambers.

The “Crosswind Drift” Newsletter-EAA Chapter 1232 July 2014 Page 9

Gnoss Field Community Association News

Treasurer’s Report

As mentioned before, GFCA’s success is directly related to the efforts of many individuals, none more so than Ted Newman, our

Treasurer and “Overseer of the Breakfast”. Unless they’ve done it themselves, few people realize just how much work goes into being

Treasurer for an organization like this, with so many income and expense transactions each month. To do all that and coordinate eve-

rything that goes into each month’s breakfast meeting, including purchasing of food and supplies, setting up and tearing down/

putting away tables, is way above and beyond what could be reasonably expected of any one person. So, next time you see Ted

shake his hand and thank him for all he does for us.

The following is the Revenue and Expense Statement for 2013 which Ted submitted at the Annual Meeting:

The “Crosswind Drift” Newsletter-EAA Chapter 1232 July 2014 Page 10

Gnoss Field Community Association News

The following is the text of a editorial piece originally pub-

lished in the June 28 Marin IJ:

The Marin County Civil Grand Jury’s recently-released report on the Marin County Airport/ Gnoss Field pointed out the that airport is exceptionally well run. While we appreciate the grand jury’s thorough ex-amination of the airport’s sta-tus and operation, we feel that it grossly underestimates the contribution Gnoss Field makes

to Marin’s economy.

For instance, while airport ex-penses have been completely covered by airport operating income for each of the past twelve years, in 2012 proper-ty taxes on leaseholds, aircraft and other personal property at the airport generated $616,270 over and above these expenses. Of that total, $315,119 went directly to the county’s General Fund and $301,151 went to Novato schools, by statute. In addition, airport operating income paid $338,361 in other, non-airport County expenses. That’s almost a million dollars of direct eco-nomic contributions to the coun-ty, and when you consider the multiplier effect of the salaries and wages of the twenty-plus employees of airport business-

es, the purchases these busi-nesses make locally and the taxes they pay, you can see that the airport is much more than just a “break-even opera-tion”, as the grand jury report

incorrectly states.

But the following note, re-ceived from airport tenant Rick Beach, illustrates just one of Gnoss Field’s unpublished and least understood contributions to the county; providing emer-

gency capabilities.

Friday, (airport manager) Dan Jensen and I were passed by an ambulance leaving the airport area as we were returning from lunch. On the ramp was a R.E.A.C.H. medevac helicopter. I introduced myself to the pilot and asked about their reason for being here. Turns out that they brought a woman, "barely clinging to life", here to get her to the California Pacific Medi-cal Center in San Francisco. Not only are there no other helipads

in Marin County, there are none in San Francisco, and Gnoss is usually a better choice than SFO for reaching hospitals in

the City.

This is not an isolated incident. According to the R.E.A.C.H. op-erations center, their medevac helicopters made at least one stop a week at Gnoss last year, either to pick up or deliver ur-gent care patients. Add to this frequent Angelflight opera-tions moving patients and or-gans throughout the West, dai-ly flights by Civil Air Patrol and Sheriff’s department air-craft based at Gnoss, and nu-merous flights in and out of Gnoss in support of local busi-nesses, and the airport’s im-portance to the community be-

gins to come into focus.

We realize that the airport’s relationship with the community will likely always present cer-tain challenges but we, the us-ers and tenants of Gnoss Field, want to help Marin citizens un-derstand and appreciate the

value of their airport.

Ken Mercer President Gnoss Field Community Associ-ation

Ken Mercer, President/Young Eagles

Coordinator 415-378-8504

Phil Simon, Vice-President 415454-5496

Tom Schiff, Secr./Treasurer 415-515-6630

www.1232.eaachapter.org

www.facebook.com/EAA1232

eaa1232@gmail.com

San Francisco and North Bay California

EAA Chapter 1232-Novato, Ca Our monthly membership meetings are held the second Tuesday evening of each month (except

December), starting with dinner at 6:30 and followed by the main presentation(s) at 7:00. Our hosts are

the Novato Squadron of the Civil Air Patrol who graciously allow us to use their facility at 400 Airport

Boulevard, Gnoss Field, in northern Novato (in the south parking lot). Here’s a crude map, but please

do contact one of our officers for more information and/or directions:

In addition to our regular monthly evening meetings, many of us meet for lunch at noon every Thursday

at The Club restaurant at McGinnis Park Golf Course on Smith Ranch Road in San Rafael. The hostess on

duty can direct you to our “regular” room but again, please contact one of our officers for better

directions.

Membership is $25/yr. and is open to anyone-contact any of our officers (above, left) for details!