CASCADE FLYER May 2008, Vol. 08, Issue 5 Website: http://co-opa.com/ President's Message: Summer is coming, and that means building season is upon us. Many thanks to Susan Palmeri, our own Bend Municipal Airport Manager, for dropping by and filling us in on upcoming projects. The city now has this year's $1.3M commitment to finish the parts of the new KBDN runway project left undone from last year. That means this summer we will once again have evening closures, so be sure to check you NOTAMs. Tasks will include to removing the old runway and installing the new taxi connectors, a PAPI and more. Next year we can expect funding for a new east-side taxiway and the year after that a replacement for the west-side taxiway. Way to go Susan keeping that FAA funding coming. We have been paying aviation fuel taxes for years and it is time some of it came back to our side of the hills. Susan also reminded us that the only legal ways to enter and exit 16-34 are the taxiways at each end. The openings mid-field are NOT legal taxiways and are only there to allow aircraft to taxi across the runway to/from the EPIC Aircraft and Cessna factories. Once again Ed will have a killer program for us this month. Be there or be square. There will be copious hanger flying starting at 6pm, a scrumptious pot-luck at 6:30pm and serious formalities at 7pm. Summer is coming and lots of great aviation activities will be out there in the next few months. To kick it off will be the Bend Municipal Airport Open House on 21 June. Plan on being there for all the fun. Gary Calendar: 8 May- Airport Safety Meeting 15 May- Monthly Meeting 17 May- Monthly Flyout (Hood River) 19 June- Monthly Meeting 21 June- Monthly Flyout (KBDN) 21 June- Airport Day, 8am until 2pm 17 July- Monthly Meeting 19 July- Monthly Flyout 21 August- Monthly Meeting 22-23 August - Central Oregon Airshow (Madras) 23 August- Monthly Flyout 23 August- OPA State Convention in Eugene Web doings: Just in case you missed it, the OPA has now put up a great calendar dedicated to aviation events in the NorthWest. You could attend at least one aviation event every day: http://plus.calendars.net/oregonpilots. When you forget the URL you will find that calendar, and much more on our web site: http://co-opa.com/ To access the members only areas the username is 'BDN' and the password is '123.0'. ...and when landing on the blacktop becomes boring, how about a 'dingy-on-the-wing'? Yes it's real! My Inbox: The Draft Environmental Assessment for the Bend Municipal Airport east-side development is in. Things are looking good. The report does insist that the project will increase traffic on the Powell Butte Highway/Hwy 20 intersection, but maybe just not quite enough to require any serious mitigation. Worst case the project may require dedicated turn lanes at the problem intersection. With or without the east-side expansion that intersection is considered nearly overloaded and dedicated turn lanes will need to be added soon. A public meeting will be held on Wednesday, 11 June at 5:30pm to 7pm in the Barnes Hearing Room of the Deschutes County Administration Building at 1300 NW Wall Street. Plan to attend if you can and support this long overdue project. Random Thoughts: On the 8th of May our airport manager Susan Palmeri hosted an Airspace Safety Meeting at the Bend Airport. Tim, the Redmond Tower manager and two FAA personnel were also there to answer questions and offer some advice on local air traffic concerns. There were glider pilots, helicopter pilots, test pilots, air ambulance pilots, commercial pilots, pilot instructors and a solid CO-OPA contingent too. All the pilots share the same airspace, and concern for safety, but otherwise have potentially conflicting needs. Very quickly it was clear to all that since our airport has no tower that it is up to the local users to identify local problems and to work on local solutions. The FAA is willing to help, but they lack the local knowledge of local conditions to suggest specific local procedures What followed was a free ranging discussion of issues and everyone in attendance felt they learned something. Much of what we learned was what we already knew, but in the meeting we were able to associate our dusty book learning with the real world. A few recurring issues with serious safety consequences bear repeating here. Pilots making straight in approaches to the runway when others are already in the pattern are one big issue. Almost every attendee was concerned about this practice. For some operations, like Lifeguard flights, a straight in can save valuable time, but when there is any doubt about other possible traffic in the area then a standard 45 degree pattern entry is advisable. Another issue is the volatile mix of gliders, helicopters and single engine aircraft. The gliders and helicopters are much slower than