Terrafugia's Dietrich Answers Questions You Have Been Asking

[Editor's note: As the Transition gets ever closer to a test flight, expect this topic to stay very bright on my radar screen - dan]

Tonight I stumbled upon an absolutely essential interview on xconomy.com with Carl Dietrich, Terrafugia’s CEO and co-founder. I say "essential" if you are a fan of the Transition roadable airplane project, because it is the first time I have found clear, detailed answers to many of the questions that people ask about the Transition.

The site that published the interview first published a story about the Transition on their site, and that story turned up on Slashdot, which prompted a flood of "comments" from readers who may or MAY NOT fully understand the realities of the Transition. Here is what xconomy.com had to say:

"We were a bit surprised by the comments that readers left here and at Slashdot—the majority of which were critical, even dismissive, of Terrafugia’s concept as a viable business proposition. Given that “flying cars” have been fodder for sci-fi movies, cartoons, and Popular Mechanics covers since the 1930s, it’s understandable that some people feel jaded about the latest promises for airplane-automobile hybrids. But whether or not you’re personally interested in traveling in an airplane with folding wings that doubles as a road-worthy automobile, quite a few private pilots are—as the three-year waiting list for a Transition demonstrates."

So xconomy.com "boiled down the hundreds of comments to a dozen basic criticisms" and then asked Terrafugia's Dietrich to enlighten the public with answers. And in a way only an Aerospace Engineer from MIT could do, his answers were about as clear-cut and perfectly worded as you could expect. Because xconomy.com did such a good job on this interview, I will not steal any thunder by re-publishing Dietrich's answers, but instead fuel your curiosity with some of their questions:

"Xconomy: The first and most repeated criticism of Terrafugia’s work that we heard from readers last week went like this: “Just look how many bad drivers there are on the roads. Being a pilot takes much more skill than driving. So just imagine the havoc if lots of drivers had flying cars.”

"X: The Transition will be so light and will have such a large side-facing surface area that crosswinds will blow it off the road. If you take it across the Mackinac Bridge, [are] you’re going to end up in Lake Michigan."

"X: Anything that has to pass highway safety tests will be way too heavy to fly, and anything that is light enough to fly will be incapable of surviving a roadway crash."

"X: Others have tried to build flying cars or roadable aircraft, and they have always failed. What makes this attempt any different?"

You can see that this interviewer pulled no punches. And I did not even show you the real zinger questions. What is amazing is that each time, Dietrich handled the questions with what sounds like 'Barack Obama' cool, layering his answers using skills that surely have been honed in the debate halls of one of this country's finest universities.

So if you care even a tiny bit about Terrafugia's Transition, go here and read the full interview.

Seriously Lost
in Translation

One of the functions of 'The Google' is their Alerts, a very effective way to stay up on any topic or person in real-time.

For instance, I have an "alert" set up for keywords like "Terrafugia" and when someone mentions the company that is about to test fly their very cool Transition roadable airplane, I know about it instantly. Google's Alerts can be configured to scour web pages, blogs, news sources, Google videos and groups, and when their system picks up that keyword, it shoots you an email with a direct link to the story, blog post or video.

So as a HUGE Transition fan, I was naturally excited tonight when I saw this Google Alert come into my inbox:

Google News Alert for: Terrafugia

Primer vehículo volador del mundo Exclusiva
(Centro de Información por Internet de China - China)

Say what? A news story about the Transition...in Spanish...from a CHINESE news source? Well, as a fan of Jay Leno's "Headlines" bit where he regularly features crazy Chinese translations chopped into pathetic English, I asked myself what could possibly go wrong if a Chinese news site translates an English press release into Spanish.

The answer - while not at all surprising - is completely hilarious. The pull quotes below are taken verbatim from this site, and then translated back into English:

"A called company Terrafugia, with seat in the city of Worboun de Massachussets, the United States, recently began to accept orders. According to its plan, the first “flying car” of the world invented by her will leave year 2009 on sale. The flying car, denominated “Transition” and to a price of 127 pounds sterling (approximately 190,000 dollars), will be given to the buyer in second half of the coming year."

O.K., a few chopped up English sentences there. Oh, it gets funnier:

"This vehicle is in fact a light sport airplane of terrestrial-aerial use. Its fuselage measures 5.8 meters and their spread, 8.4 meters. Before taking off it needs to cross a distance in the track. Km/hora can fly at a speed of 185 and reach to the maximum to 741 kilometers without scale. After being folded its wings vertically to both sides of the body, the vehicle becomes a car able to cross in the highway."

