CASCADE FLYER July 2007, Vol. 07, Issue 7 Website: http://co-opa.com/ President's Message: We try to have a speaker every month for the meetings, but I do not remember any speaker bringing such a large show-and-tell item as last month. Many thanks to Mike Custard of Advanced Aviation for bringing by his 3/4 scale Titan Mustang. Mike told us how his company helps kit builders finish their kits. It was clear after his talk that Mike knows how to assemble airplanes. On Saturday our fly-out took us to the Warhawk Air Museum in Nampa Idaho. There we got to see a real P- 51 and see how faithful the Titan kit is to the real thing. Both are impressive machines, but if you want to fly one of them right now only Mike's is for sale. This month our meeting will be on the normal schedule. Ed Endsley will provide the details about this month's speaker. Meet at the Flight Services building at 6pm for some hanger flying, at 6:30pm our famous pot luck and then our formal meeting at 7pm. Calendar: 19 July - Monthly Meeting 21 July - Monthly Flyout 16 August - Monthly Meeting 18 August - Monthly Flyout 20 September- Monthly Meeting 22 September- Monthly Flyout 18 October- Monthly Meeting 20 October- Monthly Flyout 15 November- Monthly Meeting 17 November- Monthly Flyout Web doings: The Central Oregon 99s has cancelled their Poker Run on July 14th, due to poor response. They hope to reschedule for later in the summer. If you are interested there are more details on their web site: http://www.centraloregon99s.org/upcoming-events.php For chapter news and pointers to other aviation goodies check out our chapter website: http://co-opa.rellim.com/ To access the members only areas the username is "BDN" and the password is "123.0". My Inbox: Summer is in full swing and there are no end of great events to check out before fall arrives. Particularly overloaded will be the weekend of August 25. As always will be the ever popular Central Oregon Airshow in Madras on Friday and Saturday. Last year they had an amazing stealth aircraft fly-by at dusk, who knows what they will cook up for this year. More details are on their website at: http://www.centraloregonairshow.org/ Also on the same days will be the OPA State Convention, and Northwest Art and Air Fair, at Albany airport on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. They have some great speakers lined up for this year. You can register online at: http://www.nwartandair.org/ Rounding out the big weekend will be the NorWest FlyFest at Eugene Airport. Once again there are more details on the web at: http://www.norwestflyfest.com/ Random Thoughts:: How many of us remember to check our ELT every time we shut down? It hardly seems worth it, checking over and over again for something that never seems to matter. Last month, on returning to Bend Airport from the monthly fly-out I learned first hand how much it matters. Sometime early Saturday an ELT went off in the Central Oregon area. After the beacon had been transmitting for several hours, things started to escalate. NOAA operates satellite receivers to that detect ELT signals and can roughly determine the location of the source. This is called the Search And Rescue Satellite Aided Tracking (SARSAT) System. So far in 2007 the SARSAT program has led to the rescues of 190 people. Over 5,500 people have been rescued in the US since the program began. NOAA triangulated the signal to the general vicinity of Central Oregon and called the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) for the next step of a search and rescue mission. Up till now few had been much inconvenienced, but when the CAP received the call they swing into action. CAP dispatched a pilot in a 182 from Medford to fly to Bend to search from the air. They also dispatched a local crew of four in a Chevy Suburban loaded with radios. The ground crew headed up to the top of Pilot Butte and from there started a radio triangulation drill to home in the signal. By using directional antennas and by plotting the direction of the signal from several locations the CAP crew is able to narrow the search area to the vicinity of the Bend airport. Both the ground crew and the pilot in the 182 were able to converge at the Bend Airport around mid-afternoon. At this point you or I would have assumed the problem was an errant ELT, but the CAP crews are still worried that the signal may be from a downed aircraft near the airport. At this point their high-gain directional antennas became a liability. Any direction they are pointed in yields a strong signal. Yet they had to locate the exact source of the signal to determine whether the signal was a false alarm or a real