As the weather continues to be beautiful and people begin to make their spring and summer flying plans, I would like to encourage all members, and especially those who have not flown much over the winter and early spring to take some time to refresh their aviation knowledge and get current before they “take-off” on their flying adventures. The bulk of our fleet still allows for a 90 day currency which is consistent with that of the FAA. This means most pilots can stay current within the system by flying 4 times a year. Unfortunately, this also means that we are also not thinking much about aviation the rest of the year, hence our skills, knowledge and general aviation mindset start to deteriorate with the lapse in time. So how do we keep our head in the game and our skills current?

First, I would recommend spending some time trolling the calendar and make a commitment to go to more than one safety seminar or skills clinic each year. The club offers these to our members free of charge and they include many beneficial subject areas. Whether or not you participate in the wings programs, the fact is that it’s a great “free” way to keep your mind and thought processes in and around aviation.

Second, create a proficiency schedule for yourself and stick to it. Post getting my pilot’s license I created a flight schedule which consisted of training and maneuver flights as well a regular schedule of pleasure flights which consisted of flights outside of the Bay Area to keep my flight and performance planning as well as FSS and flight following skills up to date. From time to time the flights got cancelled due to WX, me, or some other outside influence however, starting with that base schedule and sticking to it kept my skills current and my experience evolving.

Third, don’t wait for a BFR or a lack of currency to get you to throw a CFI in the right seat and work on skills. The good news is that flying skills deteriorate slowly and come back quickly. Find a new CFI or your trusted long-term mate and work on a particular skill or skill set. Focus on spot landings, go-arounds, making go/no-go decisions, take off performance, cross country flight planning, or some other new or less used skill set. I know that most of us dread having our flight skills assessed, but I feel this falls in the category of an ounce of prevention being better than a pound of cure.

We all get into flying because it is fun and exciting it takes us to a place where we connect with our dreams and our freedoms. It’s also a sport/hobby that needs to be taken seriously and treated with care and respect. Remember the old saying… safety is no accident.

I would like to draw special attention to the chief pilot’s article this month. We are going to move forward with some changes in our outbound information chain in aircraft incident and accident investigations. The hope will be to create a more positive and proactive learning environment for our members. Nine times out of ten it is we as pilots who are directly responsible for bending and/or completely breaking an aircraft. This may seem astonishing however, outside influences such as birds, WX, mechanical or other non-pilot related factors account for less than 10% of the club’s incidents. The cure is to recognize this fact and as pilots make flight safety a #1 priority. Make diligence and prudent conservative decision making a way of life, and not the exception. Every accident pilot interviewed starts out with some sort of commentary like, “if I had just…,” or “what was I thinking..,” or “I thought I could.” Don’t be one of these pilots.

The board elections are coming up in June. For details on the process and an overview of the schedule please see the elections central website at www.wvfc.org/mem/v/election.html. I would encourage those who have a serious interest in spending time helping create strategic direction for the club, to run. Becoming a board member is a great way to participate and it is a good experience. If you have one particular agenda item, then I would suggest forwarding that item to the existing board rather than going through the entire elections process. For anyone who is interested, I would be more than willing to make time to go over current strategic plans, an overview of the history, and review significant board history to give potential new members some insight to the inner workings.

Finally, I would take just a moment to remember two who were both significant contributors and friends to WVFC, Greg Labrec and Ned Snyder. Greg passed away last month due to complications with leukemia. For those of you who only saw the name of webmaster@wvfc.org, Greg was the man behind the alias, and the father of the wvfc.org website. His efforts put WVFC on the internet roadmap and created a forum, a user community like no others at the time. Whether you were a fan of the site’s uniqueness or not, it remains a huge factor in the club’s growth and access to a broader user community. Greg’s efforts often went unrecognized outside of a few, and were repaid only by a monthly credit of his member dues. I cannot possibly express in words how much it meant to this club and to me. He did it merely for the love of the club and his love for aviation. He was amazing to work with, quick to the point, easy to find a working solution, and never once made me feel that the club’s requirements were an imposition or a bu

My first interactions with Ned were always on the phone. At the time Ned worked the front desk, Cassi was a dial up service and I had nothing to dial up with. In spite of my many requests and constantly nervous changing of the schedule, Ned was always calm, fun and cheerful. When I showed up for my private checkride freaking out and realized I had no foggles Ned gave me his trademark laugh and lent me his. Later, when he became a CFI, we did a few aircraft checkouts and my BFR. Ned just made the flying fun. I cannot stop thinking about his laugh and his complete willingness to smile and enjoy the moment. His loss is to his family, friends and the flying community comes with great sadness.

