Flight Center Welcome Night May 7 6:30

Join us on Wednesday, May 7th at 6:30pm for San Carlos Flight Center’s quarterly Welcome Night. It's all the food and fun of an SCFC barbeque, but indoors in our classroom.

The activity stations this time, each staffed by a different SCFC club member, will be:

• Flying in the Mountains – For member to learn about mountain flying and the SCFC Mountain Checkout
• Go Farther Faster – A showcase of SCFC’s higher performance aircraft to take your farther faster
• Local Control Issues – SQL Tower Controller
• Women in Aviation – Sharing activities and events of the SQL Women in Aviation chapter that is forming

To join us, just register here for the event so we can have enough food and drink. Feel free to also bring friends or family who are interested in meeting Club members and finding out why SCFC is such a great place for flying.

We also hope you'll join us at the end of the month for an Early Summer BBQ. See below in the Community section.

New SOP - Leave the Beacon On

It's rare, but sometimes human pilots forget simple things, like turning off the master switch after the flight. This can make life worse for two people - the pilot who gets a bill for a battery recharge or replacement, and the next pilot whose flight gets cancelled by a dead battery. People are important, so after thinking about this issue for years, SCFC is making a change in how we do things.

From now on, leave the BCN switch in the on position after your flight.

SCFC members know that up until now our checklists have always instructed pilots to turn the beacon off when turning off all other electrical switches. As of now, we are officially changing standard procedures to leave it in the on position. Since turning the master electrical switch off won’t supply the tail beacon with any electricity, it doesn't create a risk of battery drain. In fact, it helps prevent it, because during the final walk around the pilot can glance back at the plane and verify that all electrical is turned off. If the beacon is lit, the master switch must have been left on.

The cost of recharging a battery is about $200. The cost to replace a dead batter is about $1100. Renters insurance is likely to reimburse you for the expense, but why risk it? More importantly, avoid having your fellow pilot cancel their flight because you left the master switch on.

Please leave on the BCN switch on during the securing process and take a look at the exterior light to verify that it isn’t on. If it is, you haven’t secured the plane and need to give it another try. (We are working to revise our SCFC checklists but it may take some time to get to all airplanes.)

SCFC Special Ops Positions Open

San Carlos Flight Center is a place for pilots to come together to learn, to share stories, and to share aviation with the larger San Carlos Airport pilot community and its neighbors.

Many of the events are lead by SCFC Flight Instructors, but we also benefit from an active team of passionate volunteers, we call Special Ops. Currently, we are looking for some Special Ops help with our FlyOutGroup events, and our FAA Safety Seminar program.

FlyOutGroup Coordinator is someone who helps generate energy for the variety of organized fly outs, by helping to organize the event, by creating promotional flyers and web pages, and often by going on the trip. In the past, this position has been filled by Private Pilots with the urge to see the world. The SCFC staff has many years of lessons learned and wisdom about how to make these events successful, but we need the energy and involvement of a passionate Special Ops person.

Safety Seminar Host is a member who acts as greeter and host for our Wed evening and Saturday noon safety seminars. This is a social role, and usually held by a member who likes making introductions and connections. They meet the presenter before the start of the seminar to help them settle in, and then open the event by welcoming the audience and running through some event housekeeping items. Then they introduce the speaker, and hand the seminar over to them. A good host stays through the presentation to thank the speaker, encourage questions from the audience, and attend to event closeout housekeeping like ensuring WINGS credit or SCFC Seminar Engagement credits.

If you are ready to dive deeper into the energy that is San Carlos Flight Center, we'd love to meet with you and share what we've learned. Contact the Front Desk or talk with Dan Dyer.

Safety

Tips From the New Tower Controllers

If you have flown recently, you probably have heard new voices and perhaps some different phraseology. Recently we had a visit with the new controllers and they offered some suggestions to pilots to help with their workload.

1) Be Patient

If you've visited a tower facility, you see all the activities the controllers do when they are not talking on the radio - coordinating with NorCal, updating the ATIS, submitting METARs, and recording operational counts. The controllers suggested that if you call them and you don’t get an immediate response, be patient and wait for them to get back to you. This is especially true if you are contacting them 15 to 5 minutes before the hour since this is when they update the ATIS and submit the METAR information.

2) Don’t turn base without a clearance or sequence

If you haven’t received a landing clearance or a sequence, it is likely that they are planning to depart several aircraft before you and so they don’t want you to turn base.

Note: sequence is not a landing clearance, e.g. "Bay Flight 16 you are number two following traffic on base." You visually confirm the traffic and report that you have traffic in sight. To land, you'll need a runway landing, e.g. "Bay Flight 16, follow that traffic, runway 30, number 2 cleared for the option." Occasionally, a new pilot confuses the sequence call as a landing clearance. This would be incorrect and the controllers may clarify expectations with you.

