CASCADE FLYER ----->>; DON'T MISS THE XMAS PARTY Website: http://co-opa.com/ December 2007, Vol. 07, Issue 12 President's Message: We certainly had a great speaker last month in Scott Philiben of Precise Flight. Scott had the usual things to say about the product line of his company Precise Flight located here on the Bend Municipal Airport. They now have 85% of the worldwide pulse-light market and have a bunch of other cool products. Then he really woke us up with some really exciting research on how to use light to ward off birds and other airport critters. To vastly over-simplify what he had to say: if you modulate the frequency and pulse rate of the light coming from your landing lights in certain ways you can scare pesky birds out of the way of your aircraft. Even better the birds do not learn to ignore the signals over time, so the repulsing light works as well every time you shine it on birds as the first time they saw it. The promise of this new technology is to greatly reduce bird strikes and that is something aviators have been seeking for a long time. Since there are patents being filed Scott was reluctant to share all the details but as Precise Flight finishes up development on the project we can expect some really ground breaking results. By popular demand we will follow the age-old traditions of our Chapter. The gathering will start at the usual 6:00pm for hanger flying, 6:30pm there will be our potluck. The club will provide the main dish and the membership will provide the rest of the trimmings. At 7:00pm we will have a short business meeting. Then comes the main event, the Yankee Swap. Everyone that wishes to participate must bring an aviation related gift. Items need not be new. Maybe there is some unused, but valuable item in the bottom of you flight bag that just needs a new home? Maybe you have gotten tired of the tail wheel spring you took home last year? Wrap it up and bring it to place beneath our pagan Yule Tree. This is one of our best events of the year so do not miss out! Be there or be square! Calendar: 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 20 March- Monthly Meeting 22 March- Monthly Flyout 17 April- Monthly Meeting 19 April- Monthly Flyout Web doings: Not much new on the web this month. As always December is not really a month for aviation news. You might have noticed that the Bend AWOS data is missing from our website, but it is not our fault. The AWOS data is also missing from the master URL as well: http://www.bendmunicipal.awosnet.com/ The city of Bend has been notified and we will let you know when it is back up. If you did spot anything newsworthy then please drop me a line. For the usual 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". Gary My Inbox: My, oh my. There has been a ton of email flying around HB 2210. That is the new law that mandates that all auto gas in Oregon have 10% ethanol. One can debate whether using alcohol made from corn as a fuel additive for cars makes any sense, but we know it is just not an alternative if you have a mogas STC for your airplane. Judging from my inbox the OPA, the EAA and a bunch of other organizations have been lambasting the Oregon legislature for this stupid move. Sadly it looks like bureaucratic pigheadedness still rules and no exceptions will be made. Let's hope that all our communications to our elected state representatives pays off in the coming special session. Random Thoughts: It's the last newsletter of the year. Looking around at other publications I see that it is traditional to create lists of the Best and Worst of the years events. Being a bit late on deadline, and a bit unimaginative I am not quite up to 10 of each. So fill out my list as you see fit. So here goes, our local Central Oregon Best and Worst aviation events of 2007, in no particular order. The years Best: 1. 5000 feet of brand new runway at KBDN. 2. Cessna purchases the assets of Columbia Aircraft and vows to expand operations in Bend. 3. Sue Palmeri takes on the job as Bend Airport's second airport manager. 4. Cafe 3456 makes KBDN a destination for the $100 hamburger. The years Worst: 1. Columbia Aircraft files for bankruptcy. 2. Greg Phillips, the first Bend airport manager, gets hired away by the Dental Floss growers in Missoula Montana. 3. Weeks of evening, weekday, and weekend closures of the Bend Airport on short notice. 4. Way too many monthly CO-OPA fly outs called on account of bad weather. 5. Central Oregon radar service delayed (again). Gary Top this for a speeding ticket... Two British traffic patrol officers from North Berwick were involved in an unusual incident while checking for speeding motorists on the A1 Great North Road. One of the officers used a hand-held radar device to check the speed of a vehicle approaching over the crest of a hill, and was surprised when the speed was recorded at over 300 mph. Their radar suddenly stopped working and the officers were not able to reset it. Just then a deafening roar over the treetops revealed that the radar had in fact latched on to a NATO Tornado fighter jet, which was engaged in a low-flying exercise over the Border district, approaching from the North Sea. Back at police headquarters the chief constable fired off a stiff complaint to the RAF Liaison office. Back came the reply in true laconic RAF style: 'Thank you for your message, which allows us to complete the file on this incident. You may be interested to know that the tactical computer in the Tornado had detected the presence of, and subsequently locked onto, your hostile radar equipment and automatically sent a jamming signal back to it. Furthermore, an air-to-ground missile aboard the fully- armed aircraft had also automatically locked onto your equipment. Fortunately the pilot flying the Tornado recognized the situation for what it was, quickly responded to the missile systems alert status, and was able to override the automated defense system before the missile was launched and your hostile radar installation was destroyed. Good Day....' Dealing with the fog... For Thanksgiving, we hoped to fly to San Carlos, in the SF Bay Area. For the previous flight there we had to deal with smoke in the Sacramento Valley (see the September newsletter), but it sure beats the alternative of driving for 10 hours. Frequent checking with DUATS predicted the 5-day weather window we needed would happen, so we went ahead and planned to depart at 1000 PST, to arrive at San Carlos around 3pm. Bend Muni was clear to 12000 ft, with 10 SM visibility. Redmond had a freezing fog layer but from experience we knew it usually burns off by 10am. Arriving at Bend Muni a little late we saw the fog had already raced south, off the end of RWY 16, courtesy of a blast of arctic air from Central Canada. At 1030 PDT, with a stiff breeze from the north, we departed from RWY34 as the fog moved overhead ...... Crosswind and downwind legs were held at 500 feet, staying just at the bottom of the fog layer. By now, the fog had reached way south of Hwy 20 but we could see a bright 'slot' to the SW. Staying at about 500ft AGL, we passed Lava Butte below its crest and left the fog behind .... We were the last plane to arrive or depart Bend that morning (all day?), as we heard others diverting to Prineville, still in the clear. The trip to San Carlos was fantastic ... smooth and clear with a steady tailwind the whole way and the Bay Area traffic was light (at least in the air!). We had a great stay but left a day early as a weather system was moving into the Pacific Northwest ... The return trip was again smooth, with a few cloud layers just above our cruise altitude. The first warning of trouble came as we monitored 122.8 around Chemult and heard a lot of Sunriver traffic activity ... yes, Bend was (still?) fogged in and the AWOS reported a 300 ft ceiling. The fog this time was just north of Sunriver and the RWY 18 approach was VFR but with fog swirling in the trees. The S21 ramp was quite busy .... We were lucky to meet another Bend evacuee who asked a friend from Sunriver if he could drive us all to Bend Muni to pick-up our cars. He tried again later in the day to fly back to Bend, but the fog settled in around Lava Butte and all points north, so he returned to S21 So next morning we all drove back to Sunriver to find the fog had deposited a thick layer of rime ice on all the ramp occupants ... after an hour of ice removal at around 20degF, the Cardinal started on 2 blades and I flew uneventfully back to Bend .... Ann & Mike Bond .+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 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 myexcel.com