May 2006, Vol. 06, Issue 5 President's Message: We did not exactly have a meeting last month, but we did get a good show instead from Greg Phillips and a project engineer from David Evans & Associates. The good news is that the airport planning has been moving along with good speed and the $6M project looks to be fully funded with Federal and State money. There will be very little cost to the city. Construction will start this summer on the new runway. This will be a two year project with grading and site prep this year. Paving will be in the summer of 2007 and we should have a bright and shiny new runway by Fall 2007. The bad news is that construction will require that the runway be closed at nights to allow the construction crews to operate safely. We also managed to squeeze in Ross Morrison for a quick briefing on the COFSC. The planning for the event is going well but they still need volunteers for the event. Check out their web site at: http://coflysafe.org/ and contact Ross, or Dennis Douglas at ddouglas@coastside.net if you can help. The city presentation went long and we did not have time for our originally scheduled speaker Joe Smith. Joe is President Elect of the OPA. With a little luck this month Joe will get to share his vision for our organization, what the OPA is doing for us and how we can help. Calendar: 18 May - Monthly Meeting 20 May - Monthly Flyout - S49 - Vale, OR 2-3 June - Central Oregon Fly Safe Clinic 10-11 June - Balloons Over Bend 15 June - Monthly Meeting 17 June - Bend Airport Aviation Day 20 Jul - Monthly Meeting 22 Jul - Monthly Flyout 17 Aug - Monthly Meeting 19 Aug - Monthly Flyout 19 Aug - OPA Annual Membership Meeting, Eugene Web doings: The FAA has been expanding the charts that you can download from their web site. Airport diagrams and approach charts are free; sectionals are $1.50. The web site now has a new nav link on the left side called "Charts". Click it and you can download the newest Klamath Falls and Seattle Sectionals and some local airport diagrams and approaches for free. I find the standard Approach Plates tad small for my eyesight and like to print the plates I will use full sized. 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 "S07" and the password is "123.0". My Inbox: In record time, the Bend Airport AWOS has finished its test mode and is fully operational. You can call it at 382- 1477 or listen in on 134.425. For once, the Bend Bulletin even did a nice story on the airport. Be sure to keep June 17th free on your calendar. That will be our annual Bend Airport Aviation Day (http://bendairport.org). We will need as many folks to help out as we can get. If you are going to be around, please contact Dave Sailors at: dsailors@bendbroadband.com. So you got the flying bug ..... ? Sunnyvale, California resident, Ron Patrick, 48, attached a Navy surplus General Electric T58-8F jet engine to his brand-new Volkswagen Beetle. The "San Francisco Chronicle" reports that he has seen the speedometer peg at 140 mph once the jet is fired. It's a legal street vehicle, as near as anyone can tell. There is a minor concern that the car will fly for real if it hits 160 mph. It's amazing what you can do for $250,000 these days. Random Thoughts: Did you hear the one about the dyslexic pilot with insomnia? He stayed awake all night wondering if dog was his co-pilot. Many pilots do not have to wonder, because their furry co-pilot really is a dog. Kimmy has been my co-pilot since I returned to active status as a pilot in 1998. I am often asked by other pilots, if they should take their copy of man's best friend flying and I always say yes. Never have I heard of a really bad story about flying with dogs, as long as the dog is properly restrained. My technique has been to place the dog on the rear seat and attach the collar to the seat belt. The trick is to leave enough slack that the dog can move about the seat but not get off the seat. Most dogs will settle down quickly and enjoy a good snooze. Very little would interrupt Kimmy's snooze while in the air. Stalls, steep turns, lazy-eights and more would barely cause a raised eyebrow. Few human passengers are as consistently good passengers --- Until the time to throttle down and start the descent --- The two legged passengers miss the event, but every dog will perk up and start to look out the window in anticipation of a new airport to sniff soon. Not that all that time in the air has been perfect for man and dog together. A few years back we were descending from about 6,000 feet over the Napa Valley. The flight had been smooth and long. All the passengers, human and otherwise, were starting to stir in anticipation of the landing soon to come. BANG, the plane dropped straight down 800 feet without warning. No shimmy, no pitch, no yaw, just straight down. Everything not solidly attached to the airframe levitated 2 feet in the cabin. As soon as I assessed that the plane was in control I peeked at the rear seat