CASCADE FLYER August 2006, Vol. 06, Issue 8 Website: http://co-opa.com/ President's Message: Many thanks to John Miller of COCC for visiting us last month. John came along with two of his current students, Josh Clawson and Melvin Gildow. Always good to hear that the COCC aviation program is going well and that there really is a new generation of pilots in the pipeline. We all resolved to stay in touch more in the future. John also extolled the virtues of the newly upgraded flight simulator. The flight simulator is available to the public, with instructor, at a bargain price. The COCC instructors can give you a full Instrument Proficiency Check without burning more gas than it takes to drive to the airport. This fall, Clay Trenz will be working with COCC to put up an exhibit of aviation art. To help get the ball rolling Clay will be this month's speaker and fill us in on the showing. There are a number of fantastic artists in the area so the show should be a real winner. Calendar: 17 Aug - Monthly Meeting 19 Aug - Monthly Flyout 21 Sep - Monthly Meeting 23 Sep - Monthly Flyout - NWFlyFest in Albany? 19 Oct - Monthly Meeting 21 Oct - Monthly Flyout 16 Nov - Monthly Meeting 18 Nov - Monthly Flyout Web doings: More progress with the new Bend AWOS: It is on the web now, almost. If you are one of the lucky you can see the current airport weather here: http://bendmunicipal.awosnet.com/. The site uses a browser plug-in, which means that cell phones, PDAs, and many PCs do not work with it. Try your luck with it. Hopefully we can get the AWOS hooked directly to the National Weather Service soon so we can access it like most other AWOS. As always you can access the Chapter web site at: http://co-opa.com/ To access the members only areas the username is "BDN" and the password is "123.0". In honor of our old airport ID(s) the username can also be S07 or AEB. My Inbox: Looks like we need a new Fly Out Chairman. Curtis Turner had been doing a good job organizing our flock but it looks like he has been turned to the dark side. Curt has sold his twin Apache and is looking to take up boating in the San Juan Islands. I expect Curt to recognize the error of his ways eventually, but until then we could use a new Fly Out Chair. Random Thoughts: After two months I still cannot lay the subject of scud running between Bend and Eugene to rest. Clearly many folks have their own opinions on the subject and I continue to get questions on the topic. First, the easy question: why did I not just fly over the Santiam Pass? The easy answer is that the worst of the weather at the time was over that pass, so an alternate was required. Just for the sake of argument let's assume the weather was the same over both. The Santiam route would of course then deserve serious attention. Certainly the Santiam is a bit more direct. On the other hand, following highway 20 has its downside. In low weather you can not see all the way to the other side from the top of the pass. The highway, and the valley, weaves around Hog Rock and Detroit Lake. Random Thoughts – continued Then just west of the Detroit Lake dam you have to take a narrow tight S-turn before seeing the end of the mountains. I do not like surprises and a few times that route has surprised me. There are several advantages to the Willamette Pass route. First there are good hard surface runways at Crescent city (5S2) and Oakridge (5S0). On the Santiam you have no hard surface runway from Sisters (6K5) to Lebanon (S30) or Albany (S12). If there was a serious chance I would need these backups I would not go at all, but all else being equal I like to have options. The second is that you can see almost all the way straight down highway 58 from the pass to Cottage Grove (61S). You have a very firm basis for a go/no-go decision before heading down the valley. I have also had some spirited discussions on how to plan for flights over unfamiliar terrain. What can you do beyond just looking at the sectionals without burning avgas? Mike Bond suggested that you need not fly your route ahead of time to get a visual feel for the terrain. You could instead fly the route in a flight simulator on your PC. For even more detail you can grab a copy of DeLorme's Topo USA. This program allows you to view USGS maps in 3D from any angle. Both options are inexpensive, but there is an almost as good alternative that is free. That solution is Google Earth ….. You can download a copy from http://earth.google.com/ although to use it well you need a good internet connection. With Google Earth you can pan to just about any point on earth and zoom in all the way to the street level. For flight planning you can set your heading, set your altitude and then check out the terrain. A fantastic tool and did I mention free? The tool is best used interactively but I have included a static shot for reference. The shot is from just east of where Century Drive meets highway 58 looking northwest from about 33,000 feet. On the right of the image is Waldo Lake. Now it should be obvious that in low weather you can still look right down the valley to see where you are going. If you can't turn around! The shot also sort of shows the low spot to the west of Waldo Lake that I have mentioned using before. It shaves the corner over traveling all the way down