CASCADE FLYER January 2009, Vol. 09, Issue 1 Website: http://co-opa.com/ President's Message: Oh the weather outside is frightful, But the fire is so delightful, And since we've no place to go, Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow - Lyrics That pretty much describes our December meeting: frightful weather outside. Attendance was light and even our speaker found himself snow bound. However, those few brave enough to venture out were greeted by good fellowship and a whole Roast Turkey for dinner. We even managed a quorum for a limited Yankee Gift Swap. Oddly enough Ed Endsley ended up with his own gift and refused unwrap it. Enquiring minds still are curious as to its contents and suspicions are that it was something that Ed did not really want to part with. Or maybe it was the wayward tail wheel spring? We may never know. Starting off this year with a bang our guest speaker will be Lt. Col. Dick Tobiason. He will be telling about his days as both an Army and a Navy test pilot as well as other highlights of his aviation career. This month the forecast is for severe clear for our meeting so let us start off the New Year with a big crowd. We'll start with cheery chatting at 6pm followed at 6:30pm by the usual outstanding pot luck. Then at 7pm we'll start the 'formal' program. Calendar: 15 January - Monthly Meeting 17 January - Monthly Flyout 19 February - Monthly Meeting 21 February - Monthly Flyout 19 March - Monthly Meeting 21 March - Monthly Flyout 16 April - Monthly Meeting 18 April - Monthly Flyout 21 May - Monthly Meeting 23 May - Monthly Flyout My Inbox: In November we lost Susan Palmeri as our Airport Manager and now in December we have lost her boss John Russell (former Director of Economic Development). 2008 was clearly a difficult year for the staff of Bend. Last I heard, the city head count was way down with no plans to reverse the trend. The good news is that the city has seen the value in having a full time airport manager. They see how having Greg Phillips and Susan Palmeri running the airport brought millions of dollars into the area and want to continue that success. The city put out a call for applicants and that is now closed. The next step will be to interview the applicants. Lets hope we get another productive airport manager soon! Web doings: January is membership renewal month for the CO- OPA. In 2009 for the first time the OPA is also moving to a calendar year membership, so you should also have received an OPA renewal notice recently. You can renew your OPA membership online at: http://www.oregonpilot.org/membership/renew.html. Renewals for CO-OPA need to be given to our treasurer Don Wilfong. If you did not receive a snail mail bill for your CO- OPA dues then we probably do not have your current mailing address. You can check the address we have for you in our members only area at: http://co-opa.com/members/members.html To access the members only areas the username is "BDN" and the password is "123.0". Random Thoughts: September 11, 2001. That is a day we will be talking about the rest of our lives. Even the President had been briefed in advance that Osama was planning great evil yet government response was non-existent. After the fact even the craziest anti-terrorist measures were over-funded. Such is life. Once burned, twice shy. Over reaction to traumatic events is normal and to be expected. For a while. It is 2009, Many years since any real, or potentially real, threat on USA soil. Still the idiocy persists, and even spreads. The Department of Fatherland Security -- yes, US Senators call it that -- keeps inventing solutions to non-existent movie plot type security problems. Only this time it affects us, the General Aviation community, directly. Now the TSA wants all GA aircraft over 12,500 pounds to comply with all the same security measures as commercial carriers. This is just silly. We have all seen the picture of the B-25 that crashed into the Empire State building in 1945. Even something as large as a medium bomber flying directly into a modern building causes very little damage to the building. The risk of a 12,500 pound aircraft to national security is minimal, no credible threat has ever been uncovered. DC-3s are not weapons of mass destruction. And yet the TSA now considers such aircraft a serious peril. Proposed TSA requirements would require criminal background checks on all crew members, watch list matching of all passengers, weapons checks before boarding and a whole host of other silly measures. Except they are being serious, not silly. You can expect that the rest of GA will be next for these types of unproductive restrictions. The TSA just has no clue about GA and their attempts at preempting FAA regulation have led to nothing good. The AOPA has been concerned by these proposed regulations. Now the OPA has also become alarmed by these proposals. You should be too. I urge you to contact our congressional representatives Ron Wyden, Jeff Merkley and Greg Walden and ask them to stop the witch hunting. As someone famous has been saying, time for a change. You can find out more on this issue on the AOPA website here: http://www.aopa.org/advocacy/gasecurity/ Gary Miller Pilot blinded by stroke is guided safely to ground - from the Associated Press LONDON – A British pilot who was suddenly blinded by a stroke during a solo flight was talked safely down by a military pilot, the Royal Air Force said Friday. Jim O'Neill asked for help after he was went blind 40 minutes into a flight from Scotland to southeastern England last week. The BBC reported that O'Neill, flying a small Cessna aircraft, lost his sight 5,500 feet in the air. "It was terrifying," O'Neill said. "Suddenly, I couldn't see the dials in front of me." The air force said in a news release that O'Neill initially believed he'd been "dazzled" by bright sunlight, and made an emergency call for help. He then realized that something more serious was happening, and said, "I want to land, ASAP." RAF Wing Commander Paul Gerrard was just finishing a training flight nearby and was drafted in to help the stricken pilot. Gerrard located the plane, began flying close to it and radioed directions. "For me, I was just glad to help a fellow aviator in distress," he said. "Landing an aircraft literally blind needs someone to be right there to say 'Left a bit, right a bit, stop, down,'" Gerrard said. "On the crucial final