occupants. Poor Kimmy was tethered 18 inches above the seat, floating in midair like an astronaut (astrodog?), legs stuck out at crazy angles and now wide awake. A very surprised expression on her face. Then the downdraft gently stopped. The floating debris and the dog gently returned to their former positions as if nothing had happened. The rest of the flight was uneventful. Kimmy has always been eager to fly, even if it is only in circles with a CFI keeping me busy and not paying attention to her. Man's best friend after all. Only once was this ever a problem. I was under the hood, fighting a stiff and variable cross wind down the ILS 22 to Redmond, with the CFII doing his best to make the exercise extra challenging. Powell Butte is doing its best to give me shifting winds to make it hard to keep the needles centered and down we go. Outer Marker and report our passage to the tower. 500 feet, 300 feet, Decision Height and BANG. The dog jumps in my lap demanding attention. Pitch up, grab the dog, climb power, grab the dog, positive rate of climb, grab the dog, raise the gear, grab the dog, raise the flaps, grab the dog, tell the tower we are on the missed approach, grab the dog, climb to 2,500 and turn direct to the VOR. All made more difficult by the CFII snickering. "I'll bet you never forget to strap the dog in again" is all he said. CFII's are wise that way. Our only continuing shared problem was parking. The dog felt she had kept up her part of the bargain and NOW was the time she could get out and sniff the world. Maybe the wonderful smells of a new airport or just the same old familiar one awaited out the door. I knew to keep the engine idling two minutes to allow the turbo charger to cool down. Dogs know nothing of turbo charging and my dog always wanted out NOW. Life is good when that is your worst conflict. Not that life with a dog is without problems. More than a few white pants on strangers ended up with muddy paws prints on them. More than a few conversations were interrupted by a strange dog's barking. Most folks were understanding and soon found their day brightened. Brightened by what they found was just an overly friendly dog just begging to be scratched. To those that did not understand I apologize now. Of course the best part of flying with your dog is having a willing and eager passenger always ready to fly off to adventure. Life is good when you can play catch on the beach at Gold Beach; sniff the Oregon Trail in Baker City, and so much more with your canine companion. RIP - Kimmy - 1995/2006 Gary Miller I LOVE TO FLY. I love being a bird. Just a few flaps and I'm sixty feet in the air. Reach out for that limb, flap a flare, and lightly settle; it's like taking one more step. Spreading my wings and pushing off to that next branch twenty feet away is really just like tiptoeing on over. I think about it like microgravity. First of all, I defy the laws of physics several ways. Forget Newtonian interpretations. Newton was human and had a very human experience about mass and movement. Things are very different when you weigh about four ounces. I have a pretty good power to weight ratio and I don't have to carry a lot of extraneous stuff. I'm not built for walking much. Why bother when I can fly? Hopping around is fun and some of my fellow aviators are quite amazing swimmers but flying is what being a bird is all about. It's just a way of thinking. Superman had it about right. Leaping tall buildings in a single bound. Height and distance are real different to me. No problem. Five thousand miles to winter in South America? Why not? Flying is so much more efficient that taking the train. What else was I going to do this afternoon and next week anyway? Besides there's this really nice lady in Guatemala that is just so happy to see my friends and I. She can't feed us enough. It's hard to continue on south. Makes a really pleasant rest stop for a few days. I took a detour last year and wound up in Hawaii. It was an accident really. I usually spend a few days in San Diego. I like the zoo and the Hippos. The Hippo handlers give them some nice tasty treats and since the Hippos are such messy eaters there are always lots of good leftovers. Besides I like the Hippo rides, especially when they jump in the pool. While visiting the waterfront I noticed a large boat, a ship really. At least this guy Webster, I guess his last name is Dictionary, says a large boat is a ship. Anyway, there seemed to be lots of food there too. I started hanging out there at night because the zoo got kind of boring when the Hippos powered down and went to sleep. That's about the time things really started happening on board the ship. What I hadn't realized was that this big boat was a Cruise Ship. Cruise Ships go places. They go far, far away. Imagine my surprise when I woke up one morning to the clatter and cacophony of departure complete with confetti and chaos. By the time I'd finished breakfast we were fast