 LOG SHEETS You'll note that the Log Sheets have been redesigned recently to include a Tach Time slot. Please make sure to record both Hobbs and Tach times at the end of each flight to enable more precise tracking of these items throughout our process. Thanks for your help on this.
STAFF MEMBER OF THE MONTH
Please congratulate this months Staff Member of the Month - Helene Petterson! Helene handles the Front Desk at both Palo Alto and San Carlos, and always keeps a calm facade despite the occasional chaos and mayhem. Helene is part of our Scandinavian contingent and is fluent in several languages, including "airplane". Please congratulate Helene on her hard work and dedication next time you see her! Thanks Helene for a great job, well done!
FREE CHECKRIDES!!!
The San Jose Flight Standards District’s newest airplane Pilot Examiner will be WVFC member and CFI John Pyle. John needs to perform a practical test for each of Private Pilot, Instrument Rating and Commercial Pilot to be observed by Aviation Safety Inspector Jim Friel. These are official checkrides with the intended result of issuing the certificate or rating. And they are free.
Any member who expects to be ready for a checkride in September can contact John at jopyle@yahoo.com, or have your CFI contact him to set up the test. Since Jim Friel will be riding along to help, you need to be flying a four-place airplane. And by the way, congratulations John!
ACHIEVEMENTS
Solo
Private
Pilot Examiner
Congratulations to all of you and to your wonderful instructors:
NEW MEMBERS
Michael Klingler
EVENTS @ WVFC
If you still haven’t signed up for the September Skydiving Fly-in due to butterflies in the stomach, swallow a can of Raid and join us on Thursday the 12th @ 18:30 for a pre-trip seminar, held in the back classroom at PAO. This class will answer all your questions pertaining to skydiving, and flying into a busy drop zone. The fly-in itself is slated for Sunday morning the 15th, departing PAO around 10:00. More than 15 people have already signed up, but there’s still room for more. Cost for the tandem jump is $100, and thirty five bucks will get you a video of your experience. Reserve your plane early!
On a sad note, the Santa Fe, and Palm Springs trips have been cancelled due to lack of response. However, we have a few other fly-ins planned, as well as a series of tower visit in the works. If you have any suggestions or questions, please contact Logan Frasier. Thanks, and blue skies.
THANKS & RECOGNITION
The Club would like to thank Kevin Donnelly for his donation of a color TV and VCR. We'll put it to good use and really appreciate the donation! If you have Pentium 3 or better computers, monitors, or computer supplies and would like to follow in Kevin's footsteps, please call the Club! We'd be happy to have them.
SUGGESTION BOX
Do you have a suggestion or a bit of feedback for the club? Send it to whatsup@wvfc.org.
THE FLYER
The Flyer is the monthly newsletter of the West Valley Flying Club. For more information about the club, please call our Palo Alto office at (650) 856-2030, or our San Carlos office at (650) 595-5912. For information about the newsletter, or to submit an article, contact the Editor at whatsup@wvfc.org.
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by Mike Latzky, General Manager
Every month (OK, every day) around the Club is a Balance. We balance the present with the future. We balance priorities with plans, change with stability, one constituency with another, one site with another – you’ve got the idea. It’s the only constant – change.
As pilots, we see the same thing. We practice safety, but plan for emergencies. We do our best to inspire confidence in our passengers, but many of us get that momentary butterfly on half-mile final. How do we deal with it? We trust. Simple, huh? No, of course not. Part of trust is the expectation that things will work themselves out. On half-mile final, we remember that we’ve put a plane on the ground safely how-many-hundreds-of-times. We fall back on muscle memory and habit.
The way this translates to the Club, is through an understanding that to stay the same is a descending spiral. Everyone who works for the Club does their best every day to take the Club one step farther. Every CFI sharpens their skills every day. Every member gains some knowledge on every flight. And every owner works to make their plane more attractive as the one you’ll want to fly. Not easy, but it’s evolution. Sometimes revolution….
