Evening Flight

[Ed. note: This is a post by aviation photographer Jo Hunter, aka @futureshox...info on her can be found here - dan

I'm meeting my friend Jim at the airport on a baking hot Texas afternoon, one of a seemingly-unending series of 100F+ days; hot enough to fry eggs on the hangar roof. The air is made of bumps and the wind is high, so we take refuge in the shade of the open hangar, drinking cold sodas, chatting about the airfield and admiring the resident Beech 18 parked over yonder.

We watch as the sun gradually creeps downwards, while the wind settles to a more manageable level. As the sun reaches a handspan or two's width from the horizon, Jim rises from his chair and begins the preflight. Fuel is squirted into testing cylinders, control surfaces are tweaked, oil is checked. I give Jim a hand to push his Vans RV-7A out of the hangar, and turn her round on the ramp.

Jim has me close the hangar door over while he taxis around to the pumps for fuel. I watch him start the plane, then lean on the button as the door slides down. A short stroll across the grass and I'm joining him by the aeroplane. He finishes the fueling, stows the hoses and we climb into the aircraft. There's a technique to this; left foot on the step, right foot on the wing root, stand on the wing. Right foot onto the seat cushion, grab the handle overhead, slide the left foot down towards the rudder pedals and lower yourself onto the seat. Once we're both installed, close the canopy most of the way and start her up.

Taxi the length of the airfield, watching our shadow on the adjacent rows of corn, until we near the threshold. Swing the nose around and perform the power checks. Take a look around for anyone else in the circuit - all is quiet; we're good to go. Close the hatch. Jim calls on the radio that we're taking runway 17, taxies out, lines up and pushes the throttle fully in. The engine responds with an obliging roar and we begin to hurtle along the runway. We soon come unstuck from the tarmac, as the Vans climbs easily away from the airfield.

By this time, the sun is a few fingers' width off the horizon and the lights in the town nearby are coming on. They twinkle amongst the long shadows below as we ascend. There's a few thin clouds off to the west and a layer of haze below, as we pass through 2,000 feet. The temperature drops, too; as though someone had turned on an air conditioner; welcome relief. We climb another couple of thousand feet over towards the lake, which gleams with the reflected warmth of the late evening, only matched by the polished aluminium of our wings.

We level out to watch the sun set. It is bloated and red and almost ready; a slight elongation as it sinks close to the darkness; lengthening now, with a sliver of cloud across the sun's disc. I am reminded just how fast the world is spinning as the whole sun becomes a part, then tapers into nothing and it's gone.

Shadows have covered the ground, but we're still lit by the ambient light. The town becomes brighter. Moving white and red lights are traffic on the roads below, but a solitary white and green movement in the distance is another aircraft enjoying the evening's magic. The air has become smooth and cool and it feels like our own little world.

It's beginning to get darker now, so Jim points us back towards the field and we descend. Feel the heavy warmth of the lower air hit us at that 2000 foot boundary again. As we approach, Jim takes delight in turning on the runway lights with a few clicks of his microphone switch. He brings us round through downwind and base until we're looking into a pathway of green lights. Gently down; fly her onto the tarmac. Squeaks from the stall warning horn and the tyres announce our arrival. We roll out and turn onto the taxiway, heading back to the hangar.

Jim shuts the engine down, and we climb out into the dusky Texas evening. He opens the hangar and I help him push the plane back in. Tuck her in with fans to keep her cool, then bid her goodnight. It's been a beautiful evening.

Future of Flight Aviation Center - A Day in the Life: First Flight of the Boeing 787

By Sandy Ward, Marketing Director

Future of Flight Aviation Center & Boeing Tour

We started thinking about the first flight of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner on July 8, 2007 (7/8/7) when the first plane rolled out of the paint hangar and into the factory during the splashy event at the Boeing Everett plant. It was then that we knew it was time to begin planning a celebration for the first flight.

Much to our surprise, we set about organizing a party that would morph several times and come two years late. No, wait – back up. We actually started dreaming about the first flight when we opened the doors of the Future of Flight on December 17, 2005 almost exactly four years to the day before the actual event.

After a couple of false starts, we had big plans for a summer gathering as Boeing announced first flight would take place before the end of June, 2009. We envisioned a celebration that would include an exclusive donor party on the Future of Flight’s Strato Deck on a sunny day with mimosas and yummy breakfast food. We were certain the plane would take off early since the sun would be shining behind the photographers providing great pictures just in time for the noon news. The parking lot would be overflowing with regular people and we would all enjoy a flight against a gorgeous blue sky.

