Dear LOBO Members,
Our country has been blessed with a beautiful fall season from coast to coast. I hope you have been able to enjoy plenty of flying on your own. Your LOBO board has been actively flying their own magic carpets and enjoying the cooler weather. However, we have also been diligently working behind the scenes to bring you the new TRUST (Tracking Records for Users of Standardized Training) program. Our hope is to provide this new program to our instructors very soon. We believe that TRUST will make us all better, safer pilots and trained to the highest standards. Your board volunteers are focused on this goal. Our time is always a balancing act between family, business, flying, and LOBO! I appreciate the hard work your LOBO board does on a daily basis! As president, I must be very careful not to push these volunteers too hard. Recently I was reminded “Are you our boss?!” … we laughed and I shut up! Here is a round up of our current activities:
Insurance Committee
Chad Crow, a Lancair owner/pilot/LOBO member with years of insurance experience is heading up our Insurance Committee. In order to communicate accurately with the aviation insurance industry, Tom Sullivan is compiling the results of a deep dive into accident data. The data has been sourced from Jeff Edwards, the LOBO founder and professional accident investigator, as well as FAA and NTSB records. This effort has taken hours and Tom is working hard to produce accurate and complete data. With Chad’s experience and Tom’s analyses, we will organize presentations to aviation underwriters. We believe we can clearly demonstrate the efficacy of LOBO-endorsed training in reducing Lancair accidents. We will also share our finding with our membership when it is complete. We have full confidence our data will be well received by the insurance brokers and underwriters.
Training
Please continue to pursue initial and annual recurrent training. Make this a “Must Do” in your aviation activity. Encourage all your fellow pilots and wanna-be’s to do the same! Jeff Edison has a few new flight instructors who are completing qualifications. Check lancairowners.com for the latest list of LOBO approved instructors and their contact information.
Events
Next year’s EAA banquet has been scheduled for Tuesday, July 26, 2022. Please make a note… the 2022 banquet will be on Tuesday evening of EAA this year and not its usual Thursday evening. This is a big change from the day we have always done in the past! We are seeking a speaker, if you have ideas, contact Sandy Gainza.
LOBO Landing, Asheville NC October 6-8, 2022. We anticipate the Asheville Landing to have a little different twist than previous Landings. With LOBO’s Safety and Training as our number one initiative, we are considering holding ground school sessions in the mornings and using afternoons for flight training. There would be optional vendor presentations and/or free time to play golf, or see the fall colors. Hotel reservations are now open. We encourage you to reserve your spot now! The conference hotel is the Hilton Biltmore Park. With a 48 hour cancel policy and potential sell out of the blocked rooms… do not delay!
Our rate of $199 per night for a newly renovated (2020) room, free parking and only a few minutes from the Asheville airport is a great deal. We need your help; the Landing is an all volunteer event. If you have a topic you would like to present or you have a topic you would like to see presented, please let Sandy Gainza know(s.gainza [at] lancairowners.com).
If you would like to make a hotel reservation, use this link:
www.my-event.hilton.com/avlbphf-lob-d6e63ab2-73c1-45e2-8f49-130e4ece767a/
Note two things: the link will automatically show you the rate for a five night stay. You can edit the nights by selecting the EDIT STAY tab on the upper right side of the screen. The other “feature” of this link is that it will tell you what the total cost is. Please don’t worry, they do not charge your card until you check out. The card information is for the guarantee.
EVO Owners Training Event in Bend, OR
October 20-24 were the dates of this years’ EVO fly in and training event hosted by Advanced Aviation, Flight Metrics,, Evolution Aircraft, and EPS. About 25 EVO pilots and spouses gathered in Bend for the four day weekend. Gary Caravella and Jay Utech were kind enough to write up briefs, Michael Sundermeyer shared a link to his photos, and Alma Brook shared a nice video of the event.
You can find all of the information here:
https://www.lancairowners.com/evolution-owners-meet-and-train-in-bend
LancairTalk
Stay tuned to Lancairtalk as often as you can. Lancairtalk is a “for profit” business owned by Paul Miller and it continues to be a great source of information. Lancairtalk is not affiliated with LOBO but we encourage you to stay plugged in. Although Lancairtalk often infers that LOBO promotes certain vendors, we do not. However, these LOBO supporters who often want to advertise and/or provide sponsorships are always encouraged and are not excluded from doing so. LOBO continues to wrap its arms around ALL who provide support, products and services to our Lancair fleet, whoever they might be.
Lancair International Update
Lancair International of Uvalde TX. has let it be known they are FOR SALE. Mark Huffstutler, owner of Lancair International has asked LOBO to “get the word out” regarding help in finding a new owner. The Huffstutler’s have simply decided to go a different direction with their many other aviation entities. Their wish is to find an aggressive owner that will take the Lancair company to the next level. This should be our wish as well! It behooves us all to promote this sale and help locate a buyer or a group of investors that will rebuild this great company. We want a company that will support all the flying Lancair aircraft as well as those kits that are still under construction. The future and value of our aircraft hangs on the sale of this company to the right buyer!
… Food for thought!
Until next time… Please stay safe and keep flying!
… George Rosel, LOBO President