approach, even with radar assistance, you need to take over visually. That's when having a fellow pilot there was so important. O'Neill's son, Douglas, said his father is an experienced pilot who has flown for nearly two decades. The 65-year- old is recovering in hospital where he is beginning to regain his sight. "The doctors have confirmed that he suffered a stroke from a blood clot, but he doesn't seem to have suffered any other ill-effects apart from losing his sight," Douglas O'Neill said. "He says he went blind very suddenly and then, once he'd got over the shock, was able to distinguish a bit of darkness and light." In a recording posted to the BBC's news Web site, Gerrard gives O'Neill instructions — "a gentle right hand turn, please," is called for at one point — and he can be heard apologizing. "You could hear the apprehension in his voice over the radio and the frustration he was experiencing," said radar controller Richard Eggleton. "I kept saying 'Are you visual?' and he would reply 'No sir, negative, I'm sorry sir.' He kept on apologizing. With Gerrard talking him down, O'Neill's plane hit the runway and bounced up again, the RAF said. It did the same on the second touchdown. On the third, O'Neill was able to keep his plane on the ground. "It's one of those things you might hear about happening in some sort of all-action film but it's hard to believe what they did," Douglas O'Neill said of the RAF. "They were just tremendous." One hundred miles per gallon By Dave Hirschman, Pilots usually think of airplane flight performance in terms of gallons an hour—not miles per gallon. AOPA member and aeronautical innovator Klaus Savier, owner of Light Speed Engineering based at Santa Paula Airport (SZP) in Southern California, has been setting speed and efficiency records for two decades in his experimental, Rutan-designed Vari-EZ—a plane that serves as a technology demonstrator for products that hint at possibilities for improving the efficiency of the GA fleet. "Efficiency and speed go hand in hand," said Savier, a German-born engineer, glider pilot, and composite materials expert. "They're so closely related that it's really a matter of emphasis. Do you go as fast as possible and disregard how much noise you make and fuel you burn? Or do you optimize the airframe, engine, and propeller for maximum efficiency? To me, achieving speed through efficiency has always been more elegant." Savier has altered his Vari-EZ and its Continental 0-200 engine by adding computerized fuel injection and ignition systems of his own design. He typically flies at 190 KTAS while getting a Prius-like 50 miles per gallon. Although his Vari-EZ carries just 30 gallons of fuel, Savier has flown it nonstop to Oshkosh, Wis., (1,522 nm) and Panama City, Fla., (1,700 nm). If he slows to extend range, Savier's mileage approaches100 miles per gallon To improve the flight efficiency of the GA fleet, Savier says magnetos need to be replaced, once and for all, with electronic ignitions, and engines need the kinds of precise fuel injection that allows his Continental to run an almost incomprehensible 300 degrees lean of peak. In fact, Savier says his engine runs so lean, and so cool, that he has trouble keeping cylinder heads and oil temperatures warm enough at altitude—even though his engine has no oil cooler. On a typical long-distance flight, Savier flies at an altitude of 17,500 feet, about 35-percent power, full throttle, 190 KTAS, burning 3.5 gallons of fuel per hour. He has flown his Vari-EZ about 4,500 hours during 20- plus years of ownership and collected mountains of data. Switching to electronic ignition and computerized fuel injection, he says, would improve the GA fleet's flight efficiency 20 percent without any airframe modifications. Savier tires of what he calls the aviation industry's circular arguments about the merits of electronic ignition, computerized fuel injection, and lean-of-peak operations. Definitive answers, he says, have been provided by the automobile industry and verified in a variety of aircraft and engines over tens of thousands of hours. "As long as you have magnetos, you simply can't get the large spark from a big electrode gap or advanced timing you need for peak efficiency," he said. "For all these guys that think magnetos are so great, I only have one question: Why don't you put magnetos in your cars?" SMA refines diesel engine By Mike Collins, AOPA Because the European Union is limiting exhaust gas emissions and the EPA has been required to regulate aviation emissions by the Clean Air Act, "avgas will disappear sooner than you think," said Alain Pierre Deniau, senior vice president of SMA Engines in Grand Prairie, Texas. SMA believes a piston engine with a low specific fuel consumption, burning Jet A1 fuel—available at most airports around the world—will benefit the environment. In addition, the engine's slower rotation speed helps to reduce the aircraft's noise signature SMA continues to refine its SR 305-230 aviation diesel engine. Improvements to the SR 305-230 include dual turbochargers, with one moved to the side; a new intercooler; improved airflow; and improved engine cooling. The starter, alternator, and air box are new, and the cylinder heads have been upgraded. The engine's field experience continues to grow. Currently there are 44 SR 305-230 engines in service; the oldest has been operated 763 hours, Deniau said. A time between overhaul (TBO) validation test is in progress. SMA continues to work with partners on type certificates and supplemental type certificates to allow additional airframe installations, including the new-generation Cessna 182; Maule M-9; and various Piper aircraft, including the PA-25, PA-28, and PA-34 series. Approvals could be developed for any single- or twin- engine fixed-wing aircraft, from 200 hp to 270 hp, Deniau said. COOPA officer contact info: President Gary E. Miller 109 NW Wilmington Ave Bend, OR 97701 541-382-8588 gem@rellim.com Vice President --------OPEN---------- Secretary/Treasurer Don Wilfong 210 SE Cessna Dr Bend, OR 97702 541 389-1456 dwnw@bendbroadband.com Temp Flyout Chair Don Wilfong 210 SE Cessna Dr Bend, OR 97702 541 389-1456 dwnw@bendbroadband.com Program Chair Ed Endsley 63505 Bridle Ln Bend, OR 97701 541 382-6414 ed@edendsley.com And finally, send Newsletter inputs to Mike Bond 22052 Banff Drive Bend, OR 97702 541 317-8443 mvbond@spiritone.com