CASCADE FLYER April 2010, Vol. 10, Issue 4 Website: http://co-opa.com/ President's Message: Many thanks to Gary Judd, our KBDN manager, for dropping by last month and updating us on all the good things happening this summer at the airport. By the time you read this the blasting for the new east side taxiway should be completed and the grading work started. The contractor will try to keep the airport closures to a minimum but they are inevitable. Soon we'll have the new taxiway, dedicated run-up areas and replacement compass rose for our trouble. Longer term there is also a potential Connect Oregon grant for a heliport on the northeast side of the airport. That would go a long way to moving helicopter operations into their own space. So next time you see Gary Judd be sure to thank him for keeping the progress going. There was an interesting article in the Bend Bulletin last week. If you join a social group that meets once a month your overall happiness will increase as much as a $100k/year raise. I find that a bit hard to believe but in any case attending our monthly meetings is a lot easier than getting that raise. So be sure to mark our CO-OPA monthly meeting firmly on your calendar. Wing into the Flight Services Building at 6pm for some socializing, scrumptious potluck at 6:30pm and participate in the formal program at 7pm. Be there or be square. The YikeBike: What has this to do with aviation? … see later Calendar: 15 April - Monthly Meeting 17 April - Monthly Flyout 20 May - Monthly Meeting 22 May - Monthly Flyout - OPA Quarterly Meeting at KBDN 15 June - Monthly Meeting 17 June - Monthly Flyout 15 July - Monthly Meeting 17 July - 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: Good news out of the Portland Bankruptcy Court. After some back and forth a joint bid from China Aviation Industry General Aircraft Co. Ltd. and LT Builders Group have purchased the assets of Epic Aircraft. LT Builders hope to reopen the Bend facility soon and will have marketing rights to North America. An unexpected result after the Judge called the LT bid: "pathetic, useless, incompetent, unacceptable, garbage and fiction". The Chinese company plans to build Epic planes in China and will market to the rest of the world. Let's hope this gets many people back to work soon at the airport. Random Thoughts: 2009 may be over but the paperwork lingers … and not just the taxes. The NTSB has released their preliminary accident statistics for 2009. There is much to contemplate, but I'm not sure what the lessons to be learned are. "General aviation accidents decreased from 1,566 in 2008 to 1,474 in 2009. There were 272 fatal general aviation accidents, down from 275 the year before. However, the accident rate increased to 7.20 per 100,000 flight hours in 2009 from 6.86 in 2008, due to the decrease in the number total of flight hours. Although fatalities decreased from 494 to 474, the fatal accident rate increased to from 1.21 to 1.33." In spite of the totals being stable the rates showed a modest increase due to an assumed reduction in flight hours for 2009. Not sure what to make of that. Does a small reduction in flight hours really increase your personal accident rate 5%? Or are the sub-class of pilots that did not decrease their flight hour inherently less safe? The FAA has always admitted that their annual GA flight hours are just rough estimates, but the trends there are troubling. In 1990 the estimate was 28.5 million hours, down to 23.9 in 2007 and just 20.4 in 2009 …. Ouch. Over the same years the accident rates have varied from 6.35 to 9.08 per 100k hours, so last year's 7.20 seems reasonable historically so the increase is likely sampling error. In the same time frame the fatal accidents per 100k hours has been much more stable from 1.20 to 1.81 so 2009's 1.33 also seems on par historically. If you want to see more of the data you can check it out here: http://www.ntsb.gov/Pressrel/2010/100408.html I was hoping to find the AOPA NALL report for 2009 data, but it is not out quite yet. I assume that the 2008 data is close enough for my purposes here. As always the main cause is pilot error. About 72% of all accidents and fatal accidents are pilot related. Of those 32% are landing related! No wonder go-arounds are so important to practice and use. Luckily those are rarely fatal. Only 14% of all, and 8% of fatal are known to be mechanical failures. So as always the lesson is to be sharp when you fly or stay on the ground. There is one, and sadly only one, shining bright spot in the otherwise unsurprising data. Fuel management accidents have decreased from 10% of total accidents in 1999 to 5.8% in 2008. My guess is that planes are getting fuel totalizers and that has been a huge win. Finally another stat caught my eye. Only 15% of single engine fixed gear accidents are fatal, yet 26% of single engine retractables are fatal. Maybe I should just leave my gear down? Gary Miller March Fly-out WOW !! What a beautiful day we had on Sat. March 20.....We got up to a frosty low 20's temp and the sun was making it's way up over the horizon. Things just got better and better from there as the day progressed. I pulled 757 