Presidents Corner
by Darrel Cook

This month's meeting will be a washday on March 9th. Some members will arrive between 7:00 and 7:30 to get the washing done. This way the rest of the members can start waxing the planes when they arrive later. If you have not attended one of our washdays, please come out to help and meet other members that share your interests.

Check out the article in this month's newsletter about Santa Paula and the fly-in the club is planning. We would like to start arranging this type of activity to promote flying and camaraderie within the Club. Steve Dari is setting up a trip to Calexico. He enjoyed a great breakfast there and would like to organize a trip with a group from the Club.

Congratulations to one of our newest members, Tim (HOOPS) Olson. He was selected to make a free throw at half time during a Lakers game to win a new car. Swoooooosh¾nothing but net. Way to go, Tim.

Plan now to attend the April general meeting. Harry McCoy has offered to retrieve some of his aviation memorabilia from the Aerospace Museum and share it with us. I'm certain that he has an interesting story to go with each piece.

Now for the bad news. After examining the actual cost of flying the airplanes last year, the Board was forced to increase the hourly rate on each of the airplanes as follows:

March Washday Saturday March 9, 2002 7:00 AM Washers 9:00 AM Waxers at Royal Jet See you there!

Santa Paula Fly-in
by Chris Jensen

Sunday April 7th

One of the joys of flying is discovering new locations to fly. The adventure of the trip, new sights and experiences absorbed increase our knowledge and wisdom. Another joy is the camaraderie of a group of pilots all departing together for the same destination. The immediate opportunity to recount events with other like-minded pilots who just experienced the same adventure is very rewarding.

I have been flying to air shows with the Commemorative Air Force for several years now. The greatest, utmost adventure is flying to Midland Texas for the annual air show at headquarters. The air show attracts every kind of war bird still flying, especially the heavy metal B-17's, B-24, B-25's, and B-26's. Everything still flies and they make a point to fly often and together.

The air show is great, but the most fun is actually flying there in a gaggle of seven or more other small aircraft. Flying with a group of aircraft enlightens one of the little aspects of flying that you begin to take for granted flying singly. The excitement of flying into unfamiliar territory, remembering your positional awareness so if you want to fly South East you actually remember to turn South East from your initial up wind departure. (The GPS guys get to cheat by chasing the little arrow), determining how good your pilotage is since someone who left after you may arrive first in a slower ride, to actually determining how good your scan is because there is other aircraft in the vicinity and they just took off before you. If you can form up on someone in a loose formation it is fun to see if you actually travel straight through the sky or actually yaw to the right since the pilot sits off center on the left. It is also interesting to note performance of different planes since flying near someone you now have a reference point. Imagine how much more effective all those power off stalls practiced for pre solo and BFR's would be if you could actually see your reference point (the ground) rush up in the safety of a practice environment.

Santa Paula has a fly-in the first Sunday of every month and pilots bring their antique airplanes to display. Santa Paula has a museum and Logsdon's Restaurant.

The Coastal Flyers Board is looking to see if there is interest in having a club fly day where all the club planes depart to distant destination. Members could share legs logging PIC, perform other airwork on the way, or just tag along for the ride.

Our first destination will be Santa Paula (SZP) airport located north west of Los Angeles, nine mile west of Fillmore (FIM) VOR on radial 250.

Those interested in flying to Santa Paula or other destinations please contact myself Chris Jensen at cjpilot@ix.netcom.com or any other board member so we can determine how many seats would be available.

Beautiful Calexico International Airport
by Steve Dari

Huh? Calexico? It's (literally) a stone's throw from the border fence and Mexicali. There's a U.S. Customs on field (hence the moniker) and other than that, there's not much to talk about, is there?

Well, that's what I thought when some friends invited me to fly out there in a group last month. 18 intrepid pilots, family and friends besides my wife Meg and me made the trip out there early on a beautiful, clear Sunday morning. But sometimes, as they say, life is about the journey - not the destination.

Two of my friends; Michael Gretton and Andy Silver wanted to form up somewhere around Gillespie after their departure from MYF in a 172. In typical Gillespie hospitality mode, the tower controllers were actually enthusiastic about helping us with an intercept. Somehow though, even with our good timing, SEE tower vectored us all over the sky without a linkup until I suggested a direct heading for Lake Jennings. Shortly after that, I had a v-lock on the lead 172 and 3015U started closing the distance. In about five minutes, we had formed up at 5,500' and were on a direct course for Calexico.

