Website http://co-opa.com November 2016, Vol. 16, Issue 11 President's Message: The Holidays are closing in on us. This month’s meeting on November 17th (Third Thursday) will be our last regular meeting of the year. So come out to the Professional Air waiting room in the KBDN Flight Services Building. Make your ETA to be around 6 pm. Chow down at our 6:30pm potluck, and stay for the usual 'formal' meeting at 7pm. Once again the weather for our Fly-Out is a tad iffy. Bend is OK, partly cloud, chance of rain. Klamath Falls to the south looks to be no fun. Ditto for John Day to the East. Thinking about the Valley is pointless. Be sure to RSVP to me if you plan to attend the EAA Christmas dinner on December 14th at the Bend Black Bear Diner. The party starts at 5:30pm. Last year was a blast, expect similar fun this year! RSVP’s to Thomas Phy: maxfly55@gmail.com, 510-306-1500 Or to Gary Miller: gem@rellim.com, 541-382-8588 Calendar: 17 November – Monthly Meeting 19 November – Monthly Fly-out 14 December Wednesday – EAA Xmas Dinner 17 December – Monthly Fly-out 19 January – Monthly Meeting 21 January – Monthly Fly-out Upcoming Bend Pattern Change: Greetings Everyone, I hope all of you have been enjoying the mild fall weather and have been able to get in some flying. There have been some great flying days! In anticipation of the construction of the new Helicopter Operations Area, located on the North East corner of the airport, some changes will be made to the traffic pattern and the "Fly Friendly" program. Based on input from pilots and neighbors new brochures are being published that will include both the new traffic pattern and suggested routes and procedures to increase safety, lower the noise impact on our neighbors and to facilitate the transition of the majority of the helicopter traffic to the East side of the field. Runway 16 will become right hand traffic and runway 16 will remain the calm wind runway. The changes were reviewed and approved by the FAA after an airspace study. The advantages include increased separation of rotor and fixed wing traffic, reduced noise impacts on neighbors and a reduction in incidents where a fixed wing aircraft could descend onto a helicopter while turning from downwind onto base and final. Fixed wing traffic will fly the pattern on the West side of the field and rotor wing will be on the East side. On the ground the changes will allow for a transition of helicopter traffic to the new Heliport. This will greatly reduce any hovering to parking that now includes "cross runway" traffic to and from the current west side parking areas and intermingling with taxiing or parked fixed wing aircraft. The Helicopter operations area is scheduled for completion by next summer. As with all change these new procedures will require a period of adjustment and increased diligence. Not everyone will read the NOTAMS, listen to the AWOS, contact Unicom or listen to other traffic. Non-standard traffic patterns are observed now and will probably continue. As the regulations state: "vigilance shall be maintained by each person operating an aircraft so as to see and avoid other aircraft." PLEASE NOTE! These changes are not yet in affect. We anticipate that the changes will be made in late November or early December. Brochures will be distributed, NOTAMS issued, AWOS announcements put in place, the segmented circle will be modified, Unicom notifications and updates to the Chart Supplement documents will all be put in motion to ensure that the information is available. The only official source of NOTAM information is from the FAA through the Flight Services NOTAM program. Thank you, Gary Judd, Airport Manager Bend Municipal Airport October Fly-out: As expected, the weather was funky for our October Fly-Out. We met at Pro Air, pondered the skys, examined the test leaves, and decided to head out to Christmas Valley (62S) At 57 nm away barely even a cross country, but the weather made the trip more than a milk run. The ceiling passing by Pine Mountain and China hat was not much more than a thousand feet, compensated for by excellent horizontal visibility. It is funny how once familiar terrain becomes new again under conditions like that. Otherwise the flight was uneventful, and followed by an excellent breakfast at The Pines Cafe. They had closed off breakfast, but since we were the only patrons in they had they graciously served us anyway. After we came finished our plans for world domination over coffee we headed back to admire the nice new ramps and taxiway before heading back to Bend. Oh, yes, one us did come back with a bag of turds for Christmas Gifts. :-) My Inbox: Crescent Lake Airport (5S2) was briefly reopened. There was a NOTAM opening the airport with a reduced runway length, but that NOTAM is now withdrawn. Instead the new AF/D now says: AIRPORT CLOSED TO FIXED WING AIRCRAFT. The OPA is watching the situation, but ODA is reluctant to spend any money on the airport. 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