Jeez Louise, sure glad they didn't try and talk about the power train...oh but wait...they did:

"This car utilizes a motor one Rotax 912S of four times, with a power of 73.5 kilowatts. It employs the unleaded gasoline and can charge fuel in any common gas station. The spokesman of the business exposes that the "Transition" he can be stationed generally in the conventional garage of house. The conductor can achieve, by means of a series of simple instructions, the free change between airplane and car, to stopping suffering the climatic restrictions. Nevertheless, only the possessors of the license of aviation are authorized to introduce the codes for extend the wings."

Now I understand that worldwide coverage of your product can't hurt, but it is nearly impossible to run the English language through a Chinese wordmill and have come out readable. But when you then take that gibberish and again run it through a Spanish Wordchopper 2000, and then back to English, it creates a train wreck of our language that would be sad if it weren't so funny.

Space Shuttle
Fans Need to
See 'The Big Picture'

Today I stumbled upon The Big Picture, a "photo blog" from the Boston Globe/boston.com posted every Monday, Wednesday and Friday by Alan Taylor. I had never see this wonderful site until today, but man-oh-man am I glad I found it.

What happens is this: Taylor watches the imagery that hits their newsroom via the wire services, and then puts together photo essays on topics that are in the news. The Big Picture site explains it like this:

"Inspired by publications like Life Magazine (of old), National Geographic, and online experiences like MSNBC.com's Picture Stories galleries and Brian Storm's MediaStorm, The Big Picture is intended to highlight high-quality, amazing imagery - with a focus on current events, lesser-known stories and, well, just about anything that comes across the wire that looks really interesting."

One of the topics that Taylor chose to spotlight recently focused on the space shuttle Endeavor, and this post is a MUST SEE for anyone who even remotely likes the space shuttle program. Here's what Taylor came up with:

"NASA's space shuttle Endeavour recently returned to the Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF) at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, after its successful mission to the International Space Station. The shuttle, being a reusable spacecraft, has a cycle of preparation, execution and recovery - Endeavour has been through this cycle 22 times now, since 1992. Here is a look at one full cycle for one space shuttle, starting with the landing of Endeavour from its previous mission (STS-123) on March 26th, and ending with its return to Florida 9 months (and 6.6 million miles) later, after mission STS-126."

So please block out some quality time for yourself and go HERE to see these stunning images. It is literally like going backstage...there are pictures here we normally don't see. Sure, hardcore NASA enthusiasts have seen all of these at one time or another, but us mere mortals do not get the chance to see such a great collection of shuttle photos in one stop.

Hat tip to Gizmodo for the original post that aimed me at The Big Picture.

There is also another very cool "Big Picture" post on the International Space Station found here.

To Live Blog,
or Not to Live Blog, That is
the Question

My regular readers know that I have already bought tickets, secured a dorm room and nailed down a car rental for a trip back to Airplane Wonderland – aka Oshkosh – next summer. And now that the deal is done, my mind has been in overdrive thinking about how best to optimize the trip for maximum pleasure on both a personal as well as a professional level.

One of the ideas I had was to maybe "live blog" from the show on one of my two days back there. If you are not up to speed on live blogging, it is really nothing like this kind of blogging:

We've all seen that long line of satellite trucks surrounding Paris Hilton's house any time her little doggie takes a dump on the front lawn. It somehow becomes breaking news, with these mega-million dollar rigs beaming the signal across space as a pretty bubblehead reports the details "live, on the scene". But if you want to sit on the bumper of one of these expensive rigs with a laptop, Internet access, a cheap video camera and a free CoveritLive.com account, you too can "live blog" every detail of the Chihuahua's excrement episode, at no extra cost beside the equipment.

You can instantly be an on-the-scene reporter with a CoveritLive account and Internet access. I found this amazing web 2.0 application last night while trying to locate some way to easily provide my readers with a continuous spew of my warped words and wisdom LIVE from deep in the heart of Cheese Country, USA.

When I stumble across a browser-based app that works as well as this one does, it still baffles me that it is free. But it is – for now – so let's take a look at CoveritLive...the following is from a reply I received today from a very competent Customer Service person there:

"CoveritLive has been used around the world by thousands of writers to an audience of millions of readers, since it was introduced in late 2007. We fundamentally believe that the needs of a niche blogger and a major news organization are the same: engaging your readers for long periods of time is a good thing. CiL is an enterprise-class software application that can handle hundreds of thousands of simultaneous readers (whether you need it or not)."

