propwash
september 2026
© Photographer Name
Photo courtesy of Terrence Bowen
DEDICATED TO AVIATION, SAFETY, FRIENDSHIP, COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT AND EDUCATION SINCE 1984
2026 Aviation Career Day Volunteers Needed for Career Day The Auburn Aviation Association 100% Award Redbird Simulator Rates AAA 100% Reward
ARTICLES
President's Message Update from the Manager's Desk of KAUN As the Prop Turns Distant Biplane Memories: Twilight Bluing
AAA Events Photos Wreaths Across America Endowment Fund Corporate Sponsors Member List 2026 Board Members Support AAA Endowment Join Us!
INFO of INTEREST
MISC.
In This Issue
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
NEBIL ALMAKDESHI, AAA PRESIDENT
Hey all, The journey to whatever you are trying to accomplish is going to be littered with traps, quicksand, and mirages of the path to take. In doing so, be extra intuitive to that voice in your head to be weary. Turn right not left, stop, go etc. Understanding that all that glitters is not gold, comes from a test. A test where you thought something was this, but it turns out to be that. Plenty of stories of aviation accidents extrapolated from this. On the flip side, so many tests end up wrong, that the little wins, feel like conquests. And we start to appreciate those little things, because so much has gone wrong, salvation in those wins feel monumental. And rightfully so. Finally soloing, hitting your mark on short field landings by yourself, etc. These little wins, that got built on to fly solo, and getting a PPL, are the make up of getting it wrong and getting right. As we round into the back stretch of 2026, acknowledging your success/failures are all part of the make up of what makes you; you! Nobody is perfect, but nobody is a failure. To those that think they are, there is a mirage of a path to take to your destination. But for both sides of that argument, equally, it’s not what you’re expecting. Fly safe. Nebil Almakdeshi President Auburn Aviation Association
General membership meeting
Join us for our monthly membership meeting and catered dinner: September 2nd, 2026. Guests and non-members are welcome!
Aircraft Display Days at KAUN Saturday, August 1, 2026
EVENTS
Aviation Career Day Saturday, October 17, 2026 Save the date!
upcoming
Major and Regional Airline Pilots
Stephen K. Robinson Ph.D. - Former Astronaut
Discover more about the many exciting career opportunities in all areas of the aviation industry. Meet educators and mentors from numerous aviation career fields. Free snacks and raffle prizes! Registration is required and seating is limited, scan the QR code to reserve your place.
saturday, october 17th
Major Anthony "Judge" Tisdale - Air National Guard
ABOUT
2026 AVIATION CAREER DAY
GUEST speakers
"Blancolirio" - Airline Pilot and Youtuber
12:30 pm start 1:00 pm presentation
Sac City College A&P Mechanic Program
William Jessup University Aviation Program
Emmie Smith - Cirrus Aircraft
Metro Fire Sacramento - Retired Pilot
FLYERS HANGAR WEST OF MACH 5 AUBURN MUNICIPAL AIRPORT
Spring 20##
TYGHE RICHARDSON, AIRPORT MANAGER
Achieving the AAAE Certified Member Designation I am pleased to share that I have successfully completed the requirements for the Certified Member (C.M.) designation through the American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE). Founded in September 1928 when a small group of airport directors convened at the National Air Races at Mines Field in Los Angeles, AAAE has grown into the world’s largest professional organization representing airport management personnel at public-use commercial and general aviation airports. Its mission centers on advancing professionalism, safety, operational efficiency, and advocacy for airports of every size while providing rigorous education and certification programs that set industry standards. The C.M. credential is earned by successfully completing a comprehensive 180-question examination covering the fundamental functions of airport operations. This designation demonstrates a verified, broad knowledge base in areas essential to general aviation airports such as Auburn Municipal Airport—including airfield operations, safety management, regulatory compliance, finance, planning, and administration. For a general aviation facility, the C.M. strengthens local capacity by confirming that staff possess the professional foundation needed to support safe, efficient, and compliant operations; it also provides a clear pathway for continued growth toward the Accredited Airport Executive (A.A.E.) designation and reinforces the value of ongoing education for the entire airport community. Auburn Airport Apparel T-shirts, hats, sweatshirts, and more are available for order just in time for the holidays! Visit the online store here: Auburn Airport Store Safe flying! Tyghe Richardson Your Airport Manager Auburn Airport City of Auburn, CA (530) 888-8174
UPDATE FROM THE AIRPORT MANAGER'S DESK OF KAUN
AS THE PROP TURNS
