President s Message Jeff Clement

Transcription

1 July President s Message Jeff Clement Well, I am so excited about Oshkosh! I can hardly concentrate on anything else. This will be my first trip there. Betty and I are driving but my mind will be in the clouds. We are looking forward to EVERYTHING but will be spending a lot of time around the ultralight/light sport areas. It is amazing what AirVenture has become in its 60 plus years. Just wait for the stories from our Chapter 471 pilots making the trip. I know Abilene will be well represented. Audie and Lon put together a really great July 4 th Extravaganza cookout. I believe around 50 participated and was enjoyed by all. Thank you guys, so much, for your work pulling this off. Following, was a super fireworks show. Way to go Abilene! A few things to take note and plan for in the near future. VMC Club will have its initial meeting August 13 th at 7:00pm! Questions can be sent to vmcabilene@yahoo.com. An official invite with RSVP information will be coming your way. I would love to see many of you there. David Bradshaw has generously volunteered to be our mentor for the lessons/discussions we will have. Plans right now possibly include food and refreshments. Also, David has been in contact with AOPA about our chapter hosting a Rusty Pilot Seminar here at ABI. He attended one of these recently and speaks very highly of the content. Information was professionally given and good for ALL pilots, rusty or not. It is tentatively scheduled in October. More information to follow. Steve Krazer and I were fortunate to have a meeting with Don Green at the end of June. He shared some of the plans and timelines that will affect us on the Northwest side. They include ramp renovations, T- hanger ramps, 04/22 future, etc. I will share what I know at the July breakfast. Thank you Steve, for putting together that meeting. Thanks to Sam for putting together the Chapter address. If you folks have not already picked up on it, abilene.eaa471@gmail.com From meetings, to Young Eagles, to other club activities. All of you make this so much fun. I thank you from my heart. Chapter 471 Rules! As always, contact me any time with questions or ideas. Jeff Clement

2 EAA 471 July 4 th Extravaganza Débuts by Sam Evans O say can you see the 471 July 4 th Extravaganza becoming a tradition. That is, if the City of Abilene continues the July 4 th fireworks display. My gut feeling is that they probably will since it looked to be a big hit with the public. Thank you, Abilene!! And what a great place to view the fireworks show! Many thanks to Audie Gill and Lon Beasley for putting it all together. Great idea, guys! As mentioned by Jeff, there were about fifty people that showed-up for hamburgers and hotdogs. When it was dark and the fireworks started, sitting out in front of Hangar 3 provided a superb, unobstructed view of the show. (Photos below courtesy of Audie, Lon and Katelyn Petty)

3 471 Members Preparing for Oshkosh AirVenture Departure By Sam Evans Oh man! the excitement is getting pretty thick among chapter members that are planning to head to Oshkosh, Wisconsin for the annual AirVenture Fly-in. Aircraft are being checked over and cleaned. To-Do lists are getting narrowed down. Flight plans being made. And the Oshkosh chatter is escalating. If you re going, you know exactly what I m talking about. I ve been to Oshkosh twice; in 2003 and As I mentioned in a previous newsletter, I felt that I should go at least one more time, especially since finishing my RV. To tell you the truth, I m pretty pumped about it. I m pretty sure Audie feels the same way. (more about him later in this newsletter) As of this writing, here are the people from the chapter that I m aware are going to Oshkosh: Jeff & Betty Clement are driving up for an AirVenture Vacation. Fred Novak is also driving up and is using the opportunity to visit relatives in Wisconsin. Lon Beasley will be riding with Audie Gill in his AcroSport II Joe Dixon will be riding with Steve West in his Cherokee 140 Lew Jones will be riding with Sam Evans in his RV-7A Jim Carrol and wife Connie Carroll in their Cessna 182 Jim Berry in his Tailwind cont d.