Over the next month, we’ll go through several evolutionary changes. They won’t be easy, but they’re just part of the mix. Last week, Renee Villa-Hentschel (MX Coordinator) announced her upcoming departure. It’s time to move back home to Texas. Renee’s last day will be Friday, September 13. As you can guess next, Gary Hentschel (MX Manager) will be leaving us also, as of October 1. Both Gary and Renee have worked tirelessly for West Valley, and will be sorely missed. Their contributions have been many and their dedication a model.
While difficult to bear, every organization is greater than the sum of its parts. In evidence of this, Chris Tavenner, whom many of you know from the San Carlos and Palo Alto front desks, has been promoted to the Maintenance Coordinator position. Chris has been a Club member for a year and a half, and member of the staff for 5 months. Chris’ background is, among other facets, in dispatch. Chris brings computer and communications skills to the job, as well as scheduling & shop loading/planning experience. In short, Chris is the man to bring us forward with our perennially difficult maintenance challenges.
Our next huge challenge will be to find a new Maintenance Manager. Starting immediately, we’ll be interviewing to fill this position. The initial job description will be available shortly on the web site, and resumes should be sent to me at gm@wvfc.org. As you can imagine, the choice will be critical, as the Club continues to grow in many ways. Business acumen, management skills, maintenance experience and other aspects will be a part of the successful candidate’s bag of tricks.
Along with these changes, we’ll be changing maintenance facilities. About 2 ½ years ago, we moved out of our San Carlos maintenance shop to our present shop at PAO. The most important aspect of that move was the inability to work on more than 2 planes under a roof at any one time. With our new PAO facility, we’ll have the ability to work on up to 4 planes under cover at one time, and starting in December, 6 planes. In addition, we’ll still have plenty of ramp space adjacent to the shop. The impact will be great, considering we’re expecting a wetter-than-last-year winter. To increase uptime and utilization, we’ll need the kind of facilities we’ll be moving into.
As we progress on all the above fronts, we’re making several other important investigational moves. One important piece is the definition of various metrics to measure our progress. After we define these metrics, our next step is collection. Following that is analysis, and then action. The important issue here is defining a baseline and tracking against it. You’ll see the results of this process through graphs and other displays on the web site as they become available, and as they’re updated. Larry Capots, a senior CFI, has committed himself to this process. Larry’s background is in mathematical and scientific analysis, and his efforts will take us a long way to defining/refining a business model for the Club. Skip Wangbickler (owner of 36X and 9450D) and Gary Waldeck (owner of 8 Club aircraft) have committed themselves to further refinement of our maintenance process and a complete review of inspection processes. This is a large effort which will put us on the path to faster maintenance turn-around, and even-further-increased safety standards. One of the possible outcomes of this is an FAA Repair Station License. The advantage here is the credential of FAA certification of our maintenance shop and the procedures followed.
As you can see, that one little constant – change – is a living, breathing part of what we do every day. I (and every member of the Club’s staff) welcome your input, contact, and thoughts on everything taking place. It’s your Club. As part of that, I ask you to stop by the next time you’re at the Club, and take a few minutes to sit down and let me know what you’re thinking about, and what the Club can do to make your flying experience even better. Thanks.
"Check yourself before you wreck yourself." This has always been one of my favorite colloquialisms. I mention this as the three private pilot phase checks have all been revamped and freshly edited. Current copies will be in the shelves later this week. Much of the credit for this accomplishment goes to "Kyp" Kypta and Nick Ulman for their respective work on the written quizzes and maneuver performance page. The biggest changes include an updated written exam based on more current and relevant issues, reformatted in a multiple choice format and with references given to the FAR - AIM and ACs pertinent to the questions asked. Second, we worked to revamp the performance section to streamline the feedback. The standards for completion are now listed in the beginning with timeline listed for the entire process. In addition, the check pilot is now given the option of either satisfactory or unsatisfactory for the maneuver. There are no "style points" or effort accommodations; just the unbiased facts of the outcome. This is much more consistent with the FAA checkride process.
Many have asked "Why?" Why the phase check process when we tout such a high quality pool of CFI's? Simply put, since it's installment, the phase check process has created probably the best safety record that WVFC has seen in many years. It allows the CFI and Student to get another pair of eyes to check accomplishment and proficiency level at critical stages of the student’s training cycle. I personally believe the CFI-student relationship can be a very "co-dependent" accord. Often we become so used to flying with the same person that the CFI merely has to look a certain way and we immediately know the problem that has to be fixed. On the other side of the fence, having performed many phase checks, giving CFIs feedback on their student’s performance can be very personal, as if they themselves were being evaluated.
