washington pilots association - wpaflys.org · great tutorial on the five (!) ... the following sar...

42nd Year No. 4 October-November 2003 $2.50

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Inside WPAWings!!!!! Page 2

One Man Makes a DifferenceNesko on WASAR

!!!!! Page 3WPA How To for Dummies

!!!!! Page 4Chapters - Deer Park, HarveyField, SpokaneInt’l Lighting System to betested at SandersonTed Turner, Look Out!

!!!!! Page 5Oregon-Wright BrthersConnectionMoney Grab at Olympia

!!!!! Page 6Chapters - Green River, YakimaValley

!!!!! Page 7Chapters - Greater Seattle,Wenatchee, Paine FieldCalendar of Events

!!!!! Page 8Toys for Tots - July

President’sMessage

From hFrom hFrom hFrom hFrom h

H. Allen Smith

Continued on page 3Continued on page 3Continued on page 3Continued on page 3Continued on page 3

“$31.00 a month... do you knowhow much gas that would buy?” washis response. I was at the WPA boothat the Arlington Air Show and wastalking to a gentleman who was look-ing at our booth display. I had justasked him if he would be interestedin joining our 43 year old organiza-tion. As I explained that we are thelargest group of pilots representingGeneral Aviation in the State ofWashington... I saw his eyes start toglaze over. Meet Private Pilot Sewdi!

In 2000, the Federal AviationAdministration reported that Wash-ington State was home to 10,500 air-craft and nearly 24,000 pilots. I don’tdoubt these numbers but the fact isthat there are 9,577 Washington pi-lots registered (as of 9/24/03) with theAviation Division... to me a morerealistic representation of the numberof folks actively flying around ourstate in small airplanes. So we haveabout 10,000 aviators of which about1 in 10 are card carrying WashingtonPilots Association members. Manywould say that 10% is a pretty goodnumber. I wouldn’t...

Yes 10% is respectable but wecertainly can do better. On the na-tional scene AOPA’s membership isover 50%. 400,000 members out of700,000 pilots. So I wonder why weare supported by only 10% of ourlocal pilots. I would like to hear fromyou on that question, but meanwhileI have a few thoughts of my own...

One reason is that there is a goodbit of competition out there for us.Lots of flying clubs and organizationsto send your $30 a year in to and sup-port. But our real problem is thattoo many think of the WPA only asa social flying club holding potluckdinner meetings once a month. Theydon’t join because they don’t feel theyhave time for such activities. ButAOPA has 5 times (% wise) our mem-bership and they certainly don’t havemonthly meetings. People belong toAOPA primarily for two reasons.They publish a very nice magazine.And they represent General Aviationpilots on the national scene. TheWashington Pilots Association publish-es a great newletter and works veryhard representing WA pilots at manyvenue’s.

Let’s think again about Cap-tain Sewdi (Someone Else Will DoIt). My response was to ask him howmany hours he flew each year. “50

Wenatchee, September 12-14:The WPA, WASAR, Wings of

Wenatchee, WSDOT-AD and theFAA again collaborated to conductthe 9th Annual Mountain Flying Clin-ic at Wenatchee.

The Mountain Flying Clinic wasestablished as a free public service tointroduce interested pilots to safe andenjoyable mountain flying.

Over a dozen volunteer mentorpilots flew 58 pilots through three

different mountain courses to inti-mately share mountain flying tech-niques. The courses have been de-signed to suit a range of aircraft per-formance and each can be used tolearn skills necessary for the moun-tain environment. We exposed over100 pilots to the ground school taughtby Jack Krause; this class was a pre-requisite to the flying segment andprovided valuable weather and oper-ational tips. 8 different WASAR and

Tom Jensen, Airports Director

Another SuperMountain Flying Clinic

WPA pilots also flew “High Bird”during the weekend, to provide a highaltitude “Air Traffic Control”.

Although our flying does notinclude landings, John Black of theSpokane FSDO shared his wonderfulbackcountry flying presentationwhich really gets into the perfor-mance side of that flying. JohnTownsley, who recently served as theUSFS airspace coordinator for themany fires in Montana, presented agreat tutorial on the five (!) differenttypes of TFRs. John’s class was par-

ticularly relevant because an activeTFR north of Lk. Wenatchee effect-ed one of our courses.The local WPAchapter helped out with meals, andChris MacSpadden was a big helpwith database work and mailings,even though she could not attend. Aland Esther Banholzer, Tom Nesko,Gary Evans, and several others helpedwith the many administrative tasksthat are required for safe coordination

Photo not at Wenatchee - guess where?

Tom Jensen, WPA Airports Director

Homeland Security AlertLevel “Mauve”

Worry, worry, worry!

Ever since Saturday Night Liveparodized the Dept. of HomelandSecurity’s terrorist alert warning col-ors, I don’t know what to do whenthey switch the alert level from “OR-ANGE” to “MAUVE”.

These nonspecific alerts raise theparanoia level of the general public.General paranoia then makes it accept-able to the majority when the guva-mint does something irrational to the

minority (that’s us, folks), like im-pose an unneeded TFR. TFRs restrictour freedom to fly and impede com-merce without returning a compen-sating security benefit.

To fend off even more bad ideas,the AOPA reached out to the TSA(Transportation Security Admin.)with their “Airport Watch” program.This program uses the more than650,000 pilots as eyes and ears forobserving and reporting suspiciousactivity. We must do our share to



2 Washington Pilots Association October-November 2003

Nesko on WASAR

Tom Nesko, WPA WASAR DirectorAs many of you may have read,

the missing Cessna 320 has beenfound. The aircraft departedWenatchee’s Pangborn Field on April17th. The aircraft went missing andwithout any information i.e. a flightplan, destination, direction of flight,the Aviation Division conducted atwo week search. The Rescue Coor-dination Center suspended the mis-sion after this period and althoughsuspended, it was never forgotten.Former state SAR Coordinator KarlMoore had scheduled additional sor-ties at our last SAREX into areas thatmight have held possibilities had theaircraft been returning to San Fran-cisco.

Now we’ll give you the rest ofthe story. During the search, we allwondered how come we didn’t havean ELT? Why no flight plan? Whythe mysterious story about going toBellingham and why did the pilotbrag about his ability to fly anywherein the US and never come up on ra-dar? As it turned out, the aircraft mayhave been involved in drug smug-gling. Upon investigation authoritiesturned up approximately $118,000 incash and drug residue. It will be in-teresting to see what the investigationby the Okanogan County Sheriffturns up.

The aircraft was spotted by ahelicopter crew who was droppingwater on the 81,000 – acre FarewellCreek fire in the Pasayten Wilderness.Had the fire not occurred, I’m afraidthe aircraft would still be missing asit was in an extreme remote wilder-ness area accessible only by foot. Thecause of the crash is under investiga-tion by the NTSB and will probablytake weeks to a few months to deter-mine what cause the crash.

With the onset of good flyingweather, the past few months havenot been good as far as safety issues.In June, the NTSB reports in the stateof Washington, 10 incidents (2 fatal)and in July, 15 incidents (3 fatal). TheAviation Division reported the usualELT’s requiring response. The fol-lowing statistics were provided bySAR Coordinator Tom Peterson.

ELT/EPIRBOVERDUE A/CJune 12 ELT / 2EPIRB 4July 12 ELT / 1EPIRB 7

As you can see, it is incumbentupon all of us to check and insure thatour ELT is not transmitting afterlanding. Simple way: check 121.5 be-fore shutting down. RE overdue sta-tus, let’s be sure to close out flightplans upon arrival. Peterson also re-ported one hoax of transmitting a”mayday” on 121.5 . Why, youmight ask, would someone do this?Pretty dumb if you ask me.

Speaking of the Aviation Divi-sion, Director John Sibold is conduct-ing several study groups, one of whichinvolves Search and Rescue. SAR is apart of a developing business plan thatSibold has undertaken. The othertwo study groups involve an AviationSystem Plan, and and EducationStudy Group. I have been invited tosit on the Search and Rescue groupwhich met for the first time on Au-gust 6th. The group focuses on howwell the state search and rescue pro-gram functions and look at methodsof improving the program. BothCAP and WASAR representatives aremembers of this group and have as-sured Sibold and staff of the efficien-cy that both resources bring to theprogram. One notable statementmade at the meeting was that Wash-ington State and its SAR program isrecognized nationally as a top-ratedprogram and a leader in Search andRescue efficiency. This speaks high-ly of the cooperation among resourc-es available for use by the AviationDivision to conduct search opera-tions, i.e., CAP, County Sheriffsunits, WASAR and a number ofground search teams to complimentthe air arm of rescue services.

Members of the air communityin Washington are encouraged to con-tact me with any input they mighthave regarding the search and rescueprogram or with ideas on how toimprove its services. I can be reachedat [email protected] or by phone425-821-2780.

Lost C-320 Found!

Oct 25, 26 SAREX Bayvew/Skagit Nov 8, 9 ASAROC Yakima

The following SAR Training Calendar for 2003 was released by theAviation Division, Karl Moore, SAR Coordinator and is listed for yourinformation. Please contact Moore at the Aviation Division, 1-800-552-0666for further information.

WASAR Training Calendar

It’s been a great summer for fly-ing and an equally good time forWPA memberships. As you know,the strength of our organization isdependent upon the size and qualityof our members. In terms of size, theAssociation has been growing steadi-ly month over month this year thanksto the recruitment efforts of eachchapter. Yes, we have lost membersfor various reasons, but the net hasbeen positive. This is especially en-couraging considering the economictimes. The two largest boosts in en-rollments occurred during the North-west Aviation Conference in Febru-ary and the Arlington Fly-In in July.I’d like to again thank those volun-teers who helped staff the booth andrepresent our Association so well.

I’m always curious about whyfolks belong to the WPA. Most re-cently, I was standing around at theBellingham airport waiting for a

friend to arrive for a flight to Yaki-ma. One of the fellow pilots I knewwas at his hangar washing his pickup(his plane was already sparklingclean). Eager for some hangar flying,I approached him to talk about hissummer’s activities. As I expected, ithad been an exceptional year of blueskies and many trips to the San JuanIslands. This person loves to crab anduses his float plane instead of a boatto get to his favorite spots. Does itget any better? Well, after some con-versation, I asked him why he is inWPA. He thought for a second andreplied, “because I know the Associ-ation is watching out for us pilots andour airports”. Yes, advocacy is oneof the objectives of the WPA andyou’d be proud to know of all thebehind-the-scenes work done by folkslike Tom Jensen, Al Banholzer andH. Smith in fighting for our rights asGA pilots.

Personally, WPA gives me achance to BELONG to a kindredspirit of special people who share mylove for flying and airplanes. A fewrecent examples are still fresh in mymind. At our last chapter meetingwe heard from an author and pastFAA examiner Mick Wilson about“How to crash an airplane and sur-vive”. Mick shared some amazingfacts and figures that impressed on methat a failed engine doesn’t meanyou’re going to be the next fatalitystatistic. What a learning experienceboth during the presentation andduring the coffee break. Where elsewould I have had the chance to pickup such valuable and first-hand infor-mation?

On the heels of this presentation,three of us flew the following week-end to Yakima to the State WPAboard meeting. On the flight overthe Cascades and back, we quizzedeach other on various emergency andpiloting procedures. The “crashcourse” was further implanted in mybrain by playing out the what-ifs sce-narios in flight. Where else would apilot get the chance to learn and sharefrom each other, and have a fun-filledday to boot?

Well, fall and soon winter willbe upon us. For some of us, we havehangar flying to look forward to withour fellow WPA pilots. I hope youwill reach out to fellow pilots andwelcome them into our organization.They will thank you for the doingso, and will return the favor by en-hancing your future days of flying.

