CASCADE FLYER February 2008, Vol. 08, Issue 2 Website: http://co-opa.com/ President's Message: Many thanks to Professional Air for lending us their copy of "One Six Right: The Romance of Flying" and the use of their big screen TV. The movie tells the story of Van Nuys Airport (KVNY), its people, and its planes. The story and photography were both top quality. Our small audience was riveted to the screen for the whole show. We also need to give Don and Norma Wilfong our thanks for championing out annual Christmas fund again. Once again we have made a positive difference in a young child's life and that is what the season is about. Equal thanks go out to the many donors that helped make the dream come true. This month we'll return to a live action program. The details will follow from Ed Endsley our accomplished program chair. As always we meet for hanger talk at 6pm, our sumptuous pot-luck at 6:30pm and our formal program at 7pm. Now that we are firmly in 2008 it is time to settle up our 2008 dues. The best $10 deal in Central Oregon. Send your cash and checks to Don Wilfong. Calendar:: 21 February- Monthly Meeting 23 February- Monthly Flyout 20 March- Monthly Meeting 22 March- Monthly Flyout 17 April- Monthly Meeting 19 April- Monthly Flyout 15 May- Monthly Meeting 17 May- Monthly Flyout Web doings: The EAA is trying to collect some raw data on Avgas and Mogas usage in our airplanes. You can see a copy of their survey form on our web page. I have a count of airplanes in our chapter, but I do not know how many of our airplanes sometimes or always use Mogas in their airplanes. If you do please contact me before March 30th so I can complete the survey for our chapter. For the usual chapter news and other aviation goodies check out our chapter web site: http://co-opa.com/ To access the members only areas the username is "BDN" and the password is "123.0". My Inbox: The Sunriver Airport (S21) has new airport managers. Scott and Stephanie Hartung were spending so much time hanging out at the airport that nothing seemed to change when they took over at the start of the month. Brian Lansburgh, the old airport manager will not be gone for long. He will return this summer providing glider rides at the resort. Random Thoughts: Sometimes you take a risk... The sad news of two recent fatal crashes, one near Salem and one near Portland, had most every pilot discussing the many facets of aviation risks. One was a Lancair ES going to Klamath Falls and the other was a Lancair Columbia 400 going from Klamath Falls. The coincidences of these two crashes make it very easy for the layman to speculate on the causes and come to some bad conclusions. The easiest conclusion to make is that these kit airplanes are really unsafe to fly. That falls apart immediately as soon as we realize that the Lancair Columbia is a certificated airplane, not a kit like the Lancair ES. Superficially they are similar but they are really different beasts. When one digs a bit deeper, one may decide that the problem is that these two airplanes were both high performance (fast) airplanes and they were probably just a bit too much for the pilots to handle unless they have a lot of experience in the model. This is the conclusion the Bend Bulletin came to. This may have been a contributing factor but I think it largely misses the root causes. We must wait for the NTB to issue its final reports in about a year before all the facts will be public, but in these two cases enough has been made public to risk some conclusions about the probable causes. The first crash, the one in Salem (KSLE), is the easy one. The pilot left Salem on an instrument flight plan for Klamath Falls and was cleared to 13,000 feet. So far so good; digging a bit deeper it seems that there was no instrumented rated pilot on board and there were two recent pireps of icing in the area. The accident statistics for VFR pilots in IFR conditions are brutal and even proficient IFR pilots avoid icing conditions like the plague. Put the two together and any pilot knows the outcome. If the NTSB determines that these are the facts in the case then it would be hard to even call this an accident. The second crash, the one in Portland (KPDX), is a little harder. By all accounts the pilot was an experienced one, so the Bulletin theory on insufficient training would seem to fall apart. Commercial aircraft were in holding patterns waiting for the fog to lift at the airport so that they could attempt an approach. By a quirk in the FARs a single pilot aircraft under Part 91 is able to try an approach that a two person professional crew is prevented from trying. And try he did, twice. The runway visibility was hanging around 1/4 mile while the Columbia 400 needed at least 1/2 mile flight visibility to land. If the pilot was a regular flying this approach and was in top form then maybe this was not a totally unreasonable thing to attempt. IFR pilots regularly fly practice approaches to minimums, followed by missed approaches, under the hood. Still, a prudent Part 91 pilot should be very reluctant to attempt what his Part 135 brethren are prohibited from trying. So far in neither case has any specific failure of the airplanes been noted. The NTSB may prove otherwise but so far the facts in evidence would point to pilots that got a little (or a lot) ahead of their skill sets. The problem will not be found in the planes, but in the pilots. Still we are left with the correlation between accidents and high performance aircraft. Nothing really new here, each generation's fanciest airplanes have gotten the nickname 'doctor killer'. The V-tail Bonanza had