so,  as usual before retiring to bed,  I am going through
the scriptures,  i.e., 14 CFR,  and tonight I was perusing
chapter 61 — which I am sure is on everyone’s bed stand —
and came across a part that I haven’t fully memorized yet

This is part 61.31(j)(2).  Part 61.31 covers those endorsements
one has to have on one’s logbook in order to fly tailwheels,
high-performance,  complex,  etc. aircraft,  and subpart (j)
concerns those endorsements required of glider pilots in order
to perform aerotow,  ground-tow or self-launch procedures.

Now,  like similar clauses,  this one has a ‘grand father’
exception,  which is 61.31(j)(2),  but with a twist:  unlike
similar ‘grand father’ clauses which usually refer to time
logged prior to a given date,  this says that the
aforementioned endorsements are not required of pilots who
have had a glider *rating* obtained prior to August 4th, 1997.

How does one documents / proves that one has had a rating
prior to a given date?  by looking at the date on your
certificate or on the FAA online database?  well,  no,
that won’t work because these dates happen to be those of
your latest rating or latest change of address…

For some reasons I keep old papers and found a certificate
dated 1996 with my private glider rating on it,  which
I photocopied right away and stuck in my logbook (would it
be sufficient?) so I should be in the clear on this one.

But think about this,  even if you are not a glider pilot:
a similar clause might eventually pop up in the future.  Do
you keep all your old certificates?  those that we replace
when we get new rating or a new address?

Another odd thing about this 61.31(j)(2) clause is that it
says ‘rating’ without specifying ‘issued under this part’ as
is the case elsewhere (e.g.,  61.123),  so I reckon that any
old odd pilot certificate or license from any ICAO country
might have done just as well (but then I am just speculating
here,  if anyone knows better I’d be grateful for the input).

In summary,  how does one documents that one has received
a given rating at or prior to a given date?

–Sylvain

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/29/national/29miss.html?ex=1285646400&…

September 29, 2005
Near Miss for 2 Jets on a Las Vegas Runway
By MATTHEW L. WALD

WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 – An America West passenger jet taking off from Las
Vegas missed hitting an Air Canada jet by about 100 feet last Thursday
night, according to a preliminary report, because a controller in the tower
confused two planes and issued conflicting instructions.

The controller has been taken off duty and sent for more training, according
to the Federal Aviation Administration, and the episode is under
investigation.

America West Flight 539, departing for Cleveland, was cleared for takeoff
about 11 p.m. local time on Runway 25 Right. At the same time, Air Canada
Flight 593 had landed on Runway 25 Left, a parallel runway, on a flight from
Toronto, and had been cleared to taxi to the terminal, across 25 Right. A
collision was averted because the America West plane was airborne by the
time it reached the point where the Air Canada plane was crossing.

The America West and Air Canada planes were both midsized Airbus jets that
carry more than 100 passengers.

An F.A.A. spokeswoman said Wednesday that the agency did not believe that
the America West plane had flown directly over the Air Canada plane, but
that investigators were still trying to determine how close the two jets
came.

Donn Walker, an F.A.A. spokesman, said the tower controller had cleared the
America West plane for takeoff. Then a different America West plane, a
Boeing 757, taxiing behind Flight 539, asked for a brief delay. The
controller responded by revoking the takeoff clearance for the 757 –
although he had never issued one for that plane – and cleared the Air Canada
plane to cross the runway. Meanwhile Flight 539, duly cleared, rolled down
the runway for takeoff.

"Our system is set up as much as possible to absorb human error and still
not have a collision," Mr. Walker said.

He said, as did others, that the aviation agency had computer systems in
place that would alert controllers to some kinds of human error, like pilots
not following directions because they misheard an instruction or got lost in
the field, but that it did not have an automatic system for warning
controllers about confusing two airplanes.

In July at Kennedy International Airport in New York, a DC-8 cargo plane
nearly hit a fully loaded Boeing 767 that blundered onto the active runway.
The tower controller could not spot the problem because of heavy rain and
clouds that cut visibility to near zero and made radar ineffective. The
aviation agency has a system for seeing through clouds and rain, using
signals given off by the planes themselves, as opposed to radar, which
bounces electromagnetic energy off the planes’ skins. But the agency has not
installed it at Kennedy.

I took my first form 5 last night. Since I was doing CAP-instructor,
Cadet Orientation, Instrument, it took a bit of time. My understanding
is that you must do all 3 of these every year. How long does a typical
annual form 5 take if you do all these? It seems that most in our
squadron skip all this stuff and just do the basic form 5 but that
means if they get stuck somewhere, they can’t file IFR in a CAP plane.

-Robert, SM

What you need, when you need it. Century GSE is a great place to find
eqiupment or sell you excess to.

What you need when you need it. http://www.centurygse.com

What reg is it that restricts CAP to a min of 60hp/person? Is this
national or Ca wing?

