It was John who was first passionate about flying, Martha went along to keep from being left behind. Isn’t it hard to imagine Martha King being left behind in anything? Her first airplane ride years before had been in the back seat of a rattley, drafty old Piper Pacer and she was not impressed. During flight training for her Private, Martha came back from her first cross country in the pitch dark, following a road for navigation. She had not had any night training. She landed perfectly and got out of the plane to an anxious John standing with her terrified instructor, and she declared, “That was beautiful!” After that night she was absolutely hooked.

To meet John and Martha King is a great experience. Almost everyone who found out about the interview wanted to relay a heartfelt message of gratitude. The first thing you notice is that they are naturally funny and joyful and easy to be around. We met over tacos and iced tea at Montgomery Field and discussed everything from life and love to their newest Risk Management Program for the Cessna Pilot Centers.

They have a great admiration and respect for flight students at any level. John said, “Students are a spectacular group of people, they put themselves out there to be evaluated, tested and to show before their peers whether or not they are gaining the knowledge and learning the skills. We feel a huge sense of responsibility to do a great job in helping them learn the material”. They believe that almost every student pilot goes through a period where they say ‘I don’t know if I can do this’. The Kings feel a sense of obligation to make the material fun, to connect with their students and to help them reach their goals. Martha says she gets “pleasure from being able to go anywhere and meet people who feel we’ve affected their lives for the better”.

Martha blushed when I said I love the way she looks at John when he’s speaking and then in turn the way he looks at her while

she talks. John said “I love living with Martha. People have said that the best thing I’ve ever done was marry well. She makes it so easy to live with her. She handles everything with such grace. She’s competent and fun, and she makes it easy to go through life with her.” He said they do everything together, it was an agreement they made early on and they hold to it. She said they each “have a respect for each other’s competence, neither of us needs to be the star of the show”.

John explains that they are often approached by men who say their wives won’t fly with them, even in cases where the woman is a pilot herself. But with a little questioning, John consistently learns that they are not able to equally divide the responsibilities. He said for a couple to work under a slave and master system naturally isn’t very much fun for the slave. John and Martha have been flying their Citation for the past ten years and now a Falcon 10 for constant business travel and both require a two-person crew. They share each trip by one serving as pilot on the way out and the other as pilot on the trip home with all standard call outs and responses limited to “thank you” or “correcting”. It seems that in addition to the instruction they offer in aviation and business they could offer a course in personal relationships.

A recent study reported that some women pilots are better at risk management while some male pilots are better at physically maneuvering the aircraft. John said “clearly it’s not that simple, Patty Wagstaff is better at controlling an airplane, in some years, she’s

Martha King was named an Aviation Hero by the First Flight Centennial Commission at Kitty Hawk alongside such iconic figures as Neil Armstrong, the Wright Brothers and Amelia Earhart. She is the first woman in history to hold every category and class of rating offered by the FAA, as well as every flight and ground instructor certificate available. John has also earned all these, and we love him, too.

John and Martha King take off in their Robertson R22 on a Sunday afternoon for a little sightseeing cruise along the San Diego coastline. They teach pilots to love flight so well because they love aviation passionately, it’s not just a job.

… the general aviation community has been very proactive in developing and implementing a large number of workable and effective security measures. What general aviation needs are measures that do not represent a needless sacrifice in liberty without a benefit to society. The freedom of movement of private citizens has always been one of our great American ideals. We are confident that we can insure security without sacrificing that ideal. -Martha King, testifying before Congress in July, 2009 In case you’ve been under a rock for the past 35 years, and

that rock was not located on an airport, John and Martha own King Schools, they have sold over eight million hours of instructional DVD’s, Online Courses and the like which have educated more than half of all the pilots in the United States.

They offer a ground-breaking Risk Management Course, which ties into their latest expanded project on Risk Management for Cessna Pilot Centers.

There’s an amazing set of courses to help you pass your written tests for A & P licenses and their core business is courses to prepare you for every written and practical test known to flight, with a proven 99.8% FAA exam pass rate by their customers.

They offer a double guarantee and you know they wouldn’t be selling 50,000 courses a year if it wasn’t a great product.

They have even personally taught over 15,000 students face to face in their early years, so it is a pretty sure bet they know what they’re doing.

proven to the best in the world”. In further defense of women he explained that “Martha is able to form a three dimensional image in her mind of the airspace, the field, their craft in that space and to stay three steps ahead of the flight plan and the airplane throughout the trip”. He told of an FAA examiner stepping out of the airplane as Martha completed her ATP checkride and telling John “That’s one cool customer”. Martha believes that keeping your emotions under control is a critical skill in flying. John said that “professionals make

Aviators Extraordinaire

Lani Rocket

the same number of mistakes they are just better at catching them”.

