Yakima Valley WPA Newsletter - Washington Pilots Association

Yakima Valley
WPA Newsletter
October 2008
Volume 2008 Issue 10
Yakima Valley WPA Newsletter, 901 N. Conestoga Blvd., Yakima WA, 98908
http://www.wpaflys.org/Chapters/Yakima/yakimachapte r.html, email - YakimaValleyWPA@live.com
(509) 966-5300
President’s Message
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
1
President’s Message
2
Meetings & Information for
Members
3
Happenings at McAllister
field
3
2008 Aviation Calendar
4
Flying to Red’s Horse
Ranch – Greg McGuire
7
Who’s Who and What’s Up
7
Editor’s Notes – 80 @
McAllister’s
th
Attached:
More on Vista Field’s fight to
survive
Yakima WPA Chapter President Dennis
Klingele and his wife, Doreen..
Dennis Klingele
The Yakima Valley WPA Chapter met at Barnstormers in July. The
food was great, along with lots of good conversation and the video
program, “Basic Aviation Weather”. From the video title it would
look to be a simple thing, however when it was all done, most of us
where a bit mind boggled on how much information we had just been
exposed to, with more than we thought, still not firmly planted were
it is needed. We will visit with this video again at another time and
try again.
We still have some samples of WPA items that can be purchased on
the State WPA (www.wpaflys.org) website, the really cool part is
that you can order them with your name, N number engraved on your
shirt or hat or such. The samples will continue to be on display at our
future meetings, so come and take a look.
Our August and September meetings didn't happen - just too many
things to do and not enough time…Lots of stuff going on with the 80th
Birthday Celebration though, and I hope you all had a lot of fun
helping out with everything, including the Young Eagles.....now there
is a reward at the end of this rainbow... Dick Pingrey's/Randy Fingers
BBQ is this Friday, September 19th, starting in the early evening hope to see you there.
Arlington was really a lot of fun. We managed to get together with
Mike Bull, and Ken McAllister and we flew over Saturday morning and
back late in the afternoon. It was an awesome day to go flying with
hardly a bump in the clear sky. Only thing that went less than great
for the day, was that when we where ready to come home we found
that my Lowrance 2000C GPS was program “stuck” with three of the
buttons not working. So we flew home following the track that was
programmed into it to get us to Arlington. Not a big deal really. It
was a still a nice convenience to have on, to see Seattle’s Class B
airspace, which was clearly still shown. We skirted just outside of
“Bravo” to the East. We were using VFR flight following, and Seattle
(Please see President’s Message on page 2)
Yakima Valley WPA Newsletter
Page 2
Meetings & Information for Members
Editor
The next membership meeting is Thursday October 2nd. We will send
and email notice with the time and place soon.
Plan on going to Dick Pingrey’s annual hamburger BBQ Friday,
September 19th at 6 P.M. in Dick and Randy Finger’s hangar.
WPA Mission Statement
“To advance the
interests of general
aviation in Washington
State through advocacy,
outreach, education and
social activities.”
For EAA members and interested pilots, there will be a pancake feed
October 11th. For more information contact Stu Copland at (509) 9651209.
It will be easier to do it right at Desert Aire now. Last weekend, the
Mid-Columbia 99s repainted the runway numbers, and center stripes.
(President’s Message from page 1)
probably would have cleared us into Bravo if they had thought we
needed it or if we had requested it, but they obviously could see that
we were steering clear. The people at Lowrance gave me a discount on
the repair cost, and it’s already back and working fine now. They did
say that my unit’s problem was the first that they have had of that
type. My luck!
We will endeavor to get another newsletter/email out shortly again
with all the good information as to where and what that October 2nd
meeting will be. So mark your calendar for that date. It will be a fun
meeting for all to attend, with the year winding down we need to plan
for our winter season including the Christmas Dinner/Party.
The next membership
meeting is Thursday,
October 2nd,
Location and time to be
announced.
The State WPA calendar was really filled with lots of fun for most of
the summer. This calendar is always a work in progress. It presently
shows the State WPA Board meeting for the 20th, and then a
Canyonlands Safari event in McCall ID on the 24th. The state now has
this information under the “CALENDAR” Tab on the State WPA web
site. Did anyone get down to the “All New” Prosser Fly in, on August 810? If so, please write us an article and fill us in.
______
Wear your name badge
if you have one.
The WPA membership rewards program is continuing to grow, making
the real cost of membership minimal or not at all, so check it out and
support those who make the effort to make aviation more user friendly
for all of us.
As always, please don't hesitate to call any of your WPA board if you
have any ideas, concerns, or such. We will always be happy to do our
best for you.
Take Care,
Dennis Klingele
Yakima Valley WPA Newsletter
Page 3
Happenings at McAllister Field
Les Flue
1. TSA continues to be our largest debtor, owing us almost $37,000.00
since January, 2008.
2. 16th Avenue review continues to move slowly forward with the
environmental being completed by year end. We have spent $327,000 on
these studies which is 13% of the budget for the process. The actual
construction time will be 6 months, but all the studies are taking 18
months.
3. The completion of the 16th Avenue Bridge and the reopening is mid-October. Our part of the
project will start when the winter weather breaks.
4. Our Board Chairman, Bill Wheeler, is submitting a letter to Horizon pointing out that their new
flight schedule is not serving the flying public at our airport. The movement of the morning flight
an hour later and the elimination of the late flight are not acceptable and are reflected in their
load factors being down.
5. Massage chairs will be available in the secure and non secure areas of the airport. The trial run
was very successful.
6. We are working to modify the reversion clause that is contained in many airport leases. This
will allow people with buildings on airport property to negotiate leases for their buildings after 40
years.