But six months later, under a heavy blanket of clouds and rainy, windy, winter weather, we began to prepare, once again for the Dreamliner’s first flight. Being outside in winter weather is never really pleasant unless you are skiing or snowshoeing or sledding and dressed for it so preparing for an event that required people to be outside this time of year was a challenge. There was a huge buzz about the flight and we knew that nothing was going to stop people from watching the first flight on Tuesday, December 15, 2009. So our staff set about planning for the crowds.

How to plan for what Boeing executive Scott Fancher has called an aviation game changer:

To do list:

· Find the pom-poms – version 1.0, 1.1, final version 1.2

· Organize staff and volunteers

· Order riot fence

· Get live feed in Boeing Theater and gallery

· Traffic control – yikes, 300 parking spots, busy intersection! Wonder if there’ll be a traffic jam?

· Order coffee, cocoa, snacks and EXTRA TOILET PAPER, (no kidding, this is very important)

· Get the word out. OK, we answered calls from print and broadcast TV/radio offering spaces on the Strato Deck (private fundraising event for the Foundation) or in the parking lot. Twitter proved to be the best way, by far, to reach the bulk of people because we were able to provide minute by minute information.

First Flight Day:

I arrived at 1:45am on the morning of December 15th to accommodate CNBC who would be broadcasting live to their east coast audience. At just after 2am I noticed a guy who had his cool camera equipment covered in expensive plastic (was that a garbage bag?) stationed on the berm. He was dressed for the weather, having parked down the hill, he walked in and staked out his spot. I told him it would probably be at least an 8 hour wait with no chair. He jumped up and down in one spot to keep warm and said he was aware and prepared, showing me his ski pants and big boots and said he did not mind sitting on the wet grass. I hope like crazy that he got the pictures he wanted.

At 4:15am other media began to arrive – CBS, ABC, FOX, and even some radio stations. Directing media trucks in the dark can be dangerous. Note to self: Order reflective vest. By 5:30am cars were backed up waiting for the parking lot to open at 6:30am. Most people chose to park in familiar neighborhoods and walk in. Lobby opened at 8am to the “thank goodness” sighs of those who’d been waiting (crossed legs) in the parking lot since 6:30am and those Jones-ing for a hot cup of something. The parking lot was completely full by 9am.

At 9:40am it appeared the weather was going to be acceptable for flying so the crowds pressed closer the fence line. Moms, dads, kids, regular people and professionals all shoulder to shoulder just to get a glimpse of the Dreamliner’s special day. Photographer check list: cameras, BIG lenses, tri-pod, hat, fingerless gloves – oh, AND step ladder.

As ZA001 fired up her engines, we could see the crowds of Boeing employees and media on the other side of the runway. Since we’d been waiting two years (well actually four) for this very moment, I half expected the process to be long and drawn out but to my surprise, she turned onto the runway (taxiway was full of people) headed south for the nearly 9,000 foot trek, made a dainty pirouette on the south end of the runway, took a deep breath (we held ours) as Boeing test pilots Mike Carriker and Randy Neville then began what would become history as she headed north on runway 34L.

To say she is beautiful is an understatement. A lovely bird-like creature, she lifted off with elegance and confidence to the cheers, tears and goosebumps of a crowd of thousands who all said, “it was worth the wait.” And it was!

Boeing's Future Finally Takes Flight as the Lucky Few Report the News Live from KPAE

As I watched Tuesday's webcast of the long-awaited first flight of Boeing's groovy 787 Dreamliner, I also had the #787FF Twitter feed up on my second display. It was an exhilarating news event when Paine Tower made the call "Boeing zero-zero-one heavy experimental, runway 34L cleared for takeoff." As the 787's gear lifted from the runway, Boeing's video team had a camera at the opposite end of the runway, down low, to further add drama to the liftoff of ZA001. It was breathtaking!

With the webcast, the whole world was watching. And these days, if you want to take the pulse on just about anything happening in that world, add the # hashtag to it on the Twit and watch the news/views roll in. It is the modern-day equivalent of the old Teletype machine, only instead of scruffy hard knocks reporters in smoky newsrooms sending out "wires", this is Average Joe and Jane – mixed with many legit news agencies – pounding out real-time reporting in 140 characters or less.

So what happens when you mix a really dramatic aviation event with Twitter? Here's your answer:

As the minutes clicked off towards Dreamliner's planned launch, it seemed everyone on Twitter was a WX forecaster. I saw numerous tweets insisting the ceiling had lowered sufficiently to scrub the first flight attempt. Wrong they were, but it did ramp up the intensity of the moment. Then, when ZA001 actually started moving, scores of Tweeps chronicled every inch of that movement. "Confirmed: wheels moving, taxi has commenced!", or "OMG OMG OMG It's rounding the turn of the apron headed for the taxiway!!!!!!" But the real fun began when the flight took off. More than one Tweepster compared this event to the Wright's first flight, a stretch, but still worth a grin. Another insisted (with all caps) that the first flight was "more significant than Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon." Uh. Huh.

