By Jim Timm
November 2014
The great fall flying weather is finally here and hopefully all of you are out there enjoying it. I hope many of you were able to make it to the Copperstate Fly in at Casa Grande and went in the big vendor display tent and stopped by the APA/RAF display to say hi. As usual, this year’s event was a good one.
In the interest of promoting/improving general aviation aviation safety, APA has been participating in meetings with the FAA in developing the Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing (ASIAS) program for general aviation. To expand the flight data needed in the program, APA would encourage members and any other pilots in the major Phoenix area to review the following information and determine if they would like to become a participant in the program. Please contact the FAA program director, Mr. Cory Stephens for any questions you may have at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or (202) 527-5434.
The GA ASIAS Demonstration project is an expansion of the volunteer commercial ASIAS (Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing) program that originated with US air carriers, pilot associations, manufacturers, and the FAA, designed to improve safety throughout the commercial sector. This expansion incorporates new voluntary GA data sources submitted by the community. This program will help improve safety by various means:
Note: Your information submitted will be permanently de-identified !
• Allowing you to replay your own flights and view your data
• You can use your data to identify potential safety risks
• Historically, pilots participating in proactive safety programs are less likely to be involved in an accident (GAO 13-36, pg. 13)
•Flight information (such as attitude data) can be collected, giving you enhanced feedback to improve your skills
• Your data will be combined with all other contributors to help improve safety for the whole GA community
• Your data cannot be used by the FAA for enforcement
• You choose which of your flights to upload
• An individual pilot, flight, or aircraft cannot be identified using the submitted data
You can participate in two ways. Data can come from either your onboard avionics (for example, a G1000) or using a newly developed mobile app—that you run on your smartphone or tablet. You have the opportunity to sign up and use the applications, at no cost. To try them out you can go to:
For the web data base so you can view and replay your data: http://fdm.und.edu/
To download the iOS app for the iPhone or iPad: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/general-aviation-airborne/id929718718?mt=8
The Android app is: http://tinyurl.com/gaardapp
If you have any questions you can contact Corey Stephens with the FAA’s Office of Accident Investigation and Prevention at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or (202) 527-5434.
MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS
November 15, the Sun Valley Airport (A20), south of Laughlin/Bullhead, is hosting a Fly-In with Lunch, Spot Landing and Flour Bomb Drop Contests. Sign-Up for the competition starts at 9:00 a.m (AZ time), and the contests start at 10:00. There is a $10.00 entry fee which includes the Lunch that will be served from 11:00-1:00. Pilots will be treated to a 15₵ per gallon fuel discount on 100LL. There will be prizes awarded for the winners of the precision flying contests, as well as a few other fun contests. For more information, or to pre-register for the event, call Jim at (760) 315-5096.
Casa Grande Municipal Airport has been requested by Phoenix Area Skydiving, the sky dive operator, to establish a parachute drop zone on the airport adjacent to the taxiway to runway 5L. The proposed drop zone would be a few yards south of the taxiway at the approach end of runway 5L. The City of Casa Grande, APA and many other users are all in opposition to this proposal because the proposed drop zone would be in the instrument missed approach path for runway 5 and would present an unacceptable safety risk for all users.
Many airports around the state are still having numerous construction projects underway this fall, so be sure to check NOTAMS before your departure for possible destination airport operational restrictions. An example is Phoenix Gateway Airport which is expected to still have some of it’s construction projects continuing on into the fall.
The Field (FFZ) RWY 4R - 22L overlay project is completed and during November they will have the North runway (4L - 22R) closed for a time for crack sealing. The self service fueling is available and starting this month, the west ramp and covered tie down area will be undergoing major rehabilitation. So use caution and check the latest NOTAMS for FFZ for the next month.
We still get last minute notices that GPS Interference testing is occurring. Unfortunately, we continue to receive these notices only a few days before the testing is to take place, thus making it impossible to provide you with timely notification. Tests at any one of these locations are impacting significant portions of Arizona. Because of all this testing that is taking place, I continue to find it difficult to believe that some of you haven’t encountered anomalies at some point in receiving a suitable GPS navigation signal. Please, if you do encounter inflight problems with getting a useable GPS navigation signal, it is important that you contact ATC, providing the date, time, location and altitude the problem is noted and please, also advise APA.
We all need to be concerned about aviation safety and this last reporting period, while it had improved from last month, it still was not as good as it could be. From the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) records, there were four accidents that occurred in Arizona during this past reporting period. Fortunately none of them resulted in fatalities. Only one reported accident this month contained accident details. In this case, the two occupants of the aircraft were uninjured. Three of the reported accidents were devoid of any accident details. In the past, these accidents devoid of a detailed report usually are not fatal accidents. They may however involve minor or serious injuries. This months aircraft accident information is contained in my November 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 latest one in process is Deer Valley Airport (DVT). Sedona (SEZ) has just been completed and we are waiting for a review of the final draft.
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 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.