Six Chuter West LLC

TRAINING BULLETIN

FEBRUARY 2010

OVERVIEW

With holidays, schedules and our inability to turn the weather spigot off for any extended period of time, there hasn’t been much training action in December and January.  But we are going to try to “jump start” the training season earlier this year with some group sessions in Vancouver, Quincy and other areas.  Mike Lersbak and I are tentatively scheduled for a four day stretch at Twin Firs February 18^th-21^st….all weather dependent of course. I have training to finish up in Napavine and new students signing on in Vancouver too. And Mike Lersbak has quite a back up of students in Arlington.  Despite huge progress last year (we exceeded one-hundred pilots who completed sport pilot), we have more new students signing up than ever before.

This can be one of those glass half full or half empty sort of things.  On the half empty side, we have more than forty students standing in line for attention while we are down active instructors due to changing personal circumstances, and our instructors are particularly challenged with having legal SLSAs, or gaining “letters of deviation” to allow them to continue to use their own ELSA trainers to continue flight training.  On the half full side, we have more instructors who are seriously trying to maintain ability to train than any other area of the U.S.  Here is a summary of our training network as we roll into the new season.

1.      Portland-Vancouver.  Mike Bird and I are set up for training out of Camas Groves airport and we will have two SLSA models so that you can train with us without having to own your own ELSA dual control installed ppc.  Perry Robertson has a nice training set up just south of Portland and we are working with him to try to get another SLSA in place at Lendhardt field.

2.  Arlington.  Mike Lersbak has a dual control SLSA and is in business full time.  This will likely be the location that we continue to do accelerated training at due to classroom and other support facilities.

3.     Quincy.  Tim Vedder has an SLSA available, and an awesome training field.  Mike Lersbak, Mike Bird and I will continue to schedule extended training weekends at twin firs turf farm to keep up with the training load there.

4.  Napavine.  Steve Rambo has access to a very nice training field and Grubby and I are available to assist with training students in that location.

5.  Spokane.  Bill Hansen is still active but I am uncertain of what his equipment status is.

6.  Stephen Brandon is active in Tracy, California, but until his letter of deviation is issued, likely available only for training you in your own legal ELSA.

7.  Bill Dotter is active in Helena Montana, but without an SLSA.  Bill is actively training students in their own dual control ELSAs.

All of this information is to encourage you to stay closely connected with your instructor and work hard and early to “gitter done”.  Once the season hits it will be increasingly difficult to get the time and attention you will need. We are doing our best, but still need more instructors!

Remember that you have essentially three options for training:

1.  Go part 103.  We can train you in your own single seat true ultralight and we have one available in Portland-Vancouver to allow you to train legally without a “special light sport” certified aircraft.
2. Training in your own ELSA.  If you have, or are looking to purchase an ELSA and make sure that it is equipped with dual controls, all our instructors can complete your flight training in your aircraft.
3. Train in our SLSA.  The disadvantage here is the relatively few SLSAs that we have available, and the fact that you will be paying us for rental time on our aircraft.

STUDENT SCHEDULE

This is the latest training data that I have on students and instructors.  If you are getting this bulletin and are not assigned an instructor and want to sign up for any level of training, please email me soon.  If your circumstance has changed and you need to change instructors, locations or otherwise modify your training, email me with that information.

Instructors…PLEASE help us keep the report up to date by reviewing and updating your student data.

OTHER HINTS

If you are serious about getting involved in the sport, or already actively training, we highly encourage you to join EAA UL Chapter 127 “N.W. Powered Parachute Coalition”.  Email me at maas0755@comcast.net if you are interested.  This is the largest EAA powered parachute club in the U.S.!  Membership ($35) will allow you to attend five regional flight rallies this year, will gain you discounts on your flight checks, and if you join the EAA at the same time will cover you with an insurance policy when you are participating in club flight rallies.  We also have an awesome website-forum, to connect you with others in the Pacific Northwest.

Western Powered Parachute Association LLC

www.westernppa.org

C/O Doug Maas 360 360 771-4047

Maas0755@comcast.net