Official Publication of the Airventurers, a Non-Profit Pilot s Association Volume 52, No. 9, Sept

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1 Official Publication of the Airventurers, a Non-Profit Pilot s Association Volume 52, No. 9, Sept Greetings, The Airventurers are sad to hear about our member, Art Wasserman s, airplane accident on August 25 th. We wish him well and hope his injuries will heal quickly. The Camarillo Air Show was successful and I m relieved that it is over. The attendance was large, as usual. There were a few major attractions that were cancelled and I think this took a little spark out of it this year. About 20 Airventurers enjoyed the Rainey s hangar party again this year. We appreciate Barry and Laura inviting us to their hangar party. The Annual picnic was great with a sunny day and a light breeze to keep it cool. There was plenty of good food, good friends, lots of conversation and socializing. A little more than 50 members enjoyed themselves at the picnic. We had a demonstration of some New Zealand native dances. You know, the kind with a lot of chants, grunting, chest thumping, foot stomping, tongue sticking out and thrusting, and face making. It s a type of war dance. I know I didn t want to mess with the dancer. We had approximately 15 members attend the Airventurers board meeting on August 25 th. After an active session we broke for lunch and then afterwards the officers held a nominating committee meeting to select candidates for next year. Some progress was made and it was decided to contact some prospects and hold another meeting in the near future. According to our by-laws, the slate must be published 60 days prior to the annual meeting. Our next dinner meeting will be on September 18 th. The speaker will be Dennis Fandey and he will give a presentation about flying in the Antarctic. We are expecting a large attendance so it is important to RSVP soon so adequate arrangements can be made. We have two excellent fly-ins coming up. On September 14th to 16th, eight members are flying to Canyon De Chelly, Arizona with Ernie and Kris Salmon hosting. It sounds like a lot of fun. Because of a conflicting event Jeanne and I will have to miss this one. The October fly-in will be to Cottonwood, Arizona. A full schedule is planned including a visit with the animals. (the four legged kind) From September 11 th to 17 th Jeanne and I are celebrating our 60 th anniversary with a family re-union at Lake Nacimiento. We have rented a lake house and we will have a couple of boats to play with on the lake. We have had this planned for a long time and we are looking forward to it. Hope we have good weather. Congratulations are in order to Yoni Boujo for earning his IFR rating. We welcome our newest members, Darrell Shy and Luci Galgano. Gunter Seibold and Wally Krause have purchased a new home and will soon be moving a little further away. They will still be active in Airventurers but (Continued on page 2) D i n n e r M e e t i n g T u e s d a y, S e p t. 1 8 t h Va l l e y I n n S h e r m a n O a k s A v e. C o c k t a i l s a t 6 : 0 0 D i n n e r a t 7 : 0 0 C h o i c e o f S e v e r a l E n t r e e s $ 2 8 / p e r s o n PLEASE RSVP ONLINE or mrifkin397@aol.com by Sunday, Sept. 16th The guest speaker will be Dennis Fandey, who will talk about flying in Antarctica This promises to be a sell-out, so RSVP early. If you prefer, you may skip dinner and join us at 8:00 for the program BOARD MEETING Sept. 22nd (non-standard) with a VFR lunch flight to El Monte To reach the editor: judyrifkin1@charter.net we d like to hear what you have to say

