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Published: 16 May 2022

  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

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Published: 15 May 2022

  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

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Published: 16 April 2022

  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

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Published: 15 April 2022

    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

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Published: 16 March 2022

  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

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Published: 15 March 2022

    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

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Published: 16 February 2022

  Greetings, By the time you read this, we should be fully-prepped for the Copperstate Fly-In and the Buckeye Air Fair. Taking place February 18-20, we’ve secured the booth at the front of the hangar again, and we look forward to chatting with members throughout the weekend. We learn about your airplanes, your destinations, your concerns, and just talk aviation

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Published: 15 February 2022

    Well, the winter weather is on us, and the northern part of the country is hunkering down trying to keep warm and trying to survive. I got a note from a friend near Oshkosh, and they were commenting that with the wind chill that night the temperature was expected to be -34°F. That’s enough of a reason to be living here in Arizona. So far, we’ve had a

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Published: 16 January 2022

  Greetings, Happy New Year! After massive caloric intake between Thanksgiving and New Year, I’m going to have to update my weight and balance before I fly again. I’m thankful for lower density altitude and better performance with the cooler winter temps. That’s a happy coincidence for sure! For APA, rounding out 2021 meant a banner year for our scholarship program

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Published: 15 January 2022

    I hope everyone enjoyed a Merry Christmas and survived the New Year’s parties. We can now put 2021 in our rear-view mirror and look forward to a promising new year. The year 2021 with its virus pandemic issues was a bit trying on all of us, and I certainly hope we can move on to more fun things in the year to come. The flying weather has been a trifle changing