disappearing over the horizon. I had to decide pretty quickly, was I going to be happiest with Hippos or Hawaii? Well this might just be an adventure. There was definitely plenty of food and the place smelled better than the Hippo enclosure. Besides I'd made friends with a woman who spent long hours dozing by the pool, leaving her Martini unattended. I couldn't really fly anywhere and I had all the Gin I wanted. Migrating just doesn't get any better. Cruising? A cruising we shall go, hi ho the merry oh, a cruising we shall go!!! A couple of days later, and after I'd fallen in the pool a few times, I decided it might be time to check out the rest of the ship. Like I said, I don't care much for walking, so I took off and circled the ship a few times. As I was approaching the fantail I about jumped out of my feathers!!! I heard someone yell PULL and an explosion startled me so badly I'm afraid I dumped ballast rather heavily in my excited excrement evacuation efforts to escape. It seemed like this would be a good place to avoid since these people looked like they enjoyed shooting at moving targets. I'm no clay skeet pigeon but it didn't look like a good place to be flying about. I pulled up and went for my service ceiling to get an overview. It was very interesting to see this tiny big ship below and nothing but water as far as I could see in any direction. I really wanted to keep an eye on the ship because I didn't think my fuel reserves were adequate for any alternate destination. What a thrill to be out here in the middle of the ocean at about five thousand feet and have my own private aircraft carrier below. While just leisurely flitting to and fro it was no problem to keep up with the plodding ship. I finally began to experiment aerodynamically in ways that I'd never paid attention to when I was just flapping along the migration flyways. Slow flight with such smooth air was like hanging on by my feathertips and just kind of tickling the air. Full stall was really quite nice in a falling leaf sort of way. My rate of decent with full flaps was a rather dignified affair. With all this meandering about the ship was pulling ahead so it was time for some speed runs. Besides I didn't want to be late for lunch. Screaming down with my wings tucked and descending at about a one to one angle is about all I can control without tail feather flutter. Sort of feels like ballistics rather than aviating. Fun and fast anyway. Then came the E ticket ride. I've always liked to do low passes and thought buzzing the bridge would be fun. The ship was making about 22 knots into a light breeze and when I hit the bow wave over the bridge I got blasted five hundred feet up in the air. Hang on buddy!!! Way cool!!! Just kept pulling back until I was hanging on the front of the wave and could hover above the bow. What a great way to get a boost to Hawaii. I felt like the bandleader at the front of a parade and started whistling with glee as I swept back and forth over the front of the ship. When I saw the stewards starting to serve sandwiches I dove down through the rotor from the prow to settle beside the pool and slid under my lady's lounge chair to wait for the inevitable leftovers and martini with a lazy afternoon ahead around the pool.What a way to fly to Hawaii. I could really get into this cruising life. I'll be sure to send you post cards when I get to Hawaii and let you know if or when I'll be back. Aloha!!! Ed Bird Endsley APRIL FLYOUT COOPA Pilots - Ed Endsley, Gary Miller, Joel and Lynn Premselaar, and myself were the only members to head out Sunday for Scappoose, OR. Joel had to turn back about half way there due to Radio problems. He is now installing a new set of Garmin radios. The route down the Columbia River and then across to Battleground and West to Scappoose is quite scenic. The route home was easy over the Cascades with no turbulence. Scappoose turned out to be a great place to go. Beautiful airport along the River, and the Barnstormer's Inn is an excellent choice for breakfast or lunch. The novel setting, great service, and good food makes it a pilot's first choice. They have fuel service, and some very interesting private jets being built in the hangars there with the wings and fuselage being built entirely of Kevlar. With flying weather rapidly returning, we look forward to attending a few of the many airshows scheduled this year, and lots of interesting locations to fly to up and down the CA and OR Coast. Aloha, Curt MAY 20 FLYOUT COOPA Pilots - Please mark your calendar and schedule your time to join us. The target for this month's fly out is VALE, Oregon. They are having a fundraiser fly-in to benefit a Senior Center. Breakfast begins at 6:30am and Lunch starts at 11:00am. The town of Vale if full of Murals and on the Oregon trail. They will give us rides to see the sights. The Airport Data is as follows: The Airport is: Miller Memorial Airpark. Klamath Falls Chart. Identifier is S49. Distance