 James Farr, class of 2012, one of the 29 Continuation Grant recipients receives his award from Scholarship/Grant Committee Member Becky "Sosa" Morales, class of '58. Enlarge Photo By Mark Ortega — Wednesday, September 9th, 2015
Back in May, the Fillmore High Alumni Association awarded out $36,000.00 in Scholarships to the Class of 2015 Scholarship winners. This August, they are awarding an additional $19,000.00 to Fillmore High Grads who are continuing their Upper Education in Colleges, Universities, and Trade Schools. The Alumni Association Thanks all their loyal donors, and Alumni Members for their Contributions to our Association. If you’re an Alumni member you can be the first to see a complete list of all this year’s recipients by logging in here http://www.fillmorehighalumni.com/login/ |
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By Bob Crum — Wednesday, September 9th, 2015
Part 1 of 2
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By Bob Crum — Wednesday, September 9th, 2015
Part 2 of 2
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By Jean McLeod — Wednesday, September 9th, 2015
 Kevin McSweeney, Planning and Community Development Director The Fillmore Planning Commission held a joint meeting with the Fillmore City Council on September 8, 2015. There has been a flurry of activity and development in Fillmore over the past year. Planning Department's Kevin McSweeney introduced Maura Macauso who has been working as a consultant for the past six months and is now an employee with the Planning Department. McSweeney then gave a presentation on Fillmore's 2014-2015 progress in residential, commercial and infrastructure. He began with the light signal planned for the intersection of Mountain View and Highway 126. Cal Trans is now requiring a 3rd plan check. "It's turning into a large project" McSweeney told both the Commission and Council. Cal Trans is now requiring a large 140 ft. retaining wall on the north side of the highway on both east and west sides of Mountain View. All corners will be handicapped accessible, walkways will be heavily marked and wide. "It will be very visible" McSweeney stated. There will be a dedicated turn arrow for traffic in all directions and will have the positive effect of slowing traffic down as it enters town from the east. Hearthstone Development is paying for half of the cost of the signal which was originally priced at $660,000 but the cost was brought down to half and is now running $330,000. The second project discussed was the Business Park Master Plan Amendment. Fillmore has in the past asked the original developer of a project to pay much of the Common Area Infrastructure Fees up front before the rest of the project is completed. Then as new developers come on board a portion of the fees they then pay are reimbursed to the original developer. Due to the CONTINUED » |
 95-year old Lt. Bob Friend is one of the few remaining living legends of the black Tuskegee Army Air Corps. Enlarge Photo By Bob Crum — Wednesday, September 9th, 2015
Story and photos by Bob Crum
Lt. Bob Friend was in attendance at the recent Wings Over Camarillo air show. At 95 years of age, Lt. Friend is one of few remaining Tuskegee-trained airmen. Tuskegeeairmen.org explains: “Tuskegee Airmen" refers to the men and women, mostly African-Americans, who were involved in the so-called "Tuskegee Experience", the Army Air Corps program to train African Americans to fly and maintain combat aircraft. The Tuskegee Airmen included pilots, navigators, bombardiers, maintenance and support staff, instructors, and all the personnel who kept the planes in the air.” The Tuskegee Airmen were initially equipped with P-40 Warhawks briefly with P-39 Aircobras (March 1944), later with P-47 Thunderbolts (June-July 1944), and finally with the airplane that they would become most identified with, the P-51 Mustang (July 1944). During the war, the Tuskegee airmen painted their airplanes identifying colors to identify the four fighter squadrons of the segregated 332nd fighter group. The colors representing the four fighter squadrons... Red and yellow cowling represents the 302nd Fighter Squadron. The A on the side represents the 99th Fighter Squadron. Yellow banding on the wings represents the 301st Fighter Squadron. Red fins on the wings represents the 100th Fighter Squadron. The restored Red Tail P-51C Mustang is the most recognized of the Mustangs. The Commemorative Air Force (CAF) Red Tail Squadron’s rare P-51C Mustang represents all of the personnel that are now known as Tuskegee Airmen: pilots, bombardiers, navigators, ground crews, mechanics, cooks, ambulance drivers, medical staff, administrative personnel, etc. |
 Aerobatic helicopter daredevil Chuck Aaron in front of his Red Bull chopper. Aaron is retiring from a long successful career. Photo courtesy Bob Crum. Enlarge Photo By Bob Crum — Wednesday, September 9th, 2015
Story and photos by Bob Crum
