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United States Pilots Association |
USPA President Steve Uslan has a new office phone number, and email address:
Work: 800 893-5707
Email: airone@troychesnut.com
Jan Hoynacki, Executive Director
United States Pilots Association
If you plan to fly in the Houston, TX, area, you’ll soon be sharing the airspace with a fleet of 12 unmanned planes slated for deployment at Ellington Field. Within the Houston Class B, seven miles from Hobby Airport, and 24 miles from Bush Intercontinental, the UAVs will be used to patrol the Texas coast and watch for illegal immigrants crossing the Mexican border.
If you have any experience with them, please let USPA know.
Jan Hoynacki, Executive Director
United States Pilots Association
Effective 9/1/05 new navigation equipment suffixes will be required by the FAA when filing flight plans. Old suffixes will likely be rejected.
For the new list, see http://www.faa.gov/NTAP/NTAP05AUG4/gen05003.htm.
Jan Hoynacki, Executive Director
United States Pilots Association
Reading AVweb today I note a story out of Pittsbugh, PA, where aircraft owners say they are being forced out of their hangars by a tripling of rents. Get this folks. The rents for small plane hangars is being raised from about $550 per month to almost $1,600 per month. County officials blame this on the FAA, which supposedly requires airports to charge fees at market value for the services rendered. The woman from the airport authority stated that some rents may not have been raised in fifty years.
First, I'd like to know who in their right mind would pay $550 per month to hangar an airplane, much less $1,600? These must be some fancy hangars. Second, have you noticed the word FEE pop up here? The article quotes a Mooney owner.
I hate to be repetitive, but I insist they (the FAA) are going to get at us financially, one way or the other. Now the FAA is telling airport owners (who have undoubtedly taken federal money for improvements over the years) they must charge more for these services. It is not bad enough we are faced with $4.00/gallon plus fuel costs. Now the FAA is going to tell us indirectly what we should be paying for hangar rent and other services.
If you think this is going to end by itself with a softening of attitude by Ms. Blakey and company, come see me. I pay $125 per month to hangar a 206, and I think $2,000 a month is a fair figure to charge you for this space. In fact, I will rent all the $125 tee hangars I can find and sublet them to you, my friends, for only $1,000 per month. In a couple of years I will open my own refinery on my property, refine only 100LL avgas, and sell it to you, my dear friends, for $2.00/gallon more than it cost me to make it. Just think, it all started because the FAA wants fair prices.
Steve Uslan, President
United States Pilots Association
DeKevin Thornton, a member of the Associated Pilots of Iowa recently shared his feelings on USPA President Steve Uslan’s article, “Well, Here We Go on
the FAA Rollercoaster,” which discussed the closing of the Boise, ID, airport tower between midnight and 5:00 a.m.
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Among his comments: “I’ll take the closing of towers during times of little or no traffic before I’ll accept user fees. The system is heavily and
unfairly weighted toward commercial air carriers. Therefore, if user fees are needed, and ultimately I think there are enough folks in Washington
pushing them, they should be assessed only to commercial carriers. The rational for this is government should be there for the general populous
and not to subsidize business.”
He further went on to say, “I feel with the budget issues the way they are and the increased focus on Homeland security, we need all of our pilot
organizations to focus on ensuring that new legislation won’t impede our access to airspace. To me, the two most important things that impact our
freedoms are the over zealous creation of TFRs and AZIDs, and the threat of users fees. With fuel prices rising at the rate they are, we don’t need
additional fees that will drive us to reduce our use of ATC.”
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And here is a portion of Steve’s response to DeKevin: “Unfortunately it is the airlines who are lobbying the loudest for user fees to be assessed
against general aviation. I believe user fees will ultimately come. My opinion is, they should come in the form of higher ticket fees assessed to
the airlines and no change in the current fuel taxes we all pay. If the airlines cannot make a profit at present fares, they should raise the fares
to compensate. (Some already put a fuel surcharge onto a price of a ticket.)”
“What I personally find obnoxious is the constant grousing by Marion Blakey that she needs more money, while at the same time she is outsourcing
services and discontinuing others.”
“The whole Homeland Security issue is a joke. We are letting over 50,000 people a month cross into the U.S. undocumented, and when we catch some of
them, they are given a desk appearance ticket to never be seen and heard from again. Here in Odessa, TX, one of the local hospitals receives a
stipend from the federal government each year in the tens of millions of dollars. Why? To pay for the treatment given to indigent, undocumented
folks who are using the system but not paying for it. You and I are the ones ultimately paying. At the same time we have to put sky marshalls on bizjets
going into the Washington DC ADIZ. Cessnas and Pipers like you and I fly still cannot land at Reagan Airport.”
