As we mentioned last month and as you saw in your statements, a new accounting system has been installed as of October 1. The system that we have chosen to go with is called in Navision. Navision is a Microsoft product. Essentially, Navision will interface directly with CASSi, generating all of the member and owner statements as well as providing all of our Maintenance and general accounting functions. This will allow WVFC to streamline its systems. Unfortunately, due to the nature of our business, even though we are a relatively small organization ($5 million in revenue), we have very high transactional volume with complex transaction types. Hence, we needed to get a system sufficiently robust to handle these anomalies. Navision was our final choice due to its user design capabilities, which will allow for further growth and flexibility in the future.

One of the first big changes you will see as a member is e-statements. We will actually be able to save trees and printer expenses by moving to email statements as opposed to using traditional snail mail. I cannot push this solution enough, for it provides both economic and environmental savings. In order to make sure that you are receiving e-statements either a) send an email to the accounting department accounting@wvfc.org, or b) update your information by using the personal information update form on wvfc.org located at http://www.wvfc.org/mem/infochange.html. Finally, make sure that your email provider allows HTML attachments to go through its spam filter. If you have any questions, please feel free to call Luann in the accounting department at (650) 856-2030 ext 302.

This will be a great enhancement for WVFC. This is the last of the big tasks that was to be completed since I became GM in the Spring of 2003. As with any change and despite the best testing efforts, there may be a couple of hiccups. Thanks in advance for your understanding and for moving to online statements this will be a huge money saver for WVFC and will help us keep rates down.

Fuel is still up this month. The fuel surcharge is $9/hr for KPAO and KSQL and $4/hr for KHWD.

Thanks for your support.

How would you feel if Palo Alto, San Carlos or Hayward airport were to be shut down? Over the years, some airports around the Bay have disappeared. Some were replaced by housing developments for the ever-increasing population. Others disappeared because they had become the target of people who thought that they were a dangerous operation for the neighborhood or felt that there was no reason to have a community airport. You may remember the struggle to keep Reid-Hillview airport running a few years ago more recently, the Palo Alto airport may be threatened by potential closure when the lease was to revert to the city.

The reason I am bringing up this subject is because of San Carlos airport. San Carlos has previously been threatened by curfews or closure. I am sure you agree that it is an important airport that we would all like to see grow and thrive. It all sounds very dramatic, but often the worst things start with simple events – like not complying with noise abatement procedures.

As pilots, we all need to show support for the airports we fly out of and ensure that we do the right thing. Did you know, for example, that the correct procedure when turning right crosswind at San Carlos, whether in the pattern, on a Belmont Slough departure or on a downwind departure, is to turn after the Diamond Shaped Waterway? Lately, many pilots have turned right over the waterway and, unfortunately, the most vocal anti-San Carlos-airport neighbor lives below this incorrect flight path.

How about not turning on downwind prior to reaching 800 feet MSL, even if that takes you on a slightly wider downwind? In my experience, even in a C-152 at Vy, you can make 800 feet MSL on downwind if you turn after the waterway.

For those of you flying complex and high-performance aircraft, do you know or remember that the bulk of the noise generated by the aircraft is not related to the engine but to the speed at which the tips of the propeller are traveling? They are close to supersonic speeds and create a really loud noise, so it would be a good idea to reduce the power on the upwind or during the climb as soon as practical. A reduction of one hundred to two hundred RPM is sufficient and would make a great deal of difference.

These are only a few things that we can all do to comply with these noise abatement procedures. Even though they apply mostly to San Carlos airport, as good pilots, let’s remember that we can do the same at all airports where noise may be an issue.

On another note, we are looking forward to receiving a new simulator: the Frasca Mentor with Garmin 1000 and the KAP 140 autopilot. Delivery time should be November or early December, depending on how fast Frasca can implement all our requests. Our goal is to introduce the avionics to students on the ground prior to flying without using the onboard flat panels with an external power unit. Most manufacturers recommend against this practice as it can damage the GPS. It will be much more efficient and better for the equipment to teach systems malfunctions such as PFD failures in the simulator rather than in the airplane by pulling the circuit breaker. We are also proud to say that West Valley will be the first club to offer a flat panel simulator in the Bay Area: we will make it available to outside non-members and will advertise the price per hour very soon.

