From the Flight Deck – April 2022

Q2 2022 Newsletter

Updates from the FAAFC Board

Message from the President – Doug “Smash” Yurovich

The focus of this message is the Annual Meeting of the members on Saturday, 30 April at noon in our hangars B-11 and B-13 on the east side of the Manassas Airport. A more detailed Agenda will be sent out by the President in coordination with the Secretary before the meeting on the 30th .

We would like to invite all who are interested in being a member in a flight club to join us at the annual meeting, to meet the club members and preflight our three Pipers. Individuals without access
badges to the flight line will have to coordinate with a member to gain access.

The annual meeting according to the bylaws has specific business functions of the Club, primarily to receive the report of the treasurer, other officers and for electing officers. The meeting may also transact
such other business as may be presented by the members. Elected officers of the FAAFC are: President, Executive Vice President, Vice President and Treasurer, Vice President and Maintenance Officer, Vice President and Secretary, Vice President and Membership Officer, Vice President and Safety Officer, Chief Flight Instructor.

I have polled the current Board members and some members are willing to continue serving if elected, and some members are will to turn over their billet on the FAAFC Board. There will be leadership
opportunities at the upcoming election. If you are interested in serving, please let the Secretary or myself know before the meeting.

From the Bylaws Section I – All nominations for the purpose of electing members to the Board of Directors shall come from the floor. This implies nominations occur during the meeting. I want to thank all who have assisted in the newsletter, safety and well being of the Club and the airplanes. The FAAFC, like any organization is all about the people in the organization, the quality pilots in the FAAFC prove that to be true.

See you on the flight line and on the 30th, 
Smash

Operations & Maintenance Officer’s Update – Dan Botzer

N75382 – Maintenance contact – Dan Botzer:

N9397W – Maintenance contact – Jon Lammers:

1. Getting regular use by club members
2. Oil Change on 3/25
   • Switched oil to Phillips 20W50 from Aeroshell due to cost and availability
3. Brake cylinders rebuilt and pads changed due to overuse and overheating causing loss of fluid and brake failure
4. Potential upgrades in board review – G5 AI and HSI

N6472J – Maintenance contact – Andrew Baron:

1. 72J is currently in Warrenton for a complete overhaul of the avionics
   • This includes installation of a GTN 650 (same as Warrior) and G5s
   • With these upgrades the vacuum system will be removed.
2. It is getting a new LED beacon.
3. Pitot heat is being installed.
4. A master switch for the avionics is being installed
5. VHF antennas are also being moved because they were too close together.
6. Finally, new interior panels will be installed.
7. The aircraft should be back on the line by the end of April.

GPS database updates along with CGR-30P data dumps for Savvy analysis – Sam Bingham

Membership Officer’s Update – Todd Berry

• As of April 1, 2022 the Club has 32 active members with 0 candidate on the Club Waitlist
• 2 New Members joined in Q1 of 2022
  • Andrew DiFrancisco
  • Brendan Morris
• 1 Member became inactive in Q1 2022, but is coming back in Q2 2022
  • Bailey
• We are still actively looking for new members!
• With better weather and the reduction in Covid-19 rules, the FAA Flying Club plans to have more “social” gatherings in the upcoming months including open houses, meetups, aircraft “wash” days, and we may even try a group “fly-out” where members pick an airport and fly all 3 aircraft to the airport for lunch, etc.

Safety Officer’s Update – Glenn Collins

I suspect many of you are like me and are suffering from cabin fever after a long windy winter. So, with spring upon us and the weather improving, how do we regain our currency and more importantly restore our proficiency?

Currency is the bare minimum. The FAA mandates via §61.56 the need for a flight review every 24 months. Provided we satisfy any required medical certificate requirement this simple flight review is all we need to fly an aircraft. The FAA does however add some additional currency requirements outlined in §61.57 to protect those who my fly with us. While also preserving the integrity of the National Airspace System by placing limits on our ability to file IFR flight plans. Once the FAA is done with us, our club takes it a little further and specifies a currency requirement of 3 landings in 120 days. FAAFC also defines criteria requiring an annual club check ride.