We talked about Judy Scholl’s habit of analyzing each flight after landing and Martha said, “we talk about our mistakes and sometimes we’re disappointed with ourselves but that’s a part of being human. It is the difficulty of flying that makes it fun. If it were easy it wouldn’t be such a huge accomplishment and you couldn’t get so excited about having done it”. Martha said, “Sometimes you just need to say that was not a situation that played into my skill set, and move on, you will never be perfect”.

One of the main reasons they feel that pilots sometimes chose to ignore certain risks is that they are by nature goal oriented people who persevere to complete huge tasks. They had to have these traits to become pilots in the first place. These attitudes can be dangerous though where some trips need to be cancelled for weather or equipment issues and pilots need to pull themselves from the flight and admit that they are not completely healthy or current or well prepared, not an easy thing to expect from a driven person.

We asked if they had ever had an accident themselves and they said yes, back in the seventies they were flying a 210 and had an electrical failure in bad weather, IFR conditions and had to make an emergency landing in a field at night. They weren’t hurt and only broke the nose wheel, but looking back now they can see that if they had used the Risk Management techniques they have developed they would have avoided that accident altogether.

As Martha and John lift off in their Robertson R22 to cruise the coastline we knew we were witness to an amazing couple. They clearly care deeply about the pilots they teach and the flying community they serve. They adore flying just for the fun of it and they fly constantly in their everyday lives. It was a joyful day, they are so much more than just their ground school lessons, they are a huge part of the heart and soul of flight. If you want to change your life, purchase a King Schools course and improve your flying skills, you won’t regret it, gauranteed.

Hangar One Cafe at Hemet (California) Airport, the parking lot is for airplanes. The people who drove there think you’re cool when you walk in.

John and Martha sit in the new Cessna Skycatcher.

Your sectional may be so out of date you can’t figure out where you landed, but you will always remember what you ate.

Ingredients and where to find them in the grocery store:

Bean dip, canned goods, near the chipsGuacamole, refrigerator section in a tubSalsa, in a jar in the international aisleGrated cheese, you can get it in a ziplock near the blocks of quesoSour Cream, just spoon it all over, make sure it goes out to the edgesSouthwestern Chicken Breast Strips, in bags near the lunchmeatSliced olives, short cans near the pickles, you’ll need four or five

And if you really want to make it fancy chop some green onions over the top

Just take a big plate or platter or a hubcap that’s been through a dishwasher on the hot cycle with extra soap and spread each layer out thickly, one at a time.

Bags of Chips for scooping, get the good ones, everyone’s happy and you never broke a sweat.

Norm’s Hangar Coffee Shop at Brackett (KPOC) in LaVerne California is not run by Norm, is not in a Hangar, it has great Coffee and there’s no need to Shop around, you’ve already found it.Cathy, the owner, is Norm’s daughter and the family has a life long legacy in the hospitality business. She’s been there loving every customer who comes through the doors since nineteen eighty something. And you aren’t there long before you realize they’re loving her right back. You also don’t need to be there long before you get your food. They had no idea we were writing about them and our food was there in under eleven minutes, impressive at lunchtime. It is basic coffee shop fare from Cheeseburgers and turkey sandwiches to Steak sandwiches and omelet’s. If you’d look for it in a diner in your dreams, she probably makes it. Everything on the menu is fresh and homemade and her suppliers are small local businesses that she supports to keep the mom and pop market strong. The atmosphere is homey with flowered wallpaper and the basic aviation accents. But who looks at the café when there’s a wall of windows facing the runway and airplanes taking off and landing, we were hypnotized by a 182 making touch and goes possibly being flown by a family of chimps.

James LaDue

By John and Martha

The service at Norm’s is superior by far to most places we stop. Quick, friendly, efficient and they add that little extra that somehow says ‘ask me for extra tomatoes and you’ll actually get them”. Overall, Norm’s is a real find.On Tuesday nights Cathy plays host to a Fiesta that makes Guadalajara look like Cleveland, well sort of. There’s a fabulous patio with seating overlooking the runway. Once the sun goes down and the lights start twinkling on the hillsides it is truly magical. Of course, remember, with all magical experiences a big part of it is what you bring with you, like Tinker Bell and her Pixie Dust, so come hungry, wearing a sombrero, with the mindset that this will be one of the greatest nights of your life. This Shindig runs from 5-9pm every Tuesday night with a menu ranging from simple ground beef tacos, seriously yummy to elegant Chicken Quesadillas and Coastal Shrimp Tacos. But the one item that makes the most pilots program KPOC into their GPS is the Carne Asada Taco. Carne Asada means little pieces of steak, and Cathy knows steak, it’s all over her menu.So stick your fuel tanks, kick the chocks out from under your wheels and head for Norms in the main lobby at Brackett,. Tell them Flight Lines sent you and get our undying affection.

Okay guys, head over to your local grocer and round up a few things to throw together to dazzle your friends and annoy your enemies with your culinary finery.

