Destinations…
If you're game for some Texas-sized fun and education, Moody Gardens is the ticket. Fly into Galveston Scholes airport (GLS) and walk over to Moody Gardens, a conspicuous landmark featuring three gigantic pyramids.

The Aquarium Pyramid embodies the Caribbean, South Atlantic, North Pacific and South Pacific exhibits. Journey through an underwater tunnel to view sharks, eels, and thousands of tropical fish surrounded by one million gallons of water. Journey to exotic lands in the 10-story Rainforest Pyramid housing birds, tropical fish, reptiles, and other animals. Enjoy the waterfalls, pools and caves. The Discovery Pyramid houses a science museum for kids and adults. The featured exhibit is "Journey through Amazing Music." There is a wide selection of theaters to dazzle your senses. Visit the 3-D IMAX for larger than life films. Get physical in the Ridefilm Theater with its 180 degree wrap around screen. See, hear, feel and smell the intense experience of saving the last male T-Rex in the 4-D Special FX Theater.

Moody Gardens makes learning fun, intense, and bigger than life. And after all that brain building, take a break at Palm Beach, an exotic family beach with sand brought over from Florida. Make sure to save enough energy to walk back to the airport and fly home!

Newly Wed and Newly Rated...
Claudia Fennell comes from a family of pilots and grew up in the world of General Aviation. Her grandfather has been a lifelong pilot and recently gave up flying around age 90! Her dad owned airplanes as far back as she can remember: first a Duke and then the KingAir he currently flies. An uncle and a cousin both trained at American Flyers. Having spent all her life traveling in light aircraft, a niggling desire grew in her to be more involved and have a greater understanding of aviation.

After her marriage in January, Claudia decided to finish up her Private Pilot certificate. In late spring she found some time on her hands and got her Instrument Rating. Claudia's dad has been her source of encouragment. In Texas, lawyers and pilots go together like peanut butter and jelly and Claudia's dad is no exception. He has always wanted his daughters to understand his passions: lawyer first and pilot second. Now he can say they do understand. One daughter became an attorney and the other a pilot!

A sensible word of advice Claudia offers to student pilots, "Don't [just] learn to fly… Become a pilot."

Make Room in the Cockpit
Having entered the world of aviation as a gate agent for Lufthansa and KLM Airlines, Ana Beltran caught the flying bug and eventually shifted into a career as a flight attendant. She discovered that she loves airplanes and the airline industry. When the captain or first officer needs to leave the cockpit, another member of crew has to come up and sit in the empty seat. Ana realized how great the view is from the cockpit – definitely something one could get used to! Now she has decided she wants to move up to the front of the airplane permanently.

Ana took a year of leave to become a pilot. She regrets that she didn't know of American Flyers right away, because it took her 5 months to earn her Private Pilot certificate, where it could have taken ten days instead. Training is so hard for ExpressJet, that American Flyers structure has been a good preparation for her. On October 1st Ana has to return to Continental Express either as a flight attendant or as a commercial pilot with 500 hours of flight experience. We are confident that Ana will be a first officer in no time!

Did You Know…
The first U.S. President to fly in an airplane while in office was Franklin D. Roosevelt. He flew from Miami, FL to Morocco on January 14, 1943 to discuss WWII with Winston Churchill.

Laugh Out Loud…
At the Naval Air Station a young ground-crew member was being trained on how to direct an F-14 into the fuel pit for hot refueling. The instructor gave him a go and after quite some wild arm weaving the F-14 was parking, but when checking they discovered that he had taxied the aircraft too far forward from the fuel hose to reach the airplane.

You'll have to send him around again," said the instructor.

"What?" he said, surprised. "They spend millions on these things and you can't even put them in reverse?"

Source: Http://www.aviation-humor.com

Dog Days of Summer
By David Menconi, Chief Flight Instructor

The days keep getting longer and temperature keeps rising. Your airplane struggles to achieve the performance that seemed effortless just a few months ago. The high temperature has taken its toll and your airplane is performing as if it were operating at an altitude that is thousands of feet higher.

