For committed volunteers who can staff the booth for a half day or more, free AirVenture admission and lots of aviation bling are available. It's not hard, and the psychic benefits of meeting and talking with your fellow SAFE CFIs are invaluable.

AOPA Senior VP Richard McSpadden of the AOPA Air Safety Institute will be the guest speaker at this event. He leads a team of CFIs and content creators who develop and distribute free aviation safety material. ASI distributes material through a dedicated YouTube channel, iTunes podcasts, Facebook, and a dynamic website. ASI material is accessed 12 million times annually.

A native of Panama City, Florida, McSpadden started flying as a teenager and has logged over 5,000 hours flying a variety of civilian and military aircraft.

Registration is now open for half-day training sessions at the new Pilot Proficiency Center during EAA AirVenture 2022 at Oshkosh WI. The PPC is the outgrowth of a SAFE pilot proficiency outreach launched by SAFE co-founder Doug Stewart in 2012; see history.

The new facility is the first permanent PPC home since the program started in the 2012. It had been housed in a tent on the grounds but will now occupy the new PPC facility connected to the EAA Aviation Museum on the OSH grounds.

The required registration includes

Voting is now open for members to select the newest all-volunteer members for the SAFE Board of Directors. The voting - electronically - will continue through July 4. Last year, a full third of SAFE members voted in the election.

All SAFE members received an invitation to vote last month. This year four qualified candidates are running for the three available positions. Please review candidate qualifications by clicking the link under each candidate's photo, then find your e-mailed invitation to vote (check in your spam folder) and make your selections.

The four candidates for this year's election are:

Stuart Lieber Rob Dumovic Daniel Keen Alfredo Wayman

All items in the “Custom Embroidery” section of the Sporty’s catalog can also be customized with the SAFE logo. This includes pilot bags, fabric kneeboards, hats and visors. SAFE custom embroidery is great for the summer flying season, holiday giving, or special occasions for your favorite pilot. Login and get your SAFE products on the way.

For CFIs with clients ready for a more meaningful flight review experience, ASI has updated its "Focused Flight Review" series.

New to the program for pilots and CFIs is a three-step approach to a flight review, with activities that have been streamlined and consolidated into cross-country scenarios. Some profiles have been deleted and their activities consolidated into other profiles. Activities have been streamlined and reformatted into cross-country scenarios. A new "Beyond the Basics" profile helps improve their ability to safely maneuver in dynamic flight environments.

As with most AOPA Air Safety Institute materials, the entire Focused Flight Review program is free.

Click2Clear, the Bahamian government's new entry/exit program for pilots, has been placed on indefinite hold.

AOPA had protested the new program after finding numerous technical issues that would have complicated GA entry or exit to the Bahamas, rather than easing passage as the program name implied.

Marijuana use by pilots and CFIs is still illegal under Federal law, despite growing legal acceptance by states. Aviation career counselor Captain Jenny Beatty warns CFIs that CBD products - which are widely sold and often considered harmless - can trigger a positive drug test.

"Until marijuana is reclassified on the Federal level, the FAA will continue to prosecute positive drug tests," she said. "Even worse, many pilots don't understand that CBD - which is widely available - can cause a positive drug test."

The DOT has issued a notice warning aviation workers to avoid both THC and CBD, saying that although CBD products 'shouldn't' trigger a positive drug test, it can, and there is no recourse for a worker whose test is positive. Aviation blogger Jamie Beckett, writing in GA News last month, noted that a state-issued medical marijuana card does not exempt pilots or other aviation workers from FAA legal action.

The latest edition of the Air Safety Institute's CFI-To-CFI newsletter addresses training issues including safety and instructional technique. The lead article reviews various clearances found in the flight training environment.

Also in this issue are articles by ASI Senior VP Richard McSpadden, Lessons Learned - It Works If We Change Our Behavior; a staff report compiling issues in There I Was...Trouble During A Training Flight; a tale of crosswind instructional problems by CFI Ed Helmick in CFI's Point Of View: Caught In A Crosswind.

