CEO"s Message

As always, it’s the shared interests of our volunteers, staff and members of the Society that make my position not a job, but a journey, flown together. The AAHS Board of Directors has opted not to renew our lease at our Huntington Beach (HB) office, instead consolidate operations at our Flabob location. Although a sound business move, we’ll lose the camaraderie, knowledge, and expertise of many current volunteers at the HB office who can’t transition to the Flabob office. More than one of these volunteers have been supporting AAHS in some fashion for over 40 years, and the Society will not be the same without their guidance, support and dependability as part of our daily routine.

We’ll provide further details in coming Journals and FlightLIne about changes in our Post Office box address and other business updates. For the next several months however, your membership signups, renewals and other AAHS business will remain the same. Do be patient with us as we make this transition; it’ll be a significant task to make the physical move, as well as replace our very talented staff of our HB office. Our Journal and Flightline continues to bring aviation history to life for members and fellow enthusiasts around the world. AAHS began its very first member meeting with the collection and promotion of aviation history and we’re continuing that excellent tradition in these pages.

One tradition we hope to improve upon is our ‘Forum of Flight’ section of the Journal, where we feature photos from members and the AAHS archives. We would like to showcase not only AAHS archive photos, but your photo collections as well. Consider submitting 12-15 photos, along with photo identification (place, time, photographer) to AAHS and we’ll get them published, along with your photo credits. Although our digitizing efforts have been slowed by a lack of funds, cataloging continues to work on 120,000 digitized images via AAHSPlaneSpotter. If you have some free time, have an internet connection and would like to help catalog our photo library – then all you need to do is send an email message to: Ivolunteer@aahsplanespotter.com. We’ll get you all set up with a batch of images to work on. Wondering what’s involved? You can get a sample of how the system works by pointing your browser at www.aahsplanespotter.com and selecting the "DEMO" option. We’re looking forward to hearing from you!

I’m looking forward to contributing several aviation photos to the AAHS archive in travels this year. My home airport of Cable (CCB) had a well attended fly-in on February 4 (see Frank Mormillo’s photos in the Forum of Flight), and I’ll be attending the Cactus Fly-in, sponsored by the Antique Aircraft Association in early March at Casa Grande, AZ. AAHS will also have a booth at the March Air Reserve Base Air Show in April 22-23, where there will be a tremendous showing of both military and civil aircraft to enjoy. Look to the AAHS Facebook page for more information on
events with AAHS participation!

Jerri Bergen
AAHS CEO