4 And by the way, all you guys that are going are REQUIRED to have a good story and pictures for the August newsletter. Abilene Young Eagles Report By Charlotte Rhodes On June 9 th we were prepared to fly lots of kids. We had nine pilots, all raring to go, even though we knew it was going to be another long, hot day. I think the Young Eagle gods took pity on us, after Dyess and Sweetwater, because we only had 96 kids show up. Still, that is a good number; but much lower than we have flown in the past. Hobby Stevens, Chris Ulibarri and Ralph Handy ran the ramp all day. Betty Clement took care of registration and Jeff Clement matched the kids with the pilots. Debbie Ulibarri, Connie Carroll and Katlyn Petty handled all the certificates and log books while Teresa Mattingly and I made sure all volunteers had something to eat and drink. Thanks to everyone who took the time to help out or just came out to watch all the excitement. Below are the pilots and number of kids each one flew. This was Chris Bordenave s first time flying Young Eagles so it was fitting that he flew the most, congrats to him. Brian Trail 12 Chad Rubino 12 Chris Bordenave 18 Cliff Hale 5 Gary Potter 12 Jim Carroll 14 Jeff Randall 7 Ron Pearson 6 Steve West 10 Cont d next page

5 Thank You to all the Young Eagles Volunteers for a job Well -Done! Appreciation Extended to Chapter 471 You folks may remember the couple from New Mexico that was broke-down here in May and had their Velocity in Hangar 3 while it was being repaired. The pilot, Mark Sturm, sent a very nice letter to the Chapter and also extended an invitation to the up-coming Land of Enchantment fly-in.

6 Audie Gill AcroSport II Update By Sam Evans Audie is meeting all the challenges of a newly-completed experimental aircraft. On June 28, he completed his 40 th hour in Phase I flight testing. He can now make the necessary logbook entry and fly his plane outside of his test area. Soon after the 40 hours were flown off, he took his wife, Linda, for her first ride. She was also Audie s first passenger. Audie said that he could tell the difference with the additional weight in the plane, but nothing out of the ordinary. Then, on July 4 th, Audie flew to the Colorado City fly-in with his build buddy, Lon Beasley in the front seat. Not surprisingly, Audie came home with the Most Unusual Aircraft award. Without a doubt, Audie s plane is quite a looker. Congratulations, Audie. Your hard work and commitment is paying off. Miss Linda s first ride. Audie shows-off his award from the Colorado City fly-in left Lon Beasley makes first selfie in N152AG

7 The following article from AVweb was submitted by Dave Bradshaw. It s a good article about talking on the radio by a former air traffic controller. Last Call For What? PAUL BERGE Aviation has never lacked for dumb ideas. It s what drives innovation. Hey, Orville, wanna jump off a sand dune strapped to these really cool wings I made in the bike shop? What seemed stupid in 1903 is recognized as pioneering genius today. Likewise, countless other notions such as flying inside clouds without reference to the ground seemed impossible at first. But, in 1929, aviation hero and guy who s smarter than anyone writing this piece, Jimmy Doolittle, proved that humans could survive flight solely on the gauges. Implicit was that it s really stupid to try IMC without instrument flight savvy. VFR humans, though, routinely test this concept with predictable results. In 1965, when my father took me to see Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines, I laughed at the newsreel footage of ridiculous early aircraft crashing in time to vaudevillian music stings. Great stuff. I knew I had to become a pilot, preferably in something that didn t crash. And, mostly, I ve succeeded, thanks to better aircraft design and buckets of dumb luck. After 45 years of exploring the frontiers of my personal idiocy in flight, I ve earned the position of airport old guy, certificated to grouse about the failings of others. For instance: Twenty years ago, I was an air traffic controller. Sweet gig, that. The FAA paid me to sit inside an air-conditioned glass box watching airplanes fly and witness more than a few crashes, usually with non-fatal, head-scratching results. Chief among the inevitable prangs were the pilots with the focus of suicide bombers and little grasp of the gentle art of the flare on landing.

