Q3 2022 Newsletter
Updates from the FAAFC Board
Message from the President – Doug “Smash” Yurovich
As you can see from our webpage, the annual meeting was well attended and the business of the club was handled. Thanks for all the effort from those members and guests that assisted with setup and
clean up!
I also want to thank Sergio for his service to the FAAFC as the Secretary for the last year and welcome Francisco Fuentes to the Board of Directors of the FAAFC. He was elected to the position of Secretary at
the annual meeting.
We continue with our upgrade plans, as the 6472J upgrade has been completed and of course moved into a hangar. I flew it the first time after the upgrade on 24 June, and it is in great shape! Also, all three
of our Pipers are on the east side of KHEF airport; to the delight of many of our members.
As we ease into the summer months and hopefully consistently clearer weather, four flying tips to consider:
- Takeoff roll increases about 10% for every additional 1,000 feet of density altitude.
- Calculate Civil Twilight for Logging Night Flight Time.
- Stay a minimum of 5 miles from storms.
- Add Half The Gust Factor On Windy Day Landings. Review the POH/AFM for recommended flap settings with crosswinds.
(Sorry Glenn if I stole some of your thunder)
Also, stay hydrated.
Surprising that with the current economic conditions, many people are looking to start flight lessons. If you have your pilot license and are interested in joining a flying club, check out the FAAFC at Manassas. We have openings.
See you on the flight line!
–Smash
Operations & Maintenance Officer’s Update – Dan Botzer
N75382 – Maintenance contact – Dan Botzer:
- Moved out on the East ramp
- Right main tire has slow leak. Will repair as soon as Kevin can get a new inner tube.
- Future upgrades:
– Upgrade interior, similar for 72J
– G5s to replace AI/DG - Autopilot
N9397W (Hangar B13) – Maintenance contact – Jon Lammers:
- Garmin 750 replaced at Sky World – Direct To button stopped working
- Had alternator CB trip on one flight – suspect problem was Delta Fox running battery down the day before. CGR30P helped diagnose the problem.
- Future upgrades:
- G5s to replace AI/DG
- Digital AP
N6472J (Hangar B11) – Maintenance contact – Andrew Baron:
- Airtex interior panels installed in May
- Having issues with Nav lights – CB tripping – continue to monitor
- Brake calipers were leaking – repaired at Whitehawk.
- Passenger arm rest broken and will attempt repair. Please don’t put too much pressure on arm rests.
- Future upgrades:
- Oil pan heater
- CGR-30P Engine monitor
- New exterior paint
- Digital AP
General maintenance comments and reminders:
- Sam Bingham updates databases for 650s/750 each data cycle.
- On 97W and 382 Sam also downloads the CGR-30P engine monitor data from each flight
- The data from 97W is analyzed by Savvy
- We should pull the engine cowling off on pre-flights for 97W and 72J
- Continue to lean religiously all planes
- Please do not ride the brakes
- Please clean up the interior of the plane after you fly
- Please check the Oil Change tach hours on the cover sheet when you fly and when we are within 5 hours of oil change time, send an email to Dan, Jon or Andrew
Membership Officer’s Update – Todd Berry
- As of July 1, 2022 the Club has 32 active members with 0 candidate on the Club Waitlist.
- Interest in the Club has been increasing as we move further into the summer months.
- We are still actively looking for new members!
- 2 out of our 3 airplanes will be flying to the world’s biggest airshow, AirVenture, at Oshkosh this year! Keep your eyes on our website for exciting updates from our members piloting our airplanes to Oshkosh.
Safety Officer’s Update – Glenn Collins
The FAA Safety Team Web Site
The FAA Safety Team web site is a great source of materials useful to pilots. You can access the site at www.faasafety.gov. While the basic site provides access to most of the materials, setting up an account and logging into the site provides full access. At the top right corner of the page, you will see the log in panel. Input your login e-mail and password to log in. If you do not have an account set up there is a link in this panel to create and account.
