========================================================= CASCADE FLYER July 2010, Vol. 10, Issue 7 Website: http://co-opa.com/ President's Message: Jim Hultgrien Jr. from the Portland FSDO will join us for a safety presentation and will present two Wright Brothers Master Pilots awards. Those awards go to pilots with more than 50 years of flying and no accidents. Quite an achievement and we need to be there to cheer for our local recipients. Motor to the Flight Services Building at 6pm, June 17th, for the usual pilot gab. Stay for the ever- popular potluck at 6:30pm and participate in the formal program at 7pm. Come on down and show the FAA we support our local pilots. Calendar: 15 July - Monthly Meeting 17 July - Monthly Flyout 19 August - Monthly Meeting 21 August - Monthly Flyout. 27-28 August - Air Show Of The Cascades (@S33) 16 September - Monthly Meeting 18 September - Monthly Flyout 21 October - Monthly Meeting 23 October - Monthly Flyout Web doings: The Airshow Of The Cascades has updated their website for their airshow the last Friday/Saturday in August: http://www.cascadeairshow.com/ Butler Aircraft is the title sponsor and is giving free tickets to any veterans that want them. Contact me at gem@rellim.com if you need some. The Airshow can still use sponsors. Sponsorships are tax deductible and include many perks. Looking for an event to fly to? Check out the OPA Calendar: http://www.oregonpilot.org/calendar.html As always you can check out current and past COOPA newsletters, view our membership list and view hot aviation links on our website at http://co-opa.com To access the members only areas the username is "BDN" and the password is "123.0". My Inbox: Looks like the 2010 Bend Airport Appreciation Day was a success. Breakfast and lunch were served to over 300 people each. Leading Edge and Professional Air ran helicopter and Cessna rides all day. Many thanks to all those who made it possible. Random Thoughts: "If it ain't one thing, it's another" -- Rosanne Rosannadanna That pretty much sums up airplane ownership. You expect things to break and wear out in a complicated machine that suffers weather and abuse like an airplane. I usually console myself that I have it so much better than helicopter owners. Several AirLink mechanics have told me that ten hours of maintenance to one hour flying is to be expected. Sadly some of the more expensive problems are caused by the stroke of a pen, not the slow pull of entropy. One example of that is my old, yet trustworthy, LORAN that plaintively calls out 'No Chains Found' from my radio stack. The US Coast Guard had been threatening to pull the plug on the LORAN transmitters since 2000 so when they finally did in 2010 it felt merciful. Like an old friend finally succumbing to a lingering disease. Sometimes the hurt comes suddenly, like an unexpected and expensive Airworthiness Directive. Almost always ADs can wait until the next annual, but not always. Then, from out of the blue, a lightning strike from the Federal Communications Commission. "In this Third Report and Order in WT Docket No. 01-289, we amend Part 87 of the Commission's Rules [...] and (h) prohibit the certification, manufacture, importation, sale, or continued use of 121.5 MHz emergency locator transmitters (ELTs)..." The new rule will read: "87.195 Prohibition of 121.5 MHz ELTs. The manufacture, importation, sale or use of 121.5 MHz ELTs is prohibited." Apparently the FCC has been studying this issue since 2001, but just got around to telling anyone else about it. Not even the AOPA saw this one coming. If this takes half as long to implement as the coming of ADS-B then no worries. Except the FCC seems in a big hurry. "[...] the Commission's Rules ARE AMENDED as set forth in the attached Appendix B, effective sixty days after publication in the Federal Register." The decision has been made, just waiting for the printing press to roll. You can see for yourself here: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-10-103A1.pdf Upon hearing the news a few weeks ago the AOPA has mounted a very late in the game play to block the rule. I expect them to get a minor extension but the game does appear lost. The AOPA response is here: http://www.aopa.org/advocacy/articles/2010/100621elt.html FAR Part 91.207 states that an aircraft must have an