PilotQuest

A quick note about the changes on the site... I upgraded the blog software from Movable Type Open Source (MTOS) to OpenMelody. Actually, OpenMelody is basically the next generation of MTOS, with its own development community. I'll be fiddling with the widgets and themes a bit.

This is my unofficial summary of the Sept 20, 2010 meeting of the San Jose Int'l Airport Commission.  It's just my view as one of the participants, intended to help others interested in the process to follow it.  The airport staff will post the official minutes at the Airport Commission page on FlySanJose.Com.  This is my point of view of the meeting.

This was my first meeting seated as a commissioner.  It's been a while since my term officially started in July.  But there's no July meeting due to California's "legislative break" which includes local government.  And the August meeting was canceled.  So it took longer than normal to get the first meeting.

I was expecting that one issue would be contentious and one would be time-consuming.  The time-consuming item (or group of similar items) were the orientation presentations for the three new commissioners, including me.

The item I expected to be contentious was the report on the city's request for proposals (RFP) on development of new private hangars on the southwest corner.  There are currently General Aviation tie-down parking and hangars, and the former SJSU Aviation Dept facility.  The RFP was prompted by  the expiration of SJSU's lease.  The facility is currently being demolished.  But the tie-downs and hangars are currently in use, the last group of light aircraft based at SJC.  To them, it had the appearance that they were imminently being run out of the airport.  So now you can also understand why that was expected to be contentious.

So here's what happened...

I'll post a summary of what to expect from the San Jose International Airport Commission meeting tonight (Sept 20, 2010).  It will be at 6PM at 1732 North First Street, Suite 600 (6th floor) in San Jose.

First I'd like to credit my friend and former co-worker Jim Griffith for giving me the idea.  I watched the process as he ran for and was elected to the Sunnyvale City Council.  On his blog at dweeb.org he posts previews before city council meetings, and summaries afterward.  These are a separate unofficial point of view of one of the participants, separate from the official agenda and minutes.  The extra narrative is intended to help anyone who is interested to follow what's going on.

On previews before the meeting (like this post) I'll only describe what's on the agenda.  Even though my position on the Airport Commission is an appointed volunteer advisory role, it is still subject to the same requirements of California's "Brown Act" open local government law as elected officials.  So I'll save my opinions for the commission meeting itself and my post-meeting unofficial summary, after items have been voted on, and my discussion of them is no longer restricted.  The intent of the law is to make all the official discussion happen at the published meeting time when members of the public are able to attend.  All San Jose Airport Commission meetings are open to the public.

So, here's what's coming up at the SJC Airport Commission meeting...

As much as people like to talk about it, it seems most really don't care much about the weather.  At least not enough to learn about it.  Every Spring and Autumn in Northern California, we tend to get some occasional thunderstorms. Without fail, someone always tells me, "we never get thunderstorms here."  When they say that, it tells me they can only recognize a thunderstorm when they see lightning.  And they don't watch the sky very often.

Most city-dwellers can get away with not knowing or caring about the weather like that.  If you're a pilot, you probably (hopefully!) know how to recognize a thunderstorm.  If you want to be a pilot, you'll have to learn.

At the June 8 meeting of the San Jose City Council, my appointment to the SJ Int'l Airport Commission was among about 3 dozen appointments the council made to various city boards and commissions.  Since then, some friends have asked a fair question, "What does this mean for you?"

Word has been increasingly getting around among pilots recently about a nasty surprise in California state regulations. Apparently this was a result of the bankruptcy of Silver State Helicopters, which had required students to pay 100% up-front and then took the money and ran. The correct response to that should be to treat it as a case of fraud, which it was. (And probably advise people some common sense - like don't take the risk of getting a loan to pay 100% up front for services not yet rendered.) Without consulting any aviation industry people, the legislature quietly removed an exemption for flight schools and flight instructors from private postsecondary school regulations. We all found out about it months after it was signed into law.

"Paper or plastic?"  That question we hear at the grocery store could also have applied to pilot licenses.  But not any more.

If you still have an old paper pilot certificate, it's time to upgrade it to a plastic (credit card like) certificate.  Your license doesn't expire.  But it's like the requirement for a flight review or a medical certificate in order to continue to use those privileges. If you've got a paper certificate, you won't be allowed to use your privileges after March 31, 2010 until you replace it with a plastic certificate.

Instrument rated pilots... It's a new 56-day cycle today on FAA published instrument procedures.  I have the list of new procedures here at PilotQuest.Com being automatically updated weekly for California and the entire US.

In California, the big winner today is Auburn Municipal Airport, with a brand new RNAV GPS approach with WAAS and LPV.  The old " GPS RWY 07" has been superseded by "RNAV (GPS) RWY 07" (link to PDF of procedure).

The response to the list of "New instrument approaches planned for California" last month was encouraging. It looks like pilots found it as useful as I hoped it would be.  I made some updates to the software to update the list on a weekly basis.  And now it's expanded from a statewide list to nationwide.

Following a related discussion on the Silicon Valley General Aviation mail list, I made a list of the FAA's plans for upcoming new instrument approaches in California.  This list is from the FAA's National Aeronautical Charting Office (NACO).  It's info anyone can get - but hopefully the formatting makes it more easily accessible.

This should mainly be of interest to instrument-rated pilots who fly in California, and pilots who are or plan to get training for their instrument rating in California.

Now that I have software to generate this list from their plans, I'll update it regularly.

Here are some highlights from their current plans...