San Carlos Flight Center

FOG Lunch: Livermore Corn Maze
2024-10-19 12:00 - 14:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
How many pilots does it take to get through a corn maze?
We’re taking the customary FlyOutGroup (FOG) lunch flight and adding a fun Halloween twist. Just right of final to the 25 Runways at Livermore airport is a little gem called G & M Farms. Each year in October they turn their farm into Halloween HQ with an impressive corn maze, pumpkin patch, and kids activities.
After the corn maze fun, we plan to hang around and partake in the food trucks. Bring your friends and family for a great pre-Halloween experience!
Everyone is welcome to join us, please RSVP and we will see you there!

I Just Got ForeFlight, Now What? A Beginners Guide to ForeFlight
2024-10-23 19:00 - 20:00 | San Carlos Flight Center, Select a Country:
Students and new pilots are increasingly flying with computer tablets, and using software that replaces paper charts and documents with the digital equivalents. These applications, such as ForeFlight, are extremely powerful and have a plethora of features. For a pilot just beginning to use ForeFlight, the choices and options seem overwhelming. Valuable features and capabilities can go undiscovered.
Join SCFC CFII Travis Bender to highlight some of the important first steps to take after downloading ForeFlight, and how to get started. In this seminar, he will cover a basic introduction to the application including the most efficient ways to use the software. With so many different customizations, subscription plans, and ways to do the same thing, it can be overwhelming for many. Some of these include how to set up performance profiles, weight and balance, how to use geo referenced charts, and set up your electronic logbook. After this seminar you will feel confident in your basic abilities to navigate the application and have the resources to continue to learn from.
ForeFlight can be quite overwhelming with features, however, due to time constraints we are unable to provide technical support to individual audience members.
If you are just beginning to explore the features of ForeFlight and want to deepen your understanding on how to effectively use these great tools, you will want to attend this seminar. Have your tablet handy and discover this powerful tool available for pilots.

Travis Bender is a flight instructor at San Carlos Flight Center who teaches private, commercial, and instrument training. Travis completed all of his primary training at SCFC, and previously worked for a major software company before transitioning to aviation full-time.
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 2024 as a Distinguished Flight School for the fourth 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.

Approach Plate Analysis - Salem, OR
2024-10-26 12:00 - 13:00 | San Carlos Flight Center, Select a Country:
It’s always amazing to see how much variety can come from only a handful of instrument approach navigation systems. This month’s IFR Approach Plate Lunch approaches into Salem, OR are a geometrical seesaw. There’s an ILS approach on one runway and a localizer backcourse approach on the opposing runway, and it looks as though you could just fly back and forth between the two like a seesaw. The missed approach on one is the front course on the other. Not only that, the localizer has a backcourse marker beacon – something we don’t see very often.
On Saturday, October 26th, CFII Brian Eliot will analyze the various approaches into Salem, OR (KSLE) and discuss what is unique or challenging about the approach, along with potential gotchas. Switching from front course ILS to backcourse when going missed can be a real challenge if you aren’t paying attention. The charting and geometry of these approaches make for a fascinating discussion. Join us for the discussion and deepen your understanding of the variety of ILS approaches.
Bring your charts or ForeFlight for reference during the presentation:
IAPs – Instrument Approach Procedures
ILS OR LOC Z RWY 31
LOC Y RWY 31
LOC BC RWY 13
Bring your bag lunch, stop at In-N-Out, or just listen and enjoy the discussion. We hope you can join us.
Brian Eliot is a Senior Instructor at San Carlos Flight Center and their resident expert for IFR training and Garmin G1000 avionics. He has been flying since 1995 and received all his training in the Bay Area. Brian previously worked as a broadcast engineer, a software developer, and taught computer science at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. He regularly presents at San Carlos Flight Center safety seminars and has a reputation for making complex concepts easy to learn and understand.
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.

Right Seat Workshop - Radios and ATC
2024-11-02 10:00 - 14:00 | San Carlos Flight Center, Select a Country:
The Flight Center will be hosting a Right Seat Workshop for non-pilot friends, spouses, and significant others who often fly right seat SCFC pilots. Now is the time to alert the people in your life to sign up for this special workshop.
Right Seat Workshops are introductory and intended to demystify aspects of flight for people that fly often as passengers with other pilots. The more they can understand about what is going on in the cockpit, the more enjoyable the flight will be, and the greater your ability to impact the safety of the flight.
The first workshop in the series covers Radio Communication and Air Traffic Control basics from the perspective of non-pilots. The workshop includes group breakout sessions and exercises designed to help you become more familiar with radio procedures and terms. The workshop runs 10:00am to 2:00pm and the cost is $80 for right-seaters sponsored by SCFC members, or $100 for non-members, and lunch is included. Contact the front desk to sign up (650) 946-1700.