8 These pioneers of failure were determined to prove that Cherokee 140s can land safely after twice bouncing. Only, they can t. You get two free tries, but on the third attempt to plant the accident arrival unit (AAU), something will break. Seen it too many times and not just by Cherokee riders. Remedial training might limit recidivism, but I doubt it. In close competition is loss of directional control meaning feetless pilots have no idea how to handle crosswinds which keeps repair shops in business, and there s no cure for this malady, either. Sorry, I m jaded. There s another realm of aviation silliness that first came to my attention as an air traffic controller, and that s the weird things we say on frequency. Most instrument pilots at least the ones who read IFR magazine sound cool on the air. They know that key to good communications is to not key the microphone. What you don t say is more valuable than what could be said before the brain s engaged. The yakkitive pilot who tries to dominate an ATC frequency with ahs and ums or the stinky transmission starter, And, as in And Cirrus Eight Niner Blah Blah is with you at No, you re not with the controller. She s miles away flipping off your target on the radar display, because you re clogging the frequency. Experienced controllers know how to nip excessive verbiage in the larval stage, but there s no sheriff to clean up CTAF. CTAF means Common Traffic Advisory Frequency or Clown Talking Aviation Fest. The tonnage of verbal hijinks on these community chat frequencies is immensely annoying. Recently, I was in the pattern with a tailwheel student, while 30 miles away, two chuckleheads on discussed their various positions like pre-teens on one of those, you know, cellphone things: I m, like, over the freeway, where are you? Like, over the lake. OMG! And it devolved from there. There really should be an app that automatically silences anyone making more than two transmissions inside of 30 seconds. Granted, I don t completely understand apps but am told they can do anything. The mouthful of uselessness phrase, Traffic in the area, please advise, lingers in the aerial lexicon with the tenacity of Army-issue VD.* Can t be killed, despite the FAA itself stating years ago in AIM 4-1-9(g) that and I m paraphrasing, It s thoroughly stupid! Don t say it ever! And yet, it slips into the CTAF conversation, much like your Uncle Jake who brings up his colonoscopy at family reunions. Here s the latest entry into the Creative Earsore category and it may be new to some of you. Last call. As in the Twin Cessna pilot who announced his every intention from, Taxiing from the ramp to runway one-five to Taking runway one-five then, Taking off runway one-five (and, of course adding, Traffic in the area, please advise ). The play-by-play continued with several updates on his altitude, headings and SAT scores. Closing this CTAF-blocking podcast was the phrase, Clear to the north. Last call. Full disclosure: I used to be a bartender a really bad one and last call meant, Hey, rummies, it s 2 a.m., lift your faces off the bar and order one for the road. Sorry if that toys with your sitcom image of Cheers-like bartenders. Who cares if this is your last call? Unless, of, course, you re announcing that you ll never speak on CTAF again. In which case, you re welcome back anytime. Thinking I was alone in my pique from this newfound phraseology, I was surprised when a designated pilot examiner contacted me to ask, Have you been hearing last call reports on CTAF? And, like two old granddads who can t understand why kids nowadays listen to rap, we vowed to give these last call offenders stern looks whenever we heard it.

9 Yeah, that might be a dumb idea, but there s a linguistic moral imperative in play here best expressed in the cinema classic, Animal House: This situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture on somebody s part, and we who are without fault are just the ones to do it. So, wherever there s a pilot beatin up a CTAF or confusing hanger with hangar, I ll be there, muttering to myself in righteous superiority while refusing to advise when requested to do so. Who s with me? Anyone? No? Last call. *Long-time reader Mike Palmer writes to say that in the latest version of AC-90-66B, the FAA actually officially recommends against trolling for traffic on CTAF in section Note: Pilots are reminded that the use of the phrase, 'ANY TRAFFIC IN THE AREA, PLEASE ADVISE,' is not a recognized self-announce position and/or intention phrase and should not be used under any condition. Any traffic that is present at the time of your selfannouncement that is capable of radio communications should reply without being prompted to do so. Not that anyone would possibly pay attention to it. Ray Parrish Memorabilia For Sale Shirley Parrish has some aviation memorabilia that her late husband, Ray, had collected, and she has requested that we assist her is selling them. They are miniature, die cast aircraft that Texaco put out in a series called Wings of Texaco. She still has the following: Northrop Gamma Stearman Biplane Grumman Goose (has 3) Travelair Model R Mystery Ship Curtiss Robin Airplane Ford Tri-Motored Monoplane (Texaco s first plane) Keystone-Loening Commuter The Duck If you are interested in any of these items, please contact Hobby Stevens, (325)

10 Monthly Breakfast Hangar 3 Saturday, July 14 9:00AM Full Breakfast Will Be Served EAA Chapter 471 is now on Facebook! Click logo or Search Experimental Aircraft Association 471 Visit our Chapter website at