SAFE Board Elections Coming Up – Watch Your Email For Ballot Instructions
Every SAFE member current as of June 1 will receive an email from the organization’s independent polling provider, VotingPlace.net, in the next few days with details on SAFE’s election process. Only current SAFE members are eligible to vote. The SAFE ePolls will open on Monday, June 6 at 0900 EDT and remain open until Wednesday, June 15 at 2100 EDT. To vote, log-in using the email address associated with your SAFE account and your membership number. Your SAFE membership number can be found on the SAFE website. Log in with the login link in the yellow square in the upper right corner of the page. After logging in, click on the Manage Your Account link in the same yellow square. Scroll down to the middle of the page where you will find a Membership Info header. The first line below the header, titled ID, is your SAFE membership number. The entire number, including the preceding capital S and all zeros, will be needed to log into the polling site. Members who are active in SAFE’s Facebook or Twitter communities will receive reminders and updates as the election process continues.
Two SAFE K-12 Teacher Grants To Be Awarded In 2016
Two grants for K-12 classroom teachers will be awarded again this year by SAFE. Each award is $250. Additional program details, guidelines, and grant application are here. The program is designed to encourage classroom teachers to incorporate aviation-themed lessons into their curriculum. “SAFE’s K-12 grant is part of SAFE’s commitment to support aviation education at all levels,” said SAFE Board member Sherry Rossiter. “Helping teachers include aviation in their classroom is a way to get kids excited about aviation. One grant will be awarded to a teacher in Grades K – 7 and the second to a teacher in Grades 8 – 12. An individual teacher or a group of teachers from the same school may apply for a grant to design an aviation-themed classroom unit or complete an aviation-themed project. For example, Joseph Perrotta of Starr’s Mill High School in Peachtree City, Georgia used his SAFE grant to purchase remote-controlled helicopters to use in the study of Newton’s laws of motion; Lisa Damian, at Camden Hills Regional High School in Rockport, Maine, challenged her high school juniors and seniors to research, design and build a model rocket and used the grant money to purchase the model rockets, and Doug James of Metter Intermediate School in Metter, Georgia used his grant to purchase a LEGO Education WeDo Construction Set to enhance the school’s STEM program. The application deadline is August 31, 2016.
Please Visit and Volunteer At Our SAFE Booth At Airventure July 25-31
SAFE will be on full display again at this year’s EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, WI in Exhibit Hangar B, spaces 2093 and 2094, and volunteers are needed to staff the booth. Volunteers are provided with daily admission for the day they volunteer in the booth. Volunteers are asked to work at least one four-hour shift one day between July 25-31. The easy sign-up board for booth volunteers is online, and a locator map for first-time AirVenture visitors is available on the SAFE website. Member signups and renewals will be available at the SAFE booth this year. Valuable rewards for renewing members will be available at the booth from sponsors. Members renewing at AirVenture will keep their original membership expiration dates.
2016 Pilot Proficiency Center At Airventure Needs CFIs To Volunteer
There is still time for CFI members of SAFE and NAFI to volunteer their professional skills to help staff the EAA Pilot Proficiency Center at AirVenture Oshkosh 2016, July 25 – 31. Details were provided in a special email sent to SAFE members last week. “We do still need CFIs for the PPC 
for both IFR and VFR scenarios,” said John Gibson of NAFI. “Monday and Tuesday are staffed and Wednesday is nearly staffed, but the rest of the week is open.” He added that instructors with Redbird Xwind experience were particularly in short supply. To apply to volunteer for this year’s PPC at AirVenture please click here. Volunteer instructors will operate both VFR and IFR flight scenarios in the 12 Redbird AATDs at the event. CFIs will be provided housing and transportation to and from the grounds. This year, the Center will operate two 4-hour sessions each day from 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM and 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM. A total of 28 flight instructors are needed each day, including two in the Ready Room to assist pilots in selecting the scenarios they would like to fly. A few volunteers are also needed for EAA PPC setup on Saturday July 23 and Sunday July 24, and there will be a training session for CFIs on Sunday afternoon from 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
About the EAA Pilot Proficiency Center 2016: Flight instructors and aviation companies are joining forces during EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2016 to bring back the EAA Pilot Proficiency Center and build on past years’ successes in improving pilot skills and enhancing safety with participants at the “World’s Greatest Aviation Celebration.” During EAA AirVenture 2016 (July 25-31) the Center will again feature “Tech Talks, VFR and IFR flight scenarios in Redbird Flight AATDs, the opportunity to work with certificated flight instructors and more. The EAA Pilot Proficiency Center is dedicated to improving the skills of pilots. This year’s EAA PPC will operate 12 Redbird LDs, one Redbird MCX and one Redbird Xwind. The Pilot Proficiency Center is open to all pilots who want to improve their flying skills as well as to non-pilots. It will feature IFR and stick & rudder flight challenges as well as forum programs. Thousands of pilots have participated in the flight simulations, seminars, and other activities of the Proficiency Center that expanded their knowledge, their flying skills and built their confidence to handle specific situations they face while flying. That group included pilots who sought to enhance their instrument flying abilities as well as those looking to improve their stick-and-rudder skills. Along with EAA and the EAA IMC Club, the EAA Pilot Proficiency Center is supported by SAFE, AOPA, David Clark, Hartzell, Jeppesen, Mindstar Aviation, NAFI, PilotEdge, Plane and Pilot and Redbird Flight.
