Boy, life during the summer in the Bay Area is a tale of two different stories. You have (1) fog in the AM, and you have (2) high summer temps inland, sometimes extending to the bay.

Issue #1 provides pilots with a great realm within which to get re-current at IFR or get your IFR ticket. There is nothing quite like actual logged instrument time, and really no better time to get it then the Bay Area Summer. The coastal fog provides to a transition both in climbing and descending, often in turns and configuration changes in actual conditions. Additionally, most of your ceilings are in the 1000 foot range so there is room below to acquire the runway environment and transition to a safe landing. What better time to transition your IFR ticket into one of the many glass panel trainers or HP aircraft. Issue #2 lends itself to careful flight planning and engine management. Higher temps, as we are aware, lengthen take-off runs, change ground speed on approaches, and in general change the standard temp flying characteristics that we grow accustomed to. Please remember even in the most benign trainer to stage climb the aircraft on warm days, pay attention to engine oil temps and CHT's (if equipped) to mitigate the potential for engine overtemp performance problems.

In an effort to help alleviate some of the confusion, a users guide to MX will be published the month and available both in hard copy and online. This is a document that will evolve with feedback, so please feel free to send me information you would like to see in the context of the document. One big misnomer that is out there is the use of the squawk sheet as a complaint or general communication document. I recently visited with SJC FSDO to reconfirm their reading of the rules, which is how the club is managed. The bottom line, "An aircraft cannot be flown with an open squawk." Nuance information and conditional items should be communicated to the MX department in other ways:

1. Let the front desk staff know. They will contact the MX staff ASAP. On the weekend they will send an email to maintenance or call the coordinator over the weekend.
2. Email them directly at maintenance@wvfc.org. These emails get copied to the Director of MX., coordinator, parts, Ad compliance, and me.
3. Call and discuss or leave a VM for the MX coordinator.

Greetings, fellow pilots. I hope you are having a great summer full of fun flying. The hired hands at the club are in the process of reviewing our accident history for the past 19 years. This research reveals the harsh fact that 95% of our accidents and incidents are pilot error. Of course this should not be a surprise to anyone as this continues to be a fact throughout the GA world.

In which phase of flight do the majority of accidents and incidents occur? If you said "landing," you are correct. Due to fatigue at the end of a flight, a pilot's ability to perform one of the most difficult tasks, approach and landing, is diminished just when he needs to be at his sharpest.

We pilots at WVFC could be doing better, but we are no doubt on the right track. According to the NTSB, the national average is 1.32 fatalities per 100,000 hours of GA flight time. The WVFC average is 1.0 fatalities per 215,000 hours of flight time. A grim topic no doubt, but we have to face this reality with the goal of improving our statistics even more.

One can look to our policies and procedures and the high caliber of the Maintenance Staff and Member CFIs as factors in keeping us on the skinny side of the national averages.

I challenge us to do better. I know we can do better, but we can only do it together. Beginning in October the Chief Pilot's office will begin sponsoring Landing Clinics.

The landing clinics will consist of a two hour interactive ground presentation, followed by a BBQ, followed by dual flights around the patch. Everyone is welcome to attend the ground portion and BBQ but only members can participate in the flight portion. WINGS credit is available.

For the dual flight portion of the clinic, members will be responsible to pay for the airplane and the dual given by the CFI.

Dispatch will be responsible for booking the needed airplanes and CFIs. Bookings will be based on the responses we get from you.

For airplanes with more than two seats, the goal is to fill the airplane with one CFI and two members, with each member taking a turn doing 3 to 4 landings.

If the logistics can be arranged, I would like to have the take-offs and landings video taped for viewing at future club gatherings.

In order to proceed we will need at least the minimum number of people to sign up for the following locations at least 10 days in advance.

THE FOLLOWING DATES ARE TENTATIVE. We will let you know when they are confirmed:

      Sunday October 7 @ PAO - 14 members and 7 CFI members
      Sunday October 14 @ SQL - 14 members and 7 CFI members
      Sunday November 4 @ E16 - 8 members and 4 CFI members
      Sunday November 11 @ HWD - 8 members and 4 CFI members

I am requesting that interested parties contact the Chief Pilot Office at chiefpilot@wvfc.org, put "Landing Clinic" in the email subject line, and supply the following information:

      Name
      Member Number
      Email Address
      Desired Airport
      Make and Model of airplane you want to fly

Are you willing to assist with the event? Here are some ways you can assist: Cooking-BBQ / Set-up / Clean up / Video Taping Take-Offs and Landings

Are you a WVFC member CFI who wants to participate? Here are some ways you can assist.

Give dual instruction during the flight portion of the clinic / Lead ground presentation - Chief Pilot's Office has a presentation already prepared / BBQing / Set up / Clean Up / Video Taping Take-Offs and Landings

You can cut and paste the above, add your answers and mail it to the Chief Pilot's office.

We can only be successful with member pilot and member CFI participation. Hope to see many of you at the Landing Clinics.

GLASS COCKPIT AIRPLANE CARE
Airplane owners invest a lot of hard earned cash to put great machines on our flight line. It is an honor and a privilege to fly these birds. As an organization, we do our best to protect and respect this equipment.

Protective covers have been put on the display screens of all glass cockpit airplanes. This was done because we can't keep our fingers off of those colorful screens - I'm just as guilty as the next pilot. Over time, the oil from our hands breaks down the coatings on these screens. The fix is to pull the unit from the airplane and ship it to the manufacturer for refinishing at a cost of about $2,000 per screen. That's a lot of beans!

