Happy new year to everyone at WVFC.

One of the things we are looking at for next year is being able to offer carbon credits through West Valley Flying Club.

"Carbon offsetting is the act of mitigating ("offsetting") greenhouse gas emissions. A well-known example is the purchasing of offsets to compensate for the greenhouse gas emissions from personal air travel." (Wikipedia.com). I look at it almost like a self imposed tax, where the money is specifically earmarked for "green" projects such as green energy development, re-forestation, etc.,

This could take on many manifestations, from something as simple as creating a web page and portal through the WVFC site that would allow members to purchase carbon off-sets for whatever flight they may take, to actually enrolling the aircraft and club into a carbon neutral program. On one side you have more of a voluntary program, and at the other extreme you have a mandatory enrollment which would create an almost certain rate increase to the aircraft and membership to create capital necessary to purchase the carbon off-sets. There is also the option, of course, to do nothing at all. In the grand scheme of things, small plane General Aviation use of fuel and therefore their by-products really do not amount to much in terms of carbon output, however there are a couple of trains of thought;

1. Every little bit we can do helps.
2. It goes a long way toward showing that, in fact, the airport can be and is a good neighbor.
3. The good will of being a green business.

Happy New Year Everyone! We had a fun party at the Club to kick off the holiday season. Thanks to everyone who came out to make the party a great one.

TERRY MILLER AWARDED CFI OF THE YEAR 2007
Each year the Chief Pilot is tasked to select the CFI of the Year. When I made my selection for CFI of the year 2007 I was looking for the following characteristics:

• A CFI who had made a long time commitment to service at WVFC.
• A CFI who exhibits the ability to honestly critique and evaluate his clients, as well as himself.
• A CFI whose career has conferred honor and respect to the profession of flight instruction.
• A CFI who meets his clients where they are.
• A CFI who leads by example and is an ambassador of safety.
• A CFI who is a mentor and leader for other CFIs, i.e. A CFI's CFI.
• A CFI who never stops learning.

Hello Members,

First things first, congratulations are in order for one of our own CFIs; Max Trescott, who has won the FAA's regional award for CFI of the year and is in the running for the national award. In other news; 2008 brings us at least two safety seminars per month, on the second and third Wednesday of every month, all of which should be eligible for Wings credit through the new Wings program. For the month of January we have two opportunities to attend a seminar on the topic of FSDO Regulations and Updates to FARs with Jason Miller, on January 9 at our Palo Alto location or on January 16 at our San Carlos location. Coming up in February we will have seminars on the topics of Mid-Air Collisions and Flight Service Stations. If anyone would like more information on the new wings program or to set up a profile for receiving credit toward your BFR, please visit http://www.faasafety.gov/. For anyone working on their Private Pilots license, new ground schools have begun in San Carlos and in Palo Alto. Speak to the Front Desk for more information. Last of all, if you have old training materials, books, DVDs, videos etc. that you no longer wish to hold onto, remember that you can donate them to the West Valley library at any time, for much appreciation from all of the new students using them for their training here. I hope everyone is enjoying 2008 so far; in the event of boredom, check out the West Valley calendar. Thanks for reading.

First, I will clarify a paperwork issue that exists. Please do not use the condition report or squawk sheet for the purpose of pointing out that the previous user left the plane in a less than stellar condition. Examples would include, pitot cover off, aircraft left uncovered, garbage left in aircraft. This type of information or any improper use of the aircraft by another member should be written out on a member observation sheet. These sheets then go to the Chief Pilot's Office, where Lucy will take the time to call or email the member in regards to their improper usage of the plane. If the issue is repeated or a significant safety issue occurs, the pilot will be grounded until further education can take place.