MembershipReport

Paul J. Grey, WPA MembershipDirector

WPA WINGSA Publication of the

Washington Pilots Association227 Bellevue Way NE PMB 397

Bellevue, WA 98004Phone 1-800-972-3597

1-800-WPAFLYSEditor: Arthur Berkell (253) 638-7038

Copy Editor: Lynn BerkellPlease send:

Articles in Word, WordPerfect, or plaintext via email to

[email protected] or handwritten articles to

Helga Byhre 24104 92nd Ave W., Edmonds 98020

DEADLINE ON BACK PAGEAddress changes to Patty Wood

[email protected] 360-577-7937

Executive Council andElected Officers

President H Smith (360) 653-9490VP East Anne English (509) 854-2272VP West Jerry Blanchard (360) 794-

9232Secretary Arthur Berkell (253) 638-7038Treas. David J. Almvig (425) 747-2055

Legislative DirectorJack McGoldrick (206) 763-9706

DirectorsAirports Tom Jensen (800) 972-3597Membership W. Paul Grey (360) 715-2120

Membership EastDon Newhall (509) 233-8078

Safety & EducationAl Hunter (509) 886-0233

WASAR Tom Nesko (425) 821-2780Immediate Past PresidentAl Banholzer (425) 228-6330

Information included in this publication is forentertainment and/or educational purposesonly. The reader must not rely on the infor-matin contained herein to relieve him/her ofthe responsibility to comply with Federal Avi-ation Regulartions and instructions. The read-er is solely responsible for his/her own safetyand no case shall the publisher or staff or anyofficer or directory of the Washingon PilotsAssociation be held responsible for any use orlack thereof, that readers may or may notchoose to make of the information containedherein.

WPA WINGS is the bimonthly newspaper ofthe Washington Pilots Association (WPA),which represents the pilots of WashingtonState. Letters are welcome. Letters must besigned by the author and a contact phone num-ber provided. Address letters to WPA, 227Bellevue Way N.E. PMB 397, Bellevue, WA98004. The WPA reserves the right to editall letters and to refuse inappropriate adver-tising. Opinions and claims expressed in let-ters to the editor and advertisements reflectthe opinions and claims of the writer and notnecessarily those of the WPA.

www.wpaflys.org

For all those Beech fliers (andpossibly others with retractable gear),this may be of interest to you.

Referencing “World Beechcraft”magazine’s “How to Avoid GearGotcha’s” article in the current Sept/Oct. issue: a scenario we should allbe alerted to is the loss of electricalpower in flight and returning underthese conditions with your gear ex-tended. It’s possible that you can get

Griggs on Gear- or -

BonanzasBeware

Maureen Griggs, North SoundChapter

gear down indications (3 green) butnot have the gear actually locked, re-sulting in a gear-up landing. The cruxof the article was that with a situa-tion with anything less than full elec-trical power, the possibility exists thatyour gear will be down but notlocked after extension, even if the in-dicators show that it is. The recom-mendation is that one should perform

a full manual gear extension underthese circumstances even if you have3 in the green. Visual evidence of gearnot being fully down and locked isthat your inboard gear door wouldpossibly appear to sag, rather thanbeing closed flush with the wing. Ifyou ask the tower to check your gear,ask them if you have a gear door ap-pearing to sag!

October-November 2003 First Fall Edition 3

President H. Allen Smith 360-653-9490 [email protected] Past Pres. Al Banholzer 425-228-6330 [email protected] Arthur Berkell 253-638-7038 [email protected] David J. Almvig 425-747-2055 [email protected] Anne English 509-854-2272 [email protected] Jerry Blanchard 360-794-9232 [email protected] Director Tom Jensen 360-825-6777 [email protected] Director Jack McGoldrick 206-763-9706 [email protected] & Education Al Hunter 509-886-0233 [email protected] Tom Nesko 425-821-2780 [email protected] East Don Newhall 509-233-8078Membership West Paul Grey 360-715-2120 [email protected] at Large Jim Robertson 509-782-2874 [email protected] Editor Arthur Berkell 253-638-7038 [email protected] Rick Wickman 360-412-9229 [email protected] Island Cabin George Konrad 206 772-0714 [email protected] Nancy Jensen 800-WPA-FLYS [email protected]

WPA Team Directory

HHHHH

or 60” he replied. At 50 hours a yearyou are paying over $1.000.00 for fueland oil. If you belonged to the WPAyour cost would be $1,031.00. Thinkof it this way... if you fly 60 hours ayear, you are paying about 50 cents...that’s right... about 50 cents a flighthour to have the Washington Pilots As-sociation fight your battles with...Olympia legislators, Local TFR’s,(your favorite) airport closure, pave-ment resurfacing, Search & Rescue,representation of General Aviationpilots at the Aviation Division/WS-DOT, representation of GA pilots onthe Washington Aviation AdvisoryCommittee. A newsletter that 6 timesa year updates you on flying in Wash-ington state. Free access to a beauti-ful cabin we own and maintain in theSan Juan Islands... It’s my guess thatmost pilots are smart gals and guysthat may simply subscribe to theSEWDI syndrome perhaps withouteven thinking about it. If this Wingspublication was mailed to you then Ithank you for doing your part, and Itruly mean that!

Here is my challange to you...Find our Membership Applicationand 23 Reasons to Join the WPA inthis and every issue. Cut it out andgive it to a friend. Maybe you couldtake this copy of Wings you are hold-ing in your hands and take the timeand energy to hand it to any pilot yourun into. I just signed up my sonCary Smith who is studying hard forhis Private. This isn’t really that hard.

We will publish a New Mem-bers... column each month startingwith the next issue, listing the newmember and the WPA member re-sponsible for their joining. Please e-mail me at [email protected] orcall 360/653-9490 when you sign upa new member. So what ever kind ofresponse we get... we will publish it.3 new members?? 30 new members??zero?? whatever it is will be on thelist.

Chip LaPlante President ofNorthSound Chapter signed up 30new members last year. Vice Presi-dent East, Tisha Bartley signed upher brother and father. Potentialmembers are all around you, likeyour own CFI. Ask them... wouldyou spend 50cents per flight hour tosupport General Aviation in Wash-ington... or are we talking CaptainSEWDI here?

With altitude... comes perspective!

Continued frContinued frContinued frContinued frContinued from page 1om page 1om page 1om page 1om page 1From hFrom hFrom hFrom hFrom h

ment. In no way does it cover everyscenario and the accuracy is only asgood as the correctness of those in-terviewed. It does not cover aircraftor pilots engaged exclusively in com-mercial operations.

Washington requires thepayment of either sales tax oruse tax, which by any other name isstill equal in the amount due. This isrequired by the Revenue Departmentand proof of payment or an exemp-tion certificate is required prior toregistering an aircraft.

Registration costs are current-ly $15 for pilot and airmen (A&P)and aircraft. Aircraft registration hasan additional excise tax, which varies(currently $50 for single engine).

Who is required to registerwith the state: all active pilots whoare residents of the state, all pilotswho fly in the state more than 90 daysin 12 months.

What aircraft are requiredto be state registered: all aircraftthat are operated in the state of Wash-ington for more than 90 days in 12months. Note: this is not a residencyrequirement but an operational re-quirement. This means if you are aresident of a surrounding state suchas Oregon or Idaho and your aircraftis hangared in Washington for morethan 90 days in 12 months, it mustbe registered. If you are a Washing-ton resident and your aircraft is han-gared in another state and not flownin this state for more than the 90 daysin 12 months you do not have to reg-ister. Un-airworthy aircraft are ex-empt but you must apply for an ex-emption.

The use and sales tax on reg-istered aircraft is the big item. Salestax is due on the purchase price of anaircraft by a Washington resident.This tax percentage is the sales taxpercent of the location of where theaircraft is hangared or if purchasedthrough a Washington State brokerwhere the broker is located. Theseamounts can vary significantly byairport and city. An example: PaineField 8.9%, Harvey Field 7.6%. Ifyou trade with an individual or bro-ker, you will only pay tax if the pur-chased aircraft is more expensive and

you will pay only on the differencein price.

Simply put, use tax is due if youhave not paid sales tax. An example,you purchased an aircraft from anindividual out of state or moved intothe state with an aircraft. Out of stateresidents that hangar aircraft in Wash-ington for more than 90 days in 12months are required to pay use tax.The tax percent is the same percent-age as the sales tax percent where theaircraft is hangared. If you move intothe state with an aircraft, you will berequired to pay use tax on the cur-rent value (blue book or hull valueon your insurance) of the aircraft, notthe original purchase price. Againthis method of calculating tax is usedfor non-residents that hangar theiraircraft here for more than that 90days in 12 months. There is no timeexemption on ownership of aircraftsuch as the exemption of purchase 90days prior to moving here for auto-mobiles.

Important note on aircraftnot required to be registered butnot exempt from use tax. If you area Washington resident and your air-craft is hangared out of state and ex-empt from registration, you will stillbe required to pay use tax if it isflown in the state for only one day.

Homebuilt aircraft are alsotaxed. If you build an aircraft, keepall your receipts. You will be chargedsales tax on only those items you didnot pay tax on at time of purchase. Ifyou have no receipts, you will becharged use tax on the current valueof the aircraft. This will be the hullvalue on your insurance policy or ifknown, the blue book value.

Partnerships and Flying Clubsare handled as individuals with oneexception. If sales tax is collected onthe fees (monthly and hourly)charged to members of Flying Clubs,then there is no sales tax due on saleof a membership. If fees are not taxed,then sales tax is due on sale price ofthe membership.

Only other saving note, if youhave paid sales tax or use tax in an-other state, you will be credited thatamount on what is due to Washing-ton state. This goes for homebuiltand production aircraft. So remem-ber, keep all your receipts.

WA Aircraft & PilotRegistration and Tax Primer

Stephanie Allen, Paine FieldPilots, A&Ps and aircraft

registration is required in the stateof Washington. As of to date only 26states require registration. This leadsto a lot of confusion for pilots andaircraft owners. The Aviation Divi-sion of WSDOT is updating theirweb site and working with the pilotorganizations to educate those affect-ed by this requirement. The follow-ing information is compiled throughinterviews with the Aviation Divi-sion and the State Revenue depart-

Embry RiddleSeeks Grads

Your Can Help Preserve AviationHistory

If you participated in aviationtraining either as a student or an instruc-tor in the pre-university decades of the1920’s through the 1960’s, Embry-Rid-dle Aeronautical University would loveto hear from you. The university is inthe midst of collecting and archiving thehistory of aviation at the institution asseen through the eyes of its graduatesand instructors. Through The HeritageProject, you or someone you know, canhelp pass the legacy and story of thisworld class training facility to futuregenerations.

While there are many ways to par-ticipate in this fascinating project, noneis more important than to share whatyou remember. If you would like totell your Embry-Riddle training or avi-ation career story, please call or con-tact Dean Robert Rockett at 386-226-6026 or [email protected] to beinterviewed, so that your reflections canbe preserved. If you would like to con-tribute photographs or memorabilia(program booklets, posters, historic avi-ation gear), please contact Alex Rich-mond, archivist, at 386-323-8093 [email protected], to discusshow items can be sent.

Embry-Riddle would like to stayconnected with you. If you are not cur-rently receiving information from theuniversity, log on to www.erau.edu/stayingconnected. If you need more in-formation about The Heritage Projectand the special events that are plannedfor Embry-Riddle “alumni” and stafffrom 1926 to 1970, log on towww.erau.edu/wingsandwaves to addyour name to the growing list of peo-ple who want to bring history alive.Join your colleagues and classmates atthe Wings and Waves Air Show andReunion in Daytona Beach, November7-9. You can help keep the excitementand passion for flying alive for years tocome, while preserving the legacy ofEmbry-Riddle.


There are really two stores forthis trip. One is the aviation storyand the other is the vacation experi-ence - although I suppose they're in-extricably intertwined. The originalplan was to go to Maine for the MaineLobster Festival during the summerof 2003. Planning probably startedin December of 2002 - not that theplanning was so complex or that itrequired so much advance notice, butthat’s just the way Lynn and I seemto plan our trips.