All the kids are going back to school, however, the following have been able to achieve a new level of their aviation ambitions: Abigail Adams was able to solo with Chris Hale as her instructor. Abigail soloed while her parents were here to witness her accomplishment! Meanwhile “Kiki” Kopp has advanced in her Air Force training and has moved into the T-6 Texan II. The aircraft is not the old T-6 from WWII but a new aircraft. It is built by Beechcraft – Textron Aviation under license from the Pilates PC-9. Congratulations to all on your accomplishments! Getting your weather How many people are totally dependent on the their phone for getting your weather? How many people believe what they see on the internet? The number of “apps” out there is amazing. The one thing you have to remember, is that all of these “apps” get their information from the National Weather service and then they extrapolate the information for a particular location. Much of that you can do yourself. Additionally much of that information may be twenty minutes old or older. The big thing you need to remember is: the weather you get is advisory in nature and is not absolutely correct all of the time. Someone once told me that the weather service was correct 100% of the time right now and the forecast deteriorated with time. The further out the less accurate it is. The best weather reporting or accuracy is in your front windshield. Look outside! Career day is coming on October 17. Volunteers are always welcome to help with many things that need to be done at the last minute. It is also an opportunity to bring a friend along who might be interested in aviation. There are many different careers in aviation other than airline pilots; mechanics, air traffic controllers, dispatchers, firefighters, law enforcement, fish and game, agriculture, business management, missionary pilots, BLM, USFS, etc. For more information email Nebil Almakdeshi (President AAA) at President@AuburnAviationAssociation.org. That is about all for this month. Good Night Miss Daisy. Mike Duncan The Prop Turner
MIKE DUNCAN, SUNSHINE FLYERS
BEN MARSH, EHGF BOARD DIRECTOR
Within a few weeks of my reacquaintance flight with the Stearman, Bernie called to let me know I was on the insurance as a named pilot. He reminded me that I would be called upon to help support maintenance efforts, do some promotional rides from time to time and take the airplane to a few airshows. I reminded him that I was effectively a low-time Stearman pilot and that I needed practice to strengthen my competency with the airplane, before I took someone’s life in my hands or flew to an airshow or fly-in. I told him that I wanted to put in a couple hours of pattern work with the Stearman, which proved to be some highly rewarding flying. The elongating afternoons and evenings of spring sets the tone for good summer flying. The winter doldrums of nocturnal dominance and tempestuous climate slowly fade, our lives seeming to lengthen by a couple minutes each day. Minute by minute, evening light holds a little longer, the crispening depth of twilight-blue energizing us, reconnecting one another to each other out of doors under slower darkening skies. Be it at home working in the yard, walking hand-in-hand or with a wandering leash, perhaps on a restaurant patio, sipping and supping with friends, we extend our days under a panorama of the finest blue light fading for the stars. The promise of spring, more so than any other season, extends anticipation and optimism, especially for flyers. Gathering Twilight. Photographer Anonymous. I found myself suspended in this spring light with the Stearman, in the early days of the equinox, just after the blink of daylight savings time. After a rugged day of work, guiding people and process, materials and the hand-made installations of custom flooring, tiled and solid surfaced countertops and surrounds, I went to the airport to escape the details of the day. I found the Stearman waiting on its own terms, neither insistent nor demanding, nonetheless holding a standard of performance that could prove self-centering and illuminating, devoid of the noise and distraction of demand and supply. I pre-flight the Stearman, coming toward the place of oneness with the machine and the craft of flight. Settling into the cockpit, our bond took hold more firmly than the belt and shoulder straps connecting me to its seat. We found the sky where we left it years earlier in the lowlands of southern Sonoma County, that long ago place of Schellville. The darkness of day. Photographer Anonymous. For an hour and more, we aligned ourselves with Nut Tree’s runway two-zero, amid the gentle flow of cool moist ocean and bay air that warmed as it whispered up and around the Blue Ridge range, bordering our nest to the South and West. Ever since my earliest days flying with Dad, learning from his practice of take-offs and landings in old Cessnas, a formative, bonding time for father and son, I came to love the art and practice of the touch & go. Dad