Read more: July 2022 President’s Report
  Greetings, Arizona's pilot population is as varied as our weather and geography. From student pilots training here from around the globe, to private pilots living here to take advantage of 300+ flying days per year, to airline pilots based at one of the nation's busiest commercial airports, to military pilots from across the state, our pilot demographics cover it
Read more: July 2022 Executive Director's Report
  It’s definitely summer and the Monsoon season is upon us. There isn’t much we can do about it except get up when it’s still dark and get an early start before it gets too hot, and get home again before the afternoon Monsoon winds start to pick up. So, let’s go flying, but make it early! I’m certain there are many of us that will be going to the EAA AirVenture event at
Read more: June 2022 President’s Report
  Greetings, We've just completed the election for our Board of Directors for this year. Stefanie Spencer, Chris Nugent, and Mike Andresen were re-elected to the board and Trent Heidtke was elected to the board for the first time. We thank you for your participation in the election and I personally thank each of the serving directors for the leadership of your APA. As
Read more: June 2022 Executive Director's Report
  Summer is here, it’s hot, and the bugs are out in force. This reporting period has ended with some pretty windy weekends. I think it has been the first time in my flying career that, even after I noted the wind was blowing a bit while getting ready to go, when I got to the run-up area it did seem to be a bit brisk out, but when I got the ATIS information, I discovered
Read more: May 2022 President’s Report
  Greetings, A couple of newsletters ago, I mentioned the Navigation Challenge that APA helped sponsor where pilots flew a fun route around the valley and captured photos of landmarks from clues given. I've thought about the multiple levels of safety something like this can provide pilots. Yeah, it's an excuse to fly where you won't find pancakes or hamburgers
Read more: May 2022 Executive Director's Report
  It does appear that the summer season is almost upon us. While the flying weather is still pretty good with the cool mornings, I fear that will be changing all too soon. I guess it won’t be too long, and we’ll be having to get up early to take advantage of a cool smooth flight. So, let’s have fun and go flying. This month’s Accident Summary is a bit unusual in that
Read more: April 2022 President’s Report
  Greetings, A couple of years ago while working on a program through our church to take special needs children up for an airplane ride, I encountered one such boy. This young man was about 12 at the time and suffered from Autism. He was sharp as a tack as I asked him to help me with the preflight checklist. “Why is that [pitot] tube bent like that? Why does it only
Read more: April 2022 Executive Director's Report
    The flying weather has generally been pretty good, and I hope everyone has been out enjoying it. A lot of fun things have been happening, and we need to take advantage of them because the hot summer will soon be knocking on our door. A rather unique and challenging event took place near the end of last month that few people really seemed know about, and that
Read more: March 2022 President’s Report
  Greetings, And just like that, Copperstate has come and gone. It was a blessing to meet and talk with so many familiar faces and new members at our booth. APA also led packed forums on backcountry flying, some new aviation resources available free to pilots, and risk management. I love seeing the broad range of pilots at these forums. This year, the STOL Drags were
Read more: March 2022 Executive Director's Report
    Although it has been a bit breezy at times, the weather has been pretty good for flying out for breakfast on weekends. At least we don’t have to worry about the subzero cold and snow to use our airplanes like some folks. With the good flying weather, the aviation scene is rather full of activities to participate in. The most recent fly in was the annual