CASCADE FLYER November 2007, Vol. 07, Issue 11 Website: http://co-opa.com/ President's Message: "Up, up and away, in my beautiful balloon...". The old song can not begin to capture what last months speaker had to say about his balloon adventures. Ken Couch, Bend's own nationally known lawn chair balloonist, was our speaker last month and what a nice experience he had to share. Ken stated he had no plans for a third trip, but we all know that once you have cheated gravity and taken flight that it is hard to stay on the ground. In case you missed it, or are looking for even more on Ken's travels you can check out his web site: http://www.couchballoons.com/ In other news we voted to continue our annual Christmas charity for a deserving youth or two at Pilot Butte Middle School. In past years we have really seen that we can make a difference for a local student. This year we are going to do it again. 100% of what you give goes to the student so make this the charity of choice this season. To be sure we have enough time to spend the money properly please be sure to have your donations in by the end of November to Don Wilfong: dwnw@bendbroadband.com The year has flown by and this month is our last regular meeting of the year, so don't miss out. Our program chair Ed Endsley will be sending out some more info on the event soon. 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. Next month will be our annual Holiday Party and the ever popular Yankee Swap gift exchange ?. the party that will be talked about at least until spring. Watch out for further details. Gary Calendar: 15 November- Monthly Meeting 17 November- Monthly Flyout 20 December- Monthly Meeting - XMAS Party 22 December- Monthly Flyout 17 January- Monthly Meeting 19 January- Monthly Flyout 21 February- Monthly Meeting 23 February- Monthly Flyout Web doings: Several links on the links page have been fixed and a few added. Let me know if you have some favorite links to add. And as always we have chapter news and 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: Sometimes the best email is no email. Now that the new runway is up and running we are spared emails on the ever changing closures. It was all for the best in the end as we have a nice shiny new runway. Sadly things are not done yet. Next year the old runway has to be removed and a new PAPI installed. So expect more runway closure next year. Random Thoughts: Sometimes it's the progress (again)... If it ain't one thing it is another. Reading the aviation trade press has been pretty depressing lately. I guess it is time to start saving up for new avionics (so what else is new). February in 2009 will be a bad month. Not only will all our old analog TVs be obsolete but, of more concern to pilots, our ELTs will lose much of their utility. In that month SARSAT will stop listening on 121.5MHz. If your ELT goes off in a remote area there may no longer be anyone listening. The NTSB is pushing the FAA to make 406MHz ELTs mandatory by 2009 so we may be forced into that upgrade soon. The accuracy of a 121.5MHz ELT signal detected from space is only 12 to 15nm. A basic 406MHz ELT improves to 1 to 3nm and when coupled with a GPS improves to less than 300 feet. That improvement makes it easy to see why many are pushing the new system. Since the early '90s the FAA has been threatening to phase out VORs starting in 2010. It's now almost 2008 and the FAA seems to be sticking to their guns on this one. First the VOR only stations will get the axe and later some of the VOR/DMEs. I know by now some of you are feeling smug that your new GPS/WAAS receivers will have a long life at the top of the heap. Think again. In 2013 the FAA will certify an improved GPS called L2C-capable and in 2015 an even fancier version called L5-capable. L2C adds a second frequency for increased accuracy and L5 adds a third one for even more performance. The goal is to improve GPS to be as good or better then ILS anywhere in the US. That, or course, will require a new GPS. If you are a big worrier then you can add 2020 to your list of bad years. Last month the FAA floated a plan to require ADS-B transceivers in all aircraft. It could also be a very good year if I can finally start worrying less about mid-air collisions. There is one disappearing navaid few seem to miss, the NDB. Not having an ADF in the panel means not having to fly NDB approaches on a check ride and very few miss that chore. The original plan was to also start phaseout of NDB in 2010 but they started early in 2005. Clearly it is possible for the FAA to get ahead of schedule. There is another bright note. LORAN just will not die. The feds are rethinking the plan to depend totally on GPS and the current thinking is the best backup would be LORAN and not VOR. Even better there is talk about an Enhanced LORAN (eLORAN). eLORAN would borrow a page from the GPS play book and transmit correction data along with the raw signal. After applying the correction data the position accuracy would be much improved over before. Of course the downside is that my old LORAN would still have to be replaced to make good use of the new system. The biggest item of "progress" on the list for many of our members is not the FAA's fault but the State of Oregon's fault. Recently signed legislation mandates that all auto gas in the state must have 10% ethanol. Sometimes we can feel a bit frustrated by the seemingly slow pace of FAA rule making but the impulsive actions of the state government are much scarier in comparison. Obviously a piece of "feel good" legislation since it appears that it costs as much oil to grow corn for ethanol as the ethanol saved in the gas tank. Sadly ethanol eats rubber and many engines that run fine on low lead will fail as a result. We should call this one the "Mechanics Full Employment Act". The bottom line for pilots is that ethanol laced auto gas is not acceptable. Pilots that have depended on auto gas will probably be forced back to the less environmentally