direct is 171 NM. At a GS of 120K, the time will be 1:25. For those with VOR only, you can go by way of Burns VOR. The Vale location is 11NM West of Ontario. The runways are left traffic to 18 / 36 and are 3872 feet long. Elevation is 2250 feet. Runways are gravel and reported to be in good condition except for the extensions, which are reported to be rough. NO FUEL available so if you need some, you can stop at Burns self-service. We will meet at the Pilot Shop at 8:30am - Take off at 9:00am. Hope to see you there. Final details will be sent to you via email on Friday afternoon, with a final email early Saturday morning for any last minute changes. Aloha, Curt 541/317-1670 Email: curtis@bendbroadband.com Bend Airport Operations By Darryl Taylor, Production Test Pilot, Columbia Aircraft, CFII/MEI As summer approaches, plan on more and more aircraft operations around the Bend Airport. In addition to a growing number of transient ops flying in to enjoy everything that the region has to offer, we have many businesses on the field that seem to be growing very rapidly. Pro Air (The Flight Shop) has seen a tremendous growth in student pilots, and Leading Edge now has a helicopter school. Columbia Aircraft is producing more aircraft than ever, each one having to be flight tested, before being turned over to the owner to receive company provided flight instruction right here at Bend. We are also seeing an increase in operations over at Epic. Starting this summer, construction will be starting on the new runway and other airport improvements. With all the increases in air traffic at Bend, we need to revisit basic airport operations to ensure everyone's safety. Bend is "uncontrolled," but maybe a better term to use is "pilot controlled," meaning that it is ALL of our responsibilities to ensure safety around the field. Let's start with the traffic pattern. Bend is in Class G airspace. Controlled (Class E airspace) does not start until 700' AGL. Because of our airspace classification, we need to look at 14CFR91.126, which states: "Each Pilot of an airplane must make all turns to the left unless the airport displays approved light signals or visual markings indicating that turns should be made to the right, in which case pilots must make all turns to the right; and each pilot of a helicopter or powered parachute must avoid the flow of fixed-wing aircraft." Bend is a typical uncontrolled airport, in which left traffic is standard for airplanes. If you are operating an airplane, it is illegal to fly anything other than a left hand pattern, unless you are in an emergency situation. Helicopters flying right traffic are abiding by the rule that they must avoid the flow of fixed-wing aircraft. So what about when approaching the airport, there is no other regulations that specifically apply to our airport, so we must refer to the Aeronautical Information Manual (AIM), which is what the FAA strongly recommends that we follow. Now that we have automated weather at Bend, make sure you get the "numbers" well before approaching the airport. I recommend at least 20 miles out. This gives you the opportunity to start planning ahead, because you know what the winds, etc... are doing. Start listening to the CTAF frequency as soon as you can. No sooner than 10 miles out announce your intentions with information such as position and altitude. It might sound something like: "Bend Traffic, Skylane 12345 is 10 miles southeast at 6,500, inbound for the 45 entry, left traffic 16, full stop landing at Bend." As far as traffic pattern entries go, it is extremely important that we are all doing the same thing. Traffic Pattern altitude at Bend is 4,500 feet. The only recommended entry procedure in the AIM and Advisory Circular 90-66A is on a 45 degree entry, period. This allows you mix with other aircraft in the pattern much more easily done than it would by entering straight in or on a base leg. I know that depending on what runway is in use, it may be convenient to do a straight in entry, but as busy as Bend is, it is just not safe. Wouldn't it be better to spend 3 to 5 extra minutes in the air to do your part in making sure your home airport is safe? Let's use an example. Currently winds are out of the south, and traffic is using runway 16. You have been in Eugene, and are approaching Bend from the west. You know that you have to cross over the field to join left traffic, since 2 student pilots are doing pattern work on 16. The AIM recommends that you announce your intentions 10 miles out. As you approach the airport, be no lower than 5500' MSL, which gives you 1000' clearance over piston aircraft and 500 over many turbine powered aircraft that are already in the pattern. Continue flying at no lower than 5500' until you are now at a minimum of 3 miles east of the field. It may be necessary to fly further east to fit yourself in. Make a right hand turn descending to pattern altitude, and announce that you are "now on a (mileage from the field) 45 for left traffic on runway 16." Now it will be much easier to fit yourself into that pattern, and much easier for other aircraft to plan ahead. Some common problems relating to traffic pattern that have been noticed include: 1. Aircraft conducting a straight in approach with other aircraft in the pattern. 