This web-based app is being widely used by a number of heavy hitters in the world of U.S. Newspapers, including the Houston Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, Seattle Intelligencer, USA Today, Dallas Morning News, Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe and the Philadelphia Enquirer. CoveritLive brings a new sense of energy to augment their printed page, but even networks like Yahoo Sports, Fox Sports USA and MSNBC.com use CoveritLive.

So I need feedback from my readers: If I were to spend one of my two days at EAA Airventure 2009 wandering, gawking, shooting photos [and maybe video] and then uploading it with my commentary – all in real-time – via my free CoveritLive account would you tune in to the pre-scheduled broadcast?

Please click the "send me feedback" button at right and email me your ideas on what you'd like to see in a live blog from Oshkosh. I am still trying to figure out what ad agency commitments I will have, and also what meetings I might take to promote my screenplay project, Three-Eight Charlie. But with two days at the show, I feel confident I can spend one day "working" and one day playing. And if I choose to spend my one play day live blogging, I have fun and you win.

Your thoughts, please...

This IS Your Future

Out there across America are people who think the commercial space travel industry is a myth. They say it will never come, that the public will never pay serious dough to be blasted into space. They question the purpose of public space travel, as if it will be nothing but "space tourists" out for expensive joy rides.

These people were not in the lecture hall on the University of Oregon campus a couple of years ago when Burt Rutan explained just what "commercial space travel" might really be about. He and a team of seriously motivated engineers had just claimed the ten million dollar Ansari X-Prize, so their street cred on the subject was undeniable. Rutan explained it this way, and I paraphrase:

"...Commercial space vehicles carrying passengers could enter "space" and conceivably continue on around the globe before re-entering gently on the other side of our planet to a landing at a foreign spaceport that was similar to the one they had just departed from only a very short time ago."

So if these commercial space vehicles could in fact be used for globetrotting, it would be a big game changer in aviation. Rutan explained that three other times in commercial aviation's history, a new breed of ship came along that changed everything:

Rutan said the first time this happened was with the DC-3, which made long cross-country legs possible. The next was the beginning of the jet age, when jet-powered airliners shortened those routes flown to by Gooneys to mere hours. The last "big thing" to come along was the Boeing 747 jumbo jet, which made international travel a part of our culture.

With charts and graphs, Rutan showed that since the 747, commercial aviation hasn't seen anything that could really change the game. But he smiled when he said commercial space ships like those to be flown by Virgin Galactic and others will be that next big thing.

And for those naysayers who think this is all too far out for reality, apparently a press release from Spaceport America says the FAA begs to differ. This week, they made a big, bold move to sign-off on commercial space travel:

"The New Mexico Spaceport Authority (NMSA) received its launch license for vertical and horizontal launch from the Federal Aviation Administration’s Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation (FAA/AST). This is a critical step to moving forward with Spaceport America, the nation’s first purpose-built commercial spaceport.

If there is a more active commercial space operation going in the land, I could not find it. From their release, it sure seems to indicate Spaceport America is leading the pack:

"Spaceport America has been working closely with leading aerospace firms such as Virgin Galactic, Lockheed Martin, Rocket Racing Inc./Armadillo Aerospace, UP Aerospace, Microgravity Enterprises and Payload Specialties. The NMSA currently projects vertical launch activity to increase in 2009 and construction to also begin in 2009 with the terminal and hangar facility for horizontal launches completed by late 2010."

The facility – located 45 miles north of Las Cruces, N.M – is a cutting edge space terminal designed by Foster + Partners, a London architectural firm. Foster + Partners has some of the most gorgeous renderings you will ever see on their site, and when this complex is completed, it will be a work of construction art that would make anyone who appreciates the work of Frank Lloyd Wright very, very happy.

Will the opportunity to get into space happen in my lifetime, at a price I can afford? Tonight, I have to answer YES to that question.

Brighten a Friend's
Day With Some Fun
Aviation Stuff

I have just discovered Facebook, and am on it every day staying in touch with friends, family, the new grandchild, and a couple of high powered national magazine editors. This wonderful "web 2.0" creation is bonehead simple to use, bulletproof in it's functionality, and oh so groovy for so many things.

Back when I first heard about it years ago, I swear I read it was only for students, and a requirement to join was being enrolled in high school or college. That pretty much excluded Av8rdan, who hasn't seen a classroom that wasn't inside an FBO in quite some time.

