CASCADE FLYER February 2010, Vol. 10, Issue 2 Website: http://co-opa.com/ President's Message: Gremlins were the featured presentation at our January meeting. They have their origin in RAF stories dating back to the 1920's and are alive and kicking today. Our program chair Ed Endsley worked long and hard to bring a live FAA webinar to our meeting but the little guys were out in force and proceeded to skewer the event. The presenter did not have his audio set high enough and that is no faults of Ed's. Next time you see Ed thank him for all the hard work he has put in as our program chair! The silver lining in the cloud was that we had more time than usual for hanger flying. Some best not set down in writing. Don and Norma Wilfong reported on this years Christmas Charity project and the results were all that we could hope for. Kudos to the Wilfongs, the teachers at Pilot Butte Middle School, and all those that donated time and money to the program for all their hard work. As always we'll try again to have our best meeting ever this month. Drop into the Flight Services Building at 6pm for some socializing, chow down at 6:30pm with our world famous potluck and hang around at 7pm for our formal program. Something fun always develops and we hope to see you all there. Better yet, grab some other pilots and drag them along too. Gary at work in the Caymans Calendar: 18 February - Monthly Meeting 20 February - Monthly Flyout 18 March - Monthly Meeting 20 March - Monthly Flyout 15 April - Monthly Meeting 17 April - Monthly Flyout 20 May - Monthly Meeting 22 May - Monthly Flyout Web doings: As always you can check out current and past CO- OPA newsletters, view our membership list and view hot aviation links on our website at: http://co-opa.com/ To access the members only areas the username is "BDN" and the password is "123.0". My Inbox: Don Wilfong has sent out reminders to all that still need to pay their local CO-OPA dues. Get your $10 to him to stay a member in good standing. The state OPA dues are separate, but also due in January. If you have not paid those you can do so online: http://www.oregonpilot.org/membership/dues/index.html Random Thoughts: Whenever I travel commercial I try to take a peak in the cockpit before takeoff while the pilots are relaxing and the door is still open. Gone are the days when you can look in once the airplane pushes back. The Flight Attendants usually behave like linebackers shoving the self loading cargo to the back of the human mailing tube but a polite, but firm, request will usually get you past them. Once in the cockpit, with one notable exception, the pilots are always gracious once I introduce myself as a private pilot and note that I just want a peak at the hardware. This trip I found myself in the front office of a new 737-800. This is a stretched version of the old war horse 737 with tall winglets and a shiny glass panel. Then I did a double take. On the LCDs were perfect images of the traditional six pack of round gauges. The captain was telling me about how fine his instrument panel was to fly and the cool displays it could show, I interrupted and asked why he had steam gauges on the EFIS instead of something cool. The story is that the airline wanted to fly all their old and new 737's using pilots with a single type rating and common currency for maximum flexibility. Thus all 737's would be flown on steam gauges until all of the old style panels are sold off. What a waste. Whenever I can I ask the pilot if his EFIS has ever died on them. They always look a bit sheepish and have to be prodded a bit, but they all eventually answer in the affirmative. Then I usually get to hear a nice war story. This time was no different. This pilot had recently been at the gate running his preflight check list when columns of dots starting blinking on and off with more and more of the screen disappearing in a psychedelic fashion. A quick call was made to maintenance who quickly snapped out the old panel and found a surprise. There was fresh coffee dripping down the inside of the glare shield into the $60,000 display. The previous crew had spilled coffee and cleaned up the outside, but not well enough. With five or six redundant EFIS I am not worried, too much, about total system failure, but I am still happy to see the old standby gyros in the panel anyway. By this time the co-pilot was picking up the checklist and it was time for me to join the other self-loading cargo in the back. 'Drunken Rube' Kyle Franklin has added a twist to a routine done by many performers over the years as a "flying farmer" or a drunken spectator act. The idea is that someone untrained steals a Piper Cub during an airshow, in full view of the audience, and flies a wobbly routine. Franklin's twist is to scrape both wingtips. Maybe some other act is scraping wingtips, too, but it has escaped notice until now. Take a look at the video titled "Comedy Act Video" at the bottom of the Franklin Web page. CHRISTMAS CHARITY PROGRAM Thanks to all of our members. It was your contributions that helped to make this program a success. We helped some very deserving students this year. It is exciting to see how much joy our charity program brings to the students and their families. The way the program works is: CO-OPA raises $$ through generous member donations. The Teachers also contribute $$. The Teachers pick the students to help. The Teachers take the students shopping. The Teachers wrap all of the gifts. The Teachers & CO-OPA members deliver everything on Christmas Eve Day. This may sound pretty easy...but a heck of a lot of work goes into putting this all together. The Teachers selected 3 main students to help this year.....but......they also helped several others in smaller ways. There are a few fun gifts but a major portion of the money is spent for essentials such as clothes, shoes and even hair cuts. Our program does wonders for the students self esteem when they can go to school and not be embarrassed by the way they are dressed. One of the greatest things about our program is that 100% of the money donated goes to the program. All of the work is donated by the people involved. Any money not spent is returned to CO-OPA. We now have $22.49 as seed money to start next years program. We can be proud, of the fact, that over the years we have helped change the lives of a number of young people for the better. We always receive letters thanking us for what we have done. Their letters along with some pictures and an accounting were all presented at our last CO-OPA meeting. THANK YOU FOR ANOTHER GREAT YEAR.......Norma & Don Wilfong Then and now ….. B-29 flight at the 1949 Cleveland Air Show SR-71 Blackbird at the 2009 Edwards AFB Open House (it's now blue, not black) … and in future? Proposed hypersonic transport The blizzard that shut down Washington DC also collapsed this corporate hangar at Dulles International Snow can do this? … and as a result, this… ================================================================== 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 Temp Fly-out Chair Don Wilfong 210 SE Cessna Dr Bend, OR 97702 541 389-1456 wilfong.d@gmail.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