While I am very excited about the first flight of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner, I am sorry to report it does not carry the same importance in my world as Orville and Wilbur's first flight or the first steps on the Moon. How will I view this first flight? This might help:

I have written before about a lecture I attended a few years ago at the University of Oregon when Burt Rutan was speaker. His topic was commercial space travel, and how it was the next achievable milestone in aviation. The first obviously was the Wrights, which got things started. Next was the DC-3, which made coast-to-coast flights a reality. Next, it was the 747, which opened up the world to international flights. But he stopped there, saying that nothing since the 747 has been that "next big thing" that aviation needs. His theory is that his SpaceShipTwo will be that next milestone, making flights through space to the other side of the planet quick and smooth. I agree with his thinking, which is why I must say the 787 Dreamliner – while easily the most sophisticated and sexy airliner flying today – is not a game changer, it's instead more of a industry changer. Years from now when flights on a -87 are as common as trips on a CRJ are now, we'll look back on all the fuel saved by the Dreamliner and thank Boeing's engineers for making such an efficient ship that raised the bar so much higher in terms of providing comfortable air travel with substantially less damage to the environment.

Will the Dreamliner save commercial aviation? No, not by itself. But with 840 orders being reported from various sources in Boeing's order books, there can be no disputing the fact that it is a wildly popular design that has been embraced by airlines all over the world. These carriers can read performance numbers, and the Dreamliner delivers stellar ROI for those who are willing to wait in line.

This is to take nothing away from the first flight. I am envious of the lucky few who were there at Paine Field to see this historic event. And it WAS historic, much like the first 747 flight back on February 9, 1969. While maybe not a "milestone" by Rutan's definition, the 787 Dreamliner is indeed redefining what an airliner should be. If the carriers keep to Boeing's promise of wider seats, more legroom, cleaner air and a plush ride in the entire cabin, passengers will soon seek out the carriers flying the -87. This means better profits for the 'lines...and when that happens, Boeing's order book will swell even more, allowing more workers to keep their jobs in Everett and around the world.

And in this economy, keeping jobs is reason enough to celebrate ZA001's first flight!

The Official Keepers of All Hangar Flying Tales

We've all heard 'em...whopper flying stories usually told in the vicinity of a hangar or airport coffee shop. Generally, they go something like this:

I was flying my J3 Cub back in '53, in a little 'berg called Oregonia, just spittin' distance south of Dayton, Ohi-ee. I was a-coming over the fence when one of them damned Gooney Birds came outta nowhere, cut right in front of me! Before I knew it, my windscreen was filled with Douglas, and there was nothin' I could do but hang on for the ride. And true as the sun shines, I throttled back, slowed her to stall, and dropped my gear right onto the Gooney's back...and rode that sucker right down to the numbers.

Or something like that. O.K., you might have already figured out that the hanger flying tale above was just fun with fiction, but you know those stories are out there by the thousands, waiting to be told. And a year or so ago, I stumbled across the people who I believe should be considered the Gatekeepers to All Aviation Stories of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.

EAA's Timeless Voices of Aviation (TVA) oral history program coordinated is a valuable archive of video interviews with a long and very important list of interviewees such as Dr. Peggy Chabrian, Founder and President of Women in Aviation International, Aircraft Designer Burt Rutan, Astronaut Robert “Hoot” Gibson and General Paul Tibbets, pilot of the Enola Gay. According to a very good article about the program on Aero News Network, over 756 people in the aviation world have given their story, many of them just regular hamburger chasers like you and me.

According to the TVA site, their goals are lofty but extremely important to aviation history:

(1) To collect thousands of first person video oral history recordings from individuals who have impacted aviation’s development. (2) To document and preserve these recordings for future generations of family members, teachers, students, historians and others. (3) To make the recordings accessible through an on-line video history archive, and initiatives such as Museum displays and TV productions. (4) To engage thousands of volunteers in the rewarding process of gathering video oral history recordings.

Of course, it takes lots of leg power to amass this important video archive, which is where you come in. If you have an off-the-shelf digital video camera and want to help, read the following:

Timeless Voices has made it easy for volunteers with a free project kit that can be requested. The kit contains release forms, checklists, the biographical data needed from the subject, tips and sample questions on conducting the interview. Potential volunteers can contact them via email. A volunteer can perform one interview, perhaps someone in the local area they know with a story to tell or the volunteer can be a "have camera, will travel" type.

