Mid-Atlantic Pilots, do NOT bust this one!!!

AOPA – as would be expected – is at the forefront of a major campaign today to notify GA pilots of the seriously huge TFR that surrounds Washington, DC tonight as W takes the stage in the Capitol for his [Sad] State of the Union address.

From AOPA:

All general aviation in the greater Baltimore Washington area will be grounded this evening during President Bush's State of the Union address. The no-fly area will include the entire 3,000-square-mile footprint of the Class B airspace and the Washington, D.C., Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ). The TFR will be in effect from 7 to 11 p.m.

AOPA’s top man cut right to the chase when he added:

"Let's not make any mistakes," said AOPA President Phil Boyer. "The last thing GA needs now would be the needless evacuation of the Capitol on live national TV."

This is serious. Make no mistakes, you WILL be considered a threat inside the TFR, and should some idiot bust the perimeter, you can be assured the fighters at your six o’clock will be locked and loaded.

So you think you're a know-it-all, eh?

If the guys at the airport coffee shop have been calling your bluff on that plethera of aviation knowledge washing about in your head, maybe you should aim them at this:

The folks over at Avweb – one of the ‘Net’s best sources for aviation news – has a Brainteaser page up that will test anyone. This is not your usual FAR/AIM stuff either, but really well-though-out questions that are sure to, well, tease your brain.

And you have to chuckle at the names of some of these quizs:

Quiz #70 – Mommy, Where Do Controllers Come From?
Quiz #85 -- Got Speed? Got 'Chute?
Quiz #94 -- Call Me A Taxi
Quiz #97 -- Unscramble Your Head
Quiz #98 -- Foggy Nights and Pretty Approach Lights
Quiz #99 -- Step Up To Twins

Here is a sample of the kinds of questions that will knarl your craw (from Quiz #70):

3. Archie League's flag-waving skills were limited by height. Pilots had a tough time seeing him as he stood on the ground beside his wheelbarrow waving his flags. Also, at that elevation he couldn't scan the entire airfield, so control towers were built. When was the first radio-equipped control tower opened and where?
a. 1935, New York, New York
b. 1925, Newark, New Jersey
c. 1930, Cleveland, Ohio
d. 1940, Washington, D.C.

Don’t blame me if you end up spending too much time on these…they can be a little addicting. Gotta go now… must ... answer … questions…

Doesn’t sound like there is anything wrong with Kansas, at least not at Cessna

More proof here that the aviation industry is booming, as Cessna Aircraft Company Chairman, President and CEO Jack Pelton reported last week that the company is rolling along very nicely right now.

During 2005, Cessna delivered 249 Citation jets, 822 single engine pistons, and 86 Caravan single-engine turboprops; won FAA certification for two new jets -- the CJ1+ and CJ2+; and built its order book up to 788 jets and 1,198 single engine aircraft with a total value of $6.3 billion.

Other notable achievements out of Cessna in ’05 include receiving type certification for the Garmin G1000-equipped Skyhawk and delivery of their 6,000th single engine piston airplane since the restart of production in 1996.

More from the Company release:

Based on unit sales, Cessna is the world's largest manufacturer of general aviation aircraft. Since the company was originally established in 1927, more than 186,000 Cessna airplanes have been delivered to nearly every country in the world. The global fleet of more than 4,500 Citations is the largest fleet of business jets in the world.

In my aviation ad agency, I see the current positive growth of general and business aviation every day. Our phone has been ringing off the hook in 2006, with aviation businesses at all levels enjoying the upsurge.

What could possibly be causing this? Take your pick…wildly unstable airline prices, deplorable customer service on most big air carriers, the incredible shrinking airliner seat, the Hub & Spoke system, the list goes on and on.

But this I know: Until the airlines find a better way to charge a stable, affordable price to move your butt from here to Omaha, general and business aviation will thrive and only get bigger as more and more Baby Boomers spend their new money on personal air transportation.

Yeah, but they’ll be cheap tools imported from China

No bones about it, I am NOT a Wal•Mart fan. I do get sucked into their Supercenter a mile from my house occasionally on their produce prices, but hang my head low when I think about how little the farmer received for the oranges I am buying, and leave the store disgusted by the way Sam’s monster has obliterated the landscape of American business.

That said, I found it interesting that in a recent company news brief published in General Aviation News, Eclipse stated that all but two maintenance tools [used on the Eclipse 500] can be bought at Wal-Mart, as if this is a selling point.

Sure, I get their intent, and it is a good one. I consider the engineers at Eclipse to be beyond brilliant, and to simplify the tool requirements on the –500 will make big points with buyers, maybe at the expense of ticking off a few A & Ps.

I remember looking at the big Klein Tools semi-truck parked just off Aeroshell Square at Oshkosh and wondering how an airplane could require that many specialized tools. But I am a self-admitted retard when it comes to working on cars – while I understand their systems fully, I usually f**k something up every time I touch my truck with a wrench.

I applaud Eclipse for simplifying the tool requirements on an Eclipse as it will further soften the perception that aircraft are to be considered "exotic" by the general public.

Would I buy the tools to work on the Eclipse of my dreams at Wally World?

Forget about it, I'll stop by the Klein Truck next time through OSH, as they sponsor Mike Mancuso's Extra 300 and they deserve my business, simply for the fact they support aerobatic competition. And I really don't care where their tools are made, because I've spoken to a few A & Ps who swear by Klein, and they tell me you won't find a better tool anywhere. As one pilot who barely knows my socket wrench from my ball peen, who am I to dispute that?

Is this some kind of a sick joke, or a good idea?

The airlines are getting behind on the $100 million security fees being charged by TSA, adding more insult to injury at the financially-strapped carriers. Now a company called Luggage Express has a plan to “solve” that problem.

Basically, the plan boils down to this: You ship your bags LugEx the same way you ship via UPS or FedEx, and the bags are waiting for you at the airport when you deplane. LugEx says the airlines save by becoming people carriers, not freight haulers, saving them money while quickening turn times and reducing the cost of gate monkeys.