operable ELT onboard, but does not mandate its use. So maybe we can continue to fly as long as we do not use our 121.5MHz ELT? I doubt it will be that easy. It looks like an upgrade to a new TSO C126 (406MHz) ELT will be required. Assuming I can even buy one. Almost all the C126 ELTs I find on the web for sale also broadcast on 121.5 and will thus be illegal as well. Mail order prices look to be around a grand and move up. And it still gets worse. The upgrade requires a new antenna and a cockpit-mounted control too. So no simple box swap, some serious installation cost too. Oh well, we all know that airplanes just make holes in the air that you throw money into... Gary Miller Brown & Stigler Look carefully at the B-17 and note how shot up it is - one engine dead, tail, horizontal stabilizer and nose shot up.. It was ready to fall out of the sky. (This is a painting done by an artist from the description of both pilots many years later.) Then realize that there is a German ME-109 fighter flying next to it. Now read the story below. I think you'll be surprised. Charlie Brown was a B-17 Flying Fortress pilot with the 379th Bomber Group at Kimbolton, England. His B-17 was called 'Ye Old Pub' and was in a terrible state, having been hit by flak and fighters. The compass was damaged and they were flying deeper over enemy territory instead of heading home to Kimbolton. After flying the B-17 over an enemy airfield, a German pilot named Franz Steigler was ordered to take off and shoot down the B-17. When he got near the B-17, he could not believe his eyes. In his words, he 'had never seen a plane in such a bad state'. The tail and rear section was severely damaged, and the tail gunner wounded. The top gunner was all over the top of the fuselage. The nose was smashed and there were holes everywhere. Despite having ammunition, Franz flew to the side of the B-17 and looked at Charlie Brown, the pilot. Brown was scared and struggling to control his damaged and blood-stained plane. Aware that they had no idea where they were going, Franz waved at Charlie to turn 180 degrees. Franz escorted and guided the stricken plane to, and slightly over, the North Sea towards England. He then saluted Charlie Brown and turned away, back to Europe. When Franz landed he told the CO that the plane had been shot down over the sea, and never told the truth to anybody. Charlie Brown and the remains of his crew told all at their briefing, but were ordered never to talk about it. More than 40 years later, Charlie Brown wanted to find the Luftwaffe pilot who saved the crew. After years of research, Franz was found. He had never talked about the incident, not even at post-war reunions. They met in the USA at a 379th Bomber Group reunion, together with 25 people who are alive now - all because Franz never fired his guns that day. (L-R) German Ace Franz Stigler, artist Ernie Boyett, and B-17 pilot Charlie Brown. When asked why he didn't shoot them down, Stigler later said, "I didn't have the heart to finish those brave men. I flew beside them for a long time. They were trying desperately to get home and I was going to let them do that. I could not have shot at them. It would have been the same as shooting at a man in a parachute." Both men died in 2008. This is a true story http://www.snopes.com/military/charliebrown.asp THIS WAS BACK IN THE DAYS WHEN THERE WAS HONOR IN BEING A WARRIOR...THEY PROUDLY WORE UNIFORMS, AND THEY DIDN'T HIDE IN AMBUSH INSIDE A PLACE OF PRAYER, OR BEHIND WOMEN AND CHILDREN, NOR DID THEY USE MENTALLY RETARDED WOMEN AS SUICIDE BOMBERS TO TARGET AND KILL INNOCENT CIVILIANS...HOW TIMES HAVE CHANGED...... Bend Airport Day 2010 Thanks, Ed and Don for some of the Airport Day photos …. ====================================================================== COOPA officer contact info: President Gary E. Miller 109 NW Wilmington Ave Bend, OR 97701 541-382-8588 gem@rellim.com Vice President --------OPEN---------- Secretary/Treasurer Don Wilfong 210 SE Cessna Dr Bend, OR 97702 541 389-1456 Temp Fly-out Chair Don Wilfong 210 SE Cessna Dr Bend, OR 97702 541 389-1456 wilfong.d@gmail.com Program Chair --------OPEN---------- And finally, send Newsletter inputs to Mike Bond 22052 Banff Drive Bend, OR 97702 541 317-8443 mvbond@spiritone.com _______________________________________________