2 AIRVENTURERS APPLICANT CHECKLIST DATE APPLICANT SPONSOR FEE DINNER MEETING co-host add l co-host FLY-IN add l 1/10 Bakst Losacco Y Y Y Y 4/12 Adkins Rifkin Y Y Y 4/12 Tabor McMullen Y Y Y Ron Nathanson has a new address: grizlygambler@gmail.com 2012 Fly-Ins (not carved in stone) Jan. 7 Air show at Cable, Cheer Feb. 12 Santa Maria Sunday Brunch, Hultman Mar. 10 Poker Run, Savage Apr Death Valley, Busick & Boujo May San Francisco, Samojen June San Luis Obispo B & B, Korney July Carson City, Rifkin Aug. 11 Club Picnic in Santa Barbara Sept Canyon de Chelly, Salmon Oct. 5-7 Out of Africa, Kirschner (2 nights) (Continued from page 1) we will miss them at some of our meetings. We wish speedy recoveries to all of our members that are under the weather. To Marv Rifkin with his back surgery, Judy Rifkin with her broken leg, Devera Harris with her broken arm, Dave Timms with his surgery, Barry Rainey with his foot surgery, and now Art Wasserman with his very serious injuries. I just realized that maybe belonging to Airventurers might be hazardous to your health. If you are looking for more aviation events to enjoy, you can attend the Catalina Air Show on September 29th-30th. Also the AOPA Summit will be held in Palm Springs on October 11th-13th. Hope you enjoy many happy hours of flying, Nov Mystery Fly-In Dec. 2 Holiday Party Ideas/Suggestions??? Volunteers??? FUNNY THINGS HEARD ON THE RADIO Congratulations to Yoni Boujo on earning his IFR. Best wishes to Art Wasserman for a speedy recovery from his injuries. AIRSPACERS FLYING CLUB MEMBERSHIP FOR SALE - Santa Monica Long time active club member selling full equity club membership. Become an equity partner in our current fleet of Cessna 172 s, 182 and 210. Perfect for student pilots, experienced renters or past owners. Tell your friends! Priced for immediate sale! Call Cary Charlin at (310) for details. Cessna: Jones tower Cessna 12345, student pilot, I am out of fuel. Tower: Roger Cessna 12345, reduce airspeed to best glide. Do you have the field in sight? Cessna: Uh..tower, I am on the south ramp. I just want to know where the fuel truck is. and Controller: Bonanza 12345, are you on course to CMA? Pilot: More or less. Controller: So proceed a little bit more to CMA 2

3 Friday night Sunday morning, October 5-7th Joel Kirschner will be your host We ll visit the Blazin M Ranch on Friday to mosey around the frontier town shops, enjoy a tractor pull, maybe pitch some horseshoes or try our hand at roping, perhaps do a little target shooting. When it s time for dinner, we ll feast on chicken and ribs, baked potato, beans, biscuits, and caramel apple crisp with ice cream for dessert. After dinner, the Blazin M Cowboys will entertain us with their musical talents mixed with cowboy poetry and humor. Saturday morning, we ll head over to Out of Africa, the next best thing to actually going to Africa. They re open until 5:00, and we ll stay as long as everyone wants to before heading back to our hotel for a quick shower in anticipation of another great Airventurer cocktail party. Dinner Saturday night (on your own) will be in one of the many fun restaurants in the historic town of Jerome, only 5 miles from Cottonwood as the crow flies. Read a Rave Review of the Blazin M at: SEND $100 TO HOLD YOUR SPOT TO JOEL KIRSCHNER KESWICK AVE LOS ANGELES JOEL@JOELK.COM

4 Picnic 2012 Check out the rest of the pictures in the Photo Gallery on our web site: And be sure to take a look at the pix in the What Airventurers Are Up To album 4

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6 Thanks to Barry & Laura Rainey, Airventurers had front-row seats in the shade at the Camarillo Air Show There s some video of the air show on the video page of our web site: 6

