Executive Flyers May 2008 Newsletter
(916) 427-1888
Congratulations to:
Daniel McCaffery for passing his instrument rating checkride and Gregory Ertl and Chris Stone for winning the monthly drawing of a month's dues or an hour of instruction.
Open House on May 17
There will be an Executive Airport open house from 8:30 am to 3 pm at Executive Airport on Saturday, May 17th. Events include a pancake breakfast fund raiser for the Civil Air Patrol from 8:30 to 11:00; Opening flag ceremony at 9:00; Free airplane rides with the Young Eagles for kids aged 8-17 (with parent or guardian present); Airport Tours from 9 to 3. There will be a static display of aircraft all day (Executive Flyers will have a G-1000 glass panel 182 and 172 on display). Come early, as the first 400 attendees at the open house will receive a lapel pin and Airport Passport for collecting passport stickers around the airport. See you on the 17th.
Fuel prices and cutting costs
Aviation fuel prices are rising like the auto gas prices, albeit not quite as fast. One way to continue flying is to share a flight with another member. I've adjusted the on-line scheduling program so that two pilots may be scheduled for the same plane at the same time. If you just like to get out occasionally and look at the scenery from the air, or you need to practice some instrument approaches or whatever, flying with another pilot can be a lot of fun and save you money if you split the costs. If you'd like to meet other club members and try out a shared flight, please email Ed at callaway@execflyers.com and I'll keep a list and refer other pilots with the same interests to you. Let me know what kind of flying you'd like to do with another member and I'll try to put people with like interests together.
Interesting places for pilots on the internet
Click on any underlined site to jump to it in your web browser:
The F.A.A., www.faa.gov, has a great site with all of the FAA procedures and data available. You can look up your pilot information, advisory circulars, all the practical test standards, many of the FAA books, GPS data and a lot more. Great site.
For aviation METAR and TAF information about specific airports, see NOAA's Aviation Weather center, adds.aviationweather.noaa.gov/metars/. There is a lot more weather on the home page for that site.
The AOPA has a great website at www.aopa.org/where you can find current TFRs and lots of information about flying for students to the old timers.
Or just Google "aviation web sites" for lots of ideas.
New WAAS capable GPS installed in Warrior AND IN THE TWIN (redux)
The owners of N44996 and N2882C have upgraded the Garmin GPS in their airplanes so that it is now accurate to within 2 to 3 meters in both the horizontal and vertical directions. This allows the plane to fly instrument approaches at many airports to close to ILS minimums (currently 250 feet and 3/4 mile) using only the GPS. The OBS connected to the GPS will display glide slope as well as lateral information just like an ILS approach. (VFR pilots please pardon the jargon). IFR pilots NOTE WELL: In order to use the glide slope portion safely, the approach must be published as one that allows vertical guidance (LPV, LNAV+V,etc). The GPS will show a glide slope on many lateral navigation only (LNAV) approaches, but this will not take into consideration possible step down fixes on the approach. Don't use the glide slope that is displayed if the procedure is only charted as LNAV AND you are in instrument conditions. One other difference between this WAAS upgrade and the standard GPS is that if you have selected an approach and chosen the "Vectors to final" option, the "SUSP" indication will appear above the "OBS" button until you are within 45 degrees either side of the inbound course to the final approach fix. The "SUSP" indication will automatically go out when you reach that area. DO NOT press the "OBS" button to turn out the "SUSP" indication in this case. You will fubar your approach and have to reselect and reactivate it if you do.
Birds nests
The house finches are building nests now and love to put them in any dark place, such as on top of the engines. Please check visually and feel between the two cylinders for possible nests before takeoff. They are a fire hazard.
Pilots wanted for local 135 operation flying Cirrus aircraft
FlyIndigo is looking for well qualified pilots to fly Cirrus aircraft in a 135 charter operation between Sacramento and the bay area and central valley. If you might be interested, click here to see the details.
Using the GPS in the planes
A word of caution for those pilots who are GPS savvy and put in "User waypoints." Be careful not to put a waypoint that is already in the database in as a user waypoint. For example, KSAC is in the database. Do not put KSAC in as a user waypoint. This sometimes confuses the GPS as it doesn't know which point to go to if you give it a "Direct to" command.
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