“Let us know what folks in your area think about these issues. I try to call things as I see them. Your input is appreciated.”
Steve later said he would like to add: “Last year a CareStar emergency medical Bell 407 transport helicopter was dispatched south of the Midland-Odessa area to pick up a mother and newly delivered infant. Weather was numerous thunderstorms over the area of flight. The aircraft crashed when the pilot lost sight of the ground, and the pilot, the two patients, and one other were killed. One paramedic/nurse survived. The point here is the patients were Mexican nationals using our medical transport system to their full advantage. We, the American taxpayers were paying for the EMS flight and all of the medical treatment. There is something radically wrong with a system being abused like this, and we the taxpayers are being made to pay for it. Oh yes, the baby was born in the USA. That makes the child an American citizen.”
“USPA has consistently fought against outsourcing, user fees, tower closings, and the wanton spread of cell and transmission towers close to airports. We successfully derailed a nationwide scheme to pull instrument approaches at over 600 airports. Yes. I have the actual documents.”
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Got comments? How do you feel? Let USPA hear from you.
Jan Hoynacki, Executive Director
United States Pilots Association
The end of summer is in sight, the USPA Flyout/Meeting at Roswell is close upon us, and it is time to pencil in another important date on your fall calendar—November 5—for the USPA Flyout/Meeting in Tampa, FL, in conjunction with the AOPA Expo.
If you haven’t been to an AOPA Expo before, now is the time to see what a fantastic program they put together. But if you choose to not participate in the Expo, you can still attend the USPA meeting at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, November 5, with no Expo or USPA registration fee. The meeting location will be posted at the Expo entrance in the convention center, and you need not register to attend that meeting.
There is a lot to see and do in Florida, and flying isn’t going to get any cheaper! I hope to see you there.
Jan Hoynacki, Executive Director
United States Pilots Association
With cell phones in every car and pocket, there seems to be no end to the erection of towers. And it further seems hopeless that responding to the FAA’s Public Notice of Aeronautical Study will make any difference to this hazardous proliferation.
Nevertheless, USPA’s past efforts, in conjunction with local pilots and pilot groups, have indeed stopped two proposed towers in the southwest Missouri area. And now again comes another proposal. This time for the heightening of an existing tower to 2,049’ MSL—well over 1,000’ above the pattern altitude of the nearby Rockaway Beach Sea Plane Base, and within a few miles of the M. Graham Clark Airport and the soon-to-be-constructed Branson West Airport.
So once again USPA goes on record opposing this unnecessary hazard to navigation in this very busy tourist region, which attracts pilots and visitors from throughout the country.
The comment period ends September 3. If you would like more information, please contact USPA Executive Director, Jan Hoynacki.
Jan Hoynacki, Executive Director
United States Pilots Association
The USPA summer flyout to Roswell, NM, is just around the corner—September 22-25. And the hotel cutoff date for the special USPA rate is August 22. So now is the time to call in your reservations, if you haven’t already done so.
More information on the flyout and a registration form follow:
United States Pilots Association
SUMMER FLY-OUT, ROSWELL, NM – SEPTEMBER 22 – 25, 2005
Roswell is a town of over 45,000 on the east side of the 12,000 ft. Sierra Blanco in the Sacramento Mountains and the Lincoln National Forest. Roswell is best known for the alleged crash of an alien space ship on a ranch outside of town in 1947 and the supposed cover-up by the Air Force. The first venture into space rocketry began in Roswell by Dr. Robert Goddard from 1930-1941 as he developed rocket science which led to our travel into space. Visit the International UFO Museum and Research Center, General Douglas McBride Museum on the campus of the NM Military Institute (high school and two years college,) Roswell Museum and Art Center, and Spring River Park and Zoo.
