Aviation Weather on the iPhone:Tired of Waiting, I'm Moving On

For the last two years, I have been using Digital Cyclone's Pilot My-Cast on my stupid little Samsung U740 phone. While the phone was kind of a joke, the program was just what I needed. Pilot My-Cast served me well, never crashed, and at $10 a month, was a pretty decent deal. I was really glad on many, many trips to have real aviation weather in my pocket.

But on 11.04.09, my Verizon contract was going to expire, and it was time to reconsider my options for pocket aviation weather intelligence. See, my wife Julie was the iPhone user in the family, and had given me signals that she wanted to move up to a new 3Gs phone. That meant, her first-gen iPhone was up for adoption. And since I have been craving the whiz and bang of that stellar product, a deal was struck to get us on an AT&T Family Plan, moving her into the new 3Gs and me into her legacy iPhone. Only one thing was left to sort out:

Back at Oshkosh in late July, I had a long list of things to see and people to talk to. One of the first things on that list was to stop at the Pilot My-Cast booth and get the real story of when their app would be ready for the iPhone. While the rep at the booth was very gracious and even gave me a pretty cool free hat, they were as vague as can be about a release date. "Get on the email notification list" was about all I could get out of anyone there. So as my Verizon contract came to a close, I noticed on the My-Cast site that their iPhone release has been pushed from "fall" to "later this quarter". So I did what I had to do, got the iPhone and immediately installed Foreflight Mobile, version 2.4.1.

This decision is not at all based on the My-Cast app itself. I am sure that when it finally hits the Apple Store, it will be a polished, mature app just like their other versions are for various other phones. But I simply got tired of waiting, and man, am I glad I did:

Foreflight Mobile is about as sweet as you get. It has been designed from the ground up by aviators, actual pilots who use aviation weather every day. Because Tyson Weihs and the rest of the Foreflight team are pilots, they understand how this kind of app needs to work. This is not a bunch of guys laid off from Circuit City slopping together some crap in a basement, no, this is a nearly perfect and very functional app that delivers everything a pilot needs to get the "pre-flight intelligence" required to make better weather decisions.

Of course, I always recommend getting a phone weather briefing if you plan to fly IFR in actual IMC. And, there is a grand amount of WX products available on the Internets. But when you are out there on the ramp about to depart, Foreflight allows one last quick look at everything from the big picture to the intimate details about your destination FBO. After a couple of weeks using the app, I still cannot find anything deficient in its operation. Sure, people can get all nit picky with anything, but I challenge anyone who gives Foreflight a serious workout to find an area in which it still needs massive improvement.

Maybe this quick admiration for Foreflight comes from my quick admiration for the iPhone in general. Yes, I KNOW I'm coming late to this party, but, damn, this little sucker does everything you need a communications device to do. The ability to handle email, send and receive Tweets, surf the web, pull down accurate NOAA aviation weather and locate the nearest Geocaches is only upstaged by this:

Not going to mince words here, the very dependable Toyota pick-up that I drive is sadly either "Plain Jane" or "box stock", take your pick. For some reason, I have never upgraded the old school cassette deck, and so I usually drive around listening to NPR. But this weekend I bought the little adapter that allows the use of 3.5mm earphone jacks in the iPhone's ridiculous odd-sized earphone jack. On the way home from 'The Shack, I dug my old cassette adapter out of my glove box, slipped the faux cassette into the deck, and plugged this into the iPhone. I cranked up the built-in iPod on the phone, and discovered that the sound quality and power of the iPhone's iPod is way WAY better than my old iPod, which sounded tinny and crappy when played through the old deck. No, this phone was driving my speakers so well, I cruised home slowly, smiling as I wondered just what the hell this phone could NOT do.

So before you do anything else to get aviation weather on your iPhone, pony up the seventy five clams and get Foreflight. I promise you will love it, I know I do. And if the $74.99 price seems high for an iPhone app, consider that price against the $120/year subscription that one must pay for Pilot My-Cast. Next year, it's another $120, and the year after that, yep, $120. This makes the one-time-only price for Foreflight seem like an exceptional value.