The first question of course, issomething like “What is the MaineLobster Festival, anyhow? And wedidn’t know, but Lynn loves lobsterand a lobster festival in the birthplaceof lobster can’t be all bad. So we madereservations at the Samoset Lodge, aluxury resort just outside of Rock-land, Maine, the site of the Lobsterfestival. But of course, with mydaughters both living in New Yorkthe route from Seattle to Rocklandprovided us with an easy enroute stop-over visit with the girls and their hus-bands, in Manhattan. And during thetrip-planning phase, I also happenedto reconnect with an old friend ofmine, who I discovered living in NewOrleans. Lynn and I had been talk-ing about visiting either Nashville orNew Orleans anyhow. So with myfriend Ron living in New Orleans,that sort of tipped the scale in favorof New Orleans. Tipped the scale likea ton of bricks. Then the NationalHardware Show got thrown into themix. In March of 2003 I discovered Ihad a business trip to Chicago that Ineeded to go on and that to attendthe show I had to be there on the daywe originally planned to return homefrom our New York, Maine, Louisi-ana trip. So that changed things a bit.Instead of flying from New Orleansto Seattle, I re-routed the trip homefrom New Orleans to Chicago for theNational Hardware show, then aftera few days, back home.

The final planned route was: Se-attle to New York (Farmingdale -FRG), to Rockland Maine (KRKD),to New Orleans (Lakefront -KNEW), to Chicago (Midway -KMDW), to Seattle (Kent, S36).That's not how it happened.

Don't go to Haver City. Ourdeparture from Kent on July 26th wasDIRECT Haver City, MT (KHVR).This is along the great circle route tothe East Coast. I never have learnedwhether or not the great circle routeactually saves us any time since weneed to stop relatively frequently - atleast compared with the Big Boys.But, winds permitting I always planthe great circle route since, at least intheory it saves some distance, hencetime. But Haver City, which used tohave a regular “most-hours” FBO onthe field, now has a phone on the field.The apologetic FBO owner appearsby car about 20 minutes after you callhim but the extra ground time cer-tainly eradicates any time saved by therouting.

After Haver City, it was on toFargo - where I'm always disappoint-

ed not to see William H. Macy, orTyne Daly or some murderers and awood chipper. After Fargo it was Ft.Wayne, Indiana for refueling andovernight. This was actually a slightdetour from our planned overnight -in order to avoid the thunderstormsup at Muskegon or Saginaw - the orig-inally planned route.- which morestrictly adhered to the great circleroute. The thing with the great cir-cle route from Seattle to New Yorkis that it always manages to work in aflight over Lake Michigan and/orLake Erie. And although it's true theusual flight time over the lake in theMooney at 17,000 feet is somethinglike sixteen minutes - with the pointof no return being only seven min-utes from shore - it still makes menervous to be over such a huge bodyof water. I calculate the point of noreturn to be before the halfway markbecause the lack of turn around timefor going straight ahead an extraminute basically compensates for theone minute standard-rate 180 -degreeIFR turn-around time. Anyhow, thebonus or the compensation for fly-ing over the lake or the lake or lakes,is that it's not too hard to route your-self right over Niagra Falls, so youcan get some sightseeing done enroute.

ATC routed us into the NewYork area from Colts Neck (VORNew Jersey) across New York Har-bor, with the Verrazano Bridge onour left backdropped by a hazed-outManhattan skyline, then right overJFK, at 2,500 feet. Landing at Farm-ingdale can be an experience. TheFRG tower seems to have a penchantfor utilizing the North-South runwayno matter what. On my last landingat FRG during the summer of 2002,the wind was out of due east at abouta zillion knots. And guess which run-way was in use? Right. Runway 01.Approaching from the south, it wasall I could do to compensate for thedrift. On this trip the approach wasfrom the north, with the wind out ofdue west at about three-quarters of azillion knots. What's wrong with theeast-west runway? We'll never know.AFollow the Bonanza turning leftover the Expressway" was my offi-cial approach instruction.

Landing in Farmingdale, wespent the day with my oldest bestfriend (4th grade) Ron, his wife Lindawho is probably my second oldestbest friend (9th grade), and theiryounger daughter Amanda. We allhad dinner together at a picturesquewaterfront restaurant in HuntingtonHarbor, after which we continued oninto the City. We got to my daugh-ter's East 49th Street Manhattan apart-ment just before she and her husbandreturned from the day visiting hermother.

New York is great. I'm a nativeNew Yorker - actually Long Island,and living in Seattle as I have for thepast seven years, I certainly do missthe City. Besides just being there,some of the things I miss most fromNew York are bagels, Nova Scotiasalmon, pizza, Italian food in gener-al, Chinese food, Yodels. I could go

on. We spent two delightful days inthe City, touring by day and visitingwith my daughters and their husbandsat night.

On Thursday we departed NewYork from our parking space at Farm-ingdale, for Maine and the LobsterFestival. This was the first time fly-ing out of the New York area that Iactually got (almost) what I asked for.A couple of VORs after takeoff wewere DIRECT Rockland. One hourforty minutes, airport to airport.This is amazing to me since growingup on Long Island I knew it shouldhave been a six hour drive. Cuttingdirectly north across the Long IslandSound helped a little, as did the non-necessity to fight the traffic out of theNew York area.

Flying up the Maine coast at sixthousand feet was beautiful. The skywas clear after we cleared the Bostonarea, and we could see detail in thecoastline below us, including a billionlobster pots in the water just off shore.A blind dog lives at the RocklandFBO! The Samoset lodge picked usup and after getting settled we tookthe trolley to town and the festival.The trolley is actually an old trolleycar fully restored and converted togasoline power, running like a bus,on rubber tires. We got to town andthe Festival. Admission? Yes $10 ifby night $5 if by day. Lobster din-ner could be had with freshly caughtlobster - steamed - in the AMain Eat-ing Tent" or was that AMaine EatingTent" for — ready? $10.95!! Twoone-pounders and dinner for $17.95and three for $21.95. The lobsterswere delicious, if less than hot. Oth-er food bargains in the tent abound-ed. Like a HUGE overcookedshrimp cocktail - enough for dinner -for $6.95. But unfortunately, the re-mainder of the Festival was a carni-val, complete with booths and rides.There was a rock-climbing wall with$25 cash prize for climbing the leftside. It looked to me like it couldn'tbe done - the hand and footholds wereconfigured to form a Atrap" so thatthe climber couldn't get past a certainpoint. I know nothing about rockclimbing, but attempt after attemptfailed at the same point. We hungaround and hung around, waiting forLee Ann Womack to appear at theAMain Stage" or AMaine Stage." Shefinally did appear and although shewas certainly competent and talent-ed, we were tired of standing. Theseats - and there weren't many - wereall sold out in advance. We actuallyknew this far enough in advance toget seats, but somehow didn't carethat much. Trolley back to the Sa-moset.

The Samoset is a lovely hotelwith very good food and a beautifulgolf course. There's a lighthouse ona breakwater that goes about a half-mile into the bay - which we eventu-ally walked out on all the way to thelighthouse. The lighthouse had asmall souvenir stand inside the baseand they let you climb to the top -only about three floors up, but stillinteresting.

The next two days in Maine wererainy and foggy and disappointing.The Mainers were all exceedinglyfriendly - not at all like New England-ers from some other states I can thinkof, like Vermont – where the nativeshave a love-hate relationship with thetourists. There were definitely goodthings to do in Rockland, but the rain

put (excuse me) a damper on every-thing. We did get to an excellent cof-fee shop, and being from Seattle, that'ssaying something. We also took asailboat ride with about a dozen oth-er tourists -in the rain. But the cap-tain had jackets and rain ponchos forus. It was a ketch in Bristol condi-tion, and captained by a marine biol-ogist. He managed to get us to thecenter of a pod of porpoises. Theywere an unusual type - black some-thing. There was also a seal that keptpopping its head up. Very much funto see. We also learned from the firstmate that maybe forty years ago, lob-ster was poor-people’s food in Maine.When there was nothing else to eat,they ate lobster. Imagine.

We drifted in to the Black Pearlafter the boat ride - a local saloon thatseemed to be hopping. We met twowomen from Pennsylvania who toldus there was an Andrew Wyeth mu-seum in town - and that Rockland wasthe art center of Maine. Who wouldhave guessed? The museum was intwo buildings and actually pretty in-teresting. I was disappointed that theydidn't have AChristina's World" inthe museum, but there were loads ofother words by Andrew and all theother Wyeths. It was a talented fam-ily for three generations, both artisti-cally - i.e., graphic artists, and musi-cally.

Well, we had an extra day. It wasSunday and we weren't supposed tomeet our friends in New Orleansuntil Tuesday. We figured out thatAtlanta was on a straight line fromRockland to New Orleans, and it'dbe fun to do a little touring in Atlan-ta. That's not what happened. Whenwe awoke on Sunday morning, wewere completely fogged it. No chanceof getting out >till the fog lifted.Maybe by noon, things looked goodenough and Flight Service was report-ing a six hundred foot ceiling. Itlooked higher to me. Whatever, itwas good enough to get out. We setout on a direct route to MartinsburgWest Virginia, a little more than halfway to Atlanta. That's not what hap-pened either. While we were airbornewe had thunderstorms develop allover the place. Storms to the left ofus, storms to the right of us, and un-like the light brigade, onward into thevalley of death was not my idea offun. Ours was indeed to reason why,ours was not to do or die. So we putdown at Binghamton, New York.

It was late in the afternoon andrainy in Binghamton, so touring wasout. Besides, we didn't have a car.So we did the professional supermar-ket tour (Lynn works in a grocerystore) of the Wegman’s across thestreet - er across the sixty-eight-lanesuperhighway. It was impressive... nokidding. The supermarket, not thehighway.

Next morning we departed forsomewhere/anywhere south of Bing-hamton. We thought we were con-tinuing on our journey to Atlanta viaMartinsburg but thunderstorms allover the place, again, had us divertinto Nashville. This didn't reallybother us too much because we haddiscussed going to Nashville monthsago - to see Opryland and the Coun-try Music Hall of Fame. We rented acar and drove downtown. The wom-an at Mercury (the FBO) was quiteamazing with the hotel reservations.We told her we wanted a Marriott and

The Charge of the LightBrigade - or - The Maine

Lobster FestivalArthur BerkellGreen River Chapter



You’ve all read and heard aboutthe Aviation Division’s Jim Scott andhis airport adoption program. TheWPA’s Penni and Bill Loomis haveadopted the beautiful Sullivan Bayairstrip. I flew in there to meet Jimon May 7 to pick him up so he couldsupervise mowing of Rogersberg.More on that later.

I met a Jon from DF&W and aDebbie from USFS. AS I landed be-fore our meeting, the squirrels scat-tered in every direction. Jon ex-plained that he has been using roadflares to try and control the popula-tion. The squirrel holes are so badthat his contract pilot refuses to flyhis C182 into the strip. Since we can’tafford to lose another airport, thethinking cap was on… poison not al-lowed because the grizzlies and eagleseat carrion and might get indigestion.Aluminum Phosphide that makes anerve gas with no trace poison, but itrequires an a pplicator’s license.

But last weekend on a ranch witha squirrel problem, I got to operateTHE SQUIRREL BLASTER!

This nefarious device has morepilot appeal than a free hamburger.Even the name is great: “RODEX5000 PRO”, like a golf accessory with-out the funny shoes. Made in Idahoat a ridiculous $1800, I could buildone from parts in my shop. (An ex-plosive mixture of oxygen and pro-pane is injected into runs and ignited

with what amounts to a BBQ igniter,resulting in a satisfying, ground shak-ing rumble. Squirrels are sometimeslaunched from their lairs.)

I propose a design contest withtesting trials at the direction of airportadopter Penni Loomis (who doesn’tknow about this yet.) WPA membersbetter jump on this, as the C180/185club would be all over it. Do your partand help with another WPA first!Write me at [email protected] ifyou have mechanical aptitude or ordi-nance experience.

After discussing the squirrel issue,Jim and I flew to Rogersberg to meetIdaho Aviation Association membersSkip Heard, Ken Morrison, Tom Gath-erer, Mike Beard, Johnny Stewart andArnie Brandt to assist in their mowingof Rogersberg.

It was like stepping back in time,a beautiful day, two pilots were pack-ing heat and the hotdog grill was at theready.

I got to meet Arnie for the firsttime, learning more about his cabin onRogersberg (which he was forced toburn) and about some of his flyingwhich included Lear Jets for PotlatchTimber.

