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THE FLYER
www.VictoryAviation.org
Webmaster: NEEDED!! Inquire at PilotInfo@VictoryAviation.org
December, 2014
EDITOR: John Chappell
In This Issue:
E-Mail: News@VictoryAviation.org
In case of poor driving
conditions (heavy snow, ice, rain, etc.), typhoons,
locust plagues, floods, famine, or the end of the
world, call Bob Overman (Business) or Herb
Porter (Tour Group/Safety) for meeting status.
Phone list on page 2.
MEETING NOTE
Current Aircraft Rates
From the Tower
Maintenance & Planning
Safety Soapbox
Pilots’ Lounge
Hangar Rash
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2
2
3
6
7
Current Roster
Current Rules
November, 2014
November, 2014
Upcoming Events
Check this space each month for upcoming Tour
Group and other aviation events
Tour Group
REMINDERS
•
Herb is looking for ideas!
Other Aviation Events
All meetings are held at 7:00 pm on the third Tuesday
of each month. This month’s meeting will be held at
Richard’s Pizza in Fairfield, located at 495 Nilles Rd.,
approximately two miles west of Rt. 4.
COME EARLY: SOCIAL HOUR FROM 6:00 to 7:00.
Need a map? http://goo.gl/maps/FzWPe
Next Club Mtg.
Next Tour Group/Safety Mtg.
No meeting in July.
Dec. 16, 2014
Jan 20, 2015
•
Please
send
any
event
News@VictoryAviation.org
news
to
IMPORTANT NOTICE!!
Please send all changes to the addresses listed
below, as appropriate.
News Items for Newsletter:
News@VictoryAviation.org
Roster information changes and updates
(address, phone, etc.):
PilotInfo@VictoryAviation.org
Email address changes:
PilotInfo@VictoryAviation.org
Resignations/Requests for Inactive Status:
PilotInfo@VictoryAviation.org
BFR and/or medical certification date
changes (updates to the info on your bill):
PilotInfo@VictoryAviation.org
ICE (In Case of Emergency) contact info:
Bob Overman, (Primary):
President@VictoryAviation.org
Herb Porter (Secondary):
CURRENT AIRCRAFT RATES
Will be coming soon to a newsletter that will
hopefully appear in you inbox! No promises, I know the
guy that puts this together… ☺
A word about our recent insurance claims..... I
want to impress on everyone, the importance of
staying current with not only the requirements
enforced by the FAA, but our club rules must be
complied with as well. Our individual currency in
all these areas is mandatory. I want to commend
our pilots for their attention to these details in
recent incidents, allowing our insurance coverage
to proceed as expected. As you know, both the
FAA and Avemco take a very detailed look at
currency and log books. If an unfortunate incident
were to happen to you, be advised that the
welfare of the club and your own can be seriously
affected by any deficiency in currency, club rules
or "safe practices". Please refer to our Operating
Rules 3.5.15, and By-Laws, VI B, concerning any
losses incurred by the club. Essentially, if these
currency requirements are not met, you will be
responsible for all losses not covered by
insurance.
We will be electing officers at the December
business meeting coming up on December 16th
see you there!
I want to thank the many volunteers who have
spent considerable time and effort in 2014 to help
make the club run smoothly. Your work is most
appreciated! I also want to wish everyone a very
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
~ Bob Overman, President
FROM THE TOWER
For those that don't know, Jim Sullivan had triple
by-pass heart surgery recently and is currently
recovering at home. His surgery well but he is not
ready for calls yet. Get well soon Jim!
MAINTENANCE & PLANNING
N355VA
Replaced the Attitude Gyro
Repaired nose wheel shimmy
Re-sealed the right side vent seal
Also, Dave Gold had a forced landing with the
Dakota in a muddy field near St Louis. Everyone is
fine and even the airplane came through it
unscathed. We are in the process of recovering
the airplane which will take several more days or
weeks. More to come on that.
Pilot seat release repaired
N356VA
Performed Annual while waiting for new
engine and prop repair
Replaced rudder and stabilator hinge
bearings
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Replaced the stabilator trip cable pulleys
Replaced the forward door seal
Replaced the nose gear steering forward
end rods
Repaired the exhaust shroud
Replaced the left main gear mounting
bolts
Replaced the pilots side window
Repaired and re-sealed both main wing
fuel tanks (still in process)
Overhauled the Alternator
Autopilot repaired
Compass overhauled
New engine just received
Engine mounts inspected and repaired
Propeller still out for blade replacements
and repair
N9515Q
Replaced the case breather hose and
tubing clamps
Repaired the right mag wiring (worn and
shorted)
Replaced the pilots window hold open
spring
N351VA
Loss of power resulted in off-field landing just
before Thanksgiving (no injuries, no damage)
The aircraft will be towed to the nearest airport
soon for evaluation before returning to HAO
~ Alan Koch, Planning Officer
SAFETY SOAPBOX
Before pointing snarky fingers, I'll confess that my
Private pilot check-ride performance 40 years ago
was lame. I remember the examiner snarling, "I
don't want you demonstrating stall/spins here on
base-to-final..." hinting that the coordination ball
should appear in the center other than while
slamming from full-left to full-right deflection.