Garmin's New Touchscreen Panel Confirms it:I am a Dinosaur

There can be no disputing the fact that avionics has been in a state of flux for a number of years, a forward push towards better technology that vastly improves safety and situational awareness. As the days click off this thing we call life, we watch as each new week brings us something for our panels with more whiz and bang than the stuff that was debuted last week.

After the engine, the avionics is easily the most critical part of your flying machine. But in just my 13 years as a licensed pilot, the evolution of avionics has been dramatic:

I have flown planes with Loran, and that distant cousin of GPS kept me out of trouble. I have flown planes with ADF, but that was in my primary training when it was just a puzzling and odd contraption taking up space on the panel. Of course everything I have ever flown had VORs, and I seem to collect older GPS units that can no longer be updated. Today's panel looks nothing like those back in 1996 when I got my license, and even my current ride – a 1964 Piper Cherokee 235B – has more "steam gauges" than the trains that used to visit Petticoat Junction. But in this pilot's flying "career", one thing is constant. I have never touched a glass panel or any GPS aviation product made by Garmin. Despite this, I somehow fly my certified IFR bird around in and out of the clouds perfectly legal, and so far have always got where I was intending to go.

Full disclosure: I did fly a demo flight in a Cirrus SR22 once from Corvallis, Ore. back to Eugene, but my hands were busy caressing the supple leather of the side stick and throttle, and the demo pilot was the button pusher for all the shiny objects and glass gizmos before my eyes. But this week's news that Garmin has released what I believe is the most beautiful panel ever conceived is really shaking up the industry. AOPA has the details:

"If you’re a light-jet pilot you’re very lucky, because Garmin just introduced the first touch-screen glass cockpit for Part 23 light turbine aircraft. You’ll have far fewer knobs to remember when using the G3000 system. There remain soft keys, buttons that are relabeled to fit the task at hand. iPhone users will feel right at home. The console-mounted touch screens control radio management, audio management, flight management, weather systems management, synoptics, and other vehicle systems. The simplistic user interface leverages the experience Garmin has gained by designing and delivering millions of automotive consumer products. As with the G1000, the G3000 has full reversionary capabilities, including in-flight dynamic restarts, so that all flight critical data can be transferred seamlessly to a single display for added safety during flight. Garmin expects to receive G3000 technical standard orders (TSO) certification in the second half of 2011."

There is just something about this new panel that screams "game changer!" As I sit drooling on my keyboard gazing up at my new desktop image of the G3000, it makes me realize that not only have I never flown a glass cockpit airplane, now the avionics world is literally passing me right by as if I were tethered to the tarmac with tiedown chains:

It was bad enough when the Garmin 430s came out way back when and I could not afford them. Then Garmin upped the ante with the 530, and after that, added WAAS versions of each. I watched from the sidelines as Avidyne kept bringing bigger and badder panels to the avionics dogfight, and I was speechless as the G1000 panels arrived. So now, without ever even touching any of these "boxes", Garmin has added insult to injury with the G3000. I feel like a relic, yes, like a dinosaur, old and out of touch in the avionics race as I languish in the back of the pack behind my non-standard configuration of steam gauges.

As I write this, the annual NBAA convention and shopping spree is under way in Orlando, and of course that means just like Oshkosh, 'tis the season for gigantic news releases about the aviation industry. Today's big news was that both the PiperJet and HondaJet will have the G3000 panel, which will cause a major dilemma for pilots like myself:

I have been in love (lust?) with the HondaJet since I first saw it in person at Airventure a few years back. But this year, I watch the PiperJet fly at Oshkosh, and it dazzled with its quiet noise shadow and ridiculous slow flight performance. So now that I peer out into the ocean of life through a long telescope and watch as my ship slowly comes in, I must now decide which of these TWO dream airplanes is...the one. And with the news that they both will have G3000 panels when they hit the showroom floor, I just have to ask...

Would it be all right if I have them both?

