Well, the dry year may be bad for skiing and not so good for our lakes and reservoirs (although they were pretty full from last year), but it is good for flying. The club is picking up some extra and much needed revenue from the lack of rain, which is good because we started 2006 in such a hole from all of the rain from that year. I would suggest taking advantage of it; you never know when the patterns will shift and we see some of the normal Winter/Spring weather start to roll in. The cold dry days make for really good flight performance with that thick, cold winter air.

We will be introducing a new member benefit, which should be out within the next month. Essentially, the new program will be a deductible waiver program available to WVFC members for WVFC aircraft. For the cost of $125 for the year, WVFC will waive the deductible if the member is involved in an incident or accident in WVFC fleet aircraft. Up to this point the only market for this has been renter's insurance. Renter's insurance comes in two coverages: Liability and Property. What is interesting is that with renter's insurance you can only purchase the "deductible" or property coverage after you have purchased liability coverage. This may be a benefit if you are borrowing a lot of aircraft but not if you are only renting. This extra coverage typically leads to a cost of $215 for the year. The club policy already covers you for 1,000,000 of liability, $100,000 per seat, and $5,000 medical expense coverage, so why pay for the extra coverage when all that is typically needed is to cover the deductible? With the deductible waiver program for the $125 yearly fee, the club will cover the deductible for members who sign up and are using a WVFC aircraft. We should have this rolled out soon; look for announcements on the website.

Finally, I would like to welcome our new chief pilot, Lucy Geever. Lucy has been with WVFC since 1998; she joined the club as a CFI (an MEI/ATP) and taught here until 2004. Most recently, Lucy has been the Director of flight ops for Tradewinds Aviation at Reid Hillview airport. We look forward to having Lucy join the WVFC family. Her direct contact info at the club will be lucy@wvfc.org or chiefpilot@wvfc.org. Her extension is 402.

Winter starts. Please remember to appropriately prime the aircraft for cold weather starts. A couple of recommendations:

1. Review the POH for cold start procedures.
2. Make sure to prime the aircraft well.
3. Let the fuel atomize a little.
4. If the aircraft does not start in a few cranks try something different.

I am continually amazed at how quickly the time goes. It is already February and we are in the planning stages for the next fiscal year. I was excited to attend the open board meeting in December and would like to share some of the feedback we received and pass on some ideas we are tossing around for the New Year.

First, as most of you know, we have two DA42 Twins on-line and our CFIs/Board Members, Torea Rodriguez and Andy Geosits, have been diligently working to get the training up to speed. They have invested a tremendous amount of time, energy and funds to make this a solid program for everyone here at West Valley and we are grateful to them for all of their hard work and dedication to make this program a success. Please join us in our debut of the Twins on Saturday, February 10 from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm. Our Diamond Rep, Curtis Shaw, will be here to answer questions and talk about the twins. There will also be a presentation by Andy Geosits. We are very excited about the response and interest these planes have generated so we hope you will be here to celebrate with us.

January was a fantastic month for the club; we have 35 new members and have exceeded the expected flying hours! What a great start to the New Year! There were a couple of great marketing ideas that came out of last month's meeting, all of which we are in the process of implementing. First and foremost, we are interested in trying a CRM (Customer Resource Management) tool to provide more accurate follow up for those who are coming up on re-currency, BFR's, etc. This is something that has been in the works for quite some time now and we are looking forward to making this a new addition to our database. We are looking for a software program to help make this an easy transition, if anyone has any ideas or suggestions, please forward them on to me at Shannon@wvfc.org.

In addition, we spoke about a few areas in the overall appearance and professionalism of the club. It is important that we maintain an approachable club-like atmosphere but also work to increase the knowledge and competence of the front desk staff. I have continually received positive feedback and would love more in any areas you feel we could use improvement. Please don't hesitate to contact me with any suggestions, both positive and negative.

I have been here for a year already and still love it, thanks to all of you who make this such a great place to work. I look forward to another exciting year with all of you and I thank you for your continued support

Notes from the Recurrent Seminar: Every two years DPEs are treated to a seminar given by a team from Oklahoma City. The purpose is to ensure that we are caught up with recent changes in Part 61, Practical Test Standards, and Order 8710.3E. Also, they review some old areas we may need to review.

Pilots are familiar with Part 61 and the PTS. Order 8710.3E is the latest version of the Designated Pilot and Flight Engineer Examiners' Handbook. It is a good idea for flight instructors to Google and download this handbook. Chapter 5 is especially helpful. That is the chapter that tells DPE's how to administer a practical test (checkride).