Flying Safely At Night
2024-11-06 19:00 - 20:30
On November 3rd, 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 a Senior CFI 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 3,500 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 2023, 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.

SQL Tower Tour (1 of 3)
2024-11-09 09:30 - 10:00
Are you curious about what happens in the tower at an airport? Would you like to increase your knowledge of how air traffic is managed at the San Carlos airport?
The KSQL Air Traffic Manager has offered to host small groups of pilots to meet the tower controllers and take a tour of the San Carlos tower. During the tour you will get to see firsthand how the tower controllers update the ATIS, keep track of planes arriving and departing, as well as use radar to help manage the flow of traffic around San Carlos class Delta airspace.
The tours are approximately 20-25 minutes in length. Registration is required. US Citizenship is required due to FAA restriction.

SQL Tower Tour (2 of 3)
2024-11-09 10:00 - 10:30

SQL Tower Tour (3 of 3)
2024-11-09 10:30 - 11:00

How to Ace your Flight Review
2024-11-09 12:00 - 13:00
Is it that time again? Need to do a Flight Review but don’t want to sweat through the details? Do you really need to remember how the E6B works? Perform flight calculations by hand? State FAR verbiage from memory? Can you name the various VFR weather minimums?
In this seminar we will unravel what it takes to make your next Flight Review a walk in the park! This seminar will cover how to prepare for your Flight Review, the three ways to meet legal requirements for completing a flight review, when a Flight Review is required, and the standards you must demonstrate for the knowledge, risks and skills to complete a Flight Review.
The majority of pilots will need to do a Flight Review many times over the course of a lifetime of flying. Join us and be ready to tackle your next Flight Review.

SCFC Welcome Night
2024-11-13 18:30 - 19:30 | San Carlos Flight Center
If you’re recently joined the Club, you may have only met your instructor and one of our Front Desk agents. It’s time to meet some other students and pilots.
Join us on Wednesday, November 13th at 6:30pm for San Carlos Flight Center’s Welcome Night. Every few months, we’ll welcome in our newest members and give you a chance to hear about all the other activities and events going on at the Club. It’s a casual event with food and some activities. The vibe is mostly welcome and get to know each other, and less like a formal classroom presentation (even though we have plenty of those on other nights!). Find out what other students are doing for their training path. Put faces to names of people you see taking up your CFI’s Friday afternoon when you wanted to book.
The event is hosted and run by CFI Travis Bender, who has been a part of SCFC for almost 10 years, starting as a high school kid with a dream, and ending up working the front desk and now teaching. No one better captures the fun and spirit of the Flight Center.
To join us, just register for the event so we can have enough food and drink. Feel free to also bring friends or family who are interested in meeting Club members and finding out why SCFC is such a great place for flying.

Full Moon Flyers: Willows
2024-11-15 19:00 - 21:00
This month, join our Full Moon Flyers as we head north to Willows (WLW) and dine at Nancy’s Airport Café. Located in the Central Valley just next to I-5, Willows is an easy airport to reach and a perfect cross country destination. At 100 NM away, it is a great destination for commercial students looking to fulfill their cross country requirements!
Nancy’s Airport Café is a small airport diner, but is known for its all-day breakfast, American fare, and best of all, their pies! Make sure to grab a slice before heading home, as they’re known for keeping pilots coming back for more. To access the restaurant, please park on the ramp alongside the hangers and self-serve fuel depot, and walk through the gate.
If you plan on joining us, make sure to RSVP below! Please arrive and be at the restaurant by 7PM. See you on November 15!

2024-11 IMC Club SQL
2024-11-20 19:00 - 20:30 | San Carlos Flight Center, Select a Country:
NOTE: Since this event will involve active discussion, it will be held over Zoom and not broadcast via Livestream. Please RSVP by 12pm on Nov 20th to receive Zoom meeting info via email before the event starts.