Balloon Boy Mania: Media Gets Punk'd While Boy All But Admits Hoax on CNN

I am not lying when I say I awoke Thursday morning feeling like something weird or bizarro was going to happen. Not necessarily something bad, just something weird. And Jeez Louise, did that premonition come true:

If you were near a TV or on Twitter this morning, new broke after 11A that six-year-old Falcon Heene was trapped inside a homemade hot air balloon floating at altitudes up to 15,000MSL over the flatlands of Eastern Colarado. The family was constructing the fake UFO in the back yard of their suburban Fort Collins, CO. home, and Falcon's brother swore he saw Falcon get into the balloon and depart the backyard airport. The family reportedly called a local TV station begging for their news chopper to be launched in search of the boy, and as fast as digital news travels these days, in minutes the story was wall-to-wall, non-stop coverage on every cable news station.

As this drama unfolded in streaming video on my desktop, it soon became the most intense thing I have watched in years. A little boy floating in a very odd spaceship/balloon that was listing and spinning at altitude was mesmerizing, one could not help to think this might end badly. Twitter exploded with traffic, and the cable news people were stroking out trying to find out what the hell was going on with this increasingly strange story.

We all gasped as the now-deflating craft gently floated back to Earth in a freshly-plowed field. As first responders opened the door, we were all wondering if they were going to pull a lifeless body out. But the craft was...empty.

From the second the word got out officially that the boy was not in the craft when it landed, people started talking hoax. History on the family is that they were recently on the reality show "Wife Swap", about the most dysfunctional example of worthless television we have these days. Further, the dad has been featured on various Storm Chaser TV programs. That, coupled with the fact that THEY HAD AN INFLATED FAKE UFO BALLOON IN THEIR BACKYARD certainly raised lots of red flags.

But before anyone could confirm this was a hoax, the story quickly spread that there might have been some sort of basket underneath that the boy might have been in, and that news sparked a massive ground search for the boy and the basket. As this was unfolding, news came that, guess what, the boy was in fact hiding in a box in the garage attic, safe and sound.

When this news broke, again, many screamed hoax or publicity stunt. But, maybe the boy accidentally let the balloon go and was hiding in fear of being in trouble. Until that riddle was solved, the hoax storyline could not be "officially" published.

But late this afternoon, a youtube video raced through the Web that seems to confirm that this could have been a really poorly implemented stunt:

In this video, CNN's Wolf Blitzer is interviewing the family, and asks why Falcon didn't come out when he heard his name being called. In a small, kind of scared six-year-old voice, he is heard clearly saying "because you guys (parents) said we did this for a show." 'Nuf said.

So if the family "did this for a show", they sure caused a mess of trouble in our skies while playing their "lost kid in the balloon: game. This is from AP:

"The Colorado Army National Guard sent an OH-58 Kiowa helicopter and was preparing to send a Black Hawk UH-60 to try to rescue the boy, possibly by lowering someone to the balloon. Northbound departures at Denver International Airport were shut down as a precaution to prevent against a possible collision between the balloon and an airliner, said Lyle Burrington, an air traffic controller at the Federal Aviation Administration's radar center in Longmont, Colo. Air traffic controllers warned planes in the area about the balloon, Burrington said."

If this proves to be in fact a charade, the hundreds if not thousands of first responders on the ground, the ATC people, the FAA, NORAD, the airlines that had flights delayed, the media outlets that got punk'd...they're all going to line up to get a piece of this family:

Had the kid not said that in a national CNN interview, I'd have held off on playing the "hoax" card. But I've watched the video many times, and you cannot dispute that the kid definitely said he thought they were doing this for a "show." We have not heard the end of this story, and I suspect the family will be on every morning and afternoon talk show to tell their story. But unless they can come up with solid evidence that Falcon was wrong on this video and it was all a big mistake, I think the Heene family can kiss their book and movie deal goodbye.