While demonstrating a soft-field takeoff on my
commercial check-ride, I inadvertently unlatched
my seatbelt just as the mains pulled free from the
simulated muck. With the loose belt riding under
my armpits, the stall horn warbling and the tower
saying, "Contact Departure," I managed to click
the belt and make the call.
Fairly smug as I leveled out, I couldn't understand
why the Beech Sierra, which normally cruised
around 130 knots, was dogging along at 110. The
examiner remained ominously silent as I reviewed
my post-climb checklist: Power/prop—set;
Trim—set; Flaps—up; Gear—down; three in the
green. We were still slow, so I repeated the list
twice more (slow learner), until pausing at "Gear
down!" Yikes! I was flying with the wheels hanging
down like a stiff-legged Sundowner.
Hoping the examiner might not have noticed,
evidenced by his continued silence, I reached for
the gear handle as the examiner mumbled, "Don't
care if you fly all day with the wheels down, so
long as they're down on landing." I knew this
would be a long ride.
Now, let's hear from readers who braved the
fires of check-rides gone sour and the showed the
moxie—or lack of good judgment—to share their
horrors. Submitters' names have been redacted,
because we assumed they were bogus to begin
with.
Short But Not Always Sweet
On the Private check-ride, I couldn't do slow
flight. On the Instrument, my oral was way off.
On my glider ride, I came in short on landing but,
luckily, got the chance to do it over.
Check-Ride Disasters
It gets better.
~Paul Berge | AVweb | 5 May 2014
On my Commercial ride, the examiner called my
Lazy 8's "El Stinko." In some countries, that's a
compliment.
Confession is good for the soul but can be
embarrassing. Here, now, the unscientific
tabulation of readers' responses to "Brainteasers"
quiz 194's question, "How did you screw up your
check-ride?"
My student was at the end of the runway, and the
examiner asked him whether he had finished his
checklist. Examinee replied, "Yes." Examiner
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asked again with the same reply, at which point
the examiner instructed him to taxi back to the
ramp with a pink slip.
Apparently, while the Cessna's door handle had
been pushed to the down position, the door was
still open. I had to give the student a lesson on
checklist usage in the airplane, and then sign him
off for another check-ride 20 minutes later, which
was successful. Shortest "flight" for a check-ride
failure I'd ever seen.
Here's a check-ride flop with a stiff-upper-lip
tone: I forgot to change to area frequency and
forgot to change squawk code to 1200 VFR after
leaving aerodrome vicinity (Class D). Flared too
high on one landing and thumped it down. That's
about it.
It was 1976 at Jefferson County Airport (North of
Denver) when I took my Private pilot check-ride.
The examiner was easily 300 pounds. For the
weight-and-balance calculation, he said he
weighed 150 pounds. My instructor had weighed
135 pounds, and I'd never flown the Cessna 150
over gross (that's my excuse).
Everything went great until a simulated short-field
landing. At 10 feet, the C-150 fell out of the sky.
We hit so hard that I thought that I had lost a
couple of fillings but managed to keep the nose
up. I stammered something about "getting behind
on that one," while the examiner motioned me
into the first turn-off. I figured that was it, but he
passed me anyway. Maybe he feared having to go
up with me again.
I'd been cautioned to always turn toward
runway/airport after losing power in the pattern.
On the Private check-ride, I got a power-out at
the beginning of the base leg, so I turned toward
the runway and found myself over the numbers at
700 feet. Sheesh. Hammered in a huge slip with a
transition to landing and serious braking while the
examiner went into a fake coronary. I passed and
started learning to fly.
On my 1973 Private pilot check-ride, anxious to
do a perfect power-off short-field approach over
a 50-foot obstacle, I turned base way too soon
(OK, twice) and was at least 100 feet above the
runway. The examiner gave me one last chance to
get it right, and thankfully I did.
Ya Gotta Know the Territory
And this candidate did not…
I was an Iowa flat-lander spending two weeks in
Idaho, prepping for my Private pilot ride. After
barely skating through the written, I was to take
the check-ride in Missoula, Mont. The examiner
wanted me to plan a cross-country to places I'd
never heard of, and after scouring five sectionals, I
confessed that I had no clue where we were
supposed to go. "You're not from around these
parts," was her comment. "Oh, hell. Let's go fly
anyway," she said in her best Martha Lunken
impression. I remember absolutely nothing about
the flight other than she had put that Grumman in
one nasty unusual attitude and calmly said, "Your
airplane."