Cessna loaned the Production #1 C162 Skycatcher to King Schools in September so we could begin flying it to provide a model performance on video of the maneuversa learning pilot has to demonstrate. We love it. In fact we think it is a game-changer. It gives new hope for an exciting future for flight training. It is as wide as a Cessna 206. Nearly everyone who took lessons in a C150 or C152has stories about the difficulty of fitting two people in the airplane. In the Skycatcheryou have a feeling of luxurious spaciousness. It is easy to get in and out of the airplane. The struts connect to the fuselage aft of the cabin doors and the gull-wing doors move up and out of the way. Although the seats don’t adjust (we used cushions), the rudder pedals do adjust forward and backward, and the control stick comes from the panel, leaving the floor area clear. The visibility is fabulous. The view over the panel is great. The side windows come down lower than on most airplanes and, along with the aft strut placement, result in an unrestricted view of the ground passing below. In warm weather it is a delightto taxi the airplane with the doors up for an open air feeling.

It has plenty of power. It seems to just leap off the runway. The great performance isprobably the result of having so much power for its weight, plus an improved wing. The G300 avionics system is nearly as capable as the G1000 and is very intuitive andeasy to operate. And to cap it all off the control feel is wonderful--the controls are delightfully responsive without being overly sensitive. This airplane is flat out fun to fly.I have to tell you that initially we were skeptical about this whole light sport aircraft concept. Our reaction was, “What’s the big deal?” Well the big deal is that Light Sport Certification let Cessna build a far more capable and fun airplane thana Cessna 152 at a price far lower that what a Cessna 152 would cost if it were built today. Cessna really got it right, and that is great news for our entire industry.Warm Regards, John and MarthaFlight Lines reminds you that a Light Sport Aircraft (LSA) can be flown by a Sport Pilot.If you or someone you know is interested in being a Sport Pilot check out King Schoolswebsite for great opportunities to order courses in any field of aviation advancement.

Our Time in Cessna’s Skycatcher: Why the New C162 is a Big Deal

I love flying around in the blue skies of Southern California, but my most memorable and fun flights have been when I got out of the comfort zone. The feeling of not knowing what’s around the next bend, seeing places you’ve never seen before, and running into new flying experiences that test your ability as a pilot to think on your feet.

A week after I got my Private Pilot’s license, I flew to Santa Monica to meet a friend for lunch. After we ate I took off and decided to go fly over my brother’s house in Marina Del Ray. I did a few turns over his house then headed back East. When I called So Cal Approach, they notified me that I was in Class Bravo Airspace and informed me that I needed to write down this phone number and give them a call when I was on the ground. I was devastated! I spent all that money, time and effort on getting my

James LaDue

license and now I was going to be grounded for the rest of my life: this is what was going through my head as I cried myself back to home base. I found the darkest closet I could find, crawled in and dialed the number. To my surprise, I had a wonderful conversation

with one of the managers, who said it was okay and told me to just be careful from now on. So, even if you do make a mistake, the Feds will not come after you, well most of the time. So, get out there and go somewhere you have never been before and if you’re not sure about something – ask!

On a recent morning, under a light blue Saturday morning sky, with just a few of those white sheep Cumulus clouds loitering above and nothing on the agenda for the weekend, my buddy Matt calls me and says, “How about a hundred dollar hamburger?” We arrive at the airport and pre-flight his beautiful 2006 DA40 Diamond Star with Garmin 1000, leather interior and auto-pilot. Our thought was to fly up to Oceano airport, grab a sandwich, walk Pismo beach and fly home. So we hop in the plane with our girlfriends. We cruise at 4500 ft and follow the mountain range out to just North of Santa Monica so we can fly up the coast and sight-see a little over Los Angeles and the Hollywood area. The entire flight from Redlands to Oceano took just over two hours, and we were ready to stretch out our legs by the time we arrived.

Oceano is a very small airport, the runway is just over 2000 feet, so the landings are not for novices or any pilot not comfortable and current in shorter strip landings, know yourself and your equipment so you’re around to tell the story later.

There are quite a few beach house restaurants in Oceano, from Mexican taco stands to sandwich shops on the short walk to the beach. We choose a place called Elfre’s Deli, which had awesome sandwiches, especially the tuna.

Afterwards, realizing we were having such a good time, none of us felt like the adventure should be over, so we started talking over where we could fly next, since it was still pretty early in the day.

I love flying up the coast toward the Napa Valley, different colors, smells, and feelings. The terrain is a peaceful green and mellow unlike the dry rocky brown of Southern California. So we decided to head on up to Napa. The Napa leg of the trip is the subject of this month’s column Weekender to Remember so feel free to read on, the trip just got better and better as the weekend rolled on by.

James LaDue

Lake Tahoe from an direction is an awe-inspiring sight. From low altitudes it has the power to make even the most seasoned veteran aviator’s heart pound.

