In October, Bob Fischer and Lutzi joined Viking River Cruise's "Grand European Tour," which starts in Amsterdam and ends in Budapest. They traversed cities with truly historic significance, such as Amsterdam, Cologne, Wurzburg, Nuremberg, Passau and Vienna. The highlight of their trip was the four days on their own in Budapest, exploring it thoroughly on foot. Bob tells us that "Lutzi was our personal tour guide. There were many memories, Lutzi having escaped the 1956 Hungarian Revolution there at the age of 17. She came to the USA as a refugee and gained a scholarship to the University of Colorado. She graduated in three years and the rest is history - our history."

George Collier is "still serving" while in retirement in Chesterfield, MO. He has been the ROTC liaison officer for his MOAA chapter, a USO volunteer, and is active in his church. Some of George's time is spent on his hobby of building miniature military models. George has an impressive collection of more than 100 models, which are unique in that they focus on particular episodes in aviation history, such as the war in Europe, flying the Hump, and the Berlin Airlift--including the associated ground-based military equipment.

Jock Schwank and Hope are now happily ensconced in Polson, Montana, 3800' lower than their former home in COS. The have family roots in the area and enjoy their proximity to Flat Head Lake, the largest natural lake west of Mississippi. Jock claims to be the only one amongst us that has a golf cart with snow chains.

Between them Fred Porter and Ron Deep have approximately 70 years combined experience as research scientists and instructors in college-level STEM disciplines. Fred is currently teaching programming at Colorado Technical University in COS and has also taught at Colorado College and served on USAFA's faculty both in and out of uniform. Courses taught included EE, math differentials, and flight mechanics, which he also taught at Edwards. When asked about his observations of the Academy's men and women during his tenure, Fred says that "they both had about the same percentage of dumb and smart cadets, but the women in my classes tended to do better because they were more organized and focused...and had the self confidence to excel."

Ron Deep claims to be leading a sedentary life as a Professor Emeritus at the University of Dayton in the School of Engineering in the Department of Engineering Management and Management Science. He wrote a text titled Probability and Statistics with Integrated Software Routines and coded the routines. Artificial Intelligence is another of his study areas, and he still dabbles in it. For the last 10 years he has enjoyed creating a monthly puzzle column for his local Mensa organization. At our request, Ron has shared one of his columns with us. The 10 puzzles and their solutions are posted on the class web site.

Here is one of the math challenges: "$10,275 was collected from between 120 and 200 attendees who paid exactly the same price. How much did each pay and how many attended?" Good luck and let us know how you fared.

John McCullough, our world-renowned fisherman, has recently returned from a fishing expedition to Argentina's Jurassic Lake, home of the world's largest rainbow trout. John is the quintessential outdoorsman and guide, having operated his own hunting and fishing outfit in Kodiak, Alaska for over 20 years. John has hunted and fished around the globe and he and his wife, Deanne, also maintain a farm in North Dakota where several of our classmates have visited to test their hunting skills. John's next big expedition will be to South Africa's Lake Jozini to fish for the piranha-like Tiger Fish, which has teeth like a shark and can weigh up to 150 lbs.

Since retirement, Gordon Savage has produced two books Peacemaker and Teleportal which he calls "science fiction with a twist." He is currently working on a sequel to Teleportal, and putting the material together to generate a blog on a regular basis.

JT Smith reports that Jerry Farquhar has been weathering some rough times of late starting with the loss of his beloved Dotty. What you may not know is that we came very close to losing him as well. He had an almost-fatal heart problem that landed him on the operating table for multiple by-passes, a valve replacement, and the installation of a pacemaker. By all rights he should have died, but an exceptionally talented surgeon pulled him out of a death spiral and back to wings level. Jerry says that he is feeling better and stronger each day and that he hopes to get his FAA Medical Class III reinstated so that he can get back to flying his Piper Aztec.

Jack Brush is now the NAA USA record holder for Piston Class C1d, 2000 km closed course, with a speed of 251 kts (289 mph). Previous record was 237 kts set in 1975.

Dick Schehr recently got back in the grant writing business for the Monument area non-profit senior center, Silver Alliance. There are over 700 seniors to service in the area. The center operates on less than $100,000 per year, so grant needs are small. Do they have a special room for aging Zoomies?

Evelyn and George Elsea sold their house in Dingwall, Scotland, in summer 2016, after owning it for 19 years. Check our web site for "the rest of the story" and other tidbits, including "NOTAMS" which contains supplementary class news items.

As the chair of the Colorado Springs Airport Advisory Commission, Andi Biancur has taken the lead in a proactive attempt to avoid life-taking mid-air Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) incidents within the local air space. Since regulation is totally within the purview of the FAA, Andi's task has been to bring a UAS knowledgeable group to consensus as to the most effective method of educating the largest number of UAS hobbyists in safe operations, without interfering with state and federal regulating authority... and then, getting the city and county governments on board to bring that plan into action.

Les Hobgood and daughter, Rani, participated in the Big Bend Open Road race. Les learned again that their Corvette's driver's window starts to separate from the car at speeds in excess of 150 mph. After a " blue tape "repair, Les went on to flub a speed requirement and the team was disqualified. They will try again next year.

Ed Hearter reminds us that this past December, 50 years ago, Sam Waters and Mike Hyde gave their lives in combat in Vietnam. Sam was flying an F-105 and was hit by an SA-2 missile. No beeper or voice, but his undamaged ID card was photographed by an East German at some point--perhaps indicating he'd gotten out of the aircraft. Mike Hyde was flying an F-100 out of Bien Hoa and crashed during a CAS napalm attack.

Since January 2016, our tally remains: 227 graduated, 68 deceased, 159 ready to answer roll call.