The Rotary Club of Shady Brook Now Flies with Angel Flight Northeast

For a number of years, the proceeds of the Club’s annual Pancake Breakfast fundraiser have been donated to John Clough, a volunteer pilot with Angel Flight Northeast.

Angel Flight Northeast's mission since its first flight in 1996 has remained unchanged; to arrange and provide free air transportation so children and adults may access life-saving medical care that is not readily available to them locally.  

Its mission coordinators presently schedule 80-100 flights each week … and now total more than 77,000 flights.  As is the case of John Clough,

their 500-plus Volunteer Pilots donate their time, talent, airplane, fuel and operating expenses and hve flown over 14 million miles providing patients, their families and traveling companions free air transportation, enabling them to access the specialized medical care they require.

Angel Flight Northeast has never refused anyone in need.  Approximately 40% of their patients are children, suffering from life-threatening cancer, severe burns or crippling diseases.  Moreover, they will fly people for as long and as often as they need to travel, with no limit whatsoever to the number of flights they provide.

Augmenting their pilots are more than 200 Earth Angels who greet patients and their families with open arms and transport them to and from their destinations. 

Our Club’s annual donations help defray the out-of-pocket costs for Angel Flight’s pilots … with each dollar donated generating on average five dollars’ worth of contributed services by Angel Flight Northeast’s dedicated volunteers.

Today, the Rotary Club of Shady Brook’s commitment to and partnership with John Clough and Angel Flight Northeast was further strengthened with the addition of the Club’s logo on the side of his plane, recognizing its small part in supporting Angel Flight Northeast’s mission and realizing Rotary’s motto of “Service Above Self”.

Meeting with John Clough at the Smoketown (PA) Airport, Dick Newbert was honored to apply the decal

(l to r) Jerry, Irv and Dick

with Jerry Redington, Chair of the Club’s annual Pancake Breakfast, and Irv Perlstein, the Club’s Fundraising Chair, looking on.  John’s future passengers will now see recognition of the Rotary Club of Shady Brook’s support of Angel Flight Northeast as they board and debark from his aircraft.

 

For those who might be interested some of the technical aspects of John's plane and its capabilities …

It is a Mooney Ovation (Model M20R).  At sea level,it has a full-power speed of 190 Knots (for those non aviators or seamen, that equates to 218.64810 Miles per Hour) .  However, as John notes, "You can not fly it at sea level, you might hit the waves!"  True airspeed is based upon standard 29.92 barometric pressure at 59 degrees temperature at sea level.

The service ceiling is 20,000 feet. Which means under standard temperatures for 20,000 feet the plane will only climb at 100 feet per minute at that altitude.

Range is based upon winds, no head winds or no tail winds.  The level of fuel economy that the pilot uses Means a lot to range. Full power burns 23 gals per hour,  A more reasonable power setting of 75% power means much longer time the plane will stay in the air at a slower speed.  Balance all these out and this is where I fly it.  163 kts airspeed burning 16.3 gals per hour with a hour reserve, a full tank is 90 Gallons. That comes out to 73.7 useful fuel divided by 16.3 equals 4.5 hours of flying 163 Kts per hour or 737 Kts miles or from here to southern Florida or to St. Louis … before fueling up again with a no wind flight which never happens.

John then offered them a free flight around the local area which Jerry, a retired U.S. Naval Aviator, jumped at.

Guess who got to actually fly the aircraft during part of the flight?

The most fulfilling times in my life are those times when I am helping others” –  Charmaine J. Forde