Urgent Notice To CFIs: New ACS Effective June 15, Knowledge Tests Changing June 13
SAFE has issued an urgent notice to all CFIs with students currently training for FAA certificates: the Airman Certification Standards (ACS) for private pilot airplane certificate and instrument-airplane rating take effect on June 15, replacing the corresponding Practical Test Standards (PTS). While the ACS will not change the flight portion of the practical test, the ground portion of the test will use the ACS task elements. “If your student is close to finishing training for the private pilot airplane certificate or the instrument-airplane rating, you may want to encourage him or her to complete the practical test before June 15.” said SAFE Board member David St. George. “Anyone preparing to take either of these knowledge tests or check rides should use the ACS to study.” For detailed information on the ACS, click here. While it has been several years since the FAA published test questions, many of the previously-published questions were still active until a few months ago. The FAA has now revised all active knowledge test questions for the private pilot airplane certificate and the instrument-airplane rating, making it unlikely your student will see an exact match to questions from test preparation providers.
The FAA also has new supplements going active on Monday, June 13 resulting in more changes to written questions. The updated supplements are the Airman Knowledge Testing Supplements for Sport, Recreational, and Private Pilot Test (FAA-CT- 8080-2G); Commercial Pilot Test (FAA-CT- 8080-1D) and Flight Instructor, Ground Instructor, and Sport Pilot Instructor Test (FAA-CT- 8080- 5G).
The FAA has aligned all knowledge test questions for the private pilot airplane certificate and the instrument-airplane rating with the ACS, and everyone – applicants, instructors, and evaluators – will begin using the ACS for training, teaching, and testing on June 15.
CFIs and industry have long agreed that rote memorization of published questions is a poor system of evaluation. “Back when the FAA made the actual test questions public, a whole pilot test preparation industry was built around memorizing those questions,” said St. George. “Ideally, an applicant should know the subject matter in its entirety and their answers should accurately reflect his or her understanding with a grade point reference.” The FAA’s goal is to sample an applicant’s understanding rather than his or her rote memorization of answers.
The FAA has used the ACS process to insure questions cover the material an applicant really needs to
know as well as to update and revise questions that were previously available to the public. Questions on
the written are aligned with the ACS codes for knowledge elements, as well as some skill and risk
elements that can be evaluated on a written test. FAA has also removed outdated knowledge test questions such as those on ADF and NDB use, replacing them with questions on GPS and other information relevant for today’s aviators. The FAA has provided a list of now-deleted subject areas here.
The ACS was developed as one outcome of the FAA and industry Pilot Training Reform Symposium in 2011. SAFE was one of the earliest aviation education organizations calling for updating of FAA testing and since then has served continuously on the various FAA and industry committees and working groups charged with testing improvements.
May/June “FAA Safety Briefing Focuses On Technology In GA
The May/June 2016 FAA Safety Briefing, edited by SAFE member Susan Parson, shines a spotlight on the rapidly changing world of technology and how it’s affecting GA safety. Articles cover everything from unmanned aircraft to commercial space operations and how the FAA helps champion the power of technology in making flying safer and more efficient.
A full-page article by FAA Flight Standards Service Director John Duncan explains many of the issues integrating the new Unmanned Aircraft Systems (drones) into the national airspace system safely. He also provides a link to even more FAA information about UAS operations. Featured articles in this edition include: * Welcome to the William J. Hughes Technical Center – The Happiest Place in Aviation Tech! * eLogbook Logistics – Considerations for Moving from Paper Log to Digital Login * X-Ray Vision and Alphabet Soup – Decoding GA Vision Systems The FAA Safety Briefing staff has also set up a Twitter account: @FAASafetyBrief
FAA Proposes Numerous Changes In Pilot Training Rules
An FAA Notice of Proposed Rule Making, open for comments until August 10, would make several significant changes in requirements for private pilot and commercial pilot applicants, amending portions of FAR Parts 61, 63, 91, 121 and 135. One of the biggest proposed changes involves adding a fixed-gear Technically Advanced Aircraft (TAA) as one of the options for the single-engine commercial pilot training and practical test that currently requires a complex aircraft. The flight instructor practical test would be changed in the same manner. “SAFE welcomes many of these changes that are long overdue,” said Donna Wilt, SAFE Chair. “One of the questions is whether these changes are adequate for maintaining proficiency or will they ultimately reduce safety in an effort to save money.”