If this student rule was the case, it is no longer in force. Today, I'll bet as many as 50% of the people in your address book or contact list are on Facebook, including your co-workers, family members, old school chums, and even grandma. It is the ideal place to exchange photos and videos in a way that is so easy, you'll think this is what the web was designed to do.

One of the "things" Facebook does is allows people to create "apps" so they can send each other "Butterflies", "Healing Stones", "Energy Crystals", the list is endless. One of the more humorous ones is "Give Southern Stuff" where you can send a friend some grits, a bowl of She Crab soup or a spiked watermelon. While this might generate yucks north of the Mason/Dixon, I cannot see how the proud people of the South much care for Facebook users sending each other "their own trailer park" just to get a laugh.

I certainly enjoyed getting a "Butterfly" from my favorite daughter-in-law, but those who know me well are sure I drip Avgas out of all pores. So when I began searching for just the right "app" to use for sending my flying buddies a quick hello, I didn't find one. So I made my own:

"Aviation Stuff" is the latest Facebook application that users can choose to send someone a "beautiful day to fly" or a "$100 hamburger". Certainly a photo of a really cool bizjet, a sunset arrival or a clear and a million VFR departure will brighten the smile of anyone you know who loves flying.

So far, the number of Facebook'ers using the "app" have grown daily since it was approved on their directory. A quick look at a few of the "gifts" you can send others on Facebook include:

A photo of a junior aviator guaranteed to generate smiles
A close-up shot of a soaring seagull
Some "beautiful airplane noise"
A dramatic dawn patrol departure
A perfect greased landing

You get the idea. Nuttin' but fun, and no, I'm not handing out real business jets...but I am making it really easy to send someone you love a quick and easy free image of one. And in the middle of a busy work day, who wouldn't want to drool over a pic of a Hondajet for a few fleeting moments?

If you want to get in on the fun and are already a Facebook user, go here and add the "app" to your page. If you have yet to join the rest of the world on Facebook, a good place to start is here.

New eBook:
A Deal at Twice the Price!

We all know someone who had hinted that they are interested in flying GA airplanes. It might be someone at work, it might be your son or daughter. Usually, they can be easily spotted in a crowd because as you blab on endlessly about airplanes and flying – after the rest of the crowd has vanished – these "wannabes" are still there hanging on your every word about greased landings, ILS approaches, Oshkosh and sneaking into Sun River for a weekend of play time.

But like anything else these days, life, family and career can sometimes stand in the way of achieving such lofty dreams as learning to fly. Ask almost anyone who has earned at private ticket or better and the story is almost always the same:

After months or sometimes years of trying to figure out the best approach to getting a pilot's license, many new flight students seem to make a few wrong decisions that come back to bite them in the backside later on. Maybe it's choosing the wrong flight school, or the wrong flight instructor, or maybe it's choosing to learn behind a standard six pack of steam gauges when you KNOW you really want to fly only glass cockpit machines. These decisions wouldn't be so tough – you say to yourself – if only you had read the manual first.

Well, my flying friends, reading "the manual" is now free and easy, thanks to Max Trescott, a San Francisco Bay Area CFI-I that has a resume that makes him completely authorized to write his new eBook called "Learn to Fly - Live Your Dream and Get Your Pilot's License". Just a few glances at Max's credentials will indicate that he is most qualified to coach anyone on taking those precarious first baby steps towards the left seat:

"Garmin G1000 expert and author Max Trescott was named the 2008 National Certificated Flight Instructor of the Year by the General Aviation Awards Program. Perhaps best known for his Max Trescott's G1000 Glass Cockpit Handbook, he is a Master CFI and Master Ground Instructor and teaches flying at the Palo Alto, Calif. airport. He is now a factory trained Cessna FITS instructor, a Cirrus Design CSIP, a Columbia (Cessna) 350 / 400 instructor, and teaches in the national Columbia recurrent training program."

In this free eBook, everything is spelled out in plain English. A few section titles answering some of those nagging wannabe questions include:

Why Learn to Fly?
What Can I do with my Pilot Certificate?
What Kind of Planes Can I Fly?
How Far Can I Fly?
How Safe is Flying?
Can I Really Do it?
What Does It take to Get a Pilot’s Certificate?
What Will it Cost?
How Long Will it Take?
Do I Need to Take a Ground School?
How Do I Get Started Now?
Where Can I Learn to Fly?
How Do I Choose an Instructor?
Learn to Fly in a Glass Cockpit aircraft
Can I Earn a Living Flying?