Arnie (left) was the fellow who ar-ranged for the helo that we used to re-seed Rogersberg. Johnny (right) wasthe IAA president when McGoldrick,McIver and I met the BLM for the wa-tershed meeting in 1998 that turned thecorner on reopening Rogersberg.

It wasn’t all fun and games andhangar stories. We put in several hoursmowing with equipment flown in bythe IAA guys, and Rogersberg is in greatshape.

This was one of the most wonder-ful ways I could think of to spend aday instead of working.

If you are backcountry ready anda fishing or camping nut, put Rogers-berg on your schedule and see the goodaccomplished by WPA and IAA vol-unteers.

Squirrel Blaster ReduxWhen this story was pub-

lished in the last edition of WPAWings, you may have noticedfour identical photos. “Wow,what a comedian!” I thoughtabout Tom Jensen, the author.I continued with the publicationshowing the four identical pho-tos under the mistaken notionthat it was good sarcastic humor.Not so. At least not as Tom in-tended it. It seens that throughthe modern miracle of modernmiracles, four different photos inthe text managed to convert tofour identical photos, some-where in the electronic transla-tion from Microsoft Word, toAdobe PageMaker, in whichWPA Wings is composed.Amazingly, I later found this be-havior to be completely consis-tent - luckily for this piece, only.With a great deal of difficulty,I’ve finally managed to extractthe four “real” photos and pub-lish them correctly, along withthe original text, below. - Ed.

Tom Jensen, Airports Director

Penni and theSquirrelBlaster

Rogersberg Looking West

Happy flying!

The Conga Line at Rogersberg

One fine hot Summer’s after-noon saw a Cessna 150 flying in thepattern at a quiet country airfield.The Instructor was getting quitebothered with the student’s inabili-ty to maintain altitude in the ther-mals and was getting impatient atsometimes having to take over thecontrols. Just then he saw a twin en-gine Cessna 5,000 ft above him andthought : “Another 1,000 hrs of thisand I qualify for that twin charterjob! Aaahh.. to be a real pilot.. goingsomewhere!” The Cessna 402 was al-ready late and the boss told him thischarter was for one of the Compa-ny’s premier clients. He’d already setMCT and the cylinders didn’t like itin the heat of this Summer’s day. Hewas at 6,000ft and the winds werenow a 20kt headwind. Today was the6th day straight and he was prettydamn tired of fighting these engines.Maybe if he got 10,000ft out of themthe wind might die off... geez thosecylinder temps! He looked out mo-mentarily and saw a B737 leaving acontrail at 33,000ft in the serene bluesky. “Oh man” he thought, “My in-terview is next month. I hope I justdon’t blow it! Outa G/A, nice jetjob, above the weather... no snottypassengers to wait for.. aahhh.”

The Boeing 737 bucked andweaved in the heavy CAT at FL330and ATC advised that lower levelswere not available due traffic. TheCaptain, who was only recently ad-vised that his destination was belowRVR minimums had slowed to LRCto try and hold off a possible in-flight diversion, and arrange an ETAthat would helpfully ensure the foghad lifted to CAT II minima. TheCompany negotiations broke downyesterday and looked as if everyonewas going to take a damn pay cut.The F/O’s will be particularly hardhit as their pay wasn’t anything tospeak of anyway. Finally deciding ona speed compromise between LRCand turbulence penetration, the Cap-tain looked up and saw Concorde atMach 2 plus. Tapping his F/O’sshoulder as the 737 took anotherbashing, he said “ Now THAT’Swhat we should be on... huge pay ...super fast... not too many routes ...not too many legs... above theCAT... yep! What a life ...!”

FL590 was not what he wantedanyway and considered FL570. Al-

Airplaine Drivers... TheGrass is Always Greener

Chuck Souter, Green River Chap-ter

ready the TAT was creeping up againand either they would have to descendor slow down. That damn rear fueltransfer pump was becoming unreli-able and the F/E had said momentsago that the radiation meter was notreading numbers that he’d like to see.Concorde descended to FL570 but theradiation was still quite high eventhough the Notam indicated hunkydory below FL610. Fuel flow was upand the transfer pump was intermit-tent. Evening turned into night asthey passed over the Atlantic. Look-ing up, the F/O could see a tiny whitedot moving against the backdrop of amyriad of stars. “Hey Captain” hecalled as he pointed. “Must be theShuttle “ The Captain looked for amoment and agreed. Quietly hethought .. how a Shuttle mission,while complicated, must be the all andall in aviation. Above the weather ..no radiation problems .. no damn fueltransfer problems ... aaah. Must be agreat way to earn a buck.”

Discovery was into its 27th orbitand perigee was 200ft out from nomi-nated ren- dezvous altitude with thecommsat. The robot arm was virtuallyU/S and a walk may become necessary.The 200ft predicted error would neces-sitate a corrective burn and Discoveryneeded that fuel if a walk was to be re-quired. Houston continually askedwhat the Commander wanted to do butthe advice they proffered wasn’t muchhelp. The Commander had alreadybeen 12 hours on station sorting outthe problem and just wanted 10 min-utes to himself to take a leak. Just thena mission specialist, who had tilted thetelescope down to the surface for aminute or two, called the Commanderto the scope. “Have a look at this Sir,isn’t this the kinda flying you said youwanted to do after you finish up withNASA?” The Commander peeredthrough the telescope and cried“Ooooohhhhh yeah! Now THAT’Sflying! Man, that’s what its all about!Geez I’d give my left you-know-whatjust to be doing THAT down there!”

Note : what the Discovery Com-mander was looking at in his scopewas .. the same Cessna 150 in the pat-tern .. at a quiet country airfield .. ona nice bright sunny afternoon.

Boy, I’ll tell you... pilots are nev-er happy unless they are running allof their perks and toys .. or lookingfor a better flying job!

of this event. Al Hunter again threwthe resources of his Wings ofWenatchee FBO behind this event.

All of the volunteer efforts add-ed up to another safe and successfulmountain flying clinic, where pilotsinterested in improving their skillsgot first hand experience on a vari-ety of mountain courses that arestructured for an optimal learningexperience.

We are proud of the fact that nograduate has ever been the subject ofan air search!! This clinic is a fineexample of what the WPA does as afree service for the flying public.

Continued frContinued frContinued frContinued frContinued from page 1om page 1om page 1om page 1om page 1

Mountain FlyingWe receive an average of fifteen

returned issues of Wings with eachmailing. This costs WPA time andeffort to try and locate the correct ad-dress for each of the returns. It alsocosts us money as the Post Officecharges for each return. Help us serveyou better by keeping your addressup to date.

If you plan to move, let us know.You can do it simply by contactingSandy, by mail phone or eMail, at theaddresses on page 2. Give us yournew address. You will then continuereceive your issues of Wings on time,AND you’ll save us some money.

Save us some $$WPA Wings on Time


PAINE FIELDJohn F. Dobston, President

The PAE Field Chapter has setits sites on 2004 to bring it all togeth-er. Aside from planning an aggressiveschedule of events, “job one” has beento build a simple but effective com-munications system. The PAE-WPABoard of Directors has recognizedthat not all pilots are equal in termsof their computer skills and that ourmembers are constantly barragedwith all manner of flying, business,family and personal opportunities.The challenge is to “stand out” and“reach out”.

In simple terms we have createda basic and effective website thatdoesn’t take a rocket scientist towork. It has the ability to allowmembers to register for upcomingevents as well as enroll new WPAmembers. It says who we are andwhere we are going. We also have anautomated email system that grantsBoard Members direct messaging to“all” members . . . it is not another“spam” system. And of course wehave our monthly “hardcopy” news-letter. In the future we will developa system that identifies “member in-terests” with links to like mindedmembers and we will let them com-municate with each other.

The biggest change for 2004 is thelocation for our General Meetings(First Friday of Every Month). It isthe Sno-Isle TECH Skills Center onthe eastside of Airport Road. (9001Airport Rd.) The best thing about thisfacility is it’s proximity to the airport.The second best thing is the Skill Cen-ter hosts a culinary school that canprovide a complete delivered to thetable 6 course dinner on demand. PotLucks are still the order of the daybut now we have options. The roomseats up to 150 members in a warmand fully carpeted room with a fullaudio visual system built into thewalls. And that allows us the oppor-tunity to invite a wider variety ofguest speakers.

In addition to our weekly Satur-day morning 10am flock heading outfor the $100 hamburger; we havescheduled five “first class” fly outs for2004. They are as follows.

1. PDX-HIO Shopping andDinne Party. May 1 - 2.

2. Jackpot Nevada, June 25 - 26.

3. Eastsound BBQ, July 17.4. Republic Campout and BBQAugust 27 - 28.5. Victoria BC Shopping and

Din ner Party September 18 - 19.We also have five exceptional

Safety, Education and PR programs.:1. Owner Maintenance Seminar(AC43-13), Jan 10, Feb 7, Mar 6,

Sept 11, Oct 2, Nov 6, and Dec 4.Sponsored by Goodrich and EverettCommunity College

2. WINGSApril 24 - 25.3. Aviation AcademyApril 12 –

May 8. Students age 13 through 18with an interest in aviation

4. GA Days (PAE Field OpenHouse) May 22.

5. Skykomish (Adopt an Air-

port) June 5And several changes are coming

for our General Meeting in 2004.They are as follows:

1. July Field Trip July 92. “Tent” Revival at PAE A u -

gust 6.. September Hangar PartySept. 10th

4. Christmas Party @ MillCreek December 3.

Oh, and did I mention the pro-posed “Garage’ (Hangar) sale for thosewanting to reduce the volume of “col-lectables” that haven’t been touchedin the past 15 years? And believe it ornot, we still leave time for the Avia-tion Conference in February and thepilgrimage to Oshkosh in July.

It may seem like a lot to somebut the volunteer base at PAE hasdone a great job of identifying “all”of the tasks required for each eventfunction. And, by creating the “bookof tasks” a volunteer can bite off onlywhat they want. The fact that we have250 members is also a blessing.

We have an open door policy forall WPA members. Stop on by. Youcan contact us on our website atWPA_painefield.org.

The June meeting was special,held at “The Doghouse” (Jim Rob-ertson’s hangar). Our Chapter pre-sented an aviation scholarship fromthe Upper Valley Scholarship Fundto Dash Morris, an enthusiasticyoung man, with aviation running inhis blood! We had a potluck picnic,present the scholarship, did lots ofhangar flying, catching up and watch-ing the kids (Pat & Robin Brownwere there with their triplets!).

In July the Wenatchee Chapterof the WPA hosted a Pig Roast forthe Cashmere Airport and the Co-lumbia River Chapter of the ShortWing Piper Club as a scholarshipfundraiser. The pig roast was wellattended by the Columbia RiverChapter, most coming from the Port-land area. It was great to see a wholebunch of planes parked around for ameeting. The Short Wing group pre-sented a scholarship to Jered Paine,our chapter’s 2002 scholarship win-ner. It’s great to have these youngpeople carrying on a great aviationtradition.

August & September were tak-en up with the Mountain Flying Sem-

CHAPTERREPORTS

Presented in the order that bestfits the layout space available.

Weather-wise, this has been,without a doubt, one of the best sum-mers around the Puget Sound region.The Seattle Chapter of the WPA tookfull ad-van t ageof thelong sun-ny daysto enjoys o m egreat fly-ing andother avi-ation-re-l a t e devents.

Thec h a p t e rhas con-tinued toh o l d“coffee club” meetings at the MercerIsland Starbucks every third Thurs-day of the month. Conversation usu-ally includes various aviation topicsas well as planning for our fly-in thefollowing Saturday. This meeting lo-cation has worked out well due to itscentral location and the availabilityof coffee to accompany home-bakedtreats. However, as the group con-tinues to grow we are exploring oth-er possible meeting locations whichwould accommodate our group aswell as facilitate guest speakers or pre-sentations.

Chapter members got out forsome great fly-ins this summer withone notable trip being an early sum-mer flight to Hoquiam. This oneoccurred before the string of hot sun-ny days settled in and limited VFR-only pilots. However, all memberspresent said they had a great time andate their fill of pancakes, usually

amounting to a grand total of oneeach. These flapjacks were so big thatweight and balance calculations werecarefully considered before the returnleg.