We'd like to add one more tip:

3) Be friendly, brief, and respectful

Our tower controllers play a critical role in safely, allowing many pilots to share the one runway. We are grateful to the team working in the tower and expect all SCFC pilots use appropriate radio communications to enable their work.

If you are looking for more guidance about radio communications, watch the recorded seminar "Radio Communications 1: Radio Basics" in SCFC's Recorded Seminar Library.

Self Announce at Non-Towered Airports

So many great airports available to pilots flying in Northern California, including many without operating control towers. San Carlos Flight Center reminds all pilots to use the appropriate Common Traffic Advisory Frequency (CTAF) and always self-announce position and intent when operating at or around non-towered airports.

Sometimes new pilots equate non-towered airports with freedom, because there is not legal requirement to talk on the radio and there isn't an overseeing, controller demanding proper phraseology or precise pattern entries. Experienced pilots know that these reasons are exactly the reasons that increase the interdependency of safety on every pilot in the area.

1) Know the correct CTAF and dial it in carefully.

Many of the dozens of non-towered airports within minutes of the SF Bay area use, or used to use, 122.80 as CTAF, resulting in intense requency congestion. However, some airports (e.g., Byron and Tracy Municipal) have been assigned new, unique frequencies. Byron is now 123.05, and Tracy is now 123.075. This eliminates frequency congestion at these airports, but raises the very dangerous risk of pilots dialing in 122.80 from memory and mis-broadcasting in the pattern.

2) Be precise and brief on your position reports.

Example: "Tracy Traffic, Bay Flight 31, 15 miles west, 2500, maneuvering for left downwind entry 30, Tracy."

• Airport name and "Traffic" at start of transmission
• Airport name only at end of transmission
• First report 15 nm out with distance, bearing from airport, and altitude
• Intended pattern entry

Example: "Tracy Traffic, Bay Flight 31, left base 30, Tracy"

3) Listen and build situational awareness.

Your job is to be monitoring frequency from at least 15 nm out and building situational awareness of what other aircraft are operating at the airport from listening to other reporting traffic on CTAF. You are NOT to call them and demand they say where they are and what runway they are using. If you are unable to build sufficient safe understanding of what's happening at the airport, being by flying overhead at least 1,000 ft above pattern altitude visually inspecting runways, wind indicators and any observed aircraft before moving away to reenter on the correct entry leg and at the right altitude.

4) Assume your awareness of traffic is imperfect.

If you are flying with ADS-B in traffic reporting, understand that it may not show all traffic operating at a non-towered airport. ADS-B is not required everywhere, so other traffic must be identified visually by seeing them out the window. Also, some traffic may not be reporting on CTAF either because of mistakes in frequency entry, pilot negligence, or even because they don't have a radio at all.

You can have many safe operations at non-towered airpots, but understand why some consider it the "Wild West" of general aviation and take every precaution to safely coordinate with other pilots in the area.

SCFC Member Profile: Darin Bernstein

SCFC: Congratulations on obtaining a Commercial Pilot certificate. Many of our member pilots stop at Private or Instrument. What can you tell us about the highs and lows of Commercial Pilot training?

DB: Studying for the Commercial certificate felt in many ways like a refresher of the Private, but beyond the rote memorization. To actually put the knowledge into practice, I had to understand concepts like why we have left turning tendencies and how the forces change as you change configurations. I was amazed looking back at how much I thought I knew when I got my Private certificate versus how I feel about it now. I’ve heard earning your Private is a license to learn, and now I see why! 

SCFC: Did you take a break after Private before starting Instrument? Did you take a break after Instrument before starting Commercial training?

DB: No, each time I jumped right into training for the next rating or certificate after completing the previous one, although my pace of training wasn't linear. It took me almost three years to go from Private to Instrument to Commercial while working full-time. I made sure to take a fun flight every month or so, but having a goal in mind honed my flying skills and kept me motivated.

SCFC: Now you can be paid to fly! Do you have any plans to take advantage of the privileges of your Commercial certificate?

DB: Yes, but just like finding out how much I didn’t know as a Private Pilot, there is a lot I didn’t know about my privileges as a Commercial Pilot. Short of a friend buying a plane and hiring me as their chauffeur, there’s not much I can do until I earn my CFI, which I hope to finish later this year.

SCFC: How long have you be flying? What started you down the path to become a pilot??

DB: I took my first demo flight at SCFC in late 2019 and have been hooked since. I had never been in a small plane prior to that but had dreamed of flying as a kid. I got started on Microsoft Flight Simulator and years later found myself following commercial airliners on FlightAware and listening to LiveATC. I knew I had to pursue my passion and am glad to have found SCFC when I did.