SAFE is encouraging members to comment on the proposed NPRM by going to the Federal Rulemaking Portal and following the online instructions for sending comments electronically. Please copy SAFE on your response to help the organization formulate an official response. Other proposed changes include: * Allowing pilots to accomplish IFR recurrency in an FAA-approved simulator or training device without an instructor present. * Reducing the frequency of IFR recency of flight experience accomplished in FAA-approved ATDs from every two months to six months, reduce the number of tasks required for such recency in ATDs and remove the three-hour flight time requirement for recurrency in ATDs. * Allow light sport airplane and gyroplane pilots to credit 10 hours of sport pilot training time toward a higher certificate for single engine airplanes and rotorcraft, and allow sport pilot flight instructors to provide training to sport pilot student on flight by reference only to instruments. The NPRM also proposes updating the definition of a TAA to include primary and multi-function flight displays and an integrated two-axis autopilot. In its rationale for the change, the FAA said the updated definition would fit avionics that are now standard in most new single-engine piston airplanes.
The NPRM also explains that legacy single-engine
complex airplanes having retractable gear, controllable pitch propellers and flaps, have become outdated and difficult to maintain. The last such aircraft produced by Cessna was more than 30 years ago and Piper has produced only 28 such airplanes since 2008. If commenting by mail, address your letter to Docket Operations M-30, U.S. Department of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Room W12-140, West Building Ground Floor, Washington DC 20590-0001.
SAFE Free Mentoring Program Helps CFIs Become World Class Aviation Educators
SAFE’s revitalized Mentoring Program, a no-cost opportunity for professional development, is already drawing praise from participants. “As an independent flight instructor I had no real external compass with which to judge my own performance,” wrote Michael Teninty, a SAFE Mentee who has been actively instructing for less than a year when he was matched with SAFE member and FAA DPE Ken Wittekiend of Burnet, TX. “Ken is helping me move from a merely competent CFI to an excellent provider of aviation education.”
The free SAFE Mentoring Program matches expert, highly experienced SAFE member aviation educators with those seeking assistance in becoming world class aviation educators themselves. SAFE members interested in the program, either as a Mentor or Mentee, may log into the SAFE website and follow the path “Members Only>Aviation Educator Mentoring Program” for more information and an application form. Teninty provided three examples of how SAFE mentorship has helped him achieve excellence.
“With Ken’s help I was able to correct my client’s trend in mismanaging crosswind landings…he also gave me guidance on how to discuss the issue without making my client defensive.” “My client was having an attention deficit issue that actually stemmed from an un-met belongingness need. My Mentor was able to diagnose that and helped me improve my client’s readiness to learn.”
“I made an error while piloting a tow plane for a glider, but talking it through with Ken assured me of what I already knew but was unable to apply it to myself. He helped me re-cage and turn a negative occurrence into a source for teaching aerodynamics and human factors with future clients.”
“SAFE’s Mentoring Program is available to current educators or educators-in-training who are members of SAFE, whether in flight, ground, youth, college, maintenance or other aviation areas,” said SAFE Chair Donna Wilt. “Even experienced educators may occasionally want or need insights when teaching in new aircraft, or with new technologies and techniques.”
SAFE’s 1000th Member to Compete in Air Classic Race
Embry-Riddle Assistant Professor Virginie Rollin, who became SAFE’s 1000th member at Sun ‘n Fun in Lakeland this year, will compete in the 2016 Air Race Classic, continuing the tradition of the Powder Puff Derby. Dr. Rollin will be flying with fellow faculty member Dr. Naiara Petralanda in Petralanda’s 1975 M model Cessna Skyhawk. Their chosen race name is ‘Team Bernoulli,’ a nod to their shared enthusiasm for aeronautical engineering and inspiring students, especially young women, to achieve their dreams.
Other SAFE members flying in the race include Team Wild Mama’s Terry Caronell and University of North Dakota Collegiate Team Frozen Force’s Tina Druskins.. Dr. Rollin and her Team Bernoulli partner have a crowdfunding website to help defray their expenses for the 2016 Air Race Classic. It will be available through June 4. Leaving from Prescott, AZ, this year’s race requires contestants to check in at Albuquerque, New Mexico; Midland, Texas, Arkadelphia, Arkansas; Waco, Texas, Warrensburg, Missouri; Champaign/Urbana, Illinois; Murfreesboro, Tennessee; and Americus, Georgia before finishing in Daytona Beach, FL, at KDAB.