Century Drive to highway 58 before turning west. You can see the short cut is not the lowest path over the top, but it has always been low enough for me. Finally, I keep getting asked why I chose 8,500 feet? The more I am asked the more I am not sure. Given my local knowledge of the terrain along the path it is just the number that feels right to me. Any higher and, for me, the trip is a 'no brainer'. Any lower and I am only proceeding on that route with extreme caution. It is also very easy to start making the go/no-go decision by eyeball from the car while driving to the airport. Mount Bachelor is 9,080 feet high so if I can see most of that butte then the route is probably fine for flying. So the truth is that my only concrete justification is that it is a personal minimum that has served me well. But please do not take my word for it, set your own personal minimums that will keep you safe out there. HONDA PARTNERS WITH PIPER TO ENTER VLJ MARKET Something old and something new entered the competitive very light jet market when Honda announced that not only was it going to go into production of its innovative HondaJet, it was also forming a business alliance with Piper Aircraft to collaborate on sales and service and to explore opportunities in engineering and other areas of aviation. This will be the mega-automotive manufacturer's first foray into aviation production while Piper is about to celebrate its seventieth anniversary in the business. Honda will form a new company to hold the FAA type and production certificates. Type certification is expected to occur in three to four years. The airplane will be built in the United States, but few other details were made available; more information is expected in the fall. ______________________________________________ CO-OPA NEWS.... Curtis and Jackie Turner have found a new love in boating in the San Juan Islands and are currently pursuing finding a boat they can live comfortably on part of the time. This means they have decided to sell the Apache (a beautiful plane with lots of extras). It is currently for sale. If you have ever longed to own a twin....this is a nice one. With their newfound passion they have decided to drop out of our flying group. This leaves the position of "Fly- Out Chair" wide open...I have agreed to fill in, for a while, until we find someone new to take on the challenge. I have done this for several years and it has been a lot of fun but I think it is time for some new vision and enthusiasm. Let Gary or myself know if you would be interested in taking on this fun project. I will be glad to help get you started. We certainly all have enjoyed having Curt and Jackie in our group and will miss their smiling faces and the sight of their pretty Apache on our fly-outs. We wish them blue skies (and waters) and tail (or sail winds). We hope they stay in touch. Don Wilfong Hello Oregon Pilots!!! A special thanks to our program presenters for the July potluck meeting: Mr. John Miller, COCC Aviation Program Coordinator Mr. Josh Clawson, COCC Aviation Program Student Mr. Mel Gildow, COCC Aviation Program Student Thank you all for your participation last night. Everyone said they enjoyed the presentation and enjoyed meeting you. There was a general feeling of pleasure in having fresh voices and perspectives. Congratulations on your success. You and your flying buddies are always welcome anytime. Feel free to contribute any input and solicit any comments from us. As members you have access to the membership list and of course the social times at the meetings are an opportunity to contact our great resources. Hope to see you for the flyout Saturday, 8:30AM at Bend Airport Flight Services Building. (see reports on the Gold Beach flyout later) If there aren't enough seats for guests, the rest of us go to breakfast and hanger fly, or go home and mow the lawn like we should anyway... Consider reserving a plane and work this group flight into your training regime. Being part of a gaggle group is a wonderful flying experience... Potluck meeting: Third Thursday @ 6PM, Bend Airport Flight Services Bldg. Flyout the following Saturday and/or as announced. Watch for the Newsletter and flyout notices, usually a couple of days in advance by email, make sure you're a member to receive these notices. Also check the web site at: http://co-opa.com/ Previous Newsletters are archived there as well. Thanks everyone, fly safe! Ed Endsley, CO-OPA Program Chair FLY-OUT FUN...GOLD BEACH... At our Meeting/Potluck on Thurs. July 20 we discussed the fly-out to Eugene that Curtis Turner had scheduled for Sat. July 22. Several people said they would go and our plans were made to meet at Pro Air at 0830 for a departure at 0900. With all the warm (no make it hot) weather we made an executive decision to go to the coast, where it was a little cooler...Eugene really sounded good... but...will have to wait until later when it is not quite so hot. Curt had been having some starter problems with their Apache and it was down so they elected to go to the San Juan Islands for a little boating...I bet it was cool there too. Well back to our trip... It was decided to go to Gold Beach on the Southern Oregon coast.... Mike and Ann Bond were planning to go, but couldn't, so that cut one plane from our