From President Doug Fee:

When I look back on Wayne Mooneyham's tenure as President of our association, I am awed by how much time he's put in to the AAA, and by what he's accomplished.  Frankly, it's pretty intimidating to try to follow him.  Upon being elected to the papacy, Pope Francis reputedly quipped to the cardinals, "May God forgive you for what you've done".  In a similar vein folks, are you sure you really want me to take the reins from Wayne's capable hands??  He's going to be a tough act to follow. 

In my time with the AAA, I've become acquainted with most of our members, but I'm sure that there are some of you who may be puzzled as to who I am.  So, in a nutshell, this is me:

When I was an eleven-year-old, my dad learned to fly.  He got his private pilot's license at Santa Monica Airport, where I would sit and watch the airplanes come and go while he took his lessons.  When he  finally received his license, I was his first passenger.  He only flew for about six or seven years, and had a total of a little over 400 hours.  However, I was with him for many of those hours.  We flew from California to Texas multiple times to visit Mom's family.  We flew my older brother to college in Utah.  I had a lot of passenger time.  Around the same time that Dad originally learned to fly, I also logged my first pilot time with a friend of his who was a CFI.  Over the span of the next eight years I accumulated a grand total of 2.3 hours of dual instruction.

However, about the end of my freshman year in college, I started flying in earnest.  By my junior year, I had my CFI and was flight instructing.  After graduation, I continued instructing.  I also flew charters and ferried airplanes--mostly new Cessnas from the factory in Wichita out to Southern California. 

At the tender age of 25, with just under 4,000 hours in my logbook, I began what turned into a 35-year airline career.  My airline years were pretty evenly split between the flying of domestic and international routes.  And, of the time I spent flying international, the majority of it was heading westbound to the Pacific Rim.  It was a good life. 

But that was then . . . . . and this is now.  As a pilot, my heart and my roots have always been in general aviation.  Today, my flying is in a very fun little sports car of an airplane--an RV-6.  Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to working with the city to continue to improve our airport, to helping Don Wolfe in his efforts to modernize our scholarship program, and to interacting with the membership of our organization.  I think its going to be a great year!

Blue skies,

Doug

Next month:  Who Are We?