LugEx (Actually Universal Express) CEO Richard Altomare said this today:

"Universal Express through its subsidiary Luggage Express offered to show how it can cover the security fee that airlines are balking at paying to the TSA (see articles below.) In exchange for the payment and security peace of mind, Luggage Express is asking that the movement of luggage be separated from the passenger. We can fund this security fee payment through the revenues gained from sales of shipping luggage.”

At first glance, I saw this as thinking that was so far out of the box, it wasn’t to be taken seriously. But on second inspection, I began to visualize the big Fuschia (or whatever color they choose) LugEx truck pulling up in the driveway and the happy LugEx girl in Fuschia shorts taking my bags away for their overnight flight to my destination.

So I get to the airport sans the luggage trolley I travel with, skip happily through security, and slide fast out the gate because XYZ Airlines didn’t have to hold short while the gate guys abuse my American Touristers by cramming them into the belly of an RJ.

Maybe this thing has legs? Here is info on the web, and here is the Bizwire story for more 411.

Ouch, this hurts.

UAL Corp. – parent of United Airlines – has posted an unbelievable $17 BILLION loss in fourth quarter 2005, blaming reorganization expenses and skyrocketing fuel prices. The No. 2 U.S. airline, which is set to emerge from bankruptcy next month, said the $145 per share net loss compared with a loss of $741 million, or $6 per share a year earlier.

One consultant quoted in this Rueters/Yahoo article says a $17 billion loss "is meaningless because it involves all sorts of accounting issues." The suits at United are claiming likewise, that this mega-loss does not truly represent the financial health of their airline:

Excluding the charge, UAL said its operating loss was $182 million compared with $570 million in the same quarter last year. Total revenue for UAL increased by 10 percent, to $4.4 billion.

Hey, look, the suits can spin this any way they choose, but someone lost $17B, that we do know.

What is it going to take for someone to grow the balls needed to confront Big Oil about price fixing? Will it take Jet A climbing to $12 a gallon? Will ALL the airlines have to go the way of Pan Am?

I hope our leaders can remember that while they have sold our country's very soul to China and Wal•Mart, commercial airline service is one thing that cannot be outsourced.

I hope.

UPDATE FRI 27 JAN: I wonder if this has anything to do with the $17B loss over at UAL:

Chevron Corp.'s fourth-quarter profit climbed 20 percent to $4.14 billion, a company record that continued the most prosperous stretch in the oil company's 126-year history as it capitalizes on high fuel prices that are squeezing consumers and ruffling politicians. Its profit of $14.1 billion for the full year was also a company record.

Gee, ya' think?

A380 preps in the Golden State

A story now circulating shows that California airports are ramping up to receive the Airbus A380, the massive 555-pax airliner that somehow actually…flies.

The SFO guys are crowing:

While Southern California officials dickered during the last decade about how to modernize LAX, San Francisco built a gleaming $1 billion international terminal that was specifically designed to accommodate the new Airbus super-jumbo jet. The stark contrast between San Francisco International Airport and LAX — which plans to modify two gates for the double-decker plane at the already cramped Tom Bradley International Terminal — has led to speculation that San Francisco will woo A380 flights away from LAX.

It appears that Airbus is trying really hard to try and give LAX a fair shake…but Allan McArtor, chairman of Airbus North America, laid it out straight for L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and airport officials:

“If airlines feel like they are not going to be able to be accommodated, then they’ll start looking at other airports. It’s no secret that San Francisco is delighted to entertain any of these carriers. Once they move there and get the maintenance and the ticket counters and ground handling, it’s very difficult to get that route back.”

Jane’s is reporting that Airbus’ McArtor has warned that the Los Angeles economy could suffer if the needed construction at LAX becomes snarled in delays or the airport is unable to handle the volume of A380 flights with its two retrofitted gates. “We’ve seen a couple carriers already decide to move some early A380 routes to San Francisco because of lack of confidence that LAX can handle an A380,” he said.

There have been some movements at LAX that would suggest they are at least moving forward. This month, Los Angeles began converting four existing remote boarding gates into two gates, and modifying two others to accommodate the A380. The $7.4 million project will create four remote A380 gates, that can also continue to serve the B747, with completion due in February 2007. Work is also underway to modify two gates with dual-level boarding bridges at the Tom Bradley International Terminal.

Back to the A380. Do you really want to be passenger #555, and wait while they board 554 other people, carry-ons, babies, strollers, ice chests full of fish, etc. But even more pressing is this question: ARE THEY SURE this thing really flies?

Oh-My-GOD, HE's CLIMBING ON TOP OF THE PLANE!!!!

Not that I am a fan, but the TV show Entertainment Tonight just happens to be on the tube about the time I eat dinner. And lately, they have been out front on the “reporting” about Brad Pitt’s flight training.

Big whoop.

O.K., when does it become news when a dude – any dude – writes American Flyers a check and begins punishing a Skyhawk from the left seat? So what if it is Brad Pitt, I’m sure he just caught the aviation bug while tooling around in his girlfriend’s SR22. Yes, THAT girlfriend.

But the way ET and a few websites and blogs are “covering” this almost breaking story, you’d think ol’ Brad was Orville Wright. Tonight, it was “learned” by ET “insiders” that Pitt had a “hard landing” that resulted in his C172 “bouncing down the runway and nearly hitting another airplane.” They made it sound like his life was in grave danger.

Jeez Louise, guys, it’s just flight training, that’s why Cessna builds their landing gear the way they do, SO THEY CAN BOUNCE!

I love the secret spy photos popping up all over the ‘Net showing Pitt pre-flighting his plane. The really HOT pics show him – GASP – crawling on top of the plane!!! At least that is how they've been reporting it. [He was actually using that flimsy little step on the wing strut to get a visual on his fuel supply. Smart guy.]

And the stories of paparazzi being “chased off the airport” by security are a riot. I hate paparazzi. They show up at any airport I’m taxiing across trying to snap secret spy pics of Pitt and they might end up running into that big ol’ shred-o-matic spinning out there on the nose.

AP: VLJs will be “SUVs with wings”

Oh, this is sooooo laughable.

If you have ever wanted proof that the mainstream media has trouble reporting on aviation stories, this Associated Press story of 18 January about VLJs adding to our “already crowded skies” is a pure example of the MSM trying without success to be fair and balanced.

