San Carlos Flight Center invites Air Transport Pilot Ross Ferguson and Aerobatic Pilot Kamryn Lamperchet to share how to get started with aerobatic flying. In this seminar, learn how to begin your aerobatic flying journey, what to consider when selecting an instructor and aircraft, and gain valuable insights into venturing into the world of competition aerobatics.

Whether you are wanting to perform aerial maneuvers or are considering entering the competitive arena, this presentation is ideal for you. By tuning into this seminar, participants will gain a solid understanding of the initial steps required to embark on their aerobatic journey, ensuring a safe and enjoyable experience.

Kamryn Lamperchet is a new IAC competitor in the Yak-52 competing in Primary and Sportsman aerobatics.

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.

Interested in learning more about advanced ground school topics? Check out more of these seminars available on our growing Members Only Seminar Library which is available for viewing by Web Members. Click here to view.

Anyone who has taken an interest in learning to land an aircraft has experienced the phenomenon of ground effect. Some try to describe the effect using the image of an air hockey table, where a disc of plastic levitates across the surface seemingly without drag. All aircraft experience this effect when near the ground due to an increase in lift and a decrease in drag. Combined, this results in a floating which extends the flare. But what really is happening?

San Carlos Flight Center invites SCFC Founder and former helicopter pilot Dan Dyer, who sees Ground Effect as the airplane version of an in-ground-effect hover. In this seminar, he will share how the surface of the earth gets in the way of airflow patterns around the airfoil in a predictable and understandable way. Although the diagrams that explain it involve a bit of vector math, it’s still something that any pilot can understand with a bit of effort.

If you’ve ever want to understand why your airplane floats the way it does, and are curious about the connection between ground effect, wake turbulence, and induced drag tune in for this ground school “deeper look” presentation.

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.

Interested in watching more of our safety seminars? Check out out growing library of over 500 Safety Seminars available for Members in our Members Only Seminar Library, available to view by clicking here.

San Carlos Flight Center was proud to work with Rabbit Aviation to be the first flight school in California to have aircraft running on unleaded fuel in its fleet. California and the SF Bay Area are often the leaders on environmental issues, and aviation fuel should be no different. Join us to find out what is happening in the quest to remove lead from aviation fuel.

A few years ago, San Carlos Airport received undeserved attention when reports of unusually high levels of lead were measured by improperly-placed monitors only a few feet from the aircraft runup area. The misunderstanding added momentum to efforts already underway by Rabbit and other at San Carlos Airport to speed the arrival of unleaded fuel for sale. San Carlos Flight Center participated in early testing and soon obtained the STCs to operate a portion of planes in its fleet on unleaded fuel. As awareness of the true situation at San Carlos Airport became known, the airport has gone from being falsely reprimanded about lead to being a recognized leader in the effort.

Dan will also discuss the safety and practicality of using unleaded aircraft fuel. Many planes will fly on both types of fuel, but authorization and inspection is required to make the switch. Obviously fuel is a critical component to safe engine operation and using the wrong type of fuel can cause serious engine damage. Improper fuel can even cause the engine to fail during flight. Knowing your fuel facts is a compulsory preflight inspection safety point, and something every pilot should consider important.

Dan DeMeo, owner of Rabbit Aviation, leads this discussion about the use of unleaded fuel in aircraft engines. He will review the history of why the aviation industry has been so slow to adopt unleaded fuel, what has happened so far in the unleaded fuel market, the future of leaded aviation fuel, and what San Carlos Airport has done to get ahead of the trend.

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.

Interested in the rest of our Radio Communications Series? More seminars like this are available to view in our Members Only Seminar Library. Click here to view more.

Flying in and out of the many airports in California requires a high degree of situational awareness and sophisticated radio skills. And yet, radio communication is rarely taught as a specific subject during private pilot training. Usually, new pilots just absorb what they hear on the frequency around them, both good and bad. Although some radio techniques are covered in ground school, rarely do student pilots get the time devoted to demystifying this often-confusing subject.

This seminar is the third in a series of SCFC’s Radio Communication Safety Seminars and focuses on non-towered radio communications. Although Federal Aviation Regulations don’t require pilots to make radio calls at non-towered airports, it is strongly advised for safety. This seminar will help newer pilots understand the structure of radio calls for non-towered airports and how to improve their own radio skills.

