NBAA's Bolen Gets it Right

At this critical time in the general aviation financial world, the last thing we need is Washington, D.C. continuing to tell the media that owning and flying a business aircraft represents wasteful greed and excess.

This week, National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) President and CEO Ed Bolen fired off a letter to President Barack Obama's White House that is so perfect and so eloquent that I am choosing to publish it here verbatim. If you wish to download a PDF of this letter from NBAA to circulate, here is that link.

January 28, 2009

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President:
People in the general aviation community are feeling the pain of a serious recession and the heartbreak of job losses. Like all Americans, we believe that any federal dollars going to address the economic situation should be spent with great prudence.

While we support the need for wise stewardship of taxpayer dollars, we are deeply concerned about a pattern that seems to be emerging in which policymakers are discouraging and disparaging the use of general aviation for business purposes.

While the actions may be directed at a certain individual or a certain company, the reality is that a vital U.S. industry is being devastated by the economy, and some of the recent steps by policymakers are adding to the pain and job losses. This has to stop – policymakers need to understand that general aviation is about jobs.

The numbers are clear. The vast majority of general aviation aircraft in the world are manufactured, operated, serviced and maintained in the United States. Even the minority of those planes manufactured outside this country are often “completed” (painted and interiors installed) in the U.S. These completions add electronics, automation systems, engines and other aircraft components manufactured here in the U.S. by many small businesses.

In fact, general aviation manufacture is one of the remaining sources of good manufacturing jobs in this country – the kind of jobs we can keep in the U.S. in the 21st century. It is also one of the few industries still contributing to the nation’s positive balance of trade.

Equally important, general aviation means jobs in small towns and rural areas across the country. About 100 communities have lost scheduled airline service over the past 18 months, and in many of those towns, businesses look to general aviation - the use of their airplane - as the transportation lifeline for staying in business and preserving the local workforce.

Of course, the flights made by these businesses require support, which also leads to job production. Schedulers, dispatchers, maintenance technicians, pilots, training professionals, and airport employees are just a few of the many types of workers involved in general aviation flight support. These jobs are important to the people who perform them and to the companies they work for.

Additionally, general aviation helps preserve jobs at small companies that are too small to afford to have people out of the office for long trips, or be unable to work en route. That’s because, like an investment in good computer software, a business airplane boosts employee efficiency and productivity.

As I write this letter, I’m reminded of another time that the White House and Congress were compelled to act in recognition of how closely general aviation is tied to jobs across the country. Fifteen years ago, general aviation was on the brink of being grounded in the U.S. In response, Congress overwhelmingly passed and President Clinton signed into law the General Aviation Revitalization Act of 1994, because we all understood that this industry and the jobs associated with it were too important to lose.

That legislation paved the way for general aviation to survive and continue generating jobs and innovation. But today, a different threat confronts general aviation – the same threat that confronts most other industries – the economic crisis.

The people and businesses in the general aviation community are weathering one of the worst economic storms anyone has ever seen. Every manufacturer has been forced to scale back production and lay off workers. General aviation flight hours are down sharply. The inventory of airplanes available for sale is at an all-time high. General aviation airports are operating in the red.

Our concern is that if Washington takes an excessively dim view of general aviation – one that leads to policy proposals banning all use of business airplanes for any company – it would accelerate the downward spiral of the industry.

Instead of discouraging companies from accepting and using business airplanes or any other strategic business asset, policymakers should be looking for ways to increase general aviation manufacturing jobs, promote economic development in communities without commercial airline service, and facilitate productivity and efficiency at companies trying to do more with less.

On behalf of its 8,000 Member Companies, the National Business Aviation Association stands ready to discuss the importance of general aviation at any time. Until then, my thanks for your consideration of this matter.

Sincerely,
Ed Bolen
President and CEO
National Business Aviation Association

My President Should Never Ride in a 'Bus

As all eyes were on Washington, D.C. lately, we pilots and aviation fans were thinking how cool it must be for Barack Obama and his family to ride in the baddest jumbo jet on the planet, the USAF's VC-25, aka Air Force One.

The National Geographic TV channel has been running a new special about President Obama's first ride on the flying White House, and a trailer of what looks like another quality production from them can be found here.

In researching this post however, I ran across something I had not known before...that the current fleet of two Boeing 747-200s are ending their service life and must be replaced soon. One of the two -47s was placed into service in 1987, and the other in 1990. As one might expect, the challenge of replacing such a complex and HEAVILY modified jet fleet will be to find the right contractor that can deliver the goods.

To that end, the FedbizOpps.gov website that announces Federal business opportunities recently issued a USAF Presidential Aircraft Recapitalization (PAR) Program request to obtain "market research to identify potential sources that possess the expertise, capabilities, and experience to meet the requirements of the next generation Presidential fixed-wing aircraft." The request was posted 1 January, 2009, and the response date was 28 January, 2009. That does not leave a very big window for companies to put together the mountain of paperwork the Feds are requiring to even be considered to have a shot at building Air Force One: The Next Generation.