Happy flying!

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers. My wife Erika is home after two chemotherapy treatments in hospital for her acute leukemia. She is in excellent spirits. I am not a natural nurse any more than a natural pilot, but we are working hard. I expect to be flying half-days in October barring unforeseen events.

PAPERWORK GLITCH
Recently, an applicant for Private Pilot ASEL (Airplane Single Engine Land) presented himself with an unusual glitch. His Student Pilot/Medical Certificate number did not match the number listed on his application.

What had happened was that the office of his AME (Aviation Medical Examiner) had made a typographical error on the original certificate. The issue date year was incorrect. However, the original file had been sent to the FAA center in Oklahoma City. The applicant notified the AME when he noticed the error. The AME filled in a blank certificate form with a new number and gave it to the applicant. The doctor kept the old certificate with the bad date and destroyed it. However, he did not forward the paperwork associated with the new certificate form to Oklahoma City.

The applicant and his instructor used IACRA (the FAA’s new internet “paperless” application system) to apply for his rating. IACRA would only accept the student pilot certificate number of the paperwork in Oklahoma City. This left him with the disparity between numbers on the application and the “certificate” he presented on the day of the test appointment.

The result of the disparity was that I could not give the test that day. The applicant was not qualified to take the test because he did not hold a valid Student Pilot/Medical Certificate. The form he held was not valid, even though it was signed by an AME, because the file had never been forwarded by the AME to the FAA.

This caused frustration all around. The applicant wanted to take his test so he could begin flying as a private pilot. I was frustrated because I had lost 5 hours of business opportunity. How could it have been prevented?

CFIs CHECK THE APPLICATION
You guessed it again I unload on the poor CFI.

Sure, the AME should not give out an unsupported and therefore invalid medical certificate. Medical Examiners and Pilot Examiners need to follow up any certification by sending the supporting file up through FAA channels.

However, the CFI needs to thoroughly check the application before he/she signs it. If there is any disparity, he/she must correct it. If there is a question, call the DPE as early as possible.

In this case, if the CFI saw the disparity and was unable to correct it, he should have called the DPE (me) prior to the test date. We could have taken the necessary steps to make it right. In this case, the applicant has to apply to the FAA for a duplicate certificate. That process, in this post-9/11 era, takes several weeks.

If the CFI checked the application, but missed the disparity, that’s human. Maybe he/she needs to go a little slower.

If the CFI did not check the application, he/she was remiss.

WHY ALL THE FUSS?
Why worry about one number not matching another number on pieces of paper? Is it bureaucracy gone over the top?

First, one of the jobs of each link in the chain (pilot, instructor, examiner, FSDO) is to ensure that the pilot’s documentation is correct. It is the same for driver’s licenses and marriage licenses.

Second, for aviation security, valid documentation is important. The public is looking at GA with a jaundiced eye these days.

Third, I perceive a correlation between good paperwork (applications, logbook endorsements, etc.) and good flight instruction. I think my fellow DPEs would agree. The correlation is far from perfect but it makes sense that meticulous and careful training is likely to be accompanied with meticulous and careful documentation.

It helps to set a positive tone at the beginning of a flight test if the DPE can say, “This application is faultless!”

On more than one occasion, I’ve commented on the light touch of the pros and how they seem to fly so effortlessly by making very small changes to the controls. While making changes in a steady-state condition, that’s mostly true. But there are two conditions under which even the master moves the controls noticeably.

First, some maneuvers require larger changes – minute tweaks to the rudder position, for example, simply don’t work when attempting to break a spin. Stall recoveries frequently require large control inputs. And, of course, any acro maneuver is going to take a fair amount of control movement. I’m actually not the person to speak authoritatively on the subject of aerobatics. Some positive G maneuvers are fine with me. Loops, wing-overs, Cuban eights, Chandelles, lazy eights, Immelmans, aileron rolls, barrel rolls, and split Ss are really cool. The all time best is a 20 turn spin followed by a three count and a loop in a glider. But I really don’t like inverted spins or outside loops, and if I never see another snap roll it will be exactly two weeks too soon. Still, some of the above maneuvers require more than just small control movements.

