WVFC will be at AOPA. There was no way I could pass up the opportunity to be at this years AOPA conference when it was coming to our own back yard. For those of you that do not know, this years AOPA meeting will be held at the San Jose Convention center from Nov. 6-8th http://www.aopa.org/expo/ The goal is to let people know about WVFC, the diversity of aircraft that we offer, our commitments to the members (the owners) and the fact that they have the worlds largest flying club in their own back yard. If you would like to add your enthusiasm to the booth, please E mail Chrsitine@wvfc.org to volunteer. We will provide free passes to anyone who is willing to represent the club at our booth.

Interesting data we would like to gather: John Felleman is running a survey of flight training experience among members.  The goal is to share learning experiences and get a realistic indication of what is involved with learning to fly in the Bay Area.  The survey is totally voluntary and anonymous.  John will be sharing the results with all members.  Please take a moment to fill out the survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=gIKgTDwHLij7e7Zy4mqb0A_3d_3d  I think this would be extremely important information to gather. From the GM’s perspective I would like to make sure that everyone’s experience here at WVFC is maximized to its fullest potential. If there is anything we can learn from this to help people along in their training process, you can be sure we will.

More mods in Cassi: We have made the MX status board and squawk screens more accessible and easier to use. If you would like to view the status of the aircraft and its MX history, simply click on the N# when you are in the Cassi schedule. This will take you to the MX status of that aircraft (inspection timelines), plus current squawks as well as the entire squawk history. This will open up in a separate window allowing the user to stay with their original schedule request. See example on right -->

We have a few additions to make it both more visible (we will put more data on the schedule to draw peoples attention to it) and to add the actual resolution to the squawk information.

DUATS has come out with a new WX, a flight planning system to rival Jeppesen. And its free, of course until you want all the advanced features. However it still looks like a cool product. Go to; http://www.duats.com/cirrus.shtml to download.    

Finally, I did not get many things to add to the wish list for website overhaul time nor anyone interested in being a part of a focus group. Please let me know if you have any requirements you may need. So far our primary request has been to have more I-pod/mobile device functionality. This is not surprising considering the technology available these days.

Josh

All members are required to read the Club Rules and complete a Rules Quiz prior to gaining full privileges in Club airplanes.  The rules state:

          In order to act as pilot-in-command of a particular Club aircraft, a member must log at least one full hour of flight time and make at least 3 takeoffs and landings to a full stop in a Club aircraft of the same make and model, or a Club aircraft which the Club has designated as satisfying the currency requirements for that make and model, within the preceding 30, 60 or 90 as outlined in the Club’s Aircraft Currency Matrix.

Please be aware that we do enforce this rule as recent flight experience is a safety of flight issue. Some members will go out of Club currency and then request relief by asking, “May I please have a waiver as I am only one day out of currency.”  My response is generally this, “You are not one day out of currency, you are 91 days out of currency.”

As a rule I don’t like to give waivers, I want to stick to the rules.  The rules are usually right – sound familiar? That is the antidote to the hazardous anti-authority attitude.  Also the Club requires that members stay current in Club airplanes.  The main reason being it is easy to track, no need for staff to audit logbooks in an effort to determine a member’s recent experience.  To a lesser extent it is good for the Club because it keeps our airplanes flying.

AVIATION SAFETY
Over the last four months I have written articles about aviation safety, aviation accidents and accident prevention for the WVFC newsletter. Over the past couple of months several local aviators have been involved in tragic accidents.  We all need to sit up and take notice of these accidents. If you think it won’t happen to you, you are in denial; we are all susceptible.
  
Aviation safety is all about headwork and most accidents can be prevented. Pilots need to constantly assess any given flight. The assessment begins when you get the idea of making a flight and hopefully the assessment won’t end when you finish securing the airplane.  After each flight you will digest the experience and give yourself kudos on things well done and mull over lessons learned. You may promise yourself that you will remember those newly earned nuggets of wisdom.

