Eyes closed and palms sweating, I felt the Cirrus SR20 prop plane lift off the runway at Van Nuys Airport. I like flying. It’s the takeoffs and landings that make me nervous. Making me even more nervous on this particular Friday afternoon was that the cockpit window was right in front of me. The sensation of leaving the ground is enough to cause sweaty palms and my throat to tighten. I don’t need to actually see it happen; to watch the runway drop away as the plane climbs above the Valley and then banks to the right under the deft touch of pilot Jason Price. Later, circling above the Newhall Pass, the snow-covered peaks of the San Bernardino Mountains off in the distance, I feel calm, as I should have from the start. Price, after all, has logged 4,000 hours of flying time, plus he took me up in a plane that has its own parachute. In the event of an emergency, a pull on a handle in the ceiling of the cockpit deploys a parachute that brings the airframe to the ground. The plane’s landing gear and seats are designed to absorb the impact. “The aircraft is totaled but you walk away,” Price said. The parachute is one of the safety features of the SR20 that make it the preferred plane for Price to teach student pilots through his flight school Mach 1 Aviation. Buzzing above the Valley at 4,000 feet, Price related that two current students are a couple in which the wife was deathly afraid of flying, let alone learning how to pilot a plane herself. But that changed when she learned about the parachute on the Cirrus, a standard piece of equipment for the four-seat craft. For years the Cessna 172 has been the standard flight trainer for student pilots. Price, however, has a preference for the Cirrus and the peace of mind the parachute and spin-resistant wing structure gives to those on board. It is faster, safer, more efficient and looks better than the Cessna, Price said. His vision for Mach 1, which opened in November, is to provide effective training in the best available training aircraft. Mach 1 has two SR20s available for training and rental with more to come. The instructors are Price and four part-timers. Trainees include aircraft owners who want to learn how to fly themselves, Price said. These tend to be people of means expecting a certain level of service, be it from the company managing their planes or the flight school they attend. Operating at Van Nuys from space at the Hawker Beechcraft fixed-base operation makes those clients that much closer. If they can take the controls of a small plane like the Cirrus it makes it easier for a day trip to a business meeting or to take time off at a vacation home. “They want to pilot their own aircraft to do that,” Price said. VICA Aviation Committee After an absence of more than a year, the aviation committee of the Valley Industry & Commerce Association began meeting again this month. Robert Rodine, a consultant with clients in the aviation industry, and Airtel Plaza Hotel owner Jim Dunn, serve as co-chairs. To make the committee work well, the association members with business interests at or near Van Nuys Airport need a sense of ownership in it, Rodine said. That can be stimulated by bringing relevant issues to the members in a way that is of interest to them and through outside speakers, Rodine said. Some 35 VICA members expressed an interest in attending the committee meetings that will take place every other month. When the committee last met toward the end of 2006, it attracted five or six people. “You can’t have a committee of one or two people,” Rodine said. “People don’t give that credibility.” On the agenda for the meeting on Feb. 14 was taxation on fractional aircraft ownership, an update on a federal noise study at Van Nuys, and modernization at Los Angeles International Airport. Other issues the committee will take up include a federal noise study at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, and the pending Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill before Congress. Having the committee meet more regularly is important because Van Nuys is a huge asset to the economy, VICA President and CEO Brendan Huffman said. The committee, however, will not just focus on that airport but provide for its members located in Burbank and at LAX, Huffman said. Just because the committee did not meet for more than year, does not mean that VICA was not advocating on behalf of its members with aviation interests. An association representative spent time at meetings of the Los Angeles Airport Commission and Van Nuys Airport Citizen Advisory Committee, Huffman said. IJM Closes Shop After only about six months in operation, International Jet Management closed down its offices at Van Nuys Airport. Pylon International changed its name to IJM West after its acquisition by the Virginia-based aircraft management and charter firm. Attempts to reach an IJM representative were not successful. Airlines Adjust Air carriers operating out of Bob Hope Airport have made changes to their schedules. Southwest Airlines will cut four daily flights serving Phoenix, Sacramento and Oakland beginning in May. JetBlue announced new daily flights starting in May from Burbank to Washington, D.C. and Las Vegas. The flights to Dulles International outside the nation’s capital are the first to directly fly from the San Fernando Valley. Staff Reporter Mark Madler can be reached at (818) 316-3126 or by e-mail at [email protected] . This column has been lengthened from the version appearing in the print edition.