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A Somewhat Longer Report on the February 14th Atlanta REPA Luncheon
(You need to read it to see why!)
Folks….
Yesterday we had an excellent crowd for what turned out to be pretty much Comedy Central! When we finally called a halt to it there were still some guys waving their hands to contribute… Since most had already had the stage we told them to wait until March (your humble scribe was one of them!) to tell that joke or story!
One person there as a first time guest was Bennet Aiken, Jr, son of Eastern Captain Ben Aiken (former REPA President, Charm School Chief in Miami and lots of other honorable positions, including one great guy to fly with!!!!!)….
Ben Jr. has a business up in Cleveland, GA called Mountain Air Apparel and Embroidery… He has put together a lot of Eastern designs and was actually wearing one of them on a long sleeve blue denim shirt… In addition to the Eastern Logo and EASTERN in caps above the shirt pocket he also had a small Eastern 1011 in Hockey Stick colors, all of this embroidered on the shirt, with the airplane just above the word EASTERN… He has a wide variety of shirts and other garments that can be embroidered with Eastern logos, airplanes, names and so on….
Ben has a website www.mountainairapparelandembroidery.com which one can visit for more information and also for ordering items…. He did say that they can be purchased cheaper however by contacting him direct via phone at 1-866-965-4072 or via Email at mtnairembroidery@windstream.net.
Now it has been the policy of REPA for many years to not do advertising except for books that were authored by REPA members, which we do at no charge… That applies to the REPArtee magazines and the REPA Website…
However it does not apply to the EALinfo Email net as that belongs to your, once again, humble servant, that being me!
Even though we are advertising Ben’s business it is done so at no cost to him, I have ordered a shirt from Ben and it will be paid for in full by me!
Another reason we are giving Ben this publicity is because, as all should know by now, we shut down the Cash Sales at our conventions, the last one being at Tampa last November… But those wishing to buy some Eastern shirts and so on can still do so by contacting Ben Aiken…
We had other guests at the luncheon yesterday… From the Silver Liners we had first time attendee June Dalton. Also with Clyde Biddle was his guest, former Atlanta Manager of Line Maintenance Gerald Dailey, who had over 50 years service with Eastern! Another first timer was UAL Captain (and former EAL F/O) Jack Cochran, who also joined REPA while at the luncheon.
We had loads of Door Prizes, one of which was to have been the Wings of Man book (about Dick Merrill) but somehow in the hustle and bustle at the Head Table we overlooked awarding it! So it will be available for a Door Prize in March.
And the Winners Were!!!
Ron Gabler……… $15.00
Ed Bruce………… $10.00
Howard Tucker….. $ 5.00
Tom Gray…………Framed A-300 Painting (donated by Jim Whitlock)
Ben Aiken……...…Framed A-300 Painting (donated by Jim Whitlock)
Marty Tabacchi…..Eastern embroidered Golf Shirt (donated by Ben Aiken)
Ron Gabler donated 12 free Chick-Fil-A sandwich coupons so we decided to have drawing for a set of two each per winner…
The six winners were: Hoyt Davis, Jay Allen, Keith Crosby, Dick Garner, Gerald Dailey and Jim Holder.
One last bit of information!
After the luncheon Jerry Frost and I installed the new Information Plaque at the new Bronze Memorial… The text on the old one did not accurately reflect what is now presented on the Memorial so we had a new one engraved. We simply placed the new one on top of the old one as they are the same size.
In a few years we plan to have engraved the third (and final) smaller plaque which will have the names of anyone we missed on the two large plaques. Even though they contain 6,744 names, we are already aware of some we inadvertently left off….
Jim Holder
Reminder for the February 14th REPA Luncheon...
Folks…
Next Tuesday (February 14th) is the day for our next Atlanta REPA Luncheon…
Virgil Tedder reports that we will not have a speaker or program as such this month, although he is working to have a good one in March!