The race is about 2,400 nautical miles and is flown day VFR only. A handicap is assigned to each plane based on its performance, then each team tries to beat its own handicap. Team Bernoulli will be departing Prescott sixth in a field of more than 50 airplanes, giving it additional flexibility in planning for a victory. Dr. Rollin earned her Ph.D. in 2008 in mechanical engineering at the University of Vermont and learned to fly in April 2011. She is also an NAUI open water and a PADI rescue scuba diver, and spent over two years at Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, NM, studying shocks in metals and the strain rate, temperature and grain size effects on the yield point of different metals. At ERAU she teaches and mentors both undergraduate and graduate students, conducts research in Materials Science, is responsible for the university’s scanning electron microscope and with Dr. Petralanda is the co-advisor for the Society of Women Engineers student club at ERAU. She has co-authored several peer-reviewed scientific articles and delivered 41 advanced technical engineering presentations with titles such as Nanocrystalline metal indentation: Novel insight from atomistic contact simulation. The French native is also fluent in English and conversational in Russian and Spanish.
Hot off the press: Fresh SAFE Blog Posts
The new SAFE Blog is rapidly gaining popularity. In recent weeks, contributions from SAFE members have included: A request from David St. George for SAFE members to sign the 
“Professionalism Pledge” written by Dr. Tony Kern of the private consulting firm Convergent Performance. Dr. Kern is the author of two compelling books on aviation safety, “Flight Discipline” and “Rogue Pilot.” An article by SAFE member Randall Brooks, with Aviation Performance Solutions and President of the Upset Prevention and Recovery Training Association (UPRTA) explaining why Loss Of Control Inflight (LOC-I) is such an insidious killer. “We are highly unlikely to lose control in the region of the flight envelope in which we normally fly,” he said. “But…situations can escalate amazingly quickly into…behaviors that are not at all common to flight within the normal envelope. Reactions become slower rather than faster…the brain is called upon to process confusing information in an unfamiliar environment.”
Another article on LOC-I by Master CFI and tailwheel specialist Jim Alsip in Florida. SAFE member Alsip titled it KISS and Tell – Avoiding LOC Can Be Simple, advocating for the Keep It Simple, Stupid principle in avoiding LOC-I. Who’s PIC on a given flight? SAFE member and Master CFI Chris Hope answers that with several clear examples in his blog article titled Essential Safety: Determining PIC. Chris has instructed for more than 40 years and was the 2015 National FAASTeam representative of the year. A serious, in-depth look at Important Decision-Making Skills written by SAFE Board treasurer Parvez Dara, MD. Unlike many such articles, this one by Dr. Dara brings to bear scientific research and technical analysis on how pilots make decisions and ways any pilot can make him- or herself a safer aviator. MASTER
Instructors Earning or Renewing a Master CFI Designation
Five Master Instructors earned or renewed their designation recently with Master Instructors LLC, the international Master Instructor accrediting authority. All are current members of SAFE. Of the more than 100,000 CFI certificate holders, fewer than 800 are accredited Master Instructors.
Michael Christopher “Mike” Demulling, New Richmond WI Mike is the chief pilot for White House Custom Colour as well as manager of New Richmond Regional Airport. http://www.NRAirport.com Additionally, he owns Mike Demulling Flight Training where he specializes in primary, instrument, recurrent, and Aerostar training.
Michael Carl “Mike” Jesch, Anaheim CA Mike is an independent Fullerton-area flight instructor specializing in pilot proficiency, electronic navigation, and airspace issues. Additionally, he is a B-737 captain with American Airlines while also serving as a volunteer Angel Flight West pilot as well as a FAASTeam representative in the FAA’s Long Beach FSDO area.
Daniel Max “Dan” Keen, Lafayette IN A longtime National Intercollegiate Flying Association (NIFA) volunteer and judge, Dan is an operations aviation safety inspector (ASI) and safety officer with the FAA’s Indianapolis FSDO. He specializes in administering aviator practical tests as well as overseeing Part 135 and Part 141 operators while also assisting with the Indianapolis FSDO’s FAASTeam activities.
Kyle Vincent Thomas, Durant OK Kyle is an aviation professor and chief flight instructor with Southeastern Oklahoma State University’s aviation institute at Eaker Field (KDUA). He is also an advisor to the local Women in Aviation chapter and a coach for the university’s NIFA flight team. In addition, he serves as a FAASTeam representative in the FAA’s Oklahoma City FSDO area.
Ludwig Joseph “Lou” Wipotnik, Wheeling IL Lou Wipotnik, a 10-time Master and SAFE member, was recently granted Master Instructor Emeritus status in recognition of his many years of commitment to excellence, professional growth, service to the aviation community, and quality aviation education. Lou is an independent Chicago-area flight and ground instructor at Chicago Executive Airport (KPWK). The holder of an FAA Wright Brothers Master Pilot award and the 1996 National CFI of the Year, he is also a FAASTeam representative in the FAA’s DuPage FSDO area and serves in the Civil Air Patrol’s Illinois Wing.
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