I would like to thank everyone who filled out the Member Survey. We received a little over 100 responses, which gives us a pretty darn good sampling of the member feedback. Congratulations are in order to Dave Zittin and Demian Harvill who won the drawing for copies of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004. We will be discussing the results at the open board meeting scheduled for October 21st at 7:00 pm. After that we will also post the data on the website. On an initial look, the feedback is very positive, most of it centering around improvements that have been seen in the club over the last year. The focus on new aircraft, an increase in club events, and the lack of litigious activities were all noted as contributing factors to this improvement.

As far as changes in the club, we are again focusing primarily on infrastructure development. The goal is to improve the member experience and the club’s level of professionalism without increasing costs. During the month of October we have a scheduled deployment of a new phone system. This will include an auto attendant and direct extensions to your favorite WVFC employees. This upgrade will greatly reduce the number of transfer calls the front desk has to take, freeing up their time to handle more customer-related issues and provide a higher level of customer service. Included in this upgrade will also be voice mail. This will allow for a more direct line of communication with employees. We will have a complete list of extensions available on the website shortly.

There have been discussions about the need to add members to the organization. Let me expand on this thought. The top two reasons people give for joining the club are the variety of aircraft and the variety of instructors. This is an aspect unique to WVFC. In a recent conversation, our insurance agent could not think of any other GA operation that rivals our size in total number of aircraft and instructors. This variety benefits members, but we also need to keep those aircraft and instructors busy by maintaining a large, active membership as well.

As a 501c(7) not-for-profit corporation we are here to benefit the membership. This includes trying to reduce costs. We know this is on members’ minds as well because the idea of reducing costs was pervasive through the member survey feedback. The club is and will always be looking at ways to keep rates from increasing, as well as potentially lowering existing costs. We are looking at frequent flyer programs, safety incentives, and various other programs. There are some things, though, that members can do immediately. First of all, WVFC participates in the AOPA 5% rebate program. For every charge you put through on an AOPA MBNA bank card at WVFC you receive a 5% rebate, up to $250. Maybe this doesn’t seem like a significant amount, but it can equate to a free flight or two over the course of the year. If you don’t already have an AOPA MBNA card go to the AOPA website to apply for one. There are also many instructors and aircraft owners who offer rebate programs, special checkout rates, block rates, and prepayment discounts. WVFC does not set these prices, so look through the individual aircraft or instructor pages for more information. On a final note, there are BBS forums now to help members coordinate sharing rides, training or participation in activities. This can be a great way to help reduce costs, where members share a plane and split costs and flight time. There is also a BBS forum for members interested in ferry flights, providing the member with free flight time while helping solve a logistical issue for the club.

Another new feature you’ll see on the website is a Ground School icon. This appears on both the members-only and public pages, and links directly to a BBS forum where ground school instructors can post their latest schedules and information. Please remind your friends at other flying clubs that West Valley’s ground schools are open to the public. It is not necessary to be a club member in order to take a ground school here.

I would like to thank everyone for their continuing help and volunteer efforts. Recent heroes include Chris Thompson and Justin Ross for their work in installing the new data and phone lines, as well as our anonymous donor for continued support of our IT needs. Thanks again also to those who supplied member feedback, and those who just stop by and give us new ideas. It is this kind of involvement that is the strength of WVFC.

There are two pieces big news from the Front Desk for October. The first is that we will be getting a new phone system! There will be extensions for most staff members, and an auto-attendant feature. The system should be fairly easy to navigate.

We have received a good supply of West Valley Polo Shirts in all sorts of colors and a new supply of official-looking West Valley flight bags. The shirts sell for $32.00 and the bags for $82.50.

A gentle reminder to all members who split flight time with their fellow members… each person who logs time needs a SEPARATE schedule in CASSi that matches the log sheet. If the reservations are not handled this way billing and currency will not be updated accurately. For further clarification please call the Desk.

