What do Cell Towers
Have to do With ATC?

A recently Popular Mechanics story by Barbara Peterson is worth a read, as it spells out some of the things that FAA is planning:

The Federal Aviation Administration recently awarded a $1.8 billion contract to ITT Corporation to lay the groundwork for NextGen, an overhaul of the country’s overloaded air traffic control system from aging radar towers to GPS that would use real time to pack in the sky without sacrificing safety. One of the reasons for ITT’s surprise win—it beat out aviation heavyweights Lockheed Martin and Raytheon—was its partnership with AT&T, which will lend hundreds of cell towers to anchor the new surveillance technology for tracking planes in the air.

The extensive story says that "the new team behind America’s air traffic control overhaul hopes to have AT&T cell towers come to the rescue". All fine and good, at least at first glance. But as usual, reality always bites back:

Skeptics note that the FAA’s new air traffic control system fails to address both the tendency of airlines to overschedule flights during peak hours and the looming shortage of air traffic controllers—many who replaced striking workers in 1981 are facing mandatory retirement. Doug Church, an official with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, says that while his organization welcomes technological advances, he’s concerned that NextGen not be viewed as a panacea. “An airport can still only handle so many flights,” he says. “What we need is more concrete on the ground” in the form of new runways and airfields, he says.

Duh. This Nextgen planning is just more of the same kind of Washington wisdom that brought is Iraq, the post-Katrina embarrassment and the current sub-prime mortgage meltdown. And one commenter on the PM site really nails it IMHO:

If you are landing aircraft at the maximum airport acceptance rate, which we are all over the country, how does having more aircraft arrive during that hour help? All it does is make them get to their holding pattern quicker. "NexGen" is just a scam so that corporations can get billions of dollar contracts and then the people who gave them those contracts get nice cushy jobs from said corporations.

Ouch...but one name I can quickly think of indicates that poster might be right on: Marion Blakey.

As usual with anything Popular Mechanics reports, there is far more depth then what the main story offers available here...all of it excellent writing that deserves your attention.

Cleared Direct...
from Heart to Hand

After the last post about my recent tour of EUG's Tower, someone posted a link to this blog on NATCA's forum and I have been enjoying a major league spike in traffic nationwide. It has prompted a few nice emails, including one who asked how I developed my writing style. So in the interest of introducing myself a little more to my readers, here's a few words on how this blog is produced, and about the guy who produces it:

After a flight at age 10 in what I sort of remember to be a 707 from FAT north to Seattle, I was so jazzed about flying, my mother, Joan, suggested I write United Airlines a letter to thank them for the awesome flight. My mom was a very creative woman, an artist, a real "zany" lady. If you can imagine Carol Burnett crossed with Lucille Ball, that was my mom. I knew nothing about writing letters at age 10, but did know that mom had a way with people. Through her tenacious gift of gab as well as her insane ability to sting together the right combination of written words, she could make anyone ask "how high" whenever she wrote the word "jump". She helped me write that letter, and after stamping the envelope with me, we sat back and waited.

Now you would think that even back in 1966, United was getting flooded with letters, so naturally they would ignore one from a 10-year-old pup in Fresno. Not so. A few weeks later, I received a thick Manila envelope from the Office of the Chairman, United Airlines. Inside was several 8 x 10 black and whites of historic United planes, a booklet containing every shred of available data and trivia on them, and a gigantic brochure announcing the hottest plane in the sky, their new 747! On top of this monster pile of airplane stuff was a personalized letter from the CEO himself, thanking ME, a 10-year-old snot-nosed brat, for allowing THEM to fly ME in THEIR jetliner! It was that day that Jumpin' Joanie proved to me that compared to a sword, the pen is a far mightier instrument.

From those early days when I pecked away at an old family Smith-Corona, I progressed without even trying to a point in 1980 when I was covering Central California auto racing stories for a gaggle of regional and national papers. From Indy cars in Portland, Oregon to World of Outlaws sprinters in Knoxville, Iowa, you could find me with my bag of Minolta film cameras out there deep into the apex of turn one, so close to the track I'd scare the hell out of the ambulance drivers.

That freelance career turned into a real newspaper job in 1984 when I took a Sports Editor's position at a small weekly in Reedley, CA. My favorite part of that job was my weekly "Sports Insight" column, which was sometimes pretty far out there for my ultra-conservative readership. But the paper's owners leaned right and I've always leaned left, so that full-time gig ended two years later. At that point, I met Julie, it was 1987 and we began what is now 20 years of wedded and business bliss. In 1998 we opened our ad agency, and now, just about 10 years later, here I still am, busier then ever.

During these "typewriter" years – including my first electric, bought by my sister Mary to jump start a career she knew was inside me – Jumpin' Joanie always pushed me to write, and to read newspapers. It was always a treat to find a copy of the San Francisco Chronicle, and prompted by words from those often green pages, I developed a writing style that has been called "Herb Caen meets Dave Berry". I don't try to be high brow, and I don't aim my work at low brow readers either. I just plunder through a story, hoping my fingers move just slightly faster then my brain. If the letters string together something readable, I publish it, and usually have no regrets.

I still pound away at my stories (now called blog posts), only now using a Macbook Pro instead of a worn manual typewriter. The vast majority of what you see on this blog comes directly from my heart, and is written first time through, usually in about 15-30 minutes plus five for editing. Often they are accompanied by factoids pulled from (and attributed to) other sources, but the meat and potatoes of World of Flying is written with me just watching my hands fly, guided by my brain, which is getting direct input from my inner self. Writing about flying is not work for me, the words are already hard-wired into my soul. All I need to make them come out is a headline somewhere that blows my mind, or a post topic that hits me out of thin air.

But these days, I often meet young people who can only write with their thumbs on a cell phone. Yeah, sure, there are lots of brilliant young people who publish brilliant blogs on seriously relevant topics. But for every one brilliant young blogger, there are several of their friends who cannot tell the difference between upper and lower case letters. Many cannot spell without a spell checker application, and very few of them know how to form a business letter. I find this trend disturbing, as writing is the very core of this country's existence. Try writing the Declaration of Independence on your cell phone sometime.

So for the future of the U.S.A., if you have 'tweenage' kids in the house, encourage them to learn creative writing, the fine art of stringing words together to get a point across. It is not that hard, any kid can do it. I did. I've made a career out of writing, and I've only had six DAYS of college. I always encourage kids to attend college, but the skills needed to write clearly are available to school kids long before they sit down to take the SATs.

But first, we have to tear them away from their video games and text messages long enough to teach them the most important skill I believe they can learn...the ability to communicate with the written word. When they learn how to do that, anything they can dream is attainable. If they neglect to learn creative writing and basic English and composition, I believe their chances of developing a serious professional career doing anything beyond burger flipper will be nil.

Listen to That
Voice in Your Head(set)

As with anything in aviation, if you poll enough pilots, you will certainly find one who has absolutely nothing good to say about our nation's Air Traffic Controllers. These are also the clowns who like to strafe their home patch in their B55 Baron full out at 200 AGL without making a radio call.

