We are looking for a volunteer to mail printed copies of the newsletter to those who do not have email. Are you the one? If so, contact Donna Crandell.

From the August 2010 Meeting

Jeremy Cox introduced us to the newly formed St. Louis Aviation Forum. The Forum aims to bring together all parties which are interested in aviation in the St. Louis metro area.

The Greater Saint Louis Air & Space Museum is holding its annual golf tournament on Saturday, October 2 at Grand Marais Golf Club in Centerville, IL (in the Frank Holden State Park). Cost is just $50 per person.

St. Claire airport needs traffic. It may close. Fly there!

Smartt airport will hold an open house September 25-26.

The next Missouri State Aviation Day will be in March 2011. MPA has already committed to it. Do plan on attending and inviting your legislator(s) to attend, too. This year, Donna simply emailed her legislator and mentioned that she would be there. The legislator came by.

State MPA will print new address books soon. Send updates and corrections to Sharon Vaughn.

The 2011 MPA Annual Convention will be in a hangar at Grand Glaize-Osage Beach Airport to reduce costs. The day will probably include a pancake breakfast followed by meetings and wrap up with a catered dinner. The 2010 convention costs were over $500 per couple, which was simply too expensive. It will probably be the second Saturday in June 2011.

The October MPA State meeting will be a fly in at Rebel’s Bluff airport, outside Mt. Vernon, MO. It is a grass strip but you can also land at Mt. Vernon and they will pick you up. The fly-in will be from 11:00 to 3:00 and the MPA meeting from 1:00 to 3:00.

MPA State has created a task force to look at revitalizing the whole organization. Don Crandell is on the task force. Talk to him (or Donna) if you have any ideas! The goal is to get members to come back to the meetings. Rosters look good but meeting attendance is down and people are dropping out. We need ideas that are different from what we are doing now.

Presentation on the Commemorative Air Force

FIFI B-29 Superfortress

Craig O’Mara, operations officer of the Commemorative Air Force – Missouri Wing, gave us an overview of the CAF. The CAF is largest warbird operator in the world with about 150 planes. Including FIFI, the only flyable B-29 Superfortress, and the only flying SB2C Helldiver. The CAF’s mission is to keep memory of the WWII pilots alive.

The Missouri Wing flew their B-25 to the Doolittle Raiders reunion at Wright Patterson. The Air Force had resurfaced the old Wright field just for the reunion. Seventeen B-25s flew in formation at the reunion, perhaps more than had flown together since WWII. It was truly impressive.

If you want a ride in a warbird, getting involved with the CAF can be one of the least expensive ways to do it. The museum at Smartt Airport is open Saturdays 8:00 to 3:00 or 4:00 and sometimes on Thursdays, too. The public is always welcome. Please do come look at the planes.

Two of the wing’s planes are flying, the B-25 and TBM. In addition, they will have their L-3 will be flying soon.

The CAF’s annual hangar dance is set for Saturday, September 18. Come celebrate with 700 or 800 of your closest friends (and friends-to-be). There will be lots of costumes and the 26 piece brass band Sentimental Journey. Cost is $15 in advance, $18 at the door.

Next Meeting

Our next meeting will be Tuesday, September 21 at 6:30pm at the Columns Banquet Center.

Dave Pressy, Chief Flight Instructor and Chief Pilot at St. Charles Flying Service, will discuss Light Sport aviation. Dave presented the FAASTeam Light Sport Seminar in the fall of 2009. He was also the GSLFA New Flight Instructor of the Year 2007.

Upcoming Events

Also see the Upcoming Events page.

Our monthly newsletter is back, after a “brief” hiatus. Send submissions to Art Zemon. We are looking for a volunteer to mail printed copies of the newsletter to those who do not have email.

From the June 2010 Meeting

Elections were held and the new board (which is the old board graciously joined by member-at-large Rosemary Petrusso) was unanimously approved.

In July, we will try a joint meeting the the St. Louis chapter. We will meet at Air Associates at Spirit of St. Louis airport. The food will be catered by the Pilot Shop.