friendly and more expensive 100LL. At least in the case of the electronics upgrade there is potential for many saving and/or improved functionality. In the case of the new auto gas rules the benefits are no where to be found except in the pockets of farmers. Let's hope we don't hear about any more "progress" for a while. Gary October fly-out Well, it didn't happen, due to weather, so a select group headed out for breakfast at Pilot Butte Drive-in. We of course solved all the world's problems ? as usual! Stay in touch ?. Charles Plumb was a US Navy jet pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface- to-air missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured and spent 6 years in a communist Vietnamese prison. He survived the ordeal and now lectures on lessons learned from that experience! One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man at another table came up and said, "You're Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!" "How in the world did you know that?" asked Plumb. "I packed your parachute," the man replied. Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude. The man pumped his hand and said, "I guess it worked!" Plumb assured him, "It sure did. If your chute hadn't worked, I wouldn't be here today." Plumb couldn't sleep that night, thinking about that man. Plumb says, "I kept wondering what he had looked like in a Navy uniform: a white hat; a bib in the back; and bell- bottom trousers. I wonder how many times I might have seen him and not even said 'Good morning, how are you?' or anything because, you see, I was a fighter pilot and he was just a sailor." Plumb thought of the many hours the sailor had spent at a long wooden table in the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands each time the fate of someone he didn't know. Now, Plumb asks his audience, "Who's packing your parachute?" Everyone has someone who provides what they need to make it through the day. He also points out that he needed many kinds of parachutes when his plane was shot down over enemy territory -- he needed his physical parachute, his mental parachute, his emotional parachute, and his spiritual parachute. He called on all these supports before reaching safety. Sometimes in the daily challenges that life gives us, we miss what is really important We may fail to say hello, please, or thank you, congratulate someone on something wonderful that has happened to them, give a compliment, or just do something nice for no reason. As you go through this week, this month, this year, recognize people who pack your parachutes. I am sending you this as my way of thanking you for your part in packing my parachute And I hope you will send it on to those who have helped pack yours! Sometimes, we wonder why friends keep forwarding jokes to us without writing a word. Maybe this could explain it: When you are very busy, but still want to keep in touch, guess what you do -- you forward jokes. And, to let you know that you are still remembered, you are still important, you are still loved, you are still cared for, guess what you get? A forwarded joke. So my friend, next time when you get a joke, don't think that you've been sent just another forwarded joke, but that you've been thought of today and your friend on the other end of your computer wanted to send you a smile, just helping you pack your parachute........ Have a great day and stay in touch..... +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The ?ussian Connection. In the 1970's, when the first American satellite photos were taken of this vessel as it sat inland, it was believed that it was a normal Jumbo jet sized aircraft under construction, and when the vessel was later photographed sitting in water the questions started to fly "what is it? " The 'Caspian Sea Monster' Ekranoplan is a Russian word meaning 'screen craft' or 'skimmer'. Neither a plane nor a ship, but a mixture of both, it moves along on a dynamic cushion of air, generated by its forward movement. It has similar characteristics of the common hovercraft in that it flies just above the surface as it moves. It is yet another example of a 'ground effect' or 'WIG (Wing-in-ground effect) vehicle. These craft were kept secret from the west until the fall of communism in the early 1990's. Envisage a hundred of such craft zooming across the ocean relatively undetected, underneath radar, to invade a country ? these move over water at over 500 knots and weigh over 540 tons ! Bend Muni has a new runway (page extract from the EAA newsletter, 'cos I thought it looked good!) Double Vision?? We actually landed on the left-hand runway, whose markings were later obliterated during an hour-long closure, after which the new runway was officially opened. Our landing on the old runway I recommend landing long on the new runway as there are no taxiway connectors until next Spring ?. Otherwise, it's a loooooong taxi to the end of the runway before exiting ? but it IS smooth compared to the old one! Mike Bond Thanks to Ed Endsley for risking his reputation, taking the photos on the right, of the return of the first flights to have taken-off and landed on the newly opened BND runway First Landing welcome committee. Pro Air's BeechJet left with a load of local dignitaries and was welcomed back by the Fire Dept. ?.. followed by their KingAir: ATC humor Tower: "... and for your information, you were slightly to the left of the centerline on that approach." Speedbird: "That's correct; and, my First Officer was slightly to the right" British Airways flight asks for push back clearance from terminal. Control Tower replies: "And where is the world's most experienced airline going today without filing a flight plan?" ______________________________ Thought for the day: The scientific theory I like best is that the rings of Saturn are composed entirely of lost airline baggage. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 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