Dallas Hub Report October 2008



October was a good month.  We had 189 total flights for 791.99 hours.  We also had 6 flying online for 99.31 online hours.

I still urge everyone to try VATSIM.  It is fun and not as intimidating as it looks.  Our very own Andy Lowe is also a TWR controller and has kindly offered to get online and help anyone who is interested.  He is currently working KOKC Tower so look for him when online.


We still have the AlphaJet division with a hub in Houston at KHOU.  You do not have to depart from DFW to fly these flights so check it out.


Lately we have been getting a large turnout for VATSIM Sundays and HubTueHub online APG Flights..  This is good but we want MORE.  Its fun so come on out and meet your fellow pilots online and have a blast.  Also check out the forums for information on upcoming events.  Also use the forums for news, help, and general chit chat.

We had a little unofficial competition going between our father/son duo Jimmy and Travis Edwards.  They were both in a race to hit 1000 hours.  Travis beat his dad by a very close margin.  But they are both now members of the Millennium Club.  Congratulations to both of you.

Awards this month are as follows:
Pilot of the Month Jimmy Edwards 58 flights 277.83 hours.
VATSIM Top Pilot Wayne Gary 29.77 online hours.
Rookie of the Month William Smith 13 flights 13.6 hours.

Check your logbooks for your bonuses gentlemen.


Joe Pieper
Dallas Hub Director

Hello Everyone,

Welcome to the November update of the AFA Australia Hub.
There were 2 big aviation events this past month. The Red Bull air racing was held in Perth 1/2 November. Amberley air show was held over the weekend 4/5 October.
Coming up on the 15th in Essendon, Victoria is the Airways Museum annual open day if you live nearby. Checkout www.airwaysmuseum.com
On the 22/23 November is the Gathering of the Moths at Mt Beauty, North East Victoria.  Each year in spring the Bogong moths fly from South-East Queensland to Mt. Bogong. 

This event though gathers Tiger Moths and all other light aircraft.


Back in August was the annual Oshkosh Airventure. 

Cirrus showcased their entry into the jet market with the SJ50 - a single engine mounted on top that blows through a V-shaped tail. 

Piper Aircraft also showed their single jet engine version. Their engine is mounted in the single vertical tail. Expect to pay around $1.3 million.

The automobile-plane has surfaced again in the form of Terrafugia Transition. www.terrafugia.com

The wings fold up and store against the side of the 4-wheeled car.  During flight a pusher propeller gets it along at 100kts.


An electric-powered airplane was shown.  A 18hp electric motor is powered by a 5.6 kilowatt-hour battery and can cruise at 61 kts for up to 2 hours before recharging. It has not been certified by the FAA yet as they try to work out the equivalent empty fuel weight since the batteries stay the same dead weight whether charged or not.


NEW PILOTS:

Welcome to AFA Australia,
•   Nick Robertson AFA8393
•   Zoheb Khayum AFA8394
•   Shantanu Gupta AFA8395
•   Isaac Liu AFA8396
•   James Sharp AFA8397
•   Sam Zappia AFA8398
•   James Fio AFA8399
•   Jason Martin AFA8400

If any of you are unsure of procedures or anything feel free to send Don, Hans or Vincent a message with your questions.  We’re here to help! Alternatively check the forums for similar questions that others have asked.

PILOT STATS:
At the end of October, Australia had 25 active pilots.
Inactives stand at 8.
Pilots on leave (LOA) at 4.

PILOT PROMOTIONS:
-   Zoheb Khayum got right into the flying and progressed from First Officer to Captain to ATP First Officer to ATP Captain.  Well done Zoheb.
-   Shantanu Gupta also has been flying a bit and was promoted from First Officer to Captain to ATP First Officer.  Well done Shantanu.
-   Johny Gadar was promoted from First Officer to Captain.  Well done Johny.

Congratulations all!

CHARTERS:

Our charter page on the Australian hub forum page will be removed now that the AFA charter system is back up.  If you want to fly a charter, go to http://apgcharter.co.cc
Currently we have a few available and will put some more up to cover New Zealand and India soon.

Don’t forget that if you have somewhere you want to fly using either AFA or Pacific Airways aircraft then let me know and away you go.  It’s that easy!  Pacific have a Cessna Caravan, Helicopter Agusta A109, Amphibious Twin Otter and Beaver, BAE 146-300, Fokker F50 as well as a Dash 8-400.  So there’s a lot of opportunity out there!

ACTIVITY:
Vatsim 118 hrs for 9 pilots.  Rauldan Jaggernauth contributed 92 hrs 21 mins. Thankyou Rauldan.

Online and Offline activity was 506 hrs for 21 pilots.  Zoheb Khayum contributed 127 hrs 35 mins; Geoff Thomson contributed 92 hrs 6 mins; and Rauldan 90 hrs 18 mins. 

Thanks guys.

PILOT OF THE MONTH:
For his triple promotion we’re awarding Zoheb Khayum the Pilot of the Month.
Here’s 5 bonus points for you Zoheb.