There will be an airshow July 3 & 4 at St. Louis Downtown airport. Both the EAA and the Greater St. Louis Air & Space Museum will have food. There will be lots of airplanes on static display along with thrills and chills in the air. This is the first time that Fair St. Louis has had an airshow since 2005. There are more details in the St. Louis Business Journal.

EAA chapter 32 (at Smartt field) has movie night on the last Saturday of each month and visitors are welcome. Festivities start with a pot-luck dinner at 6:30pm (and BBQ meat if you bring a small donation). Movies are projected on a BIG screen and start at about 8:30pm in the summer. The movies on Saturday night, July 26 are Memphis Belle and Memphis Belle, first the documentary from 1944 and then the movie from 1998. More details are available on EAA 32′s web site.

Next Meeting

Our next meeting will be Wednesday, July 7 at 6:30pm at Spirit of St. Louis airport, Air Associates, 18600 Edison, Chesterfield, MO. This is a joint meeting with the St. Louis MPA chapter. Phone your dinner reservations to Jean Murry at (314)469-3541 or email Donna Crandell.

Upcoming Events

Also see the Upcoming Events page.

The June Meeting was the Chapter’s annual picnic at Smartt Field. The event was held at “Fly Girl’s Diner” on the new owners first day. There were 47 members and guests in attendance. The food was delicious. The new owners did a great job in re-decorating the restaurant. Music was provided by Rick and Gene Albrecht’s group “One of a Kind”. We did elect 3 board members to 3 year terms they are: Steve Pierce, Harold Booher and Chuck Maggart. A good time was had by all.

The information on our July program is below. Please come and join us.

“FROM STEAM TO GLASS”

A Brief History Of Aircraft Instrumentation From the Wright Brothers To Glass Cockpits

Presented By Gary Liming - private pilot, BS Physics, MS aviation Safety, built his own CH801

(4 seat high wing STOL airplane) at Creve Coeur

When: Wednesday July 22, 2009

Where: Columns Banquet Center

Dinner 6:30 Program 7:30 P. M.

We meet at THE COLUMNS, 711 Fairlane, St. Charles. MO 63303. This is on the south service road for 1-70 just west of Fifth Street. The doors open at 6:00 and the buffet line begins at 6:30 followed by the program at 7:30. It is not necessary to dine with us to attend the program at 7:30 p.m. We are a friendly and informal group, and we do ask that you make dinner reservations by the Monday evening preceding the meeting. Cost of the meal is $15.00 For dinner reservations call Lana Maggart at 314-731-0199 or email donna.crandell@cepm-us.com.

John Bales

John Bales, Director of Aviation at Spirit of St. Louis Airport, regaled us with interesting tidbits about a local aviation treasure which we take for granted. Your poor correspondent scribbled as quickly as he could but Mr. Bales was a veritable fount of knowledge so these are just a few of the highlights. (In case you missed that subtle hint, it means that you should never miss another MPA meeting because nothing can substitute for actually being there yourself!)

Spirit of St. Louis Airport is the busiest GA airport in the central region, handling about 113,000 operations last year and, even so, they want our business: practice approaches, pattern work, touch & goes, etc. The airport exists to serve us and John strongly encouraged us to take advantage of it.

KSUS has had nine, consecutive perfect Part 139 certification inspections. No small feat!

Spirit Airport is a self-sufficient St. Louis County department, generating its income from wholesale fuel sales (not from landing fees or fuel surcharges on top of retail sales), real estate development and management. KSUS contributes about $400M to the local economy.

Langa Air has begun flight training operations at KSUS and is up to 7 planes. They are a part 141 flight school.

Money Saving Tips

John had two money saving tips:

1. If your aircraft is based in Missouri and has a gross takeoff weight of more than 3,000 pounds, you may be able to save on your local property tax. You aircraft is now classified as a “commercial” aircraft (even if it has no commercial purpose) which means that you only need to pay tax on the portion of the miles you actually fly in (over?) Missouri. See http://www.stc.mo.gov/, click on “Forms” and then on “Original Assessment Section” and then scroll down to the airline industry.
2. No Missouri sales tax is due on parts for airplane maintenance. Given the price of airplane parts, this can save you several dollars!

