Category: Newsletters

Newsletter February 2023
From the Prez,

February 4th we had lunch at KLNS, Lancaster, PA. We had Drew McWilliams and copilot William Reigle, Walter Harris with his son Nathaniel, Tom Johnston, Dan Maul who now flies a Malibu (but used to fly a Bonanza) with his copilot Derrick. It was a great time.

April 1 will be a BPPP Live event hosted by the American Bonanza Society at the Reading, PA Airport (KRDG). Please sign up for this event on our web site. Attending this event satisfies the ground school requirements of getting a BPPP (Bonanza Pilot Proficiency Program) certificate, which usually will give you an Instrument Proficiency Check and Flight Review. After this session, you call a BPPP instructor, arrange the flight portion (usually 2, 2-hour flights on the same day) and get the certificate. The BPPP certificate is the gold standard for Bonanza instruction, whether you are new to Bonanzas or Barons or
have been flying them for a long time.

I have done the BPPP many times and I always seem to learn something. Plus, my insurance company likes it. The advantage of the BPPP Live event is face-to-face interaction, the ability to ask questions and share experiences with other Beechcraft pilots.

If you fly into Reading, you shouldn’t need to rent a car. If you use Millennium FBO, you can walk across the parking lot to the terminal (where we will have the class) and across the parking lot the other way to the Holiday Inn Express. There is also a restaurant in the airport terminal, Klinger’s at the Airport, open for lunch and dinner.

By the way, parking in front of the terminal (like we sometimes do) will be closed off; they have a 737 charter coming in that day to drop off passengers.

UPDATE – as of February 17 we have 34 people coming; we don’t expect to exceed the room capacity. But I still need you to sign up for the event.

The Holiday Inn Express may run out of rooms; their yield management software is already increasing the prices from around $100 to over $200. If you can’t get in there, another alternative is to get a rental car from either of the 2 FBO’s and stay at any one of numerous places in the area.

As for Klinger’s restaurant in the terminal, I talked to them about having 40 people for lunch and dinner; they said it will be no problem. I told them to expect us in groups of 3-6, no tables for 40. Note that they do not serve breakfast; I may try to bring donuts & bagels or something.

May 6 – Lunch at Montauk, NY (KMTP). Land 11:30AM, gather, walk short distance down to the Inlet Seafood restaurant which opens at Noon. Walk on the beach and through the county park.

May 18-21 – Formation training at Martinsburg, WV, (KMRB). This is the only mid-atlantic formation clinic this year. Presented by NEBG member John Zazworsky, attending and completing this formation clinic qualifies you to fly in the B2OSH mass arrival for Airventure Oshkosh. If you haven’t flown into Oshkosh with the B2OSH group, it is a hoot and one of the best ways to attend Oshkosh. Sign-up at the Bonanzas to Oshkosh Website and let us know you’re gong on the NEBG website.

June 1-4 – Hyannis, MA. I have landed at Hyannis but never stayed there. This village on Cape Cod is known for its wide beaches and the private Kennedy Compound. The John F. Kennedy Hyannis Museum chronicles the assassinated president’s family vacations through videos and photographs. At the Hyannis harbor, the Cape Cod Maritime Museum has boat building exhibits. Main Street in downtown Hyannis is known for specialty shops, restaurants, and attractions.

As for lodging, the Hyannis Harbor Hotel looks to be the place where we can gather, socialize, and depart for various activities. I have already made my reservations; less than $1K for 3 nights with fees.

BANKING – Chris Nowak, our treasurer is still trying to unravel our banking issues. Meanwhile, we have had no access to our bank account for some time.
The great news is that NEBG member Brian Seltzer from Harrisburg is now helping. He is somewhat in the banking industry, and I am optimistic.

Right now, the NEBG still owes me $1,209.26. I seem to recall that we had $8,000 in the old bank account; now we are not even allowed to check balances. Money collects on our web site from dues, which Paul Stavrides collects every so often.

If anybody is willing to help Chris unravel this, give him a call. You will probably need a lawyer. We use the money collected for ground transportation at events (or used to).

CALENDAR

April 1 – BPPP, Reading, PA
May 6 – Montauk, NY lunch
June 1-4 – Hyannis, MA. Stay downtown, JFK museum, beaches, shopping, great restaurants
August 13-19 – St. Johns, Newfoundland. Side trips to St. Pierre, France, Bonavista Coast (great history), Terra Nova National Park, Avalon Peninsula.

October 6-8 – Kennebunkport, Maine
November 4 – Reading, PA annual planning meeting.

Please sign up for events on northeastbonanzagroup.org.

Newsletter January 2023

February 4th I’ll be having lunch at KLNS, Lancaster, PA. Join me if you can; sign up on the events page soI know your coming. Or drop me an email.

April 1st will be a BPPP Live event hosted by the American Bonanza Society at the Reading, PA Airport (KRDG). Please sign up for this event on our website. Attending this event satisfies the ground school requirements of getting a BPPP (Bonanza Pilot Proficiency Program) certificate, which usually will give you a Instrument Proficiency Check and Flight Review. After this session, you call a BPPP instructor, arrange the flight portion (usually 2, 2-hour flights on the same day) and get the certificate. The BPPP certificate is the gold standard for Bonanza instruction, whether you are new to Bonanzas or Barons or
have been flying them for a long time.

