In this issue:
Sunday, September 9, 9:00 - Plane Wash / Barbecue at the Hangars
Monday, September 17, 6:30 - General Membership Meeting at
Plymouth Library
Monday, October 15, 6:00 - Board Meeting at the Birdcage Pilot Lounge
Monday, November 19, 6:00 - Board Meeting at the Birdcage Pilot Lounge
Saturday, December 1, 6:30 - Holiday Party at a place to be announced
The Plymouth Library is at 223 S. Main St. in downtown Plymouth. Phone 734-453-0750, ext. 217.
Plane Washes are scheduled to reserve the planes from 9 AM to 1 PM. This should allow members convenient use of the planes on plane-wash days. Note that all plane washes are on Saturdays except for Sunday, September 9.
Someone has taken the Garmin GPS manual from the Archer - twice! Also the manual for the new transponder is missing. Please check your flight bag to see if you have either of those manuals. We need them in the planes.
Flying Fees to Remain the Same
As we reported last month, our Treasurer, Joe McEvoy, has reviewed the operational costs, including fuel prices. After doing his analysis, Joe recommends that we leave flying fees as they are for the rest of the year. These fees will be re-evaluated at the normal time at the end of the year.
Now that all three planes have the Garmin 430, our old yoke-mounted GPS Pilot IIIs are available for sale. If you would like one, the price is $300 as is. The GPS database is several years old, and each Pilot III comes with a yoke-mount. Contact Joe McEvoy if you are interested. Save us the trouble of having to list them on eBay.
As of August 28th, the fuel prices at AvFlight East are $4.91 (including tax) Monday-Friday and $4.72 (including tax) on weekends. Almost anyplace else the price is lower. So if you can stop at some other airport before heading back to Willow and if the prices are better than AvFlight, please consider buying fuel there. Remember, it is perfectly acceptable to put the plane away with the fuel tanks down as much as 1.5 hours from full. Also, you can save on fuel with proper leaning of the engine. (You're not still running full-rich in cruise at 4000 feet, are you?). For a review of proper leaning considerations, see these documents on our Club website.
All members should have received new Archer keys in the mail by now. The key had to be changed when the magneto switch was replaced. You still need your old Archer key to work the door and the baggage compartment. There is a spare new key in the MANG office.
Because of U of M football conflicts, the next plane wash will be on Sunday morning on September 9th. It will be your last chance for the year to enjoy Joe's famous burgers and hotdogs and to see that our planes are clean and shiny. We start around 9 AM., but you can show up just about any time.
Bill Lewis to Speak at General Membership Meeting Monday, Sept. 17th.
Our fall General Membership Meeting will be held at 6:30 at the Plymouth Library on Monday, Sept. 17th. After the short business meeting, Bill Lewis will be the featured speaker. He will talk about the Garmin 430. A flight instructor told me recently that the first-time failure rate for the Instrument Checkride is now around 85%, due mostly to the pilot's unfamiliarity with new GPS radios. Since the Garmin 430 is the primary NAV/COM in all of our planes, MANG members should take every opportunity to learn how these radios work. Here is just such an opportunity.
By the way, if you have stopped by the MANG office looking for GPS simulator disks and found them all taken, I placed 8 more copies there last week. And those of you who "borrowed" the other disks - please return them after you have installed the software so others can use them. Or, if you have wide-band internet, you can download the 210 MByte simulator directly from Garmin.
One more GPS-WAAS training opportunity is the "Black Swamp Fly-In at Wood County Airport- GPS and WAAS" on Saturday, September 8, 10:00 AM at the Wood County Airport in Ohio. "Learn the ins and outs of GPS and WAAS from the FAA's resident expert!" This event is sponsored by Air BP, BGSU Aviation, Celley and Sanderson, LLP, CMT Engineers, EAA Chapters 582 & 1409. To view further details and to register for this event, click here.
Member Paul Plumley Gets Sea Plane Certification
Congratulations to Paul Plumley on completing his recent sea plane certification at Northwoods Aviation in Cadillac, Michigan. Here is a link to some photos, and a few comments from Paul on the training:
Last week (3rd week in August ) I attended the Northwoods Aviation two-day Sea Plane training. Their FBO is located at Cadillac Airport and the Sea Base is just a short drive East on Sapphire Lake. Northwoods has two planes on floats, a Super Cub and a Cessna 182 that are kept at the sea base. Mike, my CFI was great guy, patient (I'm sure it was harder on him than me), excellent instructor and could fly the buttons off that Super Cub. I found it all quite refreshing, even though he kept me busy learning new skills and techniques (old dog new...you know the rest) , the atmosphere was kept pretty casual and laid back. One of many treats was the ability to take the "magic carpet" that airplanes provide for all of us, and fly low and slow, one beautiful lake to another. One of many points emphasized was "being a good neighbor" so we usually didn't didn't make more that 6 to 10 landing without moving on to another lake. That turned out great, flying over the treetops and looking down at what appeared to be sleepy little towns dotted along the lakes and roads. Once we landed on a small uninhabited lake...and for a moment it brought back memories of the wilds Joan and I have seen on Canadian canoeing trips from years gone by. As you can tell, I had a good time. Now I have the proverbial "license to learn" I'd love to hear some of your experiences/tips. If you would like to chat, or have any questions, catch me at one of our MANG functions.
Three pictures of Paul on his Sea Plane adventure are posted here.
And as long as we are looking at pictures, here are 135 pictures that Steve Thornburg took on his trip to Oshkosh.
Regulation D.3: Members having an unpaid balance that is more than one month overdue will not be permitted to make additional aircraft schedulings. In addition, all existing schedulings in the name of such members will be removed from the schedule books....
So please don't fall behind in paying your MANG bill. And if you want to pay ahead and have a positive balance with MANG, our Treasurer says that's OK too.
Here are the statistics for July 2007:
|
(Total HOURS) |
54115 |
43755 |
33149 |
All Aircraft |
|
July: |
22.5 |
51.5 |
25.2 |
99.2 |