MANG Newsletter 2011 #9

General Membership Meeting

On September 13th we had our fall General Membership Meeting at the Plymouth Library. Although Dr. Gordon was to speak on aviation medicine, there was a change of plans and he was not available. Instead we had a very entertaining and informative presentation by our Safety/Training Officer, Dave Schrader, about his recent participation in a Caribbean Air Tour. Dave had in-flight pictures and pictures of resorts where the group stayed. He also had stories of peculiar kinds of difficulties you might encounter on such a trip - things having to do with local culture, time zones, and problems related to going through customs of the various countries involved. One of the most surprising was the fact that you don't need to fly very far from land to navigate the entire chain of Caribbean islands, since they are so close together. You are rarely out of sight of land.

We were also given a short presentation by Paul Fortino on what to do (and what not to do) about aircraft log books. Among the items discussed were:

1. The key items relating to current airworthiness (dates of most recent inspections) are copied out and posted on a separate sheet near the corkboard for each plane. You don't need to go to the actual logbook to get it. The next time you are flying, take a look for this sheet.

2. If the FAA ever stops you for a ramp check, you are not required to hand over our aircraft logbooks. In fact the FAA is not allowed to enter your plane or your hangar without your permission, and you do not have to grant that permission. If they ask for the logbooks they must make a formal request and give you reasonable time to respond. In that case you can always forward the request to our maintenance team for consideration. An immediate response is not necessary.

3. If you are curious about the maintenance history of our planes, the aircraft logbooks are stored in a fireproof file cabinet in the MANG office at the hangar. If you want to look at them, please keep them exactly as you found them. They are organized into three files - one for each plane. Be careful with them because the loss of a logbook can seriously affect the resale value of our planes.

Maintenance Corner

The attitude indiator on the Warrior is fixed again. Paul gives this advice on detecting early signs of gyro failure:

If either the attitude indicator or the directional gyro spin around after engine shut-down, then that is a sign that gyro failure is likely in the near future. If you see such behavior, contact a maintenance officer so that the problem can be corrected before the gyro fails completely. Normally, the gyro should merely settle down with only a slight amount of turning when the engine is shut down.

Call for Flying Stories

I am having trouble coming up with interesting material for the newsletter. If any of you have a flying story that you would be willing to contribute, please pass it along to Bob Scott ( bob (at) tunelab-world.com ). It doesn't have to be in final polished form. It is the story that counts. If you want to submit a story anonymously, that is OK too. (We don't want to get anybody into trouble confessing to an FAA violation!) Reports of positive experiences are good too. Just send it along with the subject line "newsletter idea".

Call for Nominations

We are officially open to nominations for the four elected Board of Directors positions - President, Vice-President, Secretary, and Treasurer. If anyone wants to serve in any of these offices, you can nominate yourself. Just pass along the nomination to any Board member. The election will be held at the holidate party at DeLucas on December 2nd.

Flying Hours and Statistics

Here are the statistics for August 2011:

(Total HOURS)	54115	43755	33149	All Aircraft
August 2011:	28.6	30.9	19.0	78.5

Here are the top flyers in terms of flight hours for the month:

Cal Locklin	18.4
Bruce Anderson	6.6
Godwin Edet	5.8
Paul Fortino	5.1
Mark Calbus	4.6
Dale Thorsby	3.7

MANG AERO CLUB

Newsletter Vol. 9 No. 9 (September 2011)