did every manner of take-off and landing, short and soft, smoothly and firmly joining sky and earth with an artist’s focus and touch, the creative energy that proved his connection to the craft. I loved that time, harkening to it in my early flight training and sought it when I needed time alone, as a bird flies. Compared to sport biplanes, the Stearman is a big, heavy machine, sturdy and firm, slow and draggy with its stock and near stock two and a quarter hundred horsepower engine. These early machines didn’t seem excited about anything in flight, unless they were treated badly or ineptly, in which case the Stearman’s girth would take over and the hapless pilot would be along for its wild ride: the squealing of tires, the gnashing of teeth, and the scraping, or worse yet, the snapping of wing and structure. It is unity we find when we let go of everything else around us to join the moment of now, the flying machine both a catalyst and foil for our creativity and imagination. Aligning with the reality of the runway, then throttling up to build momentum enough for air to curve around its form, the Stearman loosens its touch with earth, lifting us into air, joining flight, slowly at first, steadily gaining speed and height, the magic surrounding plane and pilot, now indistinguishable from the ground, and in practice. We are one in flight. Joining the sky. Photographer Anonymous. We claw higher, engine straining, fuel and air squeezing and exploding too quickly to count as the propeller cuts through the blue, pulling us forward and up, until we ease the flow and reduce the burden and whirl. Now we are on the perch, abeam the runway, preparing for the second half of flight, coming to land. Throttling back further, thrust is no longer sufficient to hold our loft above land, the rush of air slowing, the tenner of sound more prominently windswept than the tin of pistons in cylinders and bursts of exhaust. We whistle in the air, the flying wires holding our structure firmly, as we pattern an approach into the wind we cannot see, but witness as ripples on a lake, smoke taking its leave of fire and a windsock gathering its direction. With a final glance at our destination, we become blind to it, our senses taking hold of its periphery, which become our indications of height and speed, confirmed by measured air in our instruments, closer and nearer by the second, as a dart finds its mark on the round board; and, we find our centered self. We slip to earth in these last moments, wings level, fuselage aligned and our nose pivoting gently skyward, tail reaching lower until we realize our aim of joining land as we left it a few minutes earlier. We drag slower, directing our remaining momentum straight and true; we find our place, that moment of nirvana when oneness is all there is, nothing before or after, no such as this and that, but the inclusiveness of all. With the eagerness of youth trading a dime or quarter for another measure of distraction, the throttle advances and we join flight anew, time and again, another lap in the deepening, darkening bluing light of air, the distant sun now hidden beneath glowing crescents of white and yellow, then orange and red on windswept wisps of clouds, their coloration lagging the color-filled horizon of earth and sky. We taxi back to the hangar, shadowless and content, fulfilled with everything that matters and nothing that confounds the majesty. Twilight Bluing. Photographer Anonymous. I secure the Stearman and its hangar, find my car in the still darkening blue, specks of light streaking in circles through the sky, too slowly to notice their juxtaposition from moment to moment. Sleep finds me, as it left me in the morning, dreamless, but for the certainty of flight and finding that place in my heart and mind that fills what is absent and feeds what hungers. Starlight becomes us. Photograph by Bob Davies.
DISTANT BIPLANE MEMORIES: TWILIGHT BLUING
Stearman Two-Three-Three on the vertical over Rogers Creek Fault. Sear Point Raceway on the mid-horizon. Marsh photo, 1993.
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GENERAL MEMBERS
OFFICERS President - Nebil Almakdeshi - president@auburnaviationassociation.org Vice President - Doug Bolsover - vp@auburnaviationassociation.org Secretary - Doug Fee - secretary@auburnaviationassociation.org Treasurer - Deborah Sandbank - treasurer@auburnaviationassociation.org BOARD MEMBERS Past President Chris Haven pastpres@auburnaviationassociation.org Scholarship Director Don Wolfe flyfund@auburnaviationassociation.org Assistant Scholarship James Jacobson skyfund1539@gmail.com Membership Director Vacant membership@auburnaviationassociation.org Publicity Director David Sanborn publicity@auburnaviationassociation.org Propwash Editor Mike Duncan duncan7kcab@sbcglobal.net 5AC Chair Ken Dwelle 5ac@auburnaviationassociation.org Board Member at Large Joanie Mooneyham joaniemoon05@gmail.com Donations Coordinator Nancy Benjamin don_benj@pacbell.net
2026 AAA Board