Flying fascination leads to club

By ARLENE STEPHL
West Hawaii Today

The Experimental Aircraft Association, with current membership at 165,000 worldwide, now has a chapter in West Hawaii.

Baron Sekiya/WHT MAGNIFICENT MEN AND THEIR FLYING MACHINES - Charles Kaminski talks about his Pitts Special airplane at Kona International Airport at Keahole.

The organization, founded in 1953 by a group of friends and aircraft home building enthusiasts in Wisconsin, attracted a handful of aircraft and about 40 people at its first fly-in convention that year.

In 1955, founder Paul Poberezny's article, "How to build an airplane for less than $800 - with engine," published in Mechanix Illustrated, created a tremendous amount of interest in the club and sent memberships soaring into the thousands.

EAA continues to grow, and today the fly-in, now held at Oshkosh, Wis., attracts more than 840,000 people and 12,000 airplanes, and has grown from a weekend get together to a week-long convention. There are 900 EAA chapters around the world, and the organization publishes a very professional monthly magazine, Sport Aviation, that keeps members up to date on current trends, technology, personalities and issues.

The local chapter, organized in June, started out the same way as the first chapter did in Hales Corners, Wis., near Milwaukee.

Charles Kaminski, commanding officer of the Civil Air Patrol in West Hawaii, and an astronomer and private pilot who started flying in 1984, has been a member of EAA for several years. He knew there were other members on the island.

There is a chapter in Hilo, and at one time there was one in Waimea, but none along the Kona Coast.

A list of Big Island EAA members was obtained and those in West Hawaii contacted. The response was immediate.

More than 20 people showed up at the first meeting, Kaminski was elected president, Wes Brown, vice president, Art Stockel, secretary, and Bob Feldman, program chairman.

There is no typical EAA member. Chapter members are both men and women and represent all ages and professions.

Some are younger, like 42-year-old Kaminski, who always wanted to fly, and has rebuilt a 1940s vintage Taylorcraft, purchased a Pitts Special biplane, and has part interest in a Cherokee Warrior. All are at the airport where he rents a hangar.

Kaminski said he decided to take flying lessons after he did the Ironman. "I figured if I could do that, I could do anything," he said.

Co-founding member Feldman, a retired mechanical engineer who specialized in materials and processing, worked in the aerospace industry for Boeing and Honeywell.

His fascination with flying began at an early age and he has worked with aircraft all his professional life, but a hearing disability prohibits him from getting a pilot's license. He wouldn't be able to use the radio.

His expertise in materials, however, makes him a valuable member of the association.

"The members plan to give resumes on their backgrounds," Feldman said, "to become a resource file. Then members' expertise in certain fields will be known. The people who fly and build their own planes are really special people."

Baron Sekiya/WHT John Totah works on the cowling of his Rutan Long EZ homebuilt aircraft at the airport.

Member John Totah has an all-composite Rutan design Long-EZ he built from a kit. The contractor, who has been a private pilot since 1974, goes interisland almost every week, often to Maui to help a friend work on the Rutan he is building.

Another member, Paul Hilburn, is a retired biology teacher and administrator with the Alaska Department of Education. Although he doesn't have a plane now, he owned several while living in Alaska, where he did a lot of bush flying. He flew one of his planes, an experimental VJ22, from Connecticut to Alaska.

"I've belonged to EAA for more than 20 years," Hilburn said, "and have been to the Oshkosh fly-in twice. I'm still interested in home-builds and have several sets of plans, including plans for a powered parachute. I plan to build something again and be available to help out others who are building."

The chapter's vice president, Wes Brown, is a self-employed airplane mechanic who is rebuilding a Piper Super Cub in his hangar.

The main focus of members, Kaminski said, is to involve children, part of EAA's Young Eagles program. Several members have taken groups up for a spin over the area, and the youngsters loved it.

On one occasion this year, parents showed up, awaiting their turns.

"There's a need for small planes in the world," said Kaminski, who is also a commercial pilot and flight instructor. "You have to start somewhere and some of the kids will grow up to become commercial pilots, but small planes is where it all started Dec. 17, 1903 when Wilbur and Orville Wright launched the first flight."

He has had groups of preschoolers at his hangar at Kona International Airport at Keahole looking at the planes, and letting each one sit in the cockpit.

To encourage participation from the younger generations and to let the public know there now is an EAA chapter in West Hawaii, the public is invited to the next meeting, at 7 p.m. Oct. 1 at the CAP hangar on the south end of Kona International Airport. A video on sport flying will be shown.

"Many people don't know about EAA," Feldman said. "We want them to know about us and join us."

Membership is open to anyone, and members don't necessarily have to be pilots or own planes.

For more information about the local chapter, leave a message for Kaminski at 329-4413.