Rotary Club - HK East Newsletter November 21st, 2007

President Laurence started the meeting at 1:25 pm.

PE Andy introduced three visiting geusts from Mexico and they were Ms Aviles Lopez Luz Maria, Rtn Miguel Angel Evia Del Puerto, Hon. Secretary & PE, from Rotary Club of Xalostoc and Mr. Rodrigo Alcantara Gongara.

President Laurence then introduced his friends Francis Chin (the speaker), Ng Yau Wing, Joseph Lau, Haywood Ng and K.S. Chow. They were President Laurence's high school classmates and they were having their class reunion for 40 years!

It was such a small world and it was found out that the speaker and PP Rudy was in the same school before and Director Eric knew the speaker some years ago when he was in the Air Cadet and Air Scot Association.

There was no birthday boy for the day.

President Laurence invited the visiting Rotarians to tell us something about their Club. Their Club was established in 1984 and there were 26 members. They were having a community project of "harelip repair"in Mexico City. Banners were exchanged after the brief introduction.

The acting Sergeant-At-Arm Rudy reported a total collection of $800 for the Red-box donation.

The highlight of the meeting was the talk by Francis Y.C. Chin Q.S.,J.P., General Committee Member of the Hong Kong Aviation Club Ltd. on "The Adventure of Echo Charlie". What is "Echo Charlie"? Let see the following story and you would know.

The first power aircraft flight in the world was in 1903. The first power aircraft flight in Hong Kong was in 1911. The first airfield in Hong Kong was in Shatin. Not until 1925, we had the Kai Tak airfield in Kowloon (still a very basic one at that time until it was expanded into a proper airport before the second world war).

In the early twentieth century, there had been many adventurous journeys using single powered engine aircraft for cross countries flights, e.g.

1924 – From Lisbon to Macau
1927-28 – From London to Hong Kong via Australia
1937 – From Paris to Tokyo

Two young men in Hong Kong wanted to explore similar adventure in 1971. They were the Chin Brothers, Francis Chin and his brother Dominic.

They bought a single-engine, 100-HP Beagle Pup B121 Series 2-seat mini aeroplane with only basic flight instrument. The Chin Brothers, Francis and Dominic, had only 55 and 61 hours of flying experience respectively.

They flew from Membury in England on 9 December 1971, via Paris, Italy, Africa, Middle East, Pakistan, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Brunei, Philippines and arrived Hong Kong on 8 January 1972. They crossed 20 countries and had traveled over 18,000 miles.

Their aeroplane model was G-AWEC and was called "Golf Author Whisky Echo Charlie" for the air control language. That is why their journey was called "The Adventure of Echo Charlie".

The speed of the aircraft was only 93 knots, i.e. 107 miles per hour and could fly to maximum 10,000 ft. The aircraft could fly a maximum of 12 hours including the extra fuel tank which was specially designed by Francis himself.

The following is a record of some unforgettable events happened throughout the journey:

They lost their way to the airfield in Paris due to heavy fog
They lost their way from Italy and landed in Crete in the middle of Mediterranean Sea
They crossed three war zones i.e. Israeli-Arab, Pakistan-India, Vietnam,
They lost all the fuel after flying over 12 hours from Calcutta to Bangkok
They flew through Mount Victoria in the Arakan Yoma Mountain Range at 10,016 ft. exceeding the maximum altitude that the aircraft could fly
They received free service of the aircraft by Lebanese in Middle East and greeted with great hospitality and friendship from these peoples.

Their story was published in the Readers' Digest and other newspapers and magazines.

Their story can also be found at www.chinbrothers.netfirms.com.

Francis is an aviator holding long distance cross-country flying records, an active Qualified Flying Instructor, the President of the International Federation of Aviators, the founding member and Commander-in-Chief (Retired) of the Hong Kong Air Cadet Corps in the 1980s, and the founding pioneer in Air Scouting and the Chairman of the policy-making Air Activity Committee of the Hong Kong Scout Association.

He encouraged our members to learn flying and served these organizations by joining these organizations for community service projects. You can learn to fly even at 65!

President Laurence thanked the speaker by himself and suggested to the speaker for joining our Rotary Club for continuing his adventure and community service spirit.

President Laurence closed the meeting at 2:15 pm by proposing a toast to RI coupled with the RC of Xalostoc from Mexico and RC of Hong Kong Island East.

A Gem in the Crown

We are proud to report that our former member, PDG Moses M. C. Cheng of District 3450, was awarded of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, during the 48th Commencement and Conferment of Honorary Degrees on 12th November 2007 by Hong Kong Baptist University.

