Well we needed water and we got it. This is good for the rivers, streams and aqueducts, but puts a damper on the flying. Oh well, best to take advantage of the sunny days that are available.

The deductible waiver plan began officially on March 1. What is the deductible waiver program? If you are involved in an incident or accident in a club plane, whether you are at fault or not, the renting member has to pay a deductible fee. The deductible amount is $3500 for a pilot non-fault claim, and $5000 for a pilot fault claim. Until now, renters insurance has been the only available avenue for coverage. With Renters insurance you have two options, Liability and Property. In addition, you can only purchase the "deductible" or property coverage after you have purchased liability coverage. This may be a benefit if you are borrowing an aircraft, however, not if you are only renting. This extra coverage typically leads to a cost of $215 for the year. The club insurance policy covers you for $1,000,000.00 of liability, $100,000 per seat, and $5,000 medical expense coverage.

For $125 a year, WVFC will waive the deductible if the member is involved in an incident or accident in WVFC fleet aircraft. This additional protection is offered to those members who sign up, and are using a WVFC aircraft. If you would like an application or more information please feel free to contact our front desk staff, at frontdesk@wvfc.org or call any of our four convenient locations.

The club is finishing out the last two months of our fiscal year as well as putting the final touches on business planning for next fiscal year. WVFC is going to continue to evolve as best we can over the next year, while trying to keep our costs and the costs to the member of the club stable. If you have any thoughts on the next fiscal year, or would like insight to the process, please feel free to send me a note: jsmith@wvfc.org

Be safe -

Greetings Fellow Pilots,

I am honored to fill the seat of the Chief Pilot. Every Chief before me has had a hand in building one of the most unique, vibrant and fun flying organization in the world! Member safety and the airworthiness and care of the equipment on our flight line are foremost on my mind.

In our club you can't escape the constant flow of paperwork: Aircraft Checkout Sheets, Phase Checks, Member Observation, Squawks and more. This stream is all a part of our safety system. As I review our paperwork I ask myself, do our members and CFIs members exhibit sound judgment? What in the world is "sound judgment?"

One measurement of satisfactory performance as defined by the Practical Test Standards is that the applicant "demonstrate sound judgment." How does a person demonstrate "sound judgment?" Self honesty and self assessment are great places to begin. For example: Do you pass the IMSAFE checklist before you request that an airplane be dispatched to you? Do you understand your equipment in depth, do you use it appropriately, and do you respect it and care for it? Do you ask for help when you need it? Are you willing to pass up a desired goal when prudence dictates a change of plans? Do you have a "go-around policy" in the event you are unstabilized on an approach to the runway?

The following was from a portion of a Member Observation.

"I was practicing stop-and-go's at Reid-Hillview Airport (KRHV). While taxing back for take-off to Runway 13L the tower cleared me for take-off. I accepted the take-off clearance and began to taxi toward the runway hold-short bars. At that instance I looked down into the cockpit to check the last items on the before take-off checklist. When I looked up I saw that I had taxied off of the pavement and into the grass."

I would like to begin by thanking all of you who came to our DA42 event; although it was raining we had quite a turnout and many people who stayed for lunch even with the clouds looming overhead! Thank you for your patience as we worked hard to get the barbecue going! If you didn't make the seminar and are interested in learning more about the Twin Stars please don't hesitate to contact us. For those of you who are interested in training I have copies of the checklists and POH's available in my office for our cost of printing. I will have them available on an ongoing basis so feel free to contact me anytime.

In September 2006, eight couples from California, including one couple from Palo Alto, flew an aero safari through South Africa, Botswana and Zambia. There will be an exciting slide presentation of their flying experience on Wednesday May 7 from 7:00 to 8:00 pm. Come join them as they share their beautiful pictures and stories from their travels!

Put May 17-19 on your calendar for the Hayward Air Rally! The Hayward Air Rally is a precision, timed navigation exercise where pilots are given a desired course to navigate and the pilots simply predict the time over a specific target and their estimated fuel burn. Then, all they have to do is to go fly their plan. Sounds easy, doesn't it? Well, for some, it is, but for many, it can be very challenging. At the end, there is a party in a party town. There are two classes of participation: The 'Traditional Class' (analog gauges only; nothing digital is used) and the 'Digital Class' where any tools that might be available can be used. All players compete for the same prizes. The scoring rules are slightly different between the classes to offset the advantages provided by the Digital Class.

The race is conducted on Friday, May 18, 2007 and there are two legs, one from Hayward to Bakersfield, and the second from Bakersfield to Palm Springs. There is a banquet on Saturday, 19 May and on Sunday, everyone flies home.