Yes, I still am hopeful that this was a big mistake, and Falcon was not saying what we all think he was saying on that CNN video. But if it proves that indeed it was a planned stunt, I have a hunch the local and Federal authorities will not only fine this family into bankruptcy, but the parents could also be looking at jail time over any number of charges. You can view the father's response to Blitzer's follow-up question here and make up your own mind.

Yes, a very bizarro day indeed.

UPDATE @958A on 10.16.09: It's game over. MSNBC has footage of balloon boy's dad launching the balloon from their backyard yesterday. Clear evidence to dispute their story from yesterday. I'm thinking the cops might have, um, a few questions for this family.

Low and Slooooow:What Future Air Travel Might Look Like, or Not

Admit it, we're all fascinated with blimps. From 1785 when Jean-Pierre Blanchard stuck flapping wings and a tail resembling a bird on a balloon and crossed the English Channel, we've been "pushing the envelope" on airships. [Oops, I see the Pun Police outside my window...]

People loved crossing the Pond hanging from the belly of the Hindenberg until 1937 when that craft met its toasty demise in Lakehurst, NJ. And of course, what discussion of blimps/airships would not be complete without a mention of Goodyear's large stable of blimps? They've been present in our skies over major sporting events as long as anyone reading this have been alive.

We fixed wing drivers like to poke fun at the blimp crowd once in a while, for reasons that are unclear. Maybe it's their shape, or their ill handling ways, or their less than stellar performance numbers. But on occasion a story pops into our world that again makes me wonder publicly if blimps - all right, airships – might not be a pretty decent way to carry humans to Grandma's house.

But before they can be considered as serious air transportation, they need to carry a LOT more people and go a LOT faster. Well, maybe that's not such a far out idea, so says this from YankoDesign, via Gizmodo:

"This whale-like entry into KLM Indonesia's aircraft design competition reminds me of the French "Manned Cloud" concept from a few years back. The WB-1010 would seat more than 1,500 people, and use a combination of super-jet, helium, and wind power. The concept's designer, Reindy Allendra, imagines the aircraft being constructed from material similar to the giant Airbus A380's GLARE composite: Glass-Reinforced Fiber Metal Laminate made of thin layers of metal and glass fiber. The WB-1010 would supplement its fuel use with the ability to harvest wind energy into electricity. An extractable robotic stand would also be used during the craft's vertical landings."

So this futuristic creation solves the "more passengers" issue, but what about forward speed? I searched a little tonight, and found out that even with pedal to metal, it's still going to take some time to get from A to B in a blimp. This is from modern-airships.info:

"On Monday the 27th October 2004, the [late] U.S. American adventurer Steve Fossett and his Co-Pilot Hans-Paul Stroehle set a new speed world record for airships. They were flying the 1000 meter course in both directions with an average speed of 111.8 km/hour [69.4 mph]."

So even by flying at world record speeds, it will take an airship about 40 hours in a no-wind situation to fly the LAX-JFK route. Respectable, sure it beats the crap out of Amtrak, but in today's short attention span world, will anyone find that many paying pax willing to camp out in a blimp for almost two full days to get across the country?

But, if the journey was the attraction, then of course this would be a very cool way to travel. Airships are known to be able to carry huge payloads, and if you pimp one just right, it could just be the coolest way to cruise in luxury. Again from Gizmodo:

"Strato Cruiser Airship, Floating Along Without Wings or Reality - The rich are different from you and me, so maybe they'll have time to ride in this Strato Cruiser Airship, sitting back and getting pedicures while this helium-lifted carbon fiber blimp lumbers along. The design concept calls for spectacular restaurants inside staffed by star chefs, a spa, private suites, office space, a swimming pool and even a resident DJ. If this all gets too boring for you, the designers also plan to install a bungee-jumping platform."

Now who among us wouldn't want to try out a little bungee jumping on the way to a business conference?

As we have discussed here before, how to work commercial airship fleets into our jammed airspace might be interesting. But nobody I know of is planning to launch scheduled airship service before the "next generation" of ATC comes online. By then, we hope there will be systems in place to allow high speed passenger jets and much slower piston singles to weave their way around some tricked out airships as they plod along.

