CASCADE FLYER March 2007, Vol. 07, Issue 3 Website: http://co-opa.com/ President's Message: This month we have our second try at hosting a Wings Seminar. Mike Benedict from the Portland FSDO will drop by to lead the event. The seminar is three hours long so we will depart from our usual schedule. This month only we will meet at 5pm for hanger chat, 5:30pm for our potluck and then 6pm to 9pm for the presentation. Next month we will return to our regular meeting time of 6pm. Let's have great turnout this month and show Mike how seriously we take our flying safety. Many thanks to Bill Arras for filling in as our February speaker on such short notice. Bill's slide show of his long distance balloon flights was a real crowd pleaser and we all learned a lot about these slow and fragile giants of the air. Calendar: 15 March - Monthly Meeting SPECIAL TIME: 5pm! 17 March - Monthly Flyout 19 April - Monthly Meeting 21 April - Monthly Flyout 17 May - Monthly Meeting 19 May - Monthly Flyout 16 June - Bend Municipal Airport Open House 21 June - Monthly Meeting 23 June - Monthly Flyout 19 July - Monthly Meeting 21 July - Monthly Flyout Web doings: Don Wilfong sent in two items this month. One is a sad photo of a 182 (see end of newsletter) and the other is a movie of a Russian SU-30 doing an airshow. Both are worth checking out on our home page. As always, the CO-OPA website contains recent newsletters and other goodies. http://co-opa.rellim.com To access the members only areas the username is "BDN" and the password is "123.0". My Inbox: Greg Phillips has emailed that the ground breaking for the new Bend Airport will be on the east side of the airport at noon on March 14th. This project has been in the planning stages for a long time and now it is time to celebrate the start of actual construction. This year the always wonderful Albany Art & Air Fair will be August 24, 25 and 26. On Saturday the 25th there will be the OPA convention at the Fair. Mark you calendars and plan to be there. Anyone that wants to volunteer to help plan the event should contact me for further details. Random Thoughts: We have all seen the annoying credit card commercial. A hoard of barbarians is descending upon some hapless consumer to tear them apart, but their attack is thwarted when the would be victim brandishes a magic credit card from their wallet. The tag line is: "What's in your wallet?" This weeks small plane crash near Odell Lake clearly demonstrated that what is next to our wallets can be just as critical to a pilot's survival as the credit card is to the fictional people in the commercials. The facts are still pretty sketchy but tell an instructive story of survival. The two men where flying a 1968 Piper Archer to Crescent Lake Airport (5S2) when the engine failed and they crash-landed in the forest far from any roads. Both men survived the crash but were now stuck in the wilderness with only what was in their wallets (and their baggage). What followed had to be about the best-case scenario. Their EPIRB worked and was picked up by passing airplanes and triangulated by NOAA satellites. The National Guard dispatched a helicopter with night vision equipment to the rough area of the crash. Trying to find the crash site at night would have been a fruitless waste of time, except the downed pair had a flashlight and managed to use it well enough to signal the rescue crew. The rescuers dropped survival equipment so the stranded men could last the night until ground based rescuers could reach them the next day. Both men were evacuated the next day and made it safely to the hospital. This week's event gave me cause to double-check my survival bag. How prepared would I be to survive a night, or more, in the woods? The pocket for spare batteries is looking pretty bare and I now have a fresh reminder to keep it filled. The water bottles, waterproof matches, warm snowsuit, survival knife and compass are still present and in good condition. The power bars are MIA so I'll have to replace those before my next flight. Except for the missing supplies I have the basics covered. Pilots occasionally compare notes about what survival gear they have onboard. Our group is no different and I have new motivation to revisit and maybe implement some of their suggestions. One suggestion has really stuck with me. Several pilots have pointed out that if a crash involves a water-landing, or a fire, the survival equipment in the baggage compartment will be lost before it can be of any use. A common solution is to stock a vest or fanny pack with small essential survival items and wear it in-flight. Typical items would be small things like waterproof matches, flashlights, knives, a compass and a wire saw. These will then be on your person should a hasty evacuation be required. I guess I need to stop procrastinating and go out and stock a fanny pack just in case. Now that you know what is in my wallet, have you checked yours lately? Gary E. Miller Ed Note: Check the local EAA website which includes current and past newsletters, including two recent survival articles written by member Bill Lewis: http://www.eaa1345.org/ Regarding the above accident, I overheard a Horizon flight talking to a survivor on 121.5, most likely on a handheld or removable ELT, the aircraft being inverted. Ultimate put-down #1 --- "I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play, bring a friend... if you have one." George Bernard Shaw told Winston Churchill "Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second, if there is one." Winston Churchill, in response PENDLETON FLY-OUT On Thurs. Feb. 15 we had our monthly potluck/meeting where