Second, outside forces sometimes act on the plane and require large control movements. When you’re a foot off the runway, getting your empennage and other parts of the plane hit with turbulence and wind-shear, delicate stick, rudder and power adjustments are going to result in a delicate five foot bounce.

So what does the master do when encountering these situations? Actually, nothing different from any other situation. The accomplished pilot uses the smallest control movement that will give the desired attitude, airspeed and altitude changes. Larger control movements result in over-controlling, then having to use another control input to correct what you just over-did.

That seemingly simple concept (smallest required control movement) encompasses years of practice, experience and exploration of aircraft control characteristics. As an example, you’ve probably noticed that there is a pace of entering and exiting turns that seems really comfortable and at which you can keep the ball near the center, the pitch, airspeed and altitude constant. Unless you’ve consciously gone out and practiced it, trying to reach the same angle of bank twice as quickly will likely not work as well. Three and four times as fast are just a mess. The master has practiced these and whole flocks of other maneuvers, so when the meteorological spaghetti hits the fan on short final, the pro makes a very rapid (but smallest required) correction to keep things under control and turns an otherwise exciting situation into a routine landing or go-around.

Aside from lots of practice (preferably under the supervision of a pro), there is a technique that can help in situation like this. A former WVFC flight instructor calls it “aggressive under-reaction.” The concept is that when something needs to be done NOW, take action NOW, but use about 1/2 to 3/4 of what you think you’ll need. You’re not likely to over-control the plane this way, and, at the same time, you’re actually addressing the situation. What usually happens is that you get the plane close enough to what you want that the small corrections you’re used to will suffice to finish the correction.

Early recognition of the need for correction and anticipating the need are both useful in keeping the flight smooth, avoiding over-controlling and making small, smooth adjustments. Sometimes the required control movements are larger, but they still can be applied smoothly if you’ve practiced rapid adjustments before they are needed.

Of course, practicing a technique before it’s needed is an excellent idea regardless of what the technique is.

So far, we've learned about the chickens at Cooley Landing that help detect West Nile Virus, the five year process of extracting salt from the Bay, and the United States' first web site at SLAC. This month, we're going to take a look at bridges. To be fair, while the bridges are mostly in San Mateo County, they all cross over into Alameda County at some point while crossing the Bay.

Moving from north to south, the first bridge you come to is the San Mateo bridge, well known by people flying into Hayward or transiting Oakland's airspace. The bridge used today is actually the second bridge built. The original San Mateo bridge was built in 1929 and included a drawbridge to allow boat traffic through. That bridge proved insufficient for modern traffic levels, and a new bridge was built in 1967. The bridge currently supports about 77,000 vehicles per day.

Moving south, the next bridge you come to is the well-known Dumbarton auto bridge. Once again, the current bridge is the second one built. The original bridge was built in 1927 and was the first automobile bridge crossing the Bay. The center included a drawbridge for boat traffic. A new, wider bridge was built and opened in 1984. The old bridge had its drawbridge section removed and the rest was converted to fishing piers in 1985. The Dumbarton bridge currently handles about 60,000 vehicles per day. It also contains a 1.5 mile long section of the Bay Trail, providing an easy connection between the Ravenswood trails and Coyote Hills.

So where does the name Dumbarton come from? To answer this, we need to briefly discuss the history of Newark. In 1872 several entrepreneurs were reclaiming swampland in the east bay. Requiring more capital, they advertised in Europe for investors. An English capitalist invested money and hired J. Barr Robertson, a Scotsman, to oversee his interests. Robertson chose the name Newark for the city founded on the swampland, naming it after the castle of the same name located on Dumbarton Point in Scotland. The land west of Newark adjoining the Bay eventually acquired the name Dumbarton Point as a result. The Dumbarton region in Scotland was originally called Dunbrittain by the Scots after the Romans left, and this mutated to Dunbartane and then Dumbarton over time.

