3rd ANNUAL POKER RUN

Finally!!! On Saturday 26, the 3rd annual South Central Chapter, Missouri Pilots Association and other aviation enthusiasts completed a “poker” run. Nine local airports were visited by fifteen aircraft, ranging in age from a 1946 Cessna 120 to a 2006 RV. Saturday was a beautiful day and many visitors to these nine towns were surprised to see so much activity at their local airports. That was one of the main objectives of this “run”. The following airports were visited; Thayer, West Plains, Ava, Mansfield, Mountain Grove, Cabool, Houston, Willow Springs, and Mountain View.

We had almost 100% participation for prizes from the visited towns and we want to thank them for that! The winners were; Mike Vaughn $110 with a full house, and Marge Allen $40 for the worst hand. The prizes from individual airports were Bob Coats (high card at Ava) flight bag; Marge Allen (high card at Cabool) won a case of oil from Hunter Oil, Cheryl Butler, Cory Davenport, Ben Hurtt, Mike Hargus (all had Aces at Houston), MPA caps; Ray Fine (high card at Mansfield) a food tote: Berlin Batesal (high card at Mountain View) $50 fuel; George Wilkie (high card at Mountain View) portable key chain flight calculator; Tom Young and Mike Hargus (high cards at Thayer) won MPA caps, Ben Hurtt (high card), 15 gal of avgas, Bob Boheimer (low card), a frisbee, Cheryl Butler (high card), 15 gal of avgas, West Plains; Berlin Batesal (high card), $50 sponsored by the EAA, Cheryl Butler (low card), $40 from Willow Springs Airport; John Smith (random card), $50 sponsored by the EAA, all at Willow Springs. Henrietta Christensen, Mountain Grove, took aerial photos at all the airports and is compiling an album that will be available soon. Of course, we all were winners because we had a reason to fly!

A special thanks goes out to the volunteers that manned the card drawings and kept us honest at the various airports. The local CAP unit at Ava, Morgan Clements at Cabool, Charles Ward at Houston, Bill Newton at Mansfield, Lloyd Darter at Mountain Grove, Jack Wilkie at Mountain View, Jim Vokak at Willow Springs, Mr. DeRoose at Thayer, and Mr. Martin at West Plains.

A vote was taken to have another “run” in the spring, so watch for notice in the bulletin and web site. Remember that we encourage each pilot in the area to be a member of our chapter, but several non members can testify to the fun they had.

Bill Newton spoke at Monday night’s meeting of the Mansfield Historical Society, recounting his experiences relating to the space program

Mansfield Historical Society member were treated to a program by Bill Newton Monday night in which he related his experiences in the training and recovery of astronauts during his 24-year career as an aviator in the Navy.

"From 1963 to 1965 I was a flight instructor at Ellison Field in Florida where the astronauts trained," Newton said. "All astronauts had to get qualified on the Bell helicopter because the lunar lander took off vertically - like a helicopter - but used rocket power instead of rotors."

Newton was one of the instructors and thus met several of the astronauts.

He began his talk by presenting some background information on the three space programs designed to get a man on the moon, Mercury, Gemini and Apollo.

"Project Mercury was a one-man capsule. The occupant only went along for the ride. Alan Shepherd was the first man to orbit.

"After Mercury was Project Gemini with a 2-man space craft.

It was really a capsule, but we called it a space craft to influence funding. He pointed out the difference is that in a capsule you’re just an occupant, while you actually fly a space craft.

The purpose of the Gemini Program was to test the astronaut’s endurance, to test space suits, and to test the effects of weightlessness.

"I got involved in four of the 12 recovery operations in Program Gemini," he said.

Newton was flying a helicopter off the USS Wasp and was the first to arrive at one of the splashdowns.

"It’s interesting to me how much the accuracy of the landings improved. The first mission missed the recovery ship by 60 miles, and by the Gemini 7 mission we were within 2.6 miles."

He pointed out that the Gemini program was the proving program for the Apollo program.

He concluded his presentation with a slide program which included scenes from Pearl Harbor in the 1950s.

Newton’s service career spanned the years 1955 to 1979.

© Copyright 2008 by www.mansfieldmirror.com