David was my new friend.

We met at a Watsonville Pilots Assn meeting in March of this year. He joined up and was active from that very first meeting. Just the type of person we needed to move the organization forward. I asked if there were any volunteers to take over the WPA Newsletter. David raised his hand. Great! You got it! (I think David had some editorials in mind and this would be the perfect forum for him to get the word out. He did.) It was great. The editorials were fantastic. I supported his fight against the County and any other suggestions he had because he was so convincing.

At our April meeting, we had Officer elections and Dave volunteered to be Secretary and take the Minutes at the meeting. (At this point, I'm liking him a lot!) We had a technical snag in that members could only hold office if they had been members for one year previous. One of our long time members solved the dilemma; Charlene McIntyre agreed to accept the position of Secretary IF she could designate David Zampino as her representative at the meetings. Done! Passed unanimously. From then on, David was one of us.

I loved listening to him talk of the ISP he developed (and later sold) and his baby, the R-44. He knew everything there was to know, it seemed. And he made complicated concepts clear and understandable.

I jumped at the chance to take a short hop with David one evening in his R-44 after the July WPA meeting (along with President, Bill Normandin). David was very patient with us in describing the workings of his helicopter and would have answered every question that we had if it weren't so late at night. I think he wanted to get home to Corey.

There was so much more that I wanted to know about David.

We were going to be the best of friends...and I'll miss him terribly.

Richard Lippi