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Published: 16 January 2023

  Greetings and Happy New Year! And just like that, 2022 is at our six. It was a year that seemed to be defined as "after COVID," but was still filled with significant challenges. I don't believe I've ever heard the term "supply chain" used as much or as broadly as I did in 2022. Just a walk through the grocery store will show you how fragile that supply chain is when

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Published: 14 January 2023

  I hope all of you had a very merry Christmas and a happy new year. I think the best way I celebrated the beginning of the new year was flying down to Casa Grande on Saturday morning for breakfast with friends. To be safe, I welcomed the entrance of the new year safe at home with a good drink and snacks. At my age I’m not certain I could make it to midnight to welcome

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Published: 16 December 2022

  Greetings, Pilots often have a routine when preflighting an aircraft. Typically, we walk through it with a cursory check of each item. What are we really checking? When we flip the stall tab, are we just checking for freedom of movement? Do we take the time to turn on the Master and listen for that obnoxious horn? Did we notice the pitot cover was in place or

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Published: 14 December 2022

  It looks like winter weather is here, and so far the mornings have been a bit crisp, but the flying has been great. It’s a good excuse to make a flight to get that $100 lunch or breakfast. I hope I’ll be seeing one of you at breakfast sometime soon.    MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS   FAA The FAA has continued to receive field reports of cracked cylinders on

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Published: 16 November 2022

  Greetings, Jim Timm and Fred Gibbs write columns in this newsletter each month detailing GA accidents in Arizona. How great would it be if neither had to write anything at all? That would mean we all flew safely, made safe decisions, and we calculated risks accurately. In my time with APA, we haven’t had a month like that. Fuel starvation and controlled flight into

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Published: 14 November 2022

  Well, fall weather has finally arrived. The days are noticeably shorter, but fortunately, the daytime temperatures have finally become very comfortable for flying. We need to get out there and enjoy it! I’ll look forward to seeing you at the airport or at the Saturday morning fly-in breakfasts. While taking a break over a morning cup of coffee, there was some

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Published: 16 October 2022

  Greetings, It was wonderful to see many familiar faces in person during our Annual Membership Meeting. Though the "annual" part was on hold during Covid, the support we received this year was excellent. Lou Amadee from the East Valley Institute of Technology showed off the incredible new facility at their Power Road Campus where youth can study to become an A&P

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Published: 14 October 2022

  It looks like fall weather is knocking on our door. Thank Goodness. This summer weather was wearing a bit thin, but I guess I should look at the positive side. If we didn’t have these warm summers, we most certainly would be overrun with an excessive number of people. It’s getting bad enough as it is. Each month an aviation Accident/Incident report is generated to

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Published: 16 September 2022

  Greetings, The past couple of years brought lots of uncertainty and precautions to us. We're excited to announce that we'll be holding our Annual Membership Meeting on September 24th from 9-11am at the new EVIT aviation building hangar at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport (IWA). This is a fantastic new air-conditioned venue and we thank EVIT for hosting us. We have a

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Published: 15 September 2022

  Well, the hot weather is still with us, and it’s even a tad warm at dawn. It also seems to warm up only too quickly. I sure got spoiled with the cool morning temperatures at AirVenture Oshkosh, even though the visit was short lived. It will be good when things start to cool down again. I guess that should start to happen in late September. So, until then, I guess I’ll