If you've spent a long time flying into or out of Palo Alto, you've probably noticed two huge pipes that start in the middle of the Bay and run west into Menlo Park just south of the auto bridge. This is a portion of the Hetch Hetchy aqueduct, which carries water from the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite to the Crystal Springs Reservoir west of San Carlos. The pipes have a long journey, surfacing and going underground multiple times. There is a large pumping station in Fremont before the pipes submerge for the eastern portion of their Bay crossing. The first pipe was placed in service in 1925.

Just south of the auto bridge is the old railroad bridge, known officially as the Southern Pacific Railroad Dumbarton Cutoff Bridge. This bridge was actually the first bridge across the Bay and was put into service in 1909. It consists of a single track and two swing sections to allow boat traffic through. The western swing section, which is commonly used as the 45-degree entry point for the PAO 31 pattern, and the eastern swing section in the Newark Slough were welded in the open position when the bridge was closed in 1982. In 1996 and again in 1998, the bridge was subject to arson, which caused many of the pilings to be destroyed. That's why the bridge no longer connects to the western shore, a fact very obvious from the air.

There is a project underway to resurrect the railroad bridge for commuter trains. The $300 million project is funded by Regional Measure 2 (which raised the bridge tolls from $2 to $3) and Measure A funds from San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Alameda counties. Currently a $5.7 million environmental and engineering study is underway. On the west side, a new station is planned on Willow Road near the west end of the auto bridge. Plans call for six round-trip trains per day, departing Union City in the morning, splitting evenly for San Francisco and San Jose, and then returning in the evening. Four thousand eight hundred passengers are expected daily. Officials claim that the railroad bridge may be open for service by 2010, but I take this with a large grain of Leslie salt.

When it comes to flight instructing, I’m just a baby... a toddler at best compared with some of my colleagues at the club with eye popping 5-digit numbers in the "dual given" columns of their logbooks. But even as a toddler, I’ve learned a lot from my students during my first year on the job.

One thing I’ve learned is the role a little silliness can play when a student is struggling with a learning plateau or some error that keeps butting its way into his flying. Take the go-around… it’s a busy moment. First you have to make the decision to go around. Then you have to execute it... power, flaps, airspeed, climb... or is it climb, airspeed... and what about carb heat? You’re aviating, you’re navigating, you’re communicating, and everything seems like it’s happening all at once. Remember what that felt like? When you’re first learning the maneuver, sometimes it doesn’t go so well.

One student I worked with could do both steps just fine... deciding when it was appropriate to go around and executing the maneuver. What gave him trouble was the space between the two. Whenever I said “go around” he would make a perfectly safe textbook go-around, no matter how close we were to the runway. But when it was his own decision, there was often a delay. He would say, “I’m going around,” but by the time his hand reacted and added power, we would already have touched down. By the time he realized we’d touched down, we were already back in the air with full power applied. This only happened if his go-around decision was made close to the runway, but it led to some frustration as I couldn’t solo him until we had it under control. We finally solved the problem by agreeing that he had invented a new maneuver, which we fondly called the “Touch-and-Go-Around.” Having named the maneuver, we categorized it along with other things he was supposed to avoid, like elevator trim stalls and skidding turns to fina

Another student had a tendency to get distracted departing from San Carlos. She’d get busy looking for traffic and not notice the airplane gradually climbing closer and closer to the Class B shelves that hang down low as you head out across the bay. It was a problem that could easily be solved with trim and situational awareness, but remember your early trips to the practice area? Faster airplanes passing you from behind, others coming straight at you on their way back in, more still moving right to left, PAO to HWD, HWD to PAO, and the ubiquitous heavies, more worrisome still when they surprise you as ominous shadows on the water below you. For a new student, that departure towards Coyote Hills can feel more like an obstacle course than a relaxing start to a training flight. Students can be understandably distracted, but it was still a problem. I would never be able to let her take an airplane to the practice area by herself until she got it under control. Once again, giving the “maneuver” a silly name seem

In both cases, the students got frustrated first, then silly. And then we used their own silliness to help relieve their frustration by solving the problem that had created it. As a new CFI, it was fascinating to see the creative power of the human mind at work solving its own logistical problems, and it was rewarding to be the one to help the process along a little... one of the many rewards that makes this such an enticing job.