*Ah, and the big one comes even closer. When you run off experienced
people and keep idiot managers this is what happens. As the FAA
concentrates on feel good politics and women and minorities and
homosexuals and GLOBE meetings and TWO conferences and Gay Pride
celebrations and lowering standards at the FAA Academy so women and
minorities can pass TECHNICAL courses aircraft come closer and closer
together. The FAA is crumbling bit by bit while the "feel good" programs
flourish. FAA Management screwing over their dedicated union members is
not helpful toward good workforce morale either.

Sadly it appears it will take a huge tragedy and massive loss of human
life similar to the Hurricane chaos in New Orleans (Female and Black
Incompetent City and State and Federal Management) before the
politically correct but out of control FAA will revert back to technical
qualifications rather than skin color and sex for their critical NAS
jobs. I wonder how long the FAA will be able to hide their massive
hiring and promotion screw ups that have occurred over the last few
years? As the FAA celebrates Gay Pride and hires that manager or
technician because she is black and female regardless of experience or
qualifications(And LIES about it) aircraft get closer. I wonder how much
closer will the aircraft get until WHAM? The items below are not an
anomaly but a systemic indication of a crisis in know how and experience
and management within a TECHNICALLY COMPLEX Government AIR safety
function that is slowly coming unglued.

*1. DALLAS — Air traffic controllers in the Dallas-Fort Worth area
routinely covered up errors and their supervisors failed to investigate
cases that included airplanes flying too close to each other, federal
officials said.

2. LAS VEGAS — A veteran air traffic controller was stripped of tower
duty at McCarran International Airport (search
<javascript:siteSearch(‘McCarran International Airport’);>) while
authorities investigated how two commercial airliners nearly collided on
a runway, officials said Thursday.No one was hurt in the Sept. 22
incident, and more than 100 feet separated the planes in what a Federal
Aviation Administration (search <javascript:siteSearch(‘Federal Aviation
Administration’);>) spokesman characterized as a minor runway incursion
but the airport director, Randall Walker, called a "near-miss.""They
admitted there was a controller error," Walker said. "One plane was
allowed to land where another plane had just crossed."

3. LOS ANGELES — Terror in the skies Tuesday September 27th over
California: Five dangerous passes and at least two near-mid-air
collisions, according to air traffic controllers.One involved a UPS
flight en route to Orange County, Calif., from Louisville, Ky. —
another a Boeing 757 (search
<http://search.foxnews.com/info.foxnws/redirs_all.htm?pgtarg=wbsdogpil…>
) passenger jet headed to San Diego from Detroit.The incidents occurred
shortly after controllers lost radio contact with 400 aircraft coming in
and out of airports across the West — when a computer unexpectedly shut
down because technicians forgot to service the computer as required
every 30 days. Because they did not dump the hard drive, the computer
overloaded.The backup system also failed, stopping radio transmissions
to pilots in mid-sentence. Controllers describe the next 13 minutes as
"chaos," as some planes began to converge.So close was one incident, the
onboard collision avoidance alarm sounded, forcing the UPS pilot to go
into an abrupt climb to avoid a private jet below.

4. LOS ANGELES — A communications failure at a Federal Aviation
Administration (search
<http://search.foxnews.com/info.foxnws/redirs_all.htm?pgtarg=wbsdogpil…>)
control facility forced some airports in the West to hold flights on the
ground Tuesday afternoon, authorities said.The radio outage occurred at
the Los Angeles Air Route Traffic Control Center in Palmdale, in the
desert north of Los Angeles, which controls airspace in California and
parts of Nevada, FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said. She said planes were
grounded at airports in the Los Angeles region, including those in
Orange and San Diego counties, as well as in Las Vegas (search
<http://search.foxnews.com/info.foxnws/redirs_all.htm?pgtarg=wbsdogpil…>).Air
traffic controllers could monitor the planes on radar but were not able
to communicate with them, Brown said. Pilots were forced to switch to a
different radio frequency to communicate with other control facilities,
she said.

( I will be sending this to all 100 Senators and most Congressman and
the Media)

http://artssciences.udayton.edu/continuingeducation/practicalflight.asp

Very cool. Very slick. I see them on CNN and I want to go flying again.
Oh well. I can wait. Maybe.

Hello,

I’m helping a researcher for a production company in St. John’s,
Newfoundland, Canada.  They are producing a documentary on early aviation,
especially WWI and the years following.

I need help as to where to obtain "dog fight" images/video of WWI plane
fights.  I know that the Imperial War Museum (Britain) probably has such
archival footage.  However, I’m wondering if any other sources, perhaps in
the United States, France, etc. might have such archival WWI film footage?

In addition, I’m seeking WWI posters, regarding the aviation aspect of the
war.

If anyone can help me (as it’s rather urgent!), please email me directly at
cl…@sprint.ca

Thanks in advance for any help that comes my way!

Cynthia