And as you might expect if you read this blog regularly, I am NOT one of this group. I am a big fan of the men and women inside my headset, and this week one of them took me on a tour of the Eugene, Oregon tower. I had been up in the FAT tower once before, and it is always good times when you get inside the inner sanctum of ATC:

My wife Julie and I are standing in Cascade Approach, one screen covering roughly 35 miles around EUG up to FL110, and a second screen handling the 35 miles around Medford to the south. The first thing you see when you enter the radar room is...darkness. The only illumination comes from the faint green glow of the radar screens, and if you listen intently, you can almost hear the controllers talking over the constant hum of a million electrodes assaulting your body from every angle. At the screens, a couple of controllers sit casually in their chairs, pushing a button here, sliding a slip of paper down the console there, occasionally giving guidance to some invisible pilot out there in the netherworld who is known only to them as a tiny green blip on a screen.

As our escort Controller explains what is before us, I try and listen for transmissions from the controller seated just three feet away working the Eugene sector. His voice is almost inaudible as he calmly tells a Skywest regional jet to turn fifteen degrees for traffic. Our escort seems overjoyed to be showing us the place, as if he is relieved to have something else to do then to stare at an nearly empty radar screen.

On this night, it is stone cold outside, with the temperature and dewpoint dancing dangerously with one another. You can count the blips on either screen on one hand, and still have fingers left to snap. Unlike the images we all have of Centers exploding with commotion as airliners converge on major hubs, tonight, Cascade Approach is a ghost town, a very boring post to have to work.

After hearing about the specific migratory routes of the giant flocks of birds that frequent EUG's airspace – it takes about 200 geese to show up on their radar screen, in case you were wondering – we head up the elevator to the "cab" as I believe it is called. The controllers working up there call it the best view in all of Eugene:

Maybe on a clear summer day when there were lots of arrivals and departures, the Eugene tower may be a hopping place to be. But tonight, one controller looks bored out of her mind, and is thrilled I'm sure to have to work an inbound Skywest RJ. We are shown the many levels of runway light brightness available to the arriving flyer, just at the time when the inbound Skywest was on short final. About the time that RJ pilot was dropping the gear, runway 16R lights up like Fifth Avenue during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, only without the Snoopy balloons. Welcome to EUG!

For the next 15 minutes, we stood in the cab and chatted up airplanes with the two controllers. After the RJ made the gate, an eerie stillness enveloped the field, nothing moving in or out. The controller working "tower" seems happy to record the next hour's ATIS message, rattling off the info like she had done this a million times before...because she HAS.

As we drove home from the tour, I reflected on the kind of training these controllers must have to be able to stay so cool under any circumstances. Eugene Tower is far removed from the hectic pace of say Los Angeles Center, but I am left with the feeling that if a couple of hundred inbounds suddenly were handed off to them, they could work each pressurized tube with as much grace and skill as was needed to get everyone on the ground safely without generating any of that pesky FAA paperwork.

As pilots, we should be indebted to ATC for watching our backs, for guiding us through the quag, and for keeping things under control when things get out of control in the cockpit. These people deserve to be respected not only from all who fly, but also the FAA, who seems to have little interest in giving them a fair employment contract. When you see ATC in action, the current treatment of them by FAA seems a disgrace.

Wisconsin's Midwest
Airlines Again Tops
"the" Zagat List

The Zagat/TODAY Show Airline Survey annually offers to crown the best carrier in domestic airlines, and as the results explain, apparently experienced travelers in this country prefer chocolate chip cookies over stale pretzels:

Zagat surveyed almost 7,500 frequent fliers, who flew an average of 19.7 flights per year. The secret to happy airline passengers: Cookies. Midwest Airlines may lay claim to offering the highest overall quality to travelers among US airlines, according to a Zagat Survey. Midwest -- best known for offering fresh-baked chocolate-chip cookies on its mainline flights -- took top honors among economy-class airlines. Those surveyed praised the carrier's "extraordinarily helpful" staff and "excellent value." The Oak Creek, WI-based low-cost carrier also took top honors in other years, most recently in 2005. "Midwest has been running essentially a business-class airline while charging economy class rates," said Tim Zagat, CEO of the survey firm.

And the survey [ download full results as pdf here ] also showed that you can jump into the U.S. market and quickly gain instant validation with your customer base:

The other carrier that received high marks was Virgin America – which has only been flying three months – offers the best overall experience. Curiously, the airline also tied for second-place in the economy category; Virgin America bills itself as a low-cost airline, while offering leather seats and in-flight entertainment systems.

But what I found hilarious was a few of the quotes pulled from the survey results. If you are a Big Airline CEO, the following ought to be a wake-up call (these do not represent any comments aimed at any particular carrier, just random pulls from the story):

"The only thing you can hope for is a short flight"

"If they could have pay toilets, they would"

"Makes standing in line at the DMV seem like fun"

"They fired the last employee found smiling"

"Only thing worse than flying them is the delay to fly them"

"Flight schedules are for customers' amusement"

"Livestock travels under better conditions"

"Don't enter the toilet without a hazmat suit"

"Website is slower than my 100 year-old grandmother"

"The legroom is great if you're a yard gnome"

Ouch...a yard gnome? Now that one hurts.

Spark a Fire Today

I have written at length about my strong feelings that aviation should never be gender specific, and that the sky should be open to both men AND women. Any pilot who thinks the flight deck is no place for a woman is a neanderthal these days, and if any codger wants to pick a fight with me, all they have to do is blurt out that the damned women out to stay back in the cabin service coffee. That was not true in the days of the DC-3, and it is not true today.

By nature, lady pilots seem to have a more sensitive touch on the controls. Any time I fly commercially and hear a friendly female voice as Captain of our ship, I always tell anyone within earshot to make note of our landing, it will be a gentle greaser...and it almost always is.

The female population of this country is GA's secret weapon for success, because it is an untapped pool of future business. Girls these days are just not steered towards flying, and they should be. So today, as we head into the Christmas buying season, I have a suggestion for a gift you should consider if you have a young female on your list that has any sort of longing for the sky:

The International Women’s Air & Space Museum (IWASM) has introduced a collectible deck of playing cards highlighting women in aviation and space. Each card features a different woman, organization, or event in aviation and space. Many of the photos used to create the deck are from the IWASM archives, and feature women including Jerrie Mock, Amelia Earhart, Bessie Coleman, and Eileen Collins. Each card face features a photo and historical fact about the subject. Card faces were sponsored by individuals and organizations interested in supporting the project as well as family members of some of the earliest women aviation pioneers.

I was happy to note that they included Jerrie Mock in this collection, because so often in the past, she was overlooked when people talked about famous female aviators. If you want to help out IWASM and also spark that fire in a little girl you know, here is the 411:

One thousand decks are being produced and the museum is taking orders for $10 per deck plus shipping at the museum gift shop or online store. Card decks will be shipped to purchasers in early December. You can also download a PDF order form here and mail it to the museum at: Burke Lakefront Airport, Room 165, 1501 North Marginal Road, Cleveland, OH 44114. Museum admission is free and exhibits are open 8:00 am – 8:00 pm daily. The Fay Gillis Wells Research Center and Gift Shop are open 10:00 am – 4:00 pm Monday through Friday and by appointment. Call (216) 623-1111 for more information or visit us on the web here.

I have been trying to think of some young impressionable female mind I can influence with a deck of these cards. But I might just order a set anyway, because you just never know if they might one day be a collector's item.

Maybe Kucinich
Isn't Such A
NutJob After All!

The mainstream media has been having a blast kicking U.S. presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich all over the turf for a comment he made about seeing a unidentified flying object (UFO) on at least one occasion. He seems to always be the media punching bag with the MILF wife, a tofu-eating whack job who sees little green men.