The value of these processes showed again throughout the last two months, where the only incident we had involved a hard landing on an FAA checkride. This particular pilot had skipped the phase check process. The CFI and student are both receiving the appropriate discipline. I know without a doubt that this weakness in the student’s performance could have been discovered through the phase check process.
Please feel free to offer any feedback both good and bad you have on the phase check documentation and or process to myself at jsmith@wvfc.org.
FYI, Byron airport is sporting a new AWOS frequency of 123.775. And New Jerusalem is closed to all WVFC pilots using WVFC aircraft until further notice.
Remember, Stay Current and Stay Safe.
There are three things in an airplane that many pilots use regularly, but really don’t fundamentally understand - and they all can make your life a lot easier and a lot safer. Most pilots have a rudimentary (and often incorrect) knowledge of these three gizmos, but a deeper understanding will make you a better pilot.
#1: Rudder Pedals
#2: Autopilot
I’ve talked with a number of pilots who don’t use autopilots, either because they often find them inoperative, they haven’t been trained on them, or they encounter so many different types that they are uncomfortable with the different modes and features.
This is a case that’s best remedied by reading the associated literature, and then conducting some controlled tests with the help of an instructor or a safety pilot. Get out on a profoundly VFR day (just to make life easier), well off airways and in a familiar area. Engage the autopilot and run some experiments to get comfortable. Check out the heading mode and the effect of adjusting the heading-indicator bug. Try the NAV modes, and see how you can track to a station or to a radial (depending on the hardware). If available, try a localizer-coupled course on an approach. If you are really adventurous, try the back-course
mode to get a real understanding of a back-course approach.
Most important, figure out all the ways to disengage the autopilot. There should be multiple mechanisms ranging from physically overpowering the controls to pulling circuit breakers. Know how to test the autopilot on the ground, and use it regularly to stay proficient. You may want to handfly cross country as that’s “the way it should be done, ” but it’s a good practice to use all the hardware in the airplane at least once on every trip to keep current with it.
If you get into a type with a modern autopilot (e.g. an S-Tec 50 or 55) you absolutely should get some time with an instructor to learn about the subtleties of vertical speeds, altitude holds and GPS Steering. This is one of the toys that can bring your eyes back inside the cockpit too frequently, and thus reduce rather than increase overall flight safety.
#3: Audio Panel/Intercom
So far we’ve covered the first of the following basic ingredients of a positive flying attitude:
The first thing to understand is that flight practices are different from skills (which were addressed last month). Skills have to do with the accuracy with which we perform various maneuvers, whereas flight practices are the choices we make about which maneuvers to perform, which flight segments we fly, and the discipline of the decision-making processes we use in performing them. The flight practices provide the background in which our skills operate.
Second, assessing these flight practices is much more difficult than appraising skills, and it takes longer because so much of it is dependent upon the circumstances. Some parts are easy – do you use a checklist EVERY time you change flight segments? Do you plan ahead so there are really no surprises? Is your planning accurate? What kind of decision-making processes do you use?
Some parts of the assessment are more difficult: Do you ever get behind the plane? (We all do.) Under what circumstances? What do you do about it? Which of the classic hazardous attitudes do you tend toward under stress? Have you ever said to yourself, "It’ll be OK" when you’re flying into deteriorating weather, flying an additional 1/2 hour because of unforecast headwinds, or when your passengers show up with lots more baggage than you’d planned on? When you are starting to do something different from your normal practices, do you think about the advisability of doing it? Do you think EVERY time, "If this doesn’t work, will I be able to explain my thinking to a national TV audience?" This, by the way, is sometimes known as the "60 Minutes" test.
Everything we do should be able to pass the test. If something goes wrong, and the first people on the scene are Mike Wallace and his camera crew, we should be comfortable explaining why we did what we did.