A look at the actual PAR is here and contains these specifics:

"The PAR aircraft will be a new-build, commercial derivative, wide-body aircraft, uniquely modified to meet the current and projected requirements for the worldwide transportation of the Office of the President. Modifications regarding passenger communications, information systems, interior work & rest environment, and aerial refueling must be accomplished before delivery of the aircraft. The delivery of the first operationally capable aircraft is required in FY17, with delivery of the second and third aircraft in FY19 and FY21, respectively. The PAR aircraft must maintain the highest possible mission capable rate. The PAR aircraft will provide the President of the United States, staff, and guests with safe and reliable air transportation with the appropriate level of security and communications capability. Mission communications must provide secure, interoperable command, control, and communications, using net-centric architectures."

Read between these lines, and there is really only two aircraft that fits these specs, the Airbus A380 and Boeing's 747-8. But if the current GREEN administration has a say in who gets this nod, it ought to be a no brainer when you look at this from Boeing's site:

"The 747-8 Intercontinental is the only jetliner in the 400- to 500-seat market to provide 467 seats in a three-class configuration and a 8,000-nm range. Using 787-technology engines, the airplane will be quieter, produce lower emissions, and achieve better fuel economy than any competing jetliner. The 747 Intercontinental will provide nearly equivalent trip costs and 13 percent lower seat-mile costs than the 747-400. The 747-8 is more than 10 percent lighter per seat than the A380 and will consume 11 percent less fuel per passenger than the 555-seat airplane. That translates into a trip-cost reduction of 21 percent and a seat-mile cost reduction of more than 6 percent, compared to the A380."

I have nothing against Airbus, nothing. But Air Force One is as important to our American culture as the Stature of Liberty, and it should be built by U.S. workers on U.S. soil...even if Boeing does use some foreign suppliers. This story is FAR from over, so if you agree with me on this, keep an eye out in this blog for anything I find to indicate "they" are hinting A380 for the new AF1.

Somehow, putting the Stars and Stripes on the tail of anything other than a Boeing seems Un-American.

Readers have responded well to the survey! I am getting close to my goal of 100 responses...just need a few more. Please take a minute and help me make WoF a better blog by taking my quick survey!

Terrafugia:
Lost in Translation, Part II

The world is getting mighty giddy awaiting the first test flight of Terrafugia's Transition roadable aircraft. My Google Alerts for news stories on this topic goes off about 10 times a day...with many of the stories from overseas.

I recently posted a really bizarro translation of one of these stories, from a Chinese site that tried rather unsuccessfully to translate it into Spanish. I translated their Spanish into English and the results – found here – were hilarious.

So today when I got word of a Transition story out of the Middle East, I could not resist. This one happens to be from the website of Al-Mustaqbal, a newspaper in Lebanon. Just getting through the lede paragraph without laughing is impossible. Go ahead and try [pasted verbatim from this translation site]:

"Americans of human being happy for all commanders the vehicles around the scientist in their detection about that the dream who wait in leadership of vehicles lengthened his be possible her traditional borders the biographies and the walk exceeded by air escape from traffic, already stay over the close attainment, where announced about manages them from development first of capable of car the flight in the scientist and will her subjugation is complete to air attempt during the next month explains."

Yes, I know...world's longest sentence. I'm not sure, but I THINK this next 'graph talks about takeoff performance?

"To is what already is similar to bad Al-Khobar for the employees he that she road will need for distance to 1,700 foot before the departure arrives his, just as that price the one from her 132 thousand sterling will arrive to. From their side, inventors of this car said and from in their yen previous engineers in agency of people for researches of the space indeed her already idealizes finally accomplishment to dreamt for as long as his wait lengthened, and he the enjoyment in opportunity the trip about road the atmosphere on the exciting in any time."

And this next pull quote might be offering up a gesture of good will towards a successful test flight:

"Journalistic reports said indeed that new car which releases on her “the Terrafugia Transition” which dismisses indeed her first car flies in the scientist supplied in wings which covers and automatic uniqueness in method in the mere pressing on one of the buttons, expects have fun to the qualification does in himself whether was the land walks on or in the atmosphere. Added upright on the car that in her possibility to land car converts from formed from seats to airplane during five ten second only. If what the car exceeded first test of flight have fun, so blessing expected have fun to halls of the offer during eighteen month descend in about."

Do you suppose they think the Transition might actually be pulled through the air by one hundred horses:

"Just as that the car new supplied in the brakes himself which her moving strength informs hundred horse strength of car himself on the adequate land the atmosphere. In according to of the company, so indeed the car will be in her possibility the flight rise corroded 500 inclination in tank one from the gas arrives to quickly rocket 115 inclination in the hour arrives to."

This closing 'graph might make Sarah Palin's readers happy, since they talk about "the Alaska":

Followed disgraces the invention raved normal their defects they air license the leadership the characteristic in the pilots and the place who possibility of the commander is in the departure from him. The reports indicated until the legal place only in the United States for the departure from him the road walked on the Alaska. With raved Carl in optimism for future feels his car waits.

Glad they finally mentioned Carl [Dietrich, Terrafugia's CEO], and I'm sure he has raved in optimism for future feels his car waits. Who wouldn't?

O.K., enough nonsense. They had better get a test flight in the logbooks pretty soon or I'll have to continue publishing more of these absurd translations.

Please take a minute and help me make WoF a better blog
by taking my quick survey!

The KatyLiner
is in da' [new]
House!

Only the few family and friends that have flown with us since we picked up our Cherokee 235 knows how "vintage" our old hangar was. In October, 2007 when we bought "Katy", hangar space at EUG was at a premium, so I took anything I could get.

