AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - January 2013 - 75

THE GANG’S ALL HERE:

Sunday Morning Breakfast Club members assemble at Lake Lawn (left), a Bonanza joins the fun; Gregg Erikson displays the tiger-striped cowl plugs he uses on his Grumman Tiger (bottom left).

A common refrain amongst these pilots is that if it weren’t for the Sunday Morning Breakfast Club, they wouldn’t need an airplane.
of the SMBC family. Each year a group of Sunday Morning Breakfast Clubbers flies down to the Sun ’n Fun Airshow and Fly-In, and he’ll host a cookout for them. After Weincek left the area, MacCabe took up the mantle. He chooses destinations and tracks participation. He says he tries never to pick an airport that’s more than 100 nm from LOT. “If I stretch it, people start dropping off,” he explains. Another semiofficial rule: Patronize EAA chapter or other airport group breakfasts whenever possible. It’s worth noting that in 2010, the group attended breakfasts on 45 Sundays out of 52. JOIN ’EM Frieda and Gordon Wilson fly a Cessna The Sunday Morning Breakfast Club meets for 182 based at Bult Field (C56) in Monee, breakfast every Sunday. Illinois, a 15-minute flight from LOT. “We A spin-off group, the started doing the flights 12 to 14 years ago,” Wednesday Afternoon Frieda says. “It keeps you brushed up— Lunch Club, flies or drives landing with a lot of other airplanes.” Her for lunch each Wednesday. In addition to weekly husband, who has been flying for 41 years, breakfast fly-outs, the will task her with practicing the approach group holds an annual into an unfamiliar airport. Christmas banquet; flies Now the count is up to 47 members. as a group to Sun ’n Fun; MacCabe wonders if he should start keepand organizes a yearly overnight fly-out. ing track of how much avgas the group burns. He shrugs and WEB https://sites.google.com/site/smbcflyers/ makes a mental note to add it to his list of webmaster duties. He introduces Zook Williams, a threeyear member. Williams earned a private pilot certificate in 1998 and bought a Piper Cherokee 140 in 2007 that he keeps at Bolingbrook, Illinois’ Clow International (1C5). He enjoys the camaraderie he found here, he says. “I fly as a hobby—this gives me a destination to go to.” There’s even been romance and marriage among the members. MacCabe met his wife, Carol, a student pilot, through mutual friends in the group. Mary Lou and Gregg Erikson met through the club and were married in 2010 at a maintenance hangar at Jasper County Airport in Rensselaer, Indiana (RZL). They stopped working on their Grumman Tiger’s annual long enough to hold the ceremony. The Eriksons introduce Gregg ’s son, Jeff, who flies for United Express. He says that he brought Dolly Madison Zingers snack cakes to the wedding ceremony because he didn’t think there would be a traditional cake. The last to arrive this Sunday is Richard Kalamir, in a Cessna 182. He’s flown here from Porter County Regional Airport (VPZ) in Valparaiso, Indiana, and he has an excuse for his tardiness: He worked the previous night. MacCabe shepherds the group outside to pose for a picture in front of Arnie Zimmerman’s Breezy. Zimmerman, whose unusual open-cockpit aircraft has its own mailbox and a horn that goes “ah-OOO-gah!” has been giving rides to delighted kids all morning. The crowd disperses, but not very far. There are airplanes on the ramp to admire, and friends to greet. A common refrain among these pilots is that if it weren’t for the Sunday Morning Breakfast Club, they wouldn’t need an airplane. Don Alles and his friend, Vida Bernadisius, head to a Piper Seneca to prepare for their flight home to Meadow Creek Airport (2IL9). A friend teases Bernadisius, pointing out that it’s Mother’s Day. “Why are you here?” She shrugs. “I want to fly!” A A OP
EMAIL jill.tallman@aopa.org
www.aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 75

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AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - January 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - January 2013