They provide a block reservation at a local hotel (1/2 price discount!) and have selected a cool banquet site. Pilots and guests must make their own hotel reservations, but also need to indicate that they are with the Air Rally to get the discount. In addition, they have discount tickets for the Air Museum, Tram ride and offer a nice golf game with discounted green fees on Saturday morning.

There are 20 trophies to hand out to participants (1-15 and related awards), There are money prizes for the first 10 spots and Door Prizes that come from sponsor prizes donated from WVFC and a great many others. For more information or to register go to www.haywardairrally.org or e-mail them at info@haywardairrally.org. This is an event not to be missed!

Over the next few weeks we will be doing some remodeling at the PAO location, please excuse our mess while we work hard to provide you with the best facility possible!

Filing IFR: Before I get into my latest IFR checkride adventure, I want to mention instrument students filing IFR flight plans with Air Traffic Control.

The pilot's name (field 14) on the plan should be the pilot in command of the proposed IFR flight. FAR Part 61.3(e) tells us that a person cannot operate a civil airplane or helicopter under IFR unless that person holds an instrument rating or an Airline Transport Certificate.

Therefore, I believe the name in field 14 of the flight plan needs to be an appropriately rated person. It should not be the pilot who has not yet received the instrument rating. The flight plan should show the Flight Instructor as pilot.

Checkride into Known Icing: Today I was to continue the checkride of an Instrument Pilot applicant. The checkride had been discontinued a week and a half ago because of low ceilings.

The weather had not been below IFR minimums. However, examiners are discouraged from acting as PIC for reasons of liability. Also I do not like to fly in an unfamiliar airplane with unfamiliar avionics with an unfamiliar applicant recommended by an unfamiliar instructor in clouds. So we had discontinued the checkride due to weather.

Now the applicant returned to hopefully complete the ride. We had decided we would fly approaches into Salinas and Watsonville. Our departure airport was Reid-Hillview.

I asked him if the weather was OK for an IFR flight from Reid-Hillview to Watsonville. He said, based on a check he had made earlier, that he thought it would be OK.

My office at Reid-Hillview has a computer with DSL and a telephone. I asked if the weather was still OK. The applicant elected not to call FSS. Instead he took the computer keyboard and logged into DUATS. He plugged in the airports and departure time and requested a standard weather briefing.

The computer printed 18 pages of information. He scrolled through the information. Nodding his head, he confirmed that the weather was and would be OK for an IFR flight to Watsonville. I asked him how high we would need to fly in order to get there IFR. At first, he said we could make it at 4,000 feet. After some discussion, he allowed that ATC would probably climb us up to 7,000.

I asked whether we would need to penetrate clouds that had stacked up this side of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The ceiling at Reid-Hillview was 3,500 broken. At Watsonville, the ceiling was 3,400 overcast. At Salinas it was 3,200 broken. The forecast for Salinas was 3,000 feet broken. He said cloud penetration would be required, but the ceilings were well above IFR minimums, so that was not a problem.

The winds aloft forecast for SFO, SAC and FAT all showed westerly winds about 20 knots and temperature -6 at 6,000 feet.

There was an AIRMET that was valid for the time of our proposed flight that forecast icing between freezing level and 14,000 feet for California and coastal waters
From 40 miles south-southwest of Mustang
to 30 miles west-southwest of Las Vegas
to 60 miles west of Mission Bay
to 90 miles west of San Marcus
to 30 miles southwest of Oakland to 40 miles southwest of Mustang.

I asked for a final weather decision. His final weather decision was "OK" for IFR.

After I gave him the news that he was not going to pass the test today, I asked him whether he knew that we were not allowed to fly into known icing conditions in the Cessna 172 that was to be flown. He said he knew that; but that the AIRMET had not shown any danger of icing where we were going.

He had interpreted the AIRMET to say that the danger of icing was only at points near Mustang, Las Vegas, Mission Bay, San Marcus and Oakland.

After handing him his Notice of Disapproval, I photocopied the "In Flight Weather Advisory Reference Locations" map out of my Jeppesen Airway Manual. I showed him how to connect the dots and fill in the enclosed space.

Of course that is not enough. He should have connected other dots in his mind. There was snow on the nearby mountains down to 2,500 feet. There were cloud layers we would penetrate. The forecast temperature was 6 degrees below freezing at 6,000 feet. There was a telephone he could have used to have a real person explain the icing conditions.

The scariest thing was that I had previously believed his knowledge of weather was adequate, based on the earlier incomplete test.