Flight Instruction:
If you’re looking for some flight instruction reading then the following pages have a wealth of training information.
http://apg.flyafa.com/training/manuals.php .
http://www.vatsim.net/prc/

The following page also offers certificates in flying certain procedures on Vatsim.
http://pilotcerts.laartcc.org/page/Home.html

Australian charts are available free to download from
http://www.airservices.gov.au/publications/current/dap/AeroProcChartsTOC.htm

ADDITIONAL FLYING:
If you are looking for some new flight experiences why not try the routes available from the other AFA hubs and Pacific Airways hubs.  If you don’t have the qualification to fly the cat.4 aircraft to get there or if you cannot spend that long on a flight over the ocean then you can perform what is called a “jumpseat”.
This is not an actual flight but all you do is first fly to Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Auckland (NZ), or Mumbai (India) and then start flying from the chief airport of the Hub in the country where you want to start flying.  At the end of your first flight put in the comments where you jumpseated from.  When you log the flight (pirep) you need to click in the box that it was a codeshare flight.

If you register and look in the APG forums http://forums.flyafa.com you will also find notices of organised flyins.  There is something going on every week.  This may mean you have to work out the right time conversion for where you live.  The USA Friday Night Flyins are good for Australia as it is a Saturday morning experience.

If you want to experience a bit more reality and maybe some sweaty palms, try flying online with http://www.vatsim.net/.  Their website has all the information you need to get the program running as well as all the documentation to ensure you know how to use the radio correctly and to notify air traffic control and fly the correct routes and approaches.

Note:
Flight 8130A from Sydney YSSY to Honolulu PHNL shows an incorrect nominal time of 5hrs 30mins.
Although this may be possible in a fighter jet or perhaps concorde, by the time you burn off speed to meet the 250kts limit below 10,000 feet and negotiate other traffic the flight time will be significantly longer.  We have brought this to the attention of the flight route programmer and will have it fixed.

That wraps up this month’s news. 

Enjoy your flying - and take care.

Gentleman,
 
 I congragulate everyone again for another month of hard work. The Hub is growing in leaps and bounds it seems for the last few months and you as our pilots are setting the example for all the others to follow. So good job and well done to all the pilots here  in Atlanta.
 Operationaly speaking the Atlanta HUB is on par with the past few months in hours and forum participation. The winter weather is creeping up on us so Iam sure we will see more activity in both. So stay warm everyone and keep the pace.
 So onto the stats for the HUB.

 Active Pilots: 50
 Inactive Pilots: 8
 LOA's: 8
 Total Pilots: 66

 Total Flight Hours: 506.9
 Vatsim Hours: 62.9

 Forums:
 Our activities on the forums have been pretty good. If you know of anyone who hasnt yet take a look here then please pass that info onto them. This forum in my eyes is a treasure trove of information and comraderie. Everyone here is always willing to help and pass on any tips that they may have. If you know of anyone that need any help with anything in regards to getting active here please pass it along to either Jim or I.
 Charters:
 Use of the charter system is a great way to add flavour and excitement to your flying experience here with us. If you need to request one, or have any questions in regards to a specific charter please feel free to contact the Atlanta staff. The charter section can be used to ask anything and for requests as well. Dont miss out...I have done a few myself and have been to some fun airports and seen some wonderful scenary along the way. Its also a great way to get to know a few differant airports that maybe off the "beatin" path. Also you can use any aircraft flown by both us and our sister airline. You can get anywhere you may choose..so take a look.
 Vatsim:
 Vastsim use here in Atlanta is on par again with last month. On that note I would like to say that if anyone again needs any help getting started with its use you will not be disappointed. FsInn is a stable program in use for FSX and Squawk box now has a program to facilitate it as well. A journey to the Vatsim webpage will be able to get anyone started. This is one of the most exciting things I have seen in regards to my "flight" experience and is about as real as it gets. So again please take a look and there is a host of people here to get anyone started and in top form in no time.
 POM:
 Pilot of the month again as always is a tough choice for me. I wiss to congragulate this months pilots who has demonstrated many things with his flights. So on that note..here he is.
 Giorgia Nicola (AFA2927)

 In closing I would like to congragulate all of you again for a job well done. There is a few hiccups here and there and we will correct these when they come along. If anyone needs anything please feel free to contact me at oldgb69@gmail.com with any questions or comments.
 Thanks;
   KATL Chief Pilot: Richard Bertschinger

This is a quarterly report for the goings on at London. It's a quarterly report because nothing much has been happening over the last 3 months. In total 249 flights have been flown for a total of 1,044 hours, with quite a lot of long haul flights thrown in there. Of these flights 171 of them were scheduled,  71 were charter flights and 6 were special flights. 21% of all flights were flown online, which has dropped of a little from previous hub reports, with winter drawing in we expect to see activity pick up again as has been the case in previous years. Our cargo division still remains popular with 20% of flights being cargo flights, special mentions go to Andrew Grigsby and Barry Smith for hauling the cargo for us over the last 3 months.
The roster has been trimmed down a little since the last report as several inactive and long term LOA pilots have now been terminated, so the roster is a lot smaller, but most of the pilots on it are regularly active.
Pilot of the quarter goes to Nathan Foss who has flown 44 flights for a total of 378 hours clock time. Well done Nathan, I will add some bonus hours to your Log-book