Chapter Newsletter May 2009
NEXT MEETING WEDNESDAY, MAY 13
This will be a combined EAA and HAA Bar–B-Q to be held behind Hugh’s Vintage Aircraft Museum. Set–up at 5, serving starting at around 6:00pm. Meat & drinks will be provided – everything else Pot Luck – please bring: (A – F) hot side, (G – L) cold Side, (M – R salads, (S– Z) desserts. NOTE the date change to a Wednesday to coincide with the arrival of the Collings Foundation B-17 and B-24.
A Special Thanks to Margaret Watt for her program at our April meeting. As the official photographer for the most famous racing plane in the world, her pictures of Dago Red and the race team were great. Despite being a cold and blustery evening the turn-out was very good with quite a few people driving down from San Jose.
HALF MOON BAY FLYOUT
In the photo, Tony, Pat, Deane, Janice, and Jay in the shadow after lunch at our recent fly-out. Not shown, Fred & Ed. Here are links to some You Tube videos shot from Fred’s RV during the flights.Here’s a link to the landing at Half Moon Bay.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zUutfViGEs
This was taken on the way back from Half Moon Bay. It shows some close-up in flight views of Jay’s Cozy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BkoiIM18UM
This shows the approach and landing at Hollister. www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDEUO5gMDII
EAA DRIVE FOR NEW MEMBERS; A chapter can now offer prospective members a 6-month complimentary membership in the national EAA organization. Chapters are also encouraged to grant a 6-month complimentary membership which allows prospective members to get to know us and experience full membership benefits before they commit to paying any dues. This is a tool for us to use and build our membership base. We should use this tool to reach out beyond the usual sport aviation crowd, like Cessna and Piper pilots who might like to fly kids in our Young Eagles program. (We can certainly use more 4-place planes). If you know of such a candidate, you can offer this trial membership compliments of Chapter 1264, sign-up can be done on-line – just contact your president at owens@razzolink.com. Let’s not waste this opportunity to build our membership back up to where it was a few years ago.
YOUNG EAGLES UPDATE
EAA issues a $1 credit to pilots for each kid flown to be used toward the cost of sending a kid back to the Air Academy at Oshkosh. This year the EAA has made two changes that will benefit our chapter – the first being taht the $1 has been increased to $5 and second, that this money can be requested as a cash reimbursement to cover the cost of advertising, promotion and other specified expenses related to our Young Eagles Rally. We are currently shown to have a $70 credit.
The plan this year is to again stage our rally in October at the Gavilan College facility. We have met with the YMCA activities director and discussed teaming up with the “Y” to provide the kids for the 2009 rally. This could make it the biggest event we have ever held.
GOOD NEWS FOR HOLLISTER HANGAR TENANTS
At the April 22nd Airport Advisory Commission meeting, Airport Director Mike Chambless announced that several large tenants at the airport are financially stressed and Mike recommended that the city forego a CPI rent increase for all tenants this year(current CPI is 1.9%). The City Manager agreed with this. The AAC agreed also.
FUEL OF THE FUTURE
Take the lead out of 100LL and you have 94UL. Teledyne Continental has been testing this fuel including flight tests in a certificated plane. According to TCM, this may be the best bet to replace 100LL because the production and distribution infrastructure is already in place, making it the most likely to be submitted for certification and standardization as an aviation fuel.
ACCIDENT RATES
The April issue of the Flight Advisor and Tech Counselor Newsletter had some bad news about the upward trend in the rate of Amateur-Built accidents; 47 in 2006, 66 in 2007 and 70 in 2008. lancair was singled out representing 3.2% of the amateur-built fleet, but having 6.9% of the accidents, 15.9% of the fatal accidents with 57.9% of their accidents having fatalities. These numbers have caused the FAA to take a close look at Lancair designs. Van’s RVs represented 16.2% of the AB fleet had 14.1% of the accidents 18.8% of the fatal accidents with 33.3% of their accidents having fatalities. The FAA has formed a committee to look into these stats with the goal of improving the safety record of AB planes – the EAA is participating in this effort. The FAA recognizes the EAA’s Tech Coundelor and Flight Advisor programs as having an impact on AB safety and it is up to us to spread the word about the value of these programs – provided by your chapter.
THE MECHANICAL TACH
The principle of a mechanical tach is an engine-driven cable that spins a magnet inside of a drag cup. The magnet creates lines of flux which generate an eddy current, establishing a magnetic field inside the cup. The strength of this magnetic field os proportional to the speed of rotation of the magnet, rotating the cup against a hairspring. The pointer on the face of the instrument is attached to the cup.
You can check the accuracy of your mechanical tach by using a hand-held tach that uses a light sensor to read the speed of your prop. Your chapter has such a hand-held device that is avaiilable to our members – see Fred or Ed.
