Saturday, April 16th, we will meet at Aero Mark in Idaho Falls for an enlightening and entertaining discussion on mountain flying presented by Pete Nelson from Challis. I look forward to hearing of his experiences and learning more about flying the central Idaho mountains. See you there at 10:00 a.m.

Our thanks to all who helped with last month's meeting in Rigby. Larry Boam did the arranging and we enjoyed a learning experience from Terell Kennet of Queen Bee Aviation concerning fire fighting in the single engine turbo props. It was also good to see the new possibilities in light sport aircraft being manufactured locally. Thanks Larry!

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Our chapter was requested to support a Young Eagles event on May 28 in support of Jared Aicher of Oregon who will be here then on a Young Eagle promotional trip. The current thinking is to make this our chapter meeting for May. Since this is the first day of the Memorial Day weekend, we are wondering how many will be able to attend, and how many will be able to provide planes to fly kids. This issue will be discussed at the April meeting. If you can come on May 28 but will not be at the April meeting, please contact Dale Cresap.

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Hal suggested that the newsletter would benefit from status updates for the members. I agree. The following is an update for Steve Hildreth.

This winter has been a lot of work on the house. I put a sun room on, did work on one bathroom, put new skirting all the way around, and in my spare time helped a roofer do four or five reroofs. I don't know why I have the plane down here. Oh I also put handrails on the front and rear porches and put rock down for a driveway and a walkway, built a closet and put a door on an other. I plan to leave the 8th to bring the plane home. I have an airline ticket to come back on the 13th so I can drive home with Lee. I will visit Sun & Fun the 14th and I think we will leave to start home on the 17th. My phone number here is 863-471-2466 Steve

The March meeting started at the Queen Bee hangers in Rigby at 10:00 AM and then moved to Larry Boam's hanger further down the Rigby runway. Dave Sargent, a new member was present. Guests were John Randell and Leo Hernandez.

Queen Bee is the local distributor and repair facility for Air Tractor agricultural and fire bomber aircraft. The aircraft are manufactured in Texas. Tyrell Kennett, a fire bomber pilot for Queen Bee, explained and discussed the various aspects of agricultural spraying and fire bombing. Tyrell flies the Air Tractor 802 which has become the primary fire bomber in the United States since the aging fleet of retired military aircraft conversions have essentially been grounded. The 802 looks like an oversized ag spray plane, but was designed as a fire bomber. It holds 800 gallons of retardant or water which can be programmed by the pilot in the air to drop anywhere from a single application in 3.5 seconds to multiple drops depending on the fire boss' needs on the ground. The 802 is a HUGE plane with a gross weight of 16,000 lbs, powered by either a Pratt & Whitney PT-6-65 turboprop developing 1150 - 1250 shp or a PT-6-67 developing 1350 shp. Three retardants are currently in use: plain water, which is used in environmentally sensitive areas; foam - a water/ soap mixture; and the traditional red retardant that is a water/phosphate mix which acts as a fertilizer to support post fire vegetative growth after the fire has been extinguished. In past years, borates were used as retardants but have been discontinued because of their herbicidal nature. Tyrell said that the lowest drops can be made down to 50 ft. AGL, but are typically made at higher altitudes for optimum dispersion. Drops can be made from 4 gal / sqft in heavy timber to 1 gal / sq ft on grass fires. At the 1 gal rate the plane can lay down a blanket 1300 feet long. Air Tractor is developing an 802 on floats that will be able to draw up water on the fly. A specially armored version is flown in South America for cocaine spraying.

Tyrell discussed some of the ag planes that Queen Bee had in the hanger. Air Tractor aircraft designations are based on the number of gallons of payload the plane can carry and the type engine. Radial engines end in a "1" designation and turboprops in a "2". A 301, for example, is a spray plane that can carry 300 gallons and has a radial engine. An interesting techno-addition to many spray planes is a GPS tracking device that guides the pilot within 3 ft of a desired track. Knowing only where the field to be sprayed is, the pilot can box the field on two passes and the GPS will then guide the pilot on precise tracks for the rest of the application. Back on the ground the data can be downloaded and provided to the landowner as proof of application. Isn't technology great?!

Spray pilots contract for a fire season, typically June through September. Air Tractor aircraft are used all over the world.

Tyrell gave a great presentation and a hearty thanks goes out to Queen Bee for hosting our group.

From Queen Bee we walked/rode to Larry Boam's hanger which contained several homebuilts, a Murphy Rebel, a Kit Fox owned by Dr. Stone, a Challenger II owned by Tim Egan And an Cessna Aerobat owned by Dave Spalding.

Next door to Larry's hanger is the Eagle Vision hanger. Eagle Vision has 5 aircraft, 3 for rent and 2 Czech imports that they are planning to produce locally. The rentals are a C-150, Cherokee 160 and an Aztec that is hangared in Idaho Falls. The Czech aircraft are an ATEC Zephyr, which sports a Rotax 80, and a Faeta with a 100 hp engine. The ATEC cruises at 120 kts and has a take-off distance of about 150 ft according to Caleb Wood, a principle in Eagle Vision. At 1320 lbs gross the plane qualifies as a sport pilot aircraft and for safety incorporates a ballistic recovery parachute. The cockpit is incredibly roomy at 41 in. wide.

I decide to pace the runway at Rigby to determine the midpoint for the 71% rule. If you are concerned about runway length for taking off, find the midpoint of the runway. If you make 71% of your liftoff speed by this point, you will make it and can proceed. If not, you have plenty of distance for stopping. This is a universal rule based on the first principles of physics. (The exact value is 1 divided by the square root of 2) It works for any wind condition and runway slope, aircraft type, altitude, etc. Acceleration follows a predictable behavior and with this method you are calibrating your acceleration rate in the first half of the runway. I read an article in the current issue of a popular aviation magazine in which a ‘mountain pilot’ figured he was good to go with 50% of takeoff speed at the midpoint. Don’t fall for this error. Does your plane maintain the same rate of acceleration as speed increases in spite of increasing drag? (No). This must have been a young pilot. Every runway should have the midpoint marked by a prominent stripe. Without this, a pedometer helps to count steps to find it.