Overall, try not to give the diagnosis unless it is an obvious one. For example, there were quite a few squawks where the item was stated INOP without giving any indication of what was wrong. If the discrepancy is something like a light, it is easy enough to say it is not working. If it is a system with multiple functions like an auto-pilot or a flight instrument, please give the issues existing with the system rather than the diagnosis. For example, "heading indicator is precessing x degrees every x minutes, or DG knob does not turn compass card," not "heading indicator INOP." On the topic of Heading Indicators, several reports were made stating that the magnetic compass was off x number of degrees based on the Runway heading. The runway designation is rounded to the nearest 10 degree heading (i.e. a Runway on a 314 degree heading will be designated as Runway 31) and the local magnetic variation over time can change. The FAA's tolerance on the aircraft's magnetic heading indicator is +/- 10 degrees (per FAR 23.1327), therefore, the difference between the compass and the runway could be 15 degrees or more. Also, the aircraft alignment on the runway must be exact. When a compass swing is performed, the technician carefully and precisely aligns the aircraft tail and nose, while outside the aircraft, on the designated airport compass rose to calibrate the magnetic compass, making any necessary adjustments to the compass. Using the runway designation as a rule of thumb to verify compass settings and proper runway is a useful check; however, it is not a precise one to determine compass accuracy.

There were several systems marked as INOP by the pilot which worked for a maintenance tech. I would say more than likely this occurs due to the fact that systems are not being tested properly or possibly the problem is intermittent. There were a lot of lights reported out that worked when tested by a mechanic. Possibly the wrong switch is being used or if turned on, the system improperly used. My suggestion, as always, is to go back to the POH to verify proper operation and also verify a second time. Speaking of following the POH...

Procedure/ procedure/ procedure.., Most recently we had one of the Diamond twins grounded for an issue with the emergency gear extension. In order to document an appropriate test by MX, the aircraft was put up on jacks and a couple of hours spent testing the gear. It turned out the pilots did not use the proper procedure to extend the gear, and the gear worked correctly when the appropriate procedure was used. This was a case of negative transference as the procedure the pilots used was what you would expect in most aircraft, however not for the Diamond Twinstars. Following the correct process from the POH would have alleviated any confusion.

We tend to get a certain number of squawks on slipping seats in various aircraft. Most common are reports in the Cessnas, even though the locking mechanisms for the seats are similar in most aircraft. The older C152's and 172's with vertical locking pins are required to come in for a seat track and seat locking pin inspection every 100 hours. For the AD to be accomplished, the dimensions of the locking hole are measured and need to be within tolerances, the seats overall functionality checked, and the rails inspected for cracks. This inspection takes place on average every two months. All aircraft seat functionality are inspected; however, none are more rigorously inspected than the Cessna which makes it funny that they are squawked the most. Make sure that prior to starting the aircraft the seat is fully locked; this may require actually getting out of the aircraft and visually confirming that the pins are fully engaged. In all seat installations there will be some sort of locking device. In the case of the C152'S and 172's the pilot must pull up a lever to unlock the seat, hence that same lever must be all the way down for the pins to be fully engaged. Done properly, the seat will not slip. Making sure that you are not forcing the locking lever into place, but that it is freely locking into place is important. Also it is important to know that various aircraft come with various thickness of carpet, or the carpet can come up and block the free movement of the seat. This may fool the pilot into believing that the seat is locked when in fact it is not; always verify. I personally always view the Citabrias front seat prior to getting inside the aircraft to make sure the seat is fully locked into position. In some low-wing planes with one door for all passengers, a visual seat lock check may be an impossible process, a positive verification by checking the seat lever is fully engaged and down while seated should be performed. Remember, always check that the seat is in the fully locked position prior to starting any aircraft.

Also remember that every time we send a tech out it costs someone time and money. Usually the club bites the bullet by not charging the owner. This turns around and causes the mx rates to go up to compensate for the loss, which then gets reflected in the rate of the owner charges for the plane. Again, it is not the motivation of the club to keep people from squawking the planes when they have issues, but to eliminate wasted time chasing down issues that do not exist. Focusing the maintenance department's concentration on airworthiness issues which actually exist will only increase the safety of the planes and the knowledge of our pilots and keep us all performing to our highest levels.

