Gateway Pilots

From the October Meeting

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.

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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.

From the September Meeting

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.

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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.

From the July Meeting

Several members of Operation Liftoff visited with a cornucopia of TWA and Ozark Airlines memorabilia. Spokeswoman Katy Kruze explained that Operation Liftoff’s mission is, “to provide hope for courageous and frightened children with air transportation for a treatment trip.” She went on from there to illustrate the many and varied good works which Operation Liftoff performs. Perhaps most amazing, Operation Liftoff runs with just two paid employees, assuring that virtually every dollar donated actually helps children in need.

Operation Liftoff is hosting a Vegas Night on November 8. Contact Katy at her office, (314) 613-7705, for details.

August Meeting

The Wednesday, August 13, 2008 meeting will be at The Columns. Our speaker will be George Andre, who flew the SR-71, flew for TWA, flew for Wings of Hope, flew Zipper at Reno, and recently received an FAA safety award for 50 years of flying without an accident.

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

Safety Tip

These pictures are the best reason for a good pre-flight.

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

Upcoming Events

Bob Linenweber will explain the new WINGS program in September.

St. Charles County Smartt airport is having an open house August 30-31.

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.