the single engine aircraft and the helicopters fly at a much lower altitude than other two. The gliders and helicopters fly a right hand pattern and the single engine craft fly a left hand pattern to safely separate these types of traffic. Just be extra careful when turning base that there is no converging straight in traffic and no converging traffic coming from the opposite base leg. Especially contentious was the subject of the calm wind runway. Runway 34 is especially advantageous for safe and speedy glider operations. Runway 16 is preferred by the local test pilots to expedite their operations. Lifeguard operations prefer the nearest runway to get their patients on the ground quickly. Since the Bend Airport has traffic simultaneously in left and right hand patterns and lacks a consensus on the preferred calm wind runway it is especially important to determine the active runway before entering the pattern. Meetings like this are useful to air issues and build pilot community awareness to improve safety at the airport. The next step will be to hammer out some local procedures we can all agree to. Anything we can do to make local operations more predictable will help us all. To that end Susan will be scheduling more safety meetings in the near future. I hope to see even more participation in the future. Gary E. Miller May meeting: Program Plan to attend the Thursday, May 15, 2008, Central Oregon - Oregon Pilots Assoc. meeting in the Bend Airport Flight Services Terminal Building at 6PM for a pot luck dinner and a very special program. Everyone is welcome! You are invited for a night at the movies with an aviation theme. We enjoyed last month's program with Susan Palmeri so much that we didn't have time for a video of Super Cubs flying in the Alaskan bush that is absolutely outrageous!!! Now's your chance. Bring your enthusiasm for something unique in aviation! Don't miss this opportunity for a very entertaining and informative evening. Bring your friends for flying fellowship, fine food and fabulous fun!!! Ed Endsley ed at edendsley.com CO-OPA Program Chair Safety Corner A few years back we had a constant contributor providing great safety hints ... I think we should restart this feature and invite all members to contribute. As we climbed out of the SF Bay Area last Sunday, heading for the Sierras, we received an alert from ATC about an American Airlines MD80 descending across and less than 2000 feet above our course ... we did not feel the vortices but here is what CAN happen ... Wake turbulence rips aircraft apart (AOPA article) =================================== Like a speedboat plying the waters of an otherwise serene lake, every aircraft in flight generates a wake. Pilots used to call the disturbance 'prop wash' and attributed it to the engines. As aircraft got bigger--and the wakes grew larger and more destructive--the phenomenon was studied and the true culprit identified: counter rotating vortices trailing from the wing tips, a by-product of lift. A new term entered the air safety lexicon: wake turbulence. This invisible hazard is easy to ignore, especially for pilots who've heard the 'caution, wake turbulence' drumbeat over and over without incident. But those unseen swirling curlicues are a very real threat, and disaster often strikes without warning. On June 12, 2006, while on visual approach at Kansas City International Airport in Kansas City, Mo., the pilot of a Piper Saratoga crossed below the flight path of a Boeing 737 that was landing ahead on a parallel runway. The Saratoga encountered wake turbulence so violent that it tore apart the aircraft in flight. The pilot and his passenger were killed. The pilot had departed Grand Glaize-Osage Beach Airport in Osage Beach, Mo., at 6:25 p.m. on an IFR flight plan in visual meteorological conditions. At 6:57 p.m., Kansas City Approach told the pilot to expect the ILS approach to Runway 01L. About 10 minutes later, ATC instructed him to descend and maintain 4,000 feet on a heading of 280 degrees. The pilot was informed of a Boeing 737, at 2 o'clock and 6 miles from his position, southbound turning westbound and descending from 5,500 feet. At 7:09 p.m., the Saratoga was told to turn right to a heading of 300 degrees and to expect a visual approach to Runway 01L. ATC instructed the pilot to descend and maintain 3,000 feet. Two minutes later, the pilot reported having the airport in sight. He was cleared for the visual approach to Runway 01L and instructed to contact the tower. Shortly thereafter, on the tower frequency, the pilot began a radio call that became unintelligible. The tower controller responded by clearing the aircraft to land. The pilot did not reply. Several witnesses on the ground reported hearing fluctuating engine noises and seeing pieces of debris, including a wing, falling from the sky separate from