Well, to continue my story from this month’s Daytrippin’ column, where we had visited Oceano for lunch, and now travel on, my landing at our next stop in Napa is impeccable, of course. The airport has a decent lobby, a restaurant that never seems to be open and a bored controller on the radio. At the FBO we get a courtesy car, which happens to be an old Chevy Astro, not the BMW that I imagined myself driving around in, but a courtesy car is free and free is my kind of price range.

A friend of mine told me once that if I was ever in the Napa area that I had to go to a restaurant called “The Girl and the Fig” because they had the best fig salad on Earth. I really didn’t even know what a fig was at the time, I thought the salad would taste something like a Fig Newton and that sounded pretty good. After a few phone calls we were blasting off to Sonoma in our trusty Chevy. The Napa area is the France of the United States with rolling green hills and grape vineyards as far as you can see with meadows filled with horses and sheep grazing in the sunset, a cool breeze

caressing the trees. We arrive at “The Girl and the Fig” and it

turns out to be a white tablecloth, ties and dresses kind of a place. Me and my four year old Levi’s might stand out just a little, but we came this far and there’s no way I was going to miss out on getting my Fig Newton salad. We casually walk in like we own the place and get our name on the waiting list. The hostess informs us that it may be an hour and a half wait. The food was great and my jeans somehow seemed to go mostly unnoticed.

Next morning, we headed back to the FBO to continue our unexpected journey. Going over a VFR chart, we decide to go to South Lake Tahoe Airport for lunch. I’m not an emotional person at all, but it’s hard not to at least contemplate shedding a tear when you climb through 7000 feet and the vastness of Lake Tahoe hits you, it’s a feeling you can only get from flying over it, a sea on a mountain, such a dark empty deep blue that dwarfs your spirit and reminds you how small we are. Matt’s landing is okay, not as good as mine, so I decide to give him some

free ground school over lunch. The Airport is surrounded by thick green

forests, and looks like a big gash cut in to the woods in the middle of nowhere, a ghost town. Surprisingly Chase’s Bar and Grill is open and the overjoyed owner is eager to get us a good meal. We sit on the balcony over-looking the endless lake and forest, stuffing our faces with excellent cheeseburgers, fries and chocolate shakes, talking about the flight home. The density altitude at the time was about 8000 feet,

not too bad for our 180 horses worth of power, but it would be a lie if I said the hair on the back of my neck was not standing up just a little. We clear the runway and take a victory lap around the lake at 1000 feet AWL (above water level) before heading home. The last leg of our excursion is relatively eventless and we manage a cool 160 knot groundspeed most of the way, which was good because by then the girls were way past done with the adventure.

We couldn’t find anyone in Napa Chamber of Commerce or Tourism Office who wanted to promote commerce or tourism enough to send us a photograph so we called Tahoe and they were more than happy to oblige, so you might want to go there instead of Napa.

With an onsite campground and vacation rentals on the beach, Oceano is a rare fly in destination worth checking out.

Pilatus Portert PC-6 equipped and ready to bring aid and the word of God to Indonesia.

On its first operational flight in Indonesia, the plane’s wings threw shadows upon the chiseled mountains of eastern Papua. Its wheels picked up grass from a narrow valley in the village of Omban, bordered by rain forests and bustling streams.

Its cabin hosted bags of peanuts and fresh vegetables; bundles of kayu masohi graced the plane with the wood’s creamy, coconut-like fragrance. The plane’s seats supported four Ketengban passengers, who would sell the produce to pay for invaluable resources: children’s education, basic healthcare, salt, matches.

That day, the plane departed from a grassy airstrip in the Maoke Mountains—and laid to rest its previous life of recreational flying in New England.

The aircraft—a Pilatus PC-6 valued at $1

million—was donated to JAARS by Marshall Carter in November 2007. Carter is currently the deputy chairman of the board of NYSE Euronext, the holding company for the New York Stock Exchange.

“The Pilatus Porter is a wonderful aircraft and has brought a tremendous amount of joy to me and my family ... ,” said Carter, who owned the plane for nine years. “With its donation to JAARS for humanitarian pur-poses, the aircraft will now take on its most important mission ever.”

Today, the plane is operated by YAJASI, our aviation partner in Indonesia. The organi-zation provides many remote communities with their only link to the outside world—enabling access to health care, quality educa-tion and resources for community develop-ment.

To gear up for its life in the Pacific, the air-craft first underwent 10 months of rigorous preparations at the JAARS Center in Waxhaw, N.C.

…equipped with everything it would need for flights in Indonesia:

* Advanced navigation and communica-tion equipment, including a high-frequency radio and weather radar system

* Additional engine-monitoring device * Search-and-rescue equipment * Technology for remotely tracking the

aircraft’s position during flights * Rock guards to protect rear flight-con-

trol surfaces * Tail-wheel guard * Cargo tie-downs * Bench seatsThe aircraft was scoured from tip to toe,

and even the most minute issues were addressed. Then came the finishing touch: a

Liam savage

new paint job, matching the blue-and-white design of YAJASI’s other aircraft.

