By John Weber, EAA 278572, EAA Chapter 534 Vice President, ransfly@aol.com
Over the last few years, our EAA Chapter 534, based at Leesburg International Airport, has recognizing members who have completed their projects and made first flights. Loosely based on the Brokaw Perseverance Award, we have presented each member with a framed “plaque” in honor of their accomplishment.
The plaque is made up of two sections. The first section is a certificate of achievement that lists the member’s name, aircraft type, n-number, and the date of the first flight. The president of the chapter signs this certificate before it is framed. The second section consists of a photo of the airplane, and has the poem High Flight written by famed RCAF pilot John Gillespie Magee, Jr., who was killed in WWII. Both sections are formatted in the landscape orientation.
I print these on good quality photo paper, and put them in an 11 x 17 inch picture/poster frame. Since I have the layouts stored on my computer, I can usually create a first flight award in about five minutes. Frames are usually available from Target for less than $20. I recently bought two from Amazon for $24.
This has been a rewarding program. We have been holding both our membership and VMC Club meetings via Zoom. During these meetings, I have seen plaques previously presented to at least two of our members hanging on the walls in their home offices or dens. I have yet to see a recipient of this plaque without a smile on their face upon its presentation.
The Brokaw Perseverance Award was a program that was begun and administered by Dr. Bergon “Doc” Brokaw and his wife, Miss Buddy. These awards were given to builders who had completed construction of their aircraft in the previous year, and had flown to either Oshkosh or Sun n’ Fun. The award consisted of a certificate, as well as a rosette ribbon. I still have one of the ribbons from years ago.
For any chapter interested in using our chapter achievement certificate plaque in their chapter, I have both sections of this award on my MacBook in a Pages format, but will try and export them to a Word format as needed. I feel that this is a nice perk for chapter members, with minimal expense. Please feel free to contact me if you are interested.