Once your account is created you can set up your profile. Your profile allows you to select topics of interest, you will then receive notification for events covering these topics. You can also set your aircraft categories, classes and certificates you hold as part of your WINGS profile. This tab also allows you to set your current Flight Review date. This will provide a reminder and also track your Flight Review updates later if you use the WINGS program. You can now dive in and explore the information available to you on the site.
Most pilots visiting the site do so to access the FAA’s Pilot Proficiency Program commonly known as WINGS. Generally, in the center of the page you’ll find a panel for WINGS. This panel provides quick links to the WINGS User Guide and Advisory Circular 61-91 which defines the program. You also access the 300+ WINGS courses and the multitude of WINGS Flight Activities from this site. The WINGS program focuses on continuation training. By completing a series of ground training courses and flight activities, participating pilots earn phases of WINGS.
Completion of a WINGS phase serves as an alternative means of complying with the 61.56 Flight Review requirement (61.56(e)). This summary is very simplistic. In last quarter’s newsletter I provided a more in-depth discussion of the WINGS program and the specific details of completing phases.
Leaving the panels on the page for a moment, Look at the blue/gray header bar along the upper portion of the page just below the FAA logo. The furthest left pulldown option is Activities, Courses, Seminars & Webinars. This is where you can access the listing and descriptions of the various WINGS courses and Activities.
Returning to the main page, you’ll find a panel on the bottom row for the FAA YouTube channel. Selecting the panel will redirect you to the channel where you will find a series of short videos discussing a multitude of aviation topics. These FAA produced videos cover topics for general aviation pilots and aircraft maintainers. New videos are uploaded regularly. If you desire, you can subscribe to the channel as receive update notifications.
Another feature of the web page panels I’ll introduce here is the FAASTeam Directory. This directory allows you to quickly identify pilots who volunteer with the FAA to provide training, outreach and education aimed at enhancing the general aviation community’s safety culture.
The final area of the FAASTeam web site I’ll point out is again along the header bar at the top of the page. Selecting the pulldown for Resources you will find three very useful options. The first is the library. This library contains white papers, pamphlets and videos organized into 33 topic areas. Slightly below the Library you’ll find an option for Notices. Selecting this you will find notices the FAA has posted regarding specific airport, publication, FAA reports and the availability of materials pertaining to pilots. The last of the key options available under the Resources pull down is the Online Resource option. This option provides eight categories of various links to web sites.
The intent here was to provide a quick preview of the multitude of resources available to all pilots on the FAASTeam web site. There is more content and excellent information than many pilots realize. I hope this overview of the FAA Safety Team web site is useful. I encourage everyone to explore the site and see what it has to offer.
Secretary’s Update – Francisco Fuentes
I would like to thank everyone for the vote of confidence and allowing me to serve the club as secretary. I, wholeheartedly, look forward to serving the club and the members. During the first quarter of the year, Sergio began looking into updating the club’s very outdated bylaws. An initial round of reviews and revisions took place during the annual meeting. Moving forward, I will strive to have a quarterly update to the bylaws to ensure that we are maintaining them in accordance with how the club is doing its day to day business. For this quarter, the next order of business will be to review and update the clubs policies on hourly rate setting. With rising fuel prices, it was brought to attention that we should or need to monitor how hourly rates are calculated on a regular basis. This is important to maintain club transparency and to ensure that we keep competitive rates without limiting our ability to meet our financial needs. This is one example of immediate action to update our bylaws. Others will follow, among them are clarification of board members and flight review requirements. As always if you feel that our bylaws are unclear or deficient in an area of club operations, please send me a message to ensure we are capturing all our members’ concerns.
In addition to bylaw updates, I’ve also wanted to ensure our club’s communication to members is consistent and efficient. I’ve taken this by ensuring that our Aircraft clubs page is updated with important information regarding notices and updates. Therefore, important messages regarding plane usage and care that have been emailed by our other club officers have been added to the bulletin board. Please review the bulletin board periodically for any updates or reminders on key important operational details. We have also ensured the information on each aircraft page is updated to include plane captain information. If there are more details that should be added to the airplane or bulletin board, please reach out and we’ll make sure those notices are added.
Thanks all, and I hope to serve the club in a fair manner during the next year.