On January 10, 2009, the PC-6 arrived at a bustling dock in Jayapura, Indonesia. YAJASI personnel stood by as the 40-foot container swung off the side of a ship, silhouetted for a moment against the deep-blue, tropical sky.

Eleven days later, YAJASI dedicated the PC-6 for service—marking its transition from personal use to public service.

In its first weeks of operation, the aircraft carried new language workers to remote communities in Papua and brought together Indonesians for linguistic training. Pilots also used the PC-6 to deliver supplies, transport produce for community development and perform several medical evacuations.

In Carter’s words, “She came out of the fac-tory in May 1998, and almost 11 years later she’s finally doing the work she was designed for.”

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints or is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases their strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But those who wait on the Lord, shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, the shall walk and not faint. -Isaiah 4:28-31

Quad-runners and lots of other toys are available for rent along the beach.

Helicoptery Affordability

Yes, you can afford to buy a new helicopter, turns out ready built Mosquito XE’s start at $38,500 and lessons come in a package for $2,800 for ten hours of, and I’m promising this here, first rate instruction. Which as it turns out is all you need to fly one of these babies since they neatly fit into the ultralight category. You can even build it yourself from a kit for around $30,000.When you arrive at RotorF/X in Van Nuys, should you ever be so blessed, several wonderful things happen to you right away. First there’s the sweet sense of hospitality, then comes the aroma of fiberglass sanding dust, I think they should make a body powder so everyone could smell like that, and then there’s the Schweitzer, looking back at you, begging you to take lessons, with the enticing sparkle only a glossy craft sitting in the sunlight can offer. Jay is the big Kahuna, he introduced us to Chris our fearless instructor for the day. I had already enjoyed an hour and a half of constant helicopter ground school on the trip over from our technical director, Kevin Plunkett, a helicopter fanatic. But now the real truth comes out, will I really be able to do, let’s see. You really should know that I can not walk and chew bubble gum on the same day, much less at the same time, and I’ve heard more than my share of “helicopters are hard to fly” stories in the past few decades, but I have the courage of three or four people

If you like slightly scratched airplane parts or airplanes that have been through a little life-changing trauma, you will love Wentworth, and if you know your way around a Snap-On tool chest, the folks at Wentworth may become your new best friends.

so I went anyway. Once in the air, and after just holding onto the controls lightly to get the feel for them it was my turn to fly or shut up. I take the Cyclic firmly in hand and make the hair’s breadth movements mysteriously designed in by helicopter engineers and sure enough we banked and turned with startling grace, arcing through the crystal blue skies over Van Nuys on a perfect Saturday morning. It seems now, with my new found knowledge, that any morning you are arcing through the skies

even a skateboard license to fly them. Although, as with anything aviation related, instruction is strongly recommended because any distance higher than the tabletop is too far to fall, so best to know what you’re doing before you ascend. And speaking of going up, you might be thinking about power plants on ultralights, well you’re right, it is a two stroke. So Jay, wiped away most of our concerns by explaining that in the pioneering days of ultralights when boat motors and lawnmower engines were being bolted on willy-nilly by good intentioned folks who’d never thought through the need for mixture control and temperature changes the engine gained a very spotty record for itself. But over the years a great deal of research and engineering has come together to develop engines that are designed for the exact demands of flight, making it possible for starry eyed aeronauts to live the dream of the airborne afternoon. It is not a perfect system, but what is?Of the three experimental class models the one most likely to get the blood rushing is the Mosquito XET Turbine helicopter - the flagship model. The kit carries a skinny price tag of just over $40,000 and total operating costs of around $30 per hour.For a fixed wing pilot taking up helicopters you can either get the instruction you need to feel comfortable, RotorF/X recommends their 10 hour package, and fly with just your private pilot license, or you can get a recreational license or helicopter add on for just 15 hours dual and 15 hours solo, easy. You

will amaze your friends, confuse your neighbors and be the first kid on your block to have one.According to RotorF/X the XET model is the most economical high performance jet helicopter available anywhere in the world. With the thought of extraordinarily inexpensive turbine time building as well as pure fun, (buzz over to the neighbors for coffee, instead of climbing the fence) law enforcement patrol, (probably be a good idea if you were a cop before you try that one) pipeline and power line surveillance, agricultural spraying in confined areas and a host of other applications this model is sure to be filling the skies overhead very soon. In the USA the Mosquito XET falls under the experimental category and is built as a kit. RotorF/X also provides a turbine model that’s ready to fly for just over $50,000 including the engine and can be shipped worldwide. Let me think ratty old used motor home and the fuel to get to Bakersfield or a shiny new jet helicopter and a rating to fly it, hmmm, not a very tough decision.

