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Published: 15 June 2020

  With fire season in full swing, all pilots, but especially backcountry pilots, need to be diligent in their pre-flight awareness of fires and related TFR’s. In many of the National Forests, including our USFS region 3, AZ and NM, our backcountry airstrips are being used as staging areas for firefighting efforts. You may recall a few years ago, Air Tractors made 24AZ

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Published: 14 June 2020

  By Rick Bosshardt, AZ Pilots Association Board Member   Looking for a fun and interesting place to fly to and explore in Arizona?  One of the hidden gems that we are fortunate enough to have is the fabled Grand Gulch Copper and Silver mine on the north rim of the Grand Canyon. Situated in the northwest corner of the Grand Canyon National Park, the location

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Published: 14 June 2020

  By Paul Wiley   Most pilots are familiar with the process of the pre-flight inspection of the aircraft after their first few flying lessons. These pilots understand the purpose and process for ensuring the aircraft they are preparing to fly is in fact airworthy; and if it is not airworthy, then this is obviously a “No-Go” for the flight. Less obvious, but

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Published: 13 June 2020

  By Howard Deevers   Remember getting your Private Pilot License, and the examiner said: “Here is your license to learn,” or something to that effect?  Now, you are a pilot and can fly anywhere you want, without needing your instructor to sign off on the cross country, and you can take passengers.  Congratulations!  Pilots do continue to learn as

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Published: 13 June 2020

~  Scholarship Corner  ~   By Chris Nugent  As I mentioned in last month’s update, I reached out to all of our 2019 scholarship winners to see how things are going with their studies and flight training in light of the current state of affairs with the Coronavirus. Ben Alberti is attending Chandler-Gilbert Community College/NDU Aerospace and reports

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Published: 13 June 2020

  2020 CONTINUES TO LOOK REALLY GOOD, SAFETY WISE, WITH ONLY 2 ACCIDENTS SO FAR INVOLVING FATALITIES.   IRONICALLY, BOTH FATALITIES WERE PASSENGERS IN THE AIRCRAFT, ALTHOUGH THE ONE PASSENGER IN THE HELICOPTER CRASH WAS A CERTIFIED PILOT, BUT NOT ARIZONA-BASED.  WE DID, HOWEVER, LOSE AN ARIZONA-BASED PILOT AND HIS FAMILY IN A FATAL CRASH UP IN NEVADA IN

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Published: 09 June 2020

  Because of the virus pandemic we are going through, it looks like this is again going to be a rather brief report from a news standpoint. It seems like everything is still in somewhat of a standby mode. There are a few aviation meetings that are becoming somewhat active again by going to virtual meetings on the web. These type of meetings are good, but they certainly

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Published: 09 June 2020

Greetings, We’re close. As Arizona moves forward with reopening the state and businesses respond by springing back to life, we look forward to burning 100LL and spending time with fellow aviators. After all, this is one of the main reasons we fly. As much as I’ve dry run emergency procedures in my head, flipped through the FAR/AIM (not a terribly dry read, by the way), and

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Published: 09 June 2020

  The following are the NTSB reports of aviation accidents that occurred in Arizona from April through late May. APA will use this detailed accident information to develop safety programs, briefings, and posters/flyers to help pilots learn from the mistakes being made by others and take the action necessary to prevent them from having similar accidents. Aviation safety

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Published: 13 May 2020

  By Howard Deevers   A student of mine went to Ryan Airport for his Private Pilot check ride. The date was 9/11/2001. He arrived for his appointment at 8 AM sharp, and by 9 AM Tucson Time, we all knew of the airplanes that flew into the buildings in New York. The airspace was shut down by the National Security Council. All airplanes were instructed to land as