How does a budget-minded aviator get off the ground, with used Cirruses and Piper Malibus fetching a half million dollars each? For students who see no hope of ever buying an airplane, here's something to offer them hope.

It's a review of the current wild GA aircraft market, narrowing to the search for a good used Cessna 172 for under $100,000. "(It's) when The Beach Boys were singing Good Vibrations," said the report. "1960s-era Cessna 172s, which were clouding the skies back then, and helping to make a lot of pilots."

Airline pilots often go to great lengths to find smooth air for their passengers but until now predicting turbulence has been more art than science. Thanks to new technology, that's changing.

The Graphical Turbulence Guidance (GTG) interactive map on NOAA's Aviationweather.gov site identifies areas of turbulence and intensity, even at GA-friendly altitudes. It uses real-time data from more than1,000 aircraft with onboard sensors that automatically calculate the level of turbulence. Reports from participating ADS-B-equipped aircraft may be added soon.

The official FAA explanation of GTG research is in the April 20 FAA Safety Briefing, but an easier-to-read and more GA-oriented explanation by Ben Sclair of GA Flyer is here.

The SAFE Toolkit app is the standard reference for professional CFIs.

The continuously updated Toolkit contains all the FAA-required experience requirements, endorsements and knowledge test codes, in addition to training links to FARs and hundreds of other public resources. In addition, it offers weekly articles by the country's most experienced CFIs and a blog for CFIs.

"With the annual AirVenture just around the corner, the SAFE Toolkit now includes an interactive map of the grounds at OSH as well as a schedule of events and happenings," said SAFE Communications Director Kevin D Murphy. "It's indispensable for any professional CFI."

The app is available as SAFE Toolkit on both Google Play and Apple's App Store.

These GA-related companies support SAFE and its mission to improve professionalism in aviation education. Please patronize them when choosing a product or service. Click on the logo to go to that company's web site.

SAFE Executive Director David St George of Ithaca NY last month earned his 13th accreditation as a Master Flight Instructor, representing the beginning of his 26th year as Master CFI.

His career in aviation has been rich and diverse but focused on flight instructor safety and professional development. In addition to his responsibilities as SAFE Executive Director, David also serves the FAA as a Designated Pilot Examiner and is privileged to fly as a jet charter captain in Lears and Citations.

He is the author of the popular "SAFE Toolkit" App, a platform-agnostic application that is free to all CFIs and contains virtually every reference an active CFI could ever need.

Donald Lee Hall Jr. of Mesa AZ was last month awarded the designation Master Instructor-Aerobatic for the third time.

Lee is the Mesa Director of Flight Operations for Aviation Performance Solutions (APS) and specializes in training pilots to overcome the top fatal threat across all aviation sectors: Loss of Control in Flight.

The APS upset curriculum is available to any pilot. It consists of intervention, practices, strategy, techniques, and philosophies to arm pilots with the knowledge, skill, and resilience to recognize, prevent, and recover from airplane upset.

Rochelle Oslick of Oxnard CA has earned her second Master CFI-Aerobatic designation last month.

Rochelle learned to fly at the Edwards AFB Flying Club and began flying tailwheel and aerobatic airplanes at Santa Paula Airport (KSZP) in 1988. Her aerospace engineering career led her to work at Lockheed, Douglas and Boeing, so she has flown from several airports in southern California and in western Washington.

Rochelle started flight instructing part-time in 2003 in the Seattle area, specializing in tailwheel and aerobatic airplanes. After retiring from Boeing, Rochelle returned to Santa Paula Airport and is a CFI at CP Aviation.

SAFE is a 501(c)(3) educational, not-for-profit professional organization building aviation educator excellence and aviation safety. Our more than 4,100 members include many of the best-known, best-credentialed and most experienced CFIs as well as many FAA Designated Pilot Examiners.

Join SAFE now Give To SAFE (Tax Deductible)