An instructor can provide an unbiased assessment, yet most times we’re on our absolute best behavior when flying with an instructor. When with an instructor, we typically try to fly as we know we should, but not necessarily as we normally do. When we’re flying as we normally do, we usually don’t have an independent observer. The good news is that in all our flying, we have an observer who knows our practices – ourselves. All that’s required is to make sure we know what good flight practices are, and that we have the self-discipline to perform the unbiased assessment.
Ways in which one can learn good flight practices include:
Member Marco Frigino, an accomplished Palm Developer (www.marcosoft.com) and the owner of 2002 C-172SP 739TW, has developed a useful application for those of you who live by Palm Pilot. The application was developed specifically with West Valley members in mind, and may be freely used and distributed, with updates posted as time permits. Features include:
Until this flight, I hadn't gone up on a solo VFR joyride for a month, which is quite a long time for me. The reason why I hadn't done this for so long is all of the intensive IFR training I've been doing. In the IFR training (the same thing happened with the Private Pilot training at about the same number of hours into it), I've reached the point where it's not so much "hey, this is new and fun, what a lark!" but rather, "I SUCK!!!! AUGGHGHHGHH!!!!" The mental maelstrom of doing approaches, holds, and departures under the hood with the inevitable mistakes made while trying to juggle five things at once (at the 15 hour point, there's a looong way to go), as well as the jinxed landings that always seem to happen with an instructor in the right seat, have left me feeling like I don't know how to fly an airplane anymore. Getting up for fun was mandatory!
All righty then! In the runup I discovered that the electrical pitch trim wasn't working. A new squawk! Also, the right magneto was good for a 400 RPM drop! No biggie, I know how to use a trim wheel, and we'll just crank her up to 2200 and pull on the red lever, and show that carbon who's boss! 30 seconds later the magneto check was good, and a few minutes later I was flying a Left Dumbarton departure in silky air. Destination: Boonville!!!
Crossing Windy Hill I saw a good solid fog layer over the coast, but nothing that would hinder my Bravo transition. Twirled in 135.65 and called Bay Approach. "Bay Approach, Cherokee 4319Y, VFR request." "Cherokee 4319Y, Bay, go ahead." A little garbled, but readable. I gave him my stats and my request for the Bravo transition and heard back "phppsdpppgfpfpgppg1ninerdfkeephphgawkfourseventowfjdree." Yay. Just as advertised, Comm2, the only working radio, useless for the higher frequencies! Volume was fine but everything was totally garbled. Maybe there goes the Bravo transition. "4319Y, squawking 4723, and I'm barely reading you, some kind of receiver problem on the higher frequencies." "phppsdpppgfpfpgppg1ninerdfkeephpjhhtwozerop hppointthreefivephghg." "4319Y here. Was that one two zero point three five?" "hfodufoufugdugugthreefive." "Roger." Some dial flipping. "Bay Approach, Cherokee 4319Y, level 3500.” "Cherokee 4319Y, loud and clear, cleared through Bravo at 3500, stay west and south of San Francisco airport." Well, if they don't mind talking to me on a different frequency, I don't mind doing the transition! Upon being handed over to Bay a bit later on 135.1, all I got back was: "hgsdfhhfdgsiffsfhghssdfyyg8ydfyeihfh." I couldn't make head or tails of the mangled speech. "4319Y has some kind of radio problem. Going back to the last controller on 120.35." The very helpful controller didn't sound surprised to hear me back again and handed me off to 120.9. All in all I was pretty happy with the way I handled the situation and with how helpful these guys were.
Conditions had returned to the smoke haze I’d thought was gone for good the day before. Visibility was limited to about 10 minutes ahead of the plane. I followed the 101 corridor past Santa Rosa toward Cloverdale, where I'd be turning off to follow route 128 (the main road out to Mendocino) out toward Boonville. The only traffic I spotted was another Piper going the exact opposite direction which passed 500 or so feet below and not very far off to the right. They go by pretty quick at a 280 mph relative speed. I fooled around with the Archer II autopilot for the first time and was pretty impressed. Very nice heading control and altitude hold.