Well, a recent Reuters report that was widely distributed around the world seems to suggest that the media might want to start listening to Kucinich, because he is not so far out there after all:

An international panel of two dozen former pilots and government officials from seven countries called on the U.S. government last week to reopen its generation-old UFO investigation as a matter of safety and security given continuing reports about flying discs, glowing spheres and other strange sightings. The panelists, including former senior military officers, said they had each seen a UFO or conducted an official investigation into UFO phenomena.

Reuters tells us that Kucinich might have just been channeling a couple of former U.S. presidents too:

The subject of UFOs grabbed the spotlight in the U.S. presidential race last month when Kucinich, a member of Congress from Ohio, said during a televised debate with other Democratic candidates that he had seen one. Former presidents Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter are both reported to have claimed UFO sightings.

The panel, organized by a group dedicated to winning credibility for the study of UFOs, urged Washington to resume UFO investigations through the U.S. Air Force or NASA. And their logic does make some sense:

"Especially after the attacks of 9/11, it is no longer satisfactory to ignore radar returns ... which cannot be associated with performances of existing aircraft and helicopters," they said in a statement released at a news conference. While most turn out to be misidentified aircraft, satellites or meteors. A panelist who once worked for Britain's Ministry of Defense said 5 percent of incidents cannot be explained.

The story says that from 1947 to 1969, the U.S. Air Force investigated 12,618 UFO reports in what was known as Project Blue Book. Investigators concluded that the incidents posed no threat and there was no evidence of space aliens in operation. But there are others, reports Reuters, that is not buying the theory that this planet is the only one in this universe or any other that is inhabited with little men of any color:

"It's a question of who you going to believe: your lying eyes or the government?" remarked John Callahan, a former Federal Aviation Administration investigator, who said the CIA in 1987 tried to hush up the sighting of a huge lighted ball four times the size of a jumbo jet in Alaska. Callahan joins former Arizona Gov. Fife Symington, who said he was among hundreds who saw a delta-shaped craft with enormous lights silently traverse the sky near Phoenix in 1997.

In my travels – which included many long nights in my former life behind the wheel pounding down the interstate in an 18-wheeler – I have seen too many unexplainable lights in the sky to not be a believer. Of course there are space craft from other planets, there just HAS to be. Think about it: Earth is but one speck of a rock in our universe, which is one speck of a universe that joins an infinite number of other specks in what we commonly call "space".

I have often pondered that if "space" is not infinite, then what lies on the other side at the point where our 'space" ends? But if it IS infinite, the universe as we know it would be duplicated an infinite number of times, creating lots of tiny specks of rock out there for some sort of beings like us to throw together a craft capable of coming here and toying with our atmosphere. To say Earth is the only planet to possibly have intelligent life is simply ridiculous.

Now if we could just get all those little green men registered as Democrats, Kucinich might stand a chance against the Top Tier candidates that the mainstream media is shoving down our throats as they try to decide the next presidential election for us.

Flight Delays, From a
Worldwide Perspective

'Tis the season for pressurized tubes full of humans trying to get to Grandma's house to be delayed, so says the mainstream media. As many across all the Internets reported last week, The Decider has this all figured out, assigning "unused" military routes up and down the Eastern Seaboard to commercial airlines. Sounds good in a sound bite, but the Air Traffic Controllers Union has already said in so many words that the Bush/FAA strategery is all hat and no cattle.

But around this planet, different countries handle their flight delays in vastly different ways. In India, the authorities have a strange way of provide stellar customer service:

Hundreds of passengers including diabetics spent up to 18 hours without food or sleep at India's Delhi Airport as Air India officials “hid” from them after announcing massive delays. Only a few junior officials were present, and they have no information or authority, and the Air India assistance booth at the departure lounge was deserted. Also, the crew of the Qatar-bound flight “went into hiding” after announcing a delay to passengers who were already seated in the aircraft. Passengers deplaned on their own and walked around the high-security apron area and had to be contained for their own safety.

Man, I hope the CEOs of the Big U.S. legacy carriers don't hear about that tactic. And while they run and hide in India, carriers in the European Union have a much stricter set of rules to fly under. From the BBC:

Air passengers who are unable to board their flights because of overbooking, cancellations or flight delays can now demand greater compensation. The passengers won new EU rights in February, 2007 and the new rules will apply to all scheduled and charter flights, including budget airlines. The EU decided to increase passenger compensation in a bid to deter airlines from deliberately overbooking flights. Overbooking can often lead to "bumping" - when a passenger is moved to a later flight. When this happens against a passenger's will, airlines will now have to offer compensation. If a flight is cancelled or delayed for more than two hours through the fault of the airline, all passengers must be compensated. Payments range from 200 euro (293USD) for a flight up to two hours and up to 1,500 km, to 600 euro (880USD) for a flight longer than 4 hours that was routed longer than 3,500 km.

Now THAT has teeth...the kind of teeth the airlines over here should fear. But the EU Regulation doesn't just end there:

Delays of two to four hours will require airlines to serve snacks or full meals, while delays over five hours entitle passengers to a refund and a hotel room if necessary. Refunds for round-trip flights must be offered if the journey is no longer necessary, for example if a business meeting is missed.

So let's review, shall we? In the EU, if XYZ Airlines drops the ball, delays your flight and you miss a critical business meeting, they will refund you the full round-trip fare. If you have to languish in the terminal for hours, they feed you, maybe get you a hotel room, and if in Amsterdam...oh, never mind.

But over here, if a carrier's system comes crashing down and their overbooked tubes full of people get parked on the tarmac for hours until the lavatories overflow, they offer an extra bag of stale pretzels and tell you to come back again some other time and try your luck.

Along with just about everyone else in the aviation industry, I will be watching in the coming weeks to see if either the airlines, The Decider or the FAA can do anything at all to minimize flight delays at this critical time in the travel calendar. But if the Big Airlines over-schedule, over-book and over-promise you an on-time departure, maybe the next administration in Washington might want to think about taking a cue from the Europeans on a pax bill of rights.

And if you really want the truth on what is coming at you this holiday flying season, check out NATCA's avoiddelays.com, a site I am sure the airlines would love to see go away because it offers data on how many planes are actually being delayed. For instance, the NATCA site says that on November 14, 2007, 2,011 flights were delayed according to FAA.

An unbelievable 2,011 flights delayed...in one day! Is that any way to run an airline [system]? Didn't think so.

What Took So Long
for This to Happen?

From the very first ride I took inside a CRJ, I was hooked. In those days, I flew out of Frespatch from FAT, where EMB 120 Brasilias were considered to be adaquate air transportation. So when I got a chance to travel via Regional Jet, it was definately a step WAY up from those tired old Skyworst Vibroliners.

The CRJ line has matured over the years since that first prototype flew on 10 May, 1991, and as you would expect, some of the -200 models are being "retired" from daily driving in and out of regional hubs. So it was only a matter of time before someone found a very good use for these "previously owned" birds. News out of the Dubai Air Show this week:

Project Phoenix Ltd. announced today at the Dubai Air Show, the launch of an innovative program to convert multiple Bombardier CRJ-200 regional jet aircraft from 50-seat airliner configuration to luxury VIP jets seating 12 to 19 passengers. The program has been conceived, with the assistance and support of several former senior Bombardier executives who make up Project Phoenix, to offer buyers of large executive aircraft a viable and cost-effective alternative to new business aircraft models in the 2,200 - 3,000 n.m range - for which new customers are having to wait for up to five years for a delivery slot.

