Hey there,one more reminder if this comes out in time for the Holiday Party, Saturday, December 8 at 6:30PM. We are looking for a smashing good time including a live band, good food, good drink, and of course good people, as are all who are a part of WVFC.

Speaking of the New Year, it is time to begin advertising for pre-pay dues. As many of you know pre-paying your dues for the year helps lower your costs as we only charge $45/mo when you pre-pay for the year. This basically translates into a little over one month’s free dues for the year. It is an excellent program for longer term members it helps the club financially through the winter and turns out to be a win – win. If you are interested please contact Michelle Klippel, Michelle@wvfc.org or any of the front desk staff.

I would also like to remind people about participating in the deductible waiver program. Remember that our deductibles run as much as $5000 for an at-fault incident. I know no-one likes to think that they may ever be involved in an accident, but even a bird strike can run up to $3500. The deductible waiver costs $125 and is good for an entire year. The idea behind it is to offer renters a cheap way to provide for a deductible by essentially pooling their money together. So far, we have helped cover a bird strike repair. Everyone else who has bent a plane has been all minor, (two loss of controls on landing, a couple of hard landings, a couple of taxiing over inanimate objects) but none of them had the plan.

We begin the business planning cycle again in terms of data, we look at membership surveys, the bulletin boards, look at long term goals of old business plans, and various other input points. If you have any thoughts for the coming year, or anything you would like to see updated feel free to email me at gm@wvfc.org

Over the last year we enhanced our squawk reporting system to allow us to more accurately measure what happens with squawks once they are written down. This will allow us to focus on a couple of different areas, one of which is false squawk reports. We thought by using the newsletter we could create a forum for education and help provide knowledge to the membership. False squawks are particularly costly to the club and contribute to several thousand a month in overruns. Another important measure is make sure MX is fixing issues the first time they come by the hangar. We are always trying to fix our quality system, and every tool to help us in this pursuit will be well used. It is the intention of providing this information to create a more informed membership.

Overall we had a lot of misinformation put in to the observation sheet. I would like to encourage people to interact with the front desk staff as they have a direct line to mx and can defuse concerns prior to grounding the aircraft.

Squawks on the fringe:

1. We had a report of a missing rivet in the elevator of a C172 this actually was a drain hole
2. We had a report of a “thin strip of metal on back of elevator bent.” This is the trim tab and it is normal for a trim tab to have different angles set from plane to plane on a similar model type. Seeing one bent slightly or straight is perfectly normal. Please do not ever adjust or bend a trim tab.
3. Blue fluid reported on front wheel pant. Aircraft fuel (which is dyed blue) will end up on the front wheel pant when the aircraft is over primed. This is a normal indication of over priming however, it is not a discrepancy. This is why they will recommend in many fuel injected aircraft to only use the fuel pump for a small allotted time during the prime. We actually get a lot of reports of blue fluid on front nose wheel pant. If too much fuel is put into the cylinder through either manual priming or fuel injected priming, gas will leak back through the intake manifold, to the air box, onto the cowl and then onto the front wheel assembly. If the engine is running the fuel will not leave the engine. Remember the air boxes, unlike your car, are under the engine. Over priming is dangerous as leaked fuel can cause a fire and is, of course, a hazardous material.
4. Low volt light comes on at low idle. This is normal when all of the electrical is full on and alt is not developing full output. Most alternators cannot handle a full output until aproximately 1000 RPM. Aircraft have different ways of alerting pilots. Some will allow the battery to get drained others will alert with a low volt bus light. This is also important as many times we see the aircraft taxiing around at a low idle with all lights, and radios on. Even if a low volt alert does not come on, the battery at this point will compensate for the load and therefore be less available for future starts or issues, particularly if this is a taxi back for shut-down. Essentially, the pilot is draining the battery right before shut-down. Since taxing around above 1000 RPM is dangerous, the best solution is to keep taxiing slow, and use only essential electrical as required.
5. Control wheel feels stiff. More than likely caused by the difference between an non A/P aircraft feel vs. one with an autopilot. Not really sure why this was squawked however no anomaly was found.
6. Intercom not working. Actually, the headphones were plugged into the incorrect hole. System familiarization is key prior to squawking an aircraft. If you are not sure of something, see if you can find another CFI or user who has more familiarity with the plane. With the addition of all of the SP’s, G1000 and Avidyne equipped aircraft, installations have become much more standardized, but there are still planes with non- boiler plate installations. Please make sure to ask prior to squawking if you have concerns.

THE NASA AVIATION SAFETY REPORTING SYSTEM
http://asrs.arc.nasa.gov/index.html

The ASRS was set up by the Federal Government with the goal of improving aviation safety by having those who are actors in the field report on deficiencies within the aviation system. The FAA, tasked to promote aviation and to police aviation, was judged too partial to do the job. NASA was deemed an impartial party and was thus selected to administer the program.

The ASRS is tasked to collect anonymous, voluntarily submitted aviation safety incident/situation reports from pilots, controllers, mechanics and others. The scope of the reports is vast and interesting. Some reports are by anonymous rule-breakers who offer insight as to why an infraction occurred and offer a note of caution to others to be aware so as to avoid the trap that they were snared by. Some reports point to perceived danger signs at a given airport. Based at Moffett Field in Mountain View California, the ASRS research offers insight and help in the following areas.

• Strengthen the foundation of aviation human factors safety research. Over two-thirds of all aviation accidents and incidents have their roots in human performance errors. (No surprised here)
• Identify deficiencies and discrepancies in the National Aviation System (NAS) so that these can be remedied by appropriate authorities.
• Support policy formulation and planning for, and improvements to, the NAS.