We will be shortening Front Desk hours to reflect the shorter days. PAO will stay open until 6 pm through October 15th then going to a 5 pm closing. SQL will stick with its 9-5 schedule.

Now that Accounting finally set power and attitude for more or less straight and level, and managed to trim to provide for hands-off flight, we find we have time to be able to contribute to the newsletter.

First of all, considering a fairly low volume of calls concerning bills, we have every reason to believe that our new procedures are effective and club pilots are satisfied with the accounting service they receive at West Valley.

Another indication of our current practices being correct is that for the first time in our memory we were not able to provide any volunteer duties for the CFIs. There was always so much filing to do, they could easily spend 2-3 hours at it and still have more than enough left for the next one to pick. Those times are gone now. Thanks to heroic efforts by Patti Andrews, who cleared our active file drawers of the years-old files (promptly christened X-files), and Justin Warren, who filed the whole 9 yards of loose paperwork that was sitting in its tray before, the initial step was taken. We followed up by instituting a system of instant filing which effectively prevents paperwork pile-up.

Proud as we are of our achievements, we do understand that there is always room for improvement, so we would like to make some suggestions.

One of them concerns discounted hourly rates, which some of the West Valley aircraft owners allow for. All pilots – please be aware that there is no way for the Front Desk to know you deserve that discount unless you say so AND WRITE SO on the log sheet. Please make sure to write DUAL, CHECKOUT etc. ABOVE your Club ID#. That immediately catches the eye of both Front Desk as they dispatch the flight and Accounting as they bill for it. Please be aware of the flight time limits set by the owner before you mark your 25th or so hour in the aircraft as checkout. Checkout rates are mostly limited to the first 5 hours in the plane, unless stated otherwise.

These, in short, are the thoughts we wanted to share with the rest of the WVFC family of flyers. Happy flying to y’all.

Good News in the Month of September: 3 Soloes, 3 new Private Pilots, 3 new Instrument Pilots, 1 new Commercial Multi-Instrument Pilot, 2 new Certified Flight Instructors, 1 new Certified Instrument Flight Instructor, and 1 new Commercial/Instrument Pilot Examiner. Great job to you and your mentors!

Member Observations: Scheduling issues; Very poor pre-flight and flight; Master left on (x2); and Rude.

People and Instructors are checking out in the Cirruses in record numbers. Two more are due here. Both of the new planes and all from now on will have PFDs (see Dave Fry’s article). Due to the high performance and new flight deck, special checkouts are required.

An old tune from me but still the same reason: the winter is coming and it’s time to work on that instrument rating. We have two new CFIIs this year (Don Styles and Phil Martin). Give them or any of the CFIIs a call and go actual!

We all have done a great job regarding accidents and member observations. They are both down this year. You all are to be commended.

For those of us who grew up flying the old Cessnas and Pipers (even if they were brand new at the time), the rapid advances in avionics are simultaneously thrilling and overwhelming. Flip-flop navcoms were a thing of the future, as were avionics without vacuum tubes. HSIs were only found on commercial airliners, and the initials GPS were unknown at the time. It was only about four or five years ago that we got the first GPS-equipped airplane at WVFC. Now all of these are pretty much standard equipment on our newer airplanes, and many of the older ones have been refit with them.

Yet anyone who has had the pleasure of seeing a new Citation, or most any of the other new business jets, knows there is another step or two to be taken. Our new Cirrus SR-20 takes one of those steps. The Primary Flight Display (PFD) is a big part of the “glass cockpit” the bizjets use. No more “six pack” of instruments. All of that is now contained in a single 8-1/2 by 11 display. You get some of the instruments you are used to looking at in their familiar form, but many are different.