The CRJ-Phoenix project just has a very good feel to it:

Project Phoenix pledges to retrofit a CRJ-200, fitting long range fuel tanks if so required, within eight months at a cost per unit $17.9 million ballpark. The program will take CRJ-200's from the secondary market and put them through a comprehensive maintenance upgrade, including an engine shop visit if required, before installing a new luxury interior and state-of-the-art in-flight entertainment system (IFE). Avionics will be added as well as an additional fuel tank to allow the CRJ-Phoenix to conduct long-range flights. The initial focus is the Middle East, Asia and European markets, with the USA to follow later.

Someone who knows this airframe well is Former President of Bombardier Business Aircraft Sales, John Lawson, who is assisting in the start-up of Project Phoenix. He recently said this: "In the mid 90s, there was a 'Special Edition' program, based on the original Canadair RJ airframe, which resulted in a very desirable business aircraft. Regrettably, it had to be shelved when demand from the airline industry soaked up all available airframes. This program brings them back to the marketplace at an exceptionally attractive price point."

You can read how to buy your own personal CRJ here, and then check out the very aggressive specifications of the CRJ-200 here.

We Won't Get
Fooled Again

I do not wake up each morning looking for ways to bang all over the guy who currently resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in WDC. My cup these days is 15/16ths full, I don't just live for Bush bashing. But then I read some hogwash like this from a widely-reported AP story, and cannot keep from going somewhat ballistic:

Ahead of the holiday travel crunch, President Bush ordered steps Thursday to reduce air traffic congestion and long delays that have left passengers stranded. The most significant change is that the Pentagon will open unused military airspace from Florida to Maine to create "a Thanksgiving express lane" for commercial airliners. It will be open next week for five days -- Wednesday through Sunday -- for the busiest days of Thanksgiving travel.

WTF? Now I may not be the expert on commercial airliner routings, but I do know that by looking over a few sectionals, the vast majority of MOAs I could find along the Eastern seaboard do not go up anywhere near the high flight levels. So with that in mind, red flags went flying, as they usually do when Bushie opens his yap. My guess was that his spinmeister du jour came up with this "military airspace" story as a way to put something out there to make Average Joe and Jane in the square states think he's actually doing something about airline delays. He must think we are all so stoopid.

To get clarification on this outlandish White House release, I contacted NATCA's Director of Communications Doug Church. I figured that if anyone knew if there actually was "unused military airspace" that we can cram more airliners into, he'd be the man. Church's response confirmed by suspicions that BushCo was all hat and no cattle on this issue. It is sad to see the White House missing the really seriously issue by a Texas mile:

"It’s PR spin, telling the public what they want to hear," said Church. "This will have no real effect whatsoever. The FAA tried this notion of increasing airspace once before, two years ago. It didn’t work. It was called Domestic Reduced Vertical Separation Minimum. And it doubled the amount of high altitude airspace that controllers could use for flights above 29,000 feet, by reducing minimum separation from 2,000 feet between planes to 1,000 feet. How did it affect delays? Well in 2007, delays were the worst on record! So clearly, airspace is not the problem."

So while BushCo wants the American people to believe it may be "Mission Accomplished" as far as airline delays are concerned, the Controller's Union knows better:

This is because there are 7.5 percent fewer veteran, fully trained controllers on board nationwide this holiday season than in 2006, handing 4 percent more traffic. If anything, delays will INCREASE. Until the FAA finds a way to keep its veteran controllers on staff to handle holiday traffic, and ALL traffic, and train new hires, the system will continue to deteriorate. We are losing an average of three controllers a day due to the current labor situation (we have no contract). In FY07, 856 retired, including half in their FIRST YEAR of retirement eligibility. They are tired, fed up and stressed out.

This administration is getting really old. Today's episode reminds me of that famous Bushism back in Nashville in 2002, spoken like only he can:

"There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."

You can watch the video clip of that one here. My point to all this is that while W and his buddies try to blow smoke across mirrors to create the illusion of trying to fix FAA's growing ATC crisis, reality always seems to bite them hard. Here is just a taste of one of NATCA's press releases today outlining how far our country's aviation agency has fallen:

FREMONT, Calif. – The continuing air traffic controller staffing crisis at Oakland Air Route Traffic Control Center (ZOA) resulted in two aircraft passing dangerously close over the skies above Northern California last Sunday afternoon. NATCA discovered today that the FAA is charging the air traffic controller with an operational error and is protesting the outrageously unsafe working conditions in which this incident occurred. The controller was being forced by the FAA to work his second overtime shift and seventh straight day of the week, a violation of federal law.

Just how close do airliners need to get before anyone in Washington actually sits NATCA and FAA down in the same room and hammers out a peace treaty? Does it really have to rain bodies over Omaha before that happens?

A New Place to
Stop for GA News

I received a tip today from a reader on a new general aviation news aggregator site that I believe shows real promise.

If you are like me and spend a good bit of time each day jammng through RSS feeds and a number of bookmarked aviation sites, then Cleared For News might just be for you:

Clearedfornews.com is a simple concept: News articles from all over the web are brought onto the site's upcoming news section where readers of the site have the opportunity to vote "up" the stories they like. The stories are found by site developer Matthew Moore, or submitted by readers and bloggers. The most popular stories "voted up" make it to the "Front Page", and on each article, you can have a discussion with other readers of the site in the forum section. And of course, you can subscribe to a feed of news in your favorite RSS reader.

Moore, a web developer who spent two years working inside the cutting edge world of Google, is assisted by two partners. He's been an aviation enthusiast since early in life when he watched his father take flying lessons in yummy S.F. Bay Area flying places like San Carlos and Palo Alto. While at "The Google", there was a healthy pilots luncheon group there, which was very cool, but Moore decided recently he really wanted to do my own thing.

From his base in Berkeley, Moore watched his love of aviation move to the next level when his dad just bought a Peterson 260SE, one of the coolest 182 conversions out there today. Just spending time around a 260 HP Skylane with a canard wing hanging off the cowling would make anyone want to launch an aviation web site, I guess.

So check out clearedfornews.com, sign up for a free account and begin voting for the stories there. That way, you can quickly go to their front page and read the top stories and blog posts out there, without all that fuss and muss of actually having to spend wasted hours finding them yourself. If you save some time each day, promise me you'll spend those precious minutes at the airport learning to fly, polishing your bird or just drinking coffee and telling hangar flying stories.

Dubai a Great
Place to Sell Airliners

This post is playing off the one directly below it, one that asks if it is all cooincidence that oil prices are through the roof while Emirates Airlines places the largest airliner order in history.

This week at the Dubai Airshow, there is just mountains of more evidence that while middle America struggles to stay afloat financially, one region of this planet is rolling in so much of our money, they can't spend it fast enough. Here are a few tastes, from ANN and MSNBC:

Boeing Company, won a $6.1 billion order for 30 of its 787 Dreamliner aircraft and five freighter 777s from Qatar Airways... who is also the largest customer for competitor Airbus SAS's A350 XWB. Qatar Airways also took an option to buy 30 more 787s, the carrier said Monday in a statement distributed at the Dubai Air Show, according to Bloomberg. Qatar Airways has 80 A350s on firm order.

Arab airlines are expected to increase their combined fleet by almost two-thirds to 900 aircraft by 2015 from 550 planes in 2006, according to the Arab Carriers Organization. Mixing competing models, as Qatar is doing, can help airlines win lower purchase prices for planes. Singapore Airlines Ltd. also has contracts to buy both 787s and A350s.

