At our last meeting on January19, Don Schardt presented the highlights of the meeting of the Airport Board. The major issue was a proposal by Gary Gromack of Bayfield to contract with DRO management to open and operate a skydiving school. The current status of the plan is at www.durangoherald.com/news/05/news050131. In this article: "His plan is to contract with the airport to set up a 'drop zone' and an operations base there. The Airport Commission and aviation manager Ron Dent support the idea. At a commission meeting earlier this month, Gromack’s proposal was well-received, but he was sent back home to the drawing board for a more acceptable landing zone."

Your editor has a hangar at DRO and thus a financial interest, as well as safety concerns. I will try not to rail on too long.

1. One of my nephews has been a professional skydiver for over 50 years – this is not a new thing.
2. I flew Southern California for many years, and my flying crowd studiously avoided Perris because it was essentially a skydiver airport and judged unsafe.
3. One weekend, a semi-emergency trip required traversing the western edge of Nevada and the only practical enroute fuel stop had a skydiving weekend underway. This was not a pleasant experience.
4. I can see the net result of an approval by the Airport Commission. Comes a good weekend, commercial flights will get top priority, private jets will get the next slot, the skydivers will manage to block off at least their fair share of time, and us airplane owners will be expected to be grateful that we can polish airplanes.

I have usurped my stump time and I have only one last request.

PLEASE DO NOT LET ANYBODY THINK THAT YOU DON’T CARE ABOUT THIS ISSUE.

The rest of our meeting was more conventional. Jim McCann hosted about 20-25 people. He served hot dogs and other goodies, and then narrated a video (his) of his ferry flight to bring his Super Ximango from Brazil to Durango.

1. It was decided to rescind the $5.00 attendance award after this meeting.
2. Options for future meetings were discussed. 

Bob Winski took several pictures at the meeting. The picture of Jim McCann is blurry, due to something Jim or Bob drank?

Think of our next meeting as "Mystery Night!"

You will hear words like "$50 value door prize," "unusual attitude recovery, safety issues and stats."

We will meet at Del’s hangar No. 3 at 5:30 on the third Wednesday, and the usual rules apply.

Hope to see you all there.

Our March meeting will be beer and brats in Del’s Hangar No. 3, and then we will march down to see the current status on Doug Brady’s project. This promises to be a real treat.

This item is for you to get the inside story right from the horse’s mouth.

• Surgery went very well, and hospital time was about 1-1/2 days.
• I have been walking one plus miles every day since surgery – that’s required.
• I wear a brace whenever I am out of bed, for a total of 4-6 weeks.
• The hardest part is that I can only sit for a maximum of 20 minutes.
• The scary symptom of loss of motor functions for both feet has essentially disappeared.
• The best part is all the great messages that I have received from so many of you! Many thanks, Dale