CASCADE FLYER May 2007, Vol. 07, Issue 5 Website: http://co-opa.com/ President's Message: Many thanks to Greg Phillips for opening our April meeting with a bang. The folks at Knife River have really hit the ground running on the new Bend runway. A large part of the early work is blowing up the lava rock in the project area. The recent schedule has been to close the runway at 7pm and blast away at 7:15pm. That 7:15pm blast provided a great twilight show. Maybe if we are lucky Greg can repeat the performance for us this month. This month our meeting will be on the normal schedule. Meet at the Flight Services building at 6pm for some hanger flying, at 6:30pm our famous pot luck and then our formal meeting at 7pm. Ed will provide more program details as he has them. Calendar: 17 May - Monthly Meeting 19 May - Monthly Flyout 16 June - Bend Municipal Airport Open House 21 June - Monthly Meeting 23 June - Monthly Flyout 19 July - Monthly Meeting 21 July - Monthly Flyout 16 August - Monthly Meeting 18 August - Monthly Flyout 20 September- Monthly Meeting 22 September- Monthly Flyout Web doings: Check out our website for past newsletters, hot links and other goodies: http://co-opa.rellim.com/ To access the members only areas the username is "BDN" and the password is "123.0". My Inbox: Professional Air will be sponsoring the Bend Airport Open House again this year and the City of Bend will be doing their part to spruce up the field for the event. That leaves it up to the rest of us to bring out a lot planes and people. Invite every airplane owner you know to bring their plane, invite all your neighbors to come out and see the great things happening at the airport and come yourselves to enjoy a great day. Random Thoughts: The morning looked promising for my mid-morning trip up to Troutdale airport (TTD). Last night's forecast for the Portland area was for good weather so I slept in a bit late. Of course the weather in Bend was severe clear for my java fix, but the sky over PDX was not clearing up on schedule. When I know the weather is solid over the Wilammette Valley the best bet is to head directly north to The Dalles and then motor down the Columbia River Gorge. The weather has to be really stinko for the Gorge to be impassable. There is also weather reporting from Cascade Locks State airport (KCZK) so you know in advance how weather will be before you enter the gorge. Heading for The Dalles is a good backup route, but it adds significantly to the flight time. Being a bit rushed, and a bit over optimistic, I set my course for TTD direct. The climb up to Mt. Jefferson was smooth and that was a bit worrisome. Turbulence is an indication of up- and down-drafts. Those drafts could punch holes in the cloud deck for me to descend into the Portland area. The smooth air was a bad sign. I leveled off at 10,500 as my course brushed by Jeff. The clouds from the west were pushed up against the ridge of the Cascades just as the sat photos showed. A few more miles to the west I expected to see a hole in the cloud deck for my descent but there was just white. The morning sun was tardy in burning off the fog and there was no turbulence to break any holes open. This left me in an unfamiliar situation; too far west to want to turn back to The Dalles and yet no good way to continue west. So I split the difference and headed north along the ridge, and the cloud line, towards Mt. Hood; The mountain doing its best to hold the clouds. Mountain passes are tricky things to spot from the air, until you are aligned just right. At this, point my aircraft was lined up just perfectly on the Hood River Valley. From my altitude you could see directly down the valley, under the cloud deck and all the way to the Columbia River. Check out the red line on the attached chart and you can see how well things line up. At that point I knew making Troutdale was not going to a problem. All I had to do was descend down that nice wide valley, fly past Hood River airport and motor down the river. I cannot count how many times I must have flown over that valley and never recognized the natural flyway. Clearly the valley was no secret as I passed several other planes coming and going on the same route. Once in the Gorge it was back to familiar territory for me. Two river bends and then Cascade Locks comes in to view. From there you can see all the way to the end of the Gorge and just follow the river for a straight in landing to TTD Runway 25. Next time I have to head to Portland in similar weather I think I'll just head directly for Mt. Hood. That way if I see a break to the West I can head for it. If the break does not come I can head down the beautiful Hood River Valley to the Gorge. Of course it is all in the timing. 