April 2004 Newsletter
Air Mail
Division
Activity: 1 Pilot flying 25.60 Hours.
Of interest to
those flying the mail, are several items on the DC-3 Airways web-site:
On the Misc.
Downloads page there is an 8 meg file with the
On the Routes
Page, click “Via Air Mail” for a page
with 132 Air Mail Flights.
Bush Pilots
Division
Ron Jorgensen
has submitted the Toughman Challenge
#3 Phase 2 of 3. This challenge
takes place in
As a followup
to the the “Yukon Quest Air Force” The Iditarod
Airforce by Bill Odell and Trev Palmer is on the web-site. This is a series
of supply and support missions for the Iditarod dog sled race from
Welcome to new
pilots Justin Mullens and Bob Hastie
Activity. 14 Pilots flying a total of 484.8 hours in
March.
I had a chance
to meet Coleman Green in person this month.
It is always great to meet someone you have corresponded with over a
period of time. My wife, Mary Ann, and I
had lunch with Coleman at Jimmy’s Grill in
Missing
Person: Division Director Brent Brazeel
went on temporary leave on Nov. 1st and was due to return about Dec.
15th. I’m not sure what
happened to him, but have to declare the position vacant. So if anyone with some web skills wants to
take over send me an e-mail to me at bill@billvons.com The basic requirement is the ability to
maintain the web-site and create new pages.
Brent has been
a fine director and a good friend. I
appreciate all of the work he has done for the Alaska Division and the
assistance he has given me. He will
always be welcome to return to BGA management in some position.
Capt. Bill
Australian Division
The Great Aussie Air Rally is winding down. Over 200
pilots registered, and 131 have completed 30 Sectors. 11 more Sectors to go.
Welcome to new
pilot Michael Cameron.
Activity: 12 Pilots flying a total of 434.80 hours in
March.
Job opening: Division Director
Northern Division
This month Mary
Ann and I visited the
Aircraft range
in size from the Crosley Flea to the Airbus (not sure which model). The Airbus wasn’t in the building yet, but a
space just beyond the Boeing 307 and Concorde is reserved.
Welcome to new
pilot Tom Easterday.
Activity: 6 Pilots flying a total of 190.40 hours in
March
Southern Division
Welcome to new
pilots Roy Beck, George Kuhn, Greg Evans and Teo
Activity: 12
Pilots flying a total of 493.7 hours in March.
Job
Opening: Division Director
From the C.E.O.
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Jan-04 |
Feb-04 |
Feb-04 |
|
Air
Mail Pilots |
50.30 |
38.73 |
25.60 |
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|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Bush
Pilots |
212.37 |
442.72 |
484.80 |
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|
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Australian
Pilots |
372.17 |
472.65 |
434.80 |
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|
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Northern
Pilots |
183.62 |
141.53 |
190.40 |
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|
|
|
|
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Southern
Pilots |
407.75 |
411.40 |
493.70 |
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|
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Total |
|
1226.20 |
1507.04 |
1629.30 |
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I update the
Division Rosters about twice a week. I
transfer the pilots minutes from the original data to the rosters
manually. Errors tend to be made in this
process. At the end of the month I
update the Main Roster. The Main Roster
is updated by sorting the original data by the pilot number field and while an
error is possible, it has been my experience that the main roster has the more
reliable data. I begin each month by
comparing the rosters and correcting any errors in the total hours for each
pilot.
To assist in
this process, it is important to enter your pilots ID and time correctly. The pilots id is 4 letters and 3
numbers. Do not enter any spaces or
dashes, and don’t use less (or more) than 7 characters. i.e.
bgas001 Time is entered in
minutes. So a 1hr and 15 minute flight
is entered as 75 No alpha characters
or decimal points.
If you enter
your id occasionally as bgas1 instead of bgas001 you might not find your hours
showing up on the roster. Or if you
enter your time as 3.5 (hours) you might get credit for 3 minutes. I try to catch errors, but some of them don’t
jump out and catch my eye.
When you are typing
comments on your flight reports, don’t press the “Enter” key until you are
finished. Let the words “wrap”
automatically. Pressing enter to
format your comments puts them on a separate line which is ignored when I
process pireps. Unless I manually delete
each (enter) first, your comments will be lost.
Web-Statistics:
In March we had 12,536 visitors.
Multi-Player
Flying.
It has been my
pleasure to fly MP for many of the G.A.A.R. Sectors with Bill Hendrix bgas046. On one flight each we were by Rob Finn bgad003,
and Milt Chambers bgak043. Almost
everyone who tries MP flying enjoys it, and finds it adds to the flightsimming
experience. A good tutorial regarding
BushNet and Teamspeak is available on the BushNet forum at avsim.com
That’s all for
now,
Bill Von Sennet
Back Issues: March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003