What I got was a spot in what might be the oldest row of hangars on the field. These hangars looked like they had been built before WW2, and had gigantic accordion-style doors that required three men and a boy to move...and they'd only move when the old, worn wheels decided to stay on the track. These doors, and this track, were designed by someone who obviously never, ever had to move an airplane in or out of these hangars:

The gargantuan doors rode on a steel track that ran the width of the hangar door. At about 1.5" high angle iron, it was a bit of a tug to yank roughly 2,000 lbs. of dead weight Cherokee out of the hangar. And when putting the plane away, you had better not hit the track at an angle, or one wheel gets stuck south of the track, and the other is stuck just north. What you then get is zero room to build momentum and roll over said track...so you have to be the Incredible Hulk and muscle the plane over the track. And this always happened at the end of a long cross country when you were tired and just wanted to put the bird away and get home.

But the evil doors were nothing compared to "Lake Eugene" which formed anytime it rained. And this being Oregon, that happens a lot:

The track mentioned earlier at some point in its service life was somehow fastened down to the large expanse of tarmac that ran the width of the hangar. But the water seal under the track disappeared long ago, letting an abundance of water flow in when it rained. Add to that a brisk north wind, and I usually had a small pond in about a third of the hangar from late fall to early spring. When nothing worked to keep the water out, I just laid three wooden pallets in the water to build a crude but effective bridge from the car to the plane.

The old hanger did keep Katy dry for the most part, except when it didn't, which was frequently. Here is what usually happened after the lake formed:

Imagine a big steel building with a large amount of water on the floor. Now add a little heat, and just the right amount of humidity, and the hangar lake would evaporate upwards and cling precariously to the ceiling. When enough indoor precipitation formed on the ceiling, it would all start dripping throughout the entire hangar, including all over the plane. I'd come in and find Katy looking like she'd been out in the rain...which sort of defeats the purpose of spending $170 a month for a hangar! This building would have made a seriously effective indoor rain forest.

Fed up, I called around and finally found the new hanger. It is a large group hangar, where maybe eight owners each share one long row without walls inside. But mine is the primo one of the bunch, right on the west end, closest to the ramp and with a grand view of the airport action. The construction of the row is great - insulated ceiling, and doors that roll easily with one hand. My new hangar also has a lockable office/storage area, which can be heated with one small ceramic heater to make a nice flight planning space that is warm and somewhat toasty when the rest of the hangar is cold.

Yes, I am stoked about Katy's new house. Oh, and did I mention it is $20 a month CHEAPER then the old rain forest hangar? Yep, I'm happy, Katy's happy, and the guy I rent from is happy to again have a plane in there generating a little scratch for him.

It's as if Katy is finally home. As I left today, I swear I saw our plane grinning...

Please take a minute and help me make WoF a better blog by taking my quick survey!

Down is Up - As
Simple as Black
and White

As VFR pilots, we keep our head out of the clouds, that's the law. With the exception of night flight – in which your instrument scan had better be of IFR-rated competency – VFR pilots usually have the horizon to act as a crutch for the brain.

Flight towards that $100 hamburger is golden, as long as you can see where the sky meets the Earth out in front of the prop. But in an IFR environment, that is not the case, and when all you have in the windscreen is soup, it is then that you discover one of the human body's major engineering flaws:

As a seasoned IFR student now, I have gobs of hood time. But recently, we started to fly "real world" instrument approaches through the IMC, to minimums. On one recent training session, trouble with vertigo started the minute Katy and I slipped into the clouds on takeoff. Once in the soup, I recall having a powerful sense that we were turning hard right, so instinctively, I turned just a little to the left to compensate. Only problem was that I was wings level at the time, so my heading drifted left off runway heading...a heading that was required for this particular departure procedure. My eyes saw the attitude indicator cheating left of level, but try as I might, I could not get my brain to instruct my left arm to turn the yoke back right to pick the heading back up. The struggle between the seat of my pants, my brain, and my arm was so intense that I just could not overcome the sensation that I was turning hard right in a death-spiral into someone's back yard.

Classic vertigo, so says my CFI-I...happens to everyone. But just what is this phenomenon anyway? Let's ask WebMD:

Vertigo (ver-ti′gō): A sensation of spinning or whirling motion. Vertigo implies a definite sensation of rotation of the subject or of objects about the subject in any plane.

O.K., so I made it out of the clouds in this training flight, and above the 3,000 msl tops, a magnificent sunset was painting the side of the clouds God looks at a flamboyant orange. Of course, I was back under the hood by this time – I only know about the sunset because CFI Jim was blasting away with his digital camera over my shoulder.

As I set up for the first approach of this flight, nerves set in as we descended towards the inevitable re-entry into the soup. And as if on cue, the minute I was in it, the same "right turn, Clyde" feeling swept over me. I fought the approach to an ugly missed, climbed back out of the muck and we headed back to Eugene to try it all again. On the second LOC approach, same thing happened, so I went missed AGAIN, got back on the sky side of the clouds, and began to sort out the whole situation. At this time, I requested to remove the "hood" and try an approach through the clouds without it. And on the third approach – an ILS – everything was groovy and I slid down the needle as if the glideslope was lubed up with Mr. Zog's Sex Wax.