One big thing I noticed was that after all the weeks of IFR mental gymnastics, I felt like I had all the time in the world to keep on top of the VFR situation. I figured out the exact moment in time I wanted to start my descent, and was right on the money. Also, when I gave my initial position report on the CTAF, someone answered that 31 was the active runway. The Boonville airport is located at an elevation around 400 feet in a long, narrow valley, with high ridges on either side. There isn't a whole lot of room to maneuver between these hills, so setting up on the right 45 kept me pretty busy. Boonville has a 3000 foot runway, but no facilities and no taxiways. After a very satisfying landing, I did a 180 and began taxiing back, and the same voice that told me 31 was active told me where to find parking. Mine was the only plane anywhere on the field. There wasn't a single other plane parked there. Since the airport has no facilities and apparently, very little traffic, I figure the voice I'd been talking to probably belonged to some old guy with a handheld tranceiver sitting on his porch at one of the houses near the airport, but I'm just guessing.
The airport is near the junction of a couple of country roads, one being the road to Mendocino, the other being the road to Point Arena. I parked the plane in a weed-strewn tiedown area next to some horses grazing on the other side of the airport fence. The town of Boonville, which is just a few houses, restaurants, and grocery stores next to the road, was a 15 minute walk away. Lunch was in a brew pub, Grateful Dead tracks playing on the sound system, and locals showing off the pails full of blackberries which they'd gathered. A very different scene, just an hour and ten from PAO! With all the late-summer dead grass and smoke haze, the countryside was not pretty, but I've driven through this area under better conditions. It really is a beautiful place. I imagine it's stunning in the spring, and intend to come back.
Next stop was the Willits airport, only 20 nm away. Once again, given all the VFR tasks to be done in this 15 minute leap over haze-obscured mountains, I felt like I had plenty of time to get it done. Because I'd never flown to this area before and because of the poor visibility, the VOR/DME radio really came in handy. Thanks to the NAV equipment, I had no trouble finding Willits, but where the heck was the airport? It's supposed to be right down there next to 101. Did I pass it? Better turn back to have a loo--oh, there it is, way up on that ridge! Willits ranks up there (in my limited experience) with Angwin, Placerville, and Sedona as one of the great "aircraft carrier on a bluff" airports. Runway elevation is 2000 feet, and the airport is surrounded on all sides by steep drop-offs. Flying a pattern into one of these is a kick because your visual estimations of pattern altitude are completely off. You have to trust the altimeter, otherwise you feel like you are way too low. Another bonus is the obstructed approach (there are a lot of tall trees on final) into 34, which also sports a distinct upward slope. Wow, some actual short field technique required! Unless you like pulling pine boughs out of the wheel fairings.
Another very satisfying landing. After shutting down, I watched a 182 take off from 16 using short field technique. I noticed that the light crosswind really favored 16 more than 34, and that 16 had a downhill slope. So I decided to do a short field takeoff from 16. For the third time in one day, I had to unfoul the plugs being driven by the right magneto. My launch kept me comfortably above the trees, but I could see that on a nice 105 degree day with a fully loaded plane, it could get marginal. After being cut a break by Bay Approach once already, I wasn't going to do another Bravo transition with the bad radio. By this time, visibility was quite a bit worse, but I was able to pick my way past Lake Mendocino, into the Clear Lake basin, past Mt Konocti, past Mt. St Helena, down the Napa Valley, past the Benicia Bridge and out over Concord. Over Concord, Bay Approach warned me about traffic at my 2 o'clock, same altitude. A Cessna about a mile away, without much relative motion and slowly converging. Keeping a wary eye on him, I descended a bit to make sure he'd have the higher altitude (by now I was most of the way through a descent from 5500 to 3500). I also decided I'd turn to pass behind him and keep him in my forward view. About the same time, he turned to head in the general direction of Rio Vista, which caused the closing speed to increase noticeably enough for me to exclaim "Jesus!", chop power and pitch down to dive at 1000 fpm to keep the hell away from him. He crossed directly over me maybe 400 feet above. I never saw any evasive maneuvering on his part. It wasn't all that close an encounter, but did add to the fun and adventure.
PAO had a 40 degree right crosswind, 12 knots gusting to 22, so it was "sideslip-a-go-go" on final approach. A bitchin' work-the-rudders-all-the-way-into-the-flare landing with a slow rollout to the first taxiway. So darn much fun that I asked for a taxi-back and did it again. 3.7 hours on the Hobbs and I felt like a pilot again, instead of just a feeble instrument student klutz!
