"Charlie" to be delivered soon; in a parade, too!

Here is a picture of an H-34 flying in Viet Nam taken in the Summer of 1966. It's from HMM-161,  flying south near the coast of Viet Nam, from Dong Ha to Phu Bai. The pilot is First Lieutenant John "Nasty" App.

 After some delays, it looks like Charlie will be delivered Monday April 18th. Hour yet to be determined. Notices will be sent out as things develop.  Come on down! We hope to have press and T.V. people there. (We have had a little trouble coordinating the delivery with the fellow who has sold us the H-34, but things seem finally  to be coming together.)

For those who live near Sandpoint, we are going to have a meeting Saturday the 16th, 10:00 AM  at the lot where Charlie will live. The location is 315 So. Ella Street, Sandpoint. (This is right beside/behind TRADERS lumber yard, across Hwy 2 from Dairy Depot.) It is more for discussion of what, why, how, when etc. of what we are going to do with Charlie after she gets here, but it will also be to see if we can get together some specific work committees to attack whatever things that need to be done to/for Charlie.

One thing we need to do right away is repair about thirty feet of cyclone fence at the rear of the lot where Charlie will be placed. The posts are still in place, the fencing material is available, but we need someone with cyclone fence repair abilities to repair the fence. We have the fence stretching tools.

The first thing we want to do with this old Sikorsky is try and get her up on her own wheels, so we can pull her through town for the "LOST IN 50's"  parade, May 20th.  Sandpoint has this wonderful old car parade/show every May, and we already have tenative permission from the promoters to have Charlie participate.  Here is a link to that event: 

http://www.sandpoint.org/lostin50s/

We are hoping we can get the wheels under her, and get a few parts attached so she will be halfway presentable. Our tenative plan is to pull her throught town every "Lost in 50"s"  and every Fourth of July parade, and pull her over to our veterans STANDOWN at the fairgrounds every June, too. 

GOOD NEWS! about the place where the helicopter will sit.  Richard Oliver at Quality Collision Repair had originally given us only tenative permission to park Charlie on his lot for a short while.  He was thinking his landlord would not be agreeable.  After checking, Richard got a green light from his landlord, so it appears that Charlie has a semi-permanent home at Quality.  Both Richard Oliver and his landlord are both veterans, too. Richard served in the U.S. Navy. 
Richard's wife, Jonnie Bradley,  publishes the WIZE GUIDE, and is creating a full page article about Charlie in her next edition, soon to be published, which will have 10,000 copies distributed in our area. YEA, Jonnie!

More later as things develop.

Of course, as always, any donations to the cause will be greatly appreciated!  Make checks out to "V V A post 890".  Send to Bill Collier, 402 Sandpoint Ave, No. 224, Sandpoint, ID  83864