Presidents Corner
by Darrel Cook

Another month has gone by with no major problems, thanks to all our wonderful members.

We still have a waiting list of people that are ready to get into the club, people that want to fly. If you are a member that hasn't flown in a while please consider giving up your membership to allow some new pilots in the club that can fly now. If the situation that prevents you from flying changes in the future, you can rejoin.

The washday went great with lots of members showing up to help. We were done in no time. The planes look great again. Sometimes, three months is a long time between washdays, if you feel the need you're always more than welcome to take any of the planes to the wash rack and spray them off. Sometimes I've done this before a long cross country. Hopefully 8788E will be going in for new paint within the next 2-3 months. It's really starting to flake off. We also had to repair some of the sun visors. Please take care when adjusting them. They are very brittle.

This month AOPA is holding their big Expo 2002 in Palm Springs. They have a huge exhibit hall, many seminars, and a large display of aircraft. I'd encourage anyone that can, to go. The dates are: October 24-26, and there's lots more information on their website at: www.aopa.org.

From The Old Timer
by Harry McCoy

A LOVE OF MY LIFE
Part 29--1954

My orders to VU-7 came early, but before I went I ended up on a crew that came back to the states to pick up a remodeled DC-3 called a "Super DC-3". I think the Navy actually ordered 100 of them, but 2 were sold to some airline. If you go to Miramar, there is one sitting out for display near the Exchange and the housing complex.

They really did quite a remodel. They lengthened the fuselage by 39", the wings were new from just outboard of the engine nacelles, the entire empennage was replaced with a "lifting" stabilizer. The 14 cylinder Pratt and Whitney 1200 horse engines were replace with nine cylinder, single row, Curtis Wright engines that had been upgraded from the same engine in the SBD's at 1100 hp to 1475 hp. (I was told it actually dated back to a plane where it was only rated at 650 hp.) It improved the airspeed about 20 knots and could carry a heavier load. Probably the most impressive item was you could (supposedly!) do a 45 degree bank into a dead engine. In the old -3, if you got any more than 10 degrees - you were going to lose lots of altitude!

The cockpit had been upgraded with newer instruments and lighting which was sorely needed! For cabin heating it now had a gas fired model which was a Godsend since the older plane simply ran air over the manifolds and ducted it into a channel running down the roof of the cabin. What a dumb place! Nobody could get their feet up there to get them warm! My feet nearly froze in the cockpit, where there was almost no heat and there was very little insulation from the outside. So the new heating system was a blessing, although still very marginal. They also had incorporated the newer model of sextant called a periscopic. It was meant to be used in pressurized aircraft though we weren't. The old -3 had a half bubble with a hook you hung the old sextant on while you made your shots. The field of vision in the prism was reduced by probably 30% or better, which I found out later was a disadvantage when you didn't have an autopilot.

The deicing system hadn't changed much. The boots were still the old fashioned five row pneumatics that intermittently expanded and retracted to crack the ice off the wings It was sometimes very hard to sit there and see the ice building and know that you didn't turn the deicers on until the ice actually built up about 1/2" or more. If it was too little ice, it would just stick to the boots. If you were in freezing rain, you had to be very careful or you would have clean boots but ice frozen on the wing behind creating tremendous drag.

To be continued...

Safety Corner
by Jake Wilkerson

After hearing about tragedies such as the recent mid air collision at Palomar airport, and our own members' near incident near Oceanside, we need to take a step back and realize that this kind of thing can happen to any of us. This is especially true in the case of the Palomar accident, since all three pilots involved had a good amount of flight experience under their belts. So what can we do to avoid one of these accidents? Perhaps the best thing we can do is learn from the mistakes that others have made. Unfortunately, we won't know the details of the Palomar accident until the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) files their final report. However, this accident bears a striking resemblance to an accident that occurred at Gillespie about 5 years ago.

In the Gillespie accident, an aircraft in the crosswind to downwind turn was struck by an aircraft already established on the downwind leg. In their final report, the NTSB cited several major factors which contributed to the accident. One of these was the pilots' failure to see and avoid the other aircraft. A lesson learned from this case was the need for adequate scanning in the crosswind to downwind turn. An effective scanning technique in the crosswind to downwind turn is especially important at tower controlled fields. At tower controlled fields, aircraft tend to enter directly onto the downwind, rather than on a 45 degree entry to the downwind, as is recommended at uncontrolled fields. By taking something positive away from tragedies such as these, we can make our own flying and the entire aviation community safer.

Fly Safe

Operations Report
by Bob Finnin

3015U: 15U has had a rebuilt DG installed and the starter has been repaired. All is working well as we go to press.

8788E: As of this time the aircraft is in the shop for its annual inspection and will be back on line by October 1st. All systems were working well when the plane was taken in for the annual, so I don't think that we will find any major problems other than having the wing strobe lights repaired. 88E has been scheduled to be repainted beginning the middle of November. While this is being done, we will also have the interior reupholstered.

46404: 404 has been giving wonderful service during the past month without problems.

2904K: 04K has had no problems this month and is performing well.

Thanks to all for taking care of the aircraft and cleaning up upon returning to the airport. It might be wise to wait for the aircraft to be refueled. I have checked several times and have found that the various aircraft were not refueled. Please call Royal Jet on 123.0 and then perhaps wait until the fuel truck actually arrives to do the refueling. I don't know if the line crew just forgot to refuel or the request was never made.

Special thanks to all whom helped wash and wax the planes this last cleanup day. It's not only great to fly a nice clean aircraft, but also getting to meet new people and have a wonderful time.

Fly often, fly safe!

From the Board of Directors
by David Cooksy

The Board of Directors met on August 1, 2002 at President Darrel Cook's house. The agenda this month was routine from a business sense, i.e., Treasurer's report, Operations Report, a review of the CFI calendar, and a review of current membership. But, within these items were several topics worthy of note:

A discussion about the prospective change to fueling planes at Royal Jet using a fuel card system for efficiency in dispensing fuel, record keeping and billing. The various contingencies of a new fueling system have yet to be finalized, but could be within the next few months.

The new Board is seated with Steve Dari and Jake Wilkerson now officers of the Board.

Financial Audit Report: conducted by Roger Bush and Carl Mikeman. The report will be presented to the membership at the next possible general meeting.

Membership: Currently at 69 members.

The Board discussed minimum requirements for club membership, i.e., 15 hours per year. This issue will be discussed at the next general membership meeting.

Club trips to Chiriaco Summit and Calexico possibly in January or February.

Meeting adjourned 8:30 p.m.

The Board of Directors next meeting is October 3, 2002, at 7:00 p.m. As always, the Board of Directors meetings are open to all club members.

Treasure's Report
by Terry Paik

As of September 1, we had $25,391 in the bank. August P&L Net was $4,945; YTD net was $21,922. We flew a total of 126 hours last month. That is below our 2002 average. 04K flew only 17.7 hours last month; 2002 average has dropped to under 20 hours/month (19.5) for 04K.

Our reserve account is at -$18,672, but we're gaining on it. Current A/R is $9,596, and we are working on filling 2 openings.

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