DIRECTORS
Pres	Mark Hervan
VP	Dave Ferrara
Sec	Alan Klug
Treas	Joe Leonard
Admn	Doug Weston
Mem	Mark Goodman
Oper	John Blosser
Trng	John Vahey
At Lrg	Michael Geiger

GACE FLYING CLUB, INC.

2099 Smithtown Avenue Ronkonkoma, NY 11779

(631) 737-6879

www.egace.com

NEWSLETTER

Vol. 5 September 2002 No.9

MEETINGS

The Board of Directors meetings are on the second Monday of the month at 7:15PM. All members are welcome, however, please check with the president first in order to get on the agenda. General Membership meetings are the fourth Monday of the month at 7:00PM.

THE LEFT SEAT

by Mark Hervan

I will not be returning as the President next year. After serving for 5 years its time for someone else to pick up the ball and carry on.

The present Board has accomplished so much over the last few years. We moved in to the next century by adding GPS to two of our aircraft. We painted two aircraft and replaced the interiors in two others.

Our billing system and scheduling system have also been updated. Plane washes are now attended by more than just a few members, which helps to keep our fleet looking it’s best.

Now it’s time for someone else to take over and continue towards our goal to have the best flying club on Long Island.

If you would like to run for office, contact a member of the Board and let us know.

SECRETARY’S CORNER

by Al Klug

I received a letter from member Rod Tibbets about his recent trip to Alaska. So, for a change of pace this month, you get a break from my usual rambling to hear about Rod’s flight.

I flew a Cessna 210 to Alaska and back. 11,500 nm and 88 flying hours. We left ISP July 3^rd and with beautiful weather flying up the Alaska highway, were in Fairbanks 3 days later. Our flight plan was BUF-OSH-BIS-GTF. We crossed the border at Lethbridge, Alberta and cleared customs at Calgary. We stayed over night at Ft. St. John, White Horse and entered Alaska at Northway.

FAI has a campground with all the amenities for private planes. The FAA built a lounge with showers in the FSS station for traveling pilots. The airport is quite unique with 3 runways. One is 9000’ paved for the big jets. Right next to that is a water r/w @3,190’ for float planes. (I counted over 50 floatplanes moored around that r/w.) In front of that runway is a ski strip which is grass. People land on it with ski’s even in summer, as do the super cubs with the big tundra tires. ( Tundra tires wear faster when landing on pavement)

There are many interesting things to do in the Fairbanks area. (Este Gold Camp, the Pipeline, Univ. of Alaska Museum, etc.)

From Fairbanks, we went south to Talkeetna, where the Mt. McKinley climbing parties all start. The bush pilots fly them up to the Kahittna Glacier which takes you to the base of McKinley. (20,320’ msl) We took the same route and flew to the base of the mt. (11,500’) and became quite anxious about turning around.There are mountains on both sides of the glacier and it was a little tight. After that, we flew around the mountain at a respectable distance. The mt. Is only clear of clouds about 30 days a year so we were very lucky.

On to Anchorage which has Elmendorf AFB, Merrill Field,(which we opted for) 2 spb’s and Anchorage Int’l. all within 1 or 2 miles of each other. MRI proved to be a rough place to get in and out of.

Anchorage was our base for exploring the southern part of Alaska. We returned by coming down the pan handle to Yakutat, Sitka and Billingham, WA. There was tough weather along this route and I don’t recommend you take it.

Best thing on board this flight was 2 GPS’s and the auto-pilot. LORAN does not work well in Alaska. This was the best trip ever in a light plane.

Rod, it seems as though there was only one thing missing on your trip. ME

THE RIGHT SEAT

by John Vahey, CFI-AI

Maintaining Situational Awareness

Generally, situational awareness can be summed up as “knowing what’s going on around you.” Let’s break it down a little further, and use the example of tracking the localizer on an approach as an example.

1. Perception - acquiring the available facts. You look at the CDI needle, and it’s deflected left and moving left.

2. Comprehension - understanding information perceived. The left needle deflection means that you are right of course. The needle’s movement tells the pilot that the course deviation is increasing.