And as a person who flat digs trains and thinks a great deal about someday taking a slow, scenic train ride across this great land of ours, maybe doing the same thing at 500 AGL in a blimp might be, oh, about a 1,000 times better.

AOPA Summit - Bringing Every GA Pilot in theCountry Into the Conversation About GA's Future.

Every year as AOPA's Annual Convention approaches, I get a little nostalgic about what could have been had my career went down another path. These days, I am content in owning a healthy advertising agency that specializes in promoting aviation businesses, but had the stars lined up differently back in 1998, I might be typing this from Frederick, Maryland:

From the very first time I learned about AOPA, I knew I had to work for this fine organization. I attended my first "Expo" in Palm Springs and was blown away by the way everything seemed to be in its place, how everything was displayed, how together this group of aviators seemed to be. On that trip, I made an personal plan to head off to AOPA headquarters some day and sleep on their doorstep until they hired me to do anything. I'd park the cars (no, they do not really have valet parking), then maybe bus tables in the cafeteria. I'd use my gift of gab to talk my way into a job in the production office of AOPA Pilot, and soon they would notice my skill set - a combination of journalism, printing, photography, design all delivered with a large dose of honesty and high ethics. Over the years I would work my way up through AOPA's ranks to be in their management, and instead of being just a happy pilot attending their convention, I would be one of the movers/shakers putting the party on. I would do this because AOPA makes a big difference in every pilot's life, and it would be fantastic to be a part of that effort.

Of course, this plan never developed past the "great intentions" stage, and as I sit here 11 years later, I generally have no regrets. But as this year's AOPA convention comes together, I am again feeling like it would have been the best job in all of aviation to be on the team that leads GA into our future.

This year, AOPA's "Expo" has been re-branded as AOPA Aviation Summit and as a marketing person, I think this move is brilliant. There has never been a more contentious time in GA than right now, and changing the scope and focus of AOPA's convention is the right thing at the right time.

I asked Tom Haines – AOPA Pilot Editor and himself a GA pilot – about the rebranding of "Expo" to "Summit" and his response was quite informative:

"The decision to reposition the already successful AOPA Expo to AOPA Aviation Summit was [AOPA President] Craig Fuller's. The change represents his vision of how AOPA should play a key role in bringing together all affected parties--federal agencies, manufacturers, regulators, and, of course, pilots--to chart a successful course for general aviation. As the word "summit" implies, AOPA Summit will be a place where decision makers and influencers come together to discuss the future. Rather than position the show as the last event of the year, we would like it to be seen as the first event of the upcoming year--a place to look at the landscape ahead. The general sessions each day will focus on the future. Thursday kicks off with Craig interviewing leaders of each of the major aviation groups. I follow with interviews with several major airframe and engine manufacturers to get their vision of GA of the future. Friday Craig hosts a panel of authorities on NextGen while I talk to manufacturers about advanced avionics and flight control systems necessary for NextGen."

Of course, we all know that AOPA Summit - and the "Expos" that came before it - are as much about fun, camaraderie and education, and this year's event will not disappoint, says Haines:

"On Saturday of Summit, I [Haines] host a session with motivational speaker Jessica Cox. Jessica, who was born without arms, is a phenomenal person who, among every day challenges, learned to fly an LSA. She is highly inspirational and will lead us to a discussion with Remos about how LSAs can be a factor in changing the way nonpilots experience aviation for the first time--hopefully leading to a higher success rate among student pilots. Of course, it's not all about envisioning the future, it's about having fun and learning too--as the AOPA convention has always been. Rather than talking-head seminars, we will have dozens of forums where experts come together on panels to share their thoughts on everything from runway safety to buying an airplane. The exhibit hall will showcase hundreds of new products. At the center of the exhibit hall is the new "AOPA Live at Center Stage" television studio. There Craig, I, and several other editors will interview industry leaders. The interviews will be shown on large screens throughout the hall and later available on AOPA Online for download.