DUBAI - Gulf carriers ordered 140 planes for nearly $40 billion from both Airbus and Boeing Co. on Sunday, the opening day of the Dubai Airshow, in a boost for the global airline industry and a sign of the Middle Eastern airlines' rapid expansion. Dubai-based Emirates, Qatar Airways and Abu Dhabi-based Etihad — are key customers of both planemakers. These big orders are very important because they will not come in this size from Europe or the U.S. any time soon.

Damned straight they won't. It's because as the Middle East cashes in on BushCo's gouging of the American people, the rank and file in the U.S. struggles to pay for a cramped seat in coach to Grandma's house. Many of our big legacy carriers are barely staying out of bankruptcy court – a distinct contradiction to the massive stockpiles of cash that the UAE carriers ae enjoying.

And what would the Dubai Show be without at least one Sheik trying to out-Sheik his fellow Sheiks? From ANN:

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz Alsaud signed a firm order with Airbus for an A380 Flying Palace, becoming the first customer for the VIP version of the new double-deck superjumbo. With a pricetag of $320 million -- before cabin outfitting -- the Flying Palace offers nearly 6,000-square feet of cabin space. The aircraft will require a flight crew of about 15 to operate. The prince is the world's 13th wealthiest individual, and his current aerial chariot is a 747-400, the only such aircraft in private hands.

That about does it here. I am off to work, because I have to fill the tank in my car today. And as I wrote this, gas prices rose another .20 cents at the pump. I guess this is all just fine for The Decider, he likes them high oil prices just fine. But if the cowboy hat makers of the world get together and collectively raise the price of cowboy hats, watch how fast Bushie runs to the Justice Department to initiate hearings into price fixing.

Pathetic.

A Coincidence?

Our lackluster attitudes towards unbelievably high gas prices seems to suggest the American people are perfectly fine with $5 a gallon car gas and $7 a gallon AvGas and Jet A. And if Big Oil continues their unchecked plundering of our economy, that is precisely what we'll get.

Around the world, we are at "war" with some parts of the Middle East, while other parts of that region languish in mountains of cash as high as an A380's lavatory. If you are sick of this, you are not alone. There are finally a few rumblings saying a probe to determine the cause of this is long overdue. From consumeraffairs.com:

Record profits that major oil companies reported recently are prompting demands from politicians in both parties for an investigation into consumer gouging as gasoline prices spiked after the Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. ExxonMobil Corp. reported $10 billion in net income in the third quarter, the largest ever by a U.S. energy company. ExxonMobil's earnings announcement that profits rose 75 percent from last year followed a BP announcement of $6.5 billion in profits, up 34 percent and ConocoPhillips reporting its income grew to $3.8 billion, up 89 percent.

Shortly after the Exxon Mobil announcement, while he was standing on the floor of the New York Stock Exhange, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) called for congressional hearings and investigation into oil company profiteering. "If there are those who abuse the free enterprise system to advantage themselves and their businesses at the expense of all Americans, they ought to be exposed, and they ought to be ashamed," Frist said.

With Bloomberg.com keeping watch daily, a barrel of dead dinosaurs is now hovering dangerously close to $100 a barrel. And while American soccer moms are forced to choose between buying their kids food or filling the family minivan, Emirates Airlines – flying from a country flush with oil profits and cash – is going on a spending spree, according to ANN:

Emirates announced on November 11, that it has agreed to spend $34.9 billion on new aircraft. These orders with Airbus and Boeing are the largest-ever aircraft commitment in civil aviation made by any airline in a single order. The deal was announced at the Dubai Airshow and includes 120 Airbus A350s, 11 A380s, and 12 Boeing 777-300Ers. Emirates also firmed up orders on the eight A380s which it signed letters of intent for earlier this year, and placed firm orders for an additional three of the double-decker aircraft, bringing its total firm order for the A380s to 58.

Since 2003 when BushCo choose to invade Iraq, Dubai is rolling in cash, at about the same exact time oil prices go off the freakin' charts. According to the following quote from the ANN story, some in Dubai's airline industry want us really to believe they never saw this flood of cash coming. Uh. Huh.:

"In 2003, our plan was for Emirates to have 100 aircraft by 2010. We have already surpassed that target," said HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, Emirates' Chairman and Chief Executive. "Growth and demand has exceeded the most optimistic projections."

As per usual, this garbage reaks. As if on script, you can expect the price of oil to continually rise as we approach the end of Bush's term. And if [when] he and his GOP cronies lose their death grip on America's middle class, the incoming crew might actually do something about suspiciously high gas prices. If that happens, expect these record airliner orders from the likes of Emirates to go away.

43 Years of Progress?

My favorite aviation magazine – AOPA Pilot – is running a story in their current issue highlighting the best entry-level four-seaters on the market. In this detailed article are segments on the Cirrus SR20 SRV-G2, Diamond DA40-FP, Cessna Skyhawk 172 and Piper Archer III. All are very nice planes, with the minimum "off the showroom floor" price at $199,990 for the SR20 SRV-G2.

As I read this story, two facts emerged: (1) Just south of $200 grand is now the minimum buy-in to own some of the more popular four-seat airplanes available today, and (2) None of the four will out perform my 1964 Cherokee 235, the 28th one of that model ever built.

Now before you go off and swear at me for bragging about my new baby, remember that numbers do not lie. And you can forget about reminding me that all four of the planes in the AOPA Pilot article are brand new beauties with lavish interiors and perfect fit and finish. This post is not about ramp appeal, for if it was, my 235 would not make the semi-finals compared to a pretty new Cirrus. No, this post is about how well one of those planes compares to my 235 when asked to perform its No. 1 function of hauling humans from A to B.

When you look at a modern day Piper Archer III, the heritage back to the original Cherokee line cannot be ignored. Yes, the wing looks different, but from 100 feet away, most pilots who do not know the history of the Cherokee line might not be able to tell a 1970's-era Dakota with a new paint job from a 2007 Archer. So let's line up my 43-year-young 235B and a modern Archer III, and see how they compare:

Speed and Fuel:
Both airplanes have Lycomings, with the O-540-B4B5 in my plane cranking out 55 more ponies then the 180-hp Lycoming O-360-A4M in the Archer III. And of course, you might shout that those 55 ponies are guzzling lots more gas, but you'd be wrong. I'm averaging about 11.5 GPH fuel burn to achieve 130 KTAS, and AOPA Pilot says that 75 percent power at 7,900 feet will get you 128 KTAS in the Archer...but you'll shove 13.5 gallons of dead dinosaurs through the Lyc to earn those numbers.

Useful Load:
The Archer has a full fuel payload of just 590 pounds, compared to the 915 pounds for my 235. Yes, you read that right...I can haul FOUR 200 pound dudes and 115 pound of their stuff off the runway – legally – in 1,040 feet over a 50' obstacle. But after filling the tanks in the Archer III, one of those 200 pound dudes and ALL the gear remains on the tarmac, so the plane can take to the sky...using 1,608 feet to clear that mythical obstacle that stands in our way off the end of every runway in the land.

Range:
I can cram those four 200-pounders in each of my seats, top off my four tanks, and cruise somewhere in the neighborhood of 765 nm (...with reserves), 321 nm farther then the Archer III's 444 nm. At 12 GPH, I can easily cruise for six hours and leave a hour in the tanks, double what a modern day version of bascially the same plane can do...with the Archer III's endurance at 75 percent power shown at three hours in the AOPA article.