To sample some of these great video interviews, go here and select a category such as Commercial, Military, WW II, Performers, Pioneers, Recreational or Space. And while you're on this awesome site, be sure to give special thanks to the Robert A. "Bob" and Susan C. Wilson Foundation for generous support of the Timeless Voices of Aviation program.

EAA...one of the most important acronym organizations in all of aviation. And each summer, they are the Kings of All Who Fly, the Guardians of Airplane Mecca, the hosts to the World's Largest Fly-in and Flying Machine Orgy. EAA'ers are a jovial and tireless group of aviators who always know the best ways to boil Brats in Beer and Onions before throwing them on the grill, truly some of America's finest who will give you the shirt off their backs, if you're in need of a shirt.

Damn, those people at EAA just keep bringin' it, don'tcha know.

Airplane Ownership Can be a Roller Coaster Ride

(Ed. note: This is the first of a Guest Blogger series I will be running. Learn more about Jonathan Katz here.)

I looked at the calendar and noted it had been two and a half years since I began training for my private pilot certificate. I passed my written exam four months earlier in a flourish to finish my ticket before our second child was born, but due to other financial constraints, that was as far as I got in the spring of 2007. It was hard to believe I even started as far back as early 2006 and now 2007 was coming to an end.

When trying to analyze why I wasn't flying I realized hourly rental and instructor fees were costing as much if not more than a monthly car payment! I felt as though I was throwing away money on my FBO's sexy glass panel aircraft, which due to their higher hourly fees I never even flew. Alternately, two of their other aircraft were complex beasts that student pilots weren't allowed to cast a shadow on.

After examining my family's finances and a lot of lobbying of my spouse I went ahead and bought a Grumman Yankee, a 1969 AA1. An airplane designed to be simple to maintain and something that could work as trainer and time-builder. I found the plane on e-Bay. The pictures of it sitting alone on a ramp, like an abandoned puppy needing a home, spoke to me. Although I had heard from many people to go with a pre-buy inspection I figured for the deal I was getting that if there was anything major that needed to be fixed the cost would be negligible. Additionally, the aircraft was a few hundred miles away. Even if I wanted a pre-buy inspection who would I call? My friends who flew were all local to the Indianapolis area, as were the AP/IAs.

The owner's son flew the airplane to me. A CFI, he took me around the pattern a few times and I felt comfortable with it. Funds were exchanged and papers were signed and I owned an aircraft. A few moments later I put a phone call through to an insurance agency and the aircraft was insured, too.

Everything seemed good. The logbooks were good, the instruments worked. The paint was faded, but flying is more important than faded paint. And then the airplane sat.

First the FBO at the airport where I kept the airplane couldn't instruct me in it. It's not that they weren't CFIs or weren't Grumman savvy. Far from it. Simply put, the baby weight I put on during my wife's pregnancies, a full load of fuel, plus a CFI would put the aircraft well over its 1500lbs MTOW. I had to hunt around for a svelte CFI. The Grumman Type Club, the AYA put me in touch with a great CFI.

Then a voluntary change in jobs meant I was working longer hours. And then that change in jobs turned into a job that wasn't there which was followed by three months of unemployment. Sure, I could have used my weekly unemployment check for flight lessons but that idea landed me on the couch for a few nights.

Finally, things started coming together in March of 2008. I finally received a job offer and was able to set aside time with a Grumman-club CFI. I was flying again. The new job had me traveling and the next thing I knew it was May, time for my airplane's first annual under my care. I took the airplane to an IA across the field from my hangar; an IA that came highly recommended to me by several aircraft owners locally.

After a few days, I found out about the corrosion buried in the airframe. Corrosion that could be fixed, but something that my local AP was not comfortable working on due to the Grumman's composite and honeycomb construction. In fact, my local IA was not comfortable providing a the paperwork for a ferry permit to take my aircraft a measly 103nm away.

I consulted with my CFI and several knowledgeable people from the AYA. After much deliberation, and heartbreak I decided the best way to recoup my investment in the aircraft would be to part it out. Sure, I could have had it repaired, but by the time the repairs were complete, which would require the aircraft to be repainted, I would have far more invested in the aircraft than what it was worth.

I started taking offers and even found a few people interested in the aircraft whole, although for much less than what I paid for it. I looked at my time constraints and found that I didn't have the time or facilities to start to unbolt and unscrew every last piece of my airplane. It simply made more sense to eat a financial loss and part with the bird as a whole.