This latest version (.3E) of the handbook was effective April 2006. One of the changes of interest had to do with the ground portion of the checkride.

In some past tests, I have had applicants unable to successfully accomplish some task during the ground portion. Maybe they could not identify and describe certain airspace on the sectional chart. I would tell them that they would be unable to pass the test that day; but that we could go out and do the flight portion. In some cases, the flight portion was completely successful. The re-test would then be ground only.

That does not work any more. Order 8710.3E tells us in chapter 5 (page 5-7) that during the ground portion, if the applicant's knowledge is unsatisfactory or incomplete, the DPE is required to terminate the test at that point and issue a notice of disapproval. That means that the flight portion can only happen after successful completion of the ground portion of the checkride.

GPS with Expired Database: From time to time we see applicants present for an IFR practical test with an expired GPS database. The question is: can they demonstrate RNAV (GPS) approaches with an expired database? The current answer, according to the Oklahoma City team is "no."

Can the GPS with expired database be used by the applicant to assist with situational awareness? The answer is "yes." Reference: AIM 1-1-19.

Landing Light Usage: In order to reduce collision hazards on the ground, the FAA is recommending that:

1. Rotating beacon on before engine start until after engine shutdown.
2. Position lights and strobes on for taxi.
3. Landing light on when cleared for takeoff or when crossing runway. Landing light should not be on for position and hold, nor for taxi to or from runway.

It's the week before Christmas and the weather is slightly worse than normal at 300 overcast, 2 miles visibility. Doug and I are flying the Pilatus IFR with the typical PAO clearance of, "Right turn 060 within one mile, vectors San Jose, direct Salinas, as filed, maintain 3,000, expect flight level 250 ten minutes after departure." Being about half smart, we do a slightly more expanded takeoff brief than one normally does. The brief and takeoff prep includes placing the MFD into terrain mode so we know where the rocks are, even when we can't see them. On the number 2 GPS we select direct PAO, and go to OBS mode with the course of 310 set in, so we can find the runway and the extended centerline even when we can't see them. We brief the takeoff sequence, airspeed callouts, decision-points, and emergency actions. Then we call tower for takeoff.

Was all that detail necessary? The PT-6 turbine is about as reliable and bulletproof as an engine gets, but it has been known to fail when the fuel-control unit bellows fails (still a VERY rare event).

At about 1000 feet on the climb-out, sure enough, the engine quits, and according to our plan, Doug continues flying. I feather the engine at his command, and place the Non-Essential Bus in Over-ride (so we can drop the gear later in the process if that looks like a good idea). (As an aside, consider the philosophy in which Gear is "non-essential," or what about the Cirrus with the Transponder on the non-essential bus. We may not agree with the choices, but we need to know what they are!) Resuming the narrative - Doug turns to 150 degrees according to our plan, and I switch the GPS needle on the HSI to show GPS 2 and the PAO extended centerline. At 650 feet, Doug swings the plane to the right in a 45 degree bank (shallower and we don't make it around before reaching the ground) as I declare an emergency and Norcal turns me back to PAO tower. Meanwhile, I guide Doug to the centerline and lower the first 15 degrees of flaps. Before we roll level, I have my eyes outside watching for ground contact, and confirmation that we have the centerline nailed. At about 350 feet, I get glimpses of the ground, and call it. Fifty feet later, I see the runway, and know we're high. According to the plan I take the landing. (It's easier for the pilot watching outside than it is for the guy making the transition from the instruments. Many airlines have adopted this practice, called Pilot In Command Monitored Approach). I call for the gear and the rest of the flaps. Still high, I press the nose down (full flaps and gear are really effective speed brakes). As we pass the first taxiway, still not down, I call for the flaps up, and we're on the ground almost instantly. Braking hard (at this point, do we really care about the tires?) and pulling back on the yoke, we come nearly to a stop, then come off the brakes to coast up to the far-end taxiway and off onto the parallel.

Pretty well drenched in sweat, Doug and I look at each other and grin. A grin interrupted by the simulator operator reminding us that it had taken us seven previously unsuccessful attempts before we finally got this one to work.

As many of you know, I am a great advocate of training in the actual airplane, since some things aren't simulated all that well, especially in non-motion simulators. Depressurization at altitude, steep descent angles, and things that rely on depth perception, just to name a few. But there are also things that just make no sense to attempt in the actual airplane. Especially when you're throwing a few million dollars worth of plane around the sky.

