SEARCH COMMITTEE UPDATEA quick update on the GM search. There are still a few resumes under consideration, but the main focus of the Search Committee has moved to the interview stage, with the board members of the Committee doing one-on-one interviews, and the non-board members of the Committee doing group interviews. Next step is to select 2-4 of those interviewees to meet with the full board of directors, and with employee representatives from Accounting, Maintenance, the Front Desk and the Chief Pilot's office. We've already received email from some members letting us know their thoughts on specific candidates and/or the process in general. If you would like to make your thoughts known to the Search Committee, please write to us at search@wvfc.org. All comments are appreciated. The WVFC Search Committee: Patti Andrews, Mike Atwood, Mark Box, Larry Capots, Margaret Clark, Jim Gerber, Ettore Leale, Jim Schmidt and Jerry Secrest
ACHIEVEMENTS
Solo
Private
Instrument
CFII
Multi Instrument Commercial
Tailwheel Transition
The Proud CFIs:
NEW MEMBERS
Alex Herbert
EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH
Starting this month we will be bringing back Employee of the Month. This month we'd like to recognize Don Turner. Don works at the front desk and came to us from Cal Path Medical, a pathology lab. Don has a real can-do attitude and has provided great customer service at the front desk. A typical response is not why he can't do something, but different ideas on how it can get done. Other than being a stunt double for Kenny Loggins, Don has helped to inspire B&B Fridays and Hawaiian shirt day. He is an asset to the club, and we really enjoy the fact that he became part of the team.
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 Josh Smith, Interim Club Manager
The weather has improved and it looks like the flying is increasing with it. The beginning of the year in comparison looks something like this:
One major focus of May was to complete the annual report for Fiscal 2002 (ending March 2003). It has been the goal of WVFC to standardize the performance measures and increase accountability. The annual report for Fiscal 2002 covers a lot of ground. To that end I do not want to go into a lot of detail regarding operational analysis and performance. Instead I would like to ask everyone to read the annual report and please feel free to call on me to answer any questions you may have regarding the information it contains. Per the instructions of our webmaster, an electronic version of the report will be sent to members in a separate email and very late tonight. Due to the load this will place on the server, it may take up to 24 hours for all members to receive the email with the report attached. The report has also been placed on the website (member services page), and paper copies will be mailed out in the beginning of July. This report is 20 pages long. If you would like to save the club some money in paper and postage, please go to the member services page of the website and click on the link that says Paper Opt Out. This will allow us to send you just about everything other than your statement via email. If you are satisfied with email-only mailings, I encourage you to opt out of paper.
In other news, we have another hearing date set for June 12 in the Biss, et al. action. The main thrust of the petitioners' document is that there have been errors or discrepancies in the club's accounting records over the past 4 years, and that the court should "appoint an independent CPA at the expense of WVFC to audit its accounting records for at least the fiscal years ending March 31 of 2000, 2001, 2001 (sic) and 2003 and to report back to the court the findings and recommendations of the CPA." We believe that an audit, if ordered, would cost a great deal of money and only tell us what we already know: based on the books for those years, the club needs to improve its systems and procedures. I can assure all who read this that we are taking every step we can to correct the processes that need refining. Again, I encourage everyone to read the annual report, ask questions, and get involved in the committees.
There are a lot of new programs on the horizon. Some of them are old ideas being brought forward, others are new to WVFC. Please look to the events page and the communications on the website for more information. I have been enjoying the time that I spend at this job a great deal. It takes a lot of time and a lot of attention, but the positive energy around the club far outweighs the negative. The team of managers, employees and CFIs are truly some of the best people I have ever had the chance to work with. Enjoy the sun, the fun, and the flying. Let's be safe out there.
Jan Feb Mar Apr May
2002 1589 1023 1822 2679 2317 = 9430
2003 1810 1751 2034 1595 2194 = 9348
Initially it looked like flight hours were trending higher from 2002 until we hit a mini El Nino in April and into the first week of May. That brought us down to only 1,595 total flight hours for April. Hours began to pick up again in May, however, and continue to climb. There are a lot of activities in the works for the summer flying season. Please read the article by Torea below to learn more about these events. Greg LaBrec has really done a great job revamping the events web page, so keep an eye out for fun trips, safety seminars, and skill building clinics.
THE CHIEF’S CORNER
by Ken Frank, Interim Chief Pilot
Good News: Linda Monahan & Benjamin Mendelsohn are the club's newest Multi Engine Instructors. Phil Martin & Dave Zittin are the club's newest Instrument Flight Instructors. Please give them a call and try out their new skills. Laine Tammer is a new Tail Wheel Pilot. Last but most certainly not least we have eight new assorted pilot licenses and ratings in the club.
On the new family side: Phil Martin is getting married next month. Logan Frasier popped the question to his sweetheart. Must be that time of year.
