About Southern California Aviation United Working Group (SCAUWG.ORG) - The WEBSITE:
SCAUWG.ORG is an independently owned and managed website whose name as of 9/15/2024 is Southern California Aviation United Working Group. Our goal is to actively reflect the mission of SAviation Safety Educators and Airport Advocacy by bringing those issues closer to the general public and aviators everywhere.
We will as we have since our 2018 inception focus on core topics including Airspace Issues, Charting, Flight-Related Education, Runway Safety Information, Aviation News, Events, Commentary, and Airport Advocacy.
At SCAUWG.ORG we actively invite pertinent input and authored content contributions. We support our SHORT TAKES page with exactly that, and also our SITE BLOG page. One can send submissions to: contactus@scauwg.org
Director / Webmaster
Ron Berinstein cfii - longtime FAASTeam Lead Representative and "WINGS Pro." Ron is also a longtime affiliated SCAUWG member, having been positively influenced by Pat Carey years ago while attending a local FIRC. Ron has authored over 100 aviation seminar compilations, and has a record of co-producing more than a hundred FAA WINGS sponsored seminars annually. Ron has been invited to present at airports that completely dot the LA Basin and in Apple Valley, Big Bear and San Diego as well. Unfortunately, live performances have stalled until we get an all-clear sign that the pandemic health risk has been minimalized. However, he continues to produce the monthly SCAUWG Zoom meetings, and tries to make SCAUWG.ORG a very valuable pilot's resource of the very best kind. He places emphasis on quality content and quality artistic site design.
Together with cartographer Mike Carson, Ron has spirited the development of the flight planning application, ChartAware, which for the first time ever makes discovering the approximate boundaries of LA Area flight training areas, those published and those unpublished, possible and easy.
Ron is affiliated with CP Aviation in Santa Paula, CA as an instructor, and is a waivered pilot authorized to fly solo aerobatics in the Santa Paula Aerobatic Training Area.
Contributing Editors:
Tom Lasser
Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) Thomas Edward Lasser retired after completing 40 years of military service. He spent seven years on active duty with the US Army and another 33 years with the California National Guard. Thirty years of that which was fulltime status with the California Military Department. He is now consulting for his own firm, T. E. Lasser & Associates, LLC.
He earned his Army aviator wings after completing the Army Aviation Warrant Officer Aviator Flight Course. He flew UH-1 Hueys in the Republic of Vietnam and after receiving a direct commission to First Lieutenant, Tom completed another tour in Vietnam flying Boeing CH-47 Chinooks. LTC Lasser then transferred into the California Army National Guard following his second tour of combat duty.
LTC Lasser has commanded at the company and battalion levels also serving in a variety of staff positions including Headquarters, California National
Guard in Sacramento. His duties also included an assignment as military liaison in the Governors LA Office and service with the Governors Office of Military Base Retention and Aerospace Support. Prior to these positions he was Airfield Commander, Los Alamitos Army Airfield on the Joint Forces Training Base in Orange County. Most recently he was the Southern California legislative liaison officer for the California Guard and concurrently supported various Guard community relations activities, media events and public affairs functions before he retired.
He is currently a Commissioner with the Los Angeles County Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. He is member of various veterans organization including life membership with the American Legion, VFW and Military Order of the Purple Heart. LTC Lasser is a vice chair of the Redondo Beach Veterans Memorial Task Force. He is President of the Southern California Association of the US Army and Vice President of the Southern California Army Aviation Association Chapter. Tom is president of the South Bay Aerospace Alliance and a member of the Radio Television News Association of S. California.
He is a master Army aviator with over 6000 flying hours including more than 1000 helicopter missions in Vietnam and almost 1800 combat flying hours. His military decorations include: the Distinguished Flying Cross(DFC),Purple Heart, Legion of Merit, Air Medal with 35 Oak Leaf clusters, Meritorious Service Medals, Bronze Star and other commendations, service awards and campaign ribbons which reflect over forty years of military service. Unit awards include the Valorous Unit Award, Army Superior Unit Award and Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry.
LTC Lassers military education includes the Infantry Officers Advance Course, Army Command and General Staff College, Aviation Safety Officers Course,
Senior Officer Logistics Management Course, National Interagency Civil-Military Institute and the Joint Service Reserve Component National Security Course. He is a graduate of San Joaquin Delta College and the University of San Francisco. He is married to the former Laura Elena Hermosillo of Stockton, CA. They have a daughter, Ami' Collette Lasser, who is in the fashion industry in Hollywood. The Lassers reside in Redondo Beach, CA.
Michael Carson
Michael Carson earned his private pilot certificate in September 1985 while studying Geography at CSU Long Beach. Michael has a BA and MA in Geography with a specialization in computer cartography and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). His Master's Thesis (1990) was titled "The Geography of Controlled Airspace in the Los Angeles Basin: Effects of General Aviation" where GIS was used to analyze the location of airspace at different flight levels as well as where air accidents tend to occur between VFR and IFR traffic. Michael is currently the GIS Manager for the City of Burbank and enjoys creating GIS applications to view and analyze spatial information. He also teaches GIS and Cartography at College of the Canyons. Mike's work for SCAUWG.ORG has been invaluable. He assisted in the most beneficial way in the development and subsequent publishing of ChartAware, SCAUWG's original Flight Planning Application. Michael also addressed the once inherit difficulty experienced by those who wish to discern the chart changes made on new versions of FAA issued LA Navigation charts. His creation. ChartCompare, also available on SCAUWG.ORG, does exactly that.
Lee Unger
V. Lee Unger lives in Tucson, Arizona; FAASTeam Representative, WINGSPro, Scottsdale Flight Standards District Office (FSDO); CFII. Special interests include Runway Safety, safe operations at non-towered airports, safety culture, human factors, mentoring youth and adults in aviation careers, safe operations of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) in the National Air Space (NAS), learning from National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reports, exchanging safety information with others, and more. Thank you Southern California Airspace Users Group (SCAUWG) for your dedication to aviation safety and for sharing your knowledge and information. Your outreach to Arizona widens the Southwest U.S. aviation safety community and is greatly appreciated. We at SCAUWG.ORG with so many examples have witnessed the tremendous acuity and breadth of knowledge that Lee brings to the aviation safety world. We feel both privileged and enthusiastic about Lee's SCAUWG.ORG participation.