one of the topics of discussion was our CO-OPA & 99s combined fly-out plan to fly to Pendleton to tour the underground city. There was a lot of interest and we had a commitment for 5 planes and at least 10 people (10 is the minimum number required for the Underground Tours to call in a tour guide for a special tour). Our tour was scheduled and a 15-pasenger bus (a very reasonable $25.00 each way) was scheduled to pick us up at the airport. Sat. morning we met at Pro-Air for a departure at 0900 hrs. to find that we had only 3 planes and 8 people. A quick call to Underground Tours telling them we had only 8 people but that we would pay for 10 kept our tour appointment intact. They were able to finish filling our tour and we ended up only paying the regular $10.00 each. The Fly-Out group consisted of Gary Miller, who flew his Turbo-Centurion, with Ed Endsley and Nancy Morris as his passengers on the trip to Pendleton, Mike and Ann Bond flew their Cardinal RG and Don and Norma Wilfong flew their Skylane with Linda Parker as their passenger. We had a nice tailwind on the trip over and the bus was there on schedule to whisk us off to the Main Street Diner for breakfast. Pam, from Underground Tours, had made reservations for us and they had a long table set up for a possible 15 people. The food was very good and the service was excellent. As we left the diner we got our Pres. Gary Miller to stand next to Betty Boops for a picture: Pendleton's friendly small town atmosphere was apparent and everyone seemed to take extra steps to be sure we had a great time. It was a beautiful day with temps up to around 70 degrees........it felt like summer as we strolled around town and most of us ended up carrying our coats. We had some time to kill before our 1300 hrs. tour appointment so most of us elected to go to Hamleys and look things over (it is a large store on two levels). They are famous for building fine saddles for many years and we watched one of their craftsmen working on one. They have everything imaginable in the western theme including clothes, fine art and even beautiful bronze statues.......be prepared to dig deep in your pockets if you plan to take some of their high quality merchandise home as it is priced accordingly. This is certainly a point of interest to include when you go to Pendleton. They are working on additional space and will soon have fine dining too. We all met at the Underground Tour office for a briefing and then proceeded underground. It was very interesting how the Chinese workers had built this maze under a four-block area and how they existed there except when they left to work. It can't help but make one wonder to realize how we as a nation treated the Chinese laborers, the Indians, the Negroes and the Hawaiians to name a few and then see how we are now trying to tell the rest of the world about human rights. Once above ground again we toured a second story brothel (they still operated until 1953). They have restored it to as near as possible to how it was when it was in use. You can even rent a room if you like....but....you have to bring your own partner. During the Second World War (when what is now Pendleton Airport was a military base) the local citizens with young daughters welcomed the several operating brothels in hopes of keeping their daughters out of the clutches of the young military men. The tour was scheduled to last 1 and ½ hours but it lasted almost 2 hours.....so.....that along with getting our bus to come back and pick us up (they had been there on time and left as there was no place for them to park and wait) we were behind schedule. Since we (the Wilfongs) wanted to fly home, to Pilot Butte Airport, we asked Gary to take Linda Parker back with him so we didn't have to land at Bend. The tailwind we had going was a much stronger head wind on the trip home (I calculated we had headwinds of as much as 40 knots). With the late start home and the strong headwind we began to wonder if it would be too dark to land (Pilot Butte Airport is an unlighted field) but we still had good visibility and completed a fantastic fly- out We wish more people could have joined in on the fun. If you have any ideas on what we could do to get more participation in our CO-OPA events please let me know ?. Don Wilfong ... Temp. Fly-Out Chair 541 389-1456 'Alberto' --- a new kind of semi-rigid thermal airship, developed by Skyacht Aircraft, Inc., had its maiden flight on October 27, 2006, in Amherst, Mass. Called the Alberto, after Brazilian aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont, it is 102 feet long, 70-feet in diameter, uses hot air for lift and has a tail propeller for precise directional control. OREGON'S SENATORS.......... On Tue. Feb. 20 Senators Wyden and Smith appeared at a joint town hall meeting at the Bend Senior Center. Quite a few people associated with aviation were there including Greg Phillips, Carrie Novick, Gary Miller & Don Wilfong to name a few. The place was packed with standing room only. The crowd seemed to appreciate the opportunity to speak to their Senators in person. Quite a few waited until after the meeting and spoke face to face with them to get their points across. A lot of subjects were discussed such as the war, medical problems, and many other subjects, including a brief discussion about the proposed changes to financing the FAA. I felt they got the message that we do not want user fees. I printed out a number of pages from the AOPA web site pointing out the facts regarding user fees and gave each a copy. All in all, it was a good meeting. Don Wilfong 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