I am continually unimpressed with the useful load of today's four-seat GA flying machines. Yes, they are slick, yes they are fast, and yes they have killer avionics. But when you boil down those "on paper" performance numbers, many times they are attained at the expense of carrying actual people in those four seats.

And one last note. At $199,000 for the cheapest plane described in the AOPA article, I saved over $130,000 and have a bird that will out-perform anything on that list. When the GA manufacturers of today come up with a four-seater with enough full-fuel payload to carry as much as a 1964 Cherokee 235, and sell it at a price under $100,000, now THAT will be progress.

Moving Forward
from the Dark Ages

This week I took ownership of a brand new cell phone. That is not news, the things are now so cheap, even the good ones are free if you re-up for two more years of service.

I had put off trading in my "brick" for a schmancy new camera phone, because (a) I usually travel with a bag full of real digital cameras and saw no need to shoot itsy-bitsy little JPEGs in resolution so small they fit on, well, a CELL PHONE SCREEN...and (2) I do not text message or access any of the Internets on my phone, so I saw no need to get a phone with those capabilities.

But these days, any phone is a camera phone, so I got one anyway. The phone I picked was a Samsung sch-u740 dual flip phone, one that you can open in landscape mode and access a small but functional QWERTY keyboard. If you do not know what that means, ask a 12-year-old. But the main reason I picked this phone was so I could try out Digital Cyclone's Pilot My-Cast by Garmin, a $9.95/month service that delivers actual real-time aviation weather to the palm of your hand.

So for the past few days, I have been test driving the Pilot My-cast service, and for the most part I am pleased. Here is a capsule summary of what this pretty cool system can do, from their site:

With Pilot My-Cast® by Garmin, critical aviation weather intelligence and flight planning is literally in the palm of your hand. You can check current and predicted NWS data at your departure airport, your destination, or at any terminal waypoint in the continental United States. Then, using DUAT(S), you can file a flight plan right from your cell phone. Pilot My-Cast makes it easy to page through surface meteorological reports, terminal forecasts, observations and advisories – instantly as they become available.

The My-Cast site says this system was "developed by pilots, and it shows." That is a true statement, when you read the partial list of what kind of data can be retrieved out of thin air for just ten bucks a month:

• Animated Nexrad Doppler® color radar
• Coded and decoded TAFs - 24-hour forecast
• Satellite loops to track cloud cover
•1 km visible satellite imagery during the day
• Easy flight plan filing via DUAT(S)
• METARs and TAFs in text and graphic formats
• Current visibility, altimeter and wind data
• SIGMETs, AIRMETs and PIREPs
• Winds aloft
• Lightning strike data

Adding Pilot My-Cast to your existing wireless service is simple. The service is compatible with most Java™ and Get-It-Now/BREW-enabled mobile phones, and is supported by all major providers, including Alltel, AT&T, Midwest Wireless, Nextel, Sprint, SouthernLINC, and Verizon. Information on the service can be found here.

Now, the meat and potatoes of this post...how does it work? Well, in about five days of testing, I can say that the text data is spot on, instantly available as fast as it is on the WWW. But I have found the graphics screens to be cumbersome and hard to get used to. For instance, tonight I ran a query for a flight from EUG to FAT, in Central California, with a waypoint as SAC VOR. The system quickly delivered the text data with amazing accuracy, but when I tried to view the many weather maps, I could not scroll past about Modesto, no matter what buttons I pushed on the phone, Frustrated, I just went to the textual METARS which told me what I was looking for.

On another query, out the window, the Southern Willamette Valley was less then 1/4 mile and fog. The system's METAR for EUG showed the ceiling and visibility accurately, but listed the flight conditions as VFR. Huh? And then about an hour later, the conditions were correctly listed as LIFR, but on the next try, it was back to VFR. Phone calls and emails to their support lines have proven a waste of time as of yet to solve that riddle. But when I went to the WX Briefing section and grabbed the textual METAR, it was perfectly accurate.

I will continue to road test this service for a couple of months, and see how handy it is as I travel in the 235. I do know that logging on and grabbing a quick METAR is a 30-second procedure that could not be any easier, and I find myself pulling out the phone just to check EUG several times a day. You know us pilots, we just HAVE to know the conditions at our home patch...it can be almost addicting.

So far, it is a great tool which I feel is best used with text only...for me. The next time a big bad front moves through I will test their animated NEXRAD radar, which looks to work fine. Now I must...go ....and ..... check...... weather .....again.... must...... push...... buttons..... need...... data......now.....

Quag.
Mire.

Recently, I ran a couple of posts trying to sort out the mess swirling around the B-25 "Heavenly Body" at Van Nuys Airport. But despite receiving a ream or so of documentation from all involved, I am no closer to finding common ground then the people and organizations involved in this long-standing fued. If you don't have time to read a million words of back story, just think Hatfields versus McCoys, with wings.

One of the people on the crew of the B-25 based at VNY has sent me enough data to keep my team of fact checkers (yeah, right) busy until next summer. But since there is only one of me, I decided to just present a few highlights from a letter received here from the folks at b25.net, the home site for the bomber. After reading this letter I posted sent to me by the Van Nuys Airport Public & Community Relations Department, the B-25 crew was more then fired up to respond. Here are a few pull quotes from their letter:

Thank you for contacting the crew of Heavenly Body, the WWII B-25j Mitchell Bomber, stationed at Van Nuys Airport. We appreciate the opportunity to respond to your recent blog regarding the unfortunate situation between VNY and our aircraft. We have been aware of the impending changes [at VNY] and have been trying to work out these issues with VNY for five years. We'd like to broach their simplified view of our options in terms of preserving a suitable home for our historic and iconic B-25j Mitchell Bomber, Heavenly Body.

Regarding their option for us to relocate our aircraft to another hangar facility at VNY: The reason is that alternative hangar facilities are priced upwards of $5000 per month. Our current rent is $900 per month. This rent increase is not feasible, as our B-25 does not make a profit. In regards to their second option of relocating our aircraft to a hangar facility at an alternative airport: The reality is that other local airports cannot properly accommodate Heavenly Body, due to shorter runways and unavailability of space. Also, the nearest airport that could house her properly is over 60 miles away, and therefore is a major problem for our crew of 20 volunteers, who maintain the aircraft on a regular basis. And concerning their third option of relocating Heavenly Body to an open air tie-down area at VNY or another local airport: Again, there are no other local airports that can handle this aircraft, and an open air tie-down is a slow death for a plane. The sun is devastating for any aircraft, especially a classic bomber with turrets.

Now let’s clarify the entire issue: At this point in time, the leaseholder of the bomber's current home has given us notice to vacate the hangar. He has arranged to lease seven acres behind Synchro Aviation for his current propeller plane tenants. This group did not include the B-25 but we are now trying to arrange a temporary tie-down there. We have not yet received an answer as to how much this tie-down would cost in rent and how long we would be stuck there.

If you think that $900 in rent buys the B-25 gang a palace, think again. Here's what reality looks like in the world of "Heavenly Body", again, quoting their crew:

The reason that our current rent is considered low is because our hangar is open and there is no security. There is very little light or power and no plumbing - it is bare bones and is solely a roof over our heads. And that roof leaks, so when it rains, our hangar is affectionately referred to as “Lake Van Nuys.” The 10,000 square foot hangar is actually divided among various tenants, and our $900 per month pays for a portion of the hangar, not the entire space.

