The
August
14, 2002
I hope you enjoy reading our first newsletter. One of the points made in the recent pilots survey was a need for more communication to all of the pilots.
A Note from the General Manager
This is the
first edition of our new monthly newsletter for members of Bluegrass Airlines
and is something we hope you all will support and encourage. It is a means by which each Division and
even individual members, can communicate with everyone their coming events,
thoughts, problems, suggestions and of course praise for the efforts of
everyone involved J
Please take the
time to read what is happening in our Va and what is planned for the coming
months. Please take the time to
contribute to the information. Send
us your emails for inclusion and participate in the promotion of
This newsletter
is designed for YOU. YOU have
requested it and management has listened.
Please don’t leave it entirely to the Divisional Directors and
Management to keep going. Let us have
your thoughts – good and bad – your praise and criticisms. Let us have your support and above all let
us see
The recent
survey of members, whilst very disappointing in the number of responses
received, did highlight a number of areas where improvements could be made and
Management is currently looking at ways to address the issues raised. If you have not already done so and wish
to reply to the survey please do so now as results are being compiled and every
suggestion and criticism is being carefully considered.
I wish to express my very sincere thanks to the 7 of our total 63 (11%) pilots who took the time to send responses to the
questions raised.
Captain Coleman Green director of the Alaska
Division will be making a cross country move soon and must take a leave of
absence for a few months until he gets settled in. Anyone interested in taking a management role should contact Coleman or Bill Von Sennet. We have other positions available for some people with fresh
ideas as well.
A letter from Captain Rob
Finn of the Australian Division:
Hi
all.
I feel that the future of
We
are in need of a VA, that pilots will come to worldwide, maybe to join, or just
do one of our special flights, but we need a VA that is talked about in the FS community.
I think DC3 Airways has that recognition at present, and that we need to equal
or preferable better.
The team at
Lets take the Berlin Airlift flights, Bill Odell and
Bill Von Sennet have done an excellent job in recreating the flights of
that era and has bought us the most up to date information, this I
know, was many hours of work on there behalf to bring us such a
thorough understanding of the Airlift and the opportunity to fly this event.
Just how many pilots took advantage of their work and
actually flew an Airlift sector, i don’t know. I myself, a
The Catalina Jaunt, another of our special flights is
on the launching pad, but here again after so many hours of work by a dedicated
team, just how many pilots will fly this event ?? Time will tell.
Maybe it is time that
Lets face it, YES, we love our propliners and may they
live forever, but should we start including some of the jets and turbo- props,
after all it has been 50 years since the Boeing 707s and DC-8s hit the skies
and 60 years plus since the turbo-prop Viscounts and Electras first flew. Lets
even look at the Boeing 747, 767. 727 and 737, count back how many years since
we all first saw on of these types at the local airport and went,
"WOW".
So lets look at the future of our VA, we do not want a
VA that schedules 129 flights per day between LAX and SFO, there are more of
that type of VA around then i have had breakfasts. We need a VA that is
different, a VA that the FS community will email us and say , that was great,
"whats next", this will make the dedicated team work by our members
worth while.
Your comments and suggestions please gentleman and ladies.
Cheers from
downunder...........Rob Finn
The
Southern Division is sponsoring a major event starting September 1st.,
2002. It is called “The
Catalina Jaunt” and uses our PBY5-A Catalina on a journey from
The
PanAm Clipper flights page is finished. We have an excellent model of the Boeing
B-314 clipper and scenery to download also.
The
Berlin
Airlift is still on line. It seems
to be receiving more attention from outside of
Our schedules have been changed to be in
conformity with the
Bluegrass has a new division! BGA Air Mail Come
and join in a flight back to the 1929 and the 1930’s following the C.A.M.
routes (Contract Air Mail) You can fly
any aircraft such as a Stearman, Pitcairn Mailwing or our Stinson SR-10. The web-site has a new skin for the SR-10
painted up for BGA Air Mail. The site
is at http://bluegrassairlines.com/bgam
A message from Capt.
Bob
I will be offline for about 3 weeks starting around 26 August
as am moving to San Luis Obispo,
California after just having retired from the Navy after some 28 years. I'll
need that time to get my household goods shipped and then everything hooked
back up again (I hope ..... ;o). My e-mail address will remain unchanged
as I am NOT on DSL but still use the dial-up method so will just shift to a new
number for access.
The
Bangor Hub web-site has been moved to http://bluegrassairlines.com/bgan/bangor due to the fact that flightsimmers.net will
be shutting down on August 15th, and we wanted to preserve Capt. Art
Nichols work.
With
the completion of the addition of taxiways and hardstand parking areas to all
300+ Australian airports in FS2002 that didn’t already have them, the way is
now open for the introduction of additional schedules and the introduction of
AI flights to many of the regional and country outback airports. Unfortunately most of the taxiways and
hardstand are not indicative of the actual airport but it does give somewhere
to park and start from. Each of
these airports now boasts a
This
project could not have been completed without the very generous assistance of
Capt. Coleman Green of the Alaska Division who so generously gave up his time
to make the scenery files for us.
Thanks Coleman.
Airservices
Australia has just given us access to their online database of airport and
other information which is a mine of information for flight planning purposes
and in the coming months will prove invaluable for a proposed adventure flight
in the Australian outback using a Flying Doctor Pilatus aircraft to visit
outback sheep and cattle stations where NAVAIDS are not available. This will be a great test of a pilots
navigation ability. More about that
later as the scenery files have yet to be done.
Rob Finn has been very heavily involved
in the making of the forthcoming Catalina Jaunt in
One
of the responses in the survey was the need for conformity on flight
reports. The Australian and Southern
Divisions have been using hours :
minutes and everyone else uses
hours and partial hours as a decimal
There
was not any unanimous support for either system, just a request that we all use
the same one. So effective September 1st,
2002 all divisions will be using hours . hundredths of hours. To figure your flight
time, take the total number of minutes and divide it by 60 (95min/60=1.58) Round off your decimals to two places (i.e.
3.91666 would be 3.92)
The master roster is posted on the web-site every month as soon as all of the reports come in for all the divisions. Please check the roster and if you are marked as inactive or “sacked” contact your division director concerning your future status. Anyone marked inactive who does not have any flights for 3 consecutive months will be removed from the roster. If you have extenuating circumstances, we understand and will mark you as “on leave” and keep you on the roster. But you need to communicate your status to your division director.
That’s
all for this month, hope to see you in Miami on Sept 1st. ----- Bill Von Sennet
Any comments or articles
for the September newsletter should be sent to:
Bill Von Sennet C.E.O. or Brian Wilson General Manager