Another notable event occurredlater in the summer when chaptermembers attended the send-off of theBoeing Model 367-80, or Dash 80.

The air-craft wason itsway to itsp e r m a -n e n thome att h eSmithso-nian Na-t i o n a lAir andS p a c eM u s e -u m ’ sSteven F.U d v a r -H a z y

Center, which is located at Washing-ton Dulles International Airport out-side Washington, D.C. The Dash 80propelled America into the age ofcommercial jet transportation. TheSeattle Chapter is very fortunate tohave Jim Gannett as one of its mem-bers. Jim was one of the original Dash80 test pilots, along with TexJohnson, and was in the right seatwhen it made its infamous barrel rollsover Lake Washington during the1955 Gold Cup hydroplane races. Weare grateful that Jim was able to ar-range for the chapter members to havea look at the inside of this historic air-plane prior to the tours open to thegeneral public.

We are hoping for a long Indiansummer with plans to squeeze in acouple more trips where possible andlook forward to additional aviationrelated events this fall.

Chris CondliffSEATTLE

Summer Wrap-up

Jim Gannett in the Dash 80

Wenatchee Chapter PresidentDan Stewart presenting SWPC

Scholarship to Jered Paine,one of last years Upper Valley

Scholarship Fund winners.

WENATCHEE

Chapter Has BUSY SummerDan & Marjie Stewart

John Townsley

OKANOGAN Roy Skelton waits for LarryWooley to fill his bucket with

molten tar as they seal cracks inthe runway at Okanogan Legion

Airport. Photo by Chris Wooley.

inar. In August, we had a planningmeeting getting for our part in theMountain Flying Seminar. Presi-dent, Dan Stewart, asked for volun-teers to head up various parts of thelunch. Our September activity wasthe Mountain Flying Seminar. Ourchapter served a “free spaghetti din-ner” to all the MFS participants thatwere there for the Friday night ses-sion and to the instructors. Satur-day we served a hot dog lunch from11:00-2:00. We also had MountainFlying Seminar T-Shirts, in limitedsupply, I think there are three (3) left!If you haven’t gotten yours, contactAl Hunter to reserve one of the lastones!

Continued next column -->Continued next column -->Continued next column -->Continued next column -->Continued next column -->

WENATCHEE(continued)

Beginning at 6:30 a.m. Tuesdaymorning, August 26th and working intothe early afternoon, several volunteerswith the Okanogan Legion Airport Im-provement Association poured over600 pounds of molten tar into crackson the Okanogan Legion Airport run-way. The crew of four to six used a tarpot provided by the Washington StateDepartment of Transportation Avia-tion Division to melt two dozen 25

pound blocks of tar. The special cracksealing tar was bought last year as partof a $5,000 grant the City of Okanoganreceived to maintain the airplane park-ing area and the runway pavement.

Airport Manager Bix Rosenkranz,noted that “because we’ve done such agood job sealing cracks over the pastfour years the runway is in really greatshape.” He said “annual pavementmaintenance saves the City thousandsof dollars by eliminating the need toperiodically replace the asphalt runway,regular maintenance extends the pave-



Jonathon Wooley and his moth-er Tia pull weeds along the edgeof the runway at Okanogan Le-gion Airport. Photo by Chris Wooley.

After every flight, pilots fill outa form called a gripe sheet, whichconveys to the mechanics problemsencountered with the aircraft duringthe flight that need repair or correc-tion. The mechanics read and correctthe problem, and then respond inwriting on the lower half of the formwhat remedial action was taken, andthe pilot reviews the gripe sheetsbefore the next flight. Never let it besaid that ground crews and engineerslack a sense of humor. Here are someactual logged maintenance com-plaints and problems as submitted byQantas pilots and the solution re-corded by maintenance engineers.(By the way, Qantas is the only ma-jor airline that has never had an acci-dent.)

P = The problem.S = The solution.

P: Left inside main tire al-most needs replacement. S: Al-most replaced left inside main tire.

P: Test flight OK, exceptauto-land very rough. S: Auto-land not installed on this aircraft.

P: Something loose in cock-pit. S: Something tightened in cock-pit.

P: Dead bugs on wind-shield. S: Live bugs on back-order.

P: Autopilot in altitude-hold mode produces a 200 feetper minute descent. S: Cannotreproduce problem on ground.

P: Evidence of leak on rightmain landing gear. S: Evidenceremoved.

P: DME volume unbeliev-ably loud. S: DME volume set tomore believable level.

P: Friction locks causethrottle levers to stick. S: That’swhat they’re there for.

P: IFF inoperative. S: IFF al-ways inoperative in OFF mode.

P: Suspected crack in wind-shield. S: Suspect you’re right.

P: Number 3 engine miss-ing. S: Engine found on right wingafter brief search.

P. Aircraft handles funny.S: Aircraft warned to straighten up, flyright, and be serious.

P: Target radar hums. S:Reprogrammed target radar with lyr-ics.

P: Mouse in cockpit. S: Catinstalled.

P: Noise coming from un-der instrument panel. Soundslike a midget pounding onsomething with a hammer. S:Took hammer away from midget.

20 September 2003 McAllister Field Yakima

The WPA held a Board of Directors meeting on Saturday September20th in Yakima. Our sincere thanks to Dick Moore and the McAllister

Museum for hosting our group. It was a great afternoon.From L. to R. Top row: Bob Hammer, VP Yakima Valley Nancy

Jensen, 1-800 managerTom Jensen, Director Airports Arthur Berkell, Editor Wings & Secre-

tary Rick Miller, Treasurer NorthSoundPaul Grey, Director Membership Jerry Blanchard, VP West AlBanholzer, Immediate Past Presidentbottom row: H. Smith, Presi-

dent Tisha Bartley, VP East Dennis Klingele, Pres. Yakima ValleyTom Nesko, Director Search and Rescue

Pilots’Gripe Sheet

H Smith, WPA Presidentment life indefinitely.” Roxenkranzexplained that “sealing the cracks keepswater from seeping beneath the pave-ment and prevents frost from creatingpot holes and loose gravel that woulddamage landing airplanes.” The run-way was reconstructed with a Washing-ton Department of Transportation Avi-ation Division grant in 1994 at a cost ofover $70,000. Funds for Aviation Di-vision grants are generated from fueltaxes on general aviation fuel. Okan-ogan Legion Airport is used by smallairplanes that can carry up to eight peo-ple. John Townsley said “Several timesa month aircraft visit Okanogan fromout of state. Many times they are flownby an owner-pilot, but often they arechartered flights bringing people to thecounty on business.” The volunteercrack sealing crew included Okanoganresidents Roy Skelton, John Townsley,Bix Rosenkranz, Larry Wooley, ChrisWooley, Tohny Wooley, Kory Lest-er, and Jonathan Wooley.

While cracks were being sealed,another crew of volunteers pulledweeds from along the runway edge.Tia Wooley, co-owner of Flybyfotoin Okanogan, led the crew of five whoincluded her three sons Tohny, Chris,and Jonathon. Bix Rosenkranzhelped with the weed crew, then fin-ished the day with crack sealing. Allof the large tumbleweeds and thistlewithin eight to ten feet of the run-way edge were pulled along both sidesof the 2,500 foot runway. Tohny,who is a senior at Okanogan High

OKANOGAN(continued)

The Harvey Chapter hosted thespot landing and flour bombing con-tests at the 2003 Harvey Corn Roast& Fly-in in August. We were pleasedwith the chapter’s volunteer turn out;we had plenty of bodies to man (orwoman, as the case may be) the WPAbooth and the target areas. Althoughlooking at the judges afterward, Ithink some pilots thought the flourbombing target was our Chapter Sec-retary Crystal… This year we estab-lished categories for fixed wing, ultralight and Helo (bombs only) winnersgot plaques for 1st place and certifi-cates for 2nd and 3rd. Special thanks tomember Bill Van Pelt and his wife fortheir time and effort coordinatingthese events again this year.

Member Al Holtz has enlistedthe assistance of the Boy Scout Troop327 from Millcreek for some projectsat Easton State Emergency airfield.(Adopted by the Harvey Chapter thissummer). Volunteer credit will gotoward Scout David Case’s EagleScout rating. We had one work par-ty in July, repainting the light stan-chions and the Electrical building a“Tangerine Dream” orange and whitecheckerboard pattern, you can see itfor miles. We’ll be back at the fieldOctober 18th and 19th with the scoutsto clear an area for campsites andwork on the midfield markers. Al-though I haven’t been out to see themyet, I heard Jim Scott, WSDOT Avi-ation’s Airport Maintenance Super-visor has erected some new signagearound the field. If you’re in the area,the field is an easy in and out with abed and breakfast within walking dis-tance. Check it out!

School, said he volunteered to help“because community service is impor-tant.” After they finished pullingweeds along the runway Tohny andJonathon worked with the crack seal-ing crew until that project was alsocompleted.

HARVEY FIELDBob Bourgoin, President

Tom Jensen, WPA Airports Direc-tor

Thanks to efforts by severalWPA members in contacting theFAA at the Arlington EAA show, andfollowup by Aviation Division folks,Rogersberg now has an official iden-tifier of D69. This will show up whenthe official database is updated in thenext cycle.

Rogersberg is maintained by vol-unteers, and we’re looking for a fewgood ones to take the load off the Ida-ho guys. If YOU own a 5hp push-type string trimmer and want to help

next spring, please contact me [email protected]

Progress continues on the Squir-rel Blaster, (see p5) propane “cannon”which injects an explosive mixtureinto the lair of furry critters whochoose to destroy airstrips.) If youhave any old acetylene torch parts andwant your name engraved on a pieceof history, please contact me.

WashingtonAirportsReport

Jim McNeill’s Super Cubat Rogersberg

Rogersberg from the air,mid-July 2003

On the ground at Rogersberg


GREEN RIVERCHAPTER - SEE p11


she somehow managed to get the $179rate down to $109 for us. But wewound up not staying there since itwasn't in the center of things. Insteadwe checked in to the Doubletree,which was actually disappointing ascompared with most Doubletrees.The good part was that we were with-in walking distance of the CountryMusic Hall of Fame and spent the restof the afternoon there. Afterward wespent an hour or so at Tootsie's lis-tening to (how could you help it!) up-and-coming country music talent,meeting a variety of Texans, anddrinking beer. What a thunderstormthat night!!

We returned to the airport in themorning to depart for New Orleans,now that any idea of going to Atlan-ta was eliminated due to our sched-ule. During the takeoff roll, I noticedthe air speed indicator not coming offthe zero mark. This wasn't so un-usual since it often “sticks" until theairspeed reaches forty or so knots.But this time was a little different.The airspeed indicator never becameunstuck. So I didn't actively “rotate."Instead I just waited until the airplaneflew off the ground. Once in the air Imoved the gear retraction lever to the"up" position and that's when the funbegan. Bells, buzzers, and flashinglights!! No gear up. The gear safetyswitch began flashing. The gearstayed down. The airspeed indicatorwas pegged to the zero. "Nashvilletower, Mooney two one six five kilohas a little problem - we have no air-speed indicator and the gear won'tretract". Tower asked if we wantedto come back and land. "affirmative”."Mooney two one six five kilo, makeclosed right traffic. Cleared to land;runway two-zero center.”. Then thegear magically began to work. Up.Down. Up, down. Everythingseemed okay, and the airspeed indi-cator showed 70 KIAS, even thoughour actual speed was probably 140 orso. "Nashville tower, can you see mygear?" The tower confirmed the gearup and down and up and down again.Tower wanted to know if we expect-ed a normal landing - which I did andhad no reason not to expect - and Itold tower “yes.” But a minute latertower called back and told us not tobe surprised to see emergency vehi-cles follow us on the parallelrunway(s). And they did. They musthave had four or more different emer-gency vehicles speeding along abeamas we slid down the runway. I hadno way to know what speed I wastouching down at, so I landed at apretty high speed with no flaps andmanaged to eat up about seven oreight thousand feet of the ten thou-sand foot runway. Later we learnedthat they closed the runway in ourhonor and after we were down safe-ly, reopened it. The tower said wordslike "...in-flight emergency..." but wenever declared an emergency and nev-er felt we were in any serious diffi-culty - it felt like more of an inconve-nience than anything else.