This performance altitude is called Density Altitude. It is determined by correcting the airport elevation for nonstandard temperature and pressure. Because high temperature, high elevation and lower pressure causes air to expand, the parcel of space your airplane passes through will have less air for your wing to generate lift, your propeller to generate thrust and your engine to generate power. Anything that expands or displaces air causes the air to become less dense. Airplane manuals normally allow for correcting for elevation, nonstandard temperature and pressure but do not address other factors that can contribute to decreasing the density of air. Factors such as the amount of water vapor in the air (humidity), rain, pollution, smoke, and dust can displace air causing less dense air and loss of performance.

When making decisions on minimum runway requirements as well as climb, cruise, and service ceiling performance it is important to consider those factors that are included in the performance chart as well as those factors that are not.

The Service Man in Your Engine
By Rick Freidinger, Director of Maintenance

Oil. While it's something that most people don't think about very often, it is probably the single most important element contributing to the life of your engine. Fuel and air may be what keep your engine running, but oil is the true life blood of your engine. Frequent oil changes, at least once every 50 hours, will help extend to life of your engine to TBO and beyond. (TBO is the manufacturers recommended hours at which your engine should be overhauled.) Oil serves many purposes in an engine. It lubricates all the moving parts, helps cool the hot parts, and more importantly, it picks up all the "garbage" in the engine. Microscopic particles like dirt and dust that get past your air filter and burned combustion byproducts that slip past your cylinder rings, if left in the engine, will cause excessive wear to the internal parts of your engine. This waste is caught and suspended in your oil. When the engine is running, oil is picked up from the sump and pumped through the oil filter which traps all the suspended debris. The clean oil then passes through the oil cooler and on to the engine where it again lubricates, cools and cleans your engine. This process continues all the time the engine is running to assure a long healthy life for your engine. At approximately $1.25 per hour of flight, oil may the cheapest thing you put in your engine, but it gives you the biggest bang for the buck. If you want your engine to live a long healthy life don't skimp on quality or quantity when it comes to oil changes.

"Chuck Yeager and the X-1"
The first man to fly faster the speed of sound, Chuck Yeager was the consummate aviator. Possessed of a seat-of-the-pants ability few pilots are fortunate to have, Yeager combined this talent with a calculating fearlessness of the supersonic unknown. In October 1947, Yeager flew the Bell X-1 "Glamorous Glennis" through the sound barrier. Though he is best known for this feat, Chuck Yeager also had a long and distinguished USAF career, retiring as a Brigadier General. He was a P-51 Ace in World War II, commanded a fighter wing in the Vietnam WAR, and was also commander of the USAF Flight Test Centre at Edwards AFB, where he was responsible for the training of a new generation of USAF test pilots. His name has become synonymous with "The Right Stuff"… a kind of man who can fly the NF-104A rocket jet over 100,000 feet into space twice in
one day and survive the bail out.

Ask the Pilot Professor
By Dr. Michael Bliss

Q: I'm a relatively new Private Pilot and I learned to fly at an uncontrolled airport. I need to fly into Dallas Love Field next month and I'd appreciate any tips you can give me on how to deal with this flight.

A: Flying into Class B airspace is relatively simple because you will be under ATC control and can expect to be assigned headings and altitudes. To prepare for the flight, make sure you have and study the Dallas area Terminal Chart. I'd also purchase a set of the IFR approach charts that cover the Dallas area. Look at the arrival procedures for Love Field that apply to prop aircraft arriving from your direction. I know it will look confusing at first, but take note of the arrival fixes and become familiar with them. Even though you may not be assigned the arrival by name, you may well be assigned the routing. Having already studied this information you will be better prepared for dealing with ATC.

Also, make sure you have the proper frequency for your initial contact of regional approach and contact them well before entering the Class B airspace. Make sure you follow all instructions and ask for clarification if you are unsure what to do. Most of all, enjoy the flight.