Lt. Col. Michael “Wilson” Lewis, Commander of the 89th Attack Squadron, Ellsworth AFB, and MSgt Josh Sjoholm, 89th Attack Squadron, gave a presentation on the squadron’s operations. The Squadron used to fly the MQ-1 Predator (retired in 2018), and currently flies the MQ-9 Reaper, and the MQ-1/9 Reaper.

(Left) Captain Brendan “Laps” Zubrod, Safety Officer, 114th Fighter Wing, Air National Guard, Sioux Falls, gave a talk at the April 20 Meeting about Air Guard operations and Mid-Air Collision Avoidance. (Right) Pastor Mark Tracy of Clark, SD, talked about starting Pilots for Christ chapters in South Dakota.

Scott Dorwart gave a talk about Dakota Flight Center and two concerns for the future – one was the looming shortage for Aviation Medical Examiners, and the other was the increasing time delay in scheduling check rides with Designated Pilot Examiners.

Black Hills Aero

Jerry Runia (left) and Darrel Sauder (right) gave a talk on flying their Citabrias into backcountry landing strips in Utah and Colorado in September 2017.

Cody Christensen spoke about the South Dakota State University Aviation program.

CANCELED due to weather

Steve Rathbun (son of Grove & Jan Rathbun) of Cottonwood Heights, UT, gave a talk about his record-breaking glider flight prior to the SDPA Meeting on Nov 11, 2017.Steve set 12 glider records on July 9, 2016, when he launched his glider (Rolladen-Schneider OHG LS3-A) from Cedar Valley Airport -- a private dirt strip located 30 miles south of Salt Lake City International at 11:35am and landed after flying for 8 hours 18 minutes in the air at Hot Springs, SD, at 7:54pm – travelling a “free distance” of 502.4 miles with no turnpoints.

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