I'm also an advocate of regular simulator training in which you can try things like the "failed" engine at 1000 feet and figure out how one gets back to the runway. During the three days we were at SimCom for annual recurrent training, we had all sorts of system and engine failures under the Murphy's Law "… at the worst possible time" scenarios. The trim ran away, and the engine tried to do a hot start (think $500,000 repair bill). We had engine and cabin fires, and electrical system failures. We had to fly approaches on the steam gauges and the peanut gyro. The piece de resistance, though, was the engine failure at altitude, partial panel, with low ceilings. The object was to arrange a final approach course intercept at the proper altitude to continue an approach to landing with no power.

As always happens with these things, we handled some of the scenarios better than others, but we played with all of them until we were pretty good at them. It's better to make your mistakes in a simulator than in the real world. And in the real world, it's better to make your mistakes with an instructor onboard.

We all know that airplanes (and simulators) are notoriously unreliable when there's an instructor onboard, but engine (and other) failures happen at other times, as well. And if you haven't practiced the failure that you get, the chances are low that you'll execute the proper procedures successfully.

Increase your chances; practice emergencies. There isn't an instructor in the club that doesn't love the chance to create interesting and realistic emergency scenarios. And while keeping instructors happy may not be your top priority, increasing your skill level and your safety margins should be right up there near the top.

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

Brian Eliot and Kent Krizman are teaching Instrument Ground School @ PAO on TUESDAY nights for eight weeks beginning on Tuesday, February 13. Cost is $249.00. 15% discount for signups before the first night of class. Contact info@myflighttraining.org.

Feb 17th and 18th
West Valley Flying Club, Palo Alto, CA
$ 120.00

This course was designed by Mike Shiflett for Private and Commercial students wanting to add a multi engine rating to their pilot certificates. In addition the MEI and MEI Student will benefit by taking the course. The last half day of day two is dedicated to Multi Engine Instructor Techniques and Safety. Contact Mike at bizjetpilot@hotmail.com.

The systems presented in the course will be based upon the Twin Star DA42 and the Beechcraft Duchess (BE-76).

Day One: 10am - 4pm

10am - 11am	Introduction to Complex Aircraft: Flap Systems, Constant Speed Propeller Systems, Landing Gear Systems. Operational considerations
11:15 - 12:15	Multi Engine Systems Full Feathering Propeller Systems Basic Electricity Multi Bus Electrical Systems
12:30 - 13:30	Multi Engine Systems Landing Gear Systems Autopilots/Flight Directors FADEC Systems
13:30 - 14:30	Lunch Break
14:30 - 15:30	Multi Engine Aerodynamics Part One Two engine operations Single Engine Aerodynamics and Zero Side Slip Certification of Multi Engine Aircraft
15:45 - 16:00	Questions and Answers

Day Two

10am - 11am	Multi Engine Aerodynamics Part Two Operating on a Single Engine and Vmc
11:15 - 12:15	Multi Engine Performance Calculations
12:30 - 13:30	Takeoff Planning and Multi Engine Emergencies
13:30 - 14:30	Lunch Break
14:30 - 15:30	Multi Engine Instructor Considerations
15:45 - 16:00	Questions and Answers

LPV approaches - Here and in the Near Future.
Location: West Valley Flying Club - San Carlos
Date and Time: Feb 21, 2007 at 7pm.

Eliot Floersch will be discussing Bay Area LPV's available for practice, how they are flown, IFR protection, Garmin 430/530/G1000 upgrade status, cost, operations, and much more! Eliot Floersch, is a 36yr old CFI, CFII, MEI 5000hr Goldseal instructor. He worked with the FAA on RNAV 30 SQL, LPV HAF, and with NASA and FAA on TAA Handbook. He is currently commuting by airplane from Columbia to the Bay Area by aircraft. He aspires to see advances in NASA's Small Aircraft Transportation System.

Title: G1000 Weather Capabilities
Location: KPAO West Valley Flying Club
Date and Time: Weds 2/28/07 @ 7pm

Come learn how to get the most out of the G1000's XM Weather capabilities. Learn how you can utilize the weather features to stay clear of hazardous weather, find out what the weather is at your destination before you get there, and get out of bad weather should you get caught in it. Following the presentation, we will have an open discussion about additional safety features of the G1000. Attendees will receive a certificate for one half hour towards flight training in N1322k, the clubs G1000 C-172SP. Cory Lovell is a Flight Instructor at West Valley Flying Club, specializing in G1000 checkouts and transition training as well as Tailwheel and Aerobatics/Upset recovery training. When not flying G1000 equiped aircraft he is usually found in the cockpit of the club's Pitts S2-C.