San Carlos Flight Center

Upwind End of Summer Celebration
2026-08-28 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | San Carlos Flight Center, Select a Country:
You are invited to join the Upwind Celebration party on Friday, August 28th. Thanks to the generous support from SQL community, the Upwind Summer Scholarship Program completed its 12th year of providing ground and flight training to high-school pilots. Join us to celebrate the continuing accomplishment of the Upwind Program!
Join us to celebrate this year’s amazing recipients. Please RSVP here so we can get a headcount for food and drinks.
Friday, August 28th 6:30 PM
Upwind EOY Celebration
Skyway Center
655 Skyway Rd
San Carlos, CA 94070

Women in Aviation @ SCFC August Meeting
2026-08-29 11:00 - 12:00 | San Carlos Flight Center, Select a Country:
Join SCFC Women in Aviation for a presentation on how to develop the mental skills to thrive both in the cockpit and beyond.

The SCFC Women in Aviation has invited Tammy Barlette to talk about what she has learned from the study of mental performance training, translating principles used by elite athletes into practical, repeatable tools for pilots.

Tammy is a retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel and fighter pilot with over 20 years of military aviation experience. She concluded her career in 2018 after flying the T-37 Tweet, A-10 Warthog, T-38 Talon, MQ-1 Predator, and MQ-9 Reaper, serving as both a combat pilot and an instructor pilot. She accumulated more than 3,000 flight hours and is a graduate of the prestigious U.S. Air Force Weapons School.

Following her retirement from military aviation, Tammy founded Crosscheck Mental Performance, where she teaches a popular online course that helps aviators build confidence, improve focus, and perform effectively under pressure.

With over a decade of experience instructing in U.S. Air Force pilot training and more than seven years studying and teaching mental performance, Tammy brings a unique and powerful perspective to general aviation. Today, she is dedicated to equipping pilots with the mental skills they need to thrive both in the cockpit and beyond.

Any and all are welcome!

5-Day Colorado Mountain Flying 2026
2026-09-03 - 2026-09-07 | San Carlos Flight Center, Select a Country:
5-Day Colorado Trip
Exploring the Great Basin and Continental Divide
From the Bonneville Salt Flats to Leadville to the Grand Canyon and everything in between.
This year FOG travels across the Great Basin of Nevada & Utah to the highest elevation airport of Leadville in the Colorado Rockies and then on to Monument Valley, the Grand Canyon and finishing at the lowest altitude airport of Furnace Creek, Death Valley. After this trip, you will be experienced in 95% of terrains you will ever fly.
Join FlyOutGroup as they go on an unforgettable flying adventure of a lifetime.
Thursday Sept 3rd – Day 1
Cross the Sierras, the Bonneville Salt Flats and Great Salt Lake to layover somewhere fun in the Salt Lake City Area
Friday Sept 4th – Day 2-3
Flying in the Rockies landing at challenging high elevation airports, Canyonlands (KCNY home of Arches National Park), Glenwood Springs (KGWS)(if open), Aspen (KASE), Leadville (KLXV) and Telluride (KTEX)
Sunday Sept 6th – Day 4
We will travel west near Four Corners then across Monument Valley and the Grand Canyon and into Sedona for our final night before flying home on Monday Sept 7th – Day 5.
Experience landings at the famous Leadville, North America’s highest airport (9927 ‘) and Furnace Creek (-210’) below sea level in California’s Death Valley.
We put 1 CFI and 2 pilots / students in each plane so it is open to pilots at all levels.
This is a great way to complete an avionics or airplane-specific checkout, earn your high performance endorsement, complete a club or mountain checkout, or do all at the same time.
Cessna 182s or higher performance aircraft recommended.
Hotel Information
Salt Lake City
Crystal Inn Hotel & Suites.
Address: 230 W 500 S, Salt Lake City, Utah
(855) 516-1090
Group Rate Code: SC0826
Glenwood Springs
Glenwood Hot Springs Hotel
(970) 945-6571
Sedona
Sky Rock Inn
Please Note: a deposit of $500 is required to reserve instructor/aircraft rental.
Each individual will be responsible for overnight accommodations.
Since this is a FOG training trip, all pilots will be required to fly with a CFI and attend a Mountain Flying Ground Course/Seminar. Any exceptions will need approval from FlyOutGroup.
Contact SCFC at (650) 946-1700 to sign up.

