Chapter Chat-N-Comments

EAA Chapter 60 Beloit/Janesville | home

At the request of members present at the September 11th 2002 meeting this Chapter Chat-N-Comments p[age has been created. This is an open forum for members to post comments, ideas, suggestions, complaints or anything they may wish to share with the membership. To use this info section e-mail your messages to the chapter web-master at owensp@charter.net and they will be added to the list. It was felt the Chapter needed an Open Forum for information between meetings.

AIRSPEED - Speed of an airplane. Deduct 25% when listening to a retired military pilot

BANK - The folks who hold the lien on most pilots' Corvettes.

CARBURETOR ICING - A phenomenon reported to the FAA by pilots immediately after they run out of gas.

CONE OF CONFUSION - An area about the size of New Jersey located near the final approach beacon at an airport.

CRAB - A VFR Instructor's attitude on an IFR day.

DEAD RECKONING - You reckon correctly, or you are.

DESTINATION - Geographical location 30 minutes beyond the pilot's bladder saturation point.

ENGINE FAILURE - A condition that occurs when all fuel tanks mysteriously become filled with low-octane air.

FIREWALL - Section of the aircraft specifically designed to funnel heat and smoke into the cockpit.

FLIGHT FOLLOWING - Formation flying

GLIDE DISTANCE - Half the distance from an airplane to the nearest emergency landing field.

HYDROPLANE - An airplane designed to land long on a short & wet runway

IFR - A method of flying by needle and horoscope.

LEAN MIXTURE - Nonalcoholic beer.

MINI MAG LITE - Device designed to support the AA battery industry.

NANOSECOND - Time delay between the Low Fuel Warning light and fuel not reaching the carburetor.

PARACHUTE - The two 'chutes in a Stearman.

PARASITIC DRAG - A pilot who bums a ride and complains about the service.

RANGE - Usually about 3 miles short of the destination.

RICH MIXTURE - What you order at another pilot's promotion party.

ROGER - Used when you're not sure what else to say.

SECTIONAL CHART - Any chart that ends 25 nm short of your destination.

SERVICE CEILING - Altitude at which cabin crew can serve drinks.

SPOILERS - FAA Inspectors.

STALL - Technique used to explain to the bank why your car payment is late.

STEEP BANK - Banks that charge pilots more than 10% interest.

TURN & BANK INDICATOR - An instrument largely ignored by pilots.

USEFUL LOAD - Volumetric capacity of the aircraft, disregarding weight.

VOR - Radio navigation aid, named after the VORtex effect on pilots trying to home in on it.

WAC CHART - Directions to the Army female barracks.

YANKEE - Any pilot who has to ask New Orleans tower to "Say again".

Dan D.

Greetings, Fellow Pilots and Freedom-Loving People everywhere!

We know there is a need for security in our post-9-11 America, but the newly formed Department of Homeland Security (you know, the one headed by Secretary Tom Ridge?) and its Transportation Security Agency has already gone too far!! They have implemented a "Rule" without the normal pre-implementation comment period, that allows our government officials to revoke, yank, take away the license of any pilot, instructor, mechanic, etc. who "may have ties to terrorists." The scary part here is that due process of law (as in the right to face your accuser and be presented with the evidence against you so as to prepare a defense) has been totally eliminated! You heard right - you would have no redress under the law. I'll speak for myself when I say that I don't trust our government to never make a mistake. Do you?? I'm all for beefing up our security against the bad guys, but when you take a broad brush approach to that security and discount the fact that individual freedoms will be taken away without the ability to prove you are innocent, THEY'VE CROSSED THE LINE! Are you with me so far? If so, you still have a short period of time, even thought this is ALREADY IN EFFECT, to submit comments to the Feds. Please take a few minutes to do so TODAY. It only takes a few minutes and simple instructions are included below. If the only thing they change in the Rule is that there is some avenue for redress for anyone whose license is revoked, it will be an improvement and will make it palatable for those of us who cherish Freedom. To leave it alone and not voice your opinion is to "grease the slippery slope" toward tyranny. Send this to all the pilots on your e-mail list and anyone else who loves freedom and knows how to preserve it. With over 600,000 licensed pilots in the U.S., only 300 or so have posted comments. We need to get the word out! Thanks for your help.

1. Go to: http://dms.dot.gov and clicked on the "comment/submissions" tab. You can also do a NPRM search from this page.

2. Click on "continue" on the next page.

3. Enter the docket number. You only need to enter 14293 (the digits after the dash). This will take you to the "comment" page. It is probably best to enter in your personal data but it does not seem to be required.

4. Enter your comment in the box and click on "submit." That's all.

If you want to see others' comments, use the "back" arrow to return to the main page (http://dms.dot.gov ), scroll down to the open dockets list. Find the FAA # 2003-14293 and click on the number. It will take you to the received comments page. The first comment is the TSA new rule.

Hi, Guys--

This Membership Book is a requirement of the EAA and I've attached one that is a work-in-progress. Can you think of other things we could put in it to give to each member? One thing I was thinking of was a Chapter History, perhaps put together by some of the long-time members. If we put it on the computer, it would be a simple thing to update it each year and send to the EAA along with our other required documents. Another thing might be a photo of each member's plane or project, etc. We could have it printed and spiral bound for not a whole lot of money at Kinko's, for instance. 50 copies per year would cover all the members plus have extras for all those NEW MEMBERS we're going to get. ;-)

Let me know what you think. Thanks.

Ken