We do know that our newest Honorary Member of REPA, Jim Whitlock, will be bringing another in a long line of paintings, this one again for a Door Prize. He states it is of an Eastern A-300 flying over the Utah Mountains…
Also we will having an additional Door Prize, this being a 400 page bound copy of author Jack L. King’s informal biography of Captain Dick Merrill… The book, titled “Wings of Man” has forewords by Robert J. Sterling, Arthur Godfrey, Ernest K. Gann and was signed by the author when purchased by Eastern Captain John Litzenberger in 2008… It was donated to REPA along with many other items by his son, Mike, upon the passing of John’s widow, Sue Litzenberger, a former Eastern Flight Attendant. The book is in pristine condition and has many, many photographs taken during Captain Merrill’s career…
Of course we will have the usual few bucks as Door Prizes too!
All are invited to come and bring a joke, story, tall tale or, like in Virgil’s and my case, something you can read, funny or not!!!!!
We will be gathering about 11:00 AM at the Piccadilly Cafeteria on Godby Road, just off Old National Highway just SW of the Atlanta Airport….
See you there!!!!
Jim Holder
The Repa Board of Directors Meet!
Well, maybe the exclamation point is a little overdoing it as it was just our Annual meeting, which we have the first part of every year…
We did not do much damage to the Association and some might say we did some good…
Probably the best thing we did was to unaminously elevate REPA Affiliate Member Jim Whitlock to Honorary Membership status…
As many know Jim was an aircraft fueler in Ramp Service at the Atlanta Airport. He had a second calling though, that creating many, many Last Trip posters for retiring Eastern pilots… He continued this after Eastern closed its doors, painting some for former Eastern pilots who later flew for other airlines. Also over the years Jim created many paintings of Eastern’s airplanes, some for sale and a large number for Door Prizes at the Atlanta Luncheon or to raise money at the REPA Convention Cash Sales… If anyone ever deserved to be an Honorary Member of REPA then that would be Jim Whitlock!!!!!
Of course, much of our time at the Board Meeting was spent discussing the upcoming REPA Convention, set to start on November 11th at the Westin Resort on Hilton Head Island, off the coast of Georgia. There will be a lot more about this in the summer REPArtee but already we have started construction on the Convention Page of the REPA website, you can visit it at www.repaonline.com. Right now all we have is an overhead picture of the Westin Resort…
As all know we are losing Eastern pilots at the rate of about 80 per year, many were REPA members. This is somewhat offset at REPA as we do get new members, both Regular and Affiliate, but nowhere near the numbers that we are losing. So the Board discussed amending the Bylaws to allow former Eastern Flight Attendants to become Regular Members… Many do belong now as Affiliate Members but perhaps there would be more joining if they could be full members, as the pilots are. This will be placed on the agenda for the Convention Business Meeting in November…
In the same vein we also discussed the possiblity of sharing a convention with other Eastern groups, the Silver Liners perhaps… This, too, will be discussed at the Convention Business Meeting…
The Board also took up the matter of the Slate of Nominees for 2013 REPA Officers… At the present we have two members willing to come on the Board as Director, both of whom have already served on the Board. We would be quite happy with either of these gentlemen however we felt we should at least see if anyone else, not having served, would like to be considered… The Slate has to be in the summer magazine, which is already in the works, so anyone interested should contact one of the Board Members.
The last item of interest is that the First Class mailed winter 2012 REPArtee magazines were mailed a bit early, on Friday, January 27th… Probably most paying for First Class already have theirs… The remainder (by far the most) were mailed right on time, that being Tuesday, January 31st… As they were sent via Standard Mail, no one knows when the Post Office will deliver them! Usually most arrive within 10 days but we know of some that took up to several months!!!!!
Hope you have a happy Super Bowl Sunday!!!!
Jim Holder
A special request from REPA Affiliate Member Le Anne Ottmann....
Which plane would you fly again? Share your memories!
Please take a 3-question survey provided by REPA affiliate member Le Anne Ottman. Click here!