Throughout this piece, they refer to VLJs as "little jets", as if to say, "Ohhhh, those itty bitty whittle jets...they're sooo cute!"

Give us a break.

I went to J-school, and know all about the theory of presenting both sides of an issue. But in this AP story, so many different renditions of life after the debut of VLJs is presented, even a licensed pilot will have trouble translating.

And the public? Forget about it…they’ll never get past the line about VLJs being SUVs with wings. Here is a taste:

The FAA predicts at least 4,500 VLJs will be in service 10 years from now, though Blakey concedes that's a conservative estimate. NASA projects 20,000 in 2010. To the radar scope and to the controller, there's no difference between a little jet and a jumbo jet. And, If only two percent of commercial air passengers move from jetliners to very light jets, [FAA Administrator Marian] Blakey said, that will triple the number of takeoffs and landings that air traffic controllers have to handle.

Sheeesh. It gets worse, and weirder, but you'll need a rocket scientist to cull the truth from the fiction. SUV with wings? Gawd, now the yuppies up the street will be driving Eclipse 500s to the freakin' MALL!!

A marriage made in Heaven

There was a time – in a world long ago – when travel by commercial airliner meant starched linen on the table, real silverware, and real food served on real plates.

Can you even imagine that today?

The evolution of airline food has taken ugly turns of late, moving from a hearty meal in the 40s, to some kind of chicken in the 70s and 80s, to a bag of peanuts in the 90s to a tiny speck of pretzel today.

If you want real food on the Big Three, it is available now – for a price. The first time I ordered off their “menu”, I expected something wonderful in exchange for my eight bucks. But nooooo, it was the same old chicken something wrapped in stale bread that they used to give you for free.

Some airlines do a better job of providing snacks and drinks. Alaska/Horizon offers Black Butte Beer, a fine micro-brew from Oregon, Starbucks coffee, and local Northwest designer wine from a bottle which used to contain an actual cork…all gratis.

And now, JetBlue has upped the ante a bit by working out a deal with Dunkin’ Donuts to offer their fried spheres of love on all flights. No word on price, but since JetBlue is the only carrier to offer free satellite TV at each seat, I’m guessing the donuts will be on the house.

Ummm, blue donuts....sign me up.

New meaning to the term “Mile High Club”?

Leave it to the creative minds in Guadalajara, Mexico to come up with this beast. Limousines de Guadalajara Vaca Meters bought an old Boeing 727-100, jettisoned its wings and gave it a facelift to turn the aircraft into the ultimate limousine with the capacity to transport up to 50 passengers.

The “plane” has a report top speed of 200 kilometers (124 miles) an hour, and a three-hour ride costs USD 1,000. It has a six-cylinder, turbocharged diesel engine in the back and air brakes and suspension.

But the real fun begins when limo pax retire to the passion pit in the rear of the cabin. This is from the Mexican wire service AFP:

Passengers can boogie on a dance floor, make a pit stop at a bar or retire to a "romantic" space in the back of the luxury aircraft/automobile.

The interesting news is that Vaca Meters Limos wants to license these guys in the States! With so many Yuppie types fighting for SUV superiority, how long will it be before people start ordering converted airliners for their own personal Urban Assault Vehicles? Hell, I get peeved today when a four-door dually pickup takes 2.7 parking spaces…what will society do when big greedy fatcats pull up in the mall parking lot with an airliner-sized craft?

Don’t even want to think about it, frankly.

An idea worth considering

Innodyn, a Pennsylvania company that says it can sell homebuilders a new turbine engine for about the same money as a certified piston engine of similar horsepower, hopes to be fulfilling that elusive dream next month.

What customers are waiting for are 188-pound turbines that put out 165 to 255 horsepower, with a TBO of 5,000 hours and price tag of between $26,500 and $34,500.

Innodyn released news very similar to this in April of '04, December of '04 and August of '05. But this time, the buzz is that it will in fact begin shipping customer orders in 1Q 06.

The company tipped it’s hat to future plans too in this Avweb article when they spoke of even larger GA aftermarket turbines on their drawing board:

The twin turbine model will put out up to 500 horsepower and Charlie Sullivan, Innodyn's director of business development suggested that it will be a fraction of the price of entry-level turbines currently on the market.

Wow. A lightweight 500 HP turbine in your new Lancair, now THAT would really rock and roll!

And no – sorry to say – you can’t go out to the barn and hang one of these cute little jet engines on your family Cessna. According to Innodyn, converting an FAA certified airplane to experimental is nearly impossible. But for the kit builders who are now deciding on the powerplant for their evolving home-built bird, the Innodyn does look like an idea worth at least considering.

I believe it is inevitable that the tried, true and often tired piston engines that have powered the GA fleet forever will at some point in the future evolve into obscurity in favor of some kind of turbine replacement. It just makes more sense on so many levels, among them an awesome power-to-weight ratio, jaw-dropping TBO and minimum moving parts that can break in flight.

Would I fly behind an Innodyn? Of course, who wouldn’t? Sure, I’d rather have a 1,200 HP Pratt and Whitney PT6A-67B, but that may be too many ponies for a Skyhawk. Way too many.

Just for fun, I am going to go into my X-Plane flightsim application and modify a C-172 with a 255 HP turbine conversion and “flight test” this combination. Report to come later.

We go live now via satellite to Vancouver, where it is raining airplanes...

This is being tossed around the wires today, and shows how much of a "pack mentality" the mainstream media has about airplane crashes:

Police and ambulance vehicles rushed to the scene of a reported plane crash in the Vancouver, British Columbia suburb of Surrey last Sunday. According to the Vancouver Sun, a woman and her young son called 911 after they saw a "Cessna" go down in a field next to one of Surrey's busiest streets.

From there, a case of mistaken identity took on a life of its own. Media outlets monitoring the police and ambulance radio channels began broadcasting bulletins about the crash. "We sent all our cars down there thinking there was a small plane that had crashed but after going there we determined it was a radio-controlled model Cessna," said Cpl. Steven Han of the Surrey Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).