When I got home, I read this from a FAA PDF on the topic:

"If you experience a visual illusion during flight (most pilots do at one time or another), have confidence in your instruments and ignore all conflicting signals your body gives you. Accidents usually happen as a result of a pilot’s indecision to rely on the instruments."

Today, I went up and upped my game by flying a near-perfect VOR-A into CVO...partial panel. With the HI and AI hidden by those diabolical little rubber circles all CFI's carry, I relied on the turn coordinator and the compass to get 'er done. And guess what? All I had to do was tell my brain to BUTT OUT of the conversation between the seat of my pants and the instruments, and BINGO, my left arm did exactly what the instruments told it to do.

Since CFI Jim says vertigo is a physical thing that cannot be trained out of a pilot, all we can do on the stick is know when it is happening and trust the instruments. Once you disconnect a wayward brain from the left arm and let the eyes interact with the instruments to fly the plane, it is amazing at how fast the sensation of vertigo disappears.

I believe this kind of training should be mandatory for all pilots, not just IFR students. I had almost 300 hours before starting IFR training, and had never experienced vertigo up close in the cockpit. But had I accidentally flown into a cloud by mistake while chasing a VFR hamburger, I might have ended up augering into a corn field.

But now, I can immediately detect when eyes, brain and seat-of-pants are askew, and engage my own personal VDDS (Vertigo Detection and Defense System) to keep 27W pointed where she needs to be pointed.

Note:
Participation in
the survey is
lagging for some
reason. Please
take a second
and help me
make World of
Flying a better
blog! Click here.

Come, Let Me Pick Your Brain

As a veteran writer, photographer and page layout artist (now called graphic designer), I have just about seen it all in the 35 years since I first laid eyes on an offset printing press back in 1974.

I had stumbled into a "Reprographics" class after washing out of electronics on the very first day when it was discovered there was actual math involved in the study of electrons. Since Av8rdan doesn't care for adding and subtracting letters like they wanted me to do in pre-algebra, I decide that it made far better sense to use those letters in words to create sentences and write stuff that other people liked to read.

I have had numerous assignments in the magazine, newspaper, commercial printing and ad agency trades, and have had a fair amount of success generating a little revenue with my cameras. But the one thing that has always been a constant in this career of mine is writing...lots of it.

This blog – Av8rdan's World of Flying – is a natural progression for me, a work I love to produce. I am well past 700 posts now, and my readership grows each week. it is a whole lot of laughs and fun, with some seriousness mixed in too. But I am now asking for the help of my readers in making WoF even better:

I want to invite all my readers to go here and take a quick survey to try and see just what you think of this work. I have crafted 10 quick questions that will only take you a few seconds to answer, and there is purposely not ANY contact info for you to fill out, so there is no chance of me sending your name and number to Nigeria.

If you have a moment, please follow this link and take the survey.

I want to know a little about you, my readers. Are you all pilots, or just people who like to read about the aviation industry? If you are a pilot, what do you own and fly? Have you got some sort of sexy type rating...then tell me about it:

This is your golden opportunity to become part of my process. None of the questions in my survey are hard, and all give you the chance to add way more then .02 cents. If you've ever tired of my bashing of that guy who used to live where Barack and his family now live, taking my survey will provide a soapbox to let me have it. Or, if you can't wait for another story about flying around in the Katyliner, let me know that by taking the survey.

I know that like myself, you'll be glued to the DTV tomorrow watching the non-violent revolution come down in WDC as we take the country back from the hands of those who have tried without success to break our spirit for the last eight years. So I will keep this survey up for a while, and conveniently remind you, my readers, to go here and contribute to making Av8rdan's World of Flying an even better blog.

When I have enough readers' input, I will post the results so you can see just who is joining you here. And if you are kind enough to go here and take this little survey, I am thanking you big time.

Don't Be an Idiot
on 01.20.09

There cannot possibly be any red blooded American who doesn't know what is going down on the steps of the U.S. Capital this coming Tuesday at noon.

Starting Saturday when President Obama and VP Biden make their train ride to D.C. for the inauguration, there will be serious TFRs all over the East, as we might expect from such a high profile series of events. But with a couple of MILLION people stuffing D.C. to the breaking point all trying to glimpse Obama as he usurps our country from the hands of the Clown Posse, you can bet that when the military says they may react with deadly force to aircraft busting the inauguration TFR, they mean it.

So let's take a look at some of the details of that TFR (edited for entertainment purposes only, not for navigation. See the real TFR as published at aopa.org:

8/4901 FLIGHT RESTRICTIONS WASHINGTON, DC, JANUARY 20, 2009. PURSUANT TO 49 USC 40103(B), THE FAA CLASSIFIES THE AIRSPACE DEFINED IN THIS NOTAM AS 'NATIONAL DEFENSE AIRSPACE'. PILOTS WHO DO NOT ADHERE TO THE FOLLOWING PROCEDURES MAY BE INTERCEPTED, DETAINED AND INTERVIEWED BY LAW ENFORCEMENT/ SECURITY PERSONNEL. ANY OF THE FOLLOWING ADDITIONAL ACTIONS MAY ALSO BE TAKEN AGAINST A PILOT WHO DOES NOT COMPLY WITH THIS NOTAM:

(A) THE FAA MAY TAKE ADMINISTRATIVE ACTION,
(B) THE U.S. GOVERNMENT MAY PURSUE CRIMINAL CHARGES,
(C) THE U.S. GOVERNMENT MAY USE DEADLY FORCE AGAINST THE AIRBORNE AIRCRAFT, IF IT IS DETERMINED THAT THE AIRCRAFT POSES AN IMMINENT SECURITY THREAT.