August 6, AD 2005. Palo Alto Airport, CA. WVFC Headquarters.

I was in the oh-so-familiar West Valley Flying Club classroom, ready to behold a quite unusual seminar on Emergency Bailout Procedures. Well, the subject sounds quite grim to a pilot. But shall any pilot worth her feathers turn away from grim possibilities?

A short guy... Wait, did I say "short"? Oh, I'm in trouble now. My advice to you - don't ever do it. Don't ever call Allen Silver short. He's NORMAL SIZE, you got it? And get it once and for all 'cause he's the guy packing chutes for this club. He's got your life on a string. Well, on a whole bunch of strings.

So, the NORMAL SIZE white haired energetic guy laid out on the table the accessories for the subject in question: a couple of parachutes (a backpack and a bucket seat), audio tape player and a few magazines.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce to you the star of the show - Mr. Allen Silver, FAA Master Rigger & DPRE, "serving aerobatic & glider pilots worldwide since 1972." In case you feel like contacting him, his email is silver@pia.com, web site www.pia.com/silver.

After a brief introduction, he started with playing the real life audio record of a recent emergency bailout by a private pilot over Las Vegas. The pilot, whose voice was amazingly calm, reported to the controller that he was experiencing severe rudder trouble and might have to bail out. The controller acknowledged and requested location. A short location reference followed (he was around the golf course) and then, "yeah, looks like I will have to bail out." Then silence, the controller calling, "Sir?" several times with no answer. Then followed the controller's communication with air traffic in the area, police and news helicopters responding, a news chopper spotting the chute at the golf course, and, finally, the pilot OK.

How much more dramatic and dynamic can a seminar on emergencies start? The audience was captivated, take my word. But Allen wouldn't be Allen if he stopped there. He also had a magazine with a photo showing the pilot standing in front of the wreckage. The aircraft in question was, how shall I put it... not airworthy anymore. One of its rudder cables had snapped as the pilot recovered from a hammerhead. He managed to fly almost straight and level for a while, reporting and declaring an emergency, but then the airplane started turning and rolling out of control so the pilot had to let it go. The very detailed and thoroughly analyzed account of exactly how he got out and how the parachute deployed followed.

The added quality of seminars conducted by Allen Silver is his hands-on insider's view and information on every case discussed. With thousands of parachute jumps, and hundreds of airshows, NTSB investigations, research and analysis done for the US military and more, it is an understatement to say that he has a few stories under his belt. Since a parachute is essentially an emergency equipment item, some of his stories are dramatic, worth more than their storyteller's weight in gold. You hear about the necessity of procedure training again and again. But with Allen's dynamic, lively and humorous explanations and comments, you REALLY understand that most emergencies are FAST. With just seconds available, you can't afford thinking what to do next. You have to do it.

You can also learn how some casual routines can suddenly become deadly. How about a pilot unfastening his seat belts AND his parachute harness straps and bailing out with his parachute left on the plane? The reason? Simple. In military trainers, bucket seat chutes are often left in the cockpit for the next pilot. Pilots get used to unfastening the belts and releasing the chute straps when they get out of the aircraft after the flight. In case of emergency, the routine sequence kicked in with deadly results.

So routine can be a friend, as in the case of checklists, or an enemy, as in bad habits. How can the bad habit routine be controlled? With good habit - the checklist. In this case, look at your parachute harness before you start your "egress." I loved this term: egress. It sounds so graceful. But there is far more than grace to it. Like, for example, is there any chance of egress from a small jet if the ejection seat fails to fire? Or, let's say, how do you safely egress from a "Texan" trainer? That aircraft has a huge vertical stabilizer that any egressor would like to miss as far as possible.