If you have any questions please feel free to email maintenance@wvfc.org

We've all heard the Boy Who Cried Wolf story, but it gets even more interesting if we make a small change to it and tell it in what some folks consider to be the original form.

The boy is guarding part of the flock of sheep and sees a wolf approaching. Being a conscientious kid he calls, "Wolf! Wolf! There's a wolf coming!"

The other shepherds start heading over to where he is. The wolf sees them approaching and slips off into the underbrush before they see him.

This happens a few more times with less and less enthusiastic response from the other shepherds until finally, when the boy cries, "Wolf! Wolf! There's a wolf coming!" they don't respond, and the boy is killed and the sheep eaten.

At this point, you're probably wondering either 1) how this applies to flying, or 2) whether Dave has lost his mind.

The weather briefings we get tell us about in-flight hazards through SIGMETS and AIRMETS for such things as icing, turbulence, IFR and mountain obscuration. Partly because of where we live, and partly because the weather folks are being conservative (some would say covering their own empennages) what we routinely experience is less than was forecast. Moderate turbulence turns out to be light, icing conditions don't develop, and the ceiling and visibility turn out to be better than forecast. Then, like the other shepherds, we start paying them less attention. It's not that we disbelieve them; it's just that we start interpreting them in the light of our previous experience. We start venturing out into conditions we wouldn't have considered flying in a hundred or so hours earlier in our flying careers.

Then one day the wolf shows up.

The worst flight of my greater than 10,000 hour career was an otherwise simple flight from Livermore to Palo Alto. It started as a long cross country for a student's instrument rating - PAO to TRK (some mountain work) to MOD and back to PAO. As we were going past ALTAM intersection near the Altamont pass, I looked back to see the Coastal Range obscured by dark clouds and rain. The forecast had called for a cold front to come in that evening and the briefings and satellite coverage had shown all the bad stuff well off shore, so we'd decided to go. Looking back at the weather, we decided to see if we could beat the storm into PAO, and as we approached SUNOL, realized we wouldn't be able to. We landed at Livermore, and as we were tying the plane down, the storm hit. It was HEAVY rain that was coming in horizontally. By the time we had the plane tied down, we were drowned-rat drenched.

Three hours later, the winds had passed (on the surface, as it turns out), and the Oakland FSS folks said that the worst had passed.

It was still raining, but not like it had been, and the wind at LVK was about 10 knots - dead calm compared to a couple of hours earlier, so we filed for PAO. Two minutes after takeoff, we were in the clouds, and two minutes after that the conditions were beyond what my student could handle. Another two minutes and the conditions were worse that I could handle. I called Bay Approach (as it was then) and asked for a block altitude, since I couldn't hold altitude within the nearest thousand feet.

Have you ever been in SEVERE turbulence?

You can't control the airplane. We had full power and were going down over a thousand foot per minute. Power to idle and up 1500 foot per minute. We were getting kicked off heading by 50 degrees by the gusts, and recovering from unintentional 60 degree banks was the norm. And the rain was hitting the plane so hard it sounded like being in a barn during a hailstorm.

The Archer was logging 35 knots across the ground. It took 45 minutes to make the flight from LVK to PAO, and I know for a fact that I burned as much adrenalin as the Archer burned 100 LL.

The moral of the wolf story gets changed under the new scenario: The wolf was always there, even if you didn't see it.

In aviation terms: You're better off being on the ground wishing we were in the air, than being in the air wishing you were on the ground.

The Private Pilot Ground School at WVFC / Palo Alto begins again on Thursday, 03 January 2008, and thereafter, we meet every Thursday for all of January and February. In March, we start all over again. Details are posted on the bulletin boards and also available by email. ( Kypta@sbcglobal.net )

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