2. Aircraft entering on right or left base with other aircraft in the pattern. 3. Aircraft crossing mid-field at pattern altitude and making a left turn directly to the downwind. All of these entries are extremely hazardous to your own and others' longevity, and frankly, it is not operating an aircraft in a safe manner. If there ever was an incident in which you were involved (and you survived), and you did not do the recommended pattern entry, it might be a safe bet that the FAA would hold you responsible. On the ground, please communicate your intentions. Especially with all the construction that will be taking place, it is important to pay attention at all times. Just because you have landed, remember that your flight is not over until that prop has stopped spinning. In conclusion, please take these simple suggestions and practice them. Please pass them on to other pilots that are using the airport. Go ahead and pull out your old FAR/AIM and review it, along with AC90-66A, which can be found on the FAA website. Practice them at all uncontrolled airports, not just Bend. Remember, Bend is "pilot controlled," and we have a CTAF, use it. Be clear, quick and concise in making your radio reports and avoid unnecessary chatter to alleviate frequency congestion. Ask questions if you are unsure about another pilots' intentions. Take the initiative and put out just the small amount of effort that it takes to "do it right." Fly safe. THE LAST CHECKRIDE I hope there's a place way up in the sky, where old flyers can go on the day that they die. A place where a guy can buy a cold beer, for a friend and a comrade, whose memory is dear. A place where no doctor or lawyer can tread, nor a CAA/FAA type would 'ere be caught dead. Just a quaint little place, kind of dark, full of smoke, where they like to sing loud, and love a good joke. The kind of a place where a lady could go, and feel safe and protected by the men she would know. There must be a place where old flyers go, when their flying is finished, and their airspeed gets low. Where the whiskey is old, and the women are young, and songs about flying and dying are sung. Where you'd see all the fellows who'd flown west before, and they'd call out your name, as you came through the door. Who would buy you a drink, if your thirst should be bad, and relate to others, "He was quite a good lad". And then through the mist, you'd spot an old guy, you had not seen in years, though he taught you to fly. He'd nod his old head, and grin ear to ear, And say, "Welcome, my son, I'm pleased that you're here. For this is the place where the true flyers come, when their journey is over, and their war has been won. They've come here at last to be safe and alone, from the government clerk, and the management clone, Politicians and lawyers, the Feds and the noise, where all hours are happy, and they're all good ole' boys. You can relax with a cold one, maybe deal from a deck, this is heaven my son .... You've passed your last check!" Author Unknown COOPA / POSSIBLE FLYOUT DESTINATIONS for 2006 Airport Identifier Comments Albany, OR S12 Restaurant Astoria, OR AST Restaurant & Marine Museum Baker City, OR BKE Air Show Bandon, OR S05 Courtesy Van to great Restaurants Caldwell, ID EUL Restaurant Chiloquin, OR 2S7 Restaurant Coeur d'Alene, ID COE Restaurant - Overnight ??? Condon, OR 3S9 Maybe Brown Bag Lunch Bag location Dalles, OR/WA DLS Restaurant Eugene, OR EUG Restaurant & Aviation Museum Florence, OR 6S2 Courtesy Cars to great Restaurants Gold Beach, OR 4S1 Restaurant & Rogue River Mailboat trips Hillsboro, OR HIO Airshow Independence, OR 7S5 Restaurant & Museum with bicycles provided to get there Klamath Falls, OR LMT Restaurant Lewiston, ID LWS Restaurant Lexington, OR 9S9 Brown Bag Lunch Location McMinnville, OR MMV Airshow. Spruce Goose Aviation.Museum shuttle provided Medford, OR MFR Restaurant Nehelam Bay, OR 3S7 Maybe Brown Bag Lunch Location Nampa, ID S67 Restaurant & P-40 Museum Richland, WA RLD Restaurant Salem, OR SLE Restaurant Tillamook, OR S47 Restaurant & Military A/C Museum Walla Walla, WA ALW Restaurant - Overnight ??? NOTE: Great Outdoor locations will be chosen for Brown Bag Flyouts PLEASE CHECK THE LIST, & E-MAIL YOUR COMMENTS ALONG WITH ANY ADDITIONS OR DELETIONS THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE. Thanks, Curt Turner. curtis@bendbroadband.com __________________________________________________________________________________ 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 Flyout Chair Curtis Turner 20386 Big Bear Court Bend, OR 97702 541 317-1670 curtis@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