For more detailed information, specifications, performance and pricing on all five Mosquito helicopter models plus over 40 in flight videos visit their web site at www.rotorfx.com or contact them with questions at info@rotorfx.com If you love videos, this is the website for you, I especially loved the one by discovery channel. or you can call them at (818) 574-7663 and I can attest to the high level of customer service here, these guys are first class all the way.with a cyclic in hand is a perfect

morning. You can build time in one of these sweet machines for as low as $24 an hour. I learned a great deal about the wonders of RotorF/X and all they have to offer once I calmed down enough from the euphoria to concentrate again. Which took about two weeks, as it turned out. Here’s the rundown, brace yourself, it’s breathtaking.A Mosquito AIR or Mosquito XEL are both ultralight, meaning you do not need a rotorcraft license or

Chris Strachan CFI, right, and his student, visiting from overseas for the lesson, enjoy a lively discussion of the intricacies of rotor wing aerodynamics.

MUST SEE!Youtube Video t- I wanna Fly a Choppa By OregonFlyBoyhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0zBb0NAfus-Warning- Video rated PM for potty mouth

Kevin Plunkett

Lani Rocket

It is not strictly a scaled down model because to fit two people comfortably it had to be adjusted here and there to look like the classic and yet fit modern general aviation needs. There has also been ample engineering to make it more pilot friendly than the original while exceeding the long

As the hangar door glided closed there was just a glimpse of what appeared to be a P-38 as we walked by, but could it really be a P-38? The sign said Lightning Aviation, it is perched at El Monte Airport. Larry Buchanan soon explains that what sits in his hangar is actually a prototype for a new kit, soon to be offered, of a P-38 Lightning, almost. It will be a twin engine home built, almost unheard of, and it will do things no other kit can even approach.The project’s brochure opens with an ominous description to set the scene. The legacy of the P-38 Lightning, it says, began in 1937, when the United States Air Corps issued a request for a high-altitude interceptor aircraft having “the tactical mission of interception and attack of hostile aircraft at high altitude”. It goes on to say that the specifications required a 360 mph airspeed and a climb to 20,000 feet in 6 minutes. Lockheed met the challenge with the P-38. Thousands were built and flown over every continent and ocean where they completed countless missions and helped to secure victory for the allied forces.Now, Larry explains there are four currently flying, they are priceless, and so highly sought after that collectors scour the globe

The P38 that graced the skies over the Chino Airshow, Spring 2009, thrilling the crowds and making a few guys get a little teary eyed.

in search of a single piece of one from a mountainside or sea floor.Larry and his partner, a law firm with ample resources, has set about to construct a P-38 composite kit with dimensions that will allow it to fit nicely in a standard hangar.

P-38 kit plane prototype assembled of composite over a steel frame at Lightning Aviation in El Monte.

A prototype P-38 looks longingly out at the sky through the hangar door in El Monte, CA.

The P38 is a dream machine. Forget what it was designed for and think for a moment about what it can do, what it would do if you could own one and adjust it just a little here and there.

range, high speed capabilities that made the original such a fantasy machine.Kits are projected to be offered in the $300,000 range with an owner assist build hangar already constructed with eight bays and plans for two full time A&P mechanics to be on hand for assistance. Projected build time is four to six months. The construction will be Chromalloy inner structure with composite skins to combine strength and lightweight. The original project was so top secret that it was classified for ninety-nine years and no amount of government wrangling could cut loose a set of blue prints to aid in Lightning’s project. So Larry was able to obtain a set of plans from Russia, if you can imagine that, and use those in recreating the details that were not available any other way. If you are interested in learning more

about this monumental undertaking, check out their website at www.lightning38.com or call Lightning Aircraft at (626) 444-7739. Who knows maybe someday one of Larry’s P-38s will be one of our choices on the flying school’s roster of rentals, maybe.

Instructions on How to

Land a P-38 Lightning Reprinted from Issue 4 of Hangar Flying (available online at Jamesreese.org), published in the 1930’s by Lockheed Aircraft Corporation in Burbank, California

The downwind run is made

at 1800 feet above the

ground with the propellers set for 2600 R.P.M. and 20

inches. (Altimeter reading

to be 1800 feet plus airport elevation.) The

gear is extended at 175 M.P.H. at approximately

one mile opposite the head

of the runway (position A). The run is continued in a

straight line to (position B), which is approximately

one mile past the field.

The extension of your gear will drag you down

to about 1200 feet and 150 M.P.H., while 20 inches is

maintained. At this point

the flaps are extended 50 percent and the base leg

is begun. This leg can be tightened or stretched,

depending on conditions.

One mile directly in front of the runway (position

C) at 500 feet and an indicated air speed of 140

M.P.H., power is reduced

to 18 inches and the flaps extended full down.