Most pilots like analyzing scenarios and trying to answer the age old question of what would I do in that situation? Imagine if you could also hear the opinions of other pilots or get feedback on your approach to a situation. Well, that is exactly what the IMC Club provides.
Join the local EAA Chapter 20 IMC Club meeting to review a scenario and share in the discussions with fellow pilots. You will get an opportunity to hear other pilots’ analysis as well as the group critique of various solutions.
Whether you are a newly minted instrument rated pilot and anxious to learn from others or you are a seasoned pilot with experience to share, the IMC Club is a welcome home for both.
Learn more about IMC Club at http://www.eaa20.org/about.html

Brian Eliot is a Senior Instructor at San Carlos Flight Center and their resident expert for IFR training and Garmin G1000 avionics. He has been flying since 1995 and received all his training in the Bay Area. Brian previously worked as a broadcast engineer, a software developer, and taught computer science at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. He regularly presents at San Carlos Flight Center safety seminars and has a reputation for making complex concepts easy to learn and understand.

About San Carlos Flight Center:

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, community, and adventure 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.

XC Flight to Taos: Planning, Challenges, and Observations
2024-11-23 12:00 - 13:30
Pilots tell flight stories as a way to share knowledge from the trips with other pilots. Sometimes critical safety information can be learned from hearing the flight story of another pilot, preventing you from getting yourself into trouble.
In spring of 2024, SCFC member Richard Parry embarked on a cross-country flight from San Carlos to Taos, New Mexico, hoping to include overflights of Lake Tahoe, Bryce Canyon in Utah, and the Grand Canyon in Arizona. A trip like this takes advance planning and included a number of safety considerations that get evaluated both ahead of time and throughout the flight. Weather is always a factor to consider and this trip proved that point with some required deviations from the plan due to rain and storms.
We have invited Richard to share the story of the flight planning, the challenges he faced on the flight, necessary changes to the itinerary, and the observations he made about this flight and other long cross-country flight. Join us on Wednesday, November 23rd as he recaps this trip and shares photos, route diagrams, and weather reports from the flight.
If you are hoping to see Taos from the air, or just preparing for your own long cross-country adventure, you’ll want to hear this flight story.

FOG Lunch: Petaluma
2024-11-23 12:00 - 14:00
This month, join us as we head north to Petaluma! Located right on the field, Two Niner Diner recently reopened serving a wide variety of breakfast, brunch, and lunch options. This event will be on Saturday, November 23.
Enjoy the views of San Francisco and Marin Headlands on the way up. You can even do a Bay Tour! This is a great and exciting way for student pilots to gain valuable experience and hours. You can even land at nearby airports to practice your skills! Looking for some cross country time? Fly north just a bit more and land in Santa Rosa before heading into Petaluma.
After landing in Petaluma, we will park in transient parking near the airport terminal building. Please plan to meet at the Two Niner Diner by 12 noon.
Everyone is welcome to join us, please RSVP and we will see you there!

ForeFlight 101 Planning a Cross-Country Flight
2024-11-30 12:00 - 13:00 | San Carlos Flight Center, Select a Country:
ForeFlight is a useful application that allows pilots to perform many flight planning tasks such as course planning, calculating flight time and fuel consumption, and obtaining a weather briefing. In a digital age, pilots should learn to use tools like this to enhance their overall flight planning process.
San Carlos Flight Center invites Travis Bender, CFI/CFII, to walk through how to use ForeFlight to plan a cross-country flight. Travis will demonstrate how to accurately plot checkpoints, determine airplane performance values, and show how pilots can use ForeFLight to meet the requirement to be familiar with “all available information concerning a flight.” The seminar will start with a sample flight mission so that participants can follow along in real-time using ForeFlight on their own devices.
If you are just beginning to explore the features of ForeFlight and want to deepen your understanding on how to effectively use these great tools, you will want to attend this seminar. Have your tablet handy and discover this powerful tool available for pilots.
Travis Bender is a CFI and CFII who learned to fly at San Carlos Flight Center.

IFR Departure Procedures
2024-12-04 19:00 - 20:00 | San Carlos Flight Center, Select a Country:
IFR departures are one of the most poorly-understood and under-taught topics in IFR flight. The process of getting safely from the surface, avoiding surrounding obstacles, to the safety of the en route IFR structure, all while operating at maximum performance configuration, lower speeds, and high pitch attitudes can be daunting. IFR airports can have many different departure procedures. Do you know which one you can expect?