Herb Patten, Chief Pilot AGI and CFI and SCFC Founder Dan Dyer, will walk participants through a foundation of non-towered radio communication phraseology and use, from the basics through advanced. Learn how to make radio communication easier and safer for all pilots.

This will be an important seminar for pilots struggling with radio communications. If this is you, plan to attend. Build your confidence, and be the pilot you want to be.

Interested in more ground school-related topics? Check out our entire catalog of “Ground School Refresher” seminars available to view in our Members Only Seminar Library. Click here to view.

Let’s face it, airspace is an imaginary concept. It is just a shorthand way to talk about the set of Federal Aviation Regulations that apply by location and altitude, and the impact they have on VFR flight. As confusing as you think the rules are, with a quick refresher, you’ll be back to full knowledge in no time.

If it has been awhile since you sat through ground school, you may be due for an airspace refresher. In this safety seminar, we will review the different classes of airspace that are found in the United States.  We’ll cover their shapes, sizes, operating rules, and also cover special use airspace. Want an easy way to keep confusing Class G airspace rules memorized, use the Flight Center’s method that teaches there are 3 types of Class G airspace, Class G-low, Class G-mid, and Class G-high. Do you know the differences between them? Where would you look it up? What happens to Class D when the tower closes? How well do you know airspace?

This safety seminar is open to current and aspiring Private Pilots, and will be of particular interest to students pilots and those who are preparing for a flight review. You will leave the seminar with a renewed understanding, and probably a few memory aids to take with your on your next flight.

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.

Have you ever heard of a cruise clearance? How about a through clearance? Vibal? If you have never heard of them to begin with, or if your palms sweat if someone presses you about this, then it’s time for you to expand your piloting knowledge and discover the full extent of the AIM. San Carlos Flight Center invites Ben Taber ATP and Check Airman of Dreamline Aviation to share with pilots how they can become safer, more efficient, and uncover some of the mysteries within the AIM.

Attend this seminar to raise your AIM IQ by 20 points as you broaden your knowledge on the AIM and understand how to utilize some of these arcane procedures.

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.

Join SCFC Chief Pilot Herb Patten as he introduce these challenges present within the region, and provide an overview to the flight planning process. All long cross-country trips involve lots of thorough and thoughtful planning; so in this seminar, Herb will preview potential trip routes, considerations while mountain flying, and provide previous insight to pilots from his experience within the region.

Whether you are considering flying to the Southwest or are just curious about what it is like to plan a sophisticated long-cross-country trip, you will enjoy this seminar.

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.

Interested in learning more about ForeFlight? Check out our growing ForeFlight Series of Safety Seminars available for viewing on our Members Only Seminar Library. Click here to watch how to plan a flight with ForeFlight.

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 in inviting commercial pilot Brandan Dadoun 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.

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.

So what exactly is a “Bay Tour”? What airspace is present along the Bay Tour, and what new implementations will require pilots to take into account? Join SCFC Founder Dan Dyer to examine the airspace, explain the “Bay Tour” and how a pilot can accomplish one in the safest, simplest, most enjoyable manner.

In this seminar, he’ll review the various overlapping airspaces in the area, the territories for each local ATC facility, and the routings most commonly used by Flight Center pilots and suggested by ATC. You’ll learn what options are available to you even if SQL ATIS has the phrase “San Francisco is not taking surface area transitions.”

This is a thorough discussion of the regulations and procedures used in flying a San Francisco Bay Tour through Class B and C airspace. If you are new to the Bay area, want to imagine the different sights you’ll see, or just want to improve your understanding of local airspace customs and procedures, please join us for this popular seminar.

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.

San Carlos Flight Center invites Terry Cross, a Private Pilot and Ambassador for the Recreational Aviation Foundation (RAF) to highlight the hazards of operating at backcountry recreational airports. In this seminar, Terry will share what it takes to operate out of these airports safely. All pilots should be aware of the differences in operational technique when flying into or out of unimproved surfaces, in addition to differences present with limited communication receptivity and limited services. In addition to these safety considerations, he will also share how the RAF constantly works to preserve access to recreational airports, and improve the sustainability of unimproved airports, ensuring their accessibility for future pilots.

You never know when you might have to land at an unimproved airport, so all pilots should have the knowledge of what it takes to operate safely. Join us to learn more on this unique subject.

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.