7 How to Save Your Life in an Aircraft Accident - Dr. Ian Blair Fries Don t play with fire When it comes to aircraft fires, don t play around. According to Fries research, fire occurs in about 8 percent of accidents; however, if there is a fire, the fatality rate is more than four times greater. An indicator of a fire other than the obvious, smoke is multiple system failures. Even if you identify and extinguish the fire, don t continue to your final destination. Land at the nearest airport. And if you make a forced landing on or off the airport with a fire, exit the aircraft as soon as possible. Fire only stops burning when it runs out of fuel. However, pilots sometimes forget that If you are in the plane, you are fuel. Maximum trim glide Many pilots are taught to establish best-glide speed in the event of an engine out. But the speed varies with aircraft weight, so Fries, a pilot and aviation medical examiner, recommends what he calls The Fries Technique. Pilots should practice at altitude to become familiar with the maneuver. Reducing the power to idle, maintain altitude as long as possible only by trimming the aircraft, not moving the yoke. That, he said, will give you as good of an airspeed as any other technique when you start descending and allow you to look outside instead of constantly rechecking your airspeed indicator to ensure you are at best glide. Eventually, you ll end up with full nose-up trim. By using trim, the airplane is establishing a glide; it s stable, so that you can do all the other things that you need to do. While in the power-off glide, it will be more difficult to see over the nose of the aircraft. Don t pick a landing spot that you can see over the nose. You won t make it. Instead, look to your left (if you are flying in the left seat); in addition to providing a better sight picture, that s also the direction you ll likely be turning to make the desired landing spot. Aim for the middle of the runway (or field or wherever you ll be landing). The bottom line is you are far, far safer going off the end of the runway going at a slower speed than you are landing short of the runway at flying speed. The slower the aircraft touches down or impacts an object, the fewer Gs the aircraft and its occupants will absorb. An aircraft is built to absorb more forward force than vertical or lateral forces, explaining the importance of landing straight ahead whenever possible. Restraints make life-and-death difference Seatbelts and shoulder harnesses are key to survival. In one accident, one pilot survived with just a scratch above his eyebrow; another pilot was gored by the control yoke. The first wore his shoulder harness and the second didn t. The primary cause of aviation accident injuries is when the occupants strike their aircraft. Without a shoulder harness, the pilot and co-pilot are thrust forward into the instrument panel and onto the control yoke. But simply wearing the seatbelt and harness won t do much good if the seatbelt is old (nylon seatbelts have a lifespan of about five years, Fries says), isn t fitted properly across the pelvic bones and diagonally across the breast bone, or isn t tight enough. Seatbelt strength is measured in pounds, and a 1,500-pound strength is common in most aircraft, he said. But how does that translate to Gs? It equals 9 Gs if you weigh the FAA-standard estimate of 170 pounds. That s good because aircraft are certificated to withstand at least 9 Gs forward force. But, if you weigh 188 pounds it drops to 8 Gs; 214 pounds translates to 7 Gs; 250 pounds equals 6 Gs. Fries suggests changing the seatbelts in your aircraft every five years (something you can do yourself as preventive maintenance under FAR 43.3 Appendix A (c)(14) and (15)), upgrading to seatbelts of 3,000-pound strength, and tightening the lap and shoulder belts as tight as possible before a forced landing. Tight, tight, tight is vitally important, says Fries. It s just as important, he reminded pilots, to make sure everything in the cockpit is restrained: The oil can in the back is still going 60 knots as it hits your head. Evacuation is key Every aircraft has more than one way to exit in case of an emergency, even if it s through the baggage door or a window. The time to look for it is not when you need it, Fries says. He also says to practice emergency egress in different types of clothing you ll see what catches, where. You will survive if you plan to survive, you practice to survive, and expect to survive! 7

8 AIRVENTURERS Ridgeway Drive Agoura Hills, CA FLY SAFELY IMPORTANT DATES IN September 14 Canyon de Chelly 18 Dinner Meeting 22 Board Meeting lunch at El Monte October 5-8 Cottonwood, Kirschner 16 Dinner Meeting 27 Board Meeting lunch at Cable November 10th or 11th Mystery Fly-In 17 Board Meeting 20 Dinner Meeting Election of Officers A plane was taking off from Kennedy Airport. After it reached a comfortable cruising altitude, the captain made an announcement over the intercom, "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. Welcome to Flight Number 293, nonstop from New York to Los Angeles. The weather ahead is good and, therefore, we should have a smooth and uneventful flight. Now sit back and relax!.. OH, MY GOD!" Silence followed, and after a few minutes the captain came back on the intercom and said, "Ladies and Gentlemen, I am so sorry if I scared you earlier. While I was talking to you, the flight attendant accidentally spilled a cup of hot coffee in my lap. You should see the front of my pants!" A passenger in coach yelled, "That's nothing. You should see the back of mine!" 8