The DPE can not test every bit of knowledge, understanding and correlative ability. The Flight Instructor signs the application and log book and states that the applicant is prepared for the test.

Was this applicant prepared to fly IFR?

I don't drink coffee. I took one sip in college and knew I would never acquire a taste for it, and have never tried again.

So I attempt (with varying degrees of success) to hit the deck running in the morning without the stuff.

On the other hand, if I want to get my blood pumping, the smell of Jet A burning will get me going. Until now, that has meant either a Pilatus or the occasional (not often enough) Citation flight. Someday, WVFC will have a Meridian or some other turboprop on line, but until then, we can still burn Jet A in the new Twin Stars that joined our fleet in late December.

These are great planes in which to earn a multi-engine rating, and as a few of our club members are doing, prepare for some of the VLJs. The Twin Star has much of the simplicity of a turbine engine with FADEC (Full Authority Digital Engine Control) engines. This means that two of the normal levers for each engine are missing. There's no mixture control, and there's no prop lever - FADEC does both functions.

Turns out this is good news and bad news. The good news is that the whole thing is easier to fly than many other twins because of a significantly reduced work-load. But that's pretty typical of turbines, too. In most cases, e.g., the Pilatus, the plane is actually easier to fly than a piston single of similar complexity. The bad news is mostly that from an instructor's point of view, the normal, time-honored methods of killing engines during takeoff rolls or en route don't work.

Normally, we pull a mixture lever during a takeoff roll (especially if a student fails to do a proper takeoff brief), but that option doesn't exit, since there is no mixture lever to pull. Pulling the throttle when the student is holding it doesn't result in a surprise. And reaching all the way across the cockpit to turn off the engine master lacks subtlety, as well as being a somewhat more permanent power failure that we usually want to induce.

My favorite method of en route power failure also doesn't work. In other planes I like putting one of the fuel selectors in the OFF position, and then looking really innocent (or at least TRYING to look innocent) when the engine quits about 10 to 15 seconds later. As an aside, one of only two times I've been scared in airplanes occurred in one of these scenarios. I was flying with a guy who was trying to become a Multi-Engine Instructor, and I stupidly missed a couple of important clues. He had gone through four instructors during the prior week, but it never occurred to me that there might actually be a reason for that. Anyway, on our first (and only) flight, I was doing an assessment of where he was and what he needed to work on, and as he finished the first of two steep turns, I surreptitiously thumbed the right fuel control to OFF, and was doing the nonchalant/innocent thing as I asked for a demo of slow flight as he came out of the second steep turn. He brought the power back, slowed down, got the gear and flaps down, and brought the power in to hold altitude. Like clockwork, the right engine quit just as he brought the power up. Now, the drill is supposed to be FORWARD, FORWARD, FORWARD (Mixture, Prop, Throttle), UP, UP (Flaps, Gear), Identify (the dead engine), Verify (the dead engine), and Feather (the dead engine). My student skipped steps one through seven and feathered the Left engine. So we had one engine with no fuel and the other batting air sideways, and my heart pumping straight adrenalin as I calmly said, "I've got it". But I digress.

That method doesn't work in the Twin Star. Actually it would, but a shutdown by using the fuel selector blows the high-pressure pump, and that means a bill of about $10,000. A pretty expensive flight.

Instructors, being sneaky sorts, have risen to the challenge and have figured out how to initiate these failures, and at the most inconvenient times.

In addition to the FADEC, the Twin Star has the Garmin 1000 displays which is another way to prepare for the VLJs. Not that they have Garmin 1000s, but the PFD/MFD concept has been incorporated into nearly all of them in one form or another. These differences, as well as the turbocharged diesel engine are the reason the checkout for the Twin Star (if you're already multi-engine rated) is much heavier on systems, Garmin/Autopilot functions, and on the diesel than on flying. The typical ratio of ground to flight during the checkout is about three or four to one.

Beyond that, the Twin Star is fun to fly, it's easy to take off and land, intuitive in pitch, well balanced in its control pressures and displacement, responsive, and comfortable. And it burns about 13 gallons per hour. Total, not 13 GPH per side.

And I can get my fix of burning Jet A. Of course, it may just be that burning Jet A smells good only in comparison to the unburned stuff (which you REALLY don't want to get on you before closing the canopy).

In February, we added a low time 2004 Cessna 206 Turbo Stationair to the line at PAO. N615KE is equipped with the Garmin 1000 (including traffic information, terrain, XM Aviator weather and entertainment), 6-place built-in oxygen, Reiff engine heater, heated prop and Flint Aero auxiliary tip tanks. It's a load hauling SUV with 27,000 foot service ceiling, sea level power up to 17,000 feet, 163 knot max cruise, and the ability to carry 1,000 pounds of people and baggage after fueling to the tabs (64 gallons or 3 hrs with reserves). Even with full fuel of 116 gallons, you can fly with four 170 pounders in the seats. It's a comfortable airplane with range for vacation trips all over the West, including Alaska.