At the end of the seminar, my only wish was "boy, we should have had this videotaped." It was definitely the most exciting and one of the most practical seminars I have ever attended. It proved even more practical than I expected.

Andy Geosits offered me a shared acro flight right after the show was over (thanks, Andy, it was fun and, by the way, my wheel landings have improved thanks for that, too). Well, you hear "acro flying" and you don a chute. So off to the chute storage closet I went and took one of the trusty blue Softie packs I’d had on dozens of times before. Fresh from the seminar, I did my chute preflight by the checklist provided in Allen's memo. As soon as I undid the cover flap over the ripcord pins, I realized that both pins were pulled out of their loops. A fraction of a second later, the pilot chute (it's the small spring-loaded one that pulls the main one out) jumped out of the bag. If, God forbid, I’d had to bail out that day and had not checked those pins before the flight, you'd be spared reading all this now.

Whoever pulled that ripcord a bit too eagerly and had the thing stored like that, you owe me a 12-pack and I won't make it easy for you. There is one particular Ukrainian brand I prefer. You can contact me at ah_1990@hotmail.com for specifics.

So, ladies and gentlemen, next time you see the sign on the wall with the words "parachute" or "bailout" - check the name of the guest star and, if it is Allen Silver - DO NOT MISS IT! It's a one-man show. It rolls, it's exciting, and it's practical. Even if you don't plan to ever step out of a flying airplane, it will give you one more angle to look at this adventure whose name is aviation, and will get you in touch with one of those extraordinary characters with whom aviation is blessed.

INTRODUCTION TO TURBOPROPS AND THE KING AIR C90B
Saturday, October 22, 10:00 a.m., PAO
Presented by Dave Rome
This seminar will be an overview of turboprop airplanes using the King Air C90B as an example. The presentation section will cover the airplane, engines, propellers, and major systems. The intent of the seminar is to give the attendee a feeling for some of the key differences between light twins and turboprops such as the C90. At the conclusion of the seminar, attendees who wish to do so can do a complete walk through of N724DR, which is a 2000 C90B based at KPAO. Dave Rome got his private pilot rating at WVFC in 2000 and has over 600 hours of C90 time.

ANNUAL SAN CARLOS PILOTS ASSOCIATION BBQ
Saturday, October 22, 11:00 – 2:00, SQL
Meet new friends at the annual San Carlos Pilots Association (SCAPA) barbecue on Saturday, October 22 in the open area on the runway side of the Hiller Museum at San Carlos airport (near the 747 cockpit). Menu will include burgers, steaks, grilled seafood, salads, desserts and cold drinks. A few of the more unusual San Carlos-based aircraft will be on display, adjacent to the cooking/serving area. Free for SCAPA members, $10 for non-members. This is also a great opportunity to consider joining SCAPA.

STEARMAN DAY
Saturday, October 22, 10:00 – 5:00, PAO
Stearman Day gives West Valley members a unique opportunity to get dual instruction in the club’s nostalgic, open cockpit biplane. Contact Tammy Tran to schedule, ttran@wvfc.org.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS OPEN MEETING
Tuesday, October 25, 7:00 pm, PAO
Do you wonder what the future holds for West Valley Flying Club? Do you have an opinion as to whether we are too big, too small or just right? Are you interested in the process of defining how the club addresses its mission? On October 25, the club’s Board of Directors will gather for its quarterly open meeting. Any member may attend the meeting, whether to listen in or chime in. Items on the agenda include financial reports, revenue concerns, an update on the new accounting system, and business planning. Questions? Contact jsmith@wvfc.org.

HALLOWEEN BBQ & PUMPKIN CARVING CONTEST
Friday, October 28, 4:00 – 7:00pm
Don’t miss the second annual pumpkin carving contest at WVFC! Team up with your CFI or with another club member to choose and carve your entry. Pumpkins will be on display around the club prior to the contest so you can choose your squash in advance and map out your creative strategy. This year’s prizes are:
      1st Place: One $50.00 flight certificate
      2nd Place: 2 WVFC shirts
      3rd Place: 1 WVFC shirt

HWD NOISE ABATEMENT PROCEDURES PANEL DISCUSSION
Wednesday, November 2, 7:00 pm
Presented by Jenny Donnelly and Howard Manning
Noise abatement procedures at Hayward have changed somewhat recently we're holding a seminar at the Hayward office of West Valley Flying Club on November 2 to discuss the recent updates. This will be a panel discussion with Jenny Donnelly of the Airport Administration and Howard Manning from the Oakland FSDO. Contact Sandy Wiedemann if you have questions at syzygy2002@mac.com. Please join us!