Max's blog [found here] is also a must-read for flight students, with posts such as "Zen and the Art of Instrument Flying" sure to generate deep thinking. Best to read that one while in some sort of Yoga pose.

It is not often that we get free info from someone at the top of their profession. Why Max is not charging $29.95 and including a free set of Ginsu knives for each eBook is beyond me. But in a world where big name CEOs and celebrity chefs aim to rake in the dough by the very mention of their names, it is refreshing to find an aviator like Max Trescott who has his ego planted firmly on the ground. For that one reason alone, I think everyone who reads this post ought to go here and download Max's eBook and promise to pass it along to anyone in their address book who has even a remote attraction to flying machines.

Do it for the good of GA, because if you introduce the eBook to someone and they end up as a lifelong pilot, you will have become one of GA's heroes – a person that has done something substantial to help solidify the future of private aviation in this country.

And trust me when I say, GA needs a few heroes right about now.

One Shred of Good News

Each day as we open our browsers and take a dangerous look at the news, we see more and more ridiculous schemes and bamboozles that Washington has cooked up to transfer the wealth of the middle class to the extremely wealthy.

It is laughable that during the election, the same people who were making noise about President Obama being the one who was going to transfer wealth are now the ones who have shut their traps about what Bush and Poulson are doing. Seems it is terrible when any tiny bit of wealth comes to the middle class, but it's fine by the GOP when that same wealth flows uphill.

But there is one tiny morsel of good news buried deep within this financial turmoil that has its stranglehold on our nation:

Not even Nostradamus could explain the crazy fluctuations in crude oil prices, and the related major league swings in refined fuel prices at the pump. It is quite telling that when demand is way, way up, Big Oil, OPEC and the Saudis jack their prices so as to reap record profits. But when the planet's economy tanks and millions lose their jobs, it eliminates the need to drive to work. And without a job, these poor souls cannot buy a damned thing, so they won't be driving to the mall either. With billions less miles being driven – surprise, surprise – demand drops through the floor and Big Oil has to drop their prices lower and lower to pump up sales.

So now that world oil prices have plummeted, of course we are now seeing discount prices on aviation fuels too. This past summer, I started questioning how viable airplane ownership was when 100LL was approaching six bucks a gallon. Now, with prices so low, the cost of that infamous $100 hamburger has dropped to $68.75.

Looking on AirNav, we see some unbelievable prices around the country (prices as of 12.09.08):

The lowest price I could find for 100LL was at Leesburg International Airport in Florida, where SunAir Aviation is selling Chevron for $2.30/gal. You'll pay $2.41/gal. at Anoka County-Blaine Airport in Minnesota, and $2.60/gal. at Bridgeport Municipal Airport in Texas. Skyhaven Airport at the University of Central Missouri is offering Phillips 66 for $2.65/gal. and even in usually spendy New York state, Million Air at Albany International Airport has Phillips 66 for $2.70/gal.

Man, can anyone remember these kinds of prices?

But the piston crowd isn't the only ones enjoying these deep discounts – the Jet A crews are also laughing each time they pull up to almost any self-serve pump. Sure, it is always a little more off the truck, but for jet drivers willing to get their hands dirty, you can find serious deals on refined dead dinosaurs too:

It is not a typo: Key Air at Fort Pierce - St Lucie County International Airport in Florida has Chevron for $2.43/gal. And remember Anoka County-Blaine Airport? Key Air there also has a deal on Chevron at $2.50/gal.

So the next time Brian Williams comes on the tube and reports that we are coughing up another $75 billion to keep some lame insurance or Wall Street corporation afloat long enough to pay out gazillion dollar bonuses to incompetent CEOs, just grab your flight bag and head out to the field, gas up the bird and go poke holes in the sky.

Because not being able to afford the fuel is – at least for now – no longer a good excuse to avoid flying GA.

A "Three-Eight Charlie" Film
Project Update

I have had the distinct pleasure of watching my readership on World of Flying grow daily, and am continually amused with the amount of new traffic that comes from all over the world. Because of these new readers, I thought it was the right time to give the world a new look at the one major project that has dominated my life for the last eight years.

