Ormond Beach Municipal (KOMN), the home of Super Petrel USA, was abuzz this past October 25th – 28th with the Super Petrel USA and Wings of Gold Aviation annual Tri Fecta training event. The 2023 Super Petrel Trifecta Event was attended by Super Petrel LSA pilots, owners, future owners, mechanics, and flight instructors. This annual event shares valuable technical and operational information and techniques designed to enhance the Super Petrel experience.
Career pilot and Super Petrel USA President, Roger Helton, kicked off on Thursday morning with a pilot briefing presented by Bill “Shortney” Gortney, Secretary of the Super Petrel Flight Instructor Association, SPFIA, on “A Mishap Review, Checklist Utilization, and Best Practices”.
Following Admiral Gortney was the Seaplane Pilots Association Executive Director, Steve McCaughey to present asafety seminar on flying in the Wire Environment. There’s no higher priority for SPA or Super Petrel than safety, and this was an excellent reminder of the responsibilities we all carry as Pilots in Command.
Following Steve was a presentation by Dan “Danno” Pedersen on Risk Management. Dan is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and a retired FA-18 Hornet pilot. The first day concluded with a presentation by Mark “Ziggy” Ziegler on what maintenance items owners are allowed to perform on their own aircraft. Ziggy is the Super Petrel USA Director of Aircraft Maintenance and Customer Service. He’s also a retired USN FA-18 Hornet pilot and Blue Angel pilot.
Rodrigo Scoda, designer of the new Super Petrel XP, traveled to Florida from Brazil to present the first videos of the flight testing of the new design XP aircraft.
Day two continued in the hangar with Ziggy and Bill, as his trusty “Step & Fetch It”, demoing both the 100 hour conditional and owner authorized maintenance procedures. Oil changes, propeller balancing, wheel bearing changes, wing and engine retorquing and many other inspection items on November 925WG completed day two. The Rotax engine is one of the finest refinements in aviation since the discovery of the Bernoulli principle and the airfoil, but there are a few peculiarities that we who operate and maintain these aircraft need to know…not want to know, need to know, and those points were covered in detail.
Day three began with a video honoring Shawn “Shevy” Shevalier, the first Chief Pilot for Super Petrel USA who passed on 3 October 2023 from ALS. Shevy will always be part of the framework of Super Petrel USA. The Chief Pilot baton was then passed to Dan Pedersen who very humbly accepted the position as the new SPUSA Chief Pilot.
The Super Petrel Flight Instructor Association (SPFIA) announced a new member CFI with Jon Beard of Star Flight Training in Roanoke VA. Check out some of Jon’s many videos in a 914UL Turbo Super Petrel 400 Series aircraft on YouTube. (https://youtu.be/YVkWppblXEU?si=WIcMDj9d6-P_x7yh)
Saturday concluded with the completion of the 100 hour compliance inspection items. The 25 attendees from all parts of the country, enjoying the camaraderie and shared interests, exchanged contacts and invitations as our Super Petrel family grew a little bit larger.
We now count 7 A&Ps and 5 LSRMs who are now Scoda Certified from our on-going training.
We all left a little tired but elated in our expanded knowledge and experience, and enthusiastically anticipating the arrival of the first production model Super Petrel XP. We’ll end with a quick look at the new XP in flight. You can find a little longer version on You Tube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1yasSyUjB8
Here is the YouTube video covering the highlights of the event. https://youtu.be/BN4FaH_Vj80