“Be careful what you wish for” - who would have thought the rain we had at the beginning of this month would be so intense that our local tower was struck by lightening and we would have to cancel our meeting because the power was sporadic at the Spirit! As of last night at the Santa Maria FAAST Meeting our tower is still not functioning at 100%. John commented that the runway lights are either 40% or 80% when controlled by the tower, but the pilot controls work just fine. He also mentioned that the tower still closes at 8:00 p.m. local, but as soon as they are fully staffed will be open until 10:00 p.m. local. He warned us all that since the new hours are already published there won't be a NOTAM, the hours will change and we won't necessarily be told – so be careful if you are flying in or out of KSBP at night!
For instrument pilots who would like to practice approaches Santa Maria is available. They have developed a procedure for“opposite direction” traffic. VFR pilots may be asked to make a 360 degree turn in the downwind and be patient! We were also reminded to put our transponders on standby while we are on the ground to avoid conflict alerts in the Tower.
Vandenberg Tower is also available for practice approaches and would love to help you with them. They are open 8 – 5 Monday through Friday and they“appreciate the traffic”[call ahead to check, the ed.]. There is a published approach on the FAA website and also on AirNav.com.
Vandenberg AFB’s instrument approaches are available to you. Just don’t touch down on the 15'000 foot runway and make sure to call the tower on the phone ahead of time to check their opening hours.
To check the NOTAMs call on their frequency. It was also mentioned that if you want to fly through area R-2516 call SBA Approach to see if it is hot, mostly it is not! There will be a few more rocket launches in the next few months and after that the area will basically be shut down to military traffic for six months, check first, but you should be able to fly through it. Please be careful if you are flying into Lompoc, Vandenberg departures climb up to 4,000' over Lompoc, but are over the airfield at about 2500'.
Most of the Safety Meeting focused on UAS's, UAV's or Drones – all three terms were used! A UAS is supposed to be registered with the FAA if it weighs 0.55 lbs up to 55 lbs(heavier than that and they are considered commercial with a completely different set of rules). Basically the same rules that apply to RC Aircraft apply to the UAS's(Advisory Circular 91-57A). They are not supposed to fly over 400' and the pilots are supposed to contact the airport operator and the airport tower to“notify” them of the flight if they are within five miles of an airport(including helipads)[use the B4UFLY app to determine if you’re affected, the ed.]. The notification is just that. The airport operator and the tower have no authority to deny the flight or to collect personal information so although notification is required actually monitoring who is flying a UAS is next to impossible. No UAS flights are permitted in TFR's but no one is quite sure how to prevent them. The cars that were burned in Cajon Pass this summer when a fire jumped the freeway burned because the air tanker operation had to be shut down due to the large number of UAS's over the fire. The bottom line with all these UAS's is that we need to get used to them! Uhg!![see more on http://knowbeforeyoufly.org/, the ed.]
Probably the best part of this FAAST Meeting was seeing Cheryl and Mitch Cooney! They are down here drying out and warming up from the past few months in Oregon! Glad they are back!
Meanwhile, with all this rain, this VFR pilot will stay involved by attending Safety Meetings, watching webinars and reading aviation magazines – that way I won't feel totally grounded!
What’s New & Quick Survey
In response to last year’s survey about our reader’s reading habits, we’ve changed up the newsletter format this month. We’ve transitioned to a more modern, web-based newsletter format based on the brand new Dropbox Paper, instead of relying on PDF attachments. It should be easier to read on modern screens such as PCs, laptops, tablets, and smartphones. Please let us know if you like the old PDF-based version or this new web-based version better by taking this one-question survey: http://doodle.com/poll/689bnnipmm957be2
(survey closes January 13)
Dates and Schedules
Comments, corrections, and suggestions are welcome. Fly-outs: dates are flexible and we will confirm plans and set times at the chapter meeting before the scheduled fly-out. Seats will be available for non-pilots, students, and pilots without wings. We want every seat to be filled, so let us know if you want to come along.
With the power outages last month, there unfortunately was no meeting at the Spirit, so there are no minutes to report on today. In the minute’s place I’d like to pass on a little nugget that I was alerted to by Vince Rubatzky, Newsletter editor of the local EAA chapter.
Like me, he always keeps an eye open for interesting articles for his Newsletter. While doing this, he stumbled upon an article about Evelyn"Bobbi" Trout ( 1906-2003). She began her flying career at the age of 16. In one of her flight lessons, she got the instruction to do a three quarter turn at low elevation. The biplane span out of control and crashed completely. But this didn’t deter her from flying and she later earned her certificate and went on to an amazing aviation career. She achieved several records. She met Amelia Earhart on the first Woman’s Transcontinental Air Derby which led to the birth of the Ninety-Nines: International Organization of Women Pilots. Check her out on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobbi_Trout
Tips from the Tower
By Ellen Banakis
A few reminders when Runway 11 is the active runway:
As is the case with Runway 29, the threshold markings at Runway 11 do not mark the full length of the runway for departing aircraft. Runway 11 at both Taxiways Mike and Bravo are considered intersection departures. The full length of Runway 11 is the end of Taxiway Alpha(an additional 800 feet). If you are given instructions for an intersection departure from the ground controller, make sure you advise the tower controller that you are at an intersection(e.g.“San Luis Tower, Cessna N12345 ready for departure, Runway 11 at Mike”).
Since Runway 11 at Mike and Runway 11 at Bravo are considered intersection departures, if a large aircraft departs Runway 11 full length, small aircraft departing from Mike and Bravo are required to hold for three minutes due to wake turbulence.(A pilot can initiate a waiver for the wake turbulence, the controller cannot.)
SBP controllers are discouraging pilots from using the non-visual run-up area for Runway 11. Even though there is a sign advising pilots to call the tower prior to leaving the non-visual area, a large number of pilots are taxiing out onto Alpha or across Alpha onto Bravo without authorization. Also, some pilots are confused thinking that Runway 11 at Bravo is the full length. Exiting the non-visual run-up area onto a taxiway without authorization is a pilot deviation. If you are instructed to taxi to the end of Alpha for run-up but want to go into the non-visual run-up, make your request to the ground controller.
We at SBP Tower are trying to get back to“educate, not violate”.
(c) 2016 - Monthly Newsletter of the San Luis Obispo Section of the 99s - http://www.slo99s.org
For back issues of these Slipstream newsletters, please follow this link.
Chairman’s Message
What’s New & Quick Survey
Dates and Schedules
Bobby Trout - No Minutes of the General Meeting
Tips from the Tower