North-Aire is proud to announce that the new Redbird LD flight simulator has arrived at our flight training center in Prescott, Arizona.

The LD has wrap-around visuals, realistic flight controls, and interchangeable cockpits and is great for the individual pilot dedicated to maintaining instrument currency and keeping skills sharp when they can't be flying the real thing!

Contact North-Aire to schedule time behind the Redbird LD flight simulator today!

In just two weeks, a Redbird LD will be installed at North-Aire Aviation’s Prescott, Arizona facility.

Redbird simulators are innovative, reliable and high-quality training devices that allow for faster, more comprehensive flight training. Benefits to North-Aire’s students will include:

• Training any time of day, regardless of conditions outside.
• Practicing and getting exposure to scenarios that would not be possible or safe to perform
• in the actual aircraft (i.e. engine failure).
• A safe environment to learn from mistakes and keep distractions at a minimum.
• Practicing maneuvers over and over without wasting time flying around. (Instructors can
• relocate the plane and reproduce conditions.)
• Saving time and money learning to fly in a simulator (not burning gas and rental time sitting
• on a taxiway waiting for traffic or ATC).
• Realistic simulation of system or instrument failures that lets students diagnose the problem
• and take corrective action. (No “sticky notes” needed.)
• Flying anywhere in the worldwide database. Learning in different geographical locations/
• terrain (i.e. mountain flying and common associated hazards).
• Building confidence and familiarity flying in any weather condition. Perfect crosswind
• landings teach students about wind shear and T-storms.

For more information on our Redbird simulator, see North-Aire’s website at http://www.northaire.com/redbird.html

Hi AVT Veteran Students!
 
Need to plan your Summer finances? Be prepared and understand your benefits!
 
Come to one of these information sessions THIS WEEK with the YC Veterans Education Benefits expert: Sandra Aldrcih. The session will be approximately 45 minutes -1 hour; no need to book.

Yavapai College Veterans Benefits Advisor, Sandra Aldrcih will:

• Lay out your Summer benefits – credits, payments and when you can expect payment.
• Discuss what forms etc. you need to submit and when.
• Answer any questions about Veterans Education Benefits.

Yavapai College Aviation Academic Advisor, Susie Regina will also be available for:

• Scheduling advising appointments with Susan Regina or Virginia VanTuhl.
• Summer and Fall registration opening dates and deadlines.
• Summer enrollment questions.
• Associate of Applied Science –Aviation  Degree questions.
• Information on resources @YC.

Just about the time Gladys Mae was born, 99 women pilots were forming a group they aptly named “The Ninety-Nines,” whose mission was to preserve the unique history of women in aviation. Gladys Morrison’s life in aviation was no less than a unique history unto itself. She was a woman ahead of her time who lived her passion—flying—all the while setting the foundation for others to do the same.

When Gladys died at the age of 74, she was the president of North-Aire, Inc., an international accelerated flight school in Prescott, Arizona, which she co-owned with Jess Ann Collier of Collier Farms in Chino Valley. Gladys loved teaching young pilots, especially young women. She always said: “Don’t limit yourself. You can do absolutely anything. Make up your mind; do the hard work and you can do it.”

Gladys lived that adage. She believed she could do it and she did. After receiving her initial pilot training in 1945, Gladys began earning a living performing in air shows, which included a flight in a Mooney from San Diego to Greenville S.C., by way of Charleston, as part of a Powder Puff Derby. In 1950 she was the first woman licensed by the state of California to fly crop-dusters and continued in that field for 8 years, operating her own business, where she trained the pilots she hired and taught them to pass the Agricultural Department test.

That was only the beginning. Over the course of her career, Gladys accrued 30,000 total flight hours, 10,000 of those hours as an instructor. Until her death in 2002, Gladys did everything from teaching aerobatics to chairing the new Aviation Department of Yavapai College in Prescott, Arizona, where she not only developed the department, but over the next ten years, wrote the entire curriculum and acted as the College’s ground school instructor. Her accomplishments ran the gamut from working as an air taxi check pilot for half a dozen air taxi companies to writing the VA training guide for the State of California’s Department of Education. Other government positions included conducting experiments in fog disbursement for the U.S. Navy at the Alameda Naval Air Station and operating a personnel transport for the USDA Forest Service in Prescott, where she flew both a Shrike Aero Commander and a Twin Comanche.

Gladys combined her flying skills with her managerial talents as managing partner of Davis Flying Service in Concord, California, a Part 141 and VA approved school, where she wrote both the curriculum and syllabus, which she taught, in addition to flying DC-3s for their non- scheduled line.

Gladys also partnered in Indio Flying Service and Desert Air Oasis of Thermal, California, where she functioned as both charter pilot and ground instructor. She followed that up as an assistant manager of Beechcraft West’s Flight Center, in charge of all ground training.