My legacy readers will know that in 2000, I began a quest to bring the story of Jerrie Mock to the public. If you read my AOPA Pilot Magazine story about Jerrie and her airplane, N1538C, you'll already know she was the first woman to fly solo around the world. I discovered that this historic feat had somehow slipped through the cracks of aviation history, but it wasn't until I visited Washington, D.C that I knew that someone had to do something to get this story told.

Here's an excerpt from that AOPA Pilot Magazine story:

The Story of Three-Eight Charlie - I didn't choose this project, it chose me.

A chain of events in early 2000 led me to that conclusion, and I've never regretted taking on the task of "reintroducing" Jerrie Mock to the world. Here is the way I got from there to here...

I checked Mock's book, Three-Eight Charlie, out of the library, and was floored by the eloquent way the author brought the reader into the cockpit with her as she worked through endless aviation hassles and challenging situations.

After reading the book, I was inspired to find her airplane, the Spirit of Columbus, N1538C, or just "Charlie" to its pilot, on a trip to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (NASM) in Washington, D.C. I expected to see Charlie hanging prominently next to Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis, and was shocked to find Mock's airplane being stored far from public view in one of NASM's warehouses, its wings removed and stashed between the landing gear.

If airplanes could talk, then Charlie was talking to me that day, asking to be set free. I stood and stared, as if some kind of weird presence was drawing me into this story. Somehow I let myself drift past the rope separating the artifacts from the public, and standing there in some sort of hypnotized trance, I found myself touching Charlie's red-and-white fuselage.

NASM security was not amused.

Back at my home airport, I found no one who had ever heard of Jerrie Mock, or what she had accomplished in 1964. Even more surprising was the fact that no movie had ever been made about her historic journey.

So I looked her up, and explained my lofty plan to rekindle national interest in her accomplishments, if for no other reason than to see Charlie in the NASM. I convinced her that a feature film should be made, and as an experienced aviation writer, I could write the script and get Hollywood interested. And as a fellow aviator, I promised to give her story the attention to detail and accuracy it deserved.

For 41 years, Mock refused to release the movie rights. But in September 2004, she and I inked a Life Story Rights Agreement allowing me to write and develop the screenplay Three-Eight Charlie. It is now my dream that someone in the film industry with the heart of an aviator will discover the project and join my crusade to bring this adventure to the big screen.

Fast-forward to today, and you'll find me still out there trying to find a way to get this movie made and this story told. I have never wanted to do it for the money or fame, it has always been simply to fix what I call a "malfunction" of aviation history. I have tried just about every method a screenwriter can use to get his project noticed in Hollywood, but so far a major producer, director or "A" list actor has not signed on.

But the past two weeks, I have had a revelation of sorts. I have watched with admiration as one of my two step-sons has been working in our studio on the marketing proposal for a feature film he and his Los Angeles partners are pitching to some very interested investors. In his many varied capacities in the film biz, Scott has learned a great deal, and I am in awe of what he brings to the table. The one take-away I have learned though is this:

I have always wanted to make "Three-Eight Charlie" as a feature film because that would be the best way to reach the most viewers. But making a feature film – especially a period piece that takes place in several countries around the world – will be expensive. In watching an experienced producer line everything out, I am now 100% sure that the life story of Jerrie Mock can be brought to theaters someday, as long as the seed money to start the ball rolling magically appears from the heavens.

What I need to make this happen is clear to me now:

Out there somewhere is an aviator or executive (or both?) who has lived a successful life and has become ridiculously wealthy...so much so that they could never spend it all if they tried. I'm talking Bill Gates wealthy. If this person were to fall in love with this story as I have – they could be aviation history's hero by attaching themselves and their commitment of funding to this film. It doesn't have to be all the millions, but enough to make a industry lender take this project seriously. Once this seed money is in place, we could attract the kind of "A" list actor that could play Jerrie and bring in the box office numbers to see a profit. This would attract an "A" list director, and once we have initial funding and a couple of big names attached, Three-Eight Charlie begins to make sense on paper.

Will the money to make this film a reality ever materialize? I am positive that it will, and then we can all push forward and make Jerrie Mock and her 1964 flight as important to aviation history as Lindbergh's trip to Paris. And with an Amelia Earhart movie already in the pipeline, it will be such a shame to see cineplexes across America full of people watching the wrong movie.

Three-Eight Charlie is the movie they should be watching – the aviation community knows that – because Jerrie Mock actually made it around the world as the first lady to complete that massive mission solo. The fact that Hollywood has not yet figured out the bankability of such an enormous feat remains a mystery to me.

