How did it get to be Christmas again, so soon? Personally I think it has something to do with global space-time warping. At any rate it seems the nice summer flying days were just a little too few this year, so when it was nice I hope y’all got a chance to take advantage of them. I for one tried my best since getting my new (old) 1956 Cessna 172 through Jerry in June. In fact I was able to put in nearly 50 hours flying time since then. And if you include working on it cleaning, trouble shooting, and upgrading to a new com radio, new coax, antennas, a newer Garmin GTX330, and MicroAvionics ADS-B out, add in about 20 more hours. That’s 70 hours of my life I’ll never get back! But, do I want them back? Heck no! I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. The best part has been taking friends flying, and teaching my Grandson, Aydren, to fly.

Now that winter is here, it’s time to renew your membership for next year. As of December 17th our membership count is a whopping 162, with 9 of those being brand new.  We are doing great, that is about 75% renewal before the new year, Thank you. We encourage you to solicit new members into the biggest, and best chapter of the WPA. OK the other chapters are really good too. The main goal is to increase our membership statewide. One of the ways we are advancing our efforts to attract new members, and increase value for existing ones, is to create a benefits package for members which will include many retail suppliers of aviation related items, and services, as well as some non aviation businesses such as hotels, and restaurants to name a few. Stay tuned as Jerry Barkley, myself, and the rest of the board work on creating this new program.

Our annual Holiday Party was fun this year visiting with old friends, and making new ones. Shawn O’Donnell’s catered the event once again this year, and as usual the food was excellent. And in an effort to raise money for our Youth Aviation Scholarship Fund the live auction was quite successful, and fun I might add, we managed to raise around $3300. That equates to at least two scholarships for next year. Thank you to everyone that made this happen. Also stay tuned at the general meetings where we will be auctioning off more Items for the YASF, including Paine Field WPA apparel, a Walla Walla wine tour, and a weekend at Villa Del Barkley on River View Airpark to name a few items.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year From Karen and I.

Caelum certe patet, ibimus illi!