In this safety seminar, CFI Herb Patten will review the selection of instrument departure procedures. He will provide a publication roadmap to these procedures and review the critical safety items, as well as what to typically expect in common practice. This program is a must for pilots working on their instrument rating, or working to stay current with instrument departures.

Weather Services Workshop
2024-12-07 12:00 - 14:00 | San Carlos Flight Center, Select a Country:
This seminar will be held in person at SCFC, attendance is free and open to all. Web Members will still be able to access our seminars online, both live and recorded.
Interested in watching more of our presentations? View our growing library of over 500 recorded safety seminars available to view in our Members Only Seminar Library, available by clicking here.
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 a Senior CFI/CFII 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 2,500 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 2023, 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.

2024-12 IMC Club SQL
2024-12-11 19:00 - 20:30 | San Carlos Flight Center, Select a Country:
NOTE: Since this event will involve active discussion, it will be held over Zoom and not broadcast via Livestream. Please RSVP by 12pm on Dec 11th to receive Zoom meeting info via email before the event starts.

Most pilots like analyzing scenarios and trying to answer the age old question of what would I do in that situation? Imagine if you could also hear the opinions of other pilots or get feedback on your approach to a situation. Well, that is exactly what the IMC Club provides.
Join the local EAA Chapter 20 IMC Club meeting to review a scenario and share in the discussions with fellow pilots. You will get an opportunity to hear other pilots’ analysis as well as the group critique of various solutions.
Whether you are a newly minted instrument rated pilot and anxious to learn from others or you are a seasoned pilot with experience to share, the IMC Club is a welcome home for both.
Learn more about IMC Club at http://www.eaa20.org/about.html

Brian Eliot is a Senior Instructor at San Carlos Flight Center and their resident expert for IFR training and Garmin G1000 avionics. He has been flying since 1995 and received all his training in the Bay Area. Brian previously worked as a broadcast engineer, a software developer, and taught computer science at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. He regularly presents at San Carlos Flight Center safety seminars and has a reputation for making complex concepts easy to learn and understand.

About San Carlos Flight Center:

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, community, and adventure 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.

Aviation Colleges Panel
2024-12-14 12:00 - 13:00 | San Carlos Flight Center, Select a Country:
There are many great options for students looking for a college aviation program. Many colleges offer programs designed to prepare students to join the aviation industry by providing training to become pilots or air traffic controllers. These colleges operate under FAR Part 141 and provide an FAA-approved curriculum.
To aid local high school students, SCFC will be hosting a panel discussion on collegiate aviation programs. We have invited in pilots from a handful of the most prominent aviation college programs in the country to share their experiences. How do the programs differ? What should a new student know when evaluating these programs? Come and ask our panelists about their reasons for selecting the school they chose and how their experience lived up to the expectations.

Full Moon Flyers: Lampson
2024-12-15 19:00 - 21:00
This month, join us as we head into Lampson Field (1O2)! Lampson is located just south of Lakeport, right next to Clear Lake. The airport is relatively quiet, and is a great place to practice landings after a cross-country flight.
At the airport, we will enjoy a dinner at Red’s at the Skyroom. This restaurant features West Coast fare with a variety of entrees and drinks for you and your passengers. With patio seating, this is a great place to replenish after a training flight or as a break on a long cross-country trip to the north. After your meal, venture around the ramp area to see a collection of vintage aircraft from a variety of eras.
After landing and securing your aircraft in transient parking, Red’s is just a quick walk outside of the gate. If you are interested, make sure to sign up so we save space for you! We’ll see you at 7PM on December 15!

2024 Holiday Party
2024-12-18 18:30 - 20:00
The SCFC pilot community, a tight-knit group of adventurers and achievers, will gather annually to celebrate our shared experiences and accomplishments. Mark your calendars for Wednesday, December 18th at 6:30 PM, as we host our annual Holiday Party and Member Appreciation Night!

This is an excellent opportunity for you to meet and greet fellow members, staff, and instructors. Whether you’re a seasoned pilot who’s been with the Flight Center for years or a newcomer, this event is for everyone. It’s a fantastic way to kick off the new year and strengthen the bonds within our community.

Everyone is welcome, regardless of whether you train at the Flight Center or fly your own plane. We’re thrilled to have you join us and learn more about how the Flight Center can be an integral part of your flying journey.