Weather Services Workshop
2026-09-19 12:00 - 14:00 | San Carlos Flight Center, Select a Country:
Are you checking the weather before your flight simply by looking at METARs? Have you struggled with trying to get a comprehensive view of weather? Are you looking to get an understanding of ways to conduct a weather briefing?
If you are a student pilot or recent pilot trying to better understand options for accessing weather for a flight then join us for this workshop to learn more about weather briefings. We will use a cross-country flight scenario and walk through the process of gathering relevant weather for a flight. We will show you how to get aviation weather information from www.aviationweather.gov, ForeFlight, 1800wxbrief.com and by speaking to a flight service station weather briefer.
If you want to better understand how all these sources of weather fit in a briefing, join us for this interactive session.
Herb Patten is the Assistant Chief Pilot at the San Carlos Flight Center, a CFI and an FAA certificated advanced and instrument ground instructor who teaches the private pilot and instrument ground school at San Carlos Flight Center. He is a commercial pilot with an instrument rating, has flown over 4,000 hours in more than 130 different California airports. He is the current chairman of the Upwind Foundation, famous for its Upwind Summer Scholarship Program. In 2025, Herb was named a Distinguished Flight Instructor by AOPA.
This seminar is in-person. There will not be a live stream.

Flying Safely At Night
2026-10-28 19:00 - 20:30
On November 1st, Daylight Savings Time will end, and with it comes early nightfall. For those of us who work a regular 9-5 schedule, early nightfall means an increase in night flying time. How current are your night skills? Maybe it’s time to focus on what is different between day VFR and night VFR flight.
Obviously, less ambient light adds challenges for anything requiring eyesight. This includes preflight inspection, taxi safety, obstruction avoidance, IMC recognition and avoidance, cockpit resource management, and a number of other things. Most familiar to pilots is probably the differences in landing. The sight picture of a normal approach to a runway is very different with reduced external visual cues from night. Flashing lights can help or hurt pilot attention and recognition.
So should night flight be avoided? Not necessarily. Night flight brings with it reduced ATC workloads, often calmer winds, cooler temperatures that help performance, and the ability to spot traffic from farther off. Your decision about flying at night can be aided by attending a Night Flying Refresher seminar like this one.

Herb Patten is the Assistance Chief Pilot at the San Carlos Flight Center, a CFI and an FAA certificated advanced and instrument ground instructor who teaches private pilot ground school at San Carlos Flight Center. He is a commercial pilot with an instrument rating, has flown over 4,000 hours in more than 150 different California airports. He is the current chairman of the Upwind Foundation, famous for its Upwind Summer Scholarship Program. In 2024, Herb was named a Distinguished Flight Instructor by AOPA.

San Carlos Flight Center (SCFC) is the SF Bay Area’s most dynamic flying club, committed to building general aviation through safety, community, and adventure. AOPA has consistently recognized SCFC in their Best Flight School survey, most recently in 2023 as a Distinguished Flight School for the third year in a row.
SCFC is committed to promoting safety in general aviation through our regular safety seminars and guest speaker programs. Our seminars are free to watch when attended in person at our facility in San Carlos but live streaming and viewing recorded seminars are exclusively available to members. Click here or contact an SCFC member service rep at (650) 946-1700 for more information about online access to our web library of over 500 recorded safety seminars and live-streamed content.

Young Aviators Workshop
2027-01-02 09:00 - 13:00
Are you a teenager interested in aviation but not sure where to begin? Are you looking to share your passion with aviation with other like minded young people?
The Flight Center invites all high school students to attend this workshop to learn about aviation. This event provides you the opportunity to discover the steps of becoming a pilot and career options, how to read and interpret aviation charts used by pilots, hands-on experience with aircraft engines and systems, as well as aviation scholarship opportunities.
If you are a budding young aviator we welcome you to participate in this event. Lunch is provided.
This event is a workshop for high school students and not eligible for the Seminar Engagement Program.
