What strange times we are living in. Terrorists using civil aviation as a weapon of war. The closing of all flight operations across the country for a week, now gradually opening back up slowly and cautiously. Each flight authorized carefully monitored by ATC with the penalty for pilot error an F-18 visiting your wing tip.

We are returning to normal, but things will likely never be the same again. We will no doubt have regulatory changes to deal with. Worse, we will all be a little more cautious about the people we encounter. When curious observers at the instructor’s bench start asking questions or a new student shows interest in learning to fly, will we now question their motivations? Are they asking because they share the deep love of aviation we do or is it something else? Something sinister?

It is sad that we find ourselves in such a situation. We need to be careful it is clear, but we must also be careful not to loose the camaraderie and freedom we feel in sharing aviation.

So what can we do as pilots? If you know of someone interested in flying, now is a good time to bring them out.

In addition, given the current restrictions and with winter coming on, you might consider getting an instrument rating. It wouldn’t hurt any of us to refresh our understanding of airspace rules and requirements and the resources, such as FSS, Duats, AOPA.org, available to us.

The events of the last few weeks should raise our awareness but not our fear. Aviation is still the adventure we have always enjoyed.

On my solo cross-country flight, I was planning a flight from SQL to Stockton, then through Castle before returning to SQL. I had planned to refuel at Stockton. Once I landed there I told the tower that I would like to go to transient parking to refuel, and that I was unfamiliar with the airport. Ground control guided me to transient, which upon entering I realized was a loop with a little end on the far side of it.

I decided to park in the little part of transient that wasn’t part of the loop – a questionable decision. Once into that area I decided instead to park on the main loop.

Rather than shutting down and pushing the plane back, I thought I had enough room to turn around and clear the fence. However, the wing scraped the top of the fence, and the underside of some barbed wire.

Once I realized what had happened, I shut down the plane, pushed it back and inspected the damage. Upon realizing that there was no structural damage to the aircraft, I refueled, and decided to skip the rest of my planned flight and returned directly to SQL.

What I learned was that a pilot’s job isn’t finished until the plane is tied down, and not to deviate from the yellow line.

Question: The previous pilot marked down an incorrect ending time in the flight log. What do I do, and what happens?

Answer: When there are time discrepancies on the hobbs record of a flight log - you MUST have it initialed by a CFI or the Front Desk! Without this initial the flight prior to yours will be considered the correct ending time for that flight and the correct starting time for yours.

Question: I need to put my account on hold because I won’t be able to fly for the next several months. What are my options?

Answer: You have two options for temporarily suspending your WVFC membership:

(1) Associate membership allows you to participate in the Club’s social and educational activities. In addition, you can still schedule the simulators and an instructor – you just can’t schedule or fly a club plane. Associate dues are $10 per month. You may go from Regular to Associate Member status once.

(2) Inactive membership keeps all of your records in the Club’s database, but you may not use any of the Club’s facilities nor attend any events, and you cannot fly. There are no dues for inactive members. You may inactivate your membership twice per year. However, inactive membership is only available for medical reasons or because you will be living out of the area for the duration of your inactive membership.

If you need to leave the Club, but think you might come back at some point in the future, it’s better to go Inactive than to terminate your membership. When you terminate, your deposits (but not the membership fee) are refunded and your records are purged. If you then decide to rejoin the Club, you will have to pay the membership fee and deposits again, and provide all of the documents (license, medical, etc.) and go through all of the aircraft checkouts again.

A simple phone call to Club is all that’s needed for you to go on Associate or Inactive status. If you decide to terminate your membership, please make that request in writing - we need your signature in order to terminate your account.

As pilots, we occasionally have problems with life insurance. We usually have to pay a higher premium, or accept an aviation waiver to our insurance.

Bill Fanning of the Pilot Insurance Center is so certain that he has the lowest life insurance rates for pilots that he’s arranged a deal for West Valley members.

Every West Valley member who requests a quote will receive a free one-year subscription to Plane & Pilot. In addition, for each of the first 100 members who actually purchase a policy, Bill will give a $100 cash donation to the club. At higher levels of participation, the club could get as much as $200 each.

Finally, every West Valley member who asks for a quote before the end of October will be entered into a drawing for a hand-held Garmin III Pilot GPS. There is no obligation to you when you get the quote, and Bill Fanning asked me to emphasize that if the value isn’t better than even the AOPA insurance, don’t buy!

Attention club members! Sharpen (and show off) your landing skills! Come out and mix it up at South County airport on Saturday, October 13th. Only the best landings will win!

The Pilot Categories are:

1. Student Pilot (with appropriate endorsements)
2. Private Pilot with less than 500 hours
3. Unlimited (any WVFC member, including instructors)