EFFECTIVE 1000 LOCAL 01/20/09 UNTIL 1800 LOCAL 01/20/09.

O.K., so I now have your attention. Bust this TFR and losing your ticket for life might be a far better option than obliteration. But just where is this TFR:

THE DC ADIZ IS THAT AREA OF AIRSPACE OVER THE SURFACE OF THE EARTH WHERE THE READY IDENTIFICATION, LOCATION, AND CONTROL OF AIRCRAFT ARE REQUIRED IN THE INTERESTS OF NATIONAL SECURITY. SPECIFICALLY, THE DC ADIZ IS THAT AIRSPACE, FROM THE SURFACE TO BUT NOT INCLUDING FL180, WITHIN A 30-MILE RADIUS OF THE DCA VOR/DME.

There is also a Washington D.C. Flight Restricted Zone or FRZ, the boundaries of which could not be more complex. The huge six-part TFR goes on forever, but what is very clear is their description of the new intercept light system:

A NEW WARNING SIGNAL FOR COMMUNICATING WITH AIRCRAFT HAS BEEN DEPLOYED AND IS OPERATING WITHIN THE WASHINGTON DC METROPOLITAN AREA AIR DEFENSE IDENTIFICATION ZONE (DC ADIZ), INCLUDING THE FLIGHT RESTRICTED ZONE (FRZ). THE SIGNAL CONSISTS OF HIGHLY FOCUSED RED AND GREEN COLORED LIGHTS IN AN ALTERNATING RED/ RED/ GREEN/ SIGNAL PATTERN. THIS SIGNAL MAY BE DIRECTED AT SPECIFIC AIRCRAFT SUSPECTED OF MAKING UNAUTHORIZED ENTRY INTO THE ADIZ/FRZ AND ARE ON A HEADING OR FLIGHT PATH THAT MAY BE INTERPRETED AS A THREAT OR THAT OPERATE CONTRARY TO THE OPERATING RULES FOR THE ADIZ/FRZ. IF THIS SIGNAL IS DIRECTED AT YOU AND YOU ARE NOT COMMUNICATING WITH ATC, TURN TO A HEADING AWAY FROM THE CENTER OF THE FRZ/ADIZ AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. BE ADVISED THAT FAILURE TO FOLLOW THE RECOMMENDED PROCEDURES MAY RESULT IN INTERCEPTION BY MILITARY AIRCRAFT AND/OR THE USE OF FORCE.

So there you have it. If you live near D.C., then you already know about these kinds of TFRs. But this one is different. This is not your average Tuesday-at-noon TFR, on this day, the eyes of the world will be on the National Mall. It would be a really bad day to be on a scenic VFR flight chasing hamburgers and wander fat, dumb and happy over towards the general vicinity of Lincoln's bible.

Today a friend asked me what kind of air defenses would be up during the inauguration. Of course, I had no answer, only Secret Service and the Air Force know for sure what will be up there locked and loaded, ready to blow an errant flight student to dust.

If you live along the eastern seaboard, do your country a favor and park the plane Tuesday. Take no chances flying near D.C., because one wrong move could get you killed. Not kidding here.

Don't be an idiot.

Could you Face the Camera?



There is not an aviator alive that hasn't been talking non-stop about the heroic job "Sully" Sullenberger did to ditch his Airbus 320 in the middle of the Hudson River without a fatality and only a few injuries deemed anything more than scratches.

We've all gone through the scenario in our heads:

You are outbound from La Guardia, throttles forward and climbing like a homesick angel. All of the sudden a couple of Canadian Geese commit goosicide by aiming right down the barrels of both engines. Upon impact, they snuff both powerplants out, and you are now piloting a really heavy glider. You are at 3,200 MSL, and in an instant, your aviator instincts tell you that a 180 back to LGA is not possible, and coasting powerless into Teterboro off the nose is a crapshoot. So you look down to the only patch of the planet below you not inhabited by millions of souls, and aim for the water. You trim for best glide, and then trim some more, bringing your A320 to just a cat's whisker above stall. You milk it, milk it, and milk it some more, and the balancing act between flight and stall is perilous – like balancing an elephant on the head of a pin. Let a wing drop and you and 150+ pax spiral into the near-frozen water below. But you keep the wings level, and as the luggage begins to meet the H20, you put the yoke in your lap and "tail drag" off a couple more knots. The tail hits the water – off comes a few more knots – and with wings still level, you stall the beast hard and belly slap the water to become a very expensive boat.

O.K., that was my .02 worth. But I am NOT an Airbus expert, or even a CFI. Would I have gone on TV and said that, no, but 2008 National CFI of the Year Max Trescott – a regular reader of WoF – did face the media and gave a splendid interview when the green light came on.

Trescott went on NBC affiliate KNTV in the San Francisco Bay Area to discuss USAir 1549 and spoke about scenario based training, risk management, engine failure, water landing, ditching, bird strikes, controlled descent, and simulator training.