The Attitude Indicator looks very much like the one in most of our other airplanes. The Heading Indicator is actually an Electronic HSI – just about the most wonderful thing you can put into an airplane. The other instruments, except the turn coordinator, are recognizable upon reflection, but aren’t in their normal form. The Airspeed Indicator has been transformed into a vertical tape with a pointer and a digital readout. The tape has the appropriate colors indicating normal airspeeds, flap range, smooth air only, and never exceed. A similar tape is set up on the right side of the AI/HSI to indicate the altitude. The digital display of altitude in 20-foot increments strongly encourages the pilot to attempt membership in the 2-20 Club. (Fly an entire flight holding heading within 2 degrees of the selected heading, and altitude within 20 feet of the desired altitude. I didn’t say it was easy, and I didn’t claim membership, but it sure is tempting to try!!) There is also an altitude bug that drives the autopilot when in the altitude or vertical speed/altitude-preselect modes – makes it really easy to see how high (or low) you’re going, and how close you are to being there. Continuing to the right of the Altimeter, there is the VSI, which is no longer a round dial, but an arc with the zero at horizontal. The VSI also has a bug for driving the autopilot vertical speed function.

The Turn Coordinator has been transformed (transmogrified?) into something completely different. It now has two parts. The “ball” is now a trapezoid at the base of the bank angle indicator (the pointer at the top of the Attitude Indicator that always points up). When the trapezoid is lined up with the pointer, the turn is coordinated. There is an arc at the top of the HSI that represents the rate of turn, with marks at 1/2 and full standard rate. A blue line fills this arc to indicate the rate of turn.

The HSI itself can be displayed either as a full circle or as an arc, and either mode can be displayed with or without a course map.

A knob and a series of buttons on the left side of the PFD select primary and secondary navigation sources, and the chosen course in GPS OBS mode, or in VOR mode. In addition, the knob can be used to select the desired map scale or range. The navigation display showing course deviation is a horizontal scale between the Attitude Indicator and the HSI.

The knob and buttons on the right side of the PFD are used to set the various bugs for driving the autopilot.

Other useful information available on the PFD includes true airspeed, ground speed, and the wind vector.

8127J, our new Cirrus SR20, has this display, and each of the new SR20s and SR22s that are due in over the next several months are equipped with the PFD as well. Try out a fine piece of equipment and see the future of aircraft displays.

I decided to promote the cause of sports aviation, aerobatics and such. It might seem too ambitious for a fledgling like myself to take on such a subject, still – we live in a world where the sky is the limit.

A couple of months ago I finished my initial aerobatic training with Don Styles and was checked out by Bill Hightower. I would like to use this opportunity to thank you both, gentlemen, for this whole new dimension of freedom you helped me gain.

I’m sure everyone has heard it a hundred times, but flying airplanes that have their third wheel set the good ol’ way makes you a better pilot, especially on take-offs and landings. You’ve heard the same about aerobatics. These aren’t just words. But the best part for me, and I am sure anyone who ever flew the greasy side up would confirm, is the FUN.

During normal flight we cannot fly with a bank of 60 or more degrees to the horizon, or pull/push that nose more than 30 degrees up or down. Qualifying as an aerobatic pilot frees you from those limitations. In WVFC aircraft this takes about 10-15 hours of training with one of the club’s aerobatic instructors – currently Don Styles, Ken Frank, Bill Hightower and Josh Smith. Plus you get to strap that chute on your back (looks good on you, take my word).

Now you REALLY know what STEEP turn means. Same about climb and dive. Want to feel a bit of zero gravity? Just push that stick over. Or if you want to feel what PULLING Gs means – pull it. In the words of Richard Bach it is the “...magic grip that can spin the world.” And it can. Spin it or turn it upside down and you’ll see that nose draw a line across the ground below and pull through into the blue.

An airplane can do a lot more than take off, fly a heading and land safely. Flying from here to there can be quite exhilarating and satisfying, as we all know. But it takes away a considerable part of that 3rd dimension in of 3-D space. Up-and-down really makes a difference, especially at some speed, and the rest of the world of landlubbers have to take rollercoaster rides to know what it is. We are the privileged not-so-few.