The terrain profile for the flight was nothing less than dramatic. After leaving the coastal plains and dense urban areas of San Diego, in minutes we were flying above the high mountain pines of East County. Soon, even those dropped away as we continued over the stark dessert scrub, at some points below sea level, that precedes the geometric farmlands of the Imperial Valley. The morning air was incredibly clear and smooth as we took some air-to-air photographs and video. Our GPS computers counted down the distance remaining as we compared data on 123.45 and adjusted our heading slightly to take us north of the field for an extended downwind. As we passed Calexico to the south with my friend's 172 in the lead, he broke away into a crosswind leg with Meg and I following about 10 seconds later.

Landing on Calexico's 4500' runway was smooth, and after taxiing in to transient parking (which is pretty much anywhere you want!) the other aircraft in our little air wing started dropping into the field. Okay, so what is there to do at beautiful Calexico International after you tie down? Why, stroll a couple of yards over to Rosa's Plane Food, of course, which advertises the best Mexican and seafood in the Valley since 1987!

I think we shocked Rosa a bit as our raucous group started taking seats in the restaurant and picking up menus. She was all by herself on a sleepy Sunday morning until our group blew into town. So as Rosa started frantically dialing for some help while pouring coffee, Meg and I were already talking about the flight over and getting advice from other pilots on what to order.

In a couple of minutes, three more servers were quickly tying on aprons and the grill was sizzling with our breakfasts. Rosa lived up to her advertising as hot steaming plates of huevos rancheros, chicken quesadillas, carnitas, machaca, enchilladas, chorizo and frijoles started landing all around us. We were all happy campers as Rosa and her crew started to relax a bit from their frantic scramble to get us served. Hey, what could be better than a restaurant full of pilots telling "There I Was!" stories, with the jukebox going while we all enjoyed tables full of wonderful food? The fly-in ambiance was perfect, with a Customs H-60 Blackhawk rattling the building, as it hot-fueled right outside the restaurant. Inside, there was plenty of great conversation, while we all enjoyed Rosa's cooking.

After a relaxing breakfast, the group slowly started filing out and got ready to saddle up for the flight home. After short interval takeoffs from the uncontrolled field, we concentrated on the radio traffic and the other aircraft around us returning to San Diego. The combination of late morning thermals over the dessert and coastal winds over the mountains made for a bumpy ride back, but that didn't diminish a beautiful flight to a very, very long straight in approach to runway 27 right.

As Meg and I tied down 15U and supervised it's refueling, I couldn't help thinking that a Calexico flight would be a great Coastal Fliers outing. At the last meeting, I volunteered to help organize one if there's interest from the membership. It would really be fun to fill the seats in all four of our aircraft and rotate pilots for the return trip. My friend Michael Gretton graciously offered to take inflight photos of us in the CFI planes along the route.

So let me pick a date with the assistance of the Board and we'll see if we can get all 16 seats filled for a great little cross-country adventure. Anyone interested can discuss it with me at the March quarterly plane wash or feel free to email me at stevedari@msn.com.

This time though, I think I'll warn Rosa we're coming!

We Have A Winner!
by Steve Dari

Last month I wrote about portable cockpit lighting and related that I would be traveling to Las Vegas for the SHOT (Shooting Hunting & Outdoor Trade) show in early February to check out new products. It turned out to be a fascinating and educational show where you can easily wear out a pair of shoes! While there, I checked out 11 different manufacturers of LED (light emitting diode) flashlight, but none were as well designed or versatile as the LRI Photon lights. (see: http://www.photonlight.com/)

However, while I was recommending the Photon II in my last article, the LRI company reps introduced me to the new Photon III and it's many advantages for pilots. While all the LED light manufacturers strive for the brightest possible output, the P-III has a unique feature in the industry - it's dimmable! That combined with a completely electronic control switch module allows the user to sequence through the P-IIIs different modes and make it the clear hands down winner for aviation use.