out of the hangar and we blasted off from Pilot Butte International for the short flight out to KBDN to meet the rest of the CO-OPA gang. We had three planes depart KBDN for 3S9 at Condon. Mike and Ann Bond in their Cardinal RG, Gary Miller and Ed Endsley in Gary's Turbo Centurion and we (Don & Norma Wilfong) with Harry McFadden as our passenger in our Skylane. It was a very pleasant flight, with a nice tailwind. We kept up radio chatter to keep track of each other as we flew over some interesting sights, including the Big Muddy, previously owned by Rajneesh's group, and sporting a beautiful runway. We also saw quite a few other private strips along the way going and coming. As we were about to land at Condon, Richard Benson came on the air......he was en route to Condon from Monument (where they have a cute get-a-way home) to join the group for breakfast. We missed having his wife Debbie along with him but we enjoyed seeing Richard again. The owners of the "Cowboy Up Cafe", Marvin & Shirl Layng, provided transportation to and from their Cafe. The food and the service were both very good and if you went away hungry it was not their fault. They made sure your coffee cup never got empty and in general took real good care of us. Condon seems like a very friendly town and we will definitely want to go back there again. They have a rodeo coming up (don't know the dates yet) and we are going to plan on going if we can make it work. They have a museum that looked quite interesting..... but .... it was not open today. The trip home was a little slower as that great tail wind was now on the nose. We landed at KBDN, refueled, dropped Harry off and returned to Pilot Butte International........What a fantastic day and a terrific fly- out......Thanks to Richard Benson for suggesting Condon. Mark your calendars now for April 17 for our next fly-out so you don't schedule something else over top of it. Now that spring has started to sprung.......We will be planning some fun fly-outs so we hope you can plan to be there. Don & Norma Wilfong The YikeBike For those who have added everything they can to the airplane and have funds left over: Transportable ground transportation, but yet not available in the US. Weight: 22 lbs Frame: Carbon fiber Fold size: Really compact Fold time: Under 20 seconds Drive: Electric brushless DC motor Brakes: Electric anti-skid, regenerative Ramp speed: 13 mph Range: about 6 mile on a charge Recharge: 80% in 20 minutes. … and, oh yes, the price: $4,500 - Sign over SR71 Wing Ops- 'Yea, Though I Fly Through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I Shall Fear No Evil. For I am at 50,000 Feet and Climbing.' … and then again …. 'You've never been lost until you've been lost at Mach 3.' -Paul F. Crickmore (SR71 test pilot)- Diamond's OPV makes pilots optional Diamond revealed that a new follow-on design of the DA42M twin, the DA42M-OPV, will have its first flight sometime in September at the Manassas, Va., airport. The unmodified airplane has already arrived at Manassas. The DA42M-OPV is a surveillance platform equipped with video cameras, advanced radar capabilities, and proprietary electronics and software. In July 2009, Diamond Aircraft received Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Certification for the Austro Engine AE300 power plant. The FAA certification of the Austro AE300 engine paves the way for FAA validation of the EASA Type Certificate for the DA42 Next Gen configuration. FAA validation is expected late third quarter 2009. Diamond's DA42 NG averages a fuel burn of only 5.6 gph per engine, at 65% power and 155 knots at 14,000 feet. The "OPV" stands for optionally piloted vehicle, and it's being developed with the help of Aurora Flight Sciences of Manassas. The idea is to offer a choice of a human pilot or remote, pilotless operation of the airplane, dubbed the "Centaur." Diamond has experimented with pilotless versions of its DA42 platform in an airplane called the DA42 MPP (multi-purpose platform), but Aurora's work will expand the concept. With pilots removed, in the OPV configuration, and 100 pounds of payload, the DA42M-OPV will have an endurance of 26 hours or a radius of 1000 nm. Its turbocharged engines are certified for operations up to 18,000 feet and have performed at altitudes above 25,000 feet "The DA42M-OPV has roughly the same payload and range performance as the Predator UAV," said Aurora Flight Science President John Langford. "But it has several important advantages. First, it can be flown with a pilot aboard, which will facilitate operation in the National Airspace System. Second, it has two engines, which gives greater reliability and safety. Third, the Centaur is easily reconfigurable, so it can carry a variety of payloads. Finally, it has low operating costs." The OPV's first mission will be to map the Greenland ice pack, Langford 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 Temp Fly-out Chair Don Wilfong 210 SE Cessna Dr Bend, OR 97702 541 389-1456 wilfong.d@gmail.com Program Chair --------OPEN---------- And finally, send Newsletter inputs to Mike Bond 22052 Banff Drive Bend, OR 97702 541 317-8443 mvbond@spiritone.com