Those who might have even the slightest interest in western history may want to arrive a couple of days early or stay over, rent a car and travel back in time by visiting the historic town of Lincoln about 65 miles west of Roswell in the foothills of the Sacramento Mountains. Lincoln County is where the bloodiest of western wars took place from the mid 1870s to the early 1880s. Two of the best known participants were Sheriff Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. It all began in Lincoln and ended in Ft. Sumner in 1881 shortly after Billy the Kid shot two deputies when escaping from the Lincoln Jail. The entire town is mostly just like it was in 1881 and you can even see the bullet holes in the back stairway where the Kid shot the first deputy. Nearby is Ft. Stanton, a US Army Post created in 1855 to support the war against the NM Indians named for a Cpt. Stanton, who was killed near the town of Mayhill near USPA VP Bob Worthington’s small cattle ranch. A little further away is the resort town of Ruidoso (elevation of 6,720 ft.) with the largest purse quarter horse racing anywhere (it’s free), casinos, the Museum of the Horse, and a town full of shops, art galleries and restaurants. Just north of Ruidoso is the town of Capitan with its Smokey Bear Museum. This is where Smokey was rescued from a forest fire in the Lincoln National Forest as a small cub in 1950. He was treated for his burns and flown in a GA airplane to Washington, DC to live until he died in 1976 in the National Zoo. He is buried in a small park at the Museum. South of Ruidoso is the resort town of Cloudcroft (elevation of 8,650 ft.) with several art galleries, shops, restaurants and an excellent pioneer museum. It has a very scenic lodge, built in 1899, which has the highest golf course in the US and views stretching a hundred miles away. About 95 miles south of Roswell is the world famous Carlsbad Caverns. So, there are plenty of adventures awaiting every one attending the USPA meeting in Roswell.
Mountain Flying Clinic: The New Mexico Pilots Assn. and Silver Eagle Aviation sponsored mountain flying clinic is not designed to prepare a pilot for landing or departing high altitude short, dirt, mountain strips, but to acquaint pilots with mountain flying and landing at high altitude paved airports. The CFIs can tailor the instruction to the level of experience of the pilot and his or her airplane. The clinic will begin with a three hour ground school at the Best Western Sally Port Inn on Friday evening, September 23 from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. This ground school is free and open to the public. It will be taught by an FAA Aviation Safety Counselor experienced in mountain flying. The course will cover flying through and into mountains, mountain winds and waves, density altitude and its effect on aircraft and how to calculate safe landing and take-off distances depending on temperatures and elevation of the airport.
On Saturday and Sunday, the flying portion will take place. The flying will be three hours with an experienced mountain flying CFI. The beginning airport, Roswell, is at an elevation of 3,671 feet with 10,000 and 13,000 foot runways. The flying will be in the Sacramento Mountains (with the highest peak at 11,973 feet) to public airports which have paved runways at 6,814 feet, 5,371 feet, and 4,200 feet elevations. Completion of this clinic will qualify for a phase of the FAA WINGS program, a BFR, and should help reduce your insurance premiums. The cost for the flying portion is $150 in your airplane. The cutoff date to enroll in the flying portion is Saturday, August 27, 2005. (See registration form.)
Hotel: Best Western Sally Port Inn & Suites, 2000 N. Main Street, Roswell, NM 88201-6450, is located just steps from the prestigious New Mexico Military Institute. It has a complimentary full breakfast, oversized guest rooms and suites, a restaurant and lounge, Jacuzzi hot tub, indoor pool, fitness center and airport courtesy shuttle from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. The rate is $70 plus tax. Call 1-800-528-1234, 505-622-6430 or fax 505-623-7631. Tell them that you are with USPA and that you want the USPA meeting rate. The cut-off date is August 22, 2005. There will be a hospitality suite in the hotel.
Airport and FBO: Roswell International Air Center, elevation 3,671 ft. (ROW) is the selected airport of arrival. The host FBO is Great Southwest Aviation, Inc. A full service FBO, it is open from 5:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. on weekdays and 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on weekends. They will offer a discount on fuel and free parking. They also offer rental cars. Call 1-800-824-0531 or 505-347-2054 for a reservation.
Transportation: An airport courtesy shuttle provided by the hotel is available from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Call 505-622-6430 for airport pickup.
Schedule of Activities
Thursday, September 22 – Hospitality and registration are available at the hotel in the afternoon and evening. All day and evening are open for you to relax and enjoy Roswell.
Friday, September 23 – 8:30 a.m. to noon. General members meeting in the hotel. Lunch is on your own with the afternoon free. 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. FAA WINGS Safety Seminar (Mountain Flying Clinic) in the hotel (open to the public.) 9:00 p.m. to??? hospitality suite will be open.
Saturday, September 24 – 8:30 a.m. to noon. USPA Board meeting in the hotel. All members are welcome. Lunch is on your own. Afternoon is open for sightseeing and shopping in the local area. For other tours that are available, contact Bob Worthington at (505) 522-6785. 7:30 p.m. to 9:45 p.m. Banquet in the hotel – program will be an audio visual presentation on the recent USPA sponsored trip to Alaska. 9:45 p.m. to??? hospitality suite will be open.