3. Projection - envisioning how the situation is likely to develop in the future. The needle deflection and motion, if allowed to continue, will result in a full deflection and a possible missed approach.

4. Prediction - evaluating how outside forces may act upon the situation to affect our projections. We know that in general, due to the combined effects of coriolis effect and surface friction on air movement in the atmosphere, that at some point on the ILS, usually around 1500 feet AGL, the wind direction will shift to the left. (We do know that, don’t we?) So we can predict that our movement right of course should decrease as we descend on the ILS.

How can situational awareness fail? Let’s break it down the same way:

1. Perception failure. We may just completely leave the localizer needle out of our scan, and fail to note that we’re moving right of course. That’s it, we’re done.

2. Comprehension failure. We may perceive the deflected needle, and even perceive its continued motion to the left. Like a hog looking at a wristwatch, we see it, but we don’t understand it. Again, we’re done.

3. Projection failure. The pilot sees the deflected needle and perceives its motion, but fails to project what it will mean in the next instant. “Yup, I’m right of course, but not too far, I’ll just hold my heading...” And sooner rather than later it’s full deflection and time to execute the missed approach - a bad phase of flight to enter without good situational awareness.

4. Prediction failure. Maybe we don’t know to expect a leftward shift in wind while approaching the surface on an ILS. However, we perceive the information, comprehend it, project it into the future and decide to make a correction to the left. By failing to predict the changing winds, our carefully considered corrective input becomes an overcorrection when the wind changes, and the needle is whipping across the face of the indicator and heading for the right peg. Failure to predict, and we continue our serpentine course down the localizer course.

Here’s an excerpt from a great book by Lt. Col. Tony Kern, USAF, on maximizing situational awareness:

No one maintains perfect situational awareness (SA) at all times, yet a consistently high state of SA is another mark of a superior aviator. Situational awareness is directly correlated to an aviator’s attention, or lack thereof. Each of us have only a certain amount of attention to spread around all of our flight tasks... A disciplined, proficient, and knowledgeable pilot does not have to give much conscious thought to the procedures and skills required to fly an instrument approach; his or her preparation makes it almost second nature. If a sudden distraction occurs, like a runway change or some unexpected weather, this pilot is usually capable of recognizing and reacting to the change in a safe manner. In contrast, a pilot who is less prepared, and is struggling just to fly the approach, is far less likely to handle the distraction and simultaneously complete a safe approach. The point is that each has an attention saturation point, beyond which we lose SA. Airmanship is preparing ourselves through discipline, skill, and knowledge to have the maximum attention left over to handle the unexpected distraction. But since any of us can become overloaded, we must also be able to recognize the symptoms of lost SA, and we must have the critical actions for recovery “hardwired” to prevent disaster.

Critical Action List for Lost Situational Awareness:

1. Get away from danger.

2. Stabilize conditions.

3. Give your mind a chance to get caught up.

4. Once on the ground, analyze the situation that led to the loss of SA, so that it doesn’t happen again.

Get in the habit of debriefing all of your flights, even informally. Think about what went right, what went wrong, and why. The perfect flight is a rare thing. I have yet to experience one in 1500 hours. But I keep trying...

Stay safe, John.

PLANE WASH

The next, and final, plane wash is scheduled for October 6 from 12 to 2PM. We’re looking forward to a big turnout for the wash and barbeque. Thanks tothe Vahey’s, the Terano’s, the Hervan’s, Rich Raine, John Koch, Joe Donza, Dave Ferrera, Michelle Megara, Jeff McArthur, Sonny B, Ed Hamilton, and Chas Raymand for attending August’s plane wash.

GACE INSTRUCTORS
Michael Baldari	(718) 428-6925
John Brook	368-1901H
Rich Clinton	368-9693H
Bernie Davidson	931-7699H
Dave Ferrara	874-8492H
Frank Hayes	767-0391H
Bob Klemfus	744-0764H
Roy Matthews	968-0154H
Bill Rudock	874-6155H
Rob Terano	467-4159H
John Vahey	563-8948H
Bob Van Sise	799-8684H
James Weisberg	689-1636H