Food and drinks will be provided, and you’re more than welcome to bring guests along. Embrace the festive spirit by donning your favorite holiday attire. Let’s raise a toast to the incredible flying we accomplished in 2024 and eagerly anticipate the exciting adventures that await us in 2025!

To ensure there’s enough food and drinks for everyone, please RSVP below. Your presence will make this event even more special and memorable.

FOG Lunch: Salinas (Flying Artichoke)
2024-12-20 12:00 - 14:00
Join FOG for this month’s lunch adventure in Salinas!
Located just outside the Monterey Airport Class C, Salinas (SNS) is an easy 45 minute cross country flight. Salinas and nearby airports are equipped with a variety of approaches that can create a great instrument training flight!
We will be dining at the Flying Artichoke Restaurant located right at the airport terminal building. Once you land, taxi over the transient and walk toward the terminal after securing your aircraft. At the restaurant, the menu includes a wide variety of brunch options, sandwiches, and burgers.
Please plan to arrive by 12 noon at the Flying Artichoke on Friday, December 20. If you are interested in attending, don’t forget to RSVP so we have your headcount! See you there!

Getting Your Instrument Rating
2024-12-21 12:00 - 13:00 | San Carlos Flight Center
Instrument rating refers to the qualifications that a pilot must have in order to fly under instrument flight rules (IFR). It requires additional training and instruction beyond what is required for a private pilot certificate or commercial pilot certificate, including rules and procedures specific to instrument flying, additional instruction in meteorology, and more intensive training in flight solely by reference to instruments. For most private pilots, the most significant value of flying under IFR is the ability to fly in instrument meteorological conditions enhancing flexibility. Additionally, all flights operating in Class A airspace, must be conducted under IFR, and an instrument rating is required when operating under special visual flight rules (SVFR) at night. Being able to accomplish all this will make you a safer pilot by thinking in terms of safe altitudes, fine tuning you flying skills, expanding your options, enhancing your flow and checklist skills, and maximizing you cockpit resource skills. Join Flight Center Senior Instructor Derek Vejby in this timely discussion of how and why to get your instrument rating

Workshop: Cross-Country Planning
2024-12-29 10:00 - 12:00 | San Carlos Flight Center, Select a Country:
As pilots, we must know how to accurately plan for a cross-country flight. Join us for this in-person workshop at San Carlos Flight Center for a hands-on and scenario based learning experience. Senior CFI Herb Patten will show attendees the important elements of successful cross-country flight planning and walk you through your planning of a flight. Throughout the workshop Herb will incorporate various situations and challenges, and provide direct support.
We encourage any student pilot working on their cross-country flight planning or rusty pilot to attend this workshop.

Young Aviators Workshop
2025-01-04 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.

IFR TEC Routes
2025-01-08 19:00 - 20:30 | San Carlos Flight Center, Select a Country:
Many local flights begin and end entirely within approach/departure control airspace. These are otherwise known as Tower Enroute Control (TEC) routing. You can fly a local IFR flight without ever getting handed off to the Center. This is because Air Route Traffic Control Centers are often very busy handling enroute traffic and short flights like this are not a good use of their time. TEC routes can be extremely useful tools for the IFR pilot looking to fly a local IFR flight and get their clearance faster.
San Carlos Flight Center Senior Instructor Herb Patten will discuss the benefits of tower enroute control. In this seminar, he will review what TEC routing is, how to find the appropriate route, how to file it, and how to fly it safely and effectively. TEC Routes have been available for a long time, often used in Southern California and have often been underused. By attending this seminar you will realize the benefits of using this type of routing, and impress your friends on your next IFR flight.
If you want to get on the ground at your destination faster, you won’t want to miss out on this seminar. Herb Patten is a Senior Instructor at the San Carlos Flight Center, a CFII, an FAA certificated advanced and instrument ground instructor, and past SCFC Chief Pilot. He is a instrument-rated commercial pilot that has flown over 2,500 hours to more than 130 different California airports. He teaches private pilot ground school at San Carlos Flight Center, and is the current chairman of the Upwind Foundation, famous for its Upwind Summer Scholarship Program. In 2023, Herb was named a Distinguished Flight Instructor by AOPA.