But even while the cops were busy broadcasting that the "downed" airplane as a TOY, and that there were NO PEOPLE ON BOARD, the media pounced on the scene, including still cameramen as well as satellite trucks, who frantically began to set up in the vicinity.

Reporters asked questions, cameras rolled. One witness posted in another blog that the scene was a riot, with the media scampering everywhere looking for blood and broken airplanes, while the RCMP (on foot, not horseback) stood by chuckling.

Oh, am I glad to have gotten my MSM ya-yas out years ago...because I'd go crazy being part of that pack today.

This makes me feel official

Yesterday I became an Official National Weather Service “Weather Spotter”, which means I am now part of the national Skywarn system.

I’ve always considered myself to be quite aware of the WX around me, and the guys at NWS were pleased that they signed up a licensed pilot to be a spotter, recognizing that we aviators do have a much better understanding of WX.

So here is how the system works. I have an ID #, and they have given me the unlisted WX spotter hotline 800#, which I am to call any time I see any of the following:

• Tornado, funnel cloud or waterspout
• Hail one-half inch or larger (dime size)
• Heavy rain of one inch per hour or more
• Flooding of any kind
• High winds with sustained or gusts 40 MPH or better
• Heavy snow (one inch or more in my area)
• Blowing snow causing visibility less than one-half mile
• Freezing rain
• High surf causing beach erosion
• Volcanic activity

But the best thing of all about becoming an official spotter is that they send you a very cool, OFFICIAL NWS rain gauge. This baby measures down to 1/100th of an inch of precip…quite a bit better than my cheapo $2 rain gauge I’d been using.

Gotta run now and stick my head out the window and see what is going on…

$11 Billion…for Blimps?

Blimps on the battlefield. No friends, this is not a joke. Oh, how I wish it was however.

Seems someone with WAY too much time on their hands in the Pentagon has decided that what the U.S. Armed Forces really needs to move equipment and cargo to the front lines are…blimps.

Blimps.

The Pentagon has put out a bid request for a blimp building contract worth $11 billion over 30 years.

Damn, that’s a lot of blimps, baby.

Two companies are neck-n-neck fighting it out for blimp superiority. One is an obscure Tarzana, CA company called Worldwide Aeros, while the other is Lockheed Martin. The press is calling it David vs. Goliath.

How serious is Lockheed in building blimps for Uncle Sam? Check this out:

Lockheed farmed out the blimp job to its Skunkworks unit, the legendary aircraft design house in Palmdale that has developed many of the nation's most advanced aircraft, including the SR-71 and U-2 spy planes.

One major – and all too obvious – hurdle remains for the blimp engineers is this from the L.A. Times:

Moreover, the airships would be vulnerable to antiaircraft fire, not only because of their size but also because they would be flying at relatively low altitude of about 10,000 feet, bringing them within range of shoulder-fired missiles.

Duh.

Maybe to get back some of their investment, the Pentagon can advertise Budweiser Beer on the side of these blimps as they poke along over Baghdad at their designed cruising speed of 138 MPH.

$700 million for Pluto?

As a pilot, I always struggle with NASA and their endless ways to spend taxpayer money. The space community will become irked when I say this, but do we really need to spend $700 million to see what is on Pluto, described by some scientists s an “oddball icy dwarf.”

Man, just think of what good $700 million could do to fix our completely broken health care system in this country. How many textbooks could $700 million buy, or food for the hungry, or, or, or…you get my drift.

Our country is bleeding red ink right now, so effectively, they are slapping the $700 million on the old VISA card, expecting future generations to pay it off. And since the first shred of data from Pluto won’t even arrive back here on this planet until 2015, my grandkids (when I have them) will have already made several payments on Uncle Sam’s space bill when they find out, hey, it really IS just an oddball icy dwarf!

But this tidbit in the NASA press release is what I found amusing:

An Atlas V rocket was programmed to speed the piano-sized Pluto explorer “New Horizons” away from Earth at 36,000 mph, the fastest launch speed on record. The craft will reach Earth's moon in about nine hours and arrive in 13 months at Jupiter, where it will use the giant planet's gravity as a slingshot, shaving five years off the 3-billion-mile trip.

NINE HOURS to the moon? Hell, I can’t get to Fresno from Eugene flying coach in nine freakin’ hours! Maybe NASA has this press release all wrong. Maybe the big news is that we can now get to the MOON in NINE HOURS!!!

Gotta love that swagger

O.K., admit it, we all dream about being fighter pilots. Those pilots who say they do not are lying.

So it is with completely green envy that I pass along that the first dozen F-22 Raptor Stealth fighters are now operational and ready to pounce on anyone, anywhere, from their home base at Langley Air Force Base, VA.

The Air Force says the new F-22A Raptor is such a dominant fighter jet that in mock dogfights its pilots typically take on six F-15 Eagles at once. Despite the favorable odds, the F-15s, still one of the world's most capable fighters, are no contest for the fastest radar-evading stealth jet ever built.

At a cost of about $160 million EACH ($350 million when R & D is factored in), these are not cheap airplanes. But when you hear Lt. Col. David Krumm, an F-22A instructor pilot talk about the Raptor, it may very well be the baddest thing flying.

''The F-15 pilots, they are the world's best pilots. When you take them flying against anyone else in the world, they are going to wipe the floor with them. It's a startling moment for them to come down here to Florida and get waylaid by the F-22A,” Lt. Col. Krumm said.

But you’ve got to love this jewel of a quote from Lt. Col. Krumm, spoken as only a fighter pilot CFI can: ''We want to kick the door down [with the F-22A] so the air space is clear for any other aircraft you want to send in. Someone could come in flying a Cessna 172 with a pistol if you wanted after we're done.''

Or this one, also from the Lt. Col.: 'The capability to fly at supersonic speed without using fuel-guzzling afterburners saves us a lot of gas and opens up a whole host of things when you start talking about dropping bombs. You can imagine if you are 60,000 feet doing mach 1.9 (about 1,400 mph) and these bombs are flying out of your airplane, the swath of hell you can produce going through a country saying 'I'll take that target, and that target','' Krumm said.