group...but...we had Gary Miller in his Turbo Centurion (Ed Endsley rode with him), Arnie Veterick had his V tail Bonanza and Norma and I were in our Skylane. There were high clouds and you could see a few rain showers coming down here and there (we got a few drops on the windshield now and then but as we got nearer the coast it became severe clear. By my GPS it took me 1.4 hrs to go down and 1.6 to come back. Both Gary and Arnie cheated....They tucked up their landing gear and they were then able to go a little faster that the Skylane. Ed mentioned a couple of sandbar airports on the Rogue River....One of them is Half Moon Bar. This is a cozy little runway... you fly way down into the river canyon, fly around a mountain, then when you finally see the runway you make a quick turn and drop down thru a notch in the tall trees and land on a short runway. They have overnight accommodations. It is a neat place but it is not for the inexperienced pilot to try. If you ever get the urge call me, I will put you in touch with someone that has flown in there many times (I rode in and out with him several times). We landed at Gold Beach (a very nice airport) and took a short walk over to part of the business district (we never actually went into the main part of the town). We had a good meal and later had one of the biggest and best ice cream cones I have ever had....Norma couldn't even eat all of hers. The temps were in the 70s and there was only a light breeze (it was wonderful) we sat and watched the pelicans fly along and then just fold up and dive into the water and bring up a fish, swallow that fish and go up and do it all over again. There was a "free" museum that we enjoyed going thru, a good sized boat, from years gone by, sitting on the bottom, in shallow water, with the water just up over the deck, a real estate office, some charter boat places for jet boat rides and more than one place to eat. We guys all took a walk up onto the bridge for a great view and then Gary, Ed and Arnie walked down to the beach and clear around the airport while Norma and I just relaxed and took a slow walk back to the planes. It was a lazy day and we all hated to leave for home. We didn't head home until almost evening (Gary and Arnie cheated again with their landing gear). We all had a pleasant flight home with Arnie going to Redmond, Gary to Bend and Norma and I to Pilot Butte International. You sure missed a good fly-out this time. Don Wilfong GOLD BEACH...a different perspective The flyout to Gold Beach was a roaring success! Leaving Bend, the weather was strange. We were getting rained on although the ceiling was probably twenty thousand feet and looked like it went to Asia. The coast of Oregon we knew would probably clear later and discussed alternatives if not. As we neared Roseburg we could see blue and the edge of cloudiness. The trip down the Rogue River canyon was astonishing. A very deep gorge leading out to the Pacific cutting right through the coast range much like the Columbia. The Museum we toured told of glaciation and floods eleven thousand years ago that shaped this country. The gravel bars and flats at the conjunction of the Rogue and Illinois Rivers host two of the meanest airstrips I've encountered. Forget going around, although I can understand wishing to. Cruising down the river and recognizing at the last minute that this was it, making a hard turn to short final and planting it right now... Leaving would amount to getting off in your best short field technique and staying in ground effect down the river. I would recommend a good slow speed, high lift wing and a large load of fortitude. Experience would be a good thing;; this isn't a place to practice... The thing that made it especially poignant for me was that my grandfather had hunted these canyons to feed his family. My mother and her siblings had been stalked by cougar in these mountains. My family had homesteaded here after coming around the Horn in a sailing ship. On this day I flew over this country with Gary Miller and got a real sense of the challenges my family encountered and the beauty they enjoyed... Wow. My grandfathers and my father never flew in a plane, they knew this country from a Model T and the back of a horse... The green, as beautiful as that of Scotland, is the result of 120 inches of rain a year. I lived on the coast of Oregon for the first ten years of my life and know about rainforest winters... Wet, wetter, wettest, etc... Gary was headed out to sea to set up for the 45 for right down wind to 16 and the view of the offshore rocks was stunning. Hawaii was only 20 hours away... Base to final over the Gold Beach bar over a gaggle of fishing boats and a beautiful touchdown in sea level air. A short walk into town for a seafood lunch, the fresh crab was too good to be true. We walked on up to the bridge over the Rogue River and then back out to the beach. I shed my shoes and waded out into the surf to take pictures of Gary and Arnie and one apricot colored puppy named Paige. I was a kid again!!! Ed Endsley Ed Note: Thanks to Don and Ed for the photos that follow… 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. __________________________________________________________________________________ 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