Just a reminder that we have an upcoming Pilot Night.  Speaker is Steve Young , RAAF Test Pilot.

The venue is the Majura Theatre, 11 Lancaster Place, Majura Park.

The time: 6 for 6.30 (pm) on Wednesday 15^th May. All welcome. Please come along and enjoy an interesting presentation in the lovely venue.

We usually dine out after the presentation and this evening will be no exception. Dining venue to be announced but we expect it to be close to Majura Park. Please let one of the social committee know if you are interested in dining.

Elizabeth Hanna This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , Rob Terzi This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , Amy Chang This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or Les Sullivan  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Dear Members

 My primary duty on the new(ish) Board is to produce the Newsletter.   Some of you have noted the distinct lack of Newsletters since I took up those duties.   That would be my fault.  

My apologies.

VH-RRJ, (a Piper Warrior) once a familiar sight on the grass at Canberra has returned and is now On-Line with the Aero Club. RRJ can be booked via the E-Allocator (follow the links as you do with other aircraft bookings). At $200ph tacho she's great value.

Hirers must have at least 3 take offs and landing in last 90 days. First time hirers must undergo an aircraft familiarisation session with the aircraft manager (or other person nominated by CAC) which may involve a familiarisation flight. Refer to Terms and Conditions under Aircraft/Documents above. Safe flying!

The recent club fly-away to lake Mungo was a great adventure for all who participated. 5 aircraft (plus 1 ring-in motor bike from Swan Hill) with 13 intrepid aviators and passengers ventured into the Australian outback over the weekend of 1st March 2013. The very strong easterlies made it a relatively quick flight to Mungo (north of Mildura), after a refueling stop for most at Griffith or Hay.

The Mungo strip is located just metres from the modern 4 1/2 star cabins. Catering at Mungo Lodge was excellent with very reasonably priced wine list, especially considering the remoteness of the area and the captive nature of the audience.

On Wednesday 27 February the Club will be holding a Twilight Flying activity.  This is an opportunity to do some circuits or a City Flight in company with other Club members.  If you have not flown for some time, would like to fly yourself or with someone else, here is the opportunity.  Night flying is available to those suitably rated.

Passengers are welcome.  Bring some food and drink (no alcohol allowed airside).  Meet at Gate 3 at 5.30 pm or any time after.  MUW has been booked, other aircraft are welcome.

Come to our next club dinner on Wednesday 20th Feb 2013 at D'Browes Restaurant 59 Boolimba Crescent, Narrabundah ACT 2604.

Time: 7pm, BYO

RSVP: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  , or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , or call Rob on 0423 600 899

All members, partners and guests welcome. Book early. More info on D'Browes at http://www.outincanberra.com.au/dbrowes

Photos from the recent charity funflight day are now available on the Forum page. If you haven't yet signed up to the forum page I urge you to do so. Share your photos and thoughts about your wonderful passion for flying. If you have any trouble with it, send me an email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

About 110 passengers from 4 local charities were treated to a City Flight by members of our Club last month. It was a terrific day and families enjoyed not only the flying, but displays by the AFP, food supplied by Rotary, Face painting, Magic show, and Canberra Air League. Thanks also to Barlins (marqees) , Canberra Airport operations and Canberra Tower.

Aviation Colleagues

Having recently become a member of the Committee, I'm keen to contribute in whatever ways I reasonably can.

My ideas for contributing to the Club include:

- organising a visit to the Australian Rescue Coordination Centre (ever wonder why it's important to submit a SARTIME, and what happens if you don't cancel it?)

- showing how to change a spark plug or an inner tube (ever wonder what you should do if the magneto check doesn't work or the tyre's flat in the middle of nowhere?)

You can now follow the Aero club using Twitter at this address: @CanberraAero . Click on the link at the top right of the home page to get there, and "join the conversation" as they say.

Here's an opportunity to brush with fame. Come and meet Canberra Tower staff for a safety awareness presentation. This is part 3 of a very successful series of presentations for the ATC guys. Click on the "Events" tab on the menu for more information.

Local comedian Paddy Hornby is donating his services and performing for us at our Xmas party on 24 November (see the pdf notice below). Paddy is heavily involved in COMEDYACT and next years Comedy Festival. 

The inaugural Canberra Comedy Festival (CCF) will run from 19 to 23 March 2013.  The CCF team are currently in the process of finalising the list of international, national and local acts who will provide the Capital with its funniest week ever.  Keep a watch on festival website for more details: http://www.canberracomedyfestival.com.au

In the meantime, if you want to see great live comedy around town go to the COMEDYACT website at www.comedyact.com.au.  Subscribe to the mailing list while you are there and purchase your tickets for gigs online.

Hi folks

Check out the Christmas party invitation here cac-christmas-invite-2012.pdf

Last year a few members of the Club decided to form a syndicate to purchase a late model aircraft in the US.

Tom Flynn, who put the syndicate together, said: 'After lots of discussion we settled on a Cessna 182T because it has good range and excellent payload.  We found a good aircraft in Illinois which was within our budget and met our criteria.  We got a US LAME to inspect it. There were no problems with the aircraft so we bought it in early April.'

The syndicate decided to have the aircraft partially disassembled and shipped to Australia.  Tom said:  ‘We found it was a bit less expensive to ship compared to ferrying.  We contracted the company in Kansas which holds the Cessna contract for the export of all shipped Cessnas.  They did an excellent job disassembling, packing and shipping.  We were very pleased with their work.'

SAFETY ALERT!

To minimise the risk of runway incursions, please implement the following: 

• 
  Plan your taxi route for arrival and departure as carefully as the 
• airborne element of your flight; 
• 
  Ensure that you understand standard airfield markings; 
• 
  Ensure that you have a specific clearance for a specific runway; 
• 
  Treat all runways as active until you confirm they are not; 
• 
  Look and check before you enter any runway, even if you have 
• an ATC clearance; 
• 
  If you are unsure, ask ATC

For a detailed map pf the most likely incursion spots in Canberra click here.

Moruya Aero Club held its annual open day on Mother’s Day this year to help celebrate how much our mum’s really mean to us. Ok, so maybe it had nothing to do with Mother’s Day at all but there were lots of smiles on mum’s, dad’s and kids alike on the day.

Flying is a challenging exercise. Unlike driving a car there are no places to simply pull over, you have to worry about the ups and downs and not just the lefts and rights, you have to tell people what you're doing. To make matters worse all of this has to happen simultaneously and we still have to figure out where we're going. Despite these basic challenges some of us figured it might be a good idea to add the additional difficulty of flying in close proximity with another aircraft.

ROTAX, a name that is synonymous with light aircraft, LSA aircraft and even military drones and in a co-operation with Pipistrel today marks a very important milestone in the history for ROTAX with the release of the new fuel injected 912 IS aircraft engine.

By Chris McKeown

Bored with flying in Australia? Been there done that? Want something really special and different? Why not put your flying experiences in Australia to use in the USA and explore fantastic new territory.  What about start at Albuquerque in a new fuel injected 172 and doing the Grand Canyon, Lake Powell and Monument Valley? 

I have flown twice in the States. My last trip was in a turbo 210. I fly not in any pre organised group, but flying where and when I wanted to. Flying in the States is much cheaper. It’s different, but different in an easy way.

Looking west towards Cortez not far from Albuquerque