One of the most challenging things for an F-22A instructor like Lt. Col. Krumm is that the Raptor is a single-seat fighter, which means only the most experienced fighter pilots, capable of flying such a high-tech plane solo, will be selected until the program becomes more routine. “When you strap on $160 million of taxpayer money, it's by yourself with me nervously flying alongside you going, `Please don't screw up, please don't screw up,' '' Krumm said.

Let’s get ready to RUMBLE in South Florida

In the red corner, weighing in at $100 million are the developers of Orchid Island, a proposed condominium complex that the FAA is considering for approval. And in the blue corner, the FAA, AOPA, Lee County Port Authority, the Florida Department of Transportation, some really peeved business owners and the pilots who fly from or base at FMY, Page Field Airport in Fort Myers.

All sixteen of Orchid Island’s buildings will be nine stories tall – and its location is way less than a mile straight down the center line from FMY’s main runway.

So here we go…again. Developers who think what they are doing is far more valuable to Fort Myers than FMY. But, they would be wrong. From the airport’s web site:

Page Field General Aviation Airport serves over 90 thousand aircraft operations per year, bases 300 aircraft, and generates an annual economic impact of more than $35 million. Airport operations generate salaries totaling $17 million and support 850 jobs. Airport tenants provide more than 150 jobs, and business generated by general aviation visitors create 375 jobs, and an additional 300-plus jobs in the community are supported by airport operations. Tenants have a total economic impact of more than $13 million while private and corporate aircraft passengers using Page Field as a gateway to Southwest Florida add more than $22 million to the local economy each year.

God, this stuff just fries me. The developers are chomping at the bit to get started, and you just know that once built and sold, it won’t be long before residents start bitching about noise from all those damned airplanes that are skimming by just off the top of their home. Next, the residents will band together and sign petitions to close that nuisance down the street.

Well, I’ve got news for all those new Orchid Island condo owners…THE AIRPLANES WERE THERE FIRST!!! FMY has been part of Lee County since November 1, 1924. This field has some serious history, and you would think that these builders could find another chuck of dirt to develop. Hey, I know a dude who has swamp land in Florida for sale…

Who will win this tug o’war? Will it be the legendary clout of the notorious Florida developers, or the combined might of the pilots, AOPA, the FAA, LPA, FL DOT et al? To stay tuned, visit AOPA’s site, or check out this article posted on the NBC affiliate tv station's web site in the Fort Myers area.

• • •

And to all South Florida pilots, THIS IS YOUR CALL TO ACTION! Don't wait, let your voice be heard...remember Concord, CA and Buchanan Field...you guys CAN WIN THIS!!!

Here are a few points of contact for pilots wishing to get involved with this issue:

AOPA Members can contact the FMY Airport Support Volunteer:
Volunteer Name: MARK TWOMBLY

Find out more about the AOPA Support network. Send email AOPA for airport support info here.

Orlando Airports District Office
5950 Hazeltine National Dr., Suite 400
Orlando, FL 32822-5024
Phone: (407) 812-6331
FAX: (407) 812-6978
Email: 7-aso-orl-ado@faa.gov
Manager: Dean Stringer

Federal Aviation Administration
Airports Division - Southern Region
1701 Columbia Ave.
College Park, GA 30337
Voice: (404) 305-6700
Fax: (404) 305-6730

Center, negative – no joy on the little green men

I am not about to make this blog into a political forum, but if is safe to say that considering the state of emergency our country is in after five years of Bush and Co., I no longer believe anything – ANYTHING – that anyone in the Federal Government says.

So it is with sufficient skepticism that I read the “final” NTSB report today on a three-year-old investigation into the crash of a Cessna Caravan in Alabama.

Normally, this would be just another NTSB report. But this is no “normal” incident. You have to first read this article from the Washington Post, and then read between the lines in the NTSB report, found here.

Here is what we know: The Caravan crashed after a possible inflight collision with something. Maybe. Red scuff marks were found all over the Caravan that would indicate contact, but no other traffic was on RADAR in the vicinity except a DC-10, which the Caravan pilot was maintaining visual contact with at the time that his transmissions with ATC ended.

O.K., this is where it gets weird. The Feds took parts of the Caravan to Wright-Patterson Air Base for examination. This is NOT standard operating procedure for air crash investigations. You may recall that Wright-Patterson is the alleged storage facility where UFO conspiracy theorists believe the alien ship found at Roswell, N.M. is being hidden. So, yes, it seems a bit odd that the Feds would take the Caravan there for testing.

But it gets even weirder. They also shipped the Caravan to Washington, DC for further testing. And parts also went to four other laboratories for more testing. What’s up with all that?

Long, weird story short is that, as you might expect, the Feds found no proof that the Caravan traded paint with a UFO. Are we surprised? Not hardly. But the pilot’s family – and their attorney – are not happy about the final NTSB findings, and plan to press ahead in federal court with a lawsuit that blames the weather, air traffic control and other factors.

This is not the end of this story…

Breaking News in Cirrus Land

Aero-News Network is reporting this morning that a Cirrus SR22 has safely deployed the emergency BRS parachute over Alabama after trying to climb through icing conditions on departure from Birmingham at 1544Z.

Here is the raw and decoded PIREP from the incident:

MGM UUA /OV SCD 270004/TM 2200/FL090/TP SR22/IC SVR ICG 077-0900/RM ACFT WAS DESCENDING BY PARACHUTE DUE TO SEVRE ICG BUILDUP CORRECTION ANB UUA /OV SCD/TM 2240/FL077/TP SR22/IC SVR /RM DEPLOYED PARACHUTE ZME

Decoded PIREP
Montgomery FSS Urgent PIREP Location: Sylacauga, Alabama (SCD) 270004 (270 degrees 4 NM from Sylacauga airport, possibly from Sylacauga NDB which is also coded SCD) Time 2200Z Altitude (FL) 9000 feet, Type SR 22, Icing Severe Icing from 7,700 to 9,000 feet, Remark: Aircraft was descending by parachute due to severe icing buildup.