the aircraft fuselage, which spiraled to the ground with only one wing attached. The airplane's left wing and both sides of the stabilator were discovered about 2,000 feet from the main wreckage. NTSB investigators determined that the buckling of the wing and stabilator spars was consistent with substantial in-flight loading. There was no evidence of fatigue cracking, corrosion, or other preexisting damage. Radar data indicated that the Saratoga crossed the flight path of the Boeing 737 twice during the visual approach. At the point of the first crossing, the accident airplane was 1,600 feet below where the airliner had been two minutes earlier. No wake was encountered. The second time the Saratoga crossed the jet's flight path, the accident aircraft was 600 feet below where the Boeing 737 had been two minutes earlier. The Saratoga's airspeed was 183 knots--more than 50 knots above its design maneuvering speed and just 6 knots shy of its never-exceed speed. Radar contact was lost nine seconds later. The NTSB determined that the accident's probable cause was the pilot's improperly planned approach that resulted in the encounter with wake turbulence while the airplane's airspeed exceeded maneuvering speed. The encounter caused the subsequent loss of aircraft control and the in-flight separation of the left and right sides of the stabilator and the left wing. According to the Aeronautical Information Manual (AIM), once a pilot has received traffic information and instructions to follow an aircraft and has accepted a visual approach clearance, it is the pilot's responsibility to ensure safe takeoff and landing intervals and a flight path that will steer the airplane clear of potential wake turbulence. The AIM further advises that when landing behind a larger aircraft (including one on a parallel runway within 2,500 feet), a pilot should stay at or above the larger aircraft's final approach flight path, note its touchdown point, and then land beyond it. As pilots, it's critical for us to understand the mechanics of wake turbulence and know how to avoid it. If we suspect we might encounter wake turbulence--or any kind of choppy air--staying at or below design maneuvering speed is key. Hitting a roiling wake at near- maximum airspeed can only end one way--in pieces. April Fly-out. Sat. Morning on Apr. 19, I and my friend (since 1948) Fred Johnson scanned the skies, and decided a fly-out was going to work so we rolled 757 out of the hangar and flew out to Pro-Air to meet the rest of the gang....by the time Gary, Ed, Mike & Ann arrived things had started to deteriorate and after much debate it was decided we would all meet and eat and forget the fly-out. Fred and I flew back to Pilot Butte International, put 757 to bed, picked up Norma and Wanda and drove out to the Shilo Inn to meet everyone for breakfast............the Shilo only offered a continental-type repast so we agreed to all meet down the road at the McKay House.......... We had our own area, the food was very good and the hangar flying and solve the world problems sessions were great. Meeting for breakfast is not quite like having a fly-out but it is a whole lot of fun and we would like to encourage others to join us.......Maybe this month we can all board our planes and fly to somewhere fun....... Mark your calendar for May 15 for the Meeting/Potluck and for May 17 for a Fly-out........we will pick a fun place so plan on being there...... Don Wilfong -- Temp. Fly-out Chair ______________________________________________ Airline quotes ... Flight attendant: 'Your seat cushions can be used for flotation; and, in the event of an emergency water landing, please paddle to shore and take them with our compliments';. Doolittle Raiders A few months ago a chapter fly-in visited Pendleton and viewed a memorial to this historic event. While we all sit around and 'ooh' and 'aah' over the latest aircraft that technology sets before us let us not forget what the men of Phil Compton's generation flew, and what wondrous things they did with their aircraft. These were the guys who were laying their lives on the line, in little aluminum airplanes, to save this country...SIXTY-SIX YEARS AGO! Here are some photos ... COOPA officer contact info: President Gary E. Miller 20340 Empire Blvd., E-3 Bend, OR 97701 541-382-8588 gem at rellim.com Vice President Nancy Lecklider 3054 NW Clubhouse Dr Bend, OR 97701 541 330-1853 leckone at bendcable.com Secretary/Treasurer Don Wilfong 210 SE Cessna Dr Bend, OR 97702 541 389-1456 dwnw at bendbroadband.com Temp Flyout Chair Don Wilfong 210 SE Cessna Dr Bend, OR 97702 541 389-1456 dwnw at bendbroadband.com Program Chair Ed Endsley 63505 Bridle Ln Bend, OR 97701 541 382-6414 ed at edendsley.com And finally, send Newsletter inputs to Mike Bond 22052 Banff Drive Bend, OR 97702 541 317-8443 mvbond at spiritone.com