It has come to my attention that members have removed some of these screen protectors prior to flight and have then tried to reapply them after flight. Please don't do that. It is hard to reapply these protective covers properly once they have been removed. Reapplied screen protectors are full of air bubbles that distort the screen, rendering these protective covers completely useless.

Even worse than trying to reapply the screen protectors is their initial removal which leaves the screens vulnerable to our misplaced fingers. I don't think I'm stretching it too far when I say that removing these screens is akin to vandalism. It is also disrespectful to the equipment, the owners and other members. We want to promote respect and care for this great equipment. So do your part in that worthy mission.

If you have a problem with these screen protectors please see me and we'll see if we can find a better solution.

TRACKING OIL IN THE TAILWHEEL AIRPLANES
For those of you flying the tailwheels, we need to you do a better job of recording the oil you use. When you add oil to a tailwheel airplane, please find the clip board in the lockbox and record on it the "N" number and the amount of oil that you added to that "N" number.

I was flying with a student the other day and just after we had landed at Frazier Lake, we saw a yellow Cub (is that redundant?) do a beautiful wheel landing and clear the runway, followed by a Stearman, which did the same thing. My student commented, "That's what flying's all about."

So I got to thinking about that. What is flying all about? I'm not sure I have the complete answer, but here are some tentative suggestions:

• Flying an ILS to minimums and seeing the runway right where it belongs. And not being surprised to find it there.
• Getting to Tahoe three hours faster than your buds who are driving.
• Taking a thermal from 800' on an auto launch all the way to 18,000' in less than 10 minutes.
• Doing a slope landing in a helicopter and holding the aircraft level with only one skid on the ground for twenty seconds (or so), just because you can.
• Carving circles in a mountain lake while on the step in a float plane in order to take off.
• Flying a couple of feet above a cloud for several miles, watching the wisps race past the wing tips.
• Taking the last thermal of the day to 10,000 feet, finding smooth air and doing a 20 turn spin followed by a loop on the recovery.
• Handling a 25 gusting to 35 crosswind 90 degrees to the runway and staying on centerline during the landing.
• The one-second pause inverted in a Cuban Eight before rolling back upright to start the next partial loop.
• Rolling the wheels so smoothly onto the runway that you're not sure you've landed - doing it during a three point landing in a Citabria - doing it with witnesses, and attempting to keep a straight face while commenting, "Yeah, they're all like that."
• Doing a steep 360 with the altimeter looking like it's stuck.
• Sharing a great flight with a great friend.
• During a taxi-back at Frazier, hearing on the Unicom, "Mustang flight of two base to final, low pass, Frazier Lake." Then feeling the sides of the Citabria shake as they roar past.
• Releasing the brakes on a jet and feeling the acceleration pushing you back into the seat and watching the distance remaining markers going by like flash cards.
• Flying 25 feet below a gossamer-thin layer of clouds at sunset, so the clouds are illuminated from beneath by the setting sun in all kinds of yellows, golds, reds and oranges.
• Doing a wheelie onto a grass runway.
• Landing on the top of a building (in a helicopter, please).
• Flying a flawless checkride - not that I have a lot of experience doing THAT.
• Handling an autopilot runaway so quickly and smoothly that the three people in back never even notice.
• Seeing a particular airplane and immediately thinking of the person who owns or flies it.
• Flying a perfect Lazy 8 (we may actually be bordering on fiction here).
• Sending a student on a first solo.
• Lighting up a turbine engine for the first time (or the 1000th).
• Figuring out what to learn next (then trying to convince your spouse exactly how important that is).
• Watching with pride and envy as a former student flies something you will only dream of flying.
• Being so far ahead of the airplane that you make all of the above look easy, even to yourself. I'm into all the others, but this one for me is what flying's all about.

The Rumor is true! Hello West Valley (ites), as some of you may have already heard, my time here at WVFC is coming to an end. I have started my own business and have decided to dive in, take a risk and give it all of my energy. My last day will be Friday August 31. I came to West Valley with the notion that I wanted to become a pilot, when in fact, I misunderstood the metaphor; what I really wanted was to grow wings! So, while I love the idea of flying, it is more important at this point in my life to explore my own talents and live my dreams.

Working here has been an incredible adventure with many great challenges. I am grateful for the time spent and for all of the relationships I have forged along the way. I will miss it here! In the meantime, Josh is looking for someone to fill the position and would like to have it filled by the middle of August. If you are interested or know someone who is please send your resume to Jsmith@wvfc.org. The job responsibilities include front desk management at all four locations, activities, events, inventory management and control, sales, assisting the GM, managing aircraft and tie-downs, liaison between front desk, maintenance, chief pilot and accounting, scheduling of employees, hiring and firing, customer service, auditing flight schedules and dispatch operations. Needs to be familiar with Microsoft office suite, aviation experience a plus. People skills are a must.

All summer long we are having barbecues at PAO, SQL and E16. Palo Alto started on July 8 and will continue every 2nd and 4th Sunday of the month from 12-3; SQL happens consistently every 1st and 3rd (afternoons) Saturday and E16 has theirs from June 8, every Friday (look for flyers at all locations)! If you plan it right you can have a barbecue meal every weekend while hanging out with your friends! I am looking for volunteers to help with the Palo Alto barbecues so if you are interested please let me know.

We are looking for a few people to manage our booth at Palo Alto Airport Day. For those of you who are interested please send me an e-mail at Shannon@wvfc.org, I will still be here for another month so please feel free to contact me if there is anything I can help you with.

Please update yourself on the latest club activities by going to the membership calendar located at http://www.wvfc.org/b/calendar.php