In discussing if we all should take any opportunity to go in front of a TV camera to discuss aviation, Trescott made a couple of great points to me via email:

"People should think carefully before accepting an invitation to be interviewed by the media. Some of the questions they should consider are:
1) What’s the reputation of the particular media outlet or reporter. Do they tend to sensationalize? If it’s clear that they’re doing ‘gotcha’ journalism, you should probably walk away.
2) Are you extremely knowledgeable on the subject, or it there someone else that you might want to refer them to.
3) Are you an effective communicator? Do you have experience for example giving public speeches or seminars? Do you think very quickly on your feet?
4) Is there any chance to look at the questions ahead of time so that you can prepare?

We should all be on the lookout for opportunities to defend GA, but Trescott's advice should be heeded. As a past member of the traditional media, I can add this to the conversation: Grill the reporter hard before agreeing to talk on the record or in front of a camera. Ask them their "angle" on the story, and if they tap dance, run away fast. Ask them if they are a pilot, or are a friend of GA...because if they are – and if they are one of us – chances are pretty good you'll get a fair shake.

I guarantee you that if you ask the right questions before a media interview, you can get the reporter to play their cards. And if those cards want to harpoon GA, you'll know it and can wait until the green light is on and then spit out endless sound bytes that all paint GA in a positive way. If all they get from you is "Flying GA planes is safe, it is fun, go learn to fly today!"...then when the tape hits the editing bay, they won't have any bits and pieces they can pull out to help them make their case that Skyhawks are falling from the sky.

Thank You Kansas

A little sanity has finally returned to our nation's capital.

This week, many in Congress began to see the big picture about what possible fatal damage they were doing to the aviation industry in this country by ordering companies begging for bailout cash from TARP to sell off their general aviation fleets as a condition of the legislation. With the traditional media shouting this story daily, the public's perception of GA has been seriously tarnished.

Last night at my weekly Toastmaster's meeting (a great way to learn to be a better public speaker BTW) I casually brought up the bailout/business jet issue as a way to determine public sentiment. I was blown away that 100 percent of people I spoke with thinks any CEO getting bailout coin should not arrive to beg for that money in a private plane. "Greedy bastards, let 'em fly coach like us," one person said.

The media has so polluted the public gene pool on this, I could not convince these people that not all executives that fly private jets and turboprops are looking for taxpayer bailout money. I got nowhere. The more I talked, the more they dug their heels in. Private jets = corrupt, overpaid Executives.

But thankfully, I wasn't the only person talking up business aviation this week. It looks like a couple of politicians in Kansas were also bending ears...this is from AP but is being reported all over:

"House legislation placing restrictions on financial institutions that get assistance through the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program had included a provision that recipients of the money would be prohibited from owning or leasing private aircraft. But Kansas is one of the nation's centers of aircraft manufacturing, and Kansas lawmakers complained that the provision could reduce aircraft orders, cost jobs, and damage the industry's image. On Tuesday, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass, the author of the bill, lifted the jet ban from the bill. In a letter to Frank on Monday, Rep. Dennis Moore, a Kansas Democrat who sits on the Financial Services Committee, argued that the industry employs more than 44,000 workers in Kansas and that suppliers employ many more. "General aviation contributes more than $150 billion to the U.S. economy annually and employs more than 1,265,000 people," Moore wrote. Also on Monday, Rep. Todd Tiahrt, a Republican whose Kansas district has the biggest manufacturing presence, advised that he would seek an amendment to have the provision removed."

See...BIG PICTURE! Punishing a few CEOs sure feels good when they are on their knees trying to keep their teetering companies off the bankrupcy court floor. I – like some of you – personally have zero pity on the "Big Three" since they choose to build gas guzzling behemoths and sell them to anyone whether they could afford them or not.

Who among us doesn't feel enormous anger at a financial sector that is near death's door because they did the same thing as the automakers, only by selling HOUSES to those who could not afford them? And now that half of the TARP money has vanished through the smoke and the mirrors, I'm sure it smells like revenge to Average Joe [the Plumber] to take away 'their' jets.

But as Rep. Moore of Kansas said, GA generates $150 BILLION in sales each year, it is a huge part of our economy. I'll bet the guys down at the corner bar in Independence, KS don't feel the same way since so many of their fishing buddies work on the line at Cessna. How about the woman with three kids working the front desk at the local airport FBO? Why punish her because some shady dealings went down in Bush's Washington while the SEC conveniently looked the other way?

I think this will blow over as soon as tomorrow's "fad" news story breaks. By the next news cycle, America's taxpayers will have forgotten about CEOs and jets, and will be talking about what color of Bentley Paris Hilton will buy this week. If the Obama administration can get out there quickly and spark up the economy, people will quickly forget about Bernie Madoff, the Big Three and pathetic financial tycoons as soon as they start receiving a paycheck again.

Because when cornered and asked if losing tens of thousands of GA jobs is worth punishing a few CEOs, I'll bet the guy/gal on the street would come down on our side if they only stopped looking for a job long enough to see the BIG PICTURE here.

TARP: A Much Bigger Threat Than User Fees?

We've all been stressing these past couple of years about the possibility of our Federal government slapping GA with user fees as a new way to finance FAA. We've collectively speculated about the damage that would cause to the financial infrastructure of personal and business aviation.