Recently many of our fellow pilots have shared their thoughts and information on the WVFC BBS regarding recent accidents and aviation safety in general. There were many good resources and thoughtful comments posted there. I suggest you sit down with a cup of coffee and checkout these postings.  Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to respectfully share information and ideas. There is much to chew on.

http://www.wvfc.org/b/viewtopic.php?t=2730
http://www.wvfc.org/b/viewtopic.php?t=2699&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Continuing education is vital to aviation safety. Take time to learn more about your equipment. Converse with other pilots and keep your eyes and ears open for the educational events that will be offered this fall and winter at the Club.  If you’d like to request an educational seminar on a specific topic, please let us know. 

TURBOCHARGED AIRPLANES
We have three new turbo-charged airplanes in the fleet.
Two Cirrus G3s, one with the Avidyne panel and one with the Garmin Prospective panel. 
The other airplane is the fast Mooney Acclaim with the Garmin G1000 and integrated autopilot.
If you meet the minimum requirements as outlined on the Club’s “Aircraft Checkout Summary” you can get checked out in these machines.

If this type of equipment is new for you, here is a chance to meet some new challenges.
You’ll get to learn about turbocharged equipment and high altitude flying as it pertains to physiology, weather and airplane operations.  These are great machines and we are lucky to have them. Have fun and enjoy.

Lucy

The changes that Josh has made to Cassi should really help people out. Now that people can view the MX status of the plane right off the schedule we should all be better informed about what is going on. Again as a quick reminder, when you are looking at the schedule for the aircraft, just click on the N # and you will be able to see not only the MX status for the aircraft, but also if there are any current discrepancies listed as well as the entire squawk history.

Also on squawks: we are going to do some minor changes to the squawk sheet itself to help get more comprehensive data on the issue. In some cases the issues are quite easy to understand, such as; ‘Landing light is out’ and it is out. Other times someone may write something like ‘transponder does not work?’ We will then hook the lane up with our transponder tester and everything works fine. So we send it out. Plane comes back, ‘transponder does not work’. We come to find out after multiple tests that in fact the altitude was reporting incorrectly, which is a slightly different test, and in fact means the encoder is not working but the transponder is fine.

Getting this extra data not only enables us in MX to fix it quicker, it has the potential to lessen a lot of the frustration between the MX department and the aircraft users, particularly when MX is able to get their arms around the issue the first time through.
A clearer squawk could have been, KPAO, KSQL report getting positive return on signal, however reporting +400 ft on altitude, tried to recycle multiple times, still had altitude variance’.

In the current season we are seeing variations in temperature of as much as 30 degrees from one day to the next at your base airport, and/or from flying from one airport to another. Heat changes of 30 degrees can greatly affect the performance of the aircraft.

1. In terms of mixture and idle we will need to adjust it to compensate for a richer mixture as the result of hotter temps. Mixture and idle are set at standard conditions and slightly rich to create a middle of the road baseline and better climb and cooling performance. This means as a practice, adjusting the mixture or throttle position when you are at idle or taxi, doing maneuvers.., etc..,
2. In terms of climb-outs, try and adjust your rate of climb on hotter days. Be sure to closely monitor engine oil temps. There may be instances when you will in fact have to stage the climb, or at least, lessen a FPM to keep the temps down. Additionally, practicing maneuvers like slow flight may require breaks in between to keep engine temps reasonable.

A book I would highly recommend is “Aircraft Engine Operating Guide” by Kas Thomas. This book is really well written in terms of what a pilot should know in order to operate multiple types of aircraft in multiple types of environments. http://www.amazon.com/Lightplane-Maintenance-Aircraft-Engine-Operating/dp/0830624317 It’s a pretty comprehensive book which discusses many of the issues we deal with.

It has been requested and I certainly would like to encourage the idea of doing safety seminars on MX topics. I would like to hear what you guys would like to have seminars on. Please E mail me with your topic ideas at kpinger@wvfc.org  

Finally we have been a bit short staffed yet we are trying to keep up with the workload. We appreciate your patience..   

© 1998, 2008 West Valley Flying Club. All rights reserved.
Reproduction in whole or in part in any form without the express written permission
of an officer of the club is strictly prohibited.