Thanks for your time, stay safe.

Josh

On April 18, Ned Snyder suffered a fatal accident in the hills near Cherry Lake, California. Ned had earned his wings in 1989, and then joined West Valley Flying Club in 1990. He worked as the front desk supervisor in PAO, until attaining a CFI rating. He taught the next few years before finally leaving to pursue an airline career. His big heart, integrity and infectious smile made him a deeply loved and admired member of the West Valley community. Ned left his hard-earned seniority at Skywest last November to pursue his real dream job... owner and operator of Norcal Aviation, Seaplane Ventures, Inc. The pay wasn't very good but Ned was like a kid at Christmas--he had never been happier. He leaves behind his amazing wife Vicki, and their son Shaan. Also left grieving are his father Jerry, mother Bobbie, and two older sisters, Wendy and Nancy. His legacy will live on, through countless stories, from the hundreds of lives he touched.

Norcal Aviation shirts, bottles, stickers, and DVD's are available at the front desk at PAO. All proceeds will go to benefit the Shaan Snyder Scholarship Fund, and to keep the doors at Norcal Aviation open for the time being. Ned will be eternally missed, and all that can be done to support his widow, Vicki, and 2 year old son, Shaan, is greatly appreciated. If people are interested in contributing, checks can be made out to "Fidelity 529" and in the memo section, put, "FBO Shaan Snyder," and yes, it is spelled with two a's (Shaan). They can then be mailed to his Wife, Vicki Snyder, at 5605 Laguna Oaks Drive, Elk Grove, CA 95758 More information can be found on Ned's Blog; http://nedsnyderlives.blogspot.com/2008/04/scholarship-fund-for-shaan-snyder.html

Flying an airplane isn’t rocket science or brain surgery. Most humans with average intelligence can do it. The core foundation skills - fine and gross motor skills, problem solving, the understanding and use of language, effective human interaction and communication - were developed at a very tender age. When a student pilot presents himself to a flight instructor, the CFI can easily assess these skill sets. Early on, the CFI gains a limited sense of the “raw material” he has to work with.

Other early childhood development skills such as self-control and self-awareness are less obvious and can prove to be inconsistent. Heap onto that the task of understanding how a student perceives his environment, how he makes judgments and decisions, and understanding how the student learns, and you can see that the CFI really has his work cut out for him. This dissection of the student’s mental workings, actions and inactions needs to be done by the CFI in concert with the student during training. Once the training is complete, the student needs to keep up the analysis.

Being a safe, and thus hopefully successful, pilot is almost 100% about head work, all about what is happening in that lovely noodle of yours. To be sure, we can be unpredictable creatures, but habit and routine can be helpful in some situations, such as flying. Predictability in the flight environment is considered a good thing.

We have all heard of the accident chain. Now think about it, what does that really mean? Would you notice if you were linking together the chain of an accident? How would you know? What are obvious factors and what are some more subtle ones? I suggest you jot down quick list of your own. Here are some ideas:

• An experienced pilot on an unknown route, over high terrain at night.
• Distractions. For example, passengers. They have needs, both physiological and psychological.
• Flying a new type of airplane.
• A pilot who is not physically or emotionally up to par but lies to herself, “I feel good enough to go.”¯ Be aware, no one can lie to you better than yourself.
• A pilot who doesn’t consider the IMSAFE checklist.
• Unfamiliar terrain features.
• Unfamiliar airport. Is the pilot prepared for the unfamiliar visual cues?
• A pilot skips doing the performance and landing calculations or getting a weather briefing.
• Complacency. A pilot tells himself, “I’ve done this many times before.”¯
• A pilot has the, “Hey watch me! Watch this cool thing I think I can do with this airplane” attitude. In other words the hot-dogging or show-off syndrome.
• “I bet I can make this airplane _________ (you fill in the blank).”¯ Some examples might be “take-off just a little bit over loaded,”¯ or “roll… it isn’t certified for aerobatics, but it sure is well built.”

Heat warning; Please be careful in with the coming heat spells. Whether you are flying in an air-cooled engine or one of the new fancy liquid cooled engines, please be mindful of the outside temps and be kind to your engines. Try to stage climb instead of a full out accent, minimize slow flight times, and ground runs, and always be mindful of the gauges and what they are telling you.