But now there is a new enemy lurking, one with what I believe to be a far more dangerous strategy that ultimately could punish GA for nothing. That is House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank's new Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

Buried in this language is some even more restrictive rules aimed straight at the "Big Three" automakers who are begging for bailout cash. In this new language is one line that has both GAMA and NBAA on full-blown Red Alert:

3). requires divestment of private aircraft or leases.

That one line in this big, complicated debacle of a "bailout" that the Feds are trying to craft does more damage to the public reputation of GA then anything that has come before it. What it is saying to the public as it's being reported in the traditional media is that ANYONE who flies a private business aircraft is a greedy, overpaid, underperforming weasel. That's the way the automaker CEOs have been described, and after so much BS was slung through the TV sets of America and across the WWW, these CEOs were forced to drive cars from Chicago to Washington DC the last time they came begging.

Of course, you and I know this is all not true...that business aircraft come in all sizes and flavors, and that not everyone that flies a private jet is a greedy weasel. Jim Sinigal, CEO of Costco is the nation's most level-headed, unpretentious and fair CEO, and HE flies in his own private corporate jet [gasp]. Average Joe on the street doesn't know that many companies have already downsized from their Lear to a Pilatus PC-12, and not even Joe the Plumber will have a clue about how cost-effective it is to see clients in three cities in a day by flying a GA plane like my very affordable and efficient 1964 Cherokee 235.

Both NBAA and GAMA – like myself and much of the GA community – are afraid that this public perception of private business aircraft being "excessive" will forever tarnish GA's reputation. Here is what NBAA had to say on the situation:

"According to the press release issued by his office, the [TARP] bill will "require divestment of private aircraft or leases. Congress may be trying to bolster the economy, but enactment of this provision will put the jobs of tens of thousands of hard-working Americans at risk," NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen said. "This could devastate the small businesses that fuel and service general aviation airplanes, further harm the manufacturers who are already laying off workers and slowing assembly lines, and take away a tool from companies that need general aviation airplanes to operate to and from the thousands of U.S. communities that have little or no scheduled airline service."

And GAMA also released this:

"Targeting our industry is an unacceptable and counterproductive response to our nation’s economic situation. If passed, this provision will have an adverse impact on our industry and jeopardize high-paying manufacturing jobs. A decision like this would be completely inappropriate at a time when general aviation manufacturers are already suffering from a weak economy. The last thing we need is for Congress to pursue an effort that will ultimately weaken an important domestic manufacturing industry.”

We all know a new President is due in Washington, DC in a few days, and that new leader has a website where he is actually ASKING for your opinion. At change.gov, you can fill out a form and comment on anything. From what I am reading, these comments are in fact stored and registered with his transition team.

Today I went to the Obama Transition Team site and left the following comment:

President Obama:

I was a big supporter of you here in Oregon, and as a private pilot, I know the major aviation advocacy groups supported your candidacy. But there is new language in the latest TARP bill that will cripple an entire industry in this country, that being business aviation.

Many families and companies depend on private and business aviation as their livelihood, and by forcing companies to give up their private aircraft fleets, thousands of jobs would be eliminated for no reason.

Please have someone research this and hopefully you will find that private and business aircraft are not just perks for celebrities, but a needed tool to allow companies to compete nationally and globally. Please, PLEASE have that language removed...why punish the good people in this industry for the greed and irresponsibility of the Bush administration?

While I know my one comment won't change the world, maybe tens of thousands of comments pleading with the Obama team might do the trick. Please go here and ask them point blank to strip the TARP bill of any language that forces anyone to divest their private aircraft fleets.This is really important, go here today and tell the Transition team what you think.

And yes, it could be said that if read exactly as written, this TARP language might mean that ONLY the automakers must divest their fleets. But that's not the way it's being reported, and the public isn't that tuned in to this issue to notice that tiny detail. We must turn this public perception around immediately before it becomes permanent.

I urge NBAA, GAMA and AOPA to pool there resources and produce a slick 30-second national TV spot that specifically explains in no uncertain terms that business aviation is a vital part of our American culture, and not all people who flie GA planes on business are greedy weasels. I certainly am not, I'm getting zero bailout dollars, and I am not about to "divest" my corporate aircraft for anyone.

FL390: A Really Bad Place
to Run Out of Minutes!

Each and every time I fly commercial or watch the prices fluctuate wildly as I buy tickets online, I wonder if there is a better business model out there for the airlines then the crazy Hub and Spoke nonsense they use today.

Do the guys at the airshows who fly kids for "a penny a pound" have the right idea? Or, maybe the carriers could come up with the amount it costs them to fly one butt one NM, add an honest profit, and then simply calculate the nautical miles on your flight times the seat/mile charge. Long flights cost more, short hops are a bargain. All seats priced that way all the time, right up until they close the cabin door. This would seriously increase spur-of-the-moment flying if you just want to blast over to the next state and chill by a beach or slay trout at a mountain lake.

But wait, a new way of charging for air travel IS out there, and man, is it ever OUT THERE. This is being reported all over, including on wired.com:

"Taking a cue from the cellphone industry, an upstart South African airline is selling flights by the minute and allowing customers to buy tickets and book flights via text message. Airtime Airlines takes to the sky later this month, offering three flights a day from its base in Durban to Johannesburg, Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. Passengers purchase minutes much like they would for a prepaid cell phone and redeem them for a ticket. Fees are assessed according to the length of the flight — say, 75 minutes for the run from Durban to Johannesburg — and could save as much as half of what competing airlines charge."