It was 1980. I was 18 years old and on my checkride at the Gainesville, Fla., airport where I
worked. I was nervous. The examiner asked me
to flightplan for Crystal River, Fla., on the Gulf of
Mexico and left me alone to plot my course,
obtain a weather briefing and then preflight the
aircraft, while he sipped coffee and chatted with
my coworkers who were all there to see me
become a licensed pilot.
I was ready, and as we climbed into the aircraft,
he asked my initial heading. Sure of myself, I said,
"018 degrees." I obtained permission to taxi and
gave the tower my direction of flight. My mind
was racing and my palms were sweaty when,
halfway through my run-up, I realized I had given
the examiner and ATC the reciprocal heading for
my intended destination. I was going to end up in
Georgia!
I confessed to a major goof and asked if he
wanted me to taxi back to the FBO. He laughed
and said he just wanted to see what was going to
happen once we were airborne. I called the tower
and corrected my error, but the bad part was our
FBO had a loudspeaker on the ramp, so
everybody heard my mistake.
I passed, and three months later I was at
Keystone Airport (42J) and heard a guy on the
radio report, "Downwind Runway 77." I guess 22
can look like 77 upside down and just figured the
poor shlub was on his check-ride.
My ICUS (in command, under supervision) checkride was to be an aeronautical navigation flight.
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This was way before GPS. I had to plan a threehour VFR flight that was fuel-efficient and hit the
return-to-base ETA within five minutes.
Simple.
I simply wasn't ready for it. I had a rough idea of
the checkpoints' general locations but got all
screwed up in the planning phase by messing up
the weather, using wrong expected TAS figures
and more.
The CFI didn't say a word. About two hours after
departure, I was thoroughly lost and started
making landmarks "fit" the map. It wasn't until we
were getting close to a busy airport's control
zone, about 50 miles east of where I thought we
were, that the instructor asked, "Where are we?"
I confidently answered, "Here," while pointing at
the map.
"No, we aren't," he replied and added, "My
controls while you work out where we really are
and then how to get back to base."
And that was it, check-ride busted. Mortified, I
determined our location, the route home and
rescheduled the check-ride.
I almost didn't make it to the flight part of my
Private pilot exam because of a mapping scenario.
My home airport was on both sides of the
Chicago sectional, and I'd never had to plan a
flight from one side to the other. Naturally, the
examiner wanted to see me do just that. Wasn't
pretty. Additionally, he quizzed me on everything
he could possibly find for two hours. Then, on the
flight, my VOR stopped working. Thought I was
skunked but passed nonetheless, with the
examiner saying I was a "good airplane driver." I
think that was a compliment...
And one from the student-bites-examiner file…
The examiner ordered a short-field landing, and
when I selected less than full flaps, he berated me
and insisted that I show him exactly where it says
that my technique was acceptable for that
airplane. He began fishing through the POH.
Granted, I probably did do it wrong. The only
smart thing I did that day was telling him that I
wasn't going to discuss it in the air, and that we
could look it up once we were safely on the
ground. Hey, it worked. I passed.
After not flying for 20 years, I was on a check-ride
that wasn't going so well. High on approach, I
slipped to reduce altitude but slipped away from
the wind, which felt really weird. Fortunately, I
landed on the runway, although, the examiner
wasn't impressed.
Before my tailwheel checkout, the instructor
showed me a shattered propeller in the briefing
room, explaining that it was the result of a
downwind landing. This illustrated his opinion of
such carelessness
Off we went to fly.
There was a brisk wind, so I was being careful of
my control positions as I slowly taxied to the
runway... the wrong end of the runway, setting
myself up for a downwind departure. Blush!
While landing with full flaps the examiner called a
go-around. Slow and about to touch the runway, I
added full throttle but couldn't arrest the descent,
so the wheels touched the runway.
Additionally, a wing dipped and I corrected with
aileron only. This got me into an oscillation,
banking left and right because of the lack of
compensation for the induced yaw. I was able to
recover and did pass my check-ride, but the
examiner told me I needed to use the rudder
pedals.
Snatched from the Jaws of Failure
My instructor warned that the examiner was a
real stickler for performing clearing turns and had
flunked many applicants on that single item. Of
course, when the examiner called for steep turns,
I immediately banked without the clearing turns.
Defeat was imminent, but when he commented,
"Hope no other airplanes are up here with us," I
explained through a sweaty grin that my first
steep turn was, in fact, a clearing turn. It didn't
fool him, but he accepted my dumb explanation,
and I made it through the rest of the examination.
Whew, that was close...
I was horribly nervous on my Private check-ride,
babbling through the oral despite trembling knees.
The flight didn't settle things as the examiner
requested a steep turn.