Sunday, September 25 – Depart at your leisure or stay over a few more days and do some of the things you didn't have time for in our short weekend.
USPA Registration Form
Name(s)___________________________________________________________________________________________
Address___________________________________________________________________________________________
City_____________________________________________________________ State ______Zip___________________
Phone_____________________ Fax______________________ E-mail________________________________________
Number Amount
Basic Registration: $90.00 (Wings seminar, hospitality suite,
meetings and Saturday banquet.) ______ @ $ 90.00 $_______
Send registration form with check or form below to: United States Pilots Association, 483 S. Kirkwood Rd., Suite 10, St. Louis, MO 63122. If paying by credit card, the registration form may be faxed to: (314) 843-5155
Charge it! M/C______ or VISA______
Card No._________________________________ Exp.______
Signature___________________________________________
For additional information, please call Bob Worthington at (505) 522-6785, email at rworthin@zianet.com or USPA at (314) 849-USPA.
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New Mexico Pilots Association Registration Form For Mountain Flying Clinic
Name(s)___________________________________________________________________________________________
Address___________________________________________________________________________________________
City_____________________________________________________________ State ______Zip___________________
Phone_____________________ Fax______________________ E-mail________________________________________
Number Amount
Registration: $150.00 (Wings seminar and instruction in your airplane only) ______ @ $150.00 $______
Send registration form with check payable to NMPA. Mail to Bob Worthington, 1136 Cave Springs Trail, Las Cruces, NM 88011.
For additional information, please call Bob Worthington at (505) 522-6785, email at rworthin@zianet.com or USPA at (314) 849-USPA.
Jan Hoynacki, Executive Director
United States Pilots Association
In 1999 USPA hosted its first guided tour of members flying their own planes to Alaska where USPA held its annual meeting in Anchorage in June. Several members went on this trip. Beginning on 17 July, 2005, USPA hosted its second "fly your own plane to Alaska" guided tour.
Five planes took this trip. Tour guide Bob Worthington and his wife Anita from NM flew in their Cessna 182 RG. Steve Hamilton from SD and co-pilot Dick Wilson from TX flew in Steve's Cessna 172. Alan and Mary Travis from AZ flew in their Diamond Star DA 40. Carl Poplawsky and Ed Murgia from AZ flew in Carl's Piper Arrow. Art and Candy Stewart from MO flew in their "V" tail Bonanza. The Worthingtons, the Stewarts, and Steve also made the 1999 trip.
There was a general pilot briefing during the Pueblo, CO, USPA annual meeting. Four of the five pilots attended. Each evening during the trip Worthington would hold a briefing to go over the route to be flown the next day, cover weather, and examine potential weather problem areas and to point out places where a wrong turn could be easily made.
We met in Edmonton on 17 July and left the next day. Flew in low clouds and rain to Grande Prairie for fuel and then to Ft. Nelson where we spent the night. On to Watson Lake in better weather, and then to Whitehorse for two nights where we got a car and went sightseeing. Then to Anchorage for two days and on to Homer. We enjoyed Homer with side trips to Halibut Cove and Seldovia or halibut fishing. Three days later to Fairbanks (with excellent photos of Mt. McKinley enroute) and more sightseeing. From Fairbanks the group took the train ride down to Denali, enjoyed a local dinner theatre, and the next day took the six-hour school bus trip into the middle of Denali where we saw every bit of big wild life except for the wolf. Then the train back to Fairbanks where the group gave Anita and Bob signed Alaska T-shirts and treated them to dinner.
Due to bad weather we couldn't depart Fairbanks on the planned route to Whitehorse but learned that by flying NE out of Fairbanks we could intercept the Yukon River and fly it to Dawson City in Yukon Territory, which we did. Nice low level flying up the Yukon River for a couple hundred miles. Dawson City was the scene of the gold rush in the Klondike in 1897-98. The city is amazing, just like it was during the gold rush. At this point the group of five planes began to separate for their own flights home.
Two planes left Dawson the next day (1 August) while three of us stayed another day for sightseeing. These two planes followed the highway to Whitehorse and Watson Lake and then the highway via Dease Lake to Prince George. Here they separated to fly home.
