Flying Aces Inc. Newsletter vol.32 #5 May 2001

The Leading Edge

GENERAL MEETING: TUESDAY the 8th at San Jose Jet Center at 7:30pm
PROGRAM Ace Skip Forster relating "Business in Moscow"
ELECTIONS FOR 2001/02 BOARD OF DIRECTORS.
NOMINATIONS SO FAR:
Pres, John Gould; Activities, Ken Pheley; Program, John Nogatch;
Auditor, Christoph Bohmann; Secretary, Stephen Ostrowski;

INSTRUCTOR MEETING TUESDAY, May 1 ST 7PM at INBOUND.

BOARD MEETING SATURDAY, May 19th. 6PM at APPLE LANE INN
HAPPY BIRTHDAYS TO:
Skip Forster on the 7th; Alan Garduque on the 14th; Praveen Gopinath on the 15th and Yuri Litvinov on the 19th.
WATSONVILLE AIRSHOW IS ON THE ACES!
Aces who attend the Watsonville Antique Fly-in should save their admission tickets to turn in with their Aces bill and receive full credit. If you want to meet up with other Aces
at the show gather at the lobby of the terminal building at noon and then watch the show together.
SPECIAL NOTAM

by Manager Doug Groom

When I joined Aces in 1971 to get my private there were 36 members and two C-150s at $6/hour! We have come a long way since then.

First we build up to 80 members and four aircraft at two airports. Then we tested the viability of strategic alliances, and discovered that we could provide about 12 airplanes to our
members at essentially the same cost to them and to the club for every airplane we operated ourselves. With that bit of critical insight we sold off our fleet on by one. A nice
Citabria, I still have the keys for, being the last to go over a decade ago. It took a leap of faith for a flying club to go plane=less. But we have prospered over the years, with minimal
effort for the membership that at one time grew to 198 Aces. Over a dozen different alliances, as many as five at a time, have made on average of 60 aircraft available to Aces at
any given time! Always at the core of the fleet was Squadron II, an offshoot of Aces.

Events and coincidence have conspired to suddenly change all that. Airline expansion at SJC has put ever greater pressure on general aviation. Leases and arrangements that
were on file and/or known about for 10 years didn't meet the current scrutiny by an airport looking for 30 tie-downs to offer the occupants of the East Hangers slated for
demolition. First came pressure on Sd II tie-downs. They have lost several. They leased the old Inbound facility at RHV as backup.

Then came Aces' tie-down. Our response for the annual club permit renewal was filed 2 weeks before the deadline. Immediately, notice was served on yours truly, written two
weeks before I even mailed our application update! You almost get the feeling they couldn't wait to get the tie-down. We have had to remove 714VT. We now have a club permit
and an empty tie-down.

Then the other shoe fell. Squadron II would not be allowed to grant special membership to Aces or they would loose their club permit!

So Aces could operate a C-172 in our tie-down for instruction and we could fall back on Inbound and Flying Vikings for our Licensed pilots as had been anticipated in just such
an eventuality. Wrong. Vikings has leased nearly all their aircraft to traffic watch and Inbound being recently acquired by Sd II became unavailable to Aces due to SJC's long
arm and leverage against Sd II's club permit!

So where does that leave us? At first it looked pretty bleak. But then I thought back to the heady days when I first joined and we had many great things ahead of us. So we are
actively pursuing a nice older 172 for our tie-down to cover the bulk of our instruction. Any leads on aircraft, insurance, finance or lease are welcome. In the meantime our
instructor have paid $300 annual dues to Sd. II. Any Ace can do the same for aircraft access. No new checkouts or pin numbers required! If and when we come up with a new and
better strategic alliance we can all get pro-rated refunds from Sd. II if we want. It should be an interesting meeting on the 8th. We have a great club. Lets see what the new
officers and the membership can make of it.
FRANK'S STORY:

by John Nogatch Dec 2000

Many aviators have faced Death, but how many have seen the back of his head? And how often does bad weather mean good luck?

I was telling my friend Frank about taking lessons in a J3 Cub out of Watsonville. After taking off and heading "toward the ocean" as directed, the instructor asked, "Do you
know how cold that water is?" I took that to mean that I should start a U-turn back toward shore. Frank smiled and told me that he had an experience flying over water in a Cub,
and I asked him to tell me about it.

Bob was a pilot that Frank had known 35 years ago, who flew a Cub based at Oakland. He called one day and asked if Frank would like to go flying with him. Frank knew that Bob
had been going through a divorce, and suspected that he wanted someone to talk to, so he agreed to go along.

They departed Oakland, heading west, with Frank in the back seat. Bob was not very talkative, and they continued until they were headed out over the ocean. "Where are we
going?" Frank asked, and Bob replied, "Oh, you'll see." Although Frank was not a pilot, he had enough experience to realize that something wasn't quite right. After a few more
minutes passed, he insisted on hearing what the flight plan was. Finally, Bob explained, I'm really depressed, so I'm just going to keep on flying until I run out of gas."

Frank was shocked speechless, but as the engine droned on, he tried to make sense of the situation. "If you're going to commit suicide, why did you invite me along?" he
demanded. After mulling it over, Bob said, "I guess...I just didn't want to die alone."

After considering everything that he could think of, Frank decided that he would have to take control of the airplane, and get it heading back to shore. Even if he crash landed, or
had to ditch, he would still be better off, rather than continuing to head out to the open sea. He decided to hit Bob over the head, and knock him unconscious. But the only
controls were in the front seat. Would he be able to fly while trying to reach around a body slumped over the stick? Maybe he could open the door and push him overboard. A
gruesome thought, but, as Frank observed, "Hey, he wanted to die anyway!"

I sat in amazement as Frank paused in his story. I had only known him as a slightly built, older man, but I knew that Frank had been through Basic Training in the Army, so
perhaps he had been capable of violent action. "So is that what you had to do?" I asked. "No..." Frank explained, "Just as I was deciding on how to hit him over the head, Bob
suddenly noticed that there was foul weather dead ahead, and his survival instinct finally kicked in." He turned the airplane around and headed back to Oakland as fast as it
would go. "So what happened to him after you got back?" I asked. "I don't know!" Frank said. "I was so mad at him, that I never talked to him, or had anything further to do
with him, ever again!"