The start of February brought us all tragic news. The shuttle crew was lost on their re-entry procedure over the state of Texas. One of the members, Dr. Kalpana Chawla, was one of our own. Both she and her husband were former members of WVFC. Our hearts go out to her family and all of the families that were affected by this tragedy. Every time I think of the people who not only escape the surly bonds of the ground, but go beyond our own atmosphere to forward the study of science and space exploration, my heart pounds a little stronger, and a little lump forms in my throat. To the crew of Columbia, we salute you.

We were relatively light in incidents last month. We did have an aircraft taxi away while still tied down. This tore the tie-down ring off of the plane. A week later while pre-flighting an aircraft I was about to fly, I observed a pilot trying to do the same thing. After getting the pilot’s attention, the aircraft was shut down and the tie-down was removed.

I would suggest to all that we make one final walk-around prior to entering the aircraft. I always ask my students to take one last look before they take off. This can ensure the pilot that all of the tie-downs are off and that there are no personal accessories left around the aircraft. Another possible suggestion is to roll the aircraft a few feet backwards and forwards. This not only assures the aircraft is no longer tied-down, but it also allows the pilot to get a 360 view of all three tires.

On a final note, it does not take much power to get a plane to roll forward. Most aircraft will roll forward at an idle; none will take more than 1000 RPM. If you are supplying a significant amount of power and the plane is still not moving, more than likely something is keeping it from moving. The best solution: shut down and take a look.

We all get the chance to learn from the experiences from others. This month's story comes from two pilots during a IFR training flight. During the flight in they attempted to switch fuel tanks, only to discover that the retaining screw had come loose and they were unable to switch over. This was not going to work to well, as the tank they were on had just enough for about an hour of flight. Luckily they found a hole to descend through and completed the flight in VFR. A good way to prevent this is to check the full range of the fuel selector valve prior to start-up. This would include the off selection. Another tool for prevention is to switch tanks prior to run-up. This will assure the pilot that fuel is pulling from both tanks prior to take-off.

A note on a new plane: WVFC has been the recipient of a Cessna C-150 on line. This cute little bird has a full IFR package, which includes a Garmin 430. Any private pilot or above, who has currency in a C-152, please just fill out a ground review form, and a checkout form summarizing your hours. Turn this info into the Chief’s office and you will be added in as a C-150 pilot. For student pilots, you will require a new sign-off on your logbooks from your CFI to solo in this aircraft.

I would like to get a shout out to Todd Klinger for his donation of a MX pick-up truck. Thanks Todd, your generosity reminds us that this is a club, and a fun place to be.

Roger Wilco Over and Out.

1. On the Bottom Menu, there’s now a "Status Board" choice. This will give members the direct view of inspections, MX scheduled ops, etc. It doesn’t show every field accessible to MX, but does have all the critical stuff.
2. Pilot Text Schedule now shows the field where the plane is located to make it easier to meet up with your CFI – Darin May suggested this.
3. The Schedule Display box (when you click on a schedule item) also now shows the field – Darin May also suggested this.
4. The Logon Process screen (the Welcome Screen) now shows the number of scheduled flights you have that day – Mike Atwood suggested this.
5. The Dispatch Process screen will now alert the Front Desk if a member has an expired, or about-to-expire-this-month credit card. If this shows up in large red letters, please make sure to get an updated credit card number to send to accounting. This helps us and the member.

Thanks to a little patience and a large amount of help from our members the front desk made it through our first month on the new billing program with relatively few snafus. With that said we still encourage you to please check your bills closely to confirm you have been billed for the proper flight times.

We are starting to work on the SQL office in an attempt to optimize the office space, and hopefully reinstall the CATS testing site. We welcome all suggestions anyone might have. Please contact Joel or Josh with your thoughts, ideas or requests.

We are filling in our pilot supply inventory with items we haven't carried in a while, if you have requests please contact Joel. For those of you who haven't seen them we have restocked the West Valley flight bags; they are available in blue and black for $82.50.

We would like to encourage our members to use the notes box on the scheduling screen. Please fill in some information on your flight when you schedule the event. We have been using the flight manifest forms at both facilities for some time and the notes box in cassi is a cleaner and more effective way to keep the info.

Hopefully February will surprise us with some nice weather. We'll see you at the club.

As many of you noticed, we’ve made a move to provide much more information on your monthly statement. With the good always comes, well, the Q&A. We wanted to take few minutes of your time to let you know what to look for. First, we’ve now separated things into debits and credits. In addition, we now list every flight, the posting date and the rate at which it was charged. Since some planes have checkout rates, etc, we thought it would make it easier to show you activity in a chronological order. One point of confusion may be that we now refund Gas Tags immediately to your credit card (assuming you have one on file with us). The Gas Tag appears as a credit to your account. When we refund it to your credit card, this shows as a debit to your account, since the funds went from a credit on your account, out to your credit card.