If you know of anyone in the film industry – or maybe that one aviator that is sitting on a mountain of cash – please be sure to aim them at the project web site, found here.

Together, we can all right this wrong and give Jerrie her due.

One Step Forward,
Two Steps Backwards

I applaud the FAA for breaking ground December 4th on a great new state-of-the-art Air Traffic Control System Command Center near Warrenton, VA. Certainly there can be no dispute that any time they can upgrade anything at FAA, all of aviation will be better served.

And while the $22 million contract to build the new facility will certainly be good news for at least five subcontractors in the Virginia market, the groundbreaking was viewed by those watching the FAA vs. NATCA labor catfight as a serious error in judgement. My two cents:

Without out nation's air traffic controllers, what is the FAA anyway? The answer: FEMA. See, in a rational world where top managers value their rank and file as a necessary resource, money is spent on labor before anything else. In some of this country's most successful tech companies, Managers and Average Joe workers are put on the same team, collectively making decisions that steer the ship. But when FAA ignores their controllers and fails to give them a fair labor deal, it does nothing but ruin any shred of morale left in the system's towers and TRACONS. And when 60 pressurized tubes full of citizens are converging on JFK, the last thing you really want are tired, pissed off controllers working those flights.

Nobody can argue that the FAA shouldn't build new facilities. My NATCA sources send me endless emails telling of antiquated computer systems, leaking ceilings, the list does not end. But when you read the official FAA release on the groundbreaking, it sure sounds like they think this is a great move:

"“This is what state-of-the-art looks like,” Acting FAA Administrator Robert A. Sturgell said. “As a nation, we’re moving to satellite-based air traffic control, and this facility will help us reap the benefits. This is the headquarters for air traffic control efficiency.”

I hate to bring this up again, but maybe the next FAA administrator will see that the " headquarters" for air traffic control efficiency is not a building at all, but the men and women of NATCA. And those controllers are livid that they have been overlooked for so long.

At the groundbreaking, a banner tow operator – who no doubt received supreme ATC service on this flight – was seen dragging a banner across the sky shouting "FAA LET'S BUILD ATC CONTRACT FIRST". When I asked NATCA what was up with the banner, I got this back as their official position:

"The controller workforce has been working under imposed terms and conditions of employment for 824 days, because the FAA refused to complete negotiations under a flawed collective bargaining process. While almost 4000 controllers have left the FAA over the past 27 months, the FAA has done its best to distract the flying public from the ever-decreasing margin of safety with its dog and pony show, the Command Center ground breaking being the latest - akin to painting the house to make it look better while the roof is caving in. NATCA applauds our members for vividly pointing out how terribly misguided FAA leadership priorities are."

There can only be one way to view this latest escalation in FAA vs. NATCA...and that is to hope President Obama can order FAA to make cleaning up this labor mess their first priority before anything else is even discussed. Yes, our new President has a full plate, but he is maybe a billion times more intelligent then the Lame Duck he replaces, so certainly his administration will realize how detrimental to public safety it will be to let the controller labor dispute deteriorate further.

Because when 767's trade paint over Omaha, it will be too late.

UPDATE @1012A on 12.07.08: I received many emails to the affirmative on this post, but one was from the people who organized the banner tow operation – Operation 10,000 Marbles – which they called a success. It was organized by and paid for by the bloggers at The Potomac Current And Undertow, a blog from/for/about/to the air traffic controllers at the Potomac TRACON. They also wanted me to point out that this was a grass roots operation and NATCA did not pay for it.

AOPA Reminds
Us How Inept
Bush's EPA
Has Become

[Reader alert: Yes, I KNOW he and his posse have one foot out the door, but when we stop long enough to examine just about anything BushCo or any of the Federal agencies staffed with his cronies does, we see why their kind is getting the boot from Washington.]

Today AOPA came out with an article explaining their formal comments in response to an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) notice concerning greenhouse gas emissions. In a story on AIN, reporter Matt Thurber breaks AOPA's position down for you:

"AOPA has commented on a set of proposed regulations from the EPA that seek to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act, specifically targeting emissions by general aviation aircraft. The EPA’s own greenhouse gas emissions inventory shows, according to AOPA, that general aviation jets and pistons generated only 5.54 percent of the total aviation contribution and 0.74 percent of the overall transportation sector contribution."