 Chuck Aaron In any given aeronautical period, there's a pilot that performs extraordinary feats with his flying machine. Chuck Aaron is such a pilot. An aerobatic helicopter daredevil. As such, he's thrilled crowds with his incredible aeronautical maneuvers in the one-of-a-kind Red Bull chopper. No one else does backflips and 360 degree barrel rolls in a chopper. His signature 'Chuckcilvak' free fall is breath stopping. Aaron is the first and only civilian pilot licensed to do what he does with a helicopter. He's also the first helicopter pilot to achieve the Art Scholl Showmanship award for outstanding air show performances. In 2011 Aaron was inducted to the Society of Experimental Test Pilots and in 2013 officially honored as a Living Legend in Aviation. After 10 strenuous years of performing at air shows, Captain Chuck Aaron is retiring. I had the opportunity to chat briefly with Aaron at the Camarillo airport prior to his recent Wings Over Camarillo air show performance. Chuck, you're retiring, why? Aaron began: “I've started doing this actually at this very air show back in 2005. I've done air shows all across the United States from Los Angeles, to Key West, New York, Chicago, Seattle, Hawaii twice and back to here. I usually do about 35 air shows a year which means I'm gone from home. So it's really about family. I love to fly, and I'll still always fly but I'm just going to stop the air show routine because it takes me away from home so much. Ten years of it is plenty... I think I've set a standard and set the bar up so the kids that see me will recognize, look he's thought outside the box and do what he does at air shows and I want them to at least also think outside of the box in anything they're doing. I don't care what it is. I don't care if they're cutting grass, or if they're engineers. I want them to think what can I do to change this world to make it a better environment to make it better for everyone else. And what I really want the kids to do is to change aviation and particularly change helicopters and make them so they're faster and more effective and more useful. So I just want to be an inspiration to kids to dream up ideas... they're the ones with the computer brains. I almost missed that whole part of life... I'm right in the middle of it at my age and I just hang onto what little computer work I know. My grandkids are here and they can whip through computers 10 times faster than me. I was born a little too early for the computer age but early enough to where I can do what I'm doing in aviation. But there's still a lot more to do and that's what I want. I want these smart kids to come up and do well and think outside of the box like I did and dream up new aviation opportunities.” Do you know of anyone following in your footsteps, close to doing what you're doing, I asked? No, but Sikorsky has a program where any child can come up with a better idea... an annual program where a kid can submit an idea... a drawing or an idea of some kind... of a new type of design. If they like your idea, they'll award a scholarship. After college, maybe bring them aboard the Sikorsky team. There are programs out there... we just need thinkers, we need doers, people thinking outside of the box.” Who made the Red Bull helicopter that you fly, I asked? “This aircraft was made by Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm.* I took it here to my hanger and did some secret modifications to it that I can't tell you about. All we did was make it a little more beefy, a little stronger, changed the center of gravity on it and some other little tricks so we could do air shows with it. “I'm sure they have, of course,” Aaron said “Quadcopters have come out since then and I think that's where technology is going to go. I think, for an idea, is go with quadcopters. Try to make that scenario Is Sikorsky the premier helicopter company? I asked. “Them and Bell. I like both companies. Both companies are great... great American companies. Sikorsky is super innovative. They came out with the Sikorsky X2 which is a one of a kind prototype which has my rotor system on it, two of them, stacked on top of each other and counter-rotate. And they added a propeller that we call a pusher prop on the tail that pushes the aircraft. They don't have a tail rotor blade like I have to counter torque. The main rotor blades are used for liftoff and fly away like a helicopter and they add power to the pusher prop to push it faster. That type of idea, or something like it in the future is going to be the quadcopter type of effect. But they have that one (X2) doing 270 knots... almost 300 miles/hour. So we can go faster now by taking the next step. And that's how we have to do everything... step by step by step.” Have they been analyzing your helicopter? “Oh yeah they have,” was the immediate response, adding, “I've taken their test pilots up and showed them how it works.” They must have gained a good deal of knowledge from your experience, I said. “I'm sure they have but of course they won't be telling me about it”, said Aaron. I have heard that it took an over abundance of courage to pull off the first back flip with the Red Bull chopper. So I asked. “It's a long story but the short story of that is, after I got the aircraft certified by the FAA... at that time no one in the FAA has ever certified a helicopter to do aerobatics but I got it done. Then it came time for ME to get certified. Now that I've gone this far down the road, I had to teach myself to do a loop. I went out in the middle of nowhere and tried doing loops and couldn't do it. I'd chicken out. I tried it 50 times and every time I'd go up and maybe do one degree more and chicken out. You can't mess it up because if you do you die. Finally one day... it was the perfect clear