Politics as Usual...

Ok, so if you're not aware that the Republican National Convention is taking place in St. Paul, you've been sleeping under a rock. Apparently protesters are going to shut down the freeway, the cops are going to be on strike, and the bars will be open until 4 AM. My guess is that this is to compensate for the fact that you'll spend so much extra time GETTING TO the bars in the urban chaos.

Seriously, though, there are some aeronautical considerations as well. A TFR has been announced that will affect all operations into and out of Airlake. Fortunately, we're not close enough to be shut down completely. Unfortunately, the only way into or out of LVN is via a VFR or IFR flight plan, with a discrete squawk code and ATC contact. Also, the TFR will only be active for certain periods throughout the day.

I intend to continue flight training operations during the 'hot' periods. All of our instructors will be IFR current and capable of filing IFR. If there is an interest, we could operate two student flights at a time out of FBL, with one lesson filing out of the TFR and the second filing back in. In fact, this may be a great opportunity to sit in the back seat and learn by watching another student!

If you have any questions regarding this TFR please give me a call. I'll do my best to answer them so that we all make it through the Convention without an F-16 escort.

Barry

New Solo!

After diligent work with instructor Jake Leine, Peggy Thornton successfully soloed this afternoon. Undeterred by the morning's thunderstorms, Peggy rescheduled with Jake and convinced him of her landing abilities. Congratulations!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

New Web Page

The last month has been busy for the flight school. After several months of all training and no checkrides, we have graduated several new pilots! Some are now officially post-solo, others are exercising their new private privelages, and a couple can try their hand at our sparse (and bumpy) summertime IMC.

As a result of all these milestones, I've put together a "Students" page, accessable from flyairlake.com. Check it out, and give these guys (and girl!) a high five if you see them out at the airport!

Emergency Airworthiness Directives

Every so often, a mechanical discrepancy is brought to the attention of the FAA that requires immediate grounding of certain aircraft. The way this is accomplished is via an Emergency AD. A couple months ago 380SP was the target of one of these groundings. Apparently the fuel injector servo regulator plug (try finding THAT under the cowl...) was manufactured with a faulty washer. The danger here was that the plug could vibrate loose, resulting in fuel starvation and engine failure, followed by insufficient aircraft-Earth separation.

It's easy to grumble about the inconvenience this caused. We had to cancel or move students, and the repairs cost a few hundred dollars. Since the AD was recurring every 50 hours, it also threw my oil change synchronization out of whack, but nobody but me really cares about that...

Yesterday the latest issue of AOPA Pilot Magazine came. I rarely read it cover-to-cover, but the Never Again segment is usually an interesting read. Often it contains several teaching points to file into memory for my future students to benefit from. This month's Never Again profiled a brand-new Piper 6X (basically a Cherokee 6) that lost it's engine and executed a forced landing. I'll give you one guess why the engine failed...

Never Again Link