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PRESIDENT'S LETTER
by Ryan Oltman
MMOPA Board WMeeting Report
ith 2021 well underway, I hope this letter finds everyone healthy and excited for some great flights in the second half of the year. This spring
has found me very busy both in and out of the cockpit. Allow me to give a brief overview of MMOPA this spring.
In mid-March, the MMOPA board of directors met in Nashville for a meeting. In addition, Dianne, Bill Albert’s team, and the Divine Media crew worked with the JW Marriott to review the venue for some of the exciting convention enhancements we are hoping to bring to our membership. MMOPA strives to provide a safety-oriented convention for as many people as possible. The virtual convention experiment in 2020 brought about some changes that should allow us to expand our reach. This September, the 2021 Nashville convention will provide
a great opportunity to take what we learned in the 2020 virtual convention and merge it with our in-person convention with the goal to reach more of our membership with great new safety-focused content. This hybrid style convention will be live-streamed like 2020, for those unable to attend in person, but also allows us to make all the content available for all attendees after the convention. In addition to the hybrid model, we are working out the logistics for a special live entertainment event during Friday night’s auction to bring even more enjoyment to an evening of community and charity.
The board meeting took place during a time when a series of unfortunate runway excursions had taken place grabbing the attention of everyone with PA46 aircraft.
The topic was discussed, theories proposed, but most importantly we realized there continues to be a safety and training issue within the community. As a consequence, the board authorized MMOPA to begin what should
be a great expanse of the MMOPA Safety & Education Foundation with what we hope becomes a repository of safety-related content available to everyone. This content will follow the PA46 Pilot Operating Handbook and provide insights and information that our members have been asking and inquiring about routinely on the forums. With this hosted content, we want to provide a common baseline by which all discussions are based and allow people new to the airframe to have a library of technical content related to safely operating a PA46. The logistics around this endeavor are complex and pull from many talents. Expect to see more formal announcements soon as we are currently working to gather support from several key partners to assist in making this project successful.
What seemed like a quick turn after the board meeting was a gathering put together by MMOPA member Lance
Boxer, along with Legacy Flight Training and Piper Aircraft in Vero Beach, Florida. If I recall about 30 PA46
pilots made the journey including Dianne White and myself. It was a true community effort, Piper graciously provided food and parking on their ramp. Piper’s
Senior Marking Director Jackie Carlon hosted the entire group at her house for a wonderful outdoor dinner on Friday night. Saturday started early at the Legacy Flight Training facilities where owner Bill Inglis had prepared presentations and videos on landing the various PA46 models, emphasizing proper technique and procedures. Piper Vice President for Sales and Customer Support Ron Gunnarson provided an update on the company and their healthy projections going forward. In addition to Piper, the Garmin team, Chris Bauer and Joey Ferreyra flew down from Olathe, KS to give a Garmin update and answered product questions. They were open and frank about
some of the updates and where those updates were in the regulatory approval process.
The group then split up. One group observed one
of Legacy’s instructors pre-flight a Meridian in great detail, explaining common failures and even some tells
of pending issues in the nose gear area. I have to believe everyone learned something new during the hands-on pre- flight. Another group teamed up with Legacy instructors and proceeded to do landing or other training activities
in their aircraft. The final group then headed off to fly
the new M600 Frasca flight training device. I watched fellow MMOPA members Paul Himes and Lauren Duvall, Meridian owners, work the G3000 system in the M600 from takeoff through approach.
In the end, the Vero Beach meeting was a great PA46 community gathering. It was a learning experience that pulled various owners together to socialize, talk about airplanes, and most importantly openly discuss safety issues and concerns surrounding the PA46 airframe. As the year continues, let’s all continue to embrace safety and per the following quote, profit from the experiences and mistakes of others.
By far the greater number of aeroplane accidents are due to precisely the same circumstances that have caused previous accidents. A distressing feature of these accidents is the evidence they afford of the unwillingness, or the inability, of many pilots to profit from the experiences and mistakes of others.
Gustav Hamel and Charles C. Turner, Flying: Some Practical Experiences. Published posthumously in 1914.
6 MMOPA MAGAZINE MAY / JUNE 2021