In this issue:
Sat. May 21, 9:00-12:00 - FAA Seminar on flying GPS Approaches at Ann Arbor
Tues. May 24, 6:30-9:00 - MDOT Seminar on Sport Aircraft and Airport Hazards
Sat. June 11, 9:00 - Plane Wash & General Membership Meeting
-same day- 12:30 - Client Appreciation Luncheon at the
Bird Cage Hangars
Tues. July 12, 7:00 - Board Meeting at the Hangar or Birdcage Lounge
Sat. July 23, 9:00 - Plane Wash & Barbecue
Tues. Aug. 9, 7:00 - Board Meeting at the Hangar or Birdcage Lounge
Sat. Sep. 10, 9:00 - Plane Wash & Barbecue
Thurs. Sep. 22, 6:30 - General Membership Meeting at Plymouth Library (*)
Tues. Oct 11, 7:00 - Board Meeting at the Hangar or Birdcage Lounge
Tues. Nov. 8, 7:00 - Board Meeting at the Hangar or Birdcage Lounge
(?) Sun. Dec. 4, 5:30 - Holiday Party at Atlantis(?) in Livonia
* The Plymouth District Library is located in downtown Plymouth, one block North of Ann Arbor Trail, at
223 South Main Street
Plymouth, Michigan 48170
(734) 453-0750
We will probably have the meeting room that is on your left on the main floor just as you come in from the East entrance.
GPS Navigation Database NOTAMs
Dion Zammit has collected and is maintaining the regular NOTAMs that we receive from Garmin on the GPS Navigation Database in the new Garmin 430s in the Archer and the Warrior. These NOTAMs describe timely inaccuracies in the GPS Database, which is updated in our radios on a different cycle than the chart NOTAMs. For example, there may be an NDB that was decommissioned recently or a VOR frequency may have changed, but these facts may not yet be reflected in the Navigation Database in the 430. You can find these NOTAMs in a folder in the MANG office in the library cabinet. Please leave it there after you review it before a flight. If you don't plan on reading it before every flight, at least look at it once to see what you may be missing. There is an educational introduction at the beginning of the document.
There are two seminars coming up right away. One is put on by the FAA FSDO and it is on IFR GPS Approaches. This free seminar will be held this Saturday, May 21st at Ann Arbor Airport from 9:00 AM to 12:00. One of the speakers is our own Dave Schrader. Since this seminar uses the Garmin 430 for illustrative purposes, it is especially appropriate for us and our two new Garmins 430s.
The other seminar is at Mettetal Airport on Tuesday, May 24th from 6:30 PM to 9:00. The topics to be presented are "The New Sport Pilot/Light Sport Aircraft Rule" and "Airport Hazards and NOTAMs".
Fuel Issues (Jet Center and Active Aero)
The new self-service card reader system at Jet Center East is working, but so far it only takes credit cards. Very soon it will also take special account cards which we will keep in our planes just like the old keys. For now, if you use Jet Center for fuel, you can tell them you are from MANG and show them the old fuel keys. They will dispense fuel from their truck and charge MANG the usual self-service rate. When we get our MANG account cards, then we can go back to pumping our own fuel.
Please help us reconcile our fuel bills by placing all fuel receipts from MANG account purchases into the red and black mailbox found on the north wall of the Warrior hangar. Also, please write the aircraft number on the receipt if it is not already there. Note: This is only for purchases billed directly to MANG. If you buy fuel somewhere with your own personal credit card, then submit a copy of that receipt as usual with your monthly bill payment or separately to our treasurer for reimbursement from MANG.
Plane Wash and Membership Meeting
Our first plane wash of the year was first postponed a week, and then only about 10 members showed up. Since we didn't wax the planes as we intended, we will be doing that at the next plane wash, which is on June 11th. This plane wash will also be a general membership meeting and barbecue, so come and join in the fun.
The Archer has developed a bad fuel level sender on the right tank, so it always indicates empty. Be extra careful in how you manage your fuel if you intend to fly it. We are planning to get this fixed as soon as possible.
The autopilot on the Archer is still marked as "inoperative" but we are looking into how we can get it fixed.
The altitude encoder on the Warrior is working fine (into the transponder), but it is not connected to the new GPS radio because of the old wiring. This causes a nuisance message to appear on the GPS concerning the lack of altitude input. Note that new messages cause the MSG flag to flash on the 430, so that is how you will know that a new message should be read.
Here are the statistics for April 2005:
|
(Total HOURS) |
54115 |
43755 |
33149 |
All Aircraft |
|
April 2005: |
22.1 |
30.3 |
4.8 |
57.2 |