Additionally, for all operations, cruising, approach aircraft are designed to operate optimally in standard weather conditions. Variation in the outside conditions to anything other than standard wx, the pilot will need to adjust the engine operation, starting procedure, taxiing procedure., etc. for the conditions that exist at that time. This could mean more or less prime, leaning or enriching the mixture, extending or shortening the engine warm-up time. Always try to be aware of what the engine and aircraft are telling you.

Please consult your operating handbook for take-off, landing, and climb performance.

Speaking of the POH please be sure to consult normal operating procedures prior to squawking an aircraft. We are seeing a spike in false squawks, a large number seem to stem from a lack of knowledge in how to operate specific equipment. Please vet as much of the issue as you can prior to squawking the aircraft.

Be Green, please note that there really is no advantage to running an aircraft with all of the lights on, in the middle of the day while on the ground. We continue to see aircraft idling in the tie-down, on the taxi-way with all of the lights on. Think about it in these terms Normal lights run about 40 hours and then there done, they are not recyclable and get thrown away. If we eat up there time when they are not needed we are just adding to our local waste. From a cost perspective light replacements run about $100 - $250 pre light, labor and parts. These costs add to the cost of the aircraft.

Enjoy the flying weather; just remember how it can affect aircraft performance.

Hello Members,

First and foremost, members, please note that West Valley maintenance tracks oil consumption for all club planes and that it is not necessary to observe in the key book the addition of oil. Please understand that it will help to lessen the workload if you do not note the addition of oil on the aircraft observation page your help with this issue is greatly appreciated.

In more entertaining news: The time for civilian space travel has come the rollout of VirginMotherShip "Eve" has been announced. This milestone event will be held July 28 and only confirmed passengers will be invited to attend this historic event. West Valley will be trying to setup a seminar with details on this monumental event - keep an eye out for more to come. Anyone who has been waiting for an instrument ground school, your time has come we plan to begin a new series in the beginning of June with John Otte, who will deliver a innovative new system for teaching the Instrument Pilot syllabus and more than just what is required for your test. The class will be held in Palo Alto on Tuesday nights. We will have a definite start date for you in the weeks to come.

Weather permitting, Hawaiian Fridays in San Carlos will be going on every other Friday. This month if the winds aren’t too bad we plan to BBQ the 9th and 23rd so stop by for a burger and a lei after your flight. We’ll light the barbecue around 4:00. As summer comes around we will be having more BBQs at the different locations if anyone would like to volunteer to help out with these, please send me an email, it would be much appreciated by all of the membership, I’m sure.

Coming up in San Carlos is the Hiller Vertical Challenge on June 21st. With a private member party and quite the view from our office, it is sure to be a great time for all. More details to come, check the calendar for updates.

The final days to sign up for the trip through Colorado are here, June 11th - 15th 5 days of flying, 6 States, with limited space sign up while you still can! Trip includes a full mountain checkout & high performance endorsement in Cessna 182’s with an option to go in a retractable gear with 2 students and 1 CFI to each aircraft. Itinerary includes: Cheyenne, Wyoming Glenwood Springs, Colorado Moab, Utah Santa Fe, New Mexico and Sedona, Arizona to relax then pick up to head back to West Valley. Approximately $3500 for everything except for meals. There will be two seminars on mountain flying safety for anyone who will be attending the trip a seminar open to the public will be given in Petaluma by Sparky Imeson Author of the “Mountain Flying Bible,” Saturday, May 17, 2008 - 9:00 a.m. till 4:00 p.m. for $30 per person. A second option given by Scott Stauter will be held in Palo Alto on May 19th at 6:00 pm more details on both seminars available on the West Valley calendar.

The Hayward Air Rally is right around the corner it is not too late to participate. Visit www.hwdairrally.org and join up on the 15th of May for your chance to win some great prizes.

For anyone who has not yet expressed their interest in joining the fine group of pilots heading out to Catalina this June, the 26th - 29th, sign up now with an email to Christine@wvfc.org. Make sure to choose an aircraft and co-pilots. If you have any questions, Logan would love to answer them freeflyguy66@yahoo.com. If you do plan to join the party for this spectacular trip please get in touch with us as soon as possible to assure that you’ll have somewhere to stay as these hotels fill up very quickly!

A little closer on the horizon, Saturday, May 10th will be a day for spins. Andy Geosits has promised to show West Valley members everything they want to know about spins, with a seminar in the Palo Alto classroom from 10am-12pm and demonstrations available thereafter in the 8KCAB, Pitts and Extra. See the calendar for more details. Happening on the same day will be an open house at the Wings of History museum in South County. There will be Pancakes, Tri-tip, Young Eagles flights, Hot air balloons and plenty more where that came from, so stop by if you get a chance.

