By J Carpenter

 

On Saturday, July 10, 2010, the Texas Aviation Association hosted a Safety Day at the Georgetown Municipal Airport (GTU). The venue was at the grand opening of the new Aero Centex Fixed Base of Operations. Over 70 pilots and aviation enthusiasts attended the four hour seminar which featured experts in aviation safety.   Sponsors of the event included TXAA, Texas Department of Transportation Aviation Division, the National Business Aviation Association, Enterprise Car Rental, La Quinta Inn of Georgetown and Aero Centex. Door prizes were contributed by Berry Creek Country Club, Lexus of Austin, Mercedes of Georgetown and CiCi’s Pizza.   At 1000 local time, the fly-in / drive-in safety event started under cloudy skies, cool for a Texas July day. The color guard, represented by the Air Force Junior ROTC from Leander High School, presented the American Flag while being over flown by Falcon Flight, a group of four RV aircraft led by Stu McCurdy. The audience was led into the meeting room where the pledge of allegiance was given. Guests were greeted by Shelby Rank, daughter of TXAA treasurer, Jim Rank.

Paul Smith, TXAA board member and former National Business Aviation Association regional representative opened the seminar, welcoming everyone that traveled to Georgetown from across the state. Paul introduced the co-hosts, Aero Centex owner Winston Pfiester and his staff who welcomed everyone to his new state-of –the-art Fixed Base of Operations. Paul recognized several representatives from the city of Georgetown, the Civil Air Patrol, and the Sun City Aviation Club.

Then yours truly was introduced where I explained the benefits of joining TXAA, which include the promotion of general aviation to pilots and the citizens of Texas. In addition, we are awarding a special prize of a week’s free stay in a luxury cabin in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in Colorado. One lucky TXAA member will win this prize valued at over $2500. The winner will be announced at the TXAA annual meeting in January 2011. Current TXAA members are already eligible to win. If you are not a TXAA member, then join now! Visit WWW.TXAA.ORG and click on “Join TXAA”.
 

Next to speak was Bill Gunn, safety director for the Texas Department of Transportation Aviation Division. Bill gave the most recent updates about the new fuel coming to general aviation, emergency locator devices and how funding works between the FAA, TxDOT Aviation and community airports.   Gunn was followed by Durwood Heinrich -Author, Aviator, Educator & Safety Expert who talked about section of his new book on aviation safety. After Mr. Heinrich spoke, the group broke for lunch and more tours of the Aero Centex FBO, flight line aircraft plus classic cars and motorcycles parked outside.   About that time, two new arrivals taxied their Cessna 152 onto the tarmac. They were Jason Schappert and Vincent Lambercy. Jason and Vincent were on their way back to Florida after flying to Catalina Island off the coast of California. Their adventure was named Flying Across America and the purpose was to promote general aviation. You can read about their trek by visiting: http://www.flyingacrossamerica.com

Jason and Vincent spoke to the audience about their venture which included flying through some tricky wet weather in West Texas. Vincent, who resides in Europe, explained how lucky we all are to have the GA system in America. Compared to Europe and the rest of the world, we enjoy freedoms of flying not seen anywhere else.

NBAA regional representative Steve Hadley spoke next. Steve’s presentation was focused on the importance for owner operators of a professional standard of performance and the importance of maintaining a more frequent routine of proficiency training to aid in maintaining safety for them in the use of their aircraft.

The rest of the program was shared by GTU tower chief Shannon Thomas, Carol Jensen who specializes in simulation training and had her new Cirrus simulator at the FBO, and Gary Stamper who is from the Federal Aviation Administration’s Flight Safety District Office in San Antonio.

The seminar concluded with door prizes including gift bags from Lexus and Mercedes, TXAA caps, Airport Directories from TxDOT, pizza from Cici’s and a round of golf for four from the Berry Creek Country Club.

Thanks to Paul Smith’s direction the event ended right on time. The audience continued their tour of Aero Centex plus the aircraft, luxury and classic cars on static display.

To view an array of photographs visit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/52015335@N07/?saved=1 

And also from Aero Centex: http://picasaweb.google.com/carol.serur/AeroCentexSafetyDay?authkey=Gv1sRgCOGSsbKMss6bNw&feat=email# 

Fly Happy. Fly Safe.