emergency. The solution was good old-fashioned leg-work. The ground crew grabbed handheld radios and proceeded on foot. Even the handheld radios where swamped by the strong signal. So they removed the antennas from the radios and held the radios against their chest. Now their bodies were low gain directional antennas allowing them to continue to narrow their search. All the metal hangers and metal airplanes bounced, reflected and blocked the ELT transmissions so the final few hundred yards took almost an hour. In the end the alarm was determined to be a false one and emanating from a locked row of T-hangers along Powell Butte highway. Only then could the air search plane land as the search was now known not to be a rescue mission. The T-hangers were all locked and the city had no access to them. To complete their mission the CAP had to get the city to call the hanger tenants to come out and check their planes. I left the area at this time, so I do not know how long the CAP crew stayed or which hanger held the errant transmitter. Surely their vigil had a long time yet to go. I was very impressed by the CAP response. It is a great comfort to know that if my ELT trips because I need help that so many trained volunteers will be diligently sniffing the ether to find their way to me. On the flip side it was sad to know that such a dedicated group of unpaid volunteers had just wasted a beautiful day tracking down a simple mechanical glitch. As of 1 Feb 2009 the old analog 121.5MHz ELT system will be retired. The replacement 406MHz digital system will be a big improvement, but there will always be a need for volunteers to put their feet on the ground when the automated call for help is sent. So let's give them a break and check our ELTs every time we shutdown. Save the volunteers for when we really need them. Gary Miller MAY FLY-OUT... Due to an email glitch (my ISP decided Don's email was 'spam') this article did not arrive in time to accompany last month's photos ….. however, here we go ….. We gathered at Pro Air at about 0830 for a planned departure at 0900.. well the best laid plans etc. Gary Miller agreed to take Ed Endsley, Don Wilfong and Don's long time friend Fred Johnson from Idaho, David Dressler had his neighbor Mike Regan with him and Mike and Ann Bond showed up......as weather was checked and discussed. MAY FLY-OUT... continued Mike and Ann decided it might be quite turbulent for the return trip so they elected to go have breakfast here in Bend with the EAA group.......by the time the remaining two planes took on fuel and got ready to depart the clock had ticked way past the intended 0900 proposed departure time...but that was okay as we didn't have a schedule to meet so all was well...... The flight to Pendleton was pleasant and we all kept busy looking for the other aircraft (They were in radio contact and maintained altitude separation) but to our amazement we never caught sight of the other plane until it was on final at Pendleton. It is hard to understand how difficult it is to spot another plane sometimes. We checked into getting a car to drive to the weather station........but........it was decided that a walk would do us all good...so...we hoofed it over to the weather station.. It was quite interesting and they did serve "light" refreshments. The weather station was close to the B-25 display commemorating the fact that Pendleton was a training base for the crews that dropped bombs on Japan at the beginning of WW 2. On a previous fly-out we were there when they dedicated the memorial. By this time we were starved, as we had not had breakfast yet. A long walk back to the planes then on over to the airline terminal helped build our appetites...oooops......the cafe was closed so we hoofed it back to the planes and flew on back to Bend. We had a head wind but the flight was great. By this time we were really getting hungry so we all went to Cheerleaders and took care of the problem. This was a fun trip and it was enjoyable to ride with Gary.......he did notice that the addition of our fat bodies had a slight effect on takeoff and climb.....but.....his trusty steed was more than up to the task. Don Wilfong Don Wilfong GROUND-EFFECT VEHICLE PRODUCTION LAUNCHED Moller International has completed tooling for its M200G volantor, a small, "Jetson-like" two-passenger vehicle designed to take-off and land vertically. The M200G is saucer-shaped, about the size of a small automobile, and is intended for operation continuously about 10 feet above ground level. "It's the ultimate off- road vehicle, able to travel over any surface," claimed Dr. Paul Moller, CEO. He further claimed the M200G could speed up