In short, since each transaction should stand alone, you should be able to see debits and credits with the same numbers on your statement, making it easy to run down your statement and match the debit and credit for every transaction. We’re making a concerted effort to ensure that every month, with the exception of dues which are debited to your account in one month, and charged at the beginning of the next, a zero balance is where you end up at the end of each month. We’ve gone through all members’ accounts, and as quickly as possible, are making sure to refund any credit balances. To complete this for every member will probably take us at least through February and into March.

Next area of importance, we’ve got a standard schedule set up to ensure that each day we review flights, post gas tags, verify credit card transactions, and complete the other daily tasks. This is intended to make sure that each day we bring ourselves current and can review any account at any time, with a greater likelihood of accuracy and completeness. Many of you have now had a chance to view your on-line account data on Cassi. Since your statement is now generated from this data, you can now see exactly what we see when we review your account. This is another big step forward in making sure we get things right the first time, and are able to reconstruct your account clearly, rapidly, and accurately.

Lastly this month, a who’s-who. I am the manager of the Accounting Department. Alex Hansen (ahansen@wvfc.org) and Sandra daMotta (sdamotta@wvfc. org) are your friendly CFA’s (Certified Flying Accountants) who can assist you with any issues you may have. Someone’s always here from 8am to 5pm. To reach our whole group, you can email Accounting@wvfc. org.

It’s our intention to provide high quality member service, to work hard to get everything correct the first time, to be pro-active wherever possible, and a rapid response whenever you have a question or problem needing resolution. We process many transactions every month for the Club, and we’re committed to making yours right. Thanks!

I recently attended a seminar for Designated Pilot Examiners (all flight instructors are invited). Much of the discussion was specific to how an examiner does his job, what paperwork is submitted, when and to whom.

However, there were a couple of interesting items raised that are worth passing on to folks planning on taking a check-ride in the near future.

First, the FAA has decided (and this may not be new) that the Designated Examiners are the best conduit through which to stress the topics the FAA considers the most important. The theory, and there is a lot of truth to it, is that if the examiners test it, the instructors will teach it. One of the reasons West Valley has such a high success rate on Practical Tests (as check-rides are officially called) is that we know what the local examiners want to see, and what they emphasize. And we emphasize those points as we prepare our students.

The newest topic, and unfortunately, we’ve seen two recent examples locally in the past few months, is Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT). DEFINITION: "Controlled Flight into Terrain occurs when an airworthy aircraft under the control of a pilot is inadvertently flown into terrain, water, or an obstacle with inadequate awareness on the part of the pilot of the impending disaster." These accidents account for about 17% of all GA fatalities, and the accidents themselves are fatal about 58% of the time. Incredibly, nearly 64% of them occur during the day. 81% of all CFIT accidents are General Aviation operations conducted under Part 91 – only 1% are agricultural operations (crop dusting) in which the pilot is flying near the ground nearly all the time).

70% of the accidents are in Single Engine airplanes, with 13% each for Multi Engine airplanes and Helicopters. 51% occur in IMC (most weren’t on instrument flight plans or with instrument clearances. ) The PIC in 39% of these accidents was a private pilot, 34% were commercial, 24% ATP, and only 2% were students.

More interesting to me was the flight phase of the accidents. Takeoff and landing accounted for only 11% of the accidents. 27% occurred during cruise, 28% while maneuvering and 29% during approach. These numbers, combined with the fact that 30% of the accidents involved FAR violations, and 50% involved judgement errors, sound a lot like scud running.

The other Emphasis Areas are:

• 1. Preflight
  • a. Aircraft manuals and documentation
  • b. Pilot and medical certificates
  • c. Weather
  • d. Airport areas and surroundings
• 2. Preflight inspections
  • a. Landing gear
  • b. Engine(s)
  • c. Adequacy of fuel supply on board aircraft, ATC communications and airspace considerations
• 3. Clearances
  • a. Instructions
  • b. Operations to/from/near Class A, B, C, D, and E airspace
• 4. Proper use of flight controls/brakes on the ground
• 5. Landing flare
• 6. Avoidance of objects in the air and on the ground
• 7. Maintenance of adequate flying speed
• 8. Operations to/from/on suitable terrain for takeoff/approach/landing configurations and procedures
• 9. Observance of minimum safe altitudes – congested and non-congested areas
• 10. Use of stabilized approach/flight path procedures
• 11. Forced landings

One of the first things you probably discovered about flying was that there are many ways to spend your flying money on things other than actual flying. A handheld transceiver is a purchase I recommend before the cross-country solo. A good headset is imperative. A GPS unit? You don’t really need it, but it’s not hard to justify.