Flaps should be extended full down only when you

are squared away and the

landing is “in the bag.” Then flare out and come in

“over the fence” at 100 to 105 M.P.H. At this speed,

under ordinary conditions, you will need only a little

more than 2000 feet of

runway. For slowing down,

brakes are applied on and off, rather than with a constant pressure.

For long life both for you

and your plane, we have found that the ‘38 should be brought in not in excess

of 110 M.P.H. Contact never

has to be made at over 100

M.P.H.

San Bernardino Valley College Aeronauti-cal Department

Okay, avid Flight Lines readers, you are already up to speed on the awesome San Bernardino Valley College Private Pilot Ground School with Dr. Richard Thompson, which starts the next session in August, thirty five years and still cranking out 100% test scores left and right, go Dr. Dick. And now there’s a great new Instrument Rating classroom with all the simulator goodies. You will receive Instrument Rating written prep plus four hours of loggable instrument simulator time with classes starting in Janu-ary each school year at Valley.

But now let’s go somewhere new, let’s meet Kevin Kammer, the power plant instructor and head of the school’s aeronau-tical department and check out the Airframe and Power plant training classes and their facility.

We arrived in the middle of lab, which runs everyday from noon to three. It is held in a giant room filled with aircraft, and engines and workbenches and very absorbed stu-dents. Their ages looked to be everywhere from teenagers to one white haired enthu-

siast, David Carr, who describes the program as “very impressive”. All were male except for wonderful Carah Durell, the darling of EAA’s video series on fabric work for aircraft. She told us “It’s fun, it’s a lot of work, but it doesn’t seem like it if you love it.”

One really outstanding aspect of the pro-gram is that the airframe portion is run by Allen Moore, a long time department fixture who still teaches fabric work, an area long absent from most program’s labs. Once a student, working in teams of two, completes an aileron fabric recover, Mr. Moore cuts a jagged gash in it and gives it back to them for repair and reinspection.

Mr. Moore covers the areas of sheet metal, composites, rigging, fuel systems, wood structures, welding, hydraulics, landing gear, both analog and digital instruments, navigation systems and communications, everything except the engine and prop.

As we head outdoors to trail a team to an engine run up stand it seems good hearted sabotage is a staple of the program. A team of three students is preparing to run up an IO 540 engine they have just dismantled, cleaned, repaired and reassembled. They

Students, including Ahmad Kaoud, hit the books in preparation for lab work at San Bernardino Valley College Airframe and Powerplant class in the Aeronautics Department.

The next time you’re in the market for someone to work on your airplane, ask them where they earned their license and if they say San Bernardino Valley College, be impressed, they earned it well.

are unaware that Mr. Kammer has crimped one of their spark plugs so that it has no gap at all. We watch as they discuss and run tests to determine the cause of the rough run up.

The students in the power plant section work through first a Continental A65, then a Lycoming IO 540 and finally a Jacobs R755 Radial engine. Alum have secured great jobs with employers such as NASA, SkyWest Air-lines, General Atomics, Cessna Citation and many others. A and P licenses have been used as a basis for hiring in fields far from aviation such as electrical generating power plants, pumping stations, RV Maintenance and it is rumored, even in amusement park ride maintenance.

Student, Tim Solis, explains that, “Mr. Kammer teaches by making sure you know what you’re doing by saying ‘you know where to find it, go look it up’. So you feel powerful because you see that you can figure out what you need to know. He taught us that when we get out there in the real world we won’t have anyone to ask, we will have to depend on ourselves”. Amhad Kaoud told us that Mr. Kammer always “double checks everyone’s work to make sure it’s the best and safest it could be”.

It is obvious that not only do the stu-

afloat. A community advisory committee meets often to insure the program is meet-ing the needs of the market. With similar programs at private institutions costing tens of thousands of dollars, a student can complete Valley’s program for well under 3 big ones, much of which can be covered by

traditional education funding sources. So the next time you’re in the market

for someone to work on your airplane, ask them where they earned their license and if they say San Bernardino Valley College, be impressed, they earned it well.

Lani Rocket

Kevin Kammer, the head of the Aeronautics Department at San Bernardino Valley College works with student George Moll in a Powerplant lab in preparation for testing for an A & P license one day.

dents have huge love for their instructor but Mr. Kammer has a passion for teaching. He genuinely cares about the well-being and personal growth of each one of his stu-dents. It was inspiring to see the high level of respect consistently played out between students and teachers. It is an environment where everyone understands that there is no swearing and no unkindness allowed, all members of the community must adhere to the standards or publically apologize. From this world they are placing not just excellent mechanics into the aviation community but excellent people as well.

Since taking the reins of the department last year Kevin has made major improve-ments to an already top-drawer program. He talks about the innovations and changes with energy and excitement. He sees the program as so much more than a school for teaching mechanics or technical skills but a place where people have an opportunity to come together and learn to make a better life for themselves and their families by learning skills far beyond the descriptions listed in the course catalog.

