COPA visit

Saturday January 26^th

The first meeting of 2008 was a visit by COPA director Harold Fry.

Harold started the meeting off by discussing the latest on the 406 ELT controversy. Transport Canada has mandated that all aircraft equip with 406 ELTs by February 2009. COPA had been working on an alternative to the costly 406 ELT. They were advocating for a much less expensive SPOT Satellite Messenger Tracking device.

COPA presented the argument to Transport Canada that statistically, ELTs fail to automatically activate 50% of the time. 406 ELTs use the same inertia switch as 121.5 MHz ELTs and will suffer from a similar failure rate. This being the case, COPA put forward SPOT as a cost effective alternative. SPOT is a handheld device that transmits, via satellite, your position every ten minutes and in the event of an emergency, every five minutes. The only drawback is that you must manually select emergency mode.

Harold Fry informed the club that Transport Canada had rejected that plan; just days before our meeting, and would be going forward with regulations mandating 406 ELTs. On the positive side, Harold reported that the cost of a 406 ELT may be coming down. While typically running between $4,000 - $5,000, Harold suggested that it may be possible to equip with a 406 ELT for as little as $2,200.

» Read COPA's summary on the impact of this proposed rule change.

Platinum Triangle Poker Run

August, 2008

COPA director Harold Fry also gave a brief history of the Platinum Triangle Poker Run at the January meeting. His presentation garnered considerable interest from those in attendance to the point that the club has offered its support in this year's staging of the poker run.

The poker run will be held over five days in August. This will all but ensure that weather does not wash the event out. It also means that pretty much everyone can partake. By spreading it over five days those interested can fly to the participating aerodromes on any of the five days. With only one plane, this format works particularly well for our club.

Further details will be announced closer to the event. We will also be posting a call for volunteers on the club's website in the coming months.

Club Meeting

February 21^st

The next club meeting is Thursday February 21^st, 7 p.m. at Edenvale.

Randy Vanness, Air Canada B-777 & A-340 long haul driver, will be reprising the first of three AOPA safety seminars. Randy last presented these seminars in 2006.

Each seminar involves re-creations based on real ATC recordings of accidents. The video taped re-creation sets the scenario, over dubbed with the actual ATC recordings, as we follow along. At key points through the re-creation, Randy stops the tape to discuss the decision making process. As a group, we analyze the situation as we know it so far and determine the course of action that we would take. Re-starting the video, we watch how things actually unfold.

This is a commanding presentation and, with Randy's help, is a powerful learning tool.

Tanis Heater

Gone Cellular

Do not forget that we have installed a cellular phone activated switch on the Tanis heater.

As CMQ is no longer kept in an heated hangar there is the need to preheat the airplane whenever the OAT is less that 5°C. Normally this would require a drive to the hangar to turn it on and then wait the 30 min - 3 hours, depending on the temperature, before flying.

Thanks to club member Owen Sneath, all that you have to do is call a cell phone to turn the Tanis heater on. Owen has devised and built a cell phone activated switch that, when called, automatically turns the Tanis heater on.

» Be sure to read the operating instructions before heading to the aerodrome.

Aviation Safety Letter

Just because you have not received a copy of Transport Canada's Aviation Safety Letter in you mailbox recently does not mean that they have stopped publishing it.

ASL is available online in both HTML and PDF formats. If you are not receiving an email from Transport Canada quarterly you need to sign-up.

» Read ASL 1/2008