(Adam got his private earlier this summer and is now doing a course in Emergency Maneuvers Training at Attitude Aviation in Livermore, www.attitudeaviation.com. Members can also do aerobatic training right here at West Valley in the club's Decathlon. This story came out of a lesson in spins, and is followed by a safety note by Ann Elsbach, CFI and former GM at WVFC. Ed.)
Tonight I did some more Emergency Maneuver Training. Our topics were developed spins left and right, flat spins, and accelerated spins. The fully developed spins left and right went pretty decently. The other spins were a little more interesting. The flat spin never really got that flat. We entered the flat spin by doing a stall with full power and adding pro-spin controls. The nose was a little higher in the spin, but nothing insane. Power to idle lowered the nose in to a normal spin and normal recovery worked fine. The only real problem is that we just never got a flat enough spin. We'll probably try again in one of the more spin-happy Grobs.
The accelerated spins were pretty nuts. We did two of them. Wow! The way it works is you enter a normal spin, and then start cranking down the nose. As the nose drops and the tail comes up more of the weight of the plane is closer to the axis of rotation and things speed up. Think of a figure skater when they pull their hands in. It's really quite dramatic. The fluids in your inner ear stabilize and start to think that spinning at 60rpm is straight and level flight. Woah. After the recovery it's really challenging to keep oriented.
My instructor Rich first demoed one accelerated spin and flew out of it. That was "semi-bad." He intentionally recovered directly from the accelerated spin rather than returning to a normal spin first. This is supposed to make it even more disorienting. I was pretty dizzy. Next we got our altitude back and I did an accelerated spin. This time we REALLY got it cranking. Using proper recovery technique (stick back to return to normal spin, then recover as normal) I recovered from the spin... but returning to straight climbing flight was a major challenge. I could see that I was quite obviously in a 30 degree bank. It seemed like I was applying appropriate control forces to change that, but nothing was happening. In reality my brain was just refusing to believe that I was totally sideways. Eventually I was able to ignore my skewed sense of balance and get the wings level, but it was an experience.
After this, Rich said we were done with spins, and would I like to do anything else today? I elected to go do an engine out because that's the last item for the checkout in the Grob that I had yet to complete. It's a lot harder to do a simulated engine out when, a) You can't see the runway because you’re in a low wing; b) You feel like the world is still spinning; and c) You're sweating profusely because of major spatial disorientation (see b). Another great experience.
One more thing about this spins experience. I was having dinner after the flight and something hit me. Power-on stalls used to always make my palms sweat just a little. I'd be pretty nervous about the whole thing. They were, in fact, NOT fun. Entering the flat spin from the power on stall situation there was no fear, no nervousness, no hesitation. It was just another maneuver like a steep turn or something. You just move the controls in such and such a way, the plane does some stuff, and eventually you return to straight and level flight. This was the point of the EMT class for me personally. It's working. And of course, if I haven't said it enough lately, I think everyone who is serious about flying should do this early in their career.
In another one to two flights I'll be checked out for solo acro. I still need to evaluate just how much of this stuff I really want to do without an instructor, though. It seems perfectly safe while doing it... but I can conceptually understand how people die from it. Lots to think about.
A caveat by Ann Elsbach
Excellent report, Adam. I do have one caveat: Never fly akro anytime you do not feel 100% well. Sounds like a "duh," right? Here's a little true story for you:
In the 70s I learned to do akro with Amelia Reid and Dan Callan. Probably everyone knows of Amelia's reputation as a show performer. Most of you will probably not know of Dan, but he was also doing airshows. He was a good pilot and an excellent instructor. One summer when he was practicing an airshow routine over at New Jerusalem, he spun his Pitts into the ground, full power. How could this happen, we all wondered? He was physically fit, experienced, current, happy in his life.
Turns out that a few days before he had returned from a motorcycle trip to the Grand Canyon with his son. He was quite sunburned. The blood went to his skin instead of his head and he blacked out at what would have normally been very low "g" forces for him.