One of the largest consumers of cash is my aviation library. Books of any sort smite me, and when this passion overlaps a hobby, well, the hobby stores pretty much take control of my credit card. I’m guessing it’s the same for you, since flying is one of the rare hobbies that you can truly enjoy while not actually flying. I like planning cross-country trips that I may never take, just for the joy of unfolding a new sectional or reviewing an unfamiliar approach chart.

A few years back my library basically exploded out of storage boxes, and I put together my own card catalog system to keep track of the books. I added two columns after some thought: "first read, " and "last read." It was very interesting to see how many of the books I had read once and never opened again, and how many get opened quite often. As I am preparing for my CFI written examination, I put together a syllabus of 20 or so publications, and have diligently re-read many familiar friends. That’s the crux of this article – it’s a great practice to return to first principles and review those things that may have become "too familiar."

In addition to this particular project I recommend two other standing goals. First, purchase and read the FAR/AIM cover-to-cover when it is released in the Fall. Winter is often a slow period for many pilots, so this will give you a chance to slow the pace and study some old (and likely some new) information, especially in the AIM section of the book. Second, purchase the POH and a durable checklist for every plane you fly. Then read (or re-read) the POH(s) once per year. I almost guarantee that you’ll find things in there that you’ve never seen, even if you’ve read it a few times. Things like the static drains on the Dakota. Or starting some planes on only one set of magnetos. Read the POH and compare it against your checklist, and note any discrepancies. You may find differences in V-speeds or procedures. Discuss the differences with your instructor.

But some of the goodies are free...
The POH is a great starting point to familiarize with the aircraft, but nearly all of the planes on our line have additional equipment that is only marginally covered in the POH. There may be only simple supplements to cover the GPS, autopilot and intercom, and a cursory read-through will leave you with just the barest of knowledge. Almost without exception you can download entire manuals for just about any avionics gear directly from the manufacturer’s website.

My personal philosophy about aviation equipment is if it’s in the airplane, I want to know how to use it in all normal modes of operation. My life may very well depend on it someday, and that’s the wrong time to open the manual for the first time. One of the most important and most often overlooked bits of hardware is the intercom system. In some of our fleet there is equipment with multiple modes and isolation options that can be confusing at best, and dangerous at worst (you can easily miss radio calls if you isolate incorrectly). The time to test all modes is on the ground, before launch. If it’s the first time you’ve used a particular intercom, try all of the modes, and ask Ground Control for a series of radio checks to see which modes support push-to-talk capabilities. Audio panels are similarly complex and should be completely understood before launch. Get the manuals - they are free.

Another free library on the Internet is courtesy of the FAA. They make most of the Aviation Circular (AC) library available for download, along with a variety of manuals, guides and handbooks. Some of the documents are quite large and pragmatically require a high-speed connection. Many of the ACs are arcane or ancient (e. g. AC 20-29B {January 1972} – "Use of Aircraft Fuel Anti-icing Additives"), but many are absolutely relevant to all pilots (AC 00-46D – "Aviation Safety Reporting Program").

The bottom line for me is I like to own my own copies of the documents, read and re-read them, and return suggested changes back to the author or publishing authority. That completes the loop of the aviation library, from author to consumer and back to author. I encourage you to do the same.

http://www1.faa.gov/
http://www.garmin.com/aviation/
http://www.bendixking.com
http://www.centuryflight.com/manuals/
http://www.shadin.com/
http://www.sandel.com/sandel/support.html
http://www.s-tec.com/manuals.html
http://www.ps-engineering.com/
http://www.goodrichavionics.com/docs/wx1000.html
http://www.sigtronics.com/air/
http://www.narco-avionics.com/

Cylinder Head Temperature (CHT):
Trust me on this one after EXHAUSTIVE research and discussion with Lycoming, Continental, Piper, and Beechcraft/Raytheon, cylinder head temperatures (CHTs) on ALL aircraft should NEVER be run beyond 400 degrees F. (200 degrees C.) for any length of time. This is destructive to any aluminum aircraft engine, and primarily occurs during climbout, due to high power settings and insufficient airflow over the cylinders.

My suggestion: Set CHT on my GEM to #3 cylinder (the hottest usually), during climbout, and, if that value goes over 410 degrees F., do one or all of the following to get it to come down:

1. Lower the nose to get more airflow over the cowling for cooling.
2. Reduce power somewhat. Less manifold pressure = cooler cyls.
3. Enrich the mixture, if you have been leaning (leaning in climbout to 1360 - 1380 degrees F. is actually appropriate (see discussion below on EGT values), but this is a situation whereby hot CHTs MUST be cooled regardless of proper EGT values). More fuel = better cooling (up to a point).

* Wednesday, February 19, 7-8:30 PM SQL
Night Flying; speaker TBA.