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DEDICATED TO AVIATION, SAFETY, FRIENDSHIP, COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT, AND EDUCATION SINCE 1984
propwash
july 2025
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Presidents Message Update from the Managers Desk As The Prop Turns A Muddy Mess
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PRESIDENTS MESSAGE: check your own weather
I’m on my way back from a month-long trip to lovely Charleston, South Carolina, where I mostly grew up and later spent 20 years working in the tourism business. The weather is unpredictable, especially at this time of year. Charleston is on the Atlantic coast, and one day we went out in a small boat on the intracoastal waterway with some friends. The owner of the boat happens to be a Netjets pilot. Even though for his job he may have to navigate unfamiliar locations and weather, we got caught in quite a squall on the water. One minute we were in the very hot, muggy weather observing the unusual beauty created by half of the sky being a deep, dark gray and the other half of the sky being fairly bright. Edward, the pilot told the driver of the boat, “Head for blue skies.” Trouble is he’s used to heading for the blue at more than 200 miles an hour and we were traveling at maybe 12 knots. The temperature dropped drastically and cold rain started pelting us. My childhood friend who was driving the boat started snapping pictures. Laughing and squealing in the rain, we pulled up to a dock and ran up the ramp onto someone’s screened porch, where we stood for 30 minutes or so and dried off and laughed about our adventure. It appears there were life vests stored above our heads, but I didn’t really think about any of that before or during the short storm. Our excursion turned out to be a quite memorable adventure. I’m glad we didn’t really pay attention to the weather forecast.
Chris Haven, AAA President
General membership meeting menu
To Be Determined...
this months speaker
5AC Meeting 07/01/2025 5:30 PM (PDT)The Barnstormer Room and online Monthly Membership Meeting 07/02/2025 6:00 PM (PDT)13666 New Airport Rd, Auburn, CA 95602 Aircraft Display Days at KAUN 08/02/2025 10:00 AM (PDT)13666 New Airport Road, Auburn, CA
upcoming events:
Main Dish: M-Z Side or Salad: G-L Dessert: A-F
An update from the managers desk of kaun
Landing Gear Extension Issue - Safe Landing and Strong Response On June 11th at approximately 11:30 AM, I contacted the Auburn Fire Department regarding a potential aircraft emergency. A pilot had notified the Airport of a landing gear extension issue during a training flight. After conducting in-flight diagnostics and manually lowering the gear, the pilot completed several low passes but was still unsure if the landing gear was fully locked. As a precaution, Auburn Fire contacted CAL FIRE’s Emergency Command Center for support. The response dispatched included CAL FIRE Battalion Chief Moffett, three CAL FIRE/Placer County Fire engines, two AMR ambulances, and two Auburn Police officers. Auburn Fire Chiefs Rogers and Jelle also responded as agency representatives. Upon arrival, all responders were briefed by the your Airport Manager, who confirmed two occupants were onboard and approximately 80 gallons of fuel remained. Chiefs Jelle and Moffett, along with Auburn Police Sergeant Davis, established Unified Command, developed an incident action plan, and staged resources in preparation for landing. The airport was temporarily closed, and Auburn Police cleared the runway safety area. I advised the pilot that the runway was ready for landing. The aircraft touched down gently and safely, without incident. Thanks to the CFI’s calm handling of the situation and the quick coordination among emergency responders, what could have been a serious emergency ended smoothly and safely. This incident had several major successes: the safe landing of the aircraft and the excellent coordination among Auburn Fire, Auburn Police, CAL FIRE/Placer County Fire, AMR, and the Airport operations team. It also highlighted the importance of regular interagency training, and the professionalism of the pilots involved. Continuous training and teamwork clearly made a difference. Minimum Operating Standards – Progress Update Work continues on updating the Minimum Operating Standards for Auburn Municipal Airport. Our goal is to establish a set of standards that’s not only clear and comprehensive but also sustainable for the long term. If you haven’t already shared your thoughts, we’d love to hear from you. Please reach out to me or connect with any of the project liaisons listed below. Every contribution strengthens the final product. We are aiming to have a revised draft ready for your review within the next month. Thank you for your continued involvement and commitment to the future of Auburn Municipal Airport. Project Liaisons: Ken Dwelle, Kent English, Dan Flom, Richard Byrod, Bryan Souza, Andy Robinson, Rick Duste Safe flying! Tyghe Richardson Your Airport Manager Auburn Airport City of Auburn, CA (530) 888-8174
Tyghe Richardson, Airport Manager
As the prop turns
Mike Duncan, Sunshine Flyers
Charlie Martinez and CFI Kristen Kopp
The Fourth of July is just around the corner. Picnics, bar-b-q’s, ice cream, and mom’s apple pies, parades, and baseball are all part of the celebration marking our Declaration of Independence from the King of England. With all of these events, there may be many fly-by’s to help celebrate the occasion. One of the precautions we will have as pilots will be to avoid these events. Do good preflight planning and check NOTAM’s. You also need to be on the lookout for the occasional impromptu fly-bys at small local events such as the parade in Auburn and Lincoln. Remember, the best way to avoid a collision is to keep your eyes outside the airplane and your head on a swivel. In addition to the parades and picnics, there will be many fireworks displays in the early evening after sunset, which are kind of neat to see from the air. Airshows and Fly-in’s should also be on your list of things to be aware of. It is worth your time