So... just be sure that you are feeling up to snuff in every way - not masking the symptoms of a physical problem with aspirin, etc. - when you go out to fly akro.
The title and much of the content of this note is taken from the book by Larry Ball (c. 1998, Ball Publications, Indianapolis). Mr. Ball's book thoroughly covers the history and aeronautical engineering accomplishments of the career of the founder, Al Mooney, as well as some of his well-known successors, like designer Roy LoPresti. Mooney was evidently of an engineering family, and began to design planes prior to the end of WWII, borrowing from some of the best designs produced during the war. His early design, the Culver Cadet, had an elliptical wing plan reminiscent of the British Supermarine Spitfire. These were aesthetically appealing, and minimized induced drag, but were expensive to manufacture. During Mooney's early design contemplations, he also considered the tapered planform of the Mustang P-51 and the Me-109. This, plus a few other features, such as laminar flow airfoil (whose aftward-shifted point of maximum thickness lead to low drag in the P-51), the erect tail and elevators (ostensibly to reduce drag from span-wise flow), and low drag scoops all appeared in Mooney's most famous and enduring design: the M20.
Mooney's design economizes on another feature as well--cabin area (as well as other sources of drag). By keeping the cockpit tight, the frontal area of the plane was one of the lowest in its class. Here are comparative drag numbers (expressed as the equivalent drag flat plate area) for some light aircraft, larger numbers meaning greater drag (_The Illustrated Guide to Aerodynamics_, H.C. Smith, c.1992 TAB Books, pg. 75):
Mooney and the later designers seemed to do for light aircraft the same thing that Porsche did for automobiles: attempt to wring out the absolute maximum performance for the least engine size and fuel consumption. (Notably, Porsche and Mooney were aware of each other, and in 1989, the Mooney M20L PFM was launched. It sported a Porsche engine with internal cooling fan, so no cowl scoops or flaps!) Of his 231, which sips between 12 and 13 GPH at 75% cruise, one Mooney pilot was heard to boast that he gets 20 MPG at 200 MPH, something no production automobile can achieve.
The tuning and tweaking paid off for Mooney, which turned out a pair of very popular M20 models, the M20J 201 (launched in 1976, 180 hp, maximum speed 201 mph), as well the turbo-charged 231 (launched in 1979, 210 hp, maximum speed 231 mph). The pinnacle in small engine, high performance design was probably the M20K 252 (replaced the 231 in 1986, 210 hp, maximum speed 252 mph), but which did not succeed as well in the marketplace owing to economic conditions and other factors.
Below are a list of accomplishments listed in Ball's book for the M20J and M20K, which underscore the design's remarkable performance.
Other Mooney information sources:
As of last week the PAO and SQL towers are once again taking visitors! West Valley has arranged for several group visits:
* Adam Bertsch will lead a PAO group on Wednesday, September 4 (thank you, Adam!), Patti Andrews will lead one on Tuesday, September 10, and a third PAO visit will take place on September 17 (any volunteers to take charge of this one?) These groups will meet at West Valley at 5:45 PM.
* Logan Frasier will lead a San Carlos tower visit on September 25, at 6:00 PM.
Space is limited to only 10 people in each group, so if you’re interested in attending, please email Patti Andrews at whatsup@wvfc.org ASAP.
* Private Pilot Ground School: Thursday evenings at PAO, 6:30-9:00, taught by Linton (Kyp!) Kypta.
THE SAFE ZONE
by Josh Smith, DFS
THINGS YOU OUGHT’A LEARN ABOUT...
by Richard Terrill, #6925.
You’d be surprised how many pilots don’t know why or how a rudder works. They use it fairly correctly, but don’t actually “get it. ” That’s unfortunate, though probably not dangerous - most light aircraft can be safely flown with the rudder pedals ignored (not recommended, but reality). The best way to learn about the rudder is to get some time in a taildragger. I recommend taking a Citabria and an instructor for a 2-hour introductory flight, and you’ll get a deep awareness of the rudder (in addition to all the other benefits of learning about a conventional-geared aircraft). I’ve recently started my transition flights, and what struck me immediately is that:
I recall pushing the pedal as necessary with one foot in an Archer until achieving the desired “ball-in-center” effect, and not using my other foot at all. With the taildragger it takes both feet. It’s not as if you “unpush” with the other foot, but in effect you are balancing the rudder pedals by analyzing the tension and displacement of both. The morning after that first Citabria flight you’ll wonder why your thigh muscles are a bit sore – you’ve actually been using them! Go get a familiarization flight (you can do it without the ground review form, just go with an instructor with the explicit desire to experience the plane, not check out in it.) You’ll also find that you don’t really need the airspeed indicator, flaps, attitude indicator… It’s all about flying.