that reputation but has since proven to be a safe and reliable machine when sensibly flown. I suspect the problem is that pilots expect their sports car of an airplane to be safer than their old 182 when in reality it requires at least as much proficiency as anything else they have ever flown. Their fancy hot rod emboldens them to assume more risk when in reality it does little to change the main risk factor ? which is the pilot. Gary February CO-OPA meeting: Plan to attend the Thursday, February 21, 2008, Central Oregon - Oregon Pilots Assoc. meeting in the Bend Airport Flight Services Terminal Building at 6PM for a potluck dinner and a very special program. Everyone is welcome! Mr. Dennis Douglas, pilot, instructor, builder, physicist, among many other talents, brings a wealth of experience to this month's presentation. Dennis is very active in the Central Oregon aviation scene and also the Oregon Legislature regarding safety issues. Dennis will speak to us about "Density Altitude" and the current state of the ethanol debacle. Don't miss this opportunity for a very entertaining and informative evening. Bring your friends for flying fellowship, fine food, and fabulous fun!!! Ed Endsley, CO-OPA Program Chair ed@edendsley.com Fly-outs In a continuing effort to offset Gary's (and I'm sure many other COOPA pilots') disappointment about the lack of cooperative weather for the last few months, here are some pictorial memories of past fly-outs. Don Wilfong dug into his photo archives and memories to provide the following ? MEMORIES FROM PAST FLYOUTS......... Over the years we have had fly-outs to a lot of different places.....but........one that came up more often than most was a flight south past Sunriver, LaPine, Gilcrest, Crescent, Beaver Marsh and beyond, down to Chiloquin. Not a good time to land at Beaver Marsh. Someone just tried landing a C-172 there in 3 feet of snow ?.. ooops). It seems like the weather allows us to fly to Chiloquin many times when we don't seem to be able to fly elsewhere. Up toward the north end of Chiloquin Airport there is a paved parking lot where you can park and walk across the highway to Melita's and have something good to eat. We have never been disappointed with the food. Just a short distance south from Melita's is a miniature railroad that you can go for a ride on. We have always talked about giving it a try but as of yet have not. Also there is a casino a few miles south and I think they will pick you up. We have not tried that as yet either; an opportunity to go there in a $100,000 plus airplane and come home on a million dollar bus. Usually either on the way back we fly over Crater Lake, it is always beautiful whether it is winter or summer. After flying over Crater Lake it is just a natural to fly north over Diamond Lake and right past Mt. Thielson and continue over the lakes along the way and back home around Bachelor or the Three Sisters. There is always the chatter between planes trying to keep track of where everyone is and marvel to one another about the beauty of it all. I have not checked to see if Chiloquin airport has been plowed or not.........we definitely need to know before we head that way again. We have our monthly potluck/meeting coming up at Pro Air on the third Thursday of each month. (We certainly appreciate their allowing us to use the facilities) This month's potluck/meeting will be on Thurs. eve. Feb. 21 with the fly-out on Sat. morning Feb. 23, plan to attend.......we have good food, good company, great hangar flying, some business and Ed usually has an interesting program or speaker. As the time gets closer I will e-mail everyone with the fly-out plan or if weather doesn't work for us an alternate plan. Blue Skies and Tail Winds ....... Don Wilfong IFLYIT One of our EAA 1345 members has started a free list server for pilots: www.iflyit.net This listserver has been designed to serve as a resource for all of us in learning about new initiatives that affect our aircraft or the systems we have in them, about problems pilots re having with their aircraft, equipment in the aircraft, or vendors that sell the stuff. Your use of this listserver is encouraged. Please pass on to your members the list server name: www.iflyit.net and ask them to log on, login, and use the net to ask questions and make statements that would be of interest to others. Dennis Douglas, EAA chapter 1345. This Piper Malibu recently developed severe vibration, 'low oil pressure and a possible oil leak' several miles out from Aspen. The pilot managed to land despite an oil-coated windshield obscuring forward visibility. He later found the entire prop had 'departed' in flight FIND RENTAL AIRCRAFT A new website helps pilots find aircraft that are available for rent and offers users the ability to search, free of charge, from a database of more than 700 businesses nationwide. Users can search using criteria such as airport or make and model of airplane. Matt Walsh, CEO, developed the website in hopes that the services it provides will help grow general aviation, and eliminate the frustration of finding aircraft to rent. Visit http://www.rentplanes.com/ to learn more. Don Wilfong's first departure from a snowy Pilot Butte International with his new medical. There really is a gap in those trees +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ COOPA officer contact info: President Gary E. Miller 20340 Empire Blvd., E-3 Bend, OR 97701 541-382-8588 gem@rellim.com Vice President Nancy Lecklider 3054 NW Clubhouse Dr Bend, OR 97701 541 330-1853 leckone@bendcable.com 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@myexcel.com