Eagle's Lair
Members Roster

June 22, 2007

Ladies  & Gentlemen:

During the week, Ed Shadle and Keith Zanghi traveled to Los Angeles to talk to a prospective sponsor.  Arriving about 3 hours before the meeting the two decided to pay a visit to Mark at Uremet. Mark suggested they head over to the Corona Airport because Dan Wolfe of Wolfe Air was going to be testing a new camera mount on his Learjet.

That sounded fun so the two headed off towards Corona.  There they met up with Dave Stevenson who was going to be helping out with the shoot that day.  We told Dave we had about an hour before we had to go, so he suggested we ought to go flying in Boeing / Stearman PT 17 Kaydet.   The Stearman Aircraft Company, formed by Lloyd Stearman in 1927, was bought out by Boeing Airplane Company in 1939.  There were over 10,000 of these planes built.

Ed climbed in the front seat and may have been the first person in history to do so with a suit and tie!  About 7 seconds into the flight, Dave handed the controls over to Ed and the two headed outside of town.

When they return Ed was all smiles as he gave a re-account of the flight which included hammerheads, wing overs and rolls.  It was a great treat and Ed and Keith vowed to return after their meeting for some more flying lessons!

After the meeting the two headed to the airport and the Stearman was put away and in its place was Dorn Machum’s business jet.  Dorn and Dave were going to be meeting with Dan in the Lear somewhere over the Los Angeles basin, but first they needed to run over to John Wayne Airport for some minor maintenance work.

Ed and Keith jumped in the back while the two pilots climbed in the front and took off for John Wayne.  When they arrived, Ed and Keith were given a tour of the Fuddy Duddy B-17 on display.

The day ended with the group sitting under the wing of the B-17 and talking about airplanes, fast cars and faster women.

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