to 50 mph over a variety of terrain because the electronics keep the craft stabilized at no more than 10 feet altitude, where extra lift is obtained from operating near the ground. For more information, visit http://www.Moller.com. The M200X volantor has completed over two hundred successful test flights. It has been extensively hard-tooled so that derivatives not requiring FAA certification are now available. Recreational and utilitarian models include: Demonstrators for use over one's own property (M200D) Versions that operate within ground effect -- approximately 10 feet AGL (M200G) Experimental or homebuilt variants (M200E) Rescue configuration capable of docking with skyscrapers (Firefly 3) Depending on the number of orders received the prices could vary between $125,000 for the M200G to $450,000 for the Firefly 3. Information on potential military and/or para-military applications of the M200R and M200M are welcome. Interested parties should contact Bruce Calkins at bruce@moller.com, by phone at (530) 756-5086 by facsimile to (530) 756-5179. The June fly-out, another perspective Since you have already read Gary's 'President's Message', above, you may be way ahead of me … So this was to be the first flight of N2123Q after a month in annual inspection, always a potentially interesting event. Our friendly FBO had asked if anything else was needed before delivering the plane back to our hangar on the Friday evening before the fly-out … I asked for the tanks to be topped-off and was assured it would be done. Next morning, bright and early (for us!), we met at the Flight Shop and with only 2 planes, it was decided that Don Wilfong would fly with us to Nampa (S67) in our Cardinal RG. Preflight completed, we discover the tanks are almost empty, so taxi to the Cardlock to fill-up with 100LL. By this time Gary is already leaving ….. Taxiing to RWY16, everything appears OK; then we start the run-up and hear an ELT transmitting, very loud. We flip the ELT panel reset and still the ELT continues to transmit. By this time there are a couple planes lined up behind us so we announce we will taxi down 16 to the first taxiway and exit while we fix the problem. We park by the north hangars and start to investigate ….but cannot turn off the ELT. Since we can't fly with the ELT transmitting, we decide to disable it by removing the batteries, only to discover it requires a torx wrench, which my toolkit doesn't contain. Fortunately, being Saturday, there are several fellow plane owners outside nearby hangars, who offer to help. We finally open the ELT and remove the batteries. In total disbelief, we are still hearing the ELT on a handheld …. with batteries in one hand and the empty ELT in the other. It seems obvious now, that there was also another ELT transmitting at the same time, but at that time we were incredulous …! The conclusion reached was that maybe our ELT was not the one we heard at run-up and we would risk doing one pattern to see if we could differentiate between the signal strengths (the other getting weaker as we left the airport). The Cardinal's IO-360 is a little quirky on hot starts, since it tends to flood but it usually starts after a few blades …. About now, I should mention we had a starter fail while at Salem, McNary Field on May 31st. We were incredibly lucky that the FBO Maintenance Manager used to own a Cardinal RG and had kept a new starter for it. He was able to install it and we returned to Bend that same afternoon, with the annual scheduled for the next Monday. Returning to the 'fly-out', this is the day we cannot restart, BEFORE THE BATTERY GIVES UP … I guess the loading of start attempts as the starter was failing, then sitting in annual with battery-powered gear swings, then more attempted restarts, used whatever was left in the battery (new last year). Oh yeah, the 'new' starter is the original model that spins up slower than the Skytec we had previously … We decided to have breakfast at Café 3456 and call it a day ……… I took the ELT home and exercised it repeatedly (at the prescribed FAR times) and it never failed to reset. Two days later I recharged the battery and so far, all is OK. Prolog: It turned out that the hangar containing the errant ELT that Gary reported was located very near RWY16 run-up. Should I feel foolish, careful or taken a different action? Mike Bond ????????????????????????????????????????? Reunion of past and present COOPA members _____________________________________________ Benjamin Franklin quotes: Here's a couple: He that lieth down with dogs shall rise up with fleas. Never confuse motion with action. 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