I have done the BPPP many times and I always seem to learn something. Plus, my insurance company likes it. The advantage of the BPPP Live event is face-to-face interaction, the ability to ask questions and share experiences with other Beechcraft pilots.

If you fly into Reading, you won’t need to rent a car. Use Millenium FBO, you can walk across the parking lot to the terminal (where we will have the class) and across the parking lot the other way to the Holiday Inn Express. There is also a restaurant in the airport terminal, Klinger’s at the Airport, open for lunch and dinner.

By the way, parking in front of the terminal (like we sometimes do) will be closed off; they have a 737 charter coming in that day to drop off passengers.

May 6th – Lunch at Montauk, NY (KMTP). Land 11:30AM, gather, walk short distance down to the Inlet Seafood restaurant which opens at Noon. Walk on the beach and through the county park.

BANKING – Chris Nowak, our treasurer is still trying to unravel our banking issues. Meanwhile, we have had no access to our bank account for some time.

Right now, the NEBG still owes me $1,209.26. I seem to recall that we had $8,000 in the old bank account, which we are not even allowed to check balances. Money collects on our web site from dues, which Paul Stavrides collects every so often. If anybody is willing to help Chris unravel this, give him a call. You will probably need a lawyer. We use the money collected for ground transportation at events.

CALENDAR
April 1 – BPPP, Reading, PA
May 6 – Montauk, NY lunch
June 1-4 – Hyannis, MA. Stay downtown, JFK museum, beaches, shopping, great restaurants
August 13-19 – St. Johns, Newfoundland. Side trips to St. Pierre, France, Bonavista Coast (great history), Terra Nova National Park, Avalon Peninsula.
October 6-8 – Kennebunkport, Maine
November 4 – Reading, PA annual planning meeting.

Please sign up for events on https://northeastbonanzagroup.org

Mike McNamara

In a slightly different format this month, here is Mike’s latest:

Newsletter December 2022

BANKING – As reported last newsletter, Chris Nowak, our treasurer is still trying to unravel our banking issues. Meanwhile, we have had no access to our bank account for some time.
We have no paid staff; all effort is contributed. The income (your dues) is used to pay for ground transportation at some of our events.

In August, we had a week-long trip to Canada, Yarmouth for 3 days and Gaspe for 3 days. Tayo Akamo paid for the 3 SUV’s we rented in Yarmouth to cart around the 20 people. When we tried to re-imburse him, our bank account was frozen. I reimbursed Tayo $2,153.44 after conversion from U.S. dollars.

Paul Stavrides gave me a check on November 12 for $944.18 from dues paid by members to the web site.

So right now, the NEBG still owes me $1,209.26.

FACEBOOK – It seems like everything is on Facebook these days. Apparently the NEBG had a Facebook page created by Woodie who is gone. It went defunct. Michael Shehl, a new enthusiastic Bonanza owner and member, wanted to resurrect it. So, we went along; Paul Stavrides, our webmaster, is also involved.

From Mike Shehl: As we continue to evolve in a world full of technological advances to stay connected and build our personal network, I’m excited to share with that we have developed a NEW Northeast Bonanza Group Facebook Page! For those of you that have a Facebook account, this will be a great platform and tool that our group can leverage to interact. We have made enhancements from our previous page which now allows our members to “make posts” that are visible to our members. You can leverage posts to ask questions, leave a comment, or even share pictures or videos. Overall, this is
an enhanced tool that our Northeast Bonanza Group can use to build their network with other Bonanza/Baron pilots in the Northeast!

To access our new Facebook page, please search “Northeast Bonanza Group – Official Page” in Facebook. Once you access the page, request to join!

EVENTS
I didn’t get much input at the planning meeting or afterwards, but Michael Madigan and I had some discussions. The dates below are a little tentative, but planning has started so you should mark your calendars. Here is the plan:

February 4 – Sacha Botbol and his Yak 18T. KLNS, 10AM with lunch afterward. As Russian forces were charging across the Ukrainian border in February, in another part of Ukraine, some aviation enthusiasts were putting a Yak 18T in a shipping container. Sacha received it, assembled it, and has flown it extensively. It is a single radial engine, 5 seat aircraft with fixed landing gear. He will give a talk about the experience of acquiring it and how it flies. If the weather cooperates, he might bring it to Lancaster.

February 27-March 4 – Caribbean Flying Adventures organized trip to Guatemala. Michael Madigan & I are signed up with deposits.

April 1, 2 – BPPP Live Course, Reading, PA. There is a hotel and restaurant on site.

May 6 – Lunch at Montauk, NY. Yes, there are landing fees.

June 1-4 – Hyannis, MA. Stay downtown, JFK museum, beaches, great restaurants, etc.

August 13-19 – St. Johns, Newfoundland. Side trips to France (St. Pierre), Bonavista Coast, Terra Nova National Park, Avalon Peninsula.

October 6-8 – Kennebunkport, Maine. Yes, it will be cool, but rooms will be available.

November 4 – Reading, PA Annual Planning Meeting.

As these events get finalized, I will put them on the events page of our website. Please sign up, it helps the organizer (me) and helps me coordinate with the host airport or whatever.
Anybody who wants to organize another event, let me know and I will help you.

Mike McNamara