Ron was born and raised in Nashua, New Hampshire, many years before he discovered the virtues of living in the Lone Star state. He admits to being a "damn Yankee," but we'll overlook his shortcomings. Ron remembers his first attraction to airplanes when he was 4-years old. A family friend flew a bright red and white bi-plane over his house, circled around a few times, landed on the road out front, then pulled up in the corn field next to their driveway and stayed about an hour. "Later after we moved to the city I would ride my bike up to the airport and hang around until someone would eventually chase me away," Ron said. He was eleven years old at the time, and got chased off many times without ever getting a ride in an airplane. He tried to join the Civil Air Patrol but the local branch of the CAP had been disbanded due to a lack of attendance and interest. One of the guys at the airport suggested he join the Air Force when he turned 17, if he wanted to fly. "The day I turned 17 I was down at the Air Force recruiter's office. I took the tests and passed! I thought for sure I was finally going to get to fly. They never told me I couldn't possibly fly without at least a high school diploma much less a college degree. Well, at least I finally got to ride in an airplane. A KC-130 from Boston, Mass to New York City, and from there we flew commercial down to San Antonio, Texas."

After basic training Ron was a lifeguard and PT instructor for awhile, then eventually landed at James Connally AFB in Waco, (1960-64). He married a local girl and had three kids. "Yes, my three oldest children are real Texans born right here in Waco" says Ron. He also stepped on a few toes while based at the air base here, and as his "reward" he was allocated to watering the J.C. golf course for the remainder of his tour of duty. You'll have to ask him the full story on that one. In his spare time, Ron rode a 1952 Harley Davidson and raced sports cars, too. I wouldn't be surprised if he rode with Dale Breedlove and didn't even know it.
After discharge from the Air Force he tried to find a job in Waco, but they were few and far between back then. So Ron took his family back up north and within two weeks he had two full time jobs. To stay involved in the glamour of aviation, he worked from 3:00-11:00 at the FAA Air Traffic Control Center, sweeping floors. Then he would head across town and work until 7:00 am in the local tannery, slinging cow hides into a ringer to get the water and acid out of them. As a result of an accident in the tannery, he spent two years in the hospital and three operations ending both his career there and his marriage.
"My next dumb trick was to go to work driving 18-wheelers across country. That resulted in two more spinal operations before I finally started learning something.
Somewhere along the line, during one of those visits to the local hospital, an old Greek gentleman noticed that I liked to draw and he thought I was pretty good at it. He asked me to come and pay him a visit when I got out of the hospital.

It took about 6 months but when I got out I went to visit him. He gave me a silver drafting compass set that was made in Germany around the early part of the century.
He said that I was to accept it as a gift on two conditions. One was that I was to stop driving trucks for a living and go back to school to learn to be a draftsman. And the other condition was that I had to agree to pass the set along to someone like myself some day to try to encourage him or her to try to live a better life. Since I had finally gotten the message that someone was trying to tell me something useful, it didn't take long to make a decision. I accepted the drafting set and the terms and conditions."

Ron got his training in drafting and ended up doing some very impressive jobs while working for a "temporary contract job-shop." He designed an eight feet diameter gate valve for the Seabrook Nuclear power station and did the design layout work for an atomic clock. The cesium beam atomic clock he designed was used in the Voyager satellites which were the first man-made objects to leave our solar system. Another project he is really proud of is the design of the first multi-channel Satellite receiver feed tube systems that make your typical dish and satellite TV receivers possible. "That was back in 1980 where I worked as the Mechanical Engineer for MA/Com Microwave Instruments. Those were the old original 8-foot diameter dish receivers and I am the guy that figured out and designed the feed tube systems that allowed the switch between channels 2-60 and 61-120. Prior to the feed tube that I made, if you wanted to change from one set of channels to the other, you had to physically go out to the dish and change the wave-guide and feed tube itself. The units I designed made it possible to change the channels electronically without changing the feed tubes or wave-guides."

Ron's first encounter with the EAA was while living in New England. He saw a small airplane coming in for a landing where he had no idea there was an airport. It turned out to be a local Saturday morning fly-in of a New Hampshire EAA Chapter. He managed to make it to a few of their meetings but the members of that particular Chapter were not quite as sociable as Chapter 59 people. He felt that he and his wife were treated more as casual by-standers or visitors rather than really interested participants.