Down and Dirty Logging: A Deep Dive into 14 CFR 61.51
2025-01-11 12:00 - 13:30 | San Carlos Flight Center
It seems so simple, right? Make a record of your flights so that you can prove you meet the FAA experience requirements for certificates and ratings and to you have recent flight experience for carrying passengers. Of course, any new pilot quickly learns that there are many confusing details encountered flight logging. Are logbooks different for private pilots vs commercial pilots? Do I log takeoffs as well as landings, or can I just assume the takeoffs? What exactly is night? What is cross-country?
SCFC Senior Instructor Brian Eliot has pulled together a rich presentation that will answer the various pilot logbook issues using FAA regulations and other FAA interpretation sources. He will discuss the variations between logbook types, and how electronic flight logbooks differ from paper logbooks. He’ll look at some of the latest pilot tools for automatic flight logging and share whether that is a good idea for you. He will introduce you to the most common columns to include in your logbook for flight training, and how to log simulator time. Finally, he’ll talk about the requirements pilots must meet with regard to preserving past logbooks and flight records.
Please feel free to bring your logbooks and the questions you’ve encountered in logging your own flights for the Deep Dive into CFR 14 Part 61.51.
Brian Eliot is a Senior Instructor at San Carlos Flight Center and their resident expert for IFR training and Garmin G1000 avionics. He has been flying since 1995 and received all his training in the Bay Area. Brian previously worked as a broadcast engineer, a software developer, and taught computer science at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. He regularly presents at San Carlos Flight Center safety seminars and has a reputation for making complex concepts easy to learn and understand.

Full Moon Flyers: Hollister
2025-01-13 19:00 - 21:00
Need to practice night flying, or just want to gain more experience at night? Come join us for dinner at Seabrisa’s Eatery in Hollister (CVH) on January 13 at 7 PM.
On the way down, soak in the gorgeous sunset over the coastal mountains before descending into Hollister Airport. Make sure to remain clear of the San Jose final approach course, and consider talking to NorCal Approach to have an extra set of eyes looking out for you. Park in transient parking, and then walk across the street to the local airport restaurant – Seabrisa’s Eatery! A local favorite for many pilots in the area, they’re known for their unique flavors and vegetables grown from many of the local farms.
After dinner, Hollister is a great place to work on night landings or fly to San Jose (SJC) to complete your night requirements there. With big runways, it’s easy to make the landings to a stop-and-go, and you’ll enjoy the challenge of flying alongside jet traffic.
Everyone is welcome to join us, so please RSVP below and we’ll see you at the event.

2025-01 IMC Club SQL
2025-01-15 19:00 - 20:30 | San Carlos Flight Center, Select a Country:
NOTE: Since this event will involve active discussion, it will be held over Zoom and not broadcast via Livestream. Please RSVP by 12pm on Jan 15th to receive Zoom meeting info via email before the event starts.

Most pilots like analyzing scenarios and trying to answer the age old question of what would I do in that situation? Imagine if you could also hear the opinions of other pilots or get feedback on your approach to a situation. Well, that is exactly what the IMC Club provides.
Join the local EAA Chapter 20 IMC Club meeting to review a scenario and share in the discussions with fellow pilots. You will get an opportunity to hear other pilots’ analysis as well as the group critique of various solutions.
Whether you are a newly minted instrument rated pilot and anxious to learn from others or you are a seasoned pilot with experience to share, the IMC Club is a welcome home for both.
Learn more about IMC Club at http://www.eaa20.org/about.html

Brian Eliot is a Senior Instructor at San Carlos Flight Center and their resident expert for IFR training and Garmin G1000 avionics. He has been flying since 1995 and received all his training in the Bay Area. Brian previously worked as a broadcast engineer, a software developer, and taught computer science at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. He regularly presents at San Carlos Flight Center safety seminars and has a reputation for making complex concepts easy to learn and understand.

About San Carlos Flight Center:

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, community, and adventure 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.

FOG Lunch: Auburn
2025-01-17 12:00 - 14:00
This month, join FOG as we head up to Sierra Nevada foothills for lunch at Auburn (AUN). We will be dining at Wings Grill and Espresso Bar, serving a extensive menu with a variety of sandwiches, melts, burgers, and salads. This is the perfect time of year to head into Auburn as temperatures don’t have a huge impact on density altitude and performance.
Whether you’re a private pilot student or commercial student, at 100NM Auburn is sure to fulfill some cross country requirements. Even if you’re not a student, everyone is invited! Just RSVP so we have your headcount. The event will be on Friday, January 17 and we will be meeting at Wings Grill at 12 noon. See you there!
