News from Wausau Flying Service

News from the Wausau Downtown Airport

May 2012

Welcome to Wausau Flying Service

Greetings!

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A full house at the May 12th clinic on stalls and spins.

FREE Training!

Wausau Flying Service offers several free pilot seminars each spring, introducing local pilots to such subjects as flying tailwheel airplanes, dispelling myths about stalls and spins, and flying aerobatics. The next free clinic is June 9th, Flying the Aerobatic Basics. The seminar starts at 9:00 a.m. in the WFS conference room, and pilots attending are eligible for credit in the FAA Wings progam. Send an email to John Chmiel if you plan to attend.

Milestones

Megan Meier

Megan Meier became the newest private pilot in the Wausau area when she passed her checkride on May 12th in a Cessna 150.

Jordan Brost returns to Wausau Flying Service, providing pilot services in a Cirrus SR22. For the past two years, Jordan had been flying an SR22 as well as Lear and Hawker Jets for Tactical Pilot Operations in Virginia Beach, VA.

Issue: 3

In This Issue

Free Training

Milestones

Did You Know?

Military Operations Areas

VFR pilots are sometimes concerned about flying through some of the many MOAs associated with Volk Field near Camp Douglas, Wisconsin.

MOAs are airspace with defined vertical and lateral limits for the purpose of separating military training from IFR traffic. When an MOA is active, ATC will normally vector IFR flights away from that area.

VFR pilots should use extreme caution and should request traffic advisories before entering an active MOA. Military airplanes may be practicing combat tactics, including low altitude, formation and aerobatic maneuvers.

A call to Green Bay Radio will tell you if an MOA is active and what frequency to use for traffic advisories in that area.

New test standards for private pilot go into effect on June 1, 2012. WFS has them if you need one.

Gil Buettner
Wausau Flying Service

Did You Know?

When transponders were first introduced, they were called IFFs, which stands for "Identification, Friend or Foe." They were very simple and could only offer limited codes. More capabilities were added and the name changed to IFF/SIF, which added "Selective Identification Feature."

Pilots referred to them as "parrots" which lead to the term "squawk" for entering a code. Before the IDENT feature was added, controllers would ask pilots to squawk standby for identification, sometimes saying, "Strangle your parrot for five," meaning squawk standby for five seconds.