Pilot Shop Reopens

The new Spirit Pilot Shop opened (new business, same old location) on May 1. Stop by Monday-Friday 8:00-7:00, Saturday 8:00-5:00, or Sunday 10:00-4:00.

New Newsletter Editor

It has been my pleasure to write this newsletter for the past two years and now it is time for someone new to step forward, dance his or her fingers across a keyboard, and dazzle us with wit and information. Are you the one? It takes me about an hour a month to write these few lines and another hour for Candy and me to print and stuff the 26 copies in envelopes for the members who don’t have email. Updating the web site is trivial and I’ll be glad to show you how. Journalistic fame and fortune await; all you have to do is say, “Pick me! Pick me!”

May Meeting

The Thursday, April 14, 2009 meeting will be at The Columns. Joe Dobronski will give a presentation on his 10,000 mile delivery of a Cessna U-206 for Wings of Hope, flying from Spirit Airport to Botswana, South Africa, in December 1992.

Phone your dinner reservations to Jean Murry at (314)469-3541.

Free WINGS Flight Training

“Fly safe” is more than just a saying to Rick Albrecht. He is generously offering up to three free hours of WINGS-related flight training to all Gateway MPA members. Contact Rick at adv.av.training@sbcglobal.net for full details.

Upcoming Events

You can always find the latest list of upcoming MPA events on our web site at http://gatewaypilots.org/upcoming-events/.

This year, all meetings on are the third Wednesday of the month except in December. See the upcoming events page for weather minimums and times.

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Gateway Pilots Web Site

Did you know that there are good things on the web site that did not make it into the newsletter? Drop by www.GatewayPilots.org.

Ray Kerr

Ray Kerr, Spirit of St. Louis Tower Front Line Manager, shared his views on safety, air traffic control, safety, flight, and safety with us. Not surprisingly, his perspective from the top of the tower is vastly different from what we see from behind the windshield. First and foremost, everything about his job is about our safety. Ray is always perplexed by pilots who get annoyed with him for doing his job. After all, at the end of the day, Ray will certainly go home to his family and his job is to assure the the pilot goes home, too.

Phraseology is a critical piece of the safety which air traffic controllers provide and Ray illustrated with a simple example: You are inbound in the clouds on an instrument approach to runway 9, just 1 mile from the threshold. Another airplane radios the tower that he is “ready to go on runway niner.” Is that airplane really sitting “on” the runway or did he mis-speak and he is really “at” the runway, safely behind the hold-short line? At some airports, particularly when the visibility is low, the tower controller may not be able to see the airplane in question which leaves the controller in a quandary: does he tell you to “go around,” adding 20 to 30 minutes to your flight and significant expense, or does he assume that the pilot “ready to go on runway niner” simply misspoke? The regulations are quite clear: you are going around in the interest of safety.

Ray explained about the four positions which comprise an air traffic control tower: flight data, clearance delivery, ground control, and local (what we colloquially call the “tower” controller). Ground control is the most difficult, since that controller needs to have a mental picture of the largest area and the greatest number of airplanes.

Visits to the tower are still possible but please phone first (314)890-7280. All visitors should be at least age 12. To get the best appreciation of the tower, you might want to visit as many as three times: once when the people are not busy, so you can really learn about what is involved with each position; a second time when the tower is busy, perhaps on a sunny Saturday afternoon; and a third time when the weather is IMC.

April Meeting

The Wednesday, April 15, 2009 meeting will be at The Columns. Our guest speaker will be John Bales, Spirit of St. Louis Airport Director.

Phone your dinner reservations to Jean Murry at (314)469-3541.

Safety Tip

Remember pre-flight planning is always important to the safe outcome of every flight. TFR’s, ADIZ, NOTAM’s, etc., per 91.103, “all available information concerning that flight.”

FLY SAFE   Rick  adv.av.training@sbcglobal.net

Free WINGS Flight Training

“Fly safe” is more than just a saying to Rick Albrecht. He is generously offering up to three free hours of WINGS-related flight training to all Gateway MPA members. Contact Rick at adv.av.training@sbcglobal.net for full details.

Upcoming Events

You can always find the latest list of upcoming MPA events on our web site at http://gatewaypilots.org/upcoming-events/.

