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Published: 20 February 2026

  by Jim Timm   The following are the reports of aviation accidents that have occurred in Arizona from mid-December through January. The Accident Report will be limited in size because of the unexpected and sudden passing of Craig Tompkins of the FAA SDL FSDO. Craig always provided the substantial FAA input to the Accident/Incident report, and all the information

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Published: 19 February 2026

By Rod Kunkel   The weekend of January 30 - February 1 was our first weekend getaway of 2026.  Most of us flew into Bermuda Dunes airport (KUDD), about 10 miles SE of Palm Springs.  A few of us drove … More on that later.  Despite warnings from some APA members and the FBO that parking can be very limited during the winter months, there was plenty of

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Published: 17 February 2026

By Jim Hefner     It was a beautiful day to fly to Lake Havasu for the APA fly-in lunch at Hangar 24 on Saturday.  It was very busy when I arrived around 10:30 am.  There was a Cirrus formation flying training program and several other group events taking place.  There were 4 flights of 2 and one flight of 4 Cirrus's coming into the pattern

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Published: 16 February 2026

  Welcome to the February 2026 edition of the APA Approach! I wanted to start this month’s President’s Report with an update on the Falcon Field landing fee proposal. As you know, the city pushed out the original February 9, 2026, date for the city council vote by 45 – 60 days to “allow sufficient time to process and potentially incorporate public feedback into staff

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Published: 15 February 2026

    The breakfast fights on Saturday morning have been rather good, except that some of those flights have been a bit cool at the start or at civil dawn, but in general, the temperature has been good for the entire day. We can revel in that we can enjoy being outside all day, so let’s take advantage of it and go flying. I’m certain you know that APA is spending

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Published: 15 February 2026

  By Howard Deevers   Have you ever done something wrong and wondered, “How did I make that mistake?” Another word to use here is “habit.” We get into a habit of doing the same things over and over. How many times have we driven out to the street and turned right? Then, on a day that we planned to go left, we turned right anyway. Oh, well, I will just have to make

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Published: 14 February 2026

  We had another great turnout for the 2025 scholarship cycle with forty-three applications received. As was the case last year, the overall quality of the scholarship applications was impressive. In past years, the career objectives for many of the applicants focused on becoming professional aviators. However, we are seeing an increase in students pursuing careers in

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Published: 12 February 2026

  by Mike McCann   Day Trip: Nogales, AZ – KOLS February 21, 2026 KOLS Arrival time:                                        8:30 – 9:00am Group

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Published: 20 January 2026

  By Mike McCann APA Day Trip Coordinator   Marana, AZ (KAVQ) Something new for 2026 will be the occasional “pop-up” day trip or breakfast flight for our APA members. What’s a pop-up day trip you ask? Well, normally we organize day trips 4-6 weeks in advance and send out invitations 2-3 weeks ahead of the event, but there are also occasions when a short notice

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Published: 20 January 2026

  by Jim Timm   The following are the reports of aviation accidents, and incidents that have occurred in Arizona from mid-November through December. We hope to use the following detailed accident/incident information to develop safety programs, briefings, and posters/flyers that would help pilots learn from the mistakes being made by others and be able to take the