AirVenture is on, but Iffy for Canadians

June 2021 – As you will see elsewhere in this month's edition of Bits and Pieces, AirVenture is a “go” but Canadian participation is still up in the air, if you'll pardon the aviation reference. We reluctantly decided to allow our Canadian tent to be used as the International Tent, for this year only. All our Canadian events, the breakfast, the ice cream social, Tim's coffee, and all our forums will have to wait one more year. Hopefully, we will be able to spend the time until July 2022 getting some great forum content in shape. We'll miss the Canadian camaraderie but look forward to seeing as many of you as can possibly attend, perhaps at the Canadian desk in the International Tent. If you're one of my friends who volunteer at the Canadian tent and you do manage to get to Oshkosh this year, perhaps you can benefit from the experience by volunteering for something new this year.

Not wishing to waste away the lockdown hours binge watching, I've been thinking about positive, productive ways to spend our time, and thinking a lot about fundraising. I just read about a great idea for fundraising for chapters. One enterprising member, Robert Newman, of EAA Chapter 898 has raised more than $5,000 for his chapter by building Cub weathervanes. You can read about it here. Have any of our readers had a similar success story? You can bet that several of our readers have a special talent for producing aviation-related products that would be marketable, especially if we help promote them through Bits and Pieces as a fundraiser. If you like this idea why not send me an article, or at least an email suggesting your idea. You can reach me at Newsletter.EAACC@gmail.com.

Perhaps the COVID restrictions are forcing you to spend more time in your workshop. Why not get inspired to make use of the opportunity by getting creative? You might like to produce another type of weathervane, perhaps a Van's RV, or a Zenith. I'd buy one, wouldn't you? Maybe you can get chapter members or friends to participate in the building of components. It sounds like Robert Newman is too busy producing his Cub version to mind whether or not other chapters got in on the act. Robert's email is in the article so perhaps if you need some coaching he might be willing to help. Anyway, good for you, Robert, in leading the way with this creative fundraising idea.

We've had a great response to our Prolific Builders series, and this month we feature Charlie Douma. If you have a suggestion for someone else to pester for a prolific builder article, why not drop me a line at the above email address. Thanks to Charlie, Scott, Dennis, Jeff, Bill, and others who have made this month's newsletter one of the best.

Please take the time to read the wonderful summary of the life of Chris Heintz, written by his sons. Wouldn't we all like to be remembered so lovingly?