Six Chuter West LLC

This monthly bulletin is designed for instructors and students affiliated with the Western Powered Parachute Association LLC.

If you wish to be removed from the distribution list, email Doug at maas0755@comcast.net

CONGRATULATIONS!

We had a flurry of activity towards regular season end that resulted in four more folks successfully passing their sport pilot practical test.  Hans Behrens gained the distinction of being the 100^th person who completed a practical or proficiency test in our network, since the adoption of Sport Pilot.

 THE TRAINING SEASON

For many the month of October and November signals the end of the regular flying season.  The monsoon usually sets in this time of the year west of the cascades and the eastern side just gets darned cold.  Nonetheless there are a hearty few who will hang in there to enjoy some of the best flights of the year and get a real head start on their training, through the winter.  Larry Miner out of Chehalis just started his training course this past month, as an example.  This is a smart thing to do.  When you look at our training load per instructor you can easily see what happens in the Spring.  That is EVERYONE wants training attention at the same time.  And that is usually at the time that events start and getting the attention of instructors becomes increasingly difficult.  Being successful with training in the winter months requires patience and flexibility with schedules.  But it can pay off.  We encourage you to stay closely connected with your instructor now and not let your training come to a halt.

 STUDY UP

 This is also an excellent time of the year to “read up” and “study up”.  If you have not taken your sport pilot written test yet you can go to www.sportpilotu.com and sign up for on line ground school.  Mike Lersbak has started publication of The Powered Parachuter.  Subscribing to this training oriented monthly magazine is another good way to keep your mind sharp during any part of the season.  You can go to https://1spa.infusionsoft.com/cart/store.jsp?view=1&i=13&navicat=13 for a variety of subscription options.

 ON THE HORIZON

 A number of us have begun discussions and early planning of “fractional ownership” clubs in three to four locations around the region including Portland-Vancouver, Quincy, Arlington and Bend.  These clubs would divide the ownership of one or more ppcs to make it more affordable and to allow owners to be trained in their “own” ELSA.  And these clubs would allow a prospective pilot to get into the sport for a “fraction” of what it would cost them to own their own ppc by themselves. We should have an initial plan and prospectus out for these clubs before the end of the year. If you might be interested in joining and buying into one of these clubs please email me at maas0755@comcast.net so I can keep you “in the loop”.

 Mike Bird and Doug Maas will be “resettling” their Vancouver operation into Groves Field near Camas, Washington.  The more recent location of Brush Prairie has just not worked out well for training purposes and the Camas folks, at least to this point, have been wonderful in accomodating powered parachutes and our operation.

DOWN TO BUSINESS

This is the latest training data I have for instructors and students.

 Instructors!

1. I am missing contact emails for many of your students.  Please forward me current email addresses for the students you have listed so that we can keep them informed.
2. Please take the time (things are slow so no excuses!)…to send me edits and updates to your student list.  Continuing to contribute to the effort helps us to maintain accurate data on our training load and to help each other in the process

Students

1.  Please check our listing for you to insure that your status is correct.  If it is not, email me at maas0755@comcast.net
2. Otherwise, stay in direct contact with your listed instructor for continued scheduling
3. If for some reason your circumstance has changed and you require a different instructor, please contact me to discuss.

TESTING

This is our “short list” of students we have “in the que” for testing.  Please provide me with updates as necessary

Instructors…if you have a student or a number of students that you are working with to prepare for the practical test, please let us know your plans.  We’d like to get blocks of time on the calendar and locations tied down, particularly for multiple tests.

 Doug Maas
maas0755@comcast.net  
360 771-4047