The weather at Dawson City the next day (2 August) was bad, and the route over the road to Whitehorse was not even marginal VFR due to ceilings down to the ground. So we watched a four-engine Connie lumber off the gravel runway to follow the river upstream flying VFR at 1000' AGL. We waited a while and off we went to Whitehorse up the Yukon River for another couple hundred miles. At Whitehorse we refueled and went to Watson Lake and spent the night. It was IFR to Ft Nelson (requiring flying above 7000' with freezing below 6000') so we went down the trench. One plane went down toward Dease Lake on the west trench following the highway, while the other two followed the lakes and rivers to Prince George, ate and gassed up, and continued down the trench to Cranbrook (about 40 miles north of the US border). They stayed in a five star resort, but didn't have enough time to fully appreciate it (requiring another trip back, of course). The next day down to Kalispell, MT, to clear customs, and here they split to head home.
We met at least two "fly your own plane to AK" guided trips at $1,300 per plane just for the guiding. Compare that to USPA's $25 per plane!!!!! All in all the flying was the most spectacular USPA has ever done in AK and NW Canada--especially flying up the Yukon, seeing Dawson City, and flying down the trench. The group enjoyed every minute, and everyone got along fine. No flight problems, and everyone arrived safely at every destination pretty much on time. All planes arrived back home on either 3 or 4 August, making it a 20-21 day trip. The wildlife count included black and grizzly bear (with cubs), moose, reindeer and caribou, bald eagles, all species of sea birds, Dahl sheep, whales, sea otters, and seals. This truely was the flying adventure of a lifetime.
Bob Worthington, SW Region Vice President
Several days ago a quote appeared on one of the Internet aviation websites. The reporter quoted the Director of the FAA, Marion Blakey, as saying that user fees were inevitable. Did any of you see this reported on AOPA or EAA's websites or publications? This constant dog and pony show orchestrated by Ms. Blakey and others is starting to really annoy me.
First we were told that General Aviation would have to pay its fair share because the FAA was not receiving adequate funding from the government. Along comes Congress and gives the agency a 12% increase in annual support. Ms. Blakey says, still not enough. They have outsourced the Flight Service Stations to Lockheed-Martin--supposedly at a big savings in cost. The outsourcing was upheld by the federal courts, which threw out lawsuits contesting the award. Still not enough.
Ms. Blakey has very successfully filled the role of the commensurate politician. She has become AOPA President Phil Boyer's very best buddy, and I am sure she will appear at AOPA’s Expo in Tampa this year. One suspects that Mr. Boyer might slowly become aware that Ms. Blakey has her own agenda. I strongly recommend everyone who has the opportunity, go to and attend the AOPA extravaganza, and interrogate Ms. Blakey on her comments regarding user fees. Perhaps if she is lambasted in person, she may tone down the rhetoric. I believe that if she is able to install user fees, then the current mini-boom in general aviation will evaporate instantly. What with $5.00 per gallon avgas, higher insurance and maintenance costs, and now Ms. Blakey and her user fees, why, it just will not be any fun anymore. We will truly become a sport for rich folks, just like thoroughbred racehorses and 200 ft. yachts.
On another more somber note, I have seen a dramatic increase in fatal accidents during the month of July. The NTSB web site showed 43 deaths in July, excluding those outside the United States and aerial applicators (2). Here are two examples. A Rotary Club group of pilots was flying an organized tour from the midwest through New England and beyond. A Cessna 182 shooting an IFR approach into Groton, CT, missed on the first attempt. The second attempt ended up in Long Island Sound, killing all four aboard the aircraft. Last weekend I landed in Junction, TX, for fuel. This airport located in the Texas hill country had a Rockwell 112 depart several days earlier with two folks on board. The aircraft never climbed beyond 300' AGL, and ultimately flew down a ravine, cart wheeling upon impact with the ground, killing both on board. This was a 200hp airplane climbing out of an airport surrounded by high hills.
People, you just cannot be too careful. If your bird is not running at its best on the ground, what would possess you to launch until it was looked at by a mechanic? Please remember the definition of density altitude. During the warm weather months my home airport of Odessa, TX, routinely sees DA readings of 5,800 feet or above. Please check your weight and balance, especially if you are near gross weight. Last year we had a plethora of overloaded aircraft unable to get out of ground effect, smashing into homes, golf courses, etc.
If you get the chance, come to the USPA flyout in Roswell, NM, in September. We are running a mountain flying class with real instructors. You will be flying into high altitude airports on hot days. Why not send a reservation in to USPA and learn about mountain flying. You also will achieve an FAA Wings Program award and receive a BFR as well. We also have a lot of fun and fellowship.
Steve Uslan, President
United States Pilots Association