We taxied over to Stevens Avia-tion, adjacent to Mercury where af-ter an hour they had somebody "on"the Mooney. After some consider-able huffing and puffing into the pi-tot tube and sucking on the staticports, it was determined the pitottube was clogged. With what? Some-

thing from the storm the night be-fore? A bug?

The storm, we learned, was ac-tually quite violent, with large-sizedhail and eighty knot winds. A num-ber of aircraft on the field wereyanked off their landing gear. Oneairplane was basically lifted and re-positioned on top of a tug, with ap-purtenant damage to the tail of theaircraft.

Stevens worked on the pitot tubefor a few hours. To get it out, a wingpanel had to have the rivets drilledout. The pitot was blocked solid. Noamount of compressed air wouldopen it up. Only after soaking anhour in kerosene then in liquid de-tergent, did it unclog. By three orfour PM, the pitot tube was finallycleared and reinstalled. We got in tothe airplane to depart (again) for NewOrleans. What's this? The attitudeindicator doesn't seem to work. Butit worked this morning? Well, duh-hh, it doesn't work now.

Back to Stevens. The attitudeindicator was removed and bench-tested. It worked for about five sec-onds and died. Dead. Kaput. Didthey have one in stock? Yes! A mir-acle - same model and everything. Butalas and alack, not the same modifica-tions done on it. It wouldn't do thetrick. Also even though the AI canbe installed in minutes, it requiresthree or four hours of post-installa-tion adjustment to make it work cor-rectly with the autopilot. This is true,we learned, since no two AI's are thesame. A correctly modified AI wasordered from Bendix-King/Honey-well to be shipped FedEx with earlyAM delivery. But that put us in Nash-ville for another night.

Well, we had a great Italian din-ner, did NOT go to the Dixie Chicksconcert on political grounds, and setout not too early for the airport thenext morning. But first, a great South-ern breakfast at the recommendedbreakfast stop one exit past the air-port. Great. Grits and all.

By about 1:30 we were airborne.One of the interesting things welearned was that the FSS boys (andgirls) really talk to you when thingsare rough out there. As usual, orwhat had become usual, we were sur-rounded by thunderstorms and ourintended DIRECT to Lakefront NewOrleans (KNEW) was not a possibil-ity. Instead we headed northeast forabout 70 miles, then turned left andwatched the thunderstorms "go by"on our left. When we cleared the lastbuildup, we turned left again - so wewere now headed south. This wasexactly the route the FSS man suggest-ed. The idea here was to start outnortheast and make a circle aroundthe thunderstorms that were driftingsouth towards Nashville. It worked.Eventually we were headed almostdue south towards Jackson (TN) thento KNEW. We were at sixteen thou-sand, in VMC on an IFR flight plan,deviating for buildups every minute.We deviated left and right so often westopped asking. But the point is thatwhat we were told was there by FSSwas indeed there, and we were ableto deal with it. In one particularbuildup that slid by on our right wecould actually see - quite clearly - theviolent upward lifting going on in thebuildup. It looked as if was boiling.Really amazing. And scary. Eventu-ally the thunderstorms were behindus.

At least we thought the thunder-storms were behind us. As we gotcloser to KNEW - I'd say 150 milesout - the stormscope began to show,at what looked like 100 miles out, apretty dense accumulation of "X's".Not good. It seemed as if all the "ac-tivity" was centered exactly where wewere headed. "Two one six five kilo,permission to go off frequency?" Andoff to 120.0 I went. Flightwatch toldme that KNEW was still in the clearand I could get in there. Hmmmm....although my filed alternate was NewOrleans International, I began plan-ning alternate alternates. Alternatesfar away from New Orleans.

As we got as close as maybe 50or 40 miles and entered the STAR (orArrival Procedure or whatever theycall them lately) we could hear NewOrleans Approach discussing the con-ditions at Louis Armstrong (NewOrleans Int'l) with the airline pilots."Yes, 10 knots in your face at the

approach end, 26 knots across therunway at runway center." But ATC

treid to reassure the group by tellingthem that the thunderstorm wasn't onthe runway — yet. It was off the Westend of the runway. "I'm not goingin there. United 123." Delta 456didn't want to try either. ATCcleared a FedEx for the approach andthe reply came back from Mr. FedEx:"What am I the sacrificial lamb? If Imake it then everybody else can try?"I called up and asked if we'd get intoLakefront. "Yes, Lakefront is clear."Amazing. There are only maybe tenmiles between Louis Armstrong andLakefront. And indeed it was clearat Lakefront..

The approach over Lake Poncha-train was almost a replay and mirrorimage of an approach I shot at Lake-front in the 182 four years ago. "Twoone six five kilo, do you see the Cess-na on final for one eight left?" "Twoone six five kilo's looking." So we gotto do a right 360 "for spacing" overthe lake. Four years ago, the situa-tion was exactly the mirror image.We were the Cessna that time around.We were looking for a Bonanza ap-proaching one-eight right. And wecouldn't find that guy either. Thattime we got to do a left 360. Theyought to build those 360’s into theSTAR. Lakefront was indeed cleardespite the haziness over the lake andthe thunderstorm at Louis Arm-strong. - and we landed without prob-lem and without incident.

New Orleans was bestially hotand bestially humid. Being outdoorsfelt like being in a steam room. Liv-ing in the heavenly Northwest, we're

Left in he wake of the Great Falls tornado! Holman Aviation occupiesthe new building which they’ve sadly traded for the Art Deco ex-termi-

nal building. If you look carefully at the left, you can also see theMooney.


simply not used to that kind of weath-er. All we could think of was waysto get into air conditioning or out ofthe heat. My old friend Ron (yes, an-other Ron), whom I hadn't seen intwenty years picked us up at the air-port and we stayed overnight withRon and his wife Cecelia. It waswonderful to see them, but too shorta visit. We were supposed to haveone more day with them, but we al-ready spent it in Nashville frettingover the pitot tube and AI. Ron andCecelia had to leave for Maryland thenext day and we took up our reserva-tion at the St. Louis Hotel in theFrench Quarter. This was not a five-star hotel, but it was no slouch. Prob-ably in the just-under-top group. Wegot an off-season internet rate of $49!!Incredible - it was indeed a first classhotel in the heart of the French Quar-ter; huge room, nicely done, modernbath, good A/C, a zillion channels oncable TV, etc. Best hotel deal I evergot. No Orbitz, no Priceline.Just some good old fashioned re-search.

We toured around in the FrenchQuarter for our final day in NOLA;had Beignets at Café du Monde, visit-

ed art galleries on Royal Street, visit-ed the refrigerator-like buildings ofthe Museum of New Orleans. Freez-ing. Great. At night when the tem-perature finally fell to a new low ofvery hot as opposed to incredibly hotduring the day, we visited the RedFish Grille on Bourbon Street and hadgreat Cajun food. New Orleans is aneat-a-thon.

Next morning we were off toChicago Midway via Cape Girardo,MO. Chicago was a little far for asingle leg flight. Not un-doable, buta stretch. So we stopped after 22hours with a 1+ hour leg from CapeGirardo to MDW. Pretty much clearall the way, except for broken cumu-lo that slowly became more dense aswe got closer into the arrival proce-dure at MDW. "What is your air-speed?" the controller asked. "Oneseventy-five on the clock." He want-ed to know if we could keep that upwhile on the ILS. Hmmm... neverdid that before. I’m used to 110-120on the glideslope. His request of 175seemed kind of fast to me and I wor-ried about being able to either descendfast enough, or slow down quicklyenough, as I approached the runway.What if I couldn't slow down soonenough to get the gear down; and thenthe flaps, etc., etc.? I'd have to gomissed, and I really didn't relish theidea - especially at a big busy place

Light Brigade

Continued on page 9 -->Continued on page 9 -->Continued on page 9 -->Continued on page 9 -->Continued on page 9 -->


Dear Washington Pilot’s Associ-ation Member,

As you well know, later this yearthe world celebrates the centennialanniversary of powered flight. Sincethe Wright brothers first flew at Kit-ty Hawk the ensuing years have fea-tured incredible advances in aviationand space. Plus, many of the scientif-ic developments in aviation and spacehave led to important advances inmedicine and technology.

Behind these advances have beenmen and women inspired at an earlyage by aviation and space exploration.Whether well known figures such asWilliam Boeing or Sally Ride, or thecountless engineers, scientists, pilots,and others in many different disci-plines, all have contributed to the ad-vances and milestones.

But what of the future? Manyyoung people today choose not topursue scientific or technical careers——finding little interest or inspirationin science, math, and technology.

The Seattle based Museum ofFlight, for which I volunteer, haslaunched an ambitious ongoing initia-tive to use education and exposure toaviation and space both to inspire andmotivate young adults.

Whether it is the ChallengerLearning Center, where teams of stu-dents on board the “shuttle” as wellas in “mission control” must problemsolve and work together as a team tosolve practical “failures” in a simulat-ed shuttle mission, to summer Aero-space Camps, where attendees receiveexposure to many facets of aviationand aerospace—and through which arechallenged with also developing lead-ership skills; the educational programs

at the Museum of Flight looks to fun-damentally develop an interest in sci-ence/math/technology for theseyoung adults as well as continue todevelop team and leadership abilities.

The Museum of Flight is a pri-vate, not for profit institution, andthus is solely dependent on exhibitattendance and donations for its op-eration.

General aviation has been a pas-sion of mine for quite a number ofyears. I have been fortunate to havebeen a pilot for the past 27 years andcurrently fly a Cessna 195 and PiperTwin Geronimo. For the past sever-al years I have been trying to “giveback” through working with theMOF both on developing curriculumand programs for various education-al programs and more recently fund-raising. A specific area that the MOFand I have been working together onis developing programs and fundingtargeted at disadvantaged youth.

I ask you to consider a financialdonation in support of continuing theMuseum’s educational initiatives foryoung adults. The donation is fullytax deductible as the Museum is aqualifying 503(c) organiztion.

Because I am so passionate aboutthis cause I am matching donationsdollar for dollar.

I am asking that you considerdonating $ 100, $250, $ 500, (ormore!)—though any amount is great-ly appreciated and will be put to gooduse. Included below is a donationform that can be completed and re-turned to the Museum of Flight.Remember, I am matching dollar fordollar!

Thanks for the support and hap-py flying!

Michael Kopp

Michael Kopp, Green RiverChapter

WPA-GRC Member Matches MOFFund-Raising - an Open Letter

The Museum of Flight Donor FormYES! I would like to help support the Museum of Flight’s

educational programs and initiatives. Enclosed please find a check in the amount of: $ ____________

Please charge my (circle) Master VISA American Express Amount: $ ____________

Card Number: ______________________ Exp: ___________

Name on Card: ____________________________________

Address: ________________________________________

_______________________________________________Thank you for your support!

Please return the completed form to:

Elissa Lines, Director of DevelopmentThe Museum of Flight

9404 East Marginal Way SouthSeattle, WA 98108

WPA-Michael Kopp

Thanks to efforts by severalWPA members in contacting theFAA at the Arlington EAA show,and followup by Aviation Divisionfolks, Rogersberg now has an official

identifier of D69. This will show upwhen the official database is updatedin the next cycle.

Rogersberg is maintained by vol-unteers, and we’re looking for a fewgood ones to take the load off the Ida-ho guys. If YOU own a 5hp push-type string trimmer and want to helpnext spring, please contact me [email protected]

Been in to D69Lately?

