25 May 2009 Dear Competitor, Welcome to the 2009 Ben Lowell Aerial confrontation! This year IAC chapter 12 has been generous enough to allow the AFA aerobatic team to host the contest at our home airfield. We are very thankful for their support as our team attempts to win our first IAC collegiate national championship! We hope that you will really enjoy this event and we are looking forward to flying with you next weekend. As you are well aware of now, flying into a military base requires a different set of protocols. The first part of this has already been accomplished through the landing permit paperwork. The next part is to issue you a PPR (prior permission required) number. This will be accomplished through Academy base operations this week and I will inform you of it via e mail. If your arrival time will differ by more than 30 minutes from your scheduled time, please inform me of this by calling my cell phone. Academy tower will ask you for this information upon your initial arrival at the field. If for whatever reason you forget your number, I will have a representative in the tower to inform you of what it is on freq 127.15 (callsign “overlord.”) The AFA airfield is class D airspace. The pattern procedures provided to you are for your information only (these are the procedures that the ‘local’ traffic follows.) Please do not fly directly west of the airfield as there will be heavy soaring and jump operations until 1200 on 29 May. Practice in the aerobatic box will occur on Friday, May 29th, from 1200-1800. In order to be allowed to practice, you must first get tech inspected (by Jamie Treat), register, sign the waiver, and receive a briefing from the starter / box observer. Practice slots will be limited to 10 minutes. We will also have a mandatory pilot meeting at 1800 in the 94th Flying Training Squadron mass briefing room. This briefing will cover various administrative items as well as most contest procedures (with the intent of making the contest briefing short). Saturday we will attempt to fly two programs per category. Our pilot briefing will begin at 0700 at midfield. Parking will be available at 9211 Talon Dr and will be clearly labeled with signs. There will be a shuttle available during all contest business hours to transport people between the flight line and the parking area. On Sunday we will finish up the remaining program(s) with a 0700 contest briefing. As a reminder, fuel sales will be cash only (but at a very low price.) Registration fees will be posted on the IAC 12 website and can be paid either by cash or personal check. At registration, we will have a number of box lunch options (catered by Jason’s deli) for Saturday and Sunday operations. There will also be a social event on Saturday evening at Dennis Raphael’s house. Please have some cash available at registration if you would like to participate in any of these events. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask. We are looking forward to flying with you!
Regards, Patrick Smiley