And on May 17th from 8:00-5:00pm at the PAO WVFC classroom the Santa Clara Valley 99s will be offering their annual Flying Companion Seminar. Details on the subjects covered and information on how to sign up can be found at www.santaclaravalley99s.org/companions . This is for any non-pilot who is interested in being a little more informed. For more details on any of the above, check out the calendar or email your questions anytime, Christine@wvfc.org.

MAY
5/17- 99’s Flight Companion Seminar
5/17- Mountain Flying & Survival Seminar with Sparky Imeson
5/19- Mountain Flying Seminar with Scott Stauter (Colorado Trip)
5/23- Hawaiian Fridays SQL

June
6/11-15 Colorado Trip
6/21- Hiller Vertical Challenge SQL
6/26-29- Catalina Fly-in

Check the Calendar for more Events and Details.

Clear skies and tailwinds. Sometimes we say that as a farewell blessing to pilots who are leaving for a new location or at funerals of our friends who have just died.

And just a brief word about that. As you will have read elsewhere in this newsletter, we have lost Ned Snyder, a long-time member of West Valley and a flight instructor here for several years. We’ve all heard nothing but good things about people who’ve just died, but Ned was the kind of person you only heard good things about while he was alive. He had an infectious smile for everyone, and always had some kind of good news to talk about and he shared gladly in the success of his students and friends.

Back to the topic. We always assume that tailwinds are good things. Certainly, while we’re at altitude and truckin’ along, tailwinds are better than headwinds. We get there sooner, use less fuel, and sometimes are able to eliminate a fuel stop or a pit stop. And there is a certain visceral thrill about seeing ground speeds 50 knots or so faster than normal. I remember a Pilatus trip from Vacaville to Arlington, Texas during which I logged a ground speed of 386 knots (on a true airspeed of about 255). I was hauling empennage just like a jet jockey! Totally ignoring the fact that the jet jocks were probably booking along at about 550 knots ground speed or more.

Despite their benefits at altitude, there are times a tailwind isn’t good, and may actually be very bad. One of those situations is the tailwind takeoff or landing. There are reasons one may want to attempt a tailwind landing - an emergency, for example, or a landing at one of those mountain airfields that is ALWAYS landing one way and taking off the other - either the landing or the takeoff is likely to be with the wind.

So what’s bad about taking off or landing downwind? First, the picture is different, and your judgment factors will be way off. You could make the argument that the higher ground speed during the flare and landing could prepare you for high density altitude operations - which is partly true. However, the approach path for a tailwind landing is nothing like the one for a high density altitude approach (which is the same angle and indicated airspeed as the normal sea level approach, but at a higher true airspeed and therefore higher sink rate). The difference, of course, is that the tailwind descent profile is flatter than the normal one at the same airspeeds and configurations, which could cause the pilot to force the plane down more rapidly than normal to get to the runway.

Clearly, this could be just adding flaps or reducing power early, or even adding a slip to the process, but oddly enough it more often results in pushing the nose down and forgetting all about the “go-around option.” And that results in even higher speeds and LOTS of runway and the occasional prop strike. Worse, your problems aren’t over when you get it onto the ground. Now you have extra energy to dissipate, and the end of the runway is coming up fast. Then at the end of your roll out, you have air flowing the wrong way over your controls - not too bad in a tricycle gear, but potentially pretty messy (can you spell “ground loop”¯?) in a taildragger. In fact, a wheel landing with a tailwind is a near guarantee of a ground loop.

OK, so let’s suppose you don’t like what you see and decide a go-around is in order. If you add full power and raise the nose, you’re potentially going into higher tailwinds and maybe even into winds that shear to higher tailwinds. This can result in nearly instant airspeed loss, and if you’re already slow, you can get into the high drag configuration on the back side of the power curve. And, of course this is happening close to the ground.

If anything qualifies as a bad situation, this certainly does.

So what about the downwind takeoff? By the time you get to normal rotation speeds, you’re romping down the runway at speeds that would earn you a ticket on 280, and you’re steering with your feet. Then you rotate and climb (often too slowly, since your brain is telling you that you’re really fast) and get into the very reverse wind shear situation above.

A story from my friend and MD-11 pilot, Jimmy. During a FedEx line check the wind shifted to give about a ten knot tailwind on the runway Jimmy was holding short of. Figuring that there was sufficient runway (he had done the performance chart check), he considered accepting the tailwind, but then thought better of it, and asked to taxi to the other end of the field (about two miles), which ate up time and a boatload of fuel.