I didn’t learn about the autopilot until about 6 months after I had my private certificate. I was on a longish cross country and started playing with the autopilot out of curiosity. You can imagine my excitement when I engaged the NAV mode with a well-off-track VOR station tuned in. I found the “off” switch in a hurry and made a mental note to read the manual while safely on the ground before any more experiments.
One of my deficiencies in private training was limited exposure to the inner-workings of the intercom. I learned in a Katana so I had a very basic setup, but each audio panel has a wide variety of features and capabilities you should know about. It’s not enough to simply know how to flip between COM1 and COM2. You should know things like:
If you’re an experienced pilot I hope that this is a good refresher. If some of these items raise eyebrows, I hope I’ve piqued enough curiosity for you to go do some refresher training on these important, but often misunderstand aircraft systems. Safe flying!
POSITIVE SAFETY ATTITUDE, PART 3: FLIGHT PRACTICES ASSESSMENT
by Dave Fry, CFI
In this installment, we’ll address the next subject, taking an unbiased assessment of our flight practices.
Finally, in the hours and days between flights, spend some time thinking about the maneuvers you chose to perform, the situations you chose to get into, and analyze your thought processes and decision-making models. Someday, this process may keep you from getting into a situation your skill may not be able to get you out of.
FREE PALM PILOT APPLICATION
Go to http://www.marcosoft.com/wvfc/pocketguide.htm for your free download. Thank you, Marco!
VFR JOYRIDE
by Matthew Hendricks, Private Pilot
Picking up the book at 0900 for 4719Y, a fast and friendly Archer II, I noticed on the squawk sheet that the Comm1/Nav1 radio was inoperative, and a complaint that the Comm2 receiver was horribly garbled for the higher frequencies above 130 MHz. There weren't really any other planes available for this jaunt, so I figured, what the hey? I went out to the plane and did a nice leisurely preflight, which included standing on the wing and watching other planes taking off, and really grooving on the fact that I'd soon be up there also. I confirmed that Comm1 wouldn't even power up, but I also called Ground on Comm2 for a radio check, and everything sounded fine.
HOLY SPINS, BATMAN!
by Adam Bertsch
THOSE REMARKABLE MOONEYS
by Paul Brunemeier, Owner of Mooney 231EE
The low drag and small equivalent area made Mooney's M20 designs particularly fast for the engine size--or as some enthusiasts say, "slippery."
During the 1980s and since, Mooney Aircraft has faced many business and economic challenges, and has continued to offer the fastest and most efficient aircraft in the market. It is worth noting that West Valley Flying Club is now home to three of these marvelous aircraft, a 201, a 231, and a Bravo, all of the M20 heritage. Now is your chance to fly a piece of high-performance history!
http://www.mooneymite.com/articles/baxtermooney.htm (Excerpts from "The Al Mooney Story")
http://www.mooneypilots.com/
http://www.mooneyowners.com/
http://www.mooney.com/
THE THRILL OF HIGH PERFORMANCE AIRCRAFT: A CHECKOUT INCENTIVE ON MOONEY 231EE
For qualified pilots, now is your chance. For 7 hours paid checkout on Mooney 20K 231EE, an additional 3 hours are available free of charge (contact Paul Brunemeier for details: Paul_Brunemeier@yahoo.com). Remember: LIFE BEGINS AT 200 MPH.
VISITS TO THE TOWER
GROUND SCHOOLS
* Instrument Ground School: Sunday afternoons at PAO, 10:00-2:00, taught by Sanjay Singh. New session starting September 15.
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Reproduction in whole or in part in any form without the express written permission
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