Out at the airport, the former "aircraft static display," is now AirportFest. Instead of just typical GA aircraft, it will also feature seaplanes, hot air balloons, military airplanes, classic and antique airplanes, warbirds, and more. Among the featured airplanes is the Lockheed Electra used in the filming of the movie "Amelia," which debuts a week before Summit. One area will feature a gathering of airplanes from 1939 and 1940, in celebration of AOPA's 70th anniversary this year. The social events will be more entertaining than ever, including a concert by recording artist John Oates (of Hall & Oates). John is a pilot who frequently uses GA for travel."

If there was ever a year to attend this wonderful AOPA annual event, this is the year. Summit is being held in Tampa November 5-7, and all the details can be found here.

Some Pilots Rock Their Wings...This Pilot Rocks the House

How many Certified Flight Instructors do you know that can say they've phoned their flight students to walk them through instrument ground lessons while doing a concert soundcheck with their rock band from the stage while on a national tour? If your answer is "none", well, that's all about to change.

A couple weeks ago, I was strolling down Broadway Avenue in downtown Eugene, Ore. during the annual Eugene Celebration. The street was the main focus of this eclectic, crazy and oh-so-Eugene party where we crown the annual Slug Queen, try to set a new record for saying please and thank you to strangers, and bounce between numerous stages listening to live music.

As I walked past one alleyway, I heard a blast from my past crashing between the buildings. I was lucky enough to have been at the very last Led Zeppelin concert in the U.S. July 24, 1977 at the Oakland Coliseum, so I knew the band was no longer around. I stopped to listen, and was spellbound as a near exact replica of "The Lemon Song" tantalized my eardrums. Like moth to flame, I was drawn down the alley:

At the "Library Stage" was this ridiculously cool band playing Led Zeppelin the way it was meant to be played. The band was Zepparella, an all-female band out of the S.F. Bay Area, and they were doing supreme justice to the music of Plant, Page, Bonham and Jones. The drum beat was crisp and pounding, the bass building a solid foundation. The lead singer was KILLING with a voice that was as soulful and aggressive as one needs to be in order to do Plant right. But what knocked me out was the lead guitarist, who was channeling Jimmy Page in her own style, one that was - to me - just as entertaining.

I came home and immediately bought the band's two live albums off of iTunes. I also wrote to thank them for the Eugene show, and in that conversation I found out that the lead guitar player, Gretchen Menn, happened to be a pilot. And not just a regular Ham 'N Egg GA stick like me, but a one-time professional pilot who flew RJ's for Continental Airlines.

This begged the question: How does a line pilot go from the flight deck of an airliner to blowing away audiences in her touring rock band? So I posed that and a few other questions to Menn, and what follows is her reply. I guarantee that if you stop reading right now, you'll miss the story of one of the most colorful aviators any of us will have "met" in a while.

World of Flying: Describe what prompted you get interested in flying, when you got your license, planes you have flown, additional ratings, and what you've done in your flying career.

Gretchen Menn: Starting flying was the result of a combination of caprice and a natural love of pulling G's. I have always adored roller-coasters, and am one of the rare people who actually thinks turbulence is kind of fun. My first year in college, the local airport put up flyers around campus offering discounts to students--$99 for three lessons. Incidentally, this happened to fall during the week that I had become obsessed with the Pink Floyd song, "Learning to Fly." It quickly became evident that flying was too expensive of a hobby for a college student, so I put it on the back burner, and just went up occasionally. When I graduated a year early with a degree in music, though, I started thinking about what my next step would be. I felt that I owed myself an additional year of education, and saw flying as a fun, challenging, and completely separate career from music. Moreover, a complementary career would shelter my passion for music from the necessity of making a living at it. I graduated from college, went directly to flight school, and within a year got my private, instrument, commercial, multi-engine ratings, CFI, CFII, and MEI, and started teaching right away. I flew primarily Cessnas (150, 152, 172, 172 RG), Pipers (Arrows and Archers), Beechcraft (Duchess and Travelair). After one year of instructing, I was hired by Continental Express to fly the ERJ (145 and 135). I flew for them for about a year, and left when I realized there was no way of making music the priority it needed to be, so I vacated the seat to someone who would truly appreciate it.