15 minutes after shutting down the TSIO-520 the sky was blue to the north of the river and rapidly clearing to the south. Just what my local knowledge had expected, just 30 minutes too late. Gary Miller ED NOTE: Remember you can magnify to see more map detail Master Pilot Award Our CO-OPA member and friend, Mr. Bill Witt has been awarded the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award! Mr. Lloyd Swenson made the announcement at our general meeting in March on behalf of Mike Benedict, the FAA Portland FSDO Safety Program Manager. This is a tremendous acknowledgement of an extraordinary pilot. The Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award is presented to a pilot who has been active in excess of fifty years and has never had a violation or an accident. Bills accomplishments go far beyond these requirements with his service to the aviation community. Bill has found many ways to apply his pilot skills. He served with the San Mateo County Sheriff's Air Squadron for a decade and was Commander of the group one of those years. Celia Hartman, ATP, CFII, MEI, said of Bill during that time: "We flew many missions together that involved either surveillance for or transportation of law enforcement personnel. As our demanding operation required a crew of two, it was crucial that each pilot know he could count on the other-- - and there was never a question in my mind that I could count on you." High praise from a professional colleague. Of the many contributions Bill has offered to his community two more also stand out in a very distinguished manner. Bill has flown over one hundred Angel Flight Missions for the great humanitarian need that exists making peoples lives better and easing their family's situation. Further, in a commitment to share the love of flight and inspire new pilots, Bill has flown over three hundred EAA Young Eagles. Wow, what a way to share the excitement! What inspiration! Bill was initially enthralled with aviation at three years of age when he had his first airplane ride in a Ford Trimotor. He said the thrill launched his career in aviation. In 1950 he soloed in minimum time in an Aeronca Champ and received his Private Pilot Certificate in about two months. His primary instructor was Nancy Corrigan, a relative of "Wrong Way Corrigan", but she obviously did things the right way with results that assured student success. As a nationally known race pilot she was hired by the University of Kansas and directed the aviation program that trained over one thousand pilots. Miss. Corrigan's students all passed their examinations and there were no injuries during this hectic training for military aviators. Bill Witt's aviation career in the Air Force included Aircraft Mechanics and Electronics schools. After top- secret clearance he joined a B-36 Crew as a gunner on missions of 25 to 42 hours in duration. The B-36 was a gargantuan aircraft with a 230-foot wingspan and weighing over 400 thousand pounds at takeoff powered by six 3800 hp Wasp radials and four GE jets. Bill left the Air Force with an A&P mechanics license and was later awarded a degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Cal-Poly in San Luis Obispo California. The majority of Bill's professional career was with United Airlines in engineering and management. He also was an officer in the United Airlines Flying Club. With over 3700 flying hours Bill has completed phase 16 of the FAA Wings Program demonstrating a concentrated diligence to safety. This revelation during the ceremony drew applause of admiration. I have had the pleasure of flying with Bill Witt in his spotless Cessna 182 Skylane, N9944E, in actual IFR and during currency training as well as on CO-OPA flyouts accompanied by Bill's lovely wife Betty. I remember these flights fondly and look forward to many more. Thanks Bill and congratulations! Ed Endsley BIRDMAN AT 5000 FT ! In legends where the dream became real, as in the myth of the Ancient Greek birdman Icarus, the price was a heavy one; an ignominious crashing to Earth. But for one brave Swiss pioneer, a former military pilot called Yves Rossy, the dream has become reality. For as these amazing pictures show, Rossy, 45, has managed to come as close as it is possible to get to the feeling of being truly like a bird. Back in 2003 Rossy, now a commercial airliner captain, began his Flying Man project, when he strapped a pair of stubby wings to his back and leapt out of a plane, swooping eight miles in freefall for the loss of just 1000ft in altitude. Strapping on the contraption, which is made of various metals, fiberglass, Kevlar and carbon fiber, Rossy climbs into the small aircraft, which is to launch him into his flight. At an altitude of some 7750ft, he leaps out, just like a skydiver. But unlike a skydiver, he does not plummet to the Alps below. There is just enough lift generated by the 10ft aerofoil strapped to his back to negate the effects of gravity. At first, after the wings are unfolded electrically, he becomes a glider then, when the four kerosene-powered engines are turned on, he becomes a jet-plane. Thanks to the engines, each of which develops 22kg of thrust, he can not only maintain altitude but actually gain height, he says, at a rate of several hundred feet a minute - until the fuel runs out six minutes later. He lands with a conventional parachute. "There have