Holiday PartyThe club Holiday Party will be held at the Hiller Air Museum on December 13th – just the most appropriate place for our party! As you’ll note from the GM column this month, there will be quite a number of prizes including a noise-canceling headset, free instruction, pilot supplies, etc. Final details in the next newsletter.
Achievements
Solo
Tailwheel
Private
Multi-Commercial
ATP
Congratulations to all of you and to your wonderful instructors:
New Members
Rick Bentley
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by Dave Fry, General Manager
It took nearly 6 weeks, but the restrictions on VFR flight have been lifted. Clearly cause for rejoicing. In addition, since the club was in pretty good financial shape going into the restrictions, we’re still in a financially viable position.
However, as those of you who came to the last Board Meeting (and thank you for attending!) recall, we have taken a serious hit in the budget, and just before the winter months set in. There were many great ideas discussed at the meeting, some of which you will see the results of here, and some of which are still in the works.
Lest you worry, the concept of an assessment wasn’t even considered. The emphasis was on getting our members back to flying. The FAA has now done its part by making it possible for us to do all the types of flying we did before the restrictions, and neither the County nor West Valley has imposed any additional restrictions or security measures. Keys and books are still available in the lockbox for any after-hours flight, and keys and books should be returned there when the front desk is closed.
Absolutely the best way to get the club’s finances back into great shape is to do the very thing we’re now allowed to do – go fly. In an average fall month, we typically fly around 2300 hours (which is less than 2 hours per member). In September, we flew only 1400 hours, and so far, October doesn’t look any better, but if each member flew a mere 1 hour more in a month, we’d easily make up for the difference (and you’d become current again).
Where to start? The events of Sept. 11th and subsequent events have created many issues with flying and with the club, airport, fuel people, etc.
But the issue that concerns the Chief’s office this month is an old one with a new twist. Every month, hard braking results in bald tires. Although 90 percent of them must have been obvious to the pilot, he or she almost never report the bald tires.
Then the next person comes in, pre-flights the plane and takes off, returns, then squawks the bald tire. In the case before me now, I have three people in sucession who squawked the tire, but only the fourth one brought it to the attention of WVFC before the flight.
The problem? If, in fact, the person prior to the first squawk did not damage the tire and the person who first squawked the tire was the culprit, then how do we know who is guilty?
Neither the owner nor the club (and that means you) should have to pay for damage to the plane. So the only fallback position is the one in the member regulation, which states that the person who flew the plane prior to the squawk is the person responsible.
The only way to ensure we identify the person responsible is to contact a WVFC employee or CFI and confirm the damage PRIOR to flight. That way we can be sure the guilty party is the one who is in fact responsible.
Please remember that we all fly these planes due to the owner’s willingness to lease them to West Valley. We all need to be responsible for our own flights and those things that occur with that flight.
One of the great things about flying is what you get to see.
In the past month, I’ve flown over the Sierras a couple of times, including a flight over Lake Tahoe, Mono Lake, and Yosemite. It’s hard to beat that for a scenic ride.
In addition, yesterday at Burbank, I got to watch an F-18 take off, fly runway heading at 20 feet, pull the nose up and rack into a 70+ degree banking climb, then rip down the cross runway at some humongous speed (at perhaps 50 feet), haul the nose up into a REALLY steep climb, then snap to about a 120 degree bank to level out at the assigned altitude. When my passenger asked why a pilot would do those things, I answered, “Because he can.”
Our takeoff and climb were quite a bit more sedate (darn it).
A couple of weeks ago coming back from Orange County at 16,000 feet, and as we were approaching Santa Maria, we got to watch a launch out of Vandenberg AFB. The rocket romped up through an overcast layer, and sat on a tower of smoke that just kept going. Up, and up, then tilting toward the south (a polar orbiting satellite, I thought to myself). We were high enough above the pollution, so visibility was fantastic, and we could see the stage separation. Amazing! And all the folks on the ground had to watch it on radar – we had the best seats in the house!
The Chief’s Corner
by Don Styles, Chief Pilot
Reasons to fly:
The Things You See
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