day like today... I felt good so I went out and took it up and I was pulling up to go to my chicken point... it's been three months of doing this... and I said I'm finally going for it. I pulled it over and did the loop. I was so excited I did ten more in a row, right then, ten in a row because I didn't want to forget what I did and I wanted to remember how I did it. For me, it felt like I'd gone through the speed of sound. That all happened in 2005 and Aaron has been thrilling air show crowds since. His parting comments for future pilots: “Be careful. Practice. Think about what you're doing. Think about how to get out of something if you do something dumb. Make sure you have an escape plan. Always think things out... always talk it out with others, talk with your mentors, figure it all out before you jump off and do something. Don't do it on your own. Don't do it in a wild flash second, you have to plan it. That's what I did and I'm still alive to be here to tell you about it.” If you missed the Wings Over Camarillo air show, the Miramar air show is the last best chance to see Chuck Aaron perform in the Red Bull helicopter. His rolls, flips, and 'Chuckcilvak' free fall are helicopter aerobatics to behold. You too will wonder... did I just see a helicopter do a back flip??? I often resort to pinching myself to be sure I really saw what I think I saw. Aaron's remaining schedule is the Red Bull air race in Dallas, TX September 26-27. Then to the Miramar, CA air show October 2-4, and the last show is his half time performance at the Red Bull air race in Las Vegas NV on October 17-18. Miramar air show info is at http://miramarair show.com/ *Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm (MBB) was a German aerospace manufacturer formed as the result of several mergers in the late 1960s. Among its best-known products was the MBB Bo 105 light twin helicopter. The company was bought by Daimler-Benz Aerospace AG in 1989, now part of EADS. |
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By Anonymous — Wednesday, September 9th, 2015
A Fillmore horse has tested positive for the West Nile virus. It has been six years since a horse has tested positive in Ventura County. The non-vaccinated horser tested positive on August 20, 2015. Birds continue to test positive for the virus, the latest in Ojai. West Nile is spread by mosquitos and can infect humans. No human infections have been reported in Ventura Two WNV-related fatalities have been reported in to CDPH from San Bernardino (1) and Nevada (1). 108 human cases from 22 counties have tested positive for WNV in 2015. |
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By Anonymous — Wednesday, September 9th, 2015
 A three-car accident occured on Old Telegraph Rd. at Grand Avenue on Thursday, September 3rd, 7:05pm. All three cars were heading east on Old Telegraph. It appears the Escalade was making a left-hand turn and was rear-eneded by the Altima, with the Mustang rear-ending the Altima in the chain reaction. No injuries were reported. Enlarge Photo |
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By Mark Ortega — Wednesday, September 9th, 2015
Also Homecoming Parade 2015
Come on out to our next to last Flashback Fridays in Fillmore. Summer is winding down, so there will be only this one on September 18th, and possibly one more in October. (Depending on daylight and weather). Come see the beautiful classic cars that use to cruise up and down Central from years gone by. Last month our downtown restaurants were full, and our Vendors, BelAir Cafe, and Hot Dog stand sold out, so come out early and grab a bite to eat and take in the beautiful Cars, and our beautiful downtown scenery. No wonder Downtown Fillmore is in so many commercials. Also on the same night of the 18th, Central Station will be showing the Fillmore High / Santa Paula High Football game. Streaming live on their big Flatscreens TV. (Game is in Santa Paula this year.) Game starts at 7:00pm. Flashes merchandise also available at the Alumni Table outside of Central Station. F.H.S. Homecoming Parade 2015 will be taking place this year on Thursday evening September 24th at 6:30PM. Once the floats make it past Sespe Avenue coming from the High School, the Alumni Association will close the street down, and park the floats right on Central Ave between Sespe Street and Main Street that night along with the classic cars from Fillmore. The Alumni association invites all the communities of Fillmore, Bardsdale, and Piru to come look at the Floats and cars up close that evening on the 24th. We have Small town Americana like no other right here in Beautiful Downtown Fillmore, CA. Let's come out and enjoy it! GO FLASHES!! |
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By Ventura County Sheriff Department — Wednesday, September 9th, 2015
 Ventura County Sheriff's Department The Ventura County Sheriff's Office would like to remind residents of established locations throughout the county for persons seeking shelter from the heat. Updated lists are available at http://vcemergency.com/ City of Fillmore City of Moorpark Moorpark Active Adult Center City of Ojai City of Port Hueneme City of Santa Paula City of Simi Valley City of Thousand Oaks Thousand Oaks Goebel Adult Community Center Thousand Oaks Grant R. Brimhall Library Thousand Oaks: The Oaks Mall Newbury Park Branch Library |