By Jim TimmJimTimm

March 2015


I certainly hope everyone has been able to take advantage of the good winter flying weather, and fortunately the nights haven't been too cold to make starting difficult in the morning. Spring must be getting close. It seems like I’ve been starting to pick up a lot more bugs lately. What ever you do, keep flying safe.

Many aviation groups in the aviation community are coming together to urge the FAA to address the significant barriers to Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) equipage, such as the very high costs and the lack of solutions for some types of aircraft. I believe AOPA has estimated that only about 6% of the G/A fleet is now equipt. with ADS-B. For many that fly certified airplanes, particularly an older small general aviation airplane, the cost of the equipment, installation and final certification could wind up representing a very significant portion of the value of the entire airplane. Initially, it appeared that in establishing the requirement to install ADS-B, they had neglected to consider the large number of experimental and LSA aircraft, and how the ADS-B equipment could be installed and certified (if even needed) in them. Just recently the FAA did issue a correction to it’s rule, stating, for experimental aircraft the equipment “must meet the performance requirements” established for TSOed and certified ADS-B equipment. Historically, builders and owners of experimental aircraft have been able to install avionics that meet the performance standards of certified equipment but are not specifically approved (certified) by the FAA. Hopefully this precedent will prevail for ADS-B equipment installation as well.

Efforts must continue to find a viable solution to the high ADS-B installation costs of certified equipment in small certified aircraft.


MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS

The FAA Charting Office has announced they have created a new symbol for the charting of Solar Farms. It will look like an antenna symbol with a jagged or zig zag line around it and they should be introduced on the March to June charting cycles. Apparently some of these Solar Farms consist of non-reflecting solar panels and some consist of very highly reflective panels. This symbol will be placed where the highly reflective panels are located. An example will be a Solar Farm near Tonopah at the next charting.

The aviation results from the Super Bowl are still coming in and it appears that there may have been at least 4 or 5 intrusions into the Super Bowl TFR, with two of them intercepted by F16s. All the reporting has not yet come in, but it appears there were some problems and the SDL FSDO is still investigating. A comment was made by the FAA that there were more intrusions into this TFR than they have had for the recent VIP TFRs (fortunately for the pilots involved). Guys, read the newspapers, and more importantly, check for NOTAMS before flying!

An interesting sidelight to the Super Bowl and the bad weather that we experienced that weekend, on Sunday morning while Phoenix and the west side were fogged in, Deer Valley (DVT) and Scottsdale (SDL) were getting visual arrivals. According to the TRACON, PHX was IFR for over 8 hours, the longest time ever. IFR time for the previous 8 years, they stated, didn’t add up to 8 hours. They had half the normal traffic flow and a lot of holds. When everybody wanted to leave on Monday morning, for a few hours that morning at PHX, the average wait time was about 38 minutes. Be glad you weren't part of it. (or were you?)

Luke now has 21 F-35 fighters, and as a result, activity in the Sunny, Outlaw and Jackal MOAs is ramping up. While we are allowed to fly thru a MOA, use much caution and perhaps even give it a second thought if you really do need to go thru the MOA. Think about it, it’s a STUDENT PILOT in that fighter, and the airplane, at moments, may be arriving before the pilot!

We are getting reports that the Air Force is continuing to get intrusions into the Goldwater Restricted Areas. About a month ago they were forced to stop six (6) missions because of intruders. This is an expensive and very dangerous problem. Be aware of where you are when flying near the range restricted areas, and don’t try cutting thru them! Also, significant problems are being encountered with intrusions into and thru the R 2310 restricted areas between Florence and Florence Junction. The entire volume of this restricted area is being used daily by at least four different government contract companies for flight testing UAV systems (airplanes) and for UAV pilot training. We were advised they launch and retrieve in the very south end of the range and the sizes of the UAV’s vary widely. Some may be small enough that you would not be able to see them until their thru the windshield.

Remember, a lot of airport construction is going on around the state, and in particular the valley, so check for NOTAMS before departing so you don’t have a nasty surprise upon your arrival at your destination.

Make sure you have your calendar marked for the The Classic Airplane Association of Arizona’s 57th. annual Cactus Fly-In on March 6 & 7 at the Casa Grande Municipal Airport. This is always a great fun event, what ever you fly. If you own an older airplane or an antique, the organizers are encouraging you to polish it up and fly it to the event and enjoy the fun!

We still continue getting last minute notices of GPS Interference testing. The latest was for Alamogordo,NM for January 26 - February 13, and Las Vegas, NV for January 23 - February 15, 2015. Each of these tests covered a significant portion of Arizona at potentially low altitudes and we got a couple of reports of interference. But please, if you do encounter inflight problems with getting a useable GPS navigation signal for a period of 6 to 7 minutes, it is important that you contact ATC, providing the date, time, location and altitude the problem is noted and also,please advise us at APA!

The year 2015 has started off on the right path from a flight safety standpoint. Since the first of the year the NTSB has reported only three accidents in the state. Two in January, and only one so far at this writing in late February. Two of the accidents did not contain accident details and they most likely did not result in serious injuries, and the first accident of the year did have a report issued and the injuries were minor. I find this low accident rate surprising as we have generally been having some pretty good flying weather, and the fuel prices have been down, and I would have assumed people have been out flying. I would like to think everyone is flying safer and I can only hope this trend continues! I like writing short accident reports.

A detailed accident summary is included in my March accident report.

APA is continuing to work with several airports around the state providing the pilot and aircraft owner perspective in the process of updating their Airport Master Plans. The Deer Valley Airport (DVT) master plan update is still in process and we are presently reviewing the Phase II Report of the Sedona (SEZ) Airport master plan.

On Thursday, February 26, some of your APA officers helped the Arizona Airports Association put on an “Arizona Aviation Day” event at the Capitol. The purpose of the event was basically to invite the legislators down to the Senate Lawn for a luncheon and explain/show them the importance of general aviation and the positive economic impact that we make on the Arizona economy. It also provided us the opportunity meet one on one with some of the legislators and express some of our concerns and discuss possible upcoming legislation that could affect us. I think this years event was a success and we did make some good contacts and had the opportunity to personally explain why we need to have our State Aviation Fund left intact in order to maintain the safety of the present infrastructure.


THINGS TO DO - PLACES TO GO FOR BREAKFAST:

The first Saturday of the month fly in breakfast is at Coolidge Municipal Airport (P08).

On the second Saturday of the month is the Ryan Field (RYN) fly in buffet breakfast. Location is between the Restaurant and the Fuel Pits. Time; 8:00 to 11:00 am

The Falcon EAA Warbirds Squadron Breakfast is on the third Saturday of the month and breakfast is being served from 7:00 to 11:00 AM.

The third Saturday of the month there is a fly in breakfast at Benson (E95) at Southwest Aviation. (Often there have been very special fuel prices for breakfast attendees.)

The last Saturday of the month there is a fly in breakfast at Casa Grande Municipal Airport (CGZ) that runs from 7:00 am until 10:00. The breakfast is inside the air conditioned/heated terminal building.

(The Casa Grande and Coolidge fly in breakfasts are put on by a service group to raise funds for community service projects.)

Check the APA Calendar for our Getaway Flights program for weekend places to fly.

 

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