Director's Meeting

Just a reminder about Director's Meeting tonight at 19:30 @ RAA club house.

Hanover - No Fuel

There is no fuel at Hanover Airport CPN4 as of Sunday November 22. Call ahead if you require fuel there in the next few days.

New License Format Deadline- December 31st PUSHED BACk til JUNE 30th 2010

Some good news for pilots who are way too busy flying and don't have any time for paperwork.

http://www.aviation.ca/content/view/8221/117/

FAA and AMD Action on Zodiac Prompts Questions — EAA Provides Answers and Guidance

November 13, 2009 — In less than a week, the AMD Zodiac aircraft and all it variants have come under intense scrutiny. A fatal crash spurred a safety alert from the FAA. In concert, Zodiac manufacturer AMD issued a safety alert for its S-LSA versions as well as plans for a fix. Days later, the FAA prohibited issuance of new airworthiness certificates for any Zodiac model including S-LSA, E-LSA, and amateur-built pending compliance with the AMD Safety Alert. The flurry of directives raises many questions as to which aircraft, whether they are completed or not, must be repaired.

EAA has prepared the following Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document to help guide owners and builders as to their future options. Joe Norris, EAA’s homebuilders community manager, has also written a letter to all Tech Counselors informing them of the evolving situation.
Zenith 601 FAQ
Letter to EAA Technical Counselors

http://www.eaa.org/news/2009/2009-11-13_questions.asp

Lightning Strike in Texas

EAAer designs, builds his own two-thirds scale P-38

November 19, 2009 — When a new homebuilt appears on the scene, it usually creates a buzz in the aviation community. And then along comes someone like Jim O’Hara, 81, EAA 464767, of San Angelo, Texas. Over the past 15 years, O’Hara, who was a professor in aeronautical engineering at Tulane University, has been hard at work in his hangar at San Angelo Regional Airport/Mathis Field designing, building, and now, flying a two-thirds scale replica of one of history’s most popular airplanes, the Lockheed P-38 Lightning.

He first flew the shiny, all-metal airplane last July and in October, after completing the required flight test hours, made his first cross country flight from San Angelo to an EAA event in Fredericksburg.
After retiring from Tulane in 1994, O’Hara gathered all the information about the P-38 and set about building a scaled-down replica. He created his own blueprints with a computer aided design (CAD) program. He fashioned all the parts of the airframe and, since the original P-38 only had one seat, O’Hara designed a small jump seat behind the pilot’s seat so his wife, Mitzi, could ride along.
According to a story in the San Angelo Standard-Times, his engine selection was described as particularly tricky. “He tried pre-war inverted inline engines, but parts were scarce. He settled on horizontally opposed engines (220 hp Continental 360s) from a scrapped Seneca that landed with its wheels up.”
O’Hara, who learned to fly at age 62, was tight-lipped about the project when contacted at his home in San Angelo. Admittedly a bit of a recluse, the former college professor might be on the receiving end of some considerable attention now that word is out on his unique aircraft project. He has agreed to provide EAA with more information on the project in due time. Until then, visit Oshkosh365 for several more views of the spectacular scale replica Lightning.
http://www.eaa.org/news/2009/2009-11-19_p38.asp

Air Display Weekend – CFB Trenton – Part 2

Here is part two of CFB Trenton Air Show:

http://www.barnstormers.com/eFLYER/2009/092-eFLYER-FA01-adw2.html

Directors Meeting

Directors meeting has been moved to Wednsday Nov 25 at 7:30pm in the club house.

Unprecedented Action

FAA grounds Zodiac 601XL and 605 S-LSA until compliance with AMD Safety Alert

November 12, 2009 — For the first time in history, the FAA has suspended issuance of any new airworthiness certificates for an entire fleet of special light-sport aircraft (S-LSA)  - the Zodiac CH601XL and CH650 - and the FAA will not issue airworthiness certificates to experimental light-sport aircraft (E-LSA) and amateur built versions of CH601XL and CH605 aircraft until modified an a manner consistent with the manufacturer’s safety alert is performed.

A fatal crash by a Zodiac last week was the most recent in a string of accidents since 2005 involving Zodiac models. The agency’s investigation uncovered areas of concern related to wing structure, airspeed calibration, and stick-force characteristics, among other items.
This unprecedented action, issued by the FAA on Thursday, November 12, follows a Safety Alert issued by Aircraft Manufacturers and Design (AMD), which came after FAA’s Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin (SAIB) was issued on November 7. Thursday’s memorandum prevents issuance of any new S-LSA airworthiness certificates until they are in compliance with the AMD safety alert, and effectively grounds those S-LSA already certificated. For certificated E-LSA and amateur-built CH601XL and CH605 aircraft, the FAA strongly recommends current owners to comply with actions contained in AMD’s Safety Alert.
Upon receipt of the FAA’s SAIB November 7, EAA promptly recommended that owners of these aircraft not operate them until wing maintenance is completed to comply with the FAA’s SAIB. EAA also issued a letter to its Technical Councilors  updating them on the developments and will have more to say about this situation after completing a full review of the information.
AMD,’s Safety Alert provides details about an Upgrade Package that will be made available to all builders and owners of kit versions of the aircraft, including detailed, step-by-step installation instructions. 
The Safety Alert includes upgrades outlined on Drawings 6-ZU-1, 6-ZU-2, and 6-ZU-3. AMD also drafted a document titled Questions and Answers with Chris Heintz to help builders and owners understand these upgrades, which were recently structurally tested and independently verified (Document 369).  “We are committed to working with all builders and owners so that they may resume building and operating their aircraft as soon as possible by incorporating the updates at minimal cost and inconvenience,” the company stated.


http://www.eaa.org/news/2009/2009-11-12_safety_alert.asp

airline comedy

Air Display Weekend – CFB Trenton – Part 1

Here is a nice article and photos about the CFB Trenton Air Show:

http://www.barnstormers.com/eFLYER/2009/091-eFLYER-FA01-adw1.html

Sunday flying

Sunday November 8 was a fabulous flying day here in south-central Ontario. RAA Toronto members were busy flying their airplanes as temperatures reached +15C clear sunny day. My dad and I headed up to Collingwood with chapter members Per and Tony. The two of them decided to stay in Collingwood and we headed off to Hanover and Wingham.
Per at CollingwoodYak in HanoverA rare BD-4TD at Hanover

RAA Toronto is on Facebook

Hi everyone.

I've started a Facebook fan page for our chapter as well:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/RAA-Toronto/179478617856

Yahoo News Group

Hello

We also have a Yahoo News Group for the chapter. If you would like to have a discussion or post other information, I encourage you to use it as well.
Once I get this blog going I'm also going to start a FaceBook Fan Page for the chapter, please stay tuned.
Here is the link to the Yahoo News Group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RAAToronto/

The Biggest Little Airshow in Canada

Nice article about our neighboring airport. Brantford airport is within 25 minutes flight from our RAA home base of Brampton Airport.

http://www.barnstormers.com/eFLYER/2009/090-eFLYER-FA01-BigAirshow.html

Chapter meeting

Regular monthly chapter meeting will be held tonight at 8pm in hangar 41. Guest speaker will be Mr. Terry Sleightholm who will speak on flight training for the RFC (Royal Flying Corps) in Ontario.

Flying together

Hello

Here is a videos from this past winter as we flew out together to Hanover for lunch. My dad and I are in one Zenair CH-300, we fly out with Per and Alain in their CH-200 & CH-300.


Just a small sample of what goes on here in our Toronto RAA chapter.

Peter