Hello to Everyone,

With the Holidays coming, I think we are all busy getting what we can out of 2007 while it is here, so I will make this as brief as possible. First, we have the Holiday party, which will have our dessert contest with prizes like wine or time in the FRASCA or the AST300, as well as some very nice cuisine for everyone, an open bar, the Four Trak Band and more. We will hold the event at West Valley Palo Alto and I hope many of you will be joining us for the last event of the year. Second on the list will be the safety seminars we have planned for 2008 (Palo Alto every 2nd and San Carlos every 3rd Wednesday of the month) January will start us off with the new wings program and two chances to learn about the updates to FARs and FSDO regulations for 2008. Third, in the New Year we will have a section in the newsletter for events information only, if you care to join us, that will be where you can find all of the events posted, as well as ON the club calendar. Fourth for all of you out there still in your primary training or lovers of the Cessna 152, don’t miss the deal in Hayward only N67849 is available for $64/hr through the end of the year. Fifth, we have the last call for anyone interested to sign up for our winter safety seminar and trip to Tahoe for gambling, safety, skiing, boarding or just to catch the snow. Last of all, I wish everyone a happy holiday and hope you all get more than enough time to spend doing what you love this year. Thanks for reading.

Frequently, when we get checked out in a new airplane, we do a thing called “differences training.” Usually, its focus is on the differences between otherwise similar airplanes such as the Cessna 172SP and the 172SP with the Garmin 1000. Or the Saratoga and the Turbocharged Saratoga.

Yet, to a great extent, differences are important in learning a new airplane. Of course, we’d like to have as few differences as possible (makes it easier to learn), with the exception that we always want the new plane to be faster, carry more, handle better, or some other increase in whatever we consider to be the thing that makes one aircraft better than another.

Still, all aircraft are different, and the differences seem to come in four types: (1) How they feel, handle, perform …, (2) What types of equipment they have, (3) Where things are located, and the (4) Procedures. Unfortunately (this is an editorial opinion), we spend way too much time on the first of these, working on takeoffs and landings, stall recoveries, steep turns, slow flight, even the power off descent and simulated engine failure landing. Sure, that makes you smooth when landing, teaches you how the plane reacts when it stalls (but why in the world would you stall the plane anyway?), but these aren’t the things that will save your empennage when the spaghetti is in the fan, keep the situation from getting worse, or keep from unnecessarily bending metal.

The “types of equipment” issue has become more important as we’ve gotten more planes, and more modern equipment into the club. There was a time when avionics was a radio, and if you were really lucky an HSI. Now there is a multiplicity of GPS types, autopilots that actually work (for years, I was pretty certain they were a really expensive type of ballast), and engine types, including fuel injected, turbocharged and diesel. And if that weren’t enough some of the planes with constant speed props don’t have propeller controls, but have RPM controlled by the power lever (when did it stop being a throttle?) or by a Full Authority Digital Engine Control (FADEC) system. Some of the Ground Review Form questions touch on these factors, and to some extent get into how they make a difference, but most of the differences will show up in Procedures.

Where things are located brings up a couple of those “Great Mysteries of Life” questions. Where did they hide the headphone jacks in this plane? In the Diamond products they’re in the back seat, in the covered center console for the Cirrus, and in cleverly hidden spots in some of the older Cessnas. Where is the Avionics switch? Where are the Autopilot and the Trim Circuit Breakers? And these are things you want to be able to find without looking.

But in reality, the understanding of procedural differences is where differences training and the Ground Review Form really comes in. Sometime it isn’t obvious what is being asked or why, so here a just a couple of them that come to mind.

The fire during ground start – sure, we always keep cranking. Or do we? Not in the Twinstar.

Why do we care about the external start procedure? In some airplanes, you don’t turn the battery on with the external power plugged in (don’t need to, because a circuit in some planes is activated when external power is applied, activating the airplane’s main bus just like turning on the battery but without having to do so. Others, of course, require the battery to be turned on for an external power start.

How about the electrical fire? Master Switch – OFF, right? Not necessarily. In a pressurized plane (wish we still had one!), you’d better dump the cabin first, or the dump valve (electrically powered in some cases) won’t open and you’re stuck with the fumes. And sometimes in the Twinstar, shutting off the Master will cause you to have a twin-engine glider – make sure you have a glider rating first.

And the fuel system? Sometimes the fuel system seems to have been designed by pilots (C-152, Citabria, …) – two tanks, an ON/OFF valve and a couple of drains. Some are designed by engineers – multiple tanks, valves, switches to select which tanks show on the gauges, and some that aren’t available under certain circumstances. Some by lawyers – 13 drains on a C-172SP??!!

Now my favorite part of the Ground Review Form, and the one that shows whether the student actually understands the airplane, the “Additional Information” Page. What limitations are there on the autopilot (speeds, flap configurations, altitudes, …)? What documentation do you need to have available in the cockpit? TIS and WAAS operations and limitations?

There is also a final part of differences training, something I do (because I need to) before getting into a different airplane (and for instructors, it isn’t all that unusual to fly three or four types in a day). It’s a great idea to review the systems and differences before getting in, and mentally picturing some of the emergency procedures that are different in this plane, even if the difference is merely a different speed. This can be especially important if you’re flying multiple categories and classes. When I fly a helicopter, for example, I sit in the aircraft for a couple of minutes before starting it just to get my flying reflexes back into “helicopter mode”. The same applies when shifting from single engine land to multiengine land or vice versa.

Your knowledge of one aircraft incorrectly applied to another can be worse than just negative knowledge transfer it can involve long conversations with insurance companies, mechanics, Chief Pilots, the FAA, and NTSB. And if you really muck it up, it can involve EMTs, hospitals or undertakers.

Each type of aircraft is different – make sure you know the differences.

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