Well not really, just me! Due to Wing Leader Craig O’Mara and

his wife Susan having to return to St. Louis, I have been asked to fill in for the

remainder of his term. I have agreed, after having to negotiate with my wife

Rachel. We are indebted to Craig and Susan for all the time and effort they

put into running the Inland Empire Wing. It’s a challenge to pick up where

Craig left off, but we have a great staff that will help me get back up to oper-

ating speed and start moving forward.

So, what now? The first thing is that we are going to take care of our people.

Without our members, we cannot fulfill our mission. We need to recruit new colonels, retain the

colonels that we have, and support our fellow volunteers in everything they do.

Secondly, we are going to continue our focus on safety. In this day and age, everything we

do is probably recorded on video somewhere. We shouldn’t

change the way we operate, Steve

even when no one is looking.

The Inland Empire Wing has an en- viable record when it comes to

safety on the ground and in the air. We will continue to focus on

safety during all aspects of our op- erations. Headquarters has es-

tablished new positions that cover operations safety and ground

safety. We can look forward to getting more safety and opera-

tional information and guidance from these new positions.

The third thing is finance. It will always be something that we have to work on. The Air Force

did not renew our Test Pilot School contract this year. We do not know if we will be asked

back to provide support with the D-Day Doll in any of the following years. This two times a

year event provided the wing with much needed operating revenue. The wing must now

compensate for this loss of revenue by cutting costs when we can and coming up with other

sources of revenue. One of those avenues would be having a viable ride program. Our ride

program is in its infancy stage. The main stumbling block for the Doll is how and where to ad-

vertise to get riders to sign up for an event. It’s not economically feasible to just show up

somewhere and expect walkups who want to go for a ride. The T-6 is a little better, since it

doesn’t take as much manpower to operate. We are short on T-6 pilots who can give rides

but we are working on that problem. Tom Nightingale has been designated a T-6 instructor/

check pilot and has been working with Ben Clerx to get him checked out in the T-6. We

have three more pilots in the T-6 training pipeline. In addition, we’re working on getting Chris

Hicks qualified as another T-6 instructor/check pilot.

Everything we do at the Inland Empire Wing is a team effort. We are all volunteers at the

CAF and have good reasons to be involved in the many endeavors in which we are en-

gaged. Let’s roll up our sleeves, get the job done, and keep the camaraderie going while

we work.

Steve