Bluegrass Airlines

May 2003 Newsletter

Air Mail Division News

BGA Air Mail pilots flew 24.82 hours in April and visitors flew 1.08 hours

Alaska Division News

Alaska Division Pilots flew 189.54 hours in April and these visitors flew a total of 100.58 hours:     


Bill Von Sennet (BGAS001) = 0.35
Bill Odell (BGAS004) = 50.39
Bill Agee (BGAS006) = 49.84

Capt. Coleman

Australian Division News

Australian Division Pilots flew 222.46 hours visitors flew 86.46 hours in April:

The Great Aussie Air Race of 2003 is history and final standings have been posted.  Pilots may continue to fly the legs of the race and submit them as flight reports to the Australian Division, but the standings will not change.  72 pilots completed all 37 legs of the race and they all expressed thanks to Bluegrass for hosting a “top notch” event.  Rob Finn is already well into the planning stage for the 2004 race and is seeking comments from anyone interested on the Bluegrass Forum.

Northern Division News

02 May 2003

MEMORANDUM

From:    BGA Northern Division Director
To:      BGA Chief Executive Officer

Subj:    NORTHERN DIVISION STATUS REPORT - APRIL 2003

1.    In accordance with operational requirements of Bluegrass Airlines Divisions, the following is a summary of flight activity within the Northern Division during the month of April 2003.

BGAN007    Brent Perry        10.70 hours
  (career total: 351.90 hours)

BGAN018    Lou Vickery         3.16 hours
  (career total: 59.70 hours)

BGAN032    Paul Russell        5.50 hours
  (career total: 11.01 hours)

BGAN033    Don Hulick         17.10 hours
  (career total: 40.10 hours)

BGAN035    Gene Ward          17.65 hours
  (career total: 39.15 hours)

TOTAL TIME BY DIVISION PILOTS IN APRIL: 54.11 hours

VISITORS

BGAS001    Bill Von Sennet    16.20 hours
BGAS005    Kevin Johnson      12.42 hours
BGAS006    Bill Agee          25.94 hours
BGAS031    Gary McCarty       23.98 hours
BGAS036    Jason Krogmann      1.08 hours

BGAK014    Tony Brown          2.00 hours
BGAK028    Brent Brazeel       1.82 hours

BGAM005    Stephen Gertau     22.40 hours

TOTAL TIME BY VISITING PILOTS IN APRIL: 105.84 hours

TOTAL TIME WITHIN THE NORTHERN DIVISION: 159.95 hours

2.    A tremendous number of contrails criss-crossing the Northern Division skies in April by visiting pilots.  A lot of mail got delivered and a lot of other "stuff" got delivered too ... :o).

R/Sr. Capt. Bob Thompson

Southern Division News

Southern Division Pilots flew 536.86 hours and one visitor Brent Brazeel bgak028 flew 0.73 hours.

The Southern Division pireps pages have become the community pireps pages for all Bluegrass Pilots and I have noticed an immediate increase in the number of flights this month, and the percentage of reports that have comments.  As a result of the increased workload I have been updating the pages much more frequently than my previous method which was to update once a week either on Thursday evening or Saturday.

 

Turbo Division News

These visitors to the Turbo Division flew 26.52 hours in April:

 

Most of the hours were flown by Ed Burke bgad011 on his Baghdad Airlift missions.

 

 

     Not a whole lot of news for April, the Turbo and Airmail Divisions keep plugging along, looks like the new Baghdad Airlift is attracting some attention.

 

Capt. Joe

 

From the C.E.O.

 

The main Bluegrass Airlines page now has a link for flight reports.  This takes you to a Flight Report page that has links for the report forms of each division. (It also has links to the main page of each division for your ease of navigating back there.)

 

As of May 1st, 2003 (we actually already started this) flight reports are sent to the director of the division in which you have flown.  If you are an Alaska pilot, but are flying in the Caribbean you would click the Southern Div. button to report the flight.  Likewise a Southern Division pilot flying in Alaska, British Columbia or the Northwest Territories would click on the Alaska Division button.

 

We have divided the world into sections that are assigned to each division.  Since some of our pilots fly “freelance” or charter flights all over the world, we divided it geographically.    First we drew a line around the world following the 36degN Latitude

(In the US this is a line from Kill Devil Hills, NC  passing south of Nashville, Tulsa and Las Vegas)

 

North of that line is the Northern Division, except for flights in Alaska, British Columbia and the Northwest

Territories which go to the Alaska Division

 

South of that line from Hawaii east to the Atlantic Coast of Europe is the Southern Division.

 

South of that line from the Atlantic Coast of Europe to Hawaii is the Australian Division.

 

The Alaska Division is Alaska, British Columbia and the Northwest Territories.

 

Turbo Prop and Jet flights are reported to the Turbo Div.

 

Air Mail Div gets reports of 1930’s Air Mail flights.

 

If your flight is a posted schedule by a division (such as the Northern Division flights to Wilmington NC, and Florida) report it to the division which posted it.

 

If your flight traverses more than one division, report it to the division from which you took off.

 

If you are on a “freelance” flight and are unsure where you are in relation to the 36 degree N latitude pres “shift Z” and the long-lat coordinates will be at the top of your screen.  Also a neat trick for finding out what the current winds at your altitude are.

 

For the geographically challenge among us the Berlin Airlift is in the Northern Division, while the Baghdad Airlift is in the Australian Division.

 

All reports also go to Capt. Bill for inclusion in the pireps page (click the “View Pireps” link on the main page)  At the bottom of  each months pireps page there is a link to view that months complete flight reports as submitted with comments.

 

If you are flying in a division other than your own, your pirep will be forwarded by Capt. Bill to your division director.

 

The data from the pireps page will be used to update the main roster just after the end of each month.  Sometimes the manual process of updating a divisions roster leads to errors (I know it happens to me at the Southern Div), but the main roster should have the accurate total of all hours you reported during each month.  If you report hours flown in April after the first of May they will be included in the hours for May.

 

I know change can cause confusion, but if you put in the effort to file your reports this way, it will save a lot of work for me, and lead to more accurate reporting of visitor hours for each division.   The division directors put in too much effort to not be aware that the pilots are flying in their division and enjoying the fruit of their labors.

 

The feature of the month is going to be a little late, as I am still finishing up on the administration end of the Great Aussie Air Race.  It will be a United Airlines historic route using the Boeing 247D.   You can download the aircraft from avsim.com and and the panel from a link at the bottom right side of our main page.

 

I just returned from a trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and fired up Fs2002 to check out the Wright Brothers monument at Kill Devil Hills.   Amazingly it isn’t there.   So I have redone KFFA  - First Flight Airport.  Coleman Green has created a monument which I placed on top of a hill.   We weren’t able to make it look exactly like the original, but it is a vast improvement and well worth downloading.   As this is the “Centennial of Powered Flight”,  you can be sure a future monthly feature will be using KFFA.   Hopefully FS2004 “The Century of Flight” will include a rendition of the monument.

 

Don’t forget to check out the forum and add your input.   The main roster has been updated with all hours for April.

 

That’s all for this month, thanks for being part of Bluegrass Airlines,

 

Capt. Bill

 

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