Tom Jensen, WPA Airports Direc-tor

Hi - My name is Tisha Bartley.I’m from the small town of Easton inEastern, Washington. I have been fly-ing now for almost 15 years - wow,how the time goes by fast. Nonethe-less, from the moment my feet left theground on my first IntroductoryFlight, I have loved aviation and themany adventures and destinations itscarried my life too. I learned to fly inWenatchee, Washington where I meta great group of folks actively in-volved with the local EAA chapter. Iwas invited to participate in many funactivities, including a memorable tripwith my dad flying to Oshkosh in1992. After obtaining my CFI, I wentto work building flight hours as aninstructor out of Boeing Field in Se-attle. I then graduating into flyingcargo in light twins throughout thePacific Northwest. My first airlinejob came when I was hired with MesaAirlines flying the mighty Beechcraft1900 out on the East Coast. Ultimate-ly this paved the path that led me tofulfill that lifetime dream of flying forthe Majors. So finally I’m back to Se-attle, as a First Officer on the Boeing737 for Alaska Airlines. Although Iwouldn’t trade my office window foranything I have greatly missed the funadventures of flying small airplanesthese past few years. My dad, broth-er and I have recently purchased aC172 based in Auburn. My brotherJim is a great mechanic and has spentmany hours getting it into tip, topshape. So we are ready to fly and arehugely looking forward to getting toknow everyone here.

Meet TishaBartley,

WPA VicePresident East H Smith, WPA President

On Sept. 20th the Board of Di-rectors of WPA elected Tisha Bartleyas our new Vice President, East. Shereplaces Anne English who had to re-sign. Tisha’s term runs thru Febru-ary, 2004. A short autobiographyappears below.

Tisha Bartley, WPA VP East

like Midway. "I can do one-forty onthe glide slope" I told him. "Okay,then I'll have to send you around…it'll be quite a while — I have ninejets to get in." He actually then apol-ogized for the delay... and explainedthat we arrived at just the wrongmoment. What else is new? Regard-less, around in circles we went. Bro-ken jumbulo cumulo. In and out.Bump and bump. FINALLY afterabout twenty minutes the controllerlet us in. For curiosity I wanted tosee what speed I could do down theglide-slope on the ILS. One seventyfive was a snap! A half-hour wasted.But better safe than sorry.

Just a comment: We should havegone into Meigs field. But DictatorDaley the mayor ruined that idea.Power corrupts and absolute powercorrupts absolutely. A gangster inMayor’s clothing. Brother!

Oh wait, I forgot to tell youabout the water in the fuel at CapeGirardo. As we were descending toland at Cape Girardo, the engine madea sudden rev-up noise. What was that?It lasted less then a second andstopped. All the steam gauges werenormal. All the digital things werenormal. But as we descended the en-gine ran rough - but it was subtle - Icouldn't tell if it was really a roughengine or if we were in some kind ofheadwind causing a little buffeting -this wouldn't be the first time in sucha headwind. After landing and refu-eling we found significant water in theright wing. Must've been in there,undetected, since Lakefront. Proba-bly the descent angle shifted some-thing and set it free. First time sinceI've been flying that there was actual-ly water in the fuel.

Back to Chicago. Lynn had toleave Chicago early while I stayedbehind for my business trip. But wehad enough time together that wespent a day and a half in Chicago be-ing tourists. We went to the NavyPier, walked amongst the millions ofpeople on the pier, took in the sights,went to the Planetarium, walkedalong Lakeshore Drive, took a riverboat "architecture" tour along theChicago River, ate at great restau-rants. It's a good tourist city.

Lynn left Chicago for Seattle viaUnited Airlines on Sunday morningand I stayed for the National Hard-ware Show on Sunday and Monday.To my own surprise I finished every-thing I had to do on Sunday and wasable to leave for home early Mondaymorning. Aside from some ice build-up on the climb-out, the flight homewas uneventful - via fuel stops atPierre, ND then Great Falls, MT, toS36. For a westbound flight I wasmaking great time - 189 knots overthe ground at sixteen thousand feet.At Great Falls when the wind changed-- I probably crossed a front -- downto 156 knots. Shlepped home in twohours from Great Falls. Interesting-ly there were two airplanes piled ontop of each other in a wreck at GreatFalls - some kind of Piper and a 195on floats. The two aircraft were sointertwined I wasn’t really sure whatI was looking at. Seems a tornado hadgone through the night before.

Even though throughout ourtrip, "that's not what happened" fre-



Light Brigade

The new pilots lounge inConcrete is now open.Use the CTAF for thecode to enter.


An update to Washington StateAirports for pilots and volunteers.

Many of you have requested reg-ular updates on the status and use ofthe 16 State operated airports. This e-mail distribution list has been puttogether form sign-in logs and e-mails.If you would like to be removedplease let me know, otherwise feel freeto share this information with yourflying friends.

Methow State- The smokejumper base is in full operation andthe fire crews are pretty busy as oflate. There are TFR’s establishedaround major fires and the TFR atWinthrop ends just north of the air-port. Good idea to check NOTAM’sbefore you fly into the area. If youfly to Methow, park on the west sideof the airport to avoid the jumpplanes. Also watch for low visibilityin the afternoons due to smoke andhigh density altitude.

Sullivan Lake- The five new pic-nic tables are chained and locked tofence posts spread along the parkingarea. Fire rings are now in place nextto each table. Please check USFS rulesfor campfires before using. If camp-fires are not banned by now they willbe soon if the area stays dry. We arewriting an agreement with the camp-ground concessionaire to pay him forpilots using the toilets and trash cans.If you feel the need to make a dona-tion, make it to the Deer Park WPAchapter who have adopted this strip.It is tax deductible and you can con-tact me for details.

There are a couple of largerprojects slated for fall at SullivanLake. We will be extending the fenceat the south end to close the vehicletrail and move some logs to the wa-ter edge at the end of the strip to en-courage people to use the beach eastof the approach end. We also hope tohave the runway graded filled and re-seeded before the first snow so weshould have a much better runwaynext spring. The pesky ground squir-rels continue to be a problem and weare still looking for a long term solu-tion, and no, Bill Murray is not avail-able.

Stehekin- Some great news fromthe folks at the National Parks Ser-vice. They applied for and received amatching fund grant for $17,000 forweed control at the airport. We areworking with the NPS to design andinstall an irrigation system utilizingthe 1930’s wooden pipe that runs2500' from the river to the airport.The money has to be spent by the endof September so we are moving veryfast on this. It is looking like the grantwill buy the materials and we wouldlike to install near the end of Septem-ber with volunteer labor. In Octoberthe Aviation Division will have therunway seeded and if it all comes to-gether we will have a very nice run-way developed over the next coupleyears. I will keep everyone posted onprogress and up coming work parties.

We are working on the treetrimming plan and hope to have per-mission to cut another section soon.The topping that needs to be done atthe south end is still a high priority

Jim Scott,WSDOT AD Airports Director

Washington Airports Update

Washington Pilots Association Memberhip Application

( ) ( ) ( )

Name Spouse❑ Pilot ❑ IFR ❑ Comm’l ❑ ATP ❑ CFI(I) ❑ Pilot ❑ IFR ❑Comm’l ❑ ATP❑ CFI(I)

✣❉❒❃'❅ American Express Discover MasterCard Visa________ ________ ________ ________ Exp. ___/___

WPA Regular Annual Dues - Includes Wings. ❑ $31CFI/CFII Dues - Regular dues not required. ❑ $ 1WPA First Year Soloed Student Pilot (1st year free) ❑ FreeGA News - Discounted $35 1-year subscription ❑ $25 Total $_____

Mail to: Washington Pilots Association 227Bellevue Way NE PMB 397Bellevue, WA 98004-9721Signature (for credit card applications)

Fax Credit Card Applications to 603-658-1882 or mail to address above.

❑ Student

Cut out this section!Cut out this section!Cut out this section!Cut out this section!Cut out this section!Give it to a friend who is not a member of WPA, but

who you’d like to become a member!

Home Phone Work Phone Fax

Please select one of the WPA chapters below to join, OR you may chooseto becom a “member at large.” If you select a chapter, $12 of your WPAannual dues is directed to your selected chapter. If you select “member-at-large” $6 of your dues will be donated to WA Search & Rescue Fund and$6 to the WPA Legislative Action Fund.

❑ Bellhingham ❑ Okanogan County ❑ Spokane❑ Clallam County ❑ Paine Field (Everett) ❑ Twin Harbors (Hoquiam)❑ Colville Valley ❑ Greater Seattle ❑ Wenatchee❑ Deer Park ❑ Southwest-Vancouver❑ Yakima Valley❑ Green River (Auburn/Renton) Harvey Field (Snohomish)❑ Kelso / Longview ❑ MEMBER AT LARGE

❑ Student

23 Reasons to Join theWashington Pilots Association

1. Search and Rescue team readyto respond to emergencies 7x24.

2. Newspaper from the state or-ganization keeping you up to date andin touch with the aviation world inWashington State – WINGS.

3. Discount of $10 off the GANews magazine - keeps you informedof NW aviation.

4. Discount of 24.5% off the Pi-lot Getaways magazine - shows yougreat flying destinations.

5. Membership includes yourspouse.

6. Great food and snacks atmost monthly chapter meetings.

7. Active advocacy to preserveour airports and flying freedoms.

8. Educational lectures on fly-ing and aircraft maintenance.

9. Assistance for new pilots get-ting started in the wonderful worldof aviation.

10.Safety seminars on a varietyof topics.

11.Toys for Tots with Santa fly-ing in to participate.

12.Automatic membership inWashington Air Search and Rescue(WASAR)

13.Observer training for non-pi-lots who want to participate in Searchand Rescue.

14.Advanced training for pilotswho want to participate in Search andRescue.

15.Widen your circle of aviationfriends: in your community, at thechapter level, and across the State.

16.Private rustic cabin on Stu-art Island for exclusive and FREE useby WPA members.

17.Information available onState and local legislation affectingyour rights as pilots.

18.Experience the fun of fly-outs with fellow pilots.

19.Contests to check your“flour bombing” and landing skills.

20.Unrestricted access to our800-WPA-FLYS help line.

21.Year-round activities to keepyour interest in flying high.

22.Outstanding lineup of freeguest speakers to both entertain andeducate YOU.

23.Web site to keep you up-to-date on aviation events and issues inWashington.

Visit our web site:www.wpaflys.org to learn moreabout the WPA and join the organi-zation in Washington representingyour aviation interests.

Make Check Payable to Washington PilotsAssociation or complete credit card informa-tion:

Address City/State/Zip

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Become a member today by completing this form or by using the form on theWPA website at www.wpaflys.org

and we are getting estimates on thatproject. As you can imagine the per-mit process is not easy but we aremaking progress. Note of interest, thenew park Ranger at Stehekin is a pi-lot and plans to keep his airplane atthe strip. I was surprised to see a glid-er parked at the airport when I wasthere last Monday and the locals tellme there is airplane traffic almost ev-ery day.

Easton- This airport has recent-ly been adopted by the Harvey FieldWPA chapter. They are having theirfirst work party this Saturday August2nd. The plan is to clear an area foraircraft camping and do some tree andweed trimming around the field.They will also be repainting the run-way light control building and clear-ing debris from the WWII mid-fieldmarkers. In the long term plan we willrebuild those mid-field markers tooriginal condition and tear down anold building on site. We have alsodiscussed installing bathrooms andshowers for pilots that want to campsince power and water is available.There will be picnic tables and firerings installed in a couple weeks. Feelfree to stop in Saturday and join thefun, several people will be campingon site.

Did you know there is a Bed andBreakfast next to the Easton airport?It is called Silver Springs Ranch andthey will pick up pilots and luggagewhen you fly in to stay with them.They also offer horse rental and aadjoining campground for RV’s.They can be reached at 509-656-0275.

Ranger Creek- The folks at the

USFS installed 4 new sets of signs totry and control the ORV’s that haveoverrun the area. They are really nicesigns but they designated a riding areathrough the aircraft parking area. Iwent there to survey this yesterdayand have contacted the USFS aboutthis problem and we are working ona solution. There continues to be com-plaints about people riding on therunway and not watching for air-planes. We are working on a barrierdesign that will close off the runwayto vehicles and hope to have some-thing installed next spring after theplan goes through the USFS approv-al process. Always make a pass overthe runway to check condition beforelanding.

All the rest- We have finished thedesign and have ordered 80 new signsthat will be installed at all the Stateairports by September. Most of theairports do not have signs and the onesthat do are of very poor quality. Thenew look signs will include a welcomesign, a visitor information sign, a roadentrance sign, and various warningsigns. Each welcome sign will have abox containing a sign-in guest bookand pilots are encouraged to sign-ineach time you use one of the Statestrips. This kind of information helpswith money allocation and prioritiesfor improvement projects.