And for fans of the Mitchell who want to see it stay at VNY, don't blame the bomber's crew if it ends up moving off the field. Again, from their letter to this blog:

We have been extremely proactive in trying to find a suitable hangar for Heavenly Body, tirelessly corresponding with the Airport Operations Superintendent, the Property Manager, and leaseholders. A letter from VNY Airport dated August 9, 2007 offers an alternative hangar at VNY for $4,493 per month through a leaseholder on the airport. LAWA has since suggested a few other leaseholders at VNY said they were interested in helping us but when we contacted them, we found that their minimum rates were in excess of $5000 per month.

And lastly, what about the old ANG base at VNY for a possible new home for the B-25? The bomber crew's letter aims to clear that up too:

We have continuously presented the idea of occupying the General Services Hangar, which is one three hangars left on the Air National Guard site, and we are open to paying a reasonable monthly rent for it, but LAWA insists that due to hazardous materials therein, these hangars must be destroyed. We have two environmental reports produced by an independent firm, which were assessments of the “contamination” in these hangars, one produced in 2002 and another in 2005. These reports give the option of abatement/clean-up; they do not however say that the hangars must be demolished. We have discussed these findings with LAWA but they are not interested.

Like I said at the outset...quag-freaking-mire. One thing that anyone reading this blog can do to help the B-25 crew navigate their endless bureaucratic maze is to go here and sign the online petition. I have already done so...have you? If you value the worth of these old warbirds - especially the really big honking ones like Heavenly Body, you have no room to bitch if you do not sign their petition and the bomber gets the boot from VNY.

Like A Phoenix,
it Rises Once Again

There have been so many versions of the venerable Grumman Tiger family of really awesome aircraft, only those few who live among the community called the Grumman Gang may be able to recite the lineage from memory.

I have always been a Tiger fan ever since my good friend, the late Lee Hansen and his wonderful wife Valli took me up in their plane. As most first-time Tiger passengers are, I was blown away by that fighter jet canopy, the sports car handling, and the efficient performance.

So much so that in my recent quest to buy a plane, I seriously considered a Tiger. They make great sense on paper, they look great, and are a steal for the money. But what steered me away was that the make/model was for all intents and purposes...dead. Last time I checked, someone was making them somewhere down south. That was, until their funding went south too, and once again, the production lines that cranked out the popular AG5B Tiger went dark.

I was concerned that parts availability might be an issue down the road if the line did in fact die for good. If you could buy a new canopy, would it cost you the farm if the Tiger was considered a cult plane with a limited following?

Well...that was then and this is now:

True Flight Aerospace has selected Valdosta, GA as the site for it's new 60,000 square foot manufacturing plant. For the past several months leaders at True Flight Aerospace, LLC the manufacturing arm of True Flight Holdings, LLC have been quietly visiting sites all over the southeast. True Flight Aerospace, LLC will build the popular AG5B Tiger commonly known as a Grumman Tiger. Plans include several option levels ranging from a basic VFR aircraft all the way up to the Garmin G-1000 electronic flight deck.

Whoa, baby, did they say a Tiger with a G-1000 glass cockpit? I really REALLY like the sound of that. If that was every available before, I have never known about it. Even if it WAS available by one of the many companies who built the Tiger in the past, they are all history now. What matters is that True Flight is setting up shop and WILL soon again crank out glass Tigers:

Unlike starting from scratch, we already know the FAA approved procedures and systems required to build the Tiger. With a core of experienced Tiger builders from the former operation we will train a new local team of up to 150 people much in the way a franchise start up is conducted. The Tiger is such a great airframe that we don't have to reinvent the wheel.

This is the start of something big. If there ever was a make/model that deserves resurrection, it is the Tiger. And if there ever was a reason for the general aviation market to go bonkers over a shiny new airplane, this is it.

Bailing Controllers Means
Santa Should Take the Bus

The latest out of NATCA HQ this week shows more bad news in Air Traffic Controllerland, and all the red flags they are hoisting are screaming for you to possible think about finding an alternate means of transportation to Grandma's house this Christmas season:

WASHINGTON – As the government releases September flight delay statistics, air traffic controllers today are looking ahead and warning that the upcoming holiday travel season is likely to be plagued by delay problems because there will be 7.5 percent fewer fully trained controllers working than last year. Additionally, imposed work rules by the Federal Aviation Administration are forcing an average of three veteran controllers a day – with a minimum of 60 years of combined experience – to leave the workforce.

If ATC were a dike, the lowlands would be 20 feet deep in water - that's how many holes there are in the controller workforce. And according to NATCA's Doug Church, there may be only one way to stop the bleeding:

Unless Congress acts quickly to send NATCA and the FAA back to the table to finish work on a new collective bargaining agreement, this will be the second straight holiday travel season that controllers will be suffering under imposed work rules that have worsened an already critical staffing shortage nationwide. More than 1,500 experienced controllers and trainees left the workforce in fiscal year 2007. Of the 856 who retired, 404 did so in their first year of eligibility, doubling the previous two years’ total as a percentage of those eligible to retire and smashing the FAA projection of 150.

And while I love to bring you weekly news of the NATCA staffing crisis, there are certainly plenty of growing concern outside of the ATC community:

Last week, former National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Jim Hall testified to the House Science Committee that, “we are currently in the middle of an air traffic controller staffing crisis. Fueled in part by the lack of a contract, this crisis has industry-wide consequences including: more and longer flight delays, combined radar and tower control positions, and an increased use of mandatory overtime resulting in an exhausted, stressed out, and burned out workforce.”

Congress needs to force FAA and NATCA to kiss and make up, and the House version of the FAA reauthorization bill (H.R.2881) makes that happen:

“We continue to impress upon Congress the urgency in passing legislation that resolves our contract issues with the FAA before the end of this calendar year,” said NATCA President Patrick Forrey, who noted that the House in September passed an FAA reauthorization bill that would send NATCA and the FAA back to contract negotiations, but the Senate has not yet acted on its FAA reauthorization bill. “Without a resolution to our issues, an already critical staffing shortage will become an emergency staffing shortage, increasing delays and impacting the safety of the National Airspace System.”

Of course, all the pilots in the Red States who still have those tired "W04" stickers on the back of their monster trucks can feel proud of their Decider, who has vowed to veto any legislation such as H.R.2881. Because in W's delusional world, forcing FAA and NATCA to fix the biggest problem facing the U.S. aviation industry is far less important then making sure a Senate bill passes that gives his airline CEO cronies a fat tax break.

Mnemonics are
A Pilot's Best Fried

If you've ever taken primary flight lessons, you know them, those funny memory aids we all know and use. I personally can't shut down my 235 without mentally going over the REMMM checklist taught to me by my first CFI back in 1996. Sure, if I just begin shutting things off, I will eventually get the radios, electricals, mixture, mags and master in the right positions to make the big spinning metal thing out front stop attacking the wind.

So in the interest of eating up some valuable bytes out in cyberspace, here are some actual mnemonics that I found lurking out there on the Internets:

First there are two old standbys: CIGAR – which helps lots of us remember Controls check, Instruments set, Gas (proper tank, pump on, etc), Attitude (flaps, trim, etc.) and Run-up. And who can fly a retractable without GUMPS – Gas, Undercarriage (landing gear down), Mixture set, Prop set and Switches (lights, pitot heat, etc.).