Speaking of that time of year: The weather is good and the flying is easy. Must be time to think of those new ratings that can take you upside down, move you to a career in aviation, or prepare you for the winter.
Member observations: cover left off; one hour late; took plane from outside box without scheduling; baggage door left open. The MX people have noticed that there have been three occurrences of people writing squawks that are really just issues of not knowing how the systems work, e.g. dash light not working when the day-night switch is on the night option during the day time.
The future Chief's corner will have more on this subject.
BUG SPLATS
by Dave Fry, Aviation Safety Counselor.
I got to thinking the other day (a habit that can lead to all kinds of trouble), how can all those bugs get through the prop and end up splatting into the windscreen? Wouldn't they get sliced and diced by the prop? Time to pull up math - stuff I haven't had to use since Johnson was president (Lyndon, not Andrew).
On the other hand, if the bug is trying to get away from the plane, the relative speed drops to about 70 knots, and the bug has only about an 82% chance of getting to the windshield. So, about 80 to 95 percent of the bugs one encounters actually gets through the prop and can get to the windshield.
Of more practical interest is the topic of P-factor. If the prop is moving forward about 4 feet for each rev, how much does the blade's angle of attack change as one goes into slow flight?
Without going into the gory (and they are!) details, the difference between the angle of attack of the descending and the rising blades is about 2 degrees when the plane is near stall. It's about 5 degrees for the descending blade and 3 for the rising blade. Can this really account for the difference in thrust we see and create the entire left turning tendency in a climb? As it turns out, it doesn't.
There is another real difference - the speed of the blades through the air. As the airplane's angle of attack increases, the descending blade's speed increases (because it's moving forward through the air as well as down) and the descending blade's speed decreases. Near stall, there is about a 15% difference in speed between the two. That combined with the increased angle of attack of the descending blade DOES account for the difference in thrust between the two sides, and part of the left-turning tendency in climbs and slow flight. The spiraling slipstream accounts for the rest.
Finally, a random thought, on which I haven't yet done the math. If a plane weighs a couple thousand pounds, there must be a couple thousand pounds of force pushing (or pulling) it up. From the "equal and opposite" reaction point of view, there must be that very same force being applied downward on the air. That's a lot of air being pushed downward slowly, a little air being pushed down quickly, or somewhere in between. What about the amount of air a 747 pushes down? WOW!!
Let's take a classic bug smasher, the Cessna 152. Keeping the math simple, in cruise, the plane goes around 100 knots. The speed is about 10,000 feet per minute, and at a prop RPM of 2500, there are about 4 feet for each rev, or 2 feet per blade. At its thickest, the blade is about 3 inches from front to back, leaving 7/8ths of the distance traveled untouched by the blade. So a bug (assuming it has no size) has an 87.5% chance of getting through to the windshield. This of course assumes the bug isn't moving in the air. If the bug is moving toward the plane at 30 knots (I have no idea what a bug redlines at), the numbers change to about 2.6 feet per blade, or about a 94% chance of getting through to the windshield - which appears to be the goal of every bug in the Central Valley.
WHAT SHAPE IS YOUR LOGBOOK IN?
by Richard Terrill, ASEL, Commercial Instrument, AGI, #6925
What shape is your logbook in? Not as in how well is the cover connected, but how accurate is the data? A logbook is an important part of your permanent record as a pilot, and you should always strive to keep it correct, but there are lots of gray areas where you can run into documentation problems based on a misunderstanding of the regulations and principles. When you uncover an error, you may want to correct the error in place, or put in a "correcting factor" later in the logbook. I prefer not to make cross-outs in the book, and rather keep a parallel logbook as a spreadsheet. This is where I can analyze the various figures and numbers and keep a running tally much more effectively.
It also gives me a place to make those corrections that are important.
For example, you may not know precisely how to log cross country time as a new pilot. Cross country has different meanings depending on what rating you are looking for, and also when you logged the time. There have been changes in the rules over time, and they generally are not retroactive - meaning you can count mislogged time after the change went into effect, but cannot go back in time before the change to reclassify time.
Another interesting area is PIC logging. The regulations can be vague when it comes to how you log time during conversion or familiarization training. For example, let's say you are a private pilot, airplane single engine land with an endorsement for a complex aircraft (received in a WVFC Cutlass). Let's say you move out of the area and your new club has Arrows. Your new instructor declines to put an entry in the PIC time for your checkout flight in the "new" aircraft. What do you do?
Or you are checking your logbook prior to a checkride and realize that you haven't clearly indicated night and day landings on the paperwork (my logbook has a single column for this important metric - I use a x/y method, where x = night landings and y = total landings). And what exactly does "solo" mean when you log it? Does it mean another certificated pilot is not on board? How about another certificated and current pilot? Or does it mean no other humans on board (ask your CFI...)