World of Flying: So my readers can make the connection between your music and flying, tell me what kind of flying you get to do now.

Gretchen Menn: After leaving the airlines, I went back to flight instructing part-time, but am now pretty much full-time music. Unfortunately, I rarely get up in the air now, though I keep renewing my CFI!

World of Flying: Tell me how you got involved with music, what age, what instruments.

Gretchen Menn: I took the requisite piano lessons when I was about five, studied flute for 3 years when I was in elementary school/middle school, and got into guitar in late high school. I started studying guitar my first year of college.

World of Flying: As your guitar skills were maturing, at what point did you realize you were good enough to go pro and make a living as a musician?

Gretchen Menn: I never thought about it that way. I just knew music was what I most loved and wanted to do, and that I'd do whatever was required to make it happen.

World of Flying: How did the idea of forming Zepparella come about?

Gretchen Menn: Clementine, the drummer of Zepparella, and I were in an AC/DC tribute band together. We wanted to play more shows that the other band members, and to take on new musical challenges. On the way to a gig one night, Clem and I were driving together, and she said she'd always wanted to do a Zeppelin tribute band. I said, "I'm in! Where do I sign up?"

World of Flying: I was a pretty big Led Zeppelin fan, and usually HATE tribute bands. But yours is not a tribute band, right? Just four women who rock and play their songs?

Gretchen Menn: Zepparella aims to pay tribute in a way that is more all-encompassing than the just the literal rendition of a Led Zeppelin show. It's like the concept of obeying the letter of the law versus the spirit--we strive to honor the spirit of Led Zeppelin as well as the music. So, that means I learn Jimmy's riffs and solos as note-for-note I can hear them, and I do study the details, but I don't mimic his moves on stage. We don't wear wigs. We do improvise when it's appropriate--not to improvise would ignore an enormous component of Zeppelin and what they were about. It's a balancing act between the letter and the spirit.

World of Flying: This is one question I have always wanted to ask a professional musician...when you have to fly commercial airlines to a gig, how to you ship/transport your equipment?

Gretchen Menn: Oh, I could really go off here. I have a major issue with how the airlines deal with musical equipment, and I've made many a phone call to tell different airlines that whichever airline would implement an instrument-friendly policy would have a stranglehold on musicians as customers. Even with crew tags on my guitar, I found my case horribly abused after one flight on my own airline! So, I make it a point to fly Southwest, as their 737s have plenty of room in the overheads for a guitar. I make it a point to be in the A boarding group, and to never, never be rude to a gate agent or flight attendant. They are the people who determine whether you get to carry on your precious instrument. I also have good cases in the event of the horror, the horror of having to check something, and insurance for the worst-case-scenario.

World of Flying: What is the demographic of your audiences? All fiftysomethings like me who remember Zeppelin, or younger people who might not have heard their music but love the way you play?

Gretchen Menn: The venues we usually play are 21 and over, but the all-ages shows we play on occasion have tons of younger people who are huge Zeppelin fans.

World of Flying: Back to flying. I am guessing you are an aviator at heart, we pilots all are. Do you miss the flight deck of a commercial airliner?

Gretchen Menn: An aviator at heart, yes, but not pining particularly for the flight deck. I am less attached to the equipment than to just getting to play in the air. Airline flying is, of necessity, pretty sterile, and I am probably cut out more for aerobatics. The ERJ was a pretty slick plane, though.

World of Flying: When you are on the road with the band, do you ever get to spend any quality time at smaller GA airports just hanging out? Do you ever rent aircraft in different parts of the country just for sightseeing?

Gretchen Menn: Not so far, though I have taught instrument ground lessons on the phone before soundcheck!