So why not give it a try? At least take a demo ride with one of the club’s aerobatic instructors and see for yourself. As for the usefulness of it – for one, it teaches you to be coordinated no matter how steep or strange the attitude of the airplane. For two – it solidifies your spin recovery skills. For the rest of the reasons – ask your future instructors. After all, they know a bit more on the subject.

And don’t forget – that walk from the West Valley door to the plane looks WAY cooler with a parachute on your back.

As least it did if you like to fly high performance singles. Effective immediately, the price of the Trinidad has been dropped to $145/hour (tach time) from $170. That's a price reduction of $25/hour.

For those of you who are not familiar with this airplane, it is a fantastic high performance, 4-place single. Some of the basic attributes of the type include:

• 250 horsepower Lycoming IO-540
• High speed cruise of 154Kts
• Retractable gear
• 3 Blade McCauley constant-speed prop
• 4-place interior
• oustanding useful load

SEPTEMBER RECAP

September events at the Club included a SKYDIVING trip led by CFI Logan Frasier, a BREAKFAST RUN TO SAN LUIS OBISPO led by Board Chairman Richard Terrill, and a STALL/SPIN AWARENESS SKILLS CLINIC.

In addition to the September happenings, early October saw the Club’s first ever FLY-IN TO SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL. In spite of a gloomy forecast, the Bay was crystal clear when we departed Palo Alto at 11:00 pm Saturday, and 8 diehard pilots along with 17 guests flew a stunning night VFR approach to Runway 28R. Look for photos coming soon on the website. Some of the SFO controllers thought this was a great idea, and have encouraged us to hold another session, promising to try to find us a window during a Sunday afternoon next time, instead of the middle of the night. Thanks to our wonderful WVFC CFII volunteers for providing an extra level of safety for this event.

A word of caution, please do not take this as an example to replicate on your own. The fly-in worked well after a fair amount of coordination with Operations staff at SFO, who coordinated with NorCal and Air Traffic Controllers in the tower to let them know the group would be coming, and made sure we understood our responsibilities. More important, CFI Kent Krizman’s ground session was essential in providing information about Class B communications, ground operations, wake turbulance avoidance, airspeed management, and other details, all of which prepared our members so that they knew what to expect. As a result, everyone flew safely and without disruption to normal SFO operations. The pilot of the aircraft I was in, for example, knew to cross the runway threshold at the TOP of the green arc, not the bottom (about 130 MPH in his Cherokee), and knew where on the runway he should aim to touch down. We were a little surprised when a jet was cleared for take-off from a perpendicular runway just as we were about to cross the threshold, but we had just gone over that scenario back at the Club and were prepared for it. Despite the late hour there was plenty of activity on the field, and the controllers appreciated the fact that our pilots handled it well.

The club will arrange another session of this fly-in. If you do decide to do this on your own, however, please schedule a ground session with Kent or another CFI with comparable Class B experience before taking the flight.

In addition to club events, AOPA’s PHIL BOYER was in town, speaking to a packed house at Hiller Aviation Museum at San Carlos. Boyer was an engaging speaker and it was worth attending just to see him in action, but the best part of the evening in my opinion was watching our own Bill Hightower walk up the aisle after he won the drawing for the AOPA Zulu Watch. Congratulations, Bill!

FLIGHT ACHIEVEMENT COMPETITIONS

With September drawing to a close, more members are signing up for the Flight Achievement Competitions in various categories. Palo Alto pilots are definitely leaving the San Carlos crowd in the dust at this point, but we expect to see that change soon. Prizes will be awarded at the Holiday Party. The 7 categories are:

• Greatest Radius - Short Distance
• Most Airports - Long Distance
• Most Landings - Day, Night, Total
• Longest Distance Flown in a Day
• Greatest Total Flight Time in WVFC Aircraft
• Most Supportive Spouse
• Most Student Achievements - WVFC CFIs Only