This year, all meetings on are the third Wednesday of the month except in December. See the upcoming events page for weather minimums and times.

[TABLE=2]

Gateway Pilots Web Site

Did you know that there are good things on the web site that did not make it into the newsletter? Drop by www.GatewayPilots.org.

February Meeting

The Tuesday, March 10, 2009 meeting will be at The Columns. Our guest speaker will be Ray Kerr, Spirit of St. Louis airport tower chief.

Phone your dinner reservations to Jean Murry at (314)469-3541.

Upcoming Events

You can always find the latest list of upcoming MPA events on our web site at http://gatewaypilots.org/upcoming-events/.

This year, all meetings on are the third Wednesday of the month except in December. See the upcoming events page for weather minimums and times.

[TABLE=2]

Gateway Pilots Web Site

Did you know that there are good things on the web site that did not make it into the newsletter? Drop by www.GatewayPilots.org.

Jim Kramper

Jim Kramper spoke on the sources of global warming and discussed the various natural sources and human sources.  Global warming is seen best if the entire earth temperature is monitored. The smaller the area examined the greater the variation in year-to-year temperature.  For example in the St Louis area, only three of the hottest years have occurred since 1990, and one of the 10 hottest years was in 1900, while globally most of the 10 hottest years have occurred since 1990. He emphasized that the interactions between these various sources of global warming are very complex.  However, human activity is a major source of the increase in atmospheric CO2, both form the use of fossil fuels and from the destruction of rain forest and other heavily forested areas which are a sink for CO2 and the production of O2.  Human activity to reduce carbon emissions, recycle, and generally clean up our planet and the atmosphere will have positive effects on the health of the planet and may slow the process of global warming.  There was a long question and answer period after the talk in which the myths about the sources of St. Louis weather, weather balloons, how forecasts are generated, etc.  It was a really informative and lively talk and discussion.

February Meeting

The Wednesday, February 11, 2009 meeting will be at The Columns. Erik Kientzy will talk about FAA Enforcement action.

Phone your dinner reservations to Jean Murry at (314)469-3541.

Safety Tip

Upcoming Events

You can always find the latest list of upcoming MPA events on our web site at http://gatewaypilots.org/upcoming-events/.

This year, all meetings on are the third Wednesday of the month except in December. See the upcoming events page for weather minimums and times.

[TABLE=2]

Gateway Pilots Web Site

Did you know that there are good things on the web site that did not make it into the newsletter? Drop by www.GatewayPilots.org.

Doug Allen

Doug Allen, who flies a Piper Navajo and several other aircraft for Sanborn, described aerial mapping. It is the most demanding and most challenging flying job he has ever had. Imagine flying a 23 mile ILS, making a procedure turn with no more than 5° of bank angle, and doing it again… and again… and again…. The computer draws the line he must follow and his job is to keep the plane on that line without varying altitude, heading, etc.

Though the job does take him all over the country, he has the “misfortune” of having to kill a lot of time “on location” waiting for the perfect weather. Anything more than 5% cloud cover scrubs the mission. Sun angle of less than 30° above the horizon scrubs the mission. As a result, he spends a lot of time at bike shops, hiking, and enjoying the local ambiance.

Doug brought a couple of large prints with him, one of St. Charles and St. Louis counties which more than covered a 6′ table. Imagine Google Maps blown up large and printed. (Yes, Google Maps is one of Sanborn’s customers.) He also showed off a couple of other prints, an oblique view of the Arch and an overhead view of Lambert field. Sanborn just shot a new oblique view of the Arch, using their latest camera. The computer operators were able to zoom in and read the time off the watches of visitors on the steps of the Arch! It is also fun to realize that the camera points out the belly of the plane so, to get any of these oblique views, the plane has to roll into an almost 90° bank. Go ahead and click on the image below so that you can get some idea of how much detail is in the prints Doug displayed.

Doug Allen with two typical photos by Sanborn

Virtually all of the aerial mapping these days is done with a digital “camera,” shooting through nine lenses and storing data directly to computer hard drives. By combining the views through the various lenses and the GPS data, they can “survey” heights of ground objects from the air within 2 centimeters of accuracy.