Looks like all three pax on board N87HK have survived. This comes only a dew days after another news story about a Cirrus chute deployment:

UPDATE: Two people in an SR-20 was killed Monday afternoon near Fox Field in Lancaster. "They were doing touch-and-goes at Fox field and then they went down," Los Angeles County sheriff's Deputy David Patterson told KABC-TV. ""It deployed the chute but then it crashed," said Allen Kenitzer, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman in Washington state.

AP reports that the crash killed 54-year-old filmmaker Gary Rhine. No word on the ID of the second occupant.

Wow. Lots to talk about regarding deployment of the BRS! I can find nothing out there on what altitude the Lancaster pilot was at when he deployed, but as they were doing T & Gs, we can assume it was pattern altitude at best.

And of course, a few "news" websites in L.A. are linking the type of crashed airplane to the same "make and model" as the plane Angelina Jolie owns and flies...as if that is a part of this story somehow. [Truth is she has a SR-22 and not a -20] And no, Jolie has not been killed in a plane crash in Nigeria, that is a rumor that has spread through blogs like wildfire since this Lancaster crash.

Further: The L.A. Times website is now reporting that they have talked to witnesses to the Lancaster crash who believe the parachute deployed after impact with the ground. Developing...

Interesting things you find out there on the www

While looking over myflightblog.com, I discovered yet another website that offers some truly marvelous 411 on aviation.

Skyvector.com serves up FAA charts that can be easily be panned, zoomed and searched to deliver the viewer to current chart info in an instant. Of course, these are not meant to replace real charts, but are a great way to look things over as you flight plan. People still do flight plan, don't they?

But the really groovy part is the little colored circles over the airports. Click on them and Skyvector serves up some very clean airport runway info and current METAR numbers..all in a nice, clean package. Only thing I’d like to have seen on their airport pages was frequencies…but I suspect that is coming.

Am I the only Bozo on the bus that didn't know about this?

O.K., I never claim to know everything about anything, but I do keep up to speed quite handily on two things, aviation and the Internet. So I was completely blown away today when I went to the Spectrum site (see below) and it was a .aero domain name!

A dot what???

Seems that for $99 a year, you can now buy .aero domain names. Some very cool ones are still available BTW. Why the hefty price tag? Beats me, 'cause if these were the price of regular cheapo dot-com names, I'd be buying a few right now. With my aviation ad agency growing rapidly, ads.aero sounds mighty attractive.

So many jets, so little time

It seems that with each passing day, yet another light jet or VLJ is announced. Here is today’s entry into that exploding market (from the company press release):

The Spectrum 33 Twinjet took flight on January 7, 2006 in Spanish Fork, Utah. The Spectrum 33 is a new light carbon-graphite business jet designed to carry eight to nine passengers, cruise at up to 415 knots [477 mph] and fly as far as 2,000 nautical miles. Spectrum 33 soared off Spanish Fork’s relatively short, 4,500 ft elevation runway in about 750 ft on its first flight, even though it was using greatly reduced takeoff thrust.

Spectrum claims the –33 will consume half as much fuel as current-production aircraft having the same cabin, range and speed, and that FAA Type Certification is slated for late 2007 or in 2008.

Short field ops in an LJ? Now THAT is interesting. Compared to the published 2,155 ft (to 50’) for the Eclipse, the 750’ claimed for the Spectrum may – or may not – be news. I could horse a Skyhawk off the ground early and cheat gravity for a second in ground effect, and the takeoff distance would be dazzling, but unrealistic. So this mark of 750’ for the Spectrum must still be confirmed and then duplicated over and over in real world applications.

Not long ago at the AOPA Expo in Palm Springs, I went out to a small rural airport to watch a demonstration of the Visionaire Vantage. The plane jumped off the runway like a Maule, did a slow flight fly-by 50' off the deck at Cessna 150 stall speeds, and landed on a dime and gave you eight cents change. But I believe the Vantage is now history, so none of its awesome short field performance numbers matter now.

Like all entries into the VLJ and LJ race, time will tell whether Spectrum delivers actual jets in the coming years.

A path I could have easily traveled

As we age, it is not uncommon to look back on our life’s path and wonder “what if?”

What if I had indeed went to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University back when I was young? I’ve always possessed this incredible passion for aviation, so I suspect I’d have soaked up their brand of knowledge, earned my paper and would now be left seat in a 777 taking a load of pax over the North Atlantic as a Captain.

When I think about universities, I believe it simply does not get any better than ERAU. I have personally spoken with ERAU students, and they tell me that keg parties, ridiculous student hazing rituals, and the usual party scene that is now fully accepted at our major four-year schools is nowhere to be found at their school. Typical ERAU students are focused, polite, motivated kids who love aviation and want to propel themselves to a career an aeronautics. They are not phony party-hard beer guzzlers wasting their parent’s College Fund as they stumble half-naked around a beach somewhere at Spring Break.

No, while many loser college kids are puking in a gutter somewhere, bet the farm that the ERAU kids are out at the airport working double overtime to perfect the fine art of driving a Seminole right down the gut of a near-minimums ILS approach. The university's fleet of 92 instructional aircraft includes the following models: American Champion Decathlon, Cessna 150, Cessna 152, Cessna 172, Cessna 172S, Cessna 182RG, Piper PA28R Arrow, and Piper PA44 Seminole, and they are busy year-round.

You can watch an awesome ERAU video here, or read a list of their available degrees here.

One last thing. Up here in the perfectly green Pacific Northwest, ERAU classes are now available at McMinnville, Oregon’s Evergreen Aviation Museum. Imagine learning this stuff in the shadow of the Spruce Goose…inspiring, I would say.

Good [but as usual, confusing] news from the MSM

Today Yahoo and PRNewswire released an article announcing that Ballistic Recovery Systems, Inc. – a manufacturer of whole-airplane parachute recovery systems for general aviation and recreational aircraft – has received the Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) from the FAA for the Symphony SA 160.

Now here’s the confusing part: This latest approval, BRS's 4th, is the first one available directly from the aircraft manufacturer as a factory-installed option.

Key confusion comes from the word “option”, and yes, the article does mention Cirrus taking a "revolutionary step in personal aircraft transportation” when they made the BRS parachute system, known as CAPS(TM), standard equipment on all of their aircraft.