Lastly, the FAA has created a reasonably complicated set of measurements on the all-important form 8710-1 (Airman Certificate and/or Rating Application) - many of which are not something you'd normally have handy and certainly would not log explicitly (e.g. Night Instruction received).
To help with this, I've created an Excel spreadsheet that collects this information and makes some rudimentary calculations to ease this record keeping. (Click here to download.) Most of the columns are the same as in your logbook, with some important extensions and additions
To use this worksheet successfully you must be disciplined in entering the type (column D) consistently - otherwise the per-type computation will be wrong. And don't make any entries in Column AH - that's a computed column. I invite your feedback on this worksheet, and any suggestions for extensions/additions. If someone is highly motivated, figure out a way to determine night currency based on nighttime landings.
A NOTE FROM THE FRONT DESK
by Helene Petterson, Justin Warren and Joel Harris.
WVFC is happy to announce its summer hours. PAO is open from 8:30am until 7:00pm Monday to Friday, and 9:00am until 6:00pm weekends. SQL hours are 9:00am to 6:00pm daily. Please call if you schedule within 30 minutes of closing time for later that evening so we can be sure to put the book in the box.
Summer time is a great time for trips. Catalina Island, Furnace Creek, Tahoe, Las Vegas?? Call the front desk if you need some help reserving the plane.
The Palo Alto crew has been having BBQ on Fridays, and all members and guests are welcome. Call the desk Friday during the day to check on the start time and to see what you can bring.
COFFEEHOLICS UNITE! Ken Gottfredson, longtime member and Senior CFI, has donated a massive coffee bean grinder and a supply of French Roast to the PAO facility. The guys at the café next door have been wondering where some of their customers have gone.
We are now using a separate sheet in all the Blue Books called the Aircraft Condition report. Please familiarize yourself with the sheet and use it to report non-airworthy items of note.
In addition, we have a special promotion going on at West Valley right now. We have waived the initiation fee for everyone under 21 years old and ½ off initiation fee for everyone else. So if you know someone that wants to fly please tell him or her about this great offer.
SAN CARLOS UPDATE
by Helene Petterson.
San Carlos welcomes you to a wonderful summer with lots of flying. We hope you have lots of vacation plans that involve aircraft, because we would love to see you here at the club.
We are improving the office here in San Carlos. It looks much better now than it did before, but we are not done. Phil Martin is helping us with a new front desk, and that will be a great addition to our office. We now have a Web-cam connected to our website, which makes it possible for you to look out the window at our San Carlos office. You can then see what kind of weather conditions we have here. Thank you Jeff Arcuri for donating the camera and thank you Greg Labrec for putting it all together and hooking it up to West Valley's homepage.
San Carlos airport puts on the Vertical Challenge Helicopter show on July 21st and West Valley will have a booth promoting our club. Please stop by and say hi. For more information please go to: http://www.hiller.org/aviation-programs/vertical-challenge.php
We also want to let you know that AirBP in San Carlos is now open every day between 07:00 and 21:00. This makes it more convenient for you to fill up the gas tanks. Those pilots who fly out of SQL can call ahead to request top offs at (650) 595-8575.
The Private Pilot Ground School in San Carlos will start July 8th at 18.30. Please contact the front desk, Molly Davis, or Lindsay Hanson. You can either sign up in advance or you can just show up on the day of the class. We hope to see you there!
JUNE EVENTS (INCLUDING SAFETY SEMINARS)
ACTIVITIES COMMITTEE REPORT
by Torea Rodriguez.
If you have ever wondered about details on an event, yet long deleted the newsletter email, fear no more! We have updated the Events section of the website (http://www.wvfc.org/events.php) to highlight all upcoming events. It also has links to the calendar so its easier to find on the website. As always you can send email to the committee at activities@wvfc.org. Be on the lookout for the occasional WVFC Update emails. We will be announcing some late summer fly-ins during the month for your flying adventures.
June is a great month and here is what is in store:
**Board of Directors Elections - 01-15 June**
**B&B Fridays - every Friday sometime around 17:30ish at PAO**
**Safety Seminar (PAO) HPAC Transition - 11 June 19:00**
**Marina (OAR) Lunch Fly-In - 15 June Departure time TBD**
**Safety Seminar (SQL) Summer Mountain Flying - 18 June 19:00**
**BOD Ballot Counting - 19 June 18:00 at PAO**
**Hiller Vertical Challenge (SQL) - 21 June**
**BOD Election Results Announced - 21 June 13:00 at PAO**
**Hangar Talk and BBQ - 25 June 7:00 pm at PAO MX Hangar**
**Landing Contest - 29 June 10:00 am at SQL**
COMMITTEES and MEETINGS:
**Activities Committee - 11 June 18:00 at PAO**
**Marketing Committee - 18 June 18:00 at PAO**
**Member Steering Committee - 25 June 18:00 at PAO**
**Owners Meeting - 10 June 19:15 at PAO**
Get out there and FLY!