Gladys was the first woman rated to instruct an approved flight engineer ground school, which she did during her tenure at Fowler Aeronautics in Burbank, California. As their Director of Publications, she also wrote the training manuals for all advanced FAA ratings, including air transport pilot.

Having freelanced as a flight instructor for a number of years, Gladys became an air taxi pilot for Favor and Quail in Prescott and wrote their FAR Part 135 Operations Manual.

In 1974, while instructing at Yavapai College, Gladys helped start North-Aire, serving as its Chief Flight and Ground Instructor. Her main duties included acting as Chief Air Taxi Pilot. She also wrote North-Aire’s Part 135 Operations Manual. Gladys took over as President of North-Aire in 1988. Her experience and knowledge in aviation was invaluable to the instructors and students of North-Aire.

There is no doubt that 1982 was Gladys’s year. She was named Arizona Flight Instructor of the Year, Western Region Flight Instructor of the Year and National Flight Instructor of the Year. She received many certificates for contributing in the areas of safety and proficiency in flight and was also named Master Flight Instructor by the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. Over the span of Gladys’s eminent career, she received many awards. Nevertheless, her interest lay not in recognition, but in encouraging and helping others to follow their dreams.

Gladys was inducted into the Arizona Aviation Hall of Fame on May 4, 2002. Unfortunately she died of a brain tumor just days before the induction. Her daughter accepted the award on her behalf and stated that Gladys Morrison loved flying and considered her groundbreaking achievements “just doing her job.”

Amelia Earhart stated in 1929, “If enough of us keep trying, we’ll get someplace.” Gladys Mae Morrison lived that moto to its fullest.

North-Aire donates to to the 1st Annual General Aviation Accident Reduction and Mitigation Symposium. The goal of the symposium is to reduce the overall accident rate in Arizona by 10% within 2 years of implementation.

GAARMS is planned for:

When: March 14th & 15th, 2012

Where: Mesa PublicWorks/Police Training facility in Mesa, AZ.

_North-Aire would like to welcome back our returning students and extend a special welcome to our NEW Yavapai College students!  Please join us for a BBQ on Friday 1/20/12 from 1700 -1900 at the North-Aire Hangar.

North-Aire Aviation, LLC, 6543 Crystal Lane, Unit A, Prescott, AZ 86301

_When the Cirrus SR20 and 22 first appeared a dozen years ago, the models' full airframe parachute system and stall/spin resistant wing were expected to set new standards for light aircraft safety. But according to Aviation Consumer's January edition, the Cirrus line has achieved, at best, a middle of the road safety and accident record that makes its fatal accident rate a bit better than Mooney and Piper high-performance models, but a bit worse than the Columbia/Corvalis series and Cessna's venerable 172 and 182. The magazine studied accident records dating back as far as 30 years on 11 popular GA light aircraft. Among its findings are that the Cirrus overall accident rate is 3.25/100,000, placing it closer to the top of the list of airplanes Aviation Consumer considered and about half of the GA average overall accident rate of 6.3/100,000. Only Diamond's DA40 and DA42 had better overall accident rates -- dramatically so in the case of the DA40, whose overall rate is 1.19, a little more than a sixth of the GA average.

Cirrus aircraft finished lower when fatal rate is considered. The Cirrus combined rate (SR20 and SR22) is 1.6, compared to the GA average of 1.2/100,000. Diamond's DA40 has the lowest fatal rate at .35, followed by the Cessna 172 at .45, the Diamond DA42 at .54 and the Cessna 182 at .69. Cessna's Corvalis line, which began life as the Columbia, has a fatal rate of 1.0, a bit less than the GA average of 1.2. The Columbia/Corvalis models are essentially similar in construction and performance to the Cirrus SR22, but without the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS).

The magazine also examined how effective CAPS has been and concludes that when deployed under optimal conditions of speed and altitude, the system has proven effective in saving lives in preventing serious injury. But it's far from perfect. Of 31 CAPS deployments, both intentional and possibly unintentional, 39 of 57 occupants emerged without injury, while seven occupants have been seriously injured by touchdown under CAPS. There have been six fatalities associated with CAPS deployment, several of which occurred either at very low altitude or speeds beyond the system's demonstrated performance envelope. One surprise from the magazine's study is that at least 12 of the aircraft that landed under CAPS were repaired and returned to service.

The Cirrus Owners and Pilots Association has studied Cirrus accidents extensively and concludes that the models would have a much better safety record if some 83 pilots who got into trouble in circumstances where CAPS was well within its envelope had simply used it. COPA is developing new training methods to teach pilots how to include CAPS more effectively in their response to abnormal flight situations.