So I reckon the mainstream media would just rather have JoeBob down the street figure out for himself that Cirrus beat Symphony to the BRS parachute thing by years.

Doesn’t really matter, as I believe BRS’s chutes do indeed save lives (181 and counting to date). Would I want to pull the big red handle on an SR-22 and guarantee substantial damage to the airframe just to save my ass?

Damn straight I would. With the BRS system, single engine over the Rockies at night in IFR WX starts to make sense.

WOW! This is really cool

Flight tracking on the www simply does not get any better than flightaware.com. As of 9 Jan, 2006 at 1220P, this free site claims to be currently tracking 4,308 IFR aircraft and 309 VFR aircraft with 14,019,891 total flights in the database. They have tracked 38,847 arrivals in the last 24 hours.

Flightaware.com sifts through the FAA's ATC data and offers it any number of ways. Links are everywhere, so if you want to see only the Cirrus SR22's currently in the air, can do. Want to find out what is inbound to your patch, can do. Want to search by flight number and get a cool history of that flight over a number of days, to see if it stays on schedule or has experienced delays recently? Can do that too.

Here is live flight tracking (from earlier today) for Eugene Mahlon Sweet Field, my home field.

They also present Quicktime animations of flights that have been in the news. Here is a track log animation of N225GV's flight on morning of November 21, 2005. The flight (operated by Nike, Inc.) encountered landing gear problems after takeoff and attracted national media coverage during the six hour local flight before an uneventful landing. This is not a joke.

Lastly, if you just want to track one flight across the country, this site has the most comprehensive tracking system I have ever seen. Like I said...wow!

More information that anyone could possibly ever use

As pilots, we are always learning, and we suck up information much like a Hoover sucks up dog hair off the living room rug. We are constantly searching for the pot o'gold at the end of the rainbow, that fountain of information we can scour for new knowledge.

With that said, let me introduce you to Gene Whitt, a CFI who has long been active at Concord, CA's Buchanan Field. Gene likes to write (oh boy does he ever), and likes to compile stories, facts, teaching tips and anything else related to learning to fly. His site is whittsflying.com, and I recommend only going there if you have LOTS of time on your hands...it is rather lengthy and addictive.

The site is broken down into VFR and IFR sections, but if you must start somewhere, his statistics page is a great place to launch from.

Space Camp Adult Style

No, there aren't any strippers involved…not THAT kind of adult style. I’m talking Space Camp for all of us mature humans who until now have been completely jealous of those little snot-nosed kids who got to go to Space Camp.

Avweb (which by the way is a great source of info) has a great article about adult Space Camp by contributor Ron Wanttaja. Here is a taste:

Space Camp for Adults – Looking for some way to combine your next vacation with your favorite avocation, aviation? Maybe something beyond adding a new rating but which nonetheless includes a learning experience? Maybe learning what it's like to train as an astronaut on the space shuttle? If so, Space Camp in Huntsville, Ala. is a weeklong program designed strictly for adults.

O.K., I have to do this. Right after getting my DC-3 type rating and building a turbine powered Lancair. And seeing the Indy 500. And visiting Bora Bora, and...and...and...

More stuff to mash-up and play with

We pilots like our...information, and like some other things in life that will remain unmentioned, we'll get it any way we can get it, clean and easy or down and dirty. Scrawl ATIS info on a bar napkin and pass it to us under the table, we'll be in heaven.

So it is no surprise that a new site called Runway Finder has been getting passed around lately in other aviation blogs. It is what techies call a Google maps mash-up, which is a new term that means someone took the data available through Google Maps and "mashed it up" into something else.

In this case, an almost anonymous developer named "Dave" has mashed up a concoction of ATIS, airport runway info, U.S. sectional charts and Google's street maps and satellite photos to invent a hybrid tool that is as much fun as it is innovative. Will I use it as a source for info as I dash out the door to go fly? Probably not. But I can assure you it is bookmarked.

And a bit Hat tip to Todd at myflightblog.com for passing along the Frappr map of aviation blogs. Todd has an interesting thing on his blog…an online training tracker that shows his “final tally” for earning his Private ticket in August, 2004 and a flight tracker that lists his current aviation activities, including a map for airports visited. Very cool, Todd.

Ready to Blow: Tuba concerto inspired by
University of Washington wind tunnel

This is where art and science truly become one.

From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer: James Crowder was a Boeing engineer whose primary work concerned flow visualization -- making it possible to see the movement of air over solid surfaces -- that required the use of the 1939 wind tunnel. For this, he achieved international recognition. He was also a tuba player and interested, not surprisingly, in the air flow inside the instrument. After his death in 2002, his widow, Sandra, an ardent connoisseur of music, wanted a vehicle to commemorate her husband.

The result is Samuel Jones' tuba concerto, which gets its world premiere tonight with the Seattle Symphony. The concerto’s third movement was specifically inspired by the F.K. Kirsten Wind Tunnel on the eastern edge of the University of Washington.

As Christopher Olka, principal tuba of the symphony, plays his F bass tuba, the music will replicate sounds in the tunnel as it ramps up to airspeeds of 250 miles an hour and then down -- "a huge, compelling sound," in Jones' words.

This story makes me want to propose a concerto of my own creation. I would call it “Fabulosity – Concerto in ! Minor for Radial Aircraft Engine. It would feature a solo in which a DC-3, and a Ford Trimotor achieve supreme syncronicity as they fire up simultaneously to explode with that sound we pilot types hold so dear.

A Lawsuit…against the Pilot?

Rueters is reporting that six German airline passengers who said they were being held against their will on an aircraft stuck on the runway for hours at Berlin's Tegel airport during a snowstorm have filed "false imprisonment" charges.

What is rather odd about this incident is that the passengers filed charges against the pilot of a British Airways Berlin-London flight after that sat on the runway for seven hours before it could take off.

Over on this side of the pond, we Yankees have a much better understanding of what the term “Pilot-in-Command” means. Good thing this didn’t happen on one of the Big Three U.S. carriers, or the poor souls on board could have overdosed on cheap pretzels and warm soda pop.

