By Jim Timm
December 2014
The cooler winter temperatures have been providing some great flying weather and improved airplane performance, and I hope it will improve pilot performance, also. Watch out for icing when flying in the northern parts of the state. Here is wishing all of you a happy holiday season and safe flying.
Unfortunately, it appears that the FAA plans to revise the 3rd class medical is getting bogged down in the process and it’s becoming rather questionable when, if ever, it will make it’s way thru the system and become available for comment in the form of an NPRM. It’s becoming rather evident that if a change is going to happen, it will have to be by way of the legislative route. It appears that the AOPA and EAA are getting prepared to make a push to go the legislative route to get something to happen. The current legislative session is coming to an end; however, there is considerable optimism that the same General Aviation Pilot Protection Act bills will be reintroduced again next year with considerable support in both the House and Senate. Be prepared for the start of next year. We need to be prepared to get letters off to all of our legislators in both the Senate and the House to get their support for the upcoming Third Class Medical legislative bills that will be presented. Everyone’s support will be needed!
MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS
NOTE, we have been advised that the Luke RAPCON will be closed during the long holiday weekends. (Thursday thru Sunday)
Many airports around the state are still having numerous construction projects underway this winter, 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 its construction projects continuing on into the winter. In the Phoenix area, you can be assured that as we get closer to Super Bowl and Pro Bowl time, all projects will be cleaned up and everyone will be ready for the anticipated rush of jet traffic bringing people in for the games. Remember, there will be a 10/30 nm TFR in place for both games. I would suggest planning on not flying the weekend and the following Monday morning after the two games. The ramps and airspace around Phoenix could get pretty congested.
The decision has been made that the Airport Surveillance Radar (ASR) antenna at IWA will be relocated to a site at Rittenhouse, a former emergency airfield for Williams Air Force Base. Presently, the ASR antenna is located where IWA wants to construct their new commercial air carrier facilities. The IWA ASR feeds it’s signal into the PHX TRACON for air traffic control, and the new location at Rittenhouse should permit the TRACON to have radar coverage to the south and provide service to Tucson. This would mean PHX would then be able to provide radar service from Flagstaff to Tucson.
At Falcon Field (FFZ), the west ramp and covered tie down area will be undergoing major rehabilitation as will taxiway Bravo going into the south hangar area, so use caution and check the latest NOTAMS for FFZ for the next month.
We are still getting last minute notices that GPS Interference testing is continuing. Unfortunately, we still receive these notices only 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 us at APA.
We all need to be a bit more concerned about aviation safety, because in this last reporting period things really got ugly, there were ten (10) reported accidents. The only good news was that none of them involved fatalities.
From the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) records, of the ten accidents that occurred in Arizona during this past reporting period, only four reports contained detailed accident information. Two accidents had one serious injury each, one accident had 2 minor injuries, and one accident had one uninjured person. Unfortunately, six reported accidents were devoid of detailed information; fortunately, however, these accidents usually only have minor or no injuries. Please be careful! This month’s detailed aircraft accident information is contained in my December 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 and we just received the final report for the Bagdad Airport.
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.