By Jerry Rosie (USUA #A86096)

Ultralight Pilots All -

Here it is again - March - the month that Spring is supposed to arrive in the Northern hemisphere, and with spring a young man's fancy turns to thoughts of Ð flying!! This is borne out by an increase in the number and the content of USUA club newsletters received. Activities are picking up in the ultralight community, starting with the annual USUA membership meeting held last month in Springfield, IL. If you haven't yet done so, go to the USUA homepage and read the great write-up of the annual meeting and awards ceremony. No matter what the actual weather may be in your neck of the woods, it looks like nothing but blue skies for USUA for the foreseeable future. The current staff and Board of Directors are to be congratulated on turning the organization around and improving its future.

One of the things that have brought about the improved picture is more emphasis on activities and services for members. A recent example of this is from the "Shirley (MA) Crowhopper Times" which announced the USUA BFI/AFI update seminar sponsored by the Crowhoppers (USUA Club #508). This seminar, held on March 12th combined a normal BFI/AFI update seminar with a presentation on Light Sport Aircraft and Sport Pilot requirements. The Shirley Crowhoppers plan to use this event to further publicize our sport in their area and to attract new members to their club. We hope that their greatest wishes were realized.

Jim Farthing, President of the Ultralight Squadron of America, of Perris, California also had service to members in mind when he provided, in the March edition of the "Ultralog," the club's newsletter, flight plans and navigation logs for eleven local flights ranging from 11 to 82 miles in length. He does caution any pilots desiring to use his flight plans to check them out for themselves, but he does give everyone who desires to see new areas some great ideas of how to spend some time on a weekend. This is a service that some other clubs might like to do for their members.

Two USUA members share with us their "adventures" this month. Rich Hastings of the Albuquerque Ultralight Association gives us a great verbal description of how he thoroughly enjoying a Sunday flight - until it suddenly got awfully quiet. His 300 plus hour 2si just stopped running. No sputtering, no coughing, no warning at all - just stopped - and here he was a mere 250 feet AGL. (You can get away with that in Arizona [grin] but we have trees here that are nearly that tall). Luckily, for Rich, a friendly dirt road provided a safe landing (the result of many, many practice engine out landings). After three or four phone calls he located some club members with a trailer to come rescue him. The post mortem disclosed that a piston in his engine totally failed and dropped pieces of itself into the crankcase resulting in a total and immediate stoppage of all power production. Rich's "learning points" include "altitude is insurance" and "it sure is nice to have understanding friends". We wish him luck with his engine and his rapid return to the air.

Meanwhile, Dave Pelletier, of the Black Mesa Flyers of Prescott, Arizona confesses that club presidents are not infallible. On a fun flight with another club member, Dave, after setting his GPS (supposedly) with the coordinates of his home airport, flew off into unknown territory. Noting that he was getting low on fuel, he started looking for landmarks and felt reassured when he spotted some familiar smoke stacks in the distance. Checking his trusty GPS, he discovered that the coordinates of his home airport had not been saved in his unit. This happened about the time he realized that the smoke stacks were in a different configuration than the ones he was used to seeing - in fact they were not the same smoke stacks. Low on fuel, and lost! Luckily, he spotted an airstrip and was able to land, refuel and orient himself (with the help of some chuckling old time flyers) and return home without incident. Dave's advice - double check your GPS, study your maps before lift off to orient yourself to new territory and possible landing sites if needed, and remain aware of your location at all times. GPS is great technology, but a map doesn't need batteries!

That's it for this month folks - spring is just around the corner and we'll all be flying soon. Remember to fly safely and keep the clean side up.

Cheers,
Jerry