New Member

John Carrington

Please join me in welcoming John Carrington as our most recent new member. John rents planes from St. Charles Flying Service and is looking forward to participating in our monthly fly-outs.

December Meeting

The Wednesday, December 17, 2008 party/meeting will be at The Columns. Bring a dessert and a gift ($10 max) for the crazy gift exchange. If you have been to one of these parties and gift exchanges before, you will remember the non-stop hilarity. If this will be your first year, trust me, you’ll catch on to the “rules” pretty quickly. Just one hint: don’t get too attached to the gift you receive.

Phone your dinner reservations to Jean Murry at (314)469-3541.

Safety Tip

When is the last time you looked at the log books for the aircraft that you rent or own?

Upcoming Events

You can always find the latest list of upcoming MPA events on our web site at http://gatewaypilots.org/upcoming-events/.

This year, all meetings on are the third Wednesday of the month except in December. See the upcoming events page for weather minimums and times.

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Gateway Pilots Web Site

Did you know that there are good things on the web site that did not make it into the newsletter? Drop by www.GatewayPilots.org.

Matt Mayes and Bob Kraemer

Matt Mayes came with lots of helpful information about free flight planning stuff on the internet. I’m afraid that I only have a hardcopy of the list and it is too long to retype.

November Meeting

The Wednesday, November 12, 2008 meeting will be at The Columns. Phone your dinner reservations to Jean Murry at (314)469-3541.

Upcoming Events

You can always find the latest list of upcoming MPA events on our web site at http://gatewaypilots.org/upcoming-events/.

This year, all meetings on are the third Wednesday of the month except in December. See the upcoming events page for weather minimums and times.

[TABLE=2]

Gateway Pilots Web Site

Did you know that there are good things on the web site that did not make it into the newsletter? Drop by www.GatewayPilots.org.

Our own Bob Linenweber brought a WINGS program accredited activity straight to our monthly meeting. Talk about an easy way to stay proficient. All we had to do was show up, enjoy the usual good meal and camradarie, and listen to a thoroughly entertaining and informative talk on the new WINGS program.

Here are the highlights which stuck with me:

Past performance is a very strong indicator of future performance. Bob had several stories (including photos of bent airplanes) about pilots who were involved in multiple similar accidents, such as the pilot who overloaded a Turbo Lance and crashed on an uphill take-off from a too-short runway. Guess what he did a few years later. Yup; he did it again. Except this time he was in an overloaded Malibu.

We can fly perfectly safely, or at least much closer to it than we usually get. Everyone knows what happened on September 11, 2001 but do you know what happened exactly one year later, on September 11, 2002? It was the only perfect day in FAA aviation history: no fatal accidents, no ATC deviations or errors, no near mid-air collisions, no pilot deviations, and no surface incidents. If we did it once, we can do it again. The secrets are mindfulness and recurrent training.

And speaking of recurrent training…

The new WINGS program is up and running at www.FAASafety.gov. Yes, it’s complicated. Yes, the computer is slow. And it is a vast improvement over the old WINGS program. The old program set a series of hoops which you were required to jump through. Once you had jumped, you were legal to fly, even if you were not safe to fly.

The new program is a Pilot Proficiency Program. When you achieve (and maintain) the WINGS BASIC Phase, you will have demonstrated your pilot abilities to the current Practical Test Standards. I.e., you will be a safer pilot. The web site lets you track both your knowledge credits (on-line courses and sessions such as this meeting) and your flight credits (e.g., a session of take-offs and landings with a CFI).

There is a wonderful on-line course on how to use the WINGS program at http://avtrain.net/wings. Run through it and you will find the www.FAASafety.gov site much easier to use.

October Meeting

The Wednesday, October 8, 2008 meeting will be at The Columns. Phone your dinner reservations to Jean Murry at (314)469-3541.

Upcoming Events

You can always find the latest list of upcoming MPA events on our web site at http://gatewaypilots.org/upcoming-events/.

This year, all meetings on are the third Wednesday of the month except in December. See the upcoming events page for weather minimums and times.

[TABLE=2]

Gateway Pilots Web Site

Did you know that there are good things on the web site that did not make it into the newsletter? Drop by www.GatewayPilots.org.