By Jim Timm

JUNE, 2013

I hope everyone is able to enjoy the cool early morning flying weather. Summer is rapidly approaching. On Saturday May 18 we had the 2013 APA Annual membership meeting and we couldn’t have asked for finer weather for those that elected to fly in. Everyone had a good time and it was good to see some of you again. We had the annual directors election and we want to welcome a new member to the board, Tyrel Greenwade. Tyrel will be replacing Dr. John Raniolo.

Well, once again, the good news and the bad news, as a result of a reshuffling of funds, the FAA will continue the operation of all the contract towers for the balance of this funding year which ends in September. In the next fiscal year it is very likely the tower closure issue will come up again, you can be sure. It will be interesting to see what the next closure proposal will look like. I’ve heard some comments that it could possibly include some low activity FAA towers.

This years legislative session came to an end without any proposed legislation that would have been an issue for us. The really good news is that this year the legislature left our aviation fund intact and did not sweep out any funds as they have in the past. Fortunately, they apparently were occupied with too many other issues. There is one concern however. There is approximately $28 million currently in the fund that is uncommitted. This is a substantial enough amount of money that it could attract unwanted attention. Hopefully some of the airports around the state will get on the ball and submit requests for airport improvements and get some of the funds committed to projects.

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS

The FAA air traffic control people report there is a continuing problem with pilots lining up for the wrong runway at airports with parallel runways. Apparently, it’s not just happening at the smaller general aviation airports, but it’s happening at some of the larger air carrier airports also. The FAA is considering undertaking a major safety program to address the problem. Listen to the ATIS, and also carefully verify you are lined up for the correct runway. Please, be alert and try not to be part of the problem, or worse, an incident.

So far this past year there have not been any significant airspace changes in Arizona and there don’t appear to be any on the immediate horizon. However that may very possibly change when the FAA announced the locations of the six UAV, or Drone, test sites that they are mandated to come up with. There has been an aggressive push by industry and educational interests to have some of the test sites located here in Arizona.

There is a meeting coming up soon to evaluate wether the voluntary measures that were published in a letter to airmen issued twice in the past year and a half have been effective in reducing the number of TCAS alerts that the air carriers operating out of Williams Gateway Airport (IWA) had been getting. Hopefully the recommendations have been effective enough to avoid consideration of a regulatory airspace change to correct the problem. A possible change could include considering implementation of Class C airspace over IWA.

I hope APA members have been taking advantage of the availability of the Luke AFB Aux. Field 1 ILS for practice instrument approaches. The latest word from the Luke AFB TRACON is that, from their perspective, it is working well. Based on their numbers, it appears that there are not a large number of pilots using it. Apparently the large flight schools are not using it. It’s also possible that could be changing. It would be appreciated if you would drop us a note and let us know how it is working out for you and what your experience has been. As a side note, if you have DME equipment and you use the AUX. 1 ILS, the LAFB TACAN VHF frequency is 113.0 MHz. This information may be added to the approach plate in the near future.

In the way of information; A formula to get the DME(VOR) frequency from a TACAN channel is the following: There are two 'key numbers' - 1063 and 1053 - which you have to add to the TACAN channel to get the DME frequency. Up to channel 59 you have to add 1063. From channels 70 and on you have to add 1053.
Example:
TACAN channel is 44: 44 + 1063 = 1107 = 110.7 MHz
TACAN channel is 77: 77 + 1053 = 1130 = 113.0 MHz.


Effective May 1, the operating hours for Phoenix-Mesa Gateway (IWA) tower has extended. It’s hours of operation are from 5:00 AM local time (1200 UTC) until 12:00 AM local time (0700 UTC).
Concurrent with this change, the effective hours of the IWA Class D airspace will also change to 5:00 AM local time (1200 UTC) until 12:00 AM local time (0700 UTC). 24 Hour operation is also being considered.

Aviation safety needs to be a concern for all of us. From the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reports, there were seven aviation accidents reported in Arizona this last reporting period.
The one reported fatal accident was determined to be the result of a self inflected gunshot wound and the final report stated that the manner of death was determined to be suicide. Of the remaining reported accidents, one accident resulted in a serious injury, one accident resulted in a minor injury and the remaining four accidents resulted in no injuries. See my June Aviation Accident Report for the details.

A significant number of airports around the state are reporting that they have runway repair/upgrade projects scheduled for this summer, so be sure to check for NOTAMS before you depart. You don’t need a surprise when you arrive at your destination and discover something like a runway is closed for resurfacing. For example, in the September - October time frame, Glendale Airport will be closed for one week for runway resurfacing. (When we get closer to the date we will get more specific info. to you.)

We are continuing to work with airports around the state providing a general aviation user perspective in the process of updating their Airport Master Plans. We are presently working on the up dating of both the Gila Bend Municipal Airport and the Nogales International Airport Master plans and an update of the Phoenix Sky Harbor FAA Part 150 Noise Study.

THINGS TO DO - PLACES TO GO FOR BREAKFAST:

The first Saturday of the month fly in breakfast at Coolidge Airport (P08) has been halted until this fall.

The last Saturday of the month there is still a Fly in breakfast at Casa Grande Airport (CGZ)
Time: 7:00 to 10:00 am. The Casa Grande breakfast will continue through the summer as it is held in the air conditioned airport terminal.

(Both of these fly in breakfasts are put on by a service group in their respective communities to raise funds for community service projects.)

The third Saturday of the month there is a fly in breakfast at Benson (E95) @ Southwest Aviation
(Rumor has it that there may be special fuel prices for breakfast attendees.)