My son and I picked up the aircraft in Denver last month on Super Bowl weekend. Because of winter storms over the Rockies, we opted for the southern route. The first leg started with an 8:30AM IFR departure from Jeffco Field, where the temperature was a breezy -16°C. Snowy low clouds over Denver gave way to clear skies near Colorado Springs and fabulous views of Pikes Peak and the snow covered Rockies in northern New Mexico. It only took two hours and 15 minutes of cruising along at 65% power at 15,000 feet (with a 40 knot tailwind!), to get down to Albuquerque. Bode Aero at Double Eagle II airport (AEG) has a nice FBO operation. They came right out and filled the plane.

We were airborne within 30 minutes of landing. The next leg took us over the extinct volcanoes and huge mesas of New Mexico to the high desert of Arizona, where we arrived in Sedona by 1:00PM for lunch. Landing at SEZ was an amazing visual treat. The airport is located in the center of a valley, on top of a mesa. It's surrounded on three sides by red rock walls and wind sculpted spires that look like those of the Grand Canyon. They call the airport USS Sedona because it's like landing on an aircraft carrier. Well,... not exactly like a carrier- at a mile long, the SEZ runway is just a bit longer than a carrier deck. We stayed in that great fly-in town overnight to enjoy the amenities and to see one of those incredible sunsets you only experience in the desert.

The next day, we left Sedona on a picture perfect VFR day at 10:30AM. One tank of gas got us all the way back to Palo Alto, including an overflight of the Grand Canyon and Lake Mead, over the top of the Las Vegas Class Bravo and then up the Owens Valley to Bishop. The Pacific Crest was gorgeous! We crossed the Sierras at Luther Pass and Highway 50 and landed at University Field (now going by KEDU instead of O05) to drop Bret off at UC Davis, where he is a sophomore. I saddled up for the short flight home and still had 27 gallons of $3.52/gal of Sedona avgas in the tank upon arrival at PAO.

It was a great 1,200 mile trip spread out easily over a Saturday and Sunday and we even got home in time to see the Super Bowl! There is a special checkout rate of $215/hour, so sign up now with an instructor and add this CT206 to your options of Garmin-equipped Cessnas to enjoy on getaways weekends.

While doing pattern work, if you can't remember what all to set or reset right before takeoff, and after you land and stop on the taxiway, here is an acronym I came up with to help you. For those of you who were around in the 50s and remember the Lucky Strike Tobacco famous advertising slogan: "Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco", or abbreviated: LSMFT, you can use it as follows:

L = Lights on/off
S = Standby or Altitude setting for the transponder
M = Mixture setting for taxi or takeoff
F = Flaps and Fuel pump on/off
T = Trim reset to neutral

I prefer this over "Lights, Camera, Action" which is mainly for pre-takeoff, and only covers three of the six items, plus you have to remember what camera and action refers to. There is also GUMPS for Gas, Undercarriage (landing gear), Mixture, Prop, Switches; but this is mainly for pre-landing.

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

Starting over with Session 1 on 01 March 2007. Flyer and Schedule available at PAO front desk.

April 2, 9 and 16 from 6:30 pm to 9:30 pm. Are you wanting to checkout in the new Diamond Twin Stars? Wondering what FADEC is really all about? Join this 3-night ground school to help you learn all about this great new twin! The ground school will cover all systems in detail, the G1000 and prepare you for your training. On the last evening of the ground school we will also review the Multi-Engine Ground Review Form so you are ready to start training! Cost for the course is $250 per attendee. Required text: reproduced DA42 POH/checklist available from Shannon Doyle (shannon@wvfc.org) for $50. April 2, 9 and 16 from 6:30 pm to 9:30 pm. To sign up for the ground school, contact Torea Rodriguez by March 26 at taildraggerflying@gmail.com.

The Santa Clara Valley 99s annual Pasta Night is taking place soon. This is our major fund-raising raffle, from which a significant portion of its proceeds support our annual donation to the Flying Twenty, a non-profit organization, to benefit the young pilots of the San Jose State Precision Flight Team. Please join us at the Santa Clara Elks Lodge March 15th @ 6pm . RSVP w/Mayetta Behringer at 408-264-0229 or mjbfly99@comcast.net http://www.santaclaravalley99s.org/fun/pastanight.html for more details.