Well you at least have to give them props for creativity, right? And after your minutes run out, you just fill 'er back up, much like a Starbucks card:

When the card runs dry, you just "top it off" using a text message on your mobile phone. That "top off" rates changes, and today it was R6, or 6 ZAR (Rand). That converts to about .64 cents per mile, making that round trip to Johannesburg and back from Durban cost about $96 USD.

But according to South African site Business Day, this new, cutting-edge airline pricing scheme might never take flight:

"Blackbird Aviation, the group behind the new airline, was pursuing an agreement late last year with Lanseria-based aviation group Air Aquarius to lease three Boeing 737-200s and use the company’s air operator certificate (AOC), needed to begin operations as an airline. However, Air Aquarius CEO Gavin Branson said yesterday that the deal had collapsed and that his company would no longer be partnering Blackbird Aviation. That appears to leave Airtime with no aircraft and no AOC barely three weeks before it is due to begin flights between Johannesburg and Durban."

As is the case with many new airline ideas – including most low-cost startups – the challenge for Airtime Airlines will be to continue filling up seats once the honeymoon is over and the newness has worn off. These operations always have a bare bones marketing campaign out of the blocks, and after the initial press coverage comes and goes, the first thing they always cut back on is advertising. When that happens, less and less people remember a startup, and just go back to flying a legacy carrier because they remember their name or have their site bookmarked.

Do I wish Airtime Airlines well? Sure, why not? Do I think this idea will spread around the globe? Maybe...if they can fly for a year and prove it works.

Will it catch on in the United States? Not a chance. Still to many passengers like me who still can't text an SMS message. But if a serious low-cost U.S. carrier emerged that covered all of the USA and had rechargable (and dirt cheap) flight cards you could renew online, then hell yes, I'd fly them in a heartbeat if they were to add EUG to their routes.

Yeah right...like ANY low-cost carrier will ever fly into my home field.

Nowhere to Go
But Up, Up, Up!

As I write this, we have slammed shut the door on 2008, and for my money, it can't end soon enough! With the exception of (a) the birth of my first grandchild, and (b) the election of a new president that will give Washington, D.C. a long-overdue enema, 2008 is one year I would like to forget ASAP.

In this last tumultuous annum, we saw our retirement accounts pilfered and handed over to overpaid and underperforming financial industry overlords under the cover of "bailouts". We watched whole neighborhoods get swallowed up as the housing markets tanked, we've watch big league aviation companies slash people and production, and we've seen so many layoffs now that headlines like "XYZ Inc. to Furlough 10 Million Employees" no longer even raises an eyebrow.

As the crystal ball dropped on Times Square, we welcomed in a completely new year, one with new possibilities and serious hope for a better financial future. As far as the aviation sector goes, AOPA Pilot Editor Thomas Haines has written a very thorough look at the year ahead here, and he covers all the ground you would expect someone with his industry contacts to cover.

Personally, I see good things coming in 2009. which will start off something like this:

The year two thousand and niner will be the one where I finally earn my instrument ticket...that's coming in the first quarter. Also in the first quarter, we will cleanse the White House of the Bush Administration and on 01.20.09, usher in a new team at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. It is my belief that President Obama and Co. will be able to not just rearrange the deck chairs of our Titanic – par for the course these past eight years – but actually come up with new ideas and then convert them into action by appointing people with something more than "crony" on their resume.

By the second quarter, we might start seeing at least a little progress on the economy:

Nobody reading this can dispute the notion that this country has been in a recession, which has caused a "depression" among nearly all of us on some personal level. Maybe Donald Trump and Bill Gates are still spending blindly, but everyone I know is laying low, questioning every purchase carefully, and trying to wait out the financial ruins left to us as a parting gift by Bush, Paulson and Bernanke. Even a glimmer of hope after Obama's inauguration ought to start everyone back the road towards prosperity. The massive repair job Obama and his team now has to do will not happen overnight, but just having honest people again running our government should make those who still have any money think about spending again.

Since this is an aviation blog, whazzup about that sector, you ask? Good question...

To own a personal flying machine of almost any size, shape and specs costs at least as much to obtain and operate as a nice boat. Those who could afford a used Cessna 172 in 2008 will most likely still be able to buy and fly a Skyhawk in 2009. I believe that middle market buys such as the SR-22 and four-place piston Cessnas will still see a lag through much of 2009 as those buyers wait to see if their retirement accounts bounce back. If the Dow rebounds, expect the phone to quickly start ringing in Duluth and Independance. And anyone who can afford anything with the word "jet" in it's name has to have so much discretionary income to acquire and operate those ships, they will have no excuse but to buy in 2009. After all, if you can afford a HondaJet, brother, you aren't worried about how much a carton of milk costs.

As far as my personal flying goes, I want to put my IFR training far behind me and focus on enjoying the Katyliner with my friends and family. I want to introduce someone to flying in 2009, and try to create a new pilot. And, I want to put my (soon-to-be) new IFR ticket to work and bust out of the Southern Willamette Valley overcast and go chase new clients and hamburgers in the sun.