From Sunday June 1st until Sunday June 15th, voting will be open to the membership for all specified board seats. Votes will be accepted through the web site, regular mail or in person. Full details are in Election Central, in the members area of the website.
Somewhat folklore, somewhat rumor... Its a BYO event, but there are usually hotdogs and beverages if you forget yours. There is a propane grill and lots of fun hangar flying!
Paul Kling will speak about making a transition to High Performance Aircraft
Now that the weather has finally turned sunny, it's time to get together - and eat! Join fellow WVFC members and friends at the Marina Airport on Sunday, June 15 at noon. The Marina Airport Restaurant is a wonderful place to go for a $100 hamburger. The food is plentiful and tasty, the atmosphere is laid back with lots of hangar flying, and you get to meet the owner, Bill Lee, who has a unique day job (come and find out what it is). Also, come explore the oddly named Marina Sculpture Habitat. Please send email to Robert French at learn2fly@down-and-locked.com to sign up this event and get further details. See you there! Here are a few links on Marina and what it has to offer: http://www.down-and-locked.com/airport/oar/ and http://www.airnav.com/airport/OAR
Logan Frasier will speak on mountain flying during the warm summer months.
Counting of ballots for the board of directors election will take place on Thursday, June 19th, at 6 PM at the club offices at PAO. Any member who wishes to observe the counting of ballots is invited to be present.
Be sure to check NOTAMS as SQL will have closures for this event and some taxiways are closed the entire day. WVFC will have a booth at the airshow - stop by if you are there. "Vertical Challenge" Helicopter Air Show is a wonderful event that allows visitors to see first hand helicopter operations. The show is devoted to educating the public of how helicopters effect our daily lives from traffic and news reports to its unique life saving ability, to the National Defense of our Country. For more information contact CFI Molly Davis or http://www.hiller.org/aviation-programs/vertical-challenge.php
On Saturday, June 21st, at PAO from 1300 - 1400 a meeting will be held to announce the results of the election, and schedule run-offs should they be necessary. The results will also be announced on the website and in the newsletter.
Kevin Pinger, West Valley's Maintenance Director, will give an informative talk with time for Q&A. MX staff will also open up an airplane to give members a close-up tour of the guts and bolts inside. Over 30 people came to the last Hangar Talk, showing us that members really are interested in what goes on under the skin and the cowling. BOYB is appreciated, but West Valley will provide the BBQ. RSVP not essential, but will help us know how many burgers to buy... if you think you're coming please write to whatsup@wvfc.org.
Get ready to test your skills. Each contestant can choose his or her own challenge based on stage of training and experience (short approach, spot landing, wheel landing, single landing…) This is most fun if members fly in teams, so team up with a friend or grab a CFI to give yourself an edge. The airport manager has given us permission to use tie-downs near the tower at SQL, and we'll have a variety of planes on hand for members to share. What do we do while we're waiting for our chance to fly? Judge everyone else, of course. Scorecards are ready to go, but don't let that scare you away… this is really just a fun event and an excuse to hang out at the gazebo overlooking the runway. Refreshments will be served, and prizes awarded to the highest scorers. Keith Goldberg and Patti Andrews are coordinating this event. If you'd like to participate please write to them at whatsup@wvfc.org.
We are looking for more people to help coordinate events. There are lots of pending ideas and only a handful of people on the committee. If you have time to coordinate one event this year, we would love to see you at the meeting!
Marketing Committee meets every third Wednesday of the month at PAO.
Member Steering Committee meets every fourth Wednesday of the month at PAO.
Please contact Gary Waldeck gwaldeck@ix.netcom.com or Josh Smith jsmith@wvfc.org should you have any questions.
NASA NEEDS PILOTS
VFR Flight Analysis Study.
UAV Simulation (Student Pilots)
The Test Recruitment Office at NASA Ames Research Center needs pilots in September and October to participate in a UAV Simulation. Participants will control a simulated Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) on various missions through virtual terrain. The study takes 4 hours to complete and requires the following:
The Test Recruitment Office at NASA Ames Research Center needs pilots to participate in a VFR Flight Analysis study. The study will take approximately 4 hours and will take place in a non-motion flight training device. Participants must meet the following qualifications:
If you are interested in participating in this study, call (650) 604-5118 and reference study #307.
If you meet these qualifications and are interested in participating in this groundbreaking research, please call (650) 604-5118 and reference study #86.
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Reproduction in whole or in part in any form without the express written permission
of an officer of the club is strictly prohibited.