Slipstream March 2016

Chairman’s Message

By Anele Brooks

CalStar came to our February Meeting, let us take a look at their helicopter and then explained their program to us. They are a non-profit company that takes patients from hospital to hospital and is also called through the 911 system to respond to car and plane crashes. They offered us a group rate of $35 per year per family – we need 15 members to sign up within the next year to get the group rate. You may do this:

  • at the website www.calstar.org. Click "Group" and enter San Luis 99’s as the group name and choose the $35 rate – Anele Brooks is the coordinator. Direct link: https://goo.gl/cQiIcP
  • by phone, 1-888-207-5433 (with a Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express)
  • or by filling out the enrollment form and faxing, mailing or emailing it in
 
I will be honest, I am a paranoid baseball mom, so I believe that if I have this “insurance” I will never need it! I also went ahead and signed up all my children and their families – I guess that makes me a real “helicopter” mom. We are very lucky to have a program like this in our area – and I was surprised at how busy they were, in fact they had to leave our meeting early to respond to an emergency!
CalStar Eurocopter helicopter during our tour
 
John Lindsey is forecasting a very wet March for us and we certainly need the rain. One of the very nice things about aviation is the amount of education and information that is available either free or for a small fee. While it is raining outside it is a great opportunity for us to get some “ground school” refresher time in. AOPA has lots of webinars and classes available to members at AOPA.org. I have been receiving Vectors for Safety from Gene Benson for years and it is always enjoyable you can read his newsletter at http://www.genebenson.com/newsletter/ and if you subscribe he will send his monthly newsletter to your in-box. http://www.pilotworkshop.com/tips/ is another site you can subscribe to and receive interesting tips for things you won't think about until you are up in the air and don't have access to your computer or an instructor!
http://asrs.arc.nasa.gov/publications/callback.html this link will take you to the CallBack Newsletter a publication printed by NASA. Ever wonder what NASA does with the ASRS reports that pilots file? They print them and ask you what you would do! Some of them are very interesting and it is always nice to learn from someone else's mistake! www.pilotsafety.org offers both free webinars and paid programs and will send you a monthly e-mail if you join! There is plenty of aviation information available to us on-line – and if you don't like computers – there is always hangar flying! 

Minutes of General Meeting

By Grace Crittenden

The meeting [February 3, 2016] started with a cold and windy tour of the new CalStar Eurocopter air ambulance. CalStar was established as a non-profit community service 30 years ago and has been based at Santa Maria for the past 8 years. Each flight is staffed with pilot and two nurses with years of ICU and ER experience. They can function as a “mobile ICU” and are able to do ventilation, infusions of medications, blood transfusion and intubations while in transit. 50% of the flights are scheduled transfers to tertiary hospitals and 50% are responses to 911 calls to an accident scene and trauma transfer to hospital. CalStar provides services from Ventura County to northern California and partners with other programs in Oregon, Washington and Idaho and some of Montana and Wyoming. They provide fixed wing and helicopter transfers. The main office is McClellan Park in Sacramento.
By unanimous vote, the chapter appointed Cheryl Cooney to be our delegate to the spring Southwest Section meeting at Flabob April 22-24. Elizabeth Dinan was chosen as the alternate. Then it was proposed that Grace Crittenden should go too and Liz Ruth was invited too with her.
Next month John, the new manager of the SBP Tower, will be our guest at the chapter meeting.
We discussed possibly doing a Fly-out to Vandenberg on a Wednesday and we will look into what arrangements would need to be made and when it can be scheduled.
Discussion turned to activities that would qualify for the Aerospace education award. Safety meetings, Airport Day and cookies to the Tower all seem to count.
Wanda Strassburg’s memorial bench is currently resting at the Pacific Aerocademy office. It needs refinishing and maybe another location. Originally it was at the base of the Tower but now that is not an accessible location. We will look into refinishing the bench and talk to Carol Huber about another location.
June, a prospective new SLO 99s member taking her intro flight last month (via Janice Odell and Kathy Dannecker)

Slipstream’s New Web-Based Format to Stay

By Charly Schaad

In last month’s survey, we asked you if you’d like this newsletter to stick with it’s new web-based format or go back to the previous PDF-attachment based format. 100% of the three respondents said they prefer the new format. So from now on this will be the new delivery format. We will still also store the newsletters in a simplified PDF format behind the scenes, to have a more durable record of this club’s history for posterity.

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.
March 2
Chapter Meeting at the Spirit of San Luis
at 6 pm, social gathering, 5:30
Guest: John, the new manager of the SBP tower
March & April
The Ventura County 99s are organizing a veritable barrage of very interesting classes in the near future. Most (or all) of them can be used to get FAA WINGS credits. Check out their website at www.vc99sclasses.com and click on Class Schedule” for more details and to sign up. Note that there are also season passes.
  • MAR-02 "Navigating Through & Around LAX & SAN Class Bravo Airspace” with Michael Phillips ($35)
  • MAR-05 "Mastering ForeFlight from Preflight to Postflight” with Brian Schiff ($70)
  • MAR-09 "Instrument Flying Tips and Techniques" with Gary Schank ($35)
  • MAR-16 "Pilgrimage to AirVenture: Oshkosh or Bust” with Tom Koff ($35)
  • MAR-19 "Equipping Yourself to Survive – Survival Equipment and Fundamental Survival Skills" with Doug Ritter ($35)