This is an expensive program for the institution to maintain, with high overhead dependant on grants and donations to stay

Late afternoon finds Randy Halliday doing a run up in N31BN, in Redlands, California (KREI) in his spectacular Waco, a 1996 build from Classic Aircraft Corporation, sporting a Jacobs R755B and a wooden propeller.

We didn’t actually see it when we landed, but we could feel it. A Gobosh 700 sends out a magnetic pull that invites you to fly. Foot-hill Flying Club at Cable Airport in Upland showed us their number one rental, a Gobosh 700S that leaps off the ground and hurls itself into the sky with hardly any effort at better than a thousand feet a minute, we were at pattern altitude before we ever started to think about turning downwind. I had always thought LSA was meant weak and slow, now I see that at that time I had the great misfor-tune of being an idiot. Light Sport can use the lightweight requirement as a distinct advan-tage. Flying the Gobosh felt very similar to a 150 horse Citabria, with the stick and rudder, light weight, high power energy in the palm of your hand sort of excitement that we wait for constantly and find only rarely. And did I mention that it rents for only $113 an hour and burns only 3.5 to 5 gph.. It costs just 200 George Washingtons to join the club and 20 Georges a month in dues and for that you are on the club insurance, which is a great deal all the way around.

The low down on the Gobosh 700S looks

like this. The S is for steam gauges. The 700X will give you the glass panel. Gobosh is a cer-tified aircraft in Europe so it is manufactured to a higher standard than the ASTM standards most LSA makers are aiming for. Some of the specs beyond the obvious euro-sleek design include a Rotax 912 power plant which pro-duces 100 hp at only 96 cubic inches while weighing only 140 pounds and only looking at tbo’s of 1500-1800 hours, with auto fuel use okay. It is oil cooled and turns at around 5000 rpms, so the propeller is connected to a simple gearbox for a more traditional rpm out front. In case of a prop strike the gearbox protects the engine by absorbing the shock. The electrical system acts like magnetos, but is actually made up of solid-state electronic distribution modules with 2 spark plugs per cylinder. Electricity is generated constantly from the turning crankshaft, and produces a healthy 18 amps and 12 volts. Control sur-faces are on roller bearings and connected to pushrods. But an especially slick feature is the split flaps like the ones on a Cessna 310, which work to increase lift without pro-ducing drag. Plus there’s the external power

The Gobosh 700S, Serial # 1, is based at Foothill Flying Club at Cable Airport (KCCB) and you can rent it for a very reasonable price, really.

connection next to the battery, the anodized aluminum skins with 98% backed rivets for long wear, seven inspection doors, all hinged, with right and left hand throttles and pairs of fully redundant disk brakes on the mains, like an Italian motorcycle. When we went to stick the tank, there’s only one, so nice, the filler cap ingeniously has an attached fuel level connected, no hassle involved.

In case you’re still trying to do the math, like I was, a Sport Pilot Rating requires just 15 hours of dual instruction and five hours of solo flight and no medical. But allows you to fly only a light sport aircraft, no night flights and VFR weather. Light Sport Aircraft = basi-cally an aircraft that is lightweight , doesn’t go very fast (about 120 knots) and has 1 or 2 seats. So word on the bench is if you don’t have the confidence to get your next medi-cal, switch to an LSA and you’re legal, as long as you stay within the rules in FAR Part 61 Subpart J.

If you are looking for a chance to fly a twin or add a multi engine rating, they’ve got a Piper Seneca PA34-200 T, that T stands for turbo, for just $208 an hour. It has a Garmin GNS 430 and counter rotating propellers, which seriously ups the cool factor. The club has nearly 200 members, seven beautiful air-craft for rent and several members who are CFI’s so you can earn your sport pilot, private,

commercial, instrument, multi and Flight Instructor ratings through the club as well.

Foothill Flying Club is associated with Foot-hill Sales and Service, an FAA certified repair station where you can find Factory Autho-rized service for Cessna, Mooney, Cirrus, Gobosh, Remos, American Legend, American Champion as well as services available for just

about anything else that flys.You can find Foothill Flying Club and Tony

Settember at foothillflyingclub.com o. r call them at 909-917-5851. They are located at 1749 W. 14th Street in Upland if you’re a ground-based traveler, by air they are at Cable Airport, KCCB in Upland

Liam savage

European styling, aluminum skins, LSA compliance and stick and rudder fun make the Gobosh 700S a big boy’s toy worth playing with.

The Gobosh 700S Panel reflects the standard steam gauge set up with a nice dose of Garmin thrown in for good measure.

OK, here’s the thing, if you’re a female pilot, email the newspaper and we’ll fill you in on a secret about this Gobosh 700S Canopy, and if you’re a guy, check it out, great visibility, pretty cool, huh?

Click here to see the USA Advanced Aerobatic Team Website and donate today to help Your Team go to the World Championships in Poland, be a part of the aviation history today!