| Chapter 101 History |
Chapter 101 was chartered on April 1, 1961
with 11 members. By our second meeting membership
had risen to over 40. Just 4 months after
our inception we held our first fly-in breakfast
at Mitchell Field, Lombard. The two-day breakfast-air
shows became an annual event. After our first
fly-in other area chapters expressed an interest
in co-sponsoring the fly-ins, so, in 1962,
the fly-in became the joint effort of chapters
101, 95, 86, 104, 89, and 15 and was called
the Chicago Area Fly-in. These fly-ins continued
until 1967 when, because of inequities in
the work load, 101 members unanimously voted
to pull out of the fly-in. The Chicago Area
Fly-in then moved to Joliet Airport where
101 continued to participate on a voluntary
basis, but not financially.
Our meetings were first held at the home
of Al & Dolores Neunteufel. In September
1962 we moved the meetings to the basement
of the King Arthur Apartments in Addison.
Then, in September 1963, Gordon Glendening
donated a barn on his property to 101. We
voted to accept this and immediately began
renovating the barn into a meetinghouse.
It took about 6 months of volunteer effort
to fix up the barn and in April 1964 we held
our first meeting in our new home. Our membership
was growing and within a year we were adding
and extension to our meeting room. For the
next twelve years we were privileged to have
the use of this building for meetings, parties,
picnics, airplane storage, etc. It was our
home!
In November 1961 we started our first
chapter
project, the Contestor. The airplane
was
completed and entered in EAA's folding
wing
design contest at Rockford in 1962.
We had been attending the Rockford
EAA Conventions,
volunteering wherever we were needed,
but
in 1964 Al Neunteufel was asked to
co-chair
the aircraft parking crew. From then
until
1972 at Oshkosh, 101 parked airplanes
at
the conventions.
Our second chapter project, A T-18,
was started
in 1966. It was completed and flown
in July
1970.
Joe Weber approached our chapter officers
in 1970 with an idea to institute an
aircraft
building class at Willowbrook High
School.
101 members agreed to sponsor (pay
for) their
first project, a primary glider with
the
understanding that the glider would
belong
to 101 when it was completed. It was
completed
and flown in July 1972. Because of
the success
of this project, the aviation classes
became
a part of the school's curriculum.
We were always an active chapter. Each year
we put on a shopping mall display in conjunction
with the DuPage Air shows. We participated
in the premiers of two movies, 'Those Magnificent
Men and their Flying Machines' and 'The Blue
Max'. And, in between, we held picnics, flea
market sales, work parties and entered into
any event that would publicize EAA or aviation.
In 1973 the Champion Flyers Flying Club was
formed, not a direct part of the chapter,
but incorporated separately and limited to
101 members. The club is still in existence
today.
From 1974 to 1988, 101 volunteered
to run
Camper Registration at Oshkosh. In
the beginning
it was a chapter effort and later,
on an
individual basis.
In 1985, 101 helped a student, Ann Zrinsky,
attend the EAA Air Academy by donating half
the tuition.
We began holding our Halloween Costume
Breakfasts
at Harry Cameron's at DuPage Airport
in the
early 80's. These continued through
1987.
Then, in 1988, we discontinued the
Halloween
Breakfast and moved our breakfast date
to
May.
In 1989, we began co-sponsoring the
North
Central Fly-in at Whiteside County
Airport,
Rock Falls, Illinois. This, along with
our
picnic, annual banquet, fly-aways,
Oshkosh
volunteering, Young Eagle Rallies,
Builder's
Nights and our other chapter activities
keeps
us busy.
As we move through the 90's and into the
new century, our future looks bright. Our
membership is showing steady growth, more
new projects are starting, more airplanes
are flying and participation in chapter activities
increases with each event. We look forward
to making the same strides and advances as
was evident in our early years. |
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