From Immediate Past President Doug Fee

As our new President, Randy Leys, is in the bullpen warming up, I offered to step in for him with an opening message this month.

Our December meeting brought a room full of members and guests who showed up to partake of the fun. Aside from the usual great dinner, and a little bit of Association business, we had live Christmas music as Marcia Winborne-Graven played the piano for us.

The big event for the evening however was the silent auction, that wasn't always quite silent. We had a surprisingly extensive and eclectic array of donated items available for bidding, with all of the proceeds going to our scholarship endowment. Model airplanes, E6-B flight computers, navigation plotters, a guitar, RC models, books, collectable magazines, a bottle of scotch, headsets, a birdhouse--we had tables full. The bidding was robust, competitive and fun. In the end, we all had a good time, and the auction wound up adding over $800 to our endowment. It was a real win-win. There's talk about making it an annual event.

On a more somber note, I'm sorry to be reporting the sad news to you that our own Tom Camilli has gone west. Most of you will remember Tom as our entertaining speaker from a year or so ago when he presented us his story and slideshow about flying his Sundancer motorglider from Auburn to Florida for the Sun 'N Fun fly-in. Tom was not a loud, flamboyant sort of guy, but had a quiet, upbeat, cheerful humor and intelligence that made him an extremely pleasant and entertaining fellow to be around. Flying seemed to be part of his DNA. Reared on episodes of Sky King, Whirlybirds and WWII flying movies, he soloed on his third birthday (in an orange crate “airplane” constructed by his uncle) and earned his pilot's license before he was old enough to shave.

As with many aviators, real life and family obligations caused him to set aside his flight bag. But after a 40 year career as an educator, author and workshop presenter, he returned to the cockpit to tackle the challenge of learning motorless flight. He has since been an avid supporter of general aviation. Tom is survived by his wife, fellow glider pilot and AAA member Karin, as well as two adult children.

He was an integral part of our Association, as well as our airport community, and will be missed. Our condolences go out to his family.

Blue skies,

Doug