The only question left is lamp color. While red continues to be a favorite, I found the shorter wavelength blue model to show much better contrast. My black ballpoint pen writing on white paper was much more visible than under the red light model. I thought panel instruments showed up better, too. Many modern military applications use the new blue green (or turquoise) color. When dimmed down, the white LED model can't be beat for applications like reading charts or preflight walk-around inspections. These models also have a battery life that is measured in DAYS when left on continuously - even longer, when used at dimmed settings!

Okay, to make a long story short, I became an official dealer and can obtain the lights at wholesale prices. Minimum order is one dozen at the dealer price of $12.95, which I will be happy to pass on to CFI members. The lowest retail price I've seen on the P-IIIs is $25 (+S&H). The first two dozen I ordered are already gone, so please contact me if you'd like to order one or more of these great little lights. I will charge you exactly what they cost me. I can get you any color LRI makes, but I strongly recommend blue, red, turquoise, or white. Feel free to email me at stevedari@msn.com or call me at my home phone listed in the Schedulemaster area of the CFI website.

From The Old Timer
by Harry McCoy

A LOVE OF MY LIFE
Part 22--1953

After 2 years, our casual life on the desert came to an end. I received orders to VR-23, Atsugi, Japan. (V means heavier than air, R means transport). I found out that they had R4D's, and operated to Korea daily with cargo and personnel. Atsugi is on the Kanto Plain south of Tokyo about 30 miles. It was a primary airfield for Japan during the war.

Since the orders did not include family, we decided that my wife and daughter would go to her home in Placentia, California and stay with her parents. In a way we were lucky, we had only lived in apartments, and military furnished houses, we didn't have much in the way of furniture to put in storage. Her folks had a large garage under a rental, and we stored everything there.

I left Alameda, California, on an R5D (DC-4) and after a LONG, boring 12 hour 2300 mile flight, we landed at Honolulu. Then island hopped the rest of the way to Japan, and arrived at Atsugi.

I couldn't complain on quarters. The Chiefs had a barracks all to themselves and it was spotlessly clean! There were two to a room with bunk beds. They had middle aged Japanese men taking care of everything. One thing I soon learned was that the Japanese had been arrogant in battle, were now humble in defeat. If you passed one in the hall, we always got a bow and a quiet "Gommen assai!" excusing themselves for being in your way.

My roommate was a very nice, religious fellow, which I guess was a good influence on me although I am not a religious person. He didn't drink at all, so I never had any in the room. I occasionally went to the Chief's Club and had a drink or two. I did accidentally get myself snockered one night. I came back from our daily flight to Korea (7AM to 7PM) and had a sandwich. The fellow with me invited me to have a "screwdriver." The orange juice tasted great after drinking coffee all day, so I had several! Vodka of course has no flavor so I didn't notice anything until I got up to leave. I made it to the door of the club, and outside cold air hit me and I thought I was going to fall out!! By now, the earth was rotating unabashedly. I staggered back to my room, got into bed, and hung onto the bars of the bed above me. The bed rolled and pitched, and I had a few choice words to try to get it to stop, but it wouldn't!! I learned about Vodka from that!! Fortunately my religious roommate was gone on an all night flight!!

To be continued...

Operations Report
by Bob Finnin

46404: is working well without any major problems this month.

8788E: is giving great service and I have not received any complaints the month. We have put off the repainting for several months and should be able to schedule the job some time in the fall.

3015U: is out of service because of faulty exhaust valve on one of the cylinders. This is being repaired and the plane should be back on line by the time you read this letter. More about this at the meeting.

2904K: is performing well with the exception of a noise in the Com 1 receiver. This seems to be a problem induced by the intercom and will be repaired as soon as I can schedule the plane into the radio shop.

Thanks for the help and fly safe!

Treasure's Report
by Terry Paik

February 2002

As of February 1, we had $10,377 in the bank; January P&L net was $5,497. We flew 136 hours last month and A/R is $8,350. We are currently at 69 members.

Last year, the average monthly plane use was as follows:

After careful analysis of actual past expenses and projected flying costs, the Board has come up with the following aircraft rental rates. Effective March 16, the new rates will be:

We will reevaluate flying costs and hours periodically through the year and may adjust rates as indicated.

Remember, the more we fly, the cheaper we fly!