While not a musician myself (unless you count beating my Djembe drums into submission), I can promise anyone who loves Zeppelin's music one thing: If you go here and learn about Zepparella and watch their videos and then go seek out one of their shows, you will not be one tiny bit disappointed. And as a purely hetero male, I can also happily report that they are a real pleasure to watch perform. A rock band without a generous dose of sex appeal is, well, the Osmonds, and the ladies of Zepparella present a classy stage show with enough shaking, rattling, rolling and swiveling hips to satisfy their audiences.

And if you're at an outdoor concert venue some day listening to Zepparella and you see their lead guitar player staring up into the sky watching as a plane flies overhead towards the horizon, at least now you'll know the reason why.

Take From the Rich and Give to the Deserving

The other night, one of my fellow Toastmaster members asked for input from me as research for a speech he was developing. His topic was "Community Service" and he asked me to describe the one big contribution to my "community" I have made.

I told him my "community" is the GA community, which spans the entire country, and without question, my biggest contribution has been the founding of the Welcome Sky Aviation Scholarship Program. The tale goes something like this:

In about 2003, I developed the Welcome Sky Aviation Scholarship Program at the flying club I belonged to back in Fresno, the Central Valley Aviation Association. It was my program 100%, and I developed it without modeling it after any existing program. It worked as if we had hired Robin Hood as our front man so we could accept cash donations from current pilots that were financially comfortable, and pool that money to pay for flight training for the best and brightest 18-24 year-old pilot wannabes we could find. The main idea was to generate new pilots to replace the old guys who would lose their FAA medical cards and have to stop flying.

In developing Welcome Sky, I wanted to find just the right kind of young people to join us to be "welcomed" into our sky. That exercise was exhilarating:

To determine who got the money, applicants submitted a minimum 1,200 word essay to a panel of judges that described how strong their desire was to learn to fly, and what they wanted to do with a flying career once they earned their pilot's license. I demanded they write this long essay because I feel that being a good writer is key to success in any endeavor, and anyone who never bothered to learn to write correctly was not the pilot candidate we wanted to give scholarship money to. What we got was unbelievable submissions from kids that were eloquent in their essays, and from these essays, we judges could easily see which candidates were real aviators, and which ones just liked planes because they were cool. The judges independently scored the essays, and a winner was chosen each time we had enough money raised to pay for a full-ride scholarship to pay for private pilot training, about $5,000 at the time.

One particular essay stands out in my mind. MaryPrue Fitzpatrick was one of our winners, and her story was just like every one of our own. Once the judges read her story, we all knew she HAD to be a winner:

One of her interests was sports, particularly softball. She attended a high school that was generally under the approach end to Fresno Chandler Downtown Airport's runway 30. She explained in her essay that while she was a pretty decent ball player, her coaches were always on her because as a fielder, she would lose herself in her dream to fly each time a GA plane slid by overhead on final approach to FCH. She said it was hard to concentrate on softball as she looked skyward staring at the plane, and each time this happened, she knew she had to learn to fly. This, my friends, proved she was one of us.

So how did Welcome Sky do? We had one full scholarship donated by Mazzei Flying Service at FAT, and we raised enough cash to train two other kids, so in all we produced three licensed private pilots. The program fizzled out after I escaped Fresno and headed to paradise where I currently reside, but by no means is Welcome Sky gone forever. The success we had with this program proved its worth, and I believe a similar program could be developed on a nationwide level to generate hundreds if not thousands of new, young pilots.

The only thing that stands in my way of taking this program national is time, which I have little extra of these days. But should I somehow retire one day – which I hope is sooner rather than later – you can just about bet I will resurrect the Welcome Sky Aviation Scholarship Program. With a help of teams of fund raisers and judges across the land, we could create a crop of fresh faces that will be aviation consumers for decades. That, my friends, would be a great thing, and I can personally guarantee that elation is a very weak word to describe the feeling we program organizers feel when one of these kids earns their private ticket.

So take this to the bank: Welcome Sky WILL return one day, all I have to do is retire first. But don't hold your breath on that happening tomorrow...not in this economy.