SCFC: What prepared you for pilot training? What’s the last major educational challenge you set for yourself?

DB: Ultimately, the greatest motivation for my pilot training was to fulfill what I feel I was meant to do. I’ve always wanted to continue to learn and experience new things, so learning to fly was the perfect way to do both! I have to give a special shoutout to Herb, my instructor from start to finish, who instilled a sense of pride in me to aim to be better than the average pilot. After all, ACS standards are what the worst pilot should be meeting. We should all aim higher.

April's Women in Aviation Meeting Recap

Over 20 individuals from diverse aviation backgrounds gathered for SCFC’s first Women in Aviation meeting on April 16th.

Guest speaker Alyssa Cova, a United Airlines intern in the Chief Pilot’s Office at SFO, led an inspiring talk on imposter syndrome, sharing how it can impact success and how to manage it. The evening also featured an introspective activity that encouraged connection and highlighted the importance of community—values at the heart of this growing group.

Mark your calendars for our next meeting: a panel-style “Coffee Chat” on Saturday, May 24th from 10–11 AM. Enjoy coffee, pastries, and conversation as you hear from professionals representing different sectors of the aviation industry. All are welcome, so be sure to register for the event here. We hope to see you there!

Summer BBQs Starting May 31 (Sat) 1pm

With the summer fast approaching, we are going to start the celebration early with an Early Summer Kickoff BBQ. on Saturday, May 31st. The fun starts at 1pm, immediately following our Trucker Airport Operations safety seminar. Come to the seminar, then stay after for an afternoon full of food, drink, snacks, sweets, and activities for everyone.

Enjoy a fun time under the sun with your friends, family, and fellow aviators in the ramp area just outside our main office at 795 Skyway Road, Suite A, San Carlos CA, 94070.

Please RSVP here so we can get an accurate headcount for food, drink, and activities. We look forward to seeing you there!

Full-Moon Flyers Nut Tree - May 12 (Mon)

This month join FOG up in Vacaville for our monthly Full Moon Flyers Dinner at Vacaville (VCB). At just over 50 NM, Nut Tree Airport makes for an easy cross-country destination. This is a great opportunity for students or pilots looking to gain valuable night experience.

The airport is lit as night and you can follow the well lit I-80 back towards Oakland for an easy flight back!

Once we land in Nut Tree, we will be dining at Fenton’s Restaurant and Creamery. Known for their ice cream, Fenton’s also offers a wide variety of sandwiches, burgers, and salads at reasonable prices. Don’t forget the ice cream!

The restaurant is a 5-10 minute walk away. Just park in transient and meet us at Fenton’s by 7PM.

Make sure you RSVP here so we have an accurate headcount! We’ll see you there on Monday, May 12.

Catalina Island Day Trip - May 30 (Fri)

A bucket list item for many pilots, Catalina Island Airport is located offshore from the Los Angeles area and is known for its aircraft carrier-style approach and majestic views. Join FOG on May 30 as we venture south to the island, where we'll enjoy a group lunch.

This is also a great chance to experience flying through the LA Bravo, seeing the various transition routes and the iconic Special Flight Rules Area. For those students and pilots who have a desire to fly to SoCal in the future, this is a great event to partake in to gain a deeper understanding of how to navigate some of the world's most congested airspaces.

Learn more here. 

California Mountain Flying - Jun 7-8

On June 7-8, SCFC CFIs will be leading a mountain training course across some of California's most famous mountain passes, airports, and sights. Learn how to safely navigate to Lake Tahoe, Mammoth Lakes, and fly over Yosemite National Park. 

During the weekend, pilots will also work towards earning a high-performance endorsement, advanced avionics (G1000) checkout, and a mountain checkout. It's the perfect opportunity to grow your skills as an aviator while also working on new training.

Spots for the trip are very limited, so sign up here if you would like to participate.

Pacific Northwest Adventure Jul 17-20

The flagship trip this summer will take FOG up to Seattle, Portland, and even across the border into British Columbia! Held on July 17-20, the trip will cover flying over long distances, island hopping, and international operations. You'll see volcanoes like Mt. Saint Helens, experience the serenity of the San Juan Islands, and cruise over the fjords of Canada. You may even get a chance to land at the second-busiest airport in Canada - Vancouver International!

This trip is designed to be flown with an instructor, but can be flown by experienced pilots without a CFI, as well. For student pilots, this is an excellent trip to consider if you want to knock out your cross-country training requirements with real-world experience. For anyone looking to fly for a career, having international experience and training is also a plus. 

Please visit the event page for more details and to register.