NIGHT CURRENCY CLINIC
Saturday, November 5, 6:00 pm, PAO
Night's coming earlier. Take advantage of this annual club opportunity to get yourself night current after the time change back to PST. Club CFI Lucy Geever Conroy will lead a ground discussion in the back classroom, after which everyone will pile into airplanes for some night takeoffs and landings. Cost is hobbs time + CFI’s fee for the flight. The ground session is free. Contact Patti Andrews at whatsup@wvfc.org to get paired up with a CFI for this event.

G1000 GLASS COCKPIT SEMINAR
Saturday, November 12, 10:00 a.m., PAO
Presented by Max Trescott
Currently, about 90% of all new aircraft ship with glass cockpits and there may come a day when everyone is flying behind them. If you've ever been curious about the G1000 glass cockpit, here's your opportunity to start the learning process! Topics to be covered include:

• Glass Cockpit Benefits
• G1000 Benefits
• Primary Flight Display (PFD)
• Multifunction Display (MFD)
• Electrical System
• Differences for Preflight and Flight
• Demonstration using simulator software

Bay Area Accident Analysis: Strategies for Dealing with our Unique Risk Factors
Wednesday, October 12, 7:00 pm, PAO
Presented by Max Trescott
Learn to manage unique risks. Master CFI Max Trescott studied local accidents, analyzed risk factors and mapped accident locations. Learn how to fly more safely in the Bay Area.

Flight Testing in Technically Advanced Airplanes
Wednesday, October 19, 7:00 pm, SQL
Presented by Mike Shiflett
What is going to be tested during a Private Pilot or Instrument Rating Practical Test (checkride) in a Cirrus or G1000 equipped airplane? How has the new guidance from the FAA been integrated into the PTS? What’s coming on the horizon? All of these questions and more will be answered in this seminar. The seminar will be 45 minutes with a 30 minute question and answer period at the end.

Touch Up your Touchdowns
Wednesday, October 26, 7:00 pm, HWD
Presented by Len Von Clemm
You’ve heard the numbers part of flying. Let’s explore the sensual side and see what a new approach will do for your landings and your flying. Imagine being a dancer when you land and if you were, do you hold your partner close and lead or separate and each do your own steps? Footwork is the most important in both dancing and landing and so is someone leading. Let’s have a discourse on the little things that make a difference in the outcome of our landings and flying in general. A good pilot doesn’t believe the concept that an acceptable landing is one you can walk away from and a good landing is when you can walk away and be able to use the airplane again.

PAO Instrument Ground School is held Tuesday evenings from 6:30 to 9:00 pm. The current session runs through November 15. Cost is $200. Contact Lindsay Dillon (linsgrins@hotmail.com) or Ali Ashayer (aashayer@aol.com) for more info.

SQL Private Pilot Ground School meets Tuesdays 6:30-9:00 pm with instructor Dan Dyer. The cost is a $200 one-time fee, after which you may re-attend as often as you like. Students may start at any time. For information, contact Dan Dyer at dan@dkdyer.com.

PAO Private Pilot Ground School meets Thursdays from 6:30 pm with instructor Kyp Kypta. The cost for the course is a once-only charge of $100, after which you may attend any and all sessions as often as you like. Current session began Thursday, September 1. Contact Kyp at lkypta@earthlink.net.

HWD Private Pilot Ground School meets Tuesday nights from 6:30-9:30 pm. The cost is $200 per student. Contact instructors Sandy Wiedemann at syzygy2002@mac.com, or Eric Jewell at eric@flywitheric.com.