"My first contact with Chapter 59 was through Nick Pocock. I was taking a drafting course over at TSTC where I was trying to get some credentials in GIS/GPS. I'd been working in the field for several years in the computer business we owned back up north, and when we moved to Waco I wanted to get back into aviation. I figured getting into GIS/GPS would give me a chance to try my hand at aerial surveying and mapping. I asked Nick where the local EAA Chapter was and he tried to tell me where and when the meetings were held, but being unfamiliar with Waco after being gone for thirty years I couldn't figure out where he was talking about. That's when I called Mike McMains. He was listed as the President of the local Chapter on the national web site. I had been looking at the EAA national web site and was wondering where the local Chapter's web site was and how could I find it. That's when I stepped into it, knee deep."

Ron says he really likes Chapter 59 and thinks the people here are great. He believes the fly-in schedules and events are plentiful and interesting. Due to his early experiences as a kid constantly being chased off from the airport, he is very interested in the Young Eagles programs and also in the flying club that Dan McKee is running. "These programs are a lot of work and require a lot of effort from a lot of people. But I think the results in the long run will show that the efforts and time spent were worth it. I am also very interested in other aspects of aviation education programs and assistance that the EAA and local chapters can provide for people who, like me, have spent their entire lives wishing they could learn to fly and maybe, just maybe, they could someday own their own airplane. This, of course, is the Flying-Start programs that offer older (grown-ups) an opportunity to join the Chapter and learn about aviation."

Ron really appreciates the fact that Chapter 59 membership is comprised of non-pilots as well as builders and licensed pilots. He says there doesn't appear to be any animosity towards the non-pilots or people who do not happen to own an airplane. He is really enthusiastic about the Chapter 59 hangar project and thinks it will give a feeling of permanency and stability to the Chapter. He thinks it will give the members a place to call their aviation home away from home and will also provide a great place for our meetings and events. "It will also provide space for members to actually build things. Not just a complete airplane but small parts and several other types of projects like radios and GPS units, intercoms and new seat covers and hundreds of others things aviation." Ron also would like to see the Chapter 59 library expanded to include more training materials and some "how-to" articles written by Chapter members.

Last year Ron finally realized his dream of owning an airplane and learning to fly. He bought a 1970 Cessna 150L that was way out of annual and needed lots of work including a muffler, wingtips and interior plastic. He has fixed it up and now has about 60 hours accumulated and will soon be ready for his private pilot checkride. Chapter 59 member and CFI Monte Michael has been his instructor. Like every pilot, his first solo was a very memorable event. We all know that Monte is not a little guy, and you can just imagine how that Cessna leaped off the ground the first time Ron soared into the blue alone. He said he was really proud of his perfect first landing, right in the touchdown zone and glass smooth. Unfortunately, all was not perfect as he became airborne and landed twice more on that approach! That plane didn't want to stop flying with just Ron aboard.

Our new Vice President, Ron McKinley, has only been with us for a couple of years, but he has already made important contributions to Chapter 59. In fact, immediately after joining Chapter 59, Ron began developing our website, which gets our activities out to members as well as giving us worldwide exposure. In fact, our website now gets over 15,000 hits per month! He is a true aviation enthusiast and it's great to see him realize his lifelong dream to learn to fly. As a Chapter board member last year and now serving as Second-in-Command to President Emmette, Ron has quickly become a valuable part of our Chapter 59 leadership. I'll let him close this article with his own words about Chapter 59:

"The strength of Chapter 59 is its members. That sounds easy to say and almost too logical. But the fact is, EAA Chapters can and do fall apart. Too often a few members, sometimes only 1 or 2, become overpowering and dominate a Chapter, trying to control every aspect of it. This can quickly lead to discourse and members begin to feel that it is no longer their Chapter. I do not see any signs of this unrest here. The members of Chapter 59 all seem to be active and eager to participate. I think we have some very strong leadership in the Chapter. I'm not including myself here, but rather I am referring to all the members who have been active on the board of directors and also those providing leadership within the membership itself.
"I am extremely honored to be the Chapter 59 Vice-President at this time, and I feel very privileged to be able to serve under Emmette Craver. I know my coarse personality and disposition may offend some people, and for that I apologize, I come from a gravel-pit background and I don't have the polish and college degree demeanor that some would prefer, but they should know that at least my intentions are good, and my vision for this Chapter is for a very long and enjoyable future."
Thank you, Ron, for being a great asset to Chapter 59!

-McMains