With the currency part behind us, how do we restore our proficiency and maintain it over the long run? Once you are current, going out and flying by yourself and practicing your pilot skills is not usually the best approach. Oh, practice makes perfect; but if you have developed bad habits or adopted poor techniques, repetitive practice only serves to make you better in a bad way. A better approach is to fly with an instructor regularly to identify poor practices and performance. A great way to accomplish this is to use the FAA’s pilot proficiency program known as WINGS.

As stated in the WINGS Pilot Proficiency Program User’s Guide Overview, “The WINGS Pilot Proficiency Program is based on the premise that pilots who maintain currency and proficiency in the basics of flight will enjoy a safer and more stress-free flying experience “. In short, WINGS is accessed by visiting www.faasafety.gov. It consists of over 300 on-line courses covering 32 topic areas. There are also over 500 flight activities sorted by aircraft category and class. Roughly half of the courses and activities are free while the rest may involve cost. The true nature of WINGS is to complete a series of knowledge topics and flight activities in order to complete a phase of WINGS. Specifically in a 12-month period, if you complete 3 knowledge topics and 3 flight activities, you will have completed a phase of wings. Now there is a little trick to this. You need to pay attention when choosing courses and activities. Each lists a qualifing topic of 1, 2 or 3. You need one of each, completing 3 topic 1 courses will not satisfy the knowledge portion of the WINGS phase.

The benefit of adopting incorporating the WINGS program into your personal pilot proficiency plan is it provides for continual learning. It allows you to construct a program of recurrent training which is self-paced and focused on the way you operate. In a simple sense, you can plan a six-month cycle to complete a phase of WINGS. Every other month sit at you home computer and complete an on-line training course or attend an FAA sponsored webinar. During the other months fly with a CFI and complete one of the flight activities. The flight activities look a lot like tasks from the PTS/ACS.

The flight training you do can be a mix of different aircraft types and or instructors. As an added benefit, pilots who complete a phase of WINGS need not complete a flight review for 24 months. This happens with every completion, so if you do a phase each year you will not need to do flight reviews but in reality, you will have received better training on a continual basis. If you want more information or guidance on leveraging the WINGS pilot proficiency program, give me a call and we can sit down and help you develop a plan to complete one or more phases.

Secretary’s Update – Sergio Nirenberg

The only board business conducted in the first quarter of 2022 was the vote on applications of new members. We have been able to replace the members that leave, so kudos to the membership outreach led by Todd Berry.

The board is reviewing updates to our bylaws and plans to put forth updates at our annual meeting. The by-laws were last updated in 2014, and there are some legacy clauses that no longer apply. The plan is to have a marked up copy of the bylaws on the web site in mid April to allow membership to review and comment. Then the agreed upon changes will be put forth for a vote at our annual meeting. 

Club Member Updates and Adventures

A Pilot, a Veteran, and a Service Dog Board an Airplane…

The February 2022 Flyout to KSFQ with the Smokehouse Pilots Club was quite the event! I had not planned on going due to prior commitments, but then I saw that a veteran and his service dog were looking for a pilot with an extra seat. When I saw that the service dog was a beautiful Belgian Malinois, I couldn’t respond fast enough! See…I am a dog lover and I have never had the chance to fly with a dog, so I thought to myself “When would I ever have the chance to fly with a Belgian Malinois again?”, so I reached out and contacted Eric Thomas and Havoc from the CJ3 Foundation and offered them a round-trip ride in the FAA Flying Club’s Piper Cherokee Warrior, N75382.

Eric’s family ended up meeting us at the Suffolk Executive Airport and let me join them for lunch. They are great people with a great mission so I encourage you to check out the CJ3 Foundation and donate if you are able.

For the record, Havoc was an awesome passenger and Eric didn’t do too bad either. I look forward to flying with them again!