and peace of mind to get NOTAMs or give the destination airport a call before you leave and see if anything is going on; even the local FBO at your destination would be helpful. You might want to leave a little earlier or even change your destination. It would not be the first time I have landed somewhere where an airshow was scheduled and the airport is going to be closed for the next few hours. Don’t be the guy who just blasts into the airport and causes them to shut down events while you land. Check NOTAMs and listen up on the radio, and enjoy your Fourth of July weekend. The following folks are now celebrating their newfound freedom in aviation. Charlie Martinez soloed for the first time in a Cessna 172 at the Auburn Airport. Charlie ‘s instructor was Kristen Kopp (Kiki). Dwight Stalker added to his long list of first solo’s, soloing Levi Gillett also in a Cessna 172 at the Auburn airport. Congratulations to all on a job well done; enjoy your newfound freedom. The Red Bird simulator is starting to be used more and more, and that is a good sign. Whether you fly a six-pack or an all-glass G-1000, the procedures that you learn are all the same. The system you use will be slightly different, but the end goal is the same. The versatility you will have in flying different systems will be one of the long-term benefits to you in the future, both as a private pilot and a commercial pilot. The money you save will be in the thousands of dollars. This money can be used for additional ratings such as CFI or Multi-Engine. It is a great step up into the airline world; If your ambition is to go that route. When hired by the airlines, they will assume you can fly an airplane, but you will spend all of your training time learning new systems. Systems you will already be generally familiar with. Save time; save money. Try the Redbird simulator. Well, that is about all for this month. Good Night Miss Daisy. The Prop Turner, Mike Duncan
Flying a large airplane is a team sport. No one does it alone-- or at least they shouldn't. A good Captain fosters a sense of participation and teamwork in his crew, because these people sitting to your right and behind you are sharp and well-experienced individuals. I'm not saying that the Captain should necessarily do whatever the co-pilot suggests, but they should at least listen to them. Back when I was still working, there was a six-day trip that I flew fairly often. Based in Minneapolis, we flew the all-nighter to Amsterdam, arriving around dawn the next morning. We had a 26-hour layover and then, the next day, flew a nine-hour leg to Mumbai (Bombay), India, arriving there around midnight. After a layover there, we'd head back to Minneapolis with a stop off and another 26 hour layover in Amsterdam along the way. Much of this trip was at night, or on the far side of the world, or both. We were tired, we were jet-lagged, and we were not at our sharpest. Late one particular night we arrived in Mumbai in the middle of their annual monsoon season, and the weather was pretty much as you might expect: Overcast with a steady, medium-intensity rain and a reported visibility of 2 miles. My co-pilot was a good guy who I'd worked with numerous times before. It was his leg, and he did a good job of flying an ILS to runway 27. We broke out of the clouds at about 500', saw the approach lights, and continued to a normal landing on the wet runway. A heavily loaded Boeing 747 takes a fair amount of runway to slow down and stop, and, as we decelerated to taxi speed, I took over control of the airplane to taxi clear of the runway and then back eastbound on the parallel taxiway toward our gate. One of the issues to be dealt with in flying into a lot of different countries is that they don't always quite live up to the standardization of airport signage and lighting that you might expect. But it's usually pretty consistent in that taxiway edge lights are blue, and taxiway centerline lights are green. However, some airports have only taxiway edge lights and no centerline lights. Others have only taxiway centerline lights and no edge lights. And then, some have both. Nonetheless, you can tell which is which by the color coding. As I cleared the runway in Mumbai that night and made my right 180-degree turn to taxi back toward the east, I looked across the cockpit, through the dark, grungy night and started to line up my nosewheel on the green taxiway centerline lights. Fortunately, my co-pilot was paying attention and realized what I was doing. He also spoke up quickly and clearly. You see, in the darkness and the rain, the dim blue taxiway edge lights, having been subjected to years of air pollution, looked more green than blue. So, while I thought I was lining up on the taxiway centerline lights, I was mistakenly lining up my nosewheel on the edge lights. Had he not been paying attention, or had he been unwilling to speak up, or had I not listened to him, I would have taxied my half-million-pound 747 into the wet mud along the side of the taxiway. No one would have been hurt. But it would have been one heck of a mess extracting that big airplane from the mud that I almost taxied us into. Needless to say, I did not allow that co-pilot to buy a single beer for the remainder of the trip. All further beverages were purchased by the Captain, who was very grateful for his co-pilot's having been paying attention and his speaking up. It's not about who's right, it's about what's right. The value of a good co-pilot. And, the nice thing is that they don't necessarily need to be a paid professional; That good co-pilot might simply be your buddy or your spouse who happens to be sitting next to you.
Doug Fee
a muddy mess
David and Dillon Holloway, and Don Wolfe in Cabin Creek, Idaho.
tailwheel back country
AAA redbird simulator
Jessica Hubbard and Jason Bell from Placer Community Foundation fly the AAA Redbird over the Golden Gate Bridge
june meeting guests
L-R: Dan Flom, Mach 5 General Manager David Krussow, Cal Fire Grass Valley Air Attack Base Battalion Chief Carol Zerbe, DPE based out of Alaska
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