Immediately, I dropped 50 feet within the first 10
degrees of turn but managed to arrest the
descent at 120 feet below target. As I climbed
back up, the examiner said, "Now that you've
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gotten that out of your system, let's do it again,
only correctly this time, shall we?" Happily, the
rest of the turn, indeed, the rest of the checkride, proceeded with minimal burbles as I
remembered a bit of advice from my instructor:
"Remember to breathe. You already know how to
do everything else." Surprising just how much selfinduced hypoxia can affect performance.
all when I blew the approach and the rest of the
ride.
The examiner pulled the throttle to idle to
simulate an engine-out. I selected a suitable
landing site after making sure that the aircraft was
in the proper glide speed, stabilized with trim set.
I said that I would try to restart but, failing that,
I'd head to a nice, flat, grassy field to land. I circled
and at 500 feet, set up the approach with flaps.
Wind was gusting with low-level turbulence shear.
As we approached the pasture, a gust caught the
airplane and suddenly we were looking at the
ground from the passenger-side window because
the wings seemed almost vertical. I leveled the
airplane and looked at the examiner. His hands
were almost on the yoke. "All right," he said,
"Add power and let's head back to the airport."
Returning to the airport I bounced twice but
managed a three-pointer on the third try. I passed
the flight exam, but learned that you really
shouldn't scare the crap out of the check pilot, as
evidenced by the 30-minute post-flight lecture.
During my helicopter ATP check-ride, when
completely brain-dead, the examiner asked me to
enter a holding pattern.
IFR Foibles
On my instrument check-ride, I set the ILS
frequency but didn't notice that it was on standby.
When the approach wasn't working right, I
figured out what was wrong and initiated a missed
approach. So far, so good. Unfortunately, I
skipped a step on the landing checklist (fullest
tank) and ran out of gas. I responded instantly,
and the engine picked back up, but by then the
check-ride was over.
On my instrument check-ride, I was doing a
missed approach, and the examiner said to climb
and maintain 1800 feet. I leveled off at 800 feet,
because it felt like we'd been climbing long
enough to be there when the long needle
approached 800, at which point I failed.
On the ILS during my IFR check-ride, I accepted
an ATC request to increase speed. I should have
refused but wanted to impress the check airman
with how cool I was under pressure. Not cool at
Instrument-Check-ride-Day weather was crappola
when we launched, and I immediately turned the
wrong way (away from) the VOR for my first
approach. Had to re-schedule so that I could
show that I knew the difference between TO and
FROM.
Easy, until I flew the pattern in reverse direction
and flunked.
Never Give Up! Never Surrender!
In 1966, with 36 hours logged, I went to a
designated examiner, a grizzled old timer who
made me do commercial maneuvers and then
requested that I do an instrument approach.
When I protested that I was only there for a
Private license, he said, "Son, if you want a Private
license, then my requirements are that you fly an
approach." I took the approach plate that I had
never seen before and flew the approach.
Thinking that I had aced the ride, my ego was
shattered when he said, "Amazing how you made
it within sight of the approach end of the runway
even though you used the NDB chart and flew
the VOR approach."
Being told that your Lazy 8s are "El Stinko," might
seem like the ultimate check-ride putdown, but
this examiner's comment to a busted applicant
wins the truth-shall-set-you-free award: "I don't
believe you should continue flying. You've shown
me every negative skill a pilot could jam into one
single hour. If you love flying that much, ya gotta
start all over at ground zero."
Plan every flight as if your life depends on it.
It Does!
~ Jan Jansen, Safety Officer
PILOTS’ LOUNGE
FAA Allows More Simulator Time for
Instrument Rating
~by Stephen Pope | Flying Magazine Online | 4 Dec. 2014
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The FAA yesterday issued long-awaited rules that
increase the number of hours pilots may log
toward an instrument rating using approved
aviation training devices, raising the limit to 20
hours in advanced training devices versus 10
hours under the old rules.
HANGAR RASH
In reality, many simulator makers had received
special authorizations from the FAA to allow
more than the 10-hour minimum. The new rule,
set to take effect on January 20, harmonizes
standards across the industry.
Part 61 students will be permitted to log up to
20 hours of instrument time in an approved
advanced aviation training device (AATD) or up
to 10 hours of time in an approved basic aviation
training device (BATD). Part 141 students will be
allowed to accomplish up to 40 percent of their
total flight training hour requirements in an
aviation training device.
Another noteworthy change in the new rules is
that students will no longer be required to wear
view-limiting devices (such as Foggles) while
training in ATDs. This is a somewhat surprising
shift, in part because very few instrument
instructors seemed to be aware that it was even a
requirement.
The FAA said the condition is no longer necessary
because ATDs can adequately simulate IMC
weather, though the agency stressed that
instrument students must operate the training
device solely by reference to instruments in
simulated IMC to log the time toward their
instrument rating.
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