That is all for now. Fly safe. JimScott WSDOT Aviation DivisionState Airports Maintenance Supervi-sor 360-651-6313 360-708-7561 [email protected] P.O. Box 3367Arlington, Wa. 98223


Calendar of EventsThe following list of aviation related events is provide as a service to our members. Obvi-

ously, these events are not sanctioned by WPA but provided to you as an aid in identifying flyingevents in which you may want to participate. We try to keep the information up-to-date.However, there is always the chance that situations change. Therefore, check with the personlisted with each event to insure the event is still scheduled. Please send updates and Eventsby email at [email protected] or call/fax the information to (425) 228-6330. Help usmake this Calendar in WPA Wings a very useful item - send in the events!

Al Banholzer Green River Chapter

OCTOBER3-5 Oyster Festival at Fair Grounds alongside Sanderson Field 360-427-9680 x 391

4 Twin Oaks Airpark, Hillsboro, OR, Fly-in Breakfast - EAA #105, 503-646-87634 Wenatchee Aviation Day and fly-in, 07:30-14:00 - Arnie Clark, 509-884-2494 x 64 Hangar 15 Monthly Weenie Burn, 11:00-14:00, Bellingham - 360-671-2250

10 Safety Breakfast at Pt Angeles Art Coffee Shop, 08:30 (CC) Steve, 360-452-660122 Wings Program, Snohomish PUD Auditorium, 7:00pm– Scott Gardiner,

425-227-288023 Wings Program, Museum of Flight, 7:00pm– Scott Gardiner, 425-227-288024 Safety Breakfast - Pt Angeles Apt Coffee Shop, 08:30 (CC) - Steve, 360-452-6601

27-28 Final Flight Festival of the Year, Olympic Flight Museum - Bill Synder, 360-705-3925

NOVEMBER1 Twin Oaks Airpark, Hillsboro, OR, Fly-in Breakfast - EAA #105, 503-646-87631 Hangar 15 Monthly Weenie Burn, 11:00-14:00, Bellingham - 360-671-22508 Veteran’s Hangar Dance at Pearson Aviation Museum - 360-694-7026

8-9 SAR Orientation Course, Part I (Aircrew/General), East sideRregister 800-552-0666

8-9 WSDOT CFI Revalidation Clinic, Everett - register 800-552-066614 Safety Breakfast - Pt Angeles Apt Coffee Shop, 08:30 (CC) - Steve, 360-452-660128 Safety Breakfast - Pt Angeles Apt Coffee Shop, 08:30 (CC) - Steve, 360-452-6601

DECEMBER6 Twin Oaks Airpark, Hillsboro, OR, Fly-in Breakfast - EAA #105, 503-646-87637 Pearl Harbor Ceremony at Pearson Aviation Museum - 360-694-7026

7-8 Santa Claus arrives at Olympia, Olympic Flight Museum - Bill Synder, 360-705-3925

12 Safety Breakfast - Pt Angeles Apt Coffee Shop, 08:30 (CC) - Steve, 360-452-6601

guard against criminal activity at ourairports, and Airport Watch is oneway.

I’m glad that the AOPA has beensuccessful in their outreach to theTSA. This shows that our GA com-munity can “do something”, prevent-ing more onerous if nonsensical ideasfrom being imposed. I encourage youto read about the AOPA material atwww.aopa.org/airportwatch.

WSDOT-Aviation’s websitealso posted new TSA advisories on9-11-03. (For more information seethe AD website or contact TomPeterson, 800-552-0666.) I took heedof the TSA’s advice for “…general avi-ation aircraft and airport operators…to consider..” and picked one of theirrecommendations.


“Secure unattended aircraft toprevent unauthorized use. “

Mauve

FOR SALE-Construction Power Tools. Selling thefollowing equipment for a 99 friend: 1) Hilti TE 25 Ro-tary hammer drill (NEW) $700. 2) Milwaukee HoleHawg 1675-1 (NEW) $210. 3) Senco Framing nailer SN60(NEW) $267. 4) Milwaukee 18v. Sawzall #48-11-2100 .5) Greenlee 7906SB hydraulic punch driver set. 1/2 thru2” dies, $698 in Grainger, good, $300. 6) Craftsman/Honda 580.742650 6.5hp 2300psi pressure washer***7) Stanley/Bostitch drywall screw gun S2500 ***. CallTom for details and full list of other plumbing solder-ing, and sharpening shop tools, including three chain-saws, etc. 253-833-6777 or [email protected].

WANTED-Environmentally Correct, Politically Incor-rect Help save backcountry airstrips! Join in the fightto protect grizzly bears and eagles who might eat thepoisoned carcasses of burrowing critters. Help buildthe Squirrel Blaster. Still needed: 1) Used but serviceableacetylene torch or any parts, hoses, tip for Victor han-dle, etc. 2) 10’ 1/2 or 5/8 x.035” stainless hydraulic tub-ing 3) 1’ 2” x .049” stainless exhaust tubing. 4) Cattleprod or other hi-voltage battery ignitor. 5) Flashbackarrestors Free ear plugs to all donors.Please call Tom253-833-6777 or [email protected].

*** GCMO = Good condition make offer.

WPWPWPWPWPA A A A A WINGS CLASSIFIEDSWINGS CLASSIFIEDSWINGS CLASSIFIEDSWINGS CLASSIFIEDSWINGS CLASSIFIEDSPersonal ads free to members.

Jim Scott, our Aviation DivisionAirports Supervisor, continues to ac-tively promote adoption of state air-ports. He has all of the state airportsunder the care of a person or groups,

AirportsContinued frContinued frContinued frContinued frContinued from page 7om page 7om page 7om page 7om page 7

Red’s HorseRanch


quently, we still had a great trip allaround the country. There's some-thing wonderful about travelingaround in your own aircraft and "see-ing" the country, albeit at times allwe see is the layer beneath us. Andyes there are hours of sheer boredomwhile in the relatively empty highteens. And it's also true that in manyparts of the country all we see is therunway and the FBO. But somehowthose long trips always make me feelmuch more like I live in the all of theUSA and that I can call the whole USAmy home. Comprende?

thunderstorm wandered through, thegranddaughters just moved their cardgame to underneath the table. Weshared cooking, which reduces work-load and leaves more time to dreamup hangar stories.

We “had to” make a flight outon Saturday, so Mike could buy sur-prise roses for wife Linda’s birthday.The real reason was that we were lowon beer, but don’t let on…

Continued frContinued frContinued frContinued frContinued from page 9om page 9om page 9om page 9om page 9Light Brigade

GREEN RIVERCHAPTER

Lynn Berkell, President

One of my most challenging jobsas chapter president is co-ordinatingmonthly meetings with the boardmembers that will be of interest to awide variety of pilots and their fami-lies. Planning our September meet-ing was made easier after I met Mau-reen Griggs of the North SoundChapter at last February’s’ AviatonConference in Puyallup. We decidedit would be nice to be able to splitthe cost of a speaker between the twochapters and Maureen went to work.THANK YOU MAUREEN ANDTHE NORTH SOUND CHAP-TER!

Both chapters hosted Mick Wil-son, author of “How to Crash an Air-plane and Survive!” for our Septem-ber meeting. Mick, from Colorado,is a former Aviation Safety Managerfor the Federal Aviation Administra-tion. His book is based on a threeyear study of accident statistics.Green River Chapter members“packed the house” to hear Mick’sseminar basked on his book. We evenran out of coffee, a first!

In conversation with Mick be-fore the meeting, I came to realize thatother state pilot associations strugglewith meetings as well. The generalmembership relies on the volunteerefforts of a few to co-ordinate meet-ings and activities. It sounds simplis-tic to say that Washington Pilots As-sociation IS, what WE the membersare willing to make it. When we’reout there driving for more members,remember that it’s the concentratedefforts of the volunteers, that makethe meetings and other pilot activi-ties happen.

So THANKS to all the volun-teers. Our member in WPA thriveson your efforts!

and he continuesto look for newopportunities.For example, Jimhas found thatthe Mayor ofNorthport (westof Sullivan Lakestate airport) isinterested in re-opening an aban-doned aiportnear that town. WPA member andDeer Park airport manager PenniLoomis and her husband will beadopting the future Northport aiport.

I have found quite a bit of inter-est in the Pesayten airstrip in the farnorth Cascades. I was intrigued byits beauty after flying over it in a re-cent air search and have heard from anumber of old timers who used to fishafter flying into the strip with theirfathers. It will be a tough sell, butafter Rogersberg, anything should bepossible. If you have some historyor photographs to share, you canhelp!

Reserve now!Stuart Island Cabin

George Konrad (206) [email protected]

We not only have our four localTFRs and forest fire TFRs to worryabout, but we now also have somePresidential TFRs to stay out of in thePuget Sound area. President Bushwill be visiting Portland and Seattle/Bellevue around the middle of Au-gust. This will bring a big and veryserious TFR to the area and one youdo not want to bust. If you shouldwonder into it you would experiencesome formation flying with Black-hawk helicopters along with maybe aF-16. Call Flight Service before anyflight and get the latest word on notonly the weather and notams, but alsoon TFRs along your route of flight.The TSA and Secrete Service folks donot accept excuses or apologies forflights inside a Presidential TFR. So,you all be careful out there.

PRESIDENTIALTFRs

Al Banholzer, Green River Chap-ter


Deadline for the next Wings:THURSDAY July 31st

Submission information - see p2.

To Advertise in WingsCall 1-800 972-3597

(1 800 WPA-FLYS) or email [email protected]

Calendar of EventsSee Inside Back Cover

King Air 300 avionics upgrade including the Chelton Synthetic VisionEFIS system and Honeywell IHAS (Integrated Hazard Awareness

System) with RDR 2100 Radar System. Contact Hillsboro Aviation formore information on meeting the March 2005 TAWS deadline for

your King Air with our STC’d IHAS 8000 installation

What did YOU do this summer?Red’s Horse Ranch

By “Papa” Jensen,Green River Chapter

What good is an airplane in theback country if you can’t share the ex-perience? Who better toshare it with than a grand-daughter (besides yourwife, especially if she isthe airplane owner)?

Those are rhetoricalquestions which answerthemselves and which ex-plain one of our really funairplane camping tripsthis summer.

We had originallyplanned to camp at MooseCreek, ID with GreenRiver chapter memberand neighbor Mike Lat-ta, each of us with a 10-year old granddaughter.But on the morning ofour departure, a call tothe ranger district got the advisory thatThe Moose was IMC due to smokefrom nearby fires. Through the won-der of cell phones, plans were amend-ed; Mike picked up Bailey in Dallas,OR, and we picked up Katie in Kelso,then off to Reds. (Try THAT withyour SUV in half a day!)

We arrived at Red’s midday,which was okay because we were land-ing and the winds were mild. (Red’sis a doglegged 2800’ mountain airstripat 3600’ elevation, so density altitudecan be a factor. Did I mention thatdensity altitude is the single biggestcause of fatal accidents in 7 northweststates?

A survey of available accommo-dations was completed, and we set-tled on a remote and bucolic site not

far from the river.Red’s Horse Ranch

is a USFS airstrip in theWallowa wilderness areanear Enterprise, OR.There is a beautiful, his-toric lodge which ismaintained by volun-teers associated with theOregon State Patrol.(The OSP “linkage” pro-vides an official reasonfor usage, alledgedly for“surveys” and “science”;this helps us as pilot usergroups. The USFSwould otherwise appar-ently allow the lodge todecompose, along withabout 6 beautiful cabins,all located on the Minam

River-go figure.) Red’s used to be a privately-

owned outfitting lodge; the OSP“caretakers” welcome visitors, espe-cially granddaughters; it’s a treat!

A spawning salmon working itsway upriver was reported to Baileyas being “as big as Katie” by the care-takers; this was taken by these sharplittle girls as so much leg-pulling, un-til such a salmon was actually seen.

Viewing and hiking were terrif-ic and fishing was lousy, but I’ll at-tribute this to my lack of skill.

Camping was great; when a minor

“Papa” Jensen and grand-daughter Katie Wood at

Red’s Horse Ranch Lodge. Dig


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