GlobalFlyer setback

Wednesday in Salina, Kansas turned out to be a hell day for the crew of the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer when a wing tip struck a fuel truck causing considerable damage. The planned repositioning flight from Salina to Kennedy Space Center in Florida that was to take place on Friday 6 January as previously planned is now in a holding pattern.

Steve Fossett, pilot of the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer for the Ultimate Flight, commented: “This could be a real set back for 'The Ultimate Flight' record attempt. Everyone involved in the record attempt is as disappointed as I am that repositioning could not take place as planned. We are currently assessing the damage for how long the repairs will take to see when we can get back on track.”

It is not yet known whether this incident will impact the Globalflyer’s take-off date previously estimated to take place in early February.

Find out everything you ever wanted to know about Fossett’s record attempt here.

Gifts from the heart are hand-made

According to tales of holiday gift giving from long ago – back before the birth of Sam Walton – people would actually MAKE each other Christmas gifts.

Imagine if you will a little boy’s Dad secretly toiling out in the woodshed, carving Oak planks into just the right shape before attaching them to fine steel rails he honed himself to make his son the perfect sled.

That was precisely the scene around the Av8rdan household as the days crept up towards Christmas 2005. Except it was my wife Julie Celeste and our son Michael hiding in the guest room, crafting a very fine model of my favorite airplane, Jerrie Mock’s Spirit of Columbus, aka Charlie. If you need a refresher on why I am so stoked on this particular Cessna 180, click here.

The model is a vintage Guillow's balsa design with a 20” wingspan. This was not a snap-together plastic model like I used to build back in the day, this was a complex, assemble-by-numbers design with tissue paper covering the fuselage and wing surfaces. The custom paint and N number on the side (N1538C) were only upstaged by Michael’s unbelievable hand-painted script lettering of “Spirit of Columbus” on the nose.

Yes, it was a great Christmas…and yes, it is great to be loved. I am truly blessed to have a wife and family who admire my love of aviation.

As always, AOPA gets it right

We all know the mainstream media continues to have problems reporting aviation stories, and more often than not, GA takes a PR hit when The Daily Chronicle-Journal-Review gets it all wrong.

So it is refreshing news that AOPA is charging to the forefront of this issue by going live with a new “Online Newsroom” meant to assist mainstream reporters with the correct facts and figures about GA. From the wire services today:

AOPA recognizes that many reporters assigned to cover a story about small planes are scrambling to learn as much as possible even as they head out to cover the story. So the new AOPA Online Newsroom provides the answers to questions that reporters most frequently ask.

AOPA never ceases to amaze me. They are so right on about this kind of thing, and as always, know exactly what to do and say to keep GA looking as good as can be in the eyes of the public.

Where would we be without AOPA burning up the halls of Congress while keeping the mainstream wolves at bay? We’d be screwed, and that little airport down the street, bet your shorts it would have long ago been replaced by a Wal*Mart.

Never forget Meigs Field. Yes, we lost that one, but we won Concord, CA’s Buchanan Field, due in large part to AOPA tireless efforts to assist regular guys and gals in fighting to save their airport.

More WX 411 than you'll ever be able to use

If you're a WX junkie like me, this is the Mother Lode. It's a compendium of every cool weather site, courtesy of the Airline Dispatchers Federation. These are the folks who tell the commercial air carriers where to go and when to go there, and they know their stuff.

The whole plethera of info can be found here. A few jewels from their page is the National Airspace Status (NAS) info, a Quick Brief page that will give you a "right now" look at US weather, a National Overview with a collection of very high quality images, and if you really REALLY need to know what is going on in Madagascar, yes, you can get that info here too courtesy of the World Nexrad RADAR images offered from Weathermatrix.net on the ADF site.

A sad day for Flyi, and low-cost airlines in general

As of January 5, 2006, Independence Air, found on the web as flyi.com, will cease operations. According to a letter to their customers, "the financial pressures in the industry have prevailed. We have run out of time."

I read this weekend in a mainstream media story about this that one of the "big reasons" they are going belly-up is their heavy use of "50-70 passenger regional jets" to which I say, hogwash.

Everyone who reads this blog knows that RJs are much faster and more efficient that, say, a fleet of aging MD- and Super-80s, or even older Boeing -37s. RJs get with the program, sip fuel, and can get up to the flight levels NOW.

While I will never claim to be a mathematician, what is killing the airlines is EMPTY SEATS, not the wrong flying machine. I have always said that if the commercial carriers did away with their huge financial penalty for booking a seat inside of their usual three-week waiting period window, maybe they could survive financially.

Think about this: They calculate the average cost per seat mile of all routes, and come up with a base rate + profit to haul your ass anywhere along their line. Then, whether it's one day or one month before departure, the seat mile rate X number of miles you want to travel is your fare, period. No horseplay with jacking the price for business travelers who need to get there tomorrow.

So what that would mean is if there are empty seats, a paying butt would be in it, and he/she would pay the exact amount as the guy next to you who booked online 30 days prior. If the Big Three could come up with something like this, and fill their empty seats along their less impacted routes, we wouldn't have to loose carriers like Independence, which BTW has a really cool paint scheme.

I know the "low-cost" lines already have a similar fare scheme, and guess what? Besides the demise of Flyi, all the low guys are making money. Think the Big Three will ever follow their lead and quit raping souls who want only to get to the next state over for a weekend with the wife? Never in a million years. This mega-penalty for business travel has always been a golden egg for the Big Three, and it is also what is causing business aviation and charter to prosper.

More thumb rules than you could ever use

We've all used them. Little helper "rules of thumb" that can help us remember things in the airplane when the going gets busy. I like "White over white, fly all night. Red over white, you're all right. Red over red, you're dead". Nothing quite gets your attention like a rule of thumb containing the word dead.

There are literally thousands of numeric rules of thumb out there floating around on the Internet, but finding all of them can be hard...until now. That is because now you know about this site.

This is the finest collection of thumb rules I have ever stumbled upon...courtesy of a site called Flightinfo.com by Aviation Communications. I've never heard of them, and am not affiliated with them, but they do have a pretty nice site with quite a bit of good 411...including a very nice aviation forum/discussion board called The Hanger.