PDG Moses Cheng joined our club in July 1977 under the classification of Law/Solicitor, sponsored by PDG Peter Hall. In response to the spirit of Rotary International for external extension, our club appointed Moses Cheng to charter a new Rotary club named Rotary Club of Hong Kong North East as a charter president in 1983. Later, he also served Rotary International as District Governor of district 3450 in the Rotary year 1993-1994.

Moses obtained his Bachelor of Laws degree and Postgraduate Certificate in laws in 1972 and 1973 respectively at the University of Hong Kong. Since graduation, Moses has worked at Messrs. P. C. Woo & Company, rising from an article clerk in 1973 to a partner in 1979 and a senior partner in 1994. As the senior partner, Moses is responsible for the strategic and business development as well as the overall management of the firm. Over the years, he was admitted and enrolled as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of Hong Kong, Supreme Court of England and Supreme Court of Victoria in Australia. He was also admitted as an advocate and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Singapore and appointed in 1987 and 1995 respectively, a notary public and a China-appointed attesting officer.

He was appointed member of the Legislative Council from 1991 to 1995. During the past three decades, he has chaired a number of high-level and influential government boards and committees, including the Protection of Wages on Insolvency Fund Board, Committee on Promotion of Civic Education, Advisory Committee on New Broad-based Taxes, as well as the Betting and Lotteries Commission.

Moses is well known as a music lover. He sang beautifully at the 80th birthday of Peter Hall at the Hong Kong Country Club to raise fund for educational purposes. This fund raising event was created by PDG Y. K. Cheng in honor of Peter Hall, which raised around HK$400,000.-

He is the Founder Chairman of Opera Hong Kong and Deputy Chairman of the Council of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. For his outstanding service to the community, Moses was made a Justice of the Peace in 1995 and awarded OBE and the Gold Bauhinia Star in 1997 and 2003 respectively. In 2003, he was conferred the Honorary University Fellowship award of the University of Hong Kong.

Moses Cheng is happily married to Betty Yuen with two children enjoying Christian life. One of the daughters is also a lawyer by profession. We are all proud of him.

The inventor of the Harley-Davidson motorcycle, Arthur Davidson, died and went to heaven. At the gates, St. Peter told Arthur, "Since your motorcycles have changed the world, your reward is: you can hang out with anyone you want in Heaven."

Arthur thought about it for a minute and then said, "I want to hang out with God."
St Peter took Arthur to the Throne Room, and introduced him to God.

God recognized Arthur and commented, "Okay, so you were the one who invented motorcycles, eh?!"
Arthur said, "Yeah, that's me..."

God commented: "Well, what's the big deal in inventing something that's pretty unstable, makes noise and pollution, and can't run without a road?!"

Arthur was apparently embarrassed, but finally spoke, "Excuse me, but aren't you the inventor of woman???"
God said, "Ah, yes!"

"Well," said Arthur, "professional to professional, you have some major design flaws in your invention:

1. There's too much inconsistency in the front-end protrusion.
2. It chatters constantly at high speeds.
3. Most of the rear ends are too soft and wobble too much.
4. The intake is placed way too close to the exhaust.
5. And the maintenance costs are outrageous!"

"Hmmmm, you have some good points there..." replied God, "It may be true that my invention is flawed, but according to my calculations, more men are riding my invention than yours!"


PDG Uncle Peter & PE Andy Wong	Dir Eric Chin, Speaker Francis Chin JP & Pres. Laurence Chan


Rtn. Kishu Narain & PP Rudy Law	Pres. Laurence Chan exchanged banner with the visiting Rotarian Miguel Angel Evia Del Puerto from RC of Xalostoc, Mexico & his two friends


Dir Eric Chin introducing the guest speaker	Our speaker, Mr Francis Chin JP shared his exciting adventure flown from England to HK in an single engine small plane


(L to R) PP Stephen seating with some visiting guests who are the classmates of Pres. Laurence	Hon. Sec. Miguel & his friend. Rodrigo from Rotary Club of Xalostoc sharing their "Harelip repair"project in Mexico City


(L to R) PP Stephen Liu, Rtn. Tony Loy & PP Tim Lui	(R to L) AG Eddy Wong & Rtn Kishu seat with the visiting Rotarian & his friends from Mexico


Pres. Laurence Chan with his former secondary school classmates including the speaker resembling a small re-union after over 40 years	Group photo of the members, visiting Rotarians & guests.