Traron Squadron

Our summer flying season is progressing well but in my area it has been a bit slow. Oshkosh is coming up soon so I'm sure that some of you will be attending the clinic that NATA will be holding at Dubuque, Iowa later this month. Traron has been quiet for the last couple months but we are about to start seeing some activity very soon. There will be two formation clinics coming up in the next 2 to 3 months. The first clinic will be hosted by the Dixie Wing at Peachtree City airport on the south side of Atlanta. The identifier for Peachtree is FFC. The second clinic will be our CAF home clinic at Odessa just prior to Airsho in the first part of October.

The clinic at the Dixie Wing is scheduled for August 20-21-22-23, 2009. The event will be based at FFC but most of the flying activities will be based out of Thomaston, GA (OPN) a few miles away, to help keep fuel costs down. Thomaston has been about the cheapest gas in the whole area for some time. Hotels and restaurants are a bit of a problem in Thomaston so after flying, folks will go back to FFC for the night. The contact for the Dixie Clinic will be Pop Wilson at dixiefltopps@bellsouth.net, or by mail at Dixie Wing, 1200 Echo Ct., Peachtree City, GA 30276. Pop should have a registration form available on the Traron website very soon as well. Remember, that site is at Traron.org.

The Odessa clinic will be held at Odessa/Schlemeyer airport (ODO) on October 7-8-9. The Desert Squadron has been kind enough to invite us back to there great facility on the south side of the airport and will provide us with their usual wonderful lunches. We do anticipate one change in the program this year. I plan to hold our Newby and Lead ground schools on Wednesday evening rather than trying to do it on Thursday morning as we have in the past. The Thursday morning ground school has always cost us a good half day of flying and that really restricted the amount of training we could do. You will need to plan your arrival sometime during the day on Wednesday so that you can be available for a 6 pm start time at the Desert Squadron hanger. Try to get something to eat before you arrive so you will be ready to start promptly at 6 pm. I asked for feed back on this idea in my last letter and only got 3 responses so I am hopeful that this change will be what everyone wants. I will enclose a registration form with this letter so if you plan to attend, please fill it out and return it to me as soon as you can. I will also enclose a copy of the CAF regs that outline the insurance requirements if you bring a privately owned aircraft to the clinic. These same rules apply to any CAF event that you might attend.

As I have mentioned in the past, you no longer need to be a CAF or Traron member to attend our Traron clinics. This is a major change from the past and I feel that it is a very important change. We may now invite our non CAF friends to attend the clinic. They must be a member of some FAST signatory but they don't have to be a CAF member. If they want a CAF Traron formation card, they will have to join our organization but if they want their Formation Proficiency Reports or Check Ride Forms sent back to their home signatory, we will be able to do that. The insurance requirements are very important though, so you must stress the need for this to anyone that wishes to attend. It is also important to remember that the same insurance requirements apply to CAF members that bring a privately owned aircraft to the clinic. This has not changed from the past and if you have been coming to Traron clinics, you will remember this requirement. The insurance must be presented when you sign in for the clinic or you will not be allowed to take part in the flying activities. Contact your insurance company a couple weeks in advance to preclude the problem of trying to get it all done at the last minute. The service is usually free from the insurance agent but it does take a little time. Many of the insurance companies will only provide the waiver for a specific weekend or event rather than for the entire year, so if you have had the waiver for a previous clinic this year, be sure that it is reinstated for the event that you want to attend. Get in touch with your flying buddies and get them to come with you to our clinics. It will help us to get more training done as well as to help us standardize what we do with the other FAST signatories. We can always learn from other groups and I'm sure they can learn something from us. The other benefit of bringing some non CAF folks to the clinic is that we may pick up a few new members. At the very least, if they come to Midland, they will see the best Warbird air show in the world after they have had the chance to fly formation with the best formation pilots in the country. How much better can it get than that.

I look forward to seeing all of you in the near future at one of our clinics. Fly safe this summer and spread the word among your friends.

Keep 'em Flying

Rick