7. Our Airport Overlay documents are ready for presentation to the Regional Planning Commission
and Union Gap. This should occur in September.
Les Flue, County Representative
Yakima Airport Board
2008 Aviation Calendar
September
5-6
5-6
5-7
9
13
10-14
13
20
24
HFM Warbird Fly-in Big Band Dance BLI Bellingham, WA 360-733-4422 www.heritageflight.org
Apple Turnover Aerobatic Cont EPH Ephrata www.jac67.org
Western Antique Aero / Auto 4S2 Hood River, OR 541-386-1664 www.waaamuseum.org
Aviation Planning Council (LATS) BFI Seattle, WA 800-552-0666
Gunfighter Skies 2008 Mountain Home AFB, ID
Reno Air Races Reno, NV www.airrace.org
WPA - Port of Shelton Fly-in SHN Shelton, WA 360-426-1151
WPA - State Board Meeting GEG Spokane, WA 360-898-2319
Fall Canyonlands Safari McCall, ID
Yakima Valley WPA Newsletter
Page 4
Flying to Red’s Horse Ranch
On a clear cool September morning Ted Herdon and I decided to fly into the Eagle Cap
Wilderness just East of Elgin, Oregon. There are two grass airstrips almost end to end with one
belonging to the Minam Resort and the other belonging to Red’s Horse Ranch which is now
operated as a visitors center by the USFS. The area can only be accessed by either an 8 mile
Horse ride or by Flying.
Reds was a working Ranch and Guest house from about 1940 until around 2000. Minam Resort
(picture below) has cabins to rent and serves 3 meals a day to guests and flying visitors. Check
out their web page. www.minamlodgeoutfitters.com
The strip into Red’s is in a wide Meadow while the one at Minam Lodge is narrow between trees
and a little shorter. The picture below is the approach to the meadow and a view of the
Yakima Valley WPA Newsletter
Page 5
outstanding scenery.
The river was exceptionally clear and not very deep and the fly fishing was a little slow but Ted did
manage to catch a little one.
Below is a scenic picture from the front porch of Red’s Main house and of course the scenic N2324X
sitting at the end of a really nice grass strip.
Yakima Valley WPA Newsletter
Page 6
The elevation of the strips is 3600 feet with the surrounding ridges at 6500 feet plus. A fairly
easy strip to approach as mountain strips go, with landing upstream as winds permit and
takeoff downstream. Great scenery and excellent campsites with a few friendly people.
Happy Flying
Greg McGuire
Page 7
Yakima Valley WPA Newsletter
Editor’s Notes
“The Young Eagle flights when along smoothly and
200 kids were flown. Terri Sloan and I traded
Well, I was out of town and missed the McAllister Field nearly
off flying my Cessna 182 carrying young eagle kids. I
th
80 Anniversary celebration but thankfully, Dick
was impressed by the over all operation of the
Pingrey wrote this report:
Yakima young eagle program. Registration was
“Please let me thank all of the chapter members that helped with
the 80th Anniversary celebration of the Yakima Airport this past
Saturday. All of you did a great job and your efforts are greatly
appreciated. We had a good display of Chapter homebuilt and
antique airplanes. The Chapter booth, shared with Yakima
EAA, was well staffed and we had lots of literature to hand out.
The pancake breakfast and the snack bar operations went
smoothly and we had a very good selection of movies to show the
people who wanted to relax a little while.”
Who’s Who and What’s Up
Yakima Chapter Officers:
handled smoothly, the kids were all given a very good
ground school and ground handling of the airplanes
was very well coordinated. The Yakima chapter,
under Ola Vestad's leadership did a great job. I hope
some of their pilots can bring their airplanes to
Ellensburg for our young eagles day on September
27th.”
”We had very good attendance for the breakfast but
the snack bar crowd for hotdogs, pop, chips, etc. was
very light. Nonetheless, we will be able to provide a
reasonable amount of money for an
aviation scholarship which was boosted by a sizable
individual contribution. Because of all the chapter's
efforts and outside donations to the fund we
will establish a $3,000 plus scholarship fund. ”
President - Dennis Klingele (509) 966-5300
Secretary – Jim Wikstrom (509) 965-3630
Website: The WPA state website may be
found at http://www.wpaflys.org, and the
Yakima Chapter site at
www.wpaflys.org/Chapters/Yakima/
Newsletter Editor - Joel Weyhe (509) 966-1686
yakimachapter.html
Vice President - Les Flue (509) 952-2376
Treasurer - Mike Bull (509) 949-1530
Webmaster – Les Flue (509) 952-2376
News & Info: Send articles and important pilot
information for publication to the editor –>
YakimaValleyWPA@live.com or by mail, if
necessary, to Joel Weyhe, 901 N. Conestoga
Blvd. Yakima, WA, 98908.
Meeting Notice: The next meeting will be
held October 2nd at a location and time to be
announced via email…soon.
Important Contact Info:
WPA President – John Dobson (360) 898-2319
PYKM Airport Manager – (509) 575-6159
EAA Chapter 206 – Stu Copland (509) 965-1209
McAllister Museum – (509) 457-4933
Mid-Columbia 99s – Mary Cooke (509) 375-0445
Yakima Valley WPA Newsletter
901 N. Conestoga Blvd.
Yakima, WA, 98908
Phone:
(509) 966-1686
Fax:
None yet
E-mail:
YakimaValleyWPA@live.com
FSS – 1-800-WX-BRIEF
ASOS PYKM – (509) 248-1502
Newsletter Date: The next newsletter should
ship sometime in early November, with luck in
advance of the monthly meetings.