Point seven four percent. Even Baby Einstein can tell you that's not even one percent of the pollution we spew into our atmosphere. In looking at a PDF document highlighting AOPA's formal comments, it's easy to break down just what 0.74 percent really looks like:

GA jet-powered aircraft makes up 0.61 percent, with 0.13 percent coming from piston-powered aircraft. When you compare this to the 81.33 percent for on-road motor vehicles, 12.53 for commercial and military aviation, 2.4 percent for trains and 2.26 for maritime vessels, it boggles the mind how Bush's EPA can even FIND GA polluters on their radar screen.

AOPA makes it so painfully obvious, even W's dog could understand how this proposed regulation makes the EPA look completely misinformed:

“General aviation greenhouse gas emissions pale in comparison to other transportation sources,” said Andy Cebula, AOPA executive vice president of government affairs. “The EPA should carefully consider aviation safety and the cost to comply before initiating any future rulemaking on such a small greenhouse gas emitter. Overall, it is inherently obvious when evaluating the data that GA’s impact on the global climate is currently and will continue to be exceedingly small. Any EPA requirement that would result in the installation of pollution controls on GA aircraft or require a change in how GA aircraft are operated would have safety and cost implications that cannot be ignored.”

Let's close by comparing my 235 Cherokee to the gigantuan Ford Excursion that almost ran me down in the Quizno's parking lot the other day, shall we?

Maybe five times a year, I burn 80 gallons of refined dead dinosaurs on trips to California, so that's 400 gallons running through my Lycoming 0-540. I get down there in four hours, and R/T for all five trips is 40 hours...or about 10 mpg. Ford's version of a Sherman Tank burns 163 gallons in the 1,304 mile R/T, or about 8 mpg. But at 65 mph (yeah, right) it takes the Big Pig 20 hours on the road. While my GA plane is only polluting for four hours EUG to FAT, the 8,500 lb. Excursion is spewing out pollution for 10 hours. Maybe Baby Einstein can explain why EPA would even bother with GA aircraft when there are so many of these SUV behemoths doing the real damage to our air.

Maybe the next administration can bring some sense of reason and reality back to EPA. Like President Obama says over and over again, we can only hope.

If You Absolutely
Can't Wait for
Terrafugia...

My readers know I am a huge supporter of Terrafugia's Transition, and I've said over and over that their "roadable airplane" project might just be the most exciting aviation story out there today.

The popular vehicle is getting dangerously close to it's first flight test, and high speed, propeller-driven taxi tests to rotation speed have been completed. But if you absolutely want one for your garage, I suggest you be patient, so says the Terrafugia web site:

As of July 2007, all of Terrafugia's anticipated production though the end of Q2 2010 has been reserved.

But wait, you want it NOW! You want to be able to fly a vehicle certifed for both flight and the highway. Well, according to ANN, you can get your wish if you have a Trump-sized checkbook:

"Molt Taylor's Flying Car On The Block On eBay - One of only six built, Molt Taylor's third Aerocar has been listed for sale on eBay for a Buy It Now pricetag of a cool $3.5 million. Built in 1956, N103D is Aerocar Model One, Serial Number Two, sporting a 160 hp Lycoming engine with 1,103 hours total time, and just 22 hours since major overhaul."

If you think three-point-five mil is a pretty hefty chunk for this vehicle, then you'll be alarmed to know that according to the ANN piece, that is the "as-is" price, and the thing is not even flyable:

Its last annual inspection was performed on July 30, 1976, although the listing states "an informal inspection of the plane by an FAA licensed A&P aircraft mechanic was performed in August of 2006." Its last flight was in 1977, and has been in storage ever since.

Just how expensive is this auction? Well, comparatively speaking, you CAN get more for less right now on eBay:

A 1973 Boeing 727-200 is also for sale on eBay. Sure, the 56-seat airliner has been flown 71,000 hours, but is IS just US $2,995,000...for a gigantic, airworthy jet! With this baby you get a ballistic cockpit door, RVSM, and a large bar with lounge area in aft section of cabin.

So if you have recently won the lotto and want a serious collectors item, then feel free to go here before 12.16.08 and make a deal on one of six Aerocars. Or, go here and get in on a delivery position of the vehicle that looks almost spacecraft-like when compared to the Aerocar.

Yes, Molt Taylor's design was extremely forward thinking back in the late 40's when it made its first flight, and yes, maybe it was 60+ years before its time. I have talked to people who have said that "a flying car will never work...it's been tried before." Well, you can see what that version looked like with the Aerocar, and comparing the Transition to Taylor's Aerocar is like comparing the Wright Flyer to the Space Shuttle.