Come Fly with Us 		The Leading Edge
Newsletter of the Flying Aces............................. August 2002 Volume 33, Number 8
August Schedule:
Instructor Meeting: Tuesday, August 6th 19:00 at Squadron 2 RHV.

Annual Picnic: Thursday, August 8th 16:00 at Squadron 2 RHV.

Board Meeting: Sunday, August 25th 18:00 at Nogatch's.

July Meeting Summary:

Michael Radu presented a series of DVD video sequences which showed his purchase, reconstruction, test flight, and "river dance" of his ultralight. Michael had pushed the envelope, including a forced landing on the rifle range at Camp Pendleton. The story of his devotion to the aircraft, and its unfortunate end at the hands of its next owner were astounding. Michael also displayed some impressive 3-D graphics renderings which were aviation related.

NOTAM:
The annual summer picnic replaces the usual General Meeting.
Join Aces for barbecued hot-dogs at Squadron 2, at Reid-Hillview.
You haven't seen hot dogs like these since the Watsonville Airshow!
AOPA Town Meeting at San Jose:

Phil Boyer of AOPA made a nice presentation in San Jose on Wednesday, 24-July-02. The description of the chaotic scramble for correct information after the 11-September-01 emergency was very interesting. It was clear that AOPA's Web site was the best source of information during the disruption.

Several humorous video clips were included in the presentation.

The use of 50 wireless voting boxes allowed for a sampled vote when Phil presented questions to the audience. One obvious result was that the audience favored background checks for foreigners who wanted student pilot certifcates, but did not favor them for citizens. Other questions elicited 60/40 and even 50/50 responses.

Phil stated that SJC has gone "heavy metal", and that GA is being pushed out of many other airports in the US. The long-term outlook for RHV did not sound very encouraging either.

These AOPA Town Meetings are worth going to, even when the news is not good. Phil did a good job of responding to many questions.