Website http://co-opa.com	March 2023, Vol. 23, Issue 3

President's Message:

Things are happening in the local GA scene, come share the news with
your fellow pilots in the Bend Builders Assist hanger, 63030 Powell
Butte Road, on the south west corner of KBDN, on March 16th (the Third
Thursday) at 6pm. Bring your own dinner, and we’ll eat right away
before food get cold. As always, many thanks go out to Mike Robertson,
and Mike Wissing, for letting us use their space.

Weather Underground is optimistic about our Fly-out day: “Intervals
of clouds and sunshine. High 57F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph.” Even
the valley is forecast partly cloudy. That opens up a lot of nice
destinations.

ZSE and FAST:

The team from Seattle Air Traffic Control Center that works the Bend
area visited Bend this week, with a worrying message: 50% of all TCAS
RA’s in ZSE are within 25 miles of KRDM airport! Then they showed us
several radar recordings of planes, doing exactly what we normally do,
involved in RA’s (Near Misses). Don’t be that guy. Squawk 1237 and
monitor 126.15 when flying in our local area.

If you do not want to listen to ZSE, then fly direct from KBDN
directly over the top of KRDM. Low flying IFR aircraft will not be over
KRDM, they will be in the approach and departure corridors.

See the next page for some interesting charts. The for more
information, visit Mike Kloch’s web site:

https://mikekloch.com/home/central-oregon-aviation-safety/seattle-center-atc-information/

Fly-out:

Our original plan was to fly to Grant County (KGCD) Airport, but
low ceilings would have made getting over the ridgeline south of the
John Day River a challenge. So the plan was changed to head to Burns
(KBNO), a bit to the south of KGCD, east of KBDN on Hwy 20,and with no
obstructions in the way. Almost everyone got the message before taking
off…

After we all made it to KGCD, we all fit in the airport courtesy car
and headed into town for a fine lunch at RJ’s Restaurant. The trip
back showed why the destination change had been wise. The cloud base was
stable, visibility was around 50 miles, but the cloud bases were 7,500
to 8,000, below the rim of the Strawberry Mountains by John Day. KBNO is
at 4148, so pretty close to MVFR, but at our cruising altitude it was
wide open.

Pilot Butte Airport:

Update on the plan to place almost 600 multi family units on the
approach to Pilot Butte Airport (8OR5). The airport owners, and other
neighbors, objected to the zoning change the project would bring much
new traffic to an area already experiencing traffic overload. The Bend
zoning board agreed, and the project plan was rejected. I expect the
builders will scale back the plan and try again.

Calendar:

16 March – Monthly Meeting
18 March – Monthly Fly-out

20 April – Monthly Meeting
22 April – Monthly Fly-out

18 May – Monthly Meeting
20 May – Monthly Fly-out

Newsletter Inputs:

Current and past CO-OPA newsletters, are on our website at: 
    https://co-opa.com

Please send comments and story ideas to:
     gem@rellim.com