Everyone knows CIGAR and GUMPS, but do you know anyone who flies with these two obscure ones:

If IFR and nearing your destination, try WIRETAP – Weather, Instruments set, Radios tuned, Elevation (check final approach fix altitude), Talk to ATC, Altitudes (for decision height) and Procedure (for missed approach). And once you land safely, don't forget MIDGET – Master off, Ignition off, Doors/windows locked, Gust lock installed, ELT off, Tiedown plane.

Now if you want to test that gray matter between your ears, try remembering this one...not sure what phase of flight it is for, maybe lunch:

TOMATO FLAMES – Tachometer, Oil pressure, Manifold pressure, Altimeter, Temperature sensor (liquid-cooled), Oil temperature (air cooled), Fuel gauge, Landing gear position, Airspeed indicator, Magnetic compass, ELT, Seat belts.

And of course, some bored line pilots have made up their own mnemonics for certain hubs they see frequently (along with a couple from my own dangerously warped mind:

LGA – Late Guaranteed Always
ORD – O'Hare's Ridiculously Delayed
IAD – I Always Divert
LAX – Large Aircraft eXcitement
SFO – Super Foggy Oxygen
FAT – Fresno's Always Tacky
DFW – Damned Fine Wiki-Wiki
EUG – Everything's Unbelievably Green
SEA – Starbucks Every Avenue
OSH – Oshkosh Seems Heavenly

That's all for tonight, now it's time to go run my personal bedtime checklist. It involves a toothbrush, a toilet, and...oh, never mind.

More on the VNY story

Last night I sent out requests all over the place asking for an official response to the story about the B-25 "Heavenly Body" being evicted from Van Nuys Airport. These requests bore fruit today when I received an email for publication from Richard French of Van Nuys Airport Public & Community Relations.

What follows below is a verbatim response from LAWA via French's email:

LAWA/airport management has no plans to ask any owners of propeller aircraft, including the B-25, to remove their aircraft from the airport. These aircraft merely have to be moved around or relocated on airport property to accommodate various leasehold and property improvements that are on the horizon.

He also sent me this background document for publication on the B-25 relocation issue:

RELOCATION OF B-25 BOMBER
AT VAN NUYS AIRPORT

Due to an upcoming redevelopment project by a Van Nuys Airport (VNY) tenant, the historic B-25J Mitchell Bomber “Heavenly Body” will be displaced from its current hangar location at VNY. It is a condition of the redevelopment project that the tenant help coordinate moving the B-25 to an interim airport location pending completion of the VNY Propeller Park project as a possible permanent home for the aircraft. The Propeller Park is a 30-acre site that was formerly occupied by the Air National Guard and will be developed into an aviation center and area dedicated to propeller aircraft.

The B-25 has been based at VNY for over three decades and enjoyed a beneficially low lease rate established with a VNY tenant. VNY leases parcels of land to tenants with multiple aircraft; it does not lease to individual aircraft owners. The aircraft is currently housed in a hangar of approximately 10,000 square feet. This hangar is not easily portable and is scheduled for demolition. The aircraft owner also stores a vintage half-track, jeep, tug and other items in the hangar. According to the tenant’s lease terms, the owner is required to pay the City of Los Angeles a cost equal to fair market value of the improvements prior to demolition.

The aircraft owner has several options from which to choose: 1) relocate the aircraft to another hangar facility at VNY; 2) relocate the aircraft to a hangar facility at another local airport; and 3) relocate the aircraft to an open air tie-down area at VNY or another local airport. As with all other aircraft owners at VNY, the owner of the B-25 must negotiate the terms of a lease with a tenant.

Los Angeles World Airports is committed to preserving historic aircraft at VNY. While VNY has no direct control over the rental rates set by master leaseholders for individual subtenants, staff is calling upon the airport community to help determine all feasible options for the aircraft to be successfully relocated at VNY. Airport staff has worked diligently to research available hangars, rates and comparable facilities at VNY and other local airports with the purpose of relocating the aircraft temporarily while work continues with development of the future VNY Propeller Park.

Again, this is all presented without editing, verbatim as I received it. Since I am coming late to this party, I am not going to take sides or comment – yet – on what this all means. I hope to have the "official" response from the B-25 guys shortly to get the other side of this story.

What is Going
on at VNY?

My inbox exploded Wednesday night with news suggesting that Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) are forcing rent increases at Van Nuys Airport that only corporate jet operators will be able to afford. And one of the tenants that may be shown the door is one we all know and love:

The historic WWII North American Aviation B-25J Mitchell Bomber "Heavenly Body" faces eviction from the Van Nuys Airport (VNY) in Van Nuys, California as well as the smaller propeller-driven, general aviation aircraft based at VNY, which LAWA controls. "Heavenly Body" has been at VNY since 1972. During the last 35 years, "Heavenly Body" has not only developed into a recognized historical icon at the various air shows and events it travels to throughout the year, but has also evolved as a classroom to connect present generations to our common history of this country's past. It is of value to the community, and VNY is its home.

The pull quote above comes from an online petition that is being circulated called the 'Saving Resident Propeller Airplanes and the B-25J WWII Bomber Heavenly Body of the Van Nuys Airport, CA' Petition, created and written by Douglas Aiken of b25.net.

I have some inquiries out to find out more about this "eviction", and precisely what airplanes are being forced out. LAWA has scheduled a "Public Scoping Meeting Regarding Proposed Phaseout of Noisier Aircraft" to discuss their Focused Environmental Impact Report (EIR) that the airport is preparing for the proposed noisier aircraft phaseout ordinance at VNY. That meeting is set for Thursday, November 15, between 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. at the Airtel Plaza Hotel, 7277 Valjean Avenue, Van Nuys, California 91406 in the Gulfstream Ballroom.

The red bolded words above really scream out to me. If LAWA is trying to curb "noisier" aircraft, why not send all the bizjets off the field? I'd love to see decibel readings showing a B-25 is louder then just about any bizjet. And if this petition is correct that we need to save resident propeller airplanes at VNY, does that mean every Skyhawk and Cherokee is gone too?

I just recently picked up my new (to me) Cherokee 235 at Van Nuys in early October. The previous owner's A & P, Lance Yomtob, preformed my annual inspection not only in the same hangar as Heavenly Body, but literally under the B-25's nose! I am not kidding...we stood there watching Lance, looking directly up at the bullets in the nose gunner's turret an arm's length above our heads.

Back in the early 90's, I was in Fresno when KMJ radio personality Ray Appleton and a bunch of his buddies organized a flight of several B-25s around California. They simulated a close proximity takeoff similar to what might have happened on the USS Hornet back when General Doolittle flew the bomber. It was great to honor such a beloved aircraft, and it will be sad if Heavenly Body is chased off VNY.

And it's not like VNY is just some boring little patch at the edge of town either. Here is some info from a LAWA release:

The world's busiest general aviation airport, VNY serves as a valued San Fernando Valley resource, providing ongoing leadership in general aviation, business and community service. Dedicated to noncommercial air travel, VNY averages more than 400,000 takeoffs and landings annually. More than 100 businesses are located on the 730-acre airport, including six major fixed-base operators and numerous aviation service companies. Annually, the airport contributes approximately $1.3 billion to the Southern California economy and supports over 12,000 jobs.

Folks, this is the BUSIEST GA AIRPORT IN THE WORLD! If anyone – ANYONE – wants to kick prop-driven airplanes off VNY, I think they are seriously underestimating the power of AOPA and the GA community. That concept is so far out there, I must be missing some big part of this story. Not sure what just yet, but I'm going to keep digging.