been no proper aerodynamic studies of how to simulate this sort of flying," he says. "All simulations involve a rigid aircraft. My wings are rigid, but of course I am not." He steers the contraption, he says, 'purely by intuition'. Like a bird, he can adjust his 'trim' with incredible precision with the flick of a foot or by simply leaning his body one way or the other. "It is like how a child would fly," he says. He says his ultimate goal is to take off and land just using his Jetwing without an aircraft to take him into the air. Now he has gone one better, strapping four, small kerosene-fuelled turbojet engines (mini-versions of the engines used to power airliners designed to power model aircraft) to his wings to create what is effectively the first rocket-propelled hang-glider: the ultimate microlight, jet- powered flight at its most minimalist. His passion to fly like a bird began at the age of 30 when he began learning how to do free-fall parachute jumping. He has completed 1,200 free-fall jumps. He said: "I had tried sky-surfing, but that didn't last long enough either, so I decided to create my own wings to enable me to fly for longer." Rossy's flights have taken place from the Yverdon airfield in western Switzerland. Last week, after opening the wings, he glided to 7750ft, ignited the engines and waited 30 seconds for them to be able to stabilize and began to open the throttle. At 5000ft, he achieved horizontal flight for more than 4 minutes at 115 mph, faster than the small aircraft which took him into the air. He steers simply by shifting the weight of his body, and lands with the aid of a parachute once the fuel is exhausted. "It was an amazingly good feeling, like in a dream. When you are in an aircraft you have to steer by a stick. You have no contact with the elements," Rossy told the Daily Mail. His extraordinary flight can be seen on Rossy's website, http://www.jet-man.com/. Like the semi-mythical flying jet-backpack (which was actually tested by the US military in the 1960s) Rossy's £150,000 flying machine, which with engines, wings and fuel weighs only 110lbs, sounds like something out of science fiction. "It would be a great device for James Bond so he can go behind enemy lines," he says. "I want to fly, not to steer." "Up there in my invention, I am as free as a bird." Best not let the health and safety brigade hear about this. ED NOTE: The above is from a UK Daily Mail newspaper article, to which credit is being given. Indonesian news item: 'Pilots argued moments before crash' April 1, 2007 - Two pilots had been arguing moments before their Garuda Airlines passenger jet crashed last month at an Indonesian airport, leaving 21 people dead, a senior investigator said today. Two pilots had been arguing moments before their Garuda Airlines passenger jet crashed last month at an Indonesian airport, leaving 21 people dead, a senior investigator said today. The Boeing 737-400 burst into a fireball after overshooting the runway on landing at Yogyakarta airport on the main island of Java and skidding into a rice field on March 7. Chief investigator Tatang Kurniadi said his preliminary findings would point to human error and "absent- mindedness" as the cause of the disaster. "I worry that this accident came from the absent- mindedness from the cockpit," Kurniadi said on the Nine Network interview. The destroyed airliner's black box audio recordings revealed the pilot and co-pilot were arguing over their speed and wing flap angles moments before the crash, Kurniadi said. The captain had "enough experience" after flying more than 15,000 hours, while his first officer was a "young pilot" with 2,000 flying hours, Kurniadi said. He said the co-pilot demanded the pilot "go around" – fly a circuit and make a second approach to land. The pilot proceeded to land so fast that the co-pilot could only partially extend the flaps supposed to slow it down, Nine reported. Kurniadi and his investigation team are to finalize their results within a month. The crash killed 21 people, while 119 others were able to escape through the exits of the burning jet. It was the fourth accident involving a commercial jetliner in Indonesia since 2005. Experts say poor maintenance, rule bending and a shortage of properly trained pilots may contribute to the sprawling country's poor aviation safety record. MORAL: KEEP IT COOL IN THE COCKPIT --------------------------------------------------------- COOPA officer contact info: President Gary E. Miller 20340 Empire Blvd., E-3 Bend, OR 97701 541-382-8588 gem@rellim.com Vice President Nancy Lecklider 3054 NW Clubhouse Dr Bend, OR 97701 541 330-1853 leckone@bendcable.com Secretary/Treasurer Don Wilfong 210 SE Cessna Dr Bend, OR 97702 541 389-1456 dwnw@bendbroadband.com Temp Flyout Chair Don Wilfong 210 SE Cessna Dr Bend, OR 97702 541 389-1456 dwnw@bendbroadband.com Program Chair Ed Endsley 63505 Bridle Ln Bend, OR 97701 541 382-6414 ed@edendsley.com And finally, send Newsletter inputs to Mike Bond 22052 Banff Drive Bend, OR 97702 541 317-8443 mvbond@myexcel.com