She's gone now. The ferry pilot picked up the airplane and took off into gorgeous midwestern sky. I have a check in my pocket, part of which will go into some items required for our house, and the rest may go as a down payment for another aircraft. But for right now I'm back renting aircraft again.

And Now For Something Completely New:Join Me, Fellow Airplanistas!

It is a rare day when you can stump the search engines, and it's almost unheard of these days to come up with something that is not yet out there. But I've succeeded in doing just that, and you get to join in the fun:

There are pilots, and wannabe pilots, and people who go to airshows. There are people who work in the aviation industry, and even those who occasionally notice a Cessna on short final as they drive to the office. All of these groups may have varied levels of interest in aviation, but their life might not revolve around aviation and airplanes. You might call this group "aviation enthusiasts". But for those humans who wake up in the morning thinking about airplanes, read nearly every aviation magazine printed each month, spend the majority of their Internet time looking at aviation-related web sites, I am hereby coining a new name for these people, a new phrase we all should begin using: These people are "Airplanistas". If you go to the airport to hang on a fence, hang around hoping to wash an airplane or maybe get in their own plane just to go out and poke holes in clouds or enjoy the exhilaration that comes as PIC when your gear and the runway part company, you, my flying friend, are an Airplanista.

I spent time over the weekend looking up the term "Airplanista" to use in another post, and came up empty on all search engines. I used NowGoogle (a search engine aggregator site) and could not find even one time anyone on this planet besides me has used that term online...zero, zilch. [Full disclosure: I did find an abandoned domain name from several years ago, but I used Wayback Machine to determine it was never used]. I also went to Google Blogsearch and again, zero results. Think about how hard it is to do that.

And, of course, there was a Google blogsearch page (pdf) online immediately after posting showing just this post – which I believe should validate my claim to the word "Airplanista" as this term's originator.

So I immediately jumped on the domain name airplanista.com, without really knowing yet what I'll do with it. Maybe I'll craft a new aviation community aimed at all of us who eat, sleep, breathe and live airplanes. But what to do with this, right now:

Maybe we can form a secret society of Airplanistas, come up with a secret handshake and even an encrypted code to communicate with. We could develop the Airplanista Movement into a powerhouse lobbying group full of the best, brightest and most enthusiastic aviators in the country. Get together at Oshkosh and compare our "addicted to aviation" stories. Or not. Maybe this can just me a casual term we aviators call ourselves, sort of like the "Fashionistas" who roam the streets of Midtown Manhattan looking for the very latest Prada handbag.

Are you an Airplanista? You'll know it if you are. So join me in the fun, and somehow we can gather together every Airplanista in the land and make something happen...or at least have some fun. One thing is for sure...from here on out, anyone who uses this term to describe themselves or others should also note it came from Av8rdan, right here, right now.

When Life Gets in the Way of Blogging,You Call in the Reinforcements

Everyone reading this post knows the drill well. After you're born, you waddle through a few early years teething and crying, then blast through puberty. A few years go by when you crack a few books in between keggers before being thrust into the world to battle it out on the real-time reality show we call "life".

As an adult these days, more and more of us are finding ourselves on a treadmill. Up early, work your ass off, balance career with family while trying to squeeze in a few minutes of your favorite hobby. And if everything slides along without a hiccup, we are golden, as one day leads to the next and we move forward and upward. However, that is not always the case:

At my day job, I wear lots of hats; web designer, photographer, graphic designer, campaign developer, IT support, copy writer and corporate pilot. As part of the crew here at my ad agency, we all get a tremendous amount done every day. And as a good employee working for...myself, my work always comes before anything that resembles fun. It has to be this way if I/we are to survive as a viable business. We're going on 11 years now, and all is well in ad agency land, but as we get busier, my blogging time and energy to write at 11P at night dwindles to nothing.

As I pound this out, I am feeling 1000% guilty for not providing my many readers with fresh, relavant content during the last 60 days or so. Today, as the Pacific Northwest is under a deep freeze, I have been under my house, up on top of my water storage tank, and wrapped around my pressure tank and pump in the garage trying without success to get water flowing again to my home through pipes frozen solid by temperatures as low as 8F. I am physically exhausted, but I could not go to sleep without writing something as the last post on this blog is almost a week old. In Av8rdan time, that is an eternity. Something has to give:

In an effort to keep my material fresh, I am putting out a request to my readers asking if anyone might want to submit an occasional post as a guest blogger. If you have a bit of a reputation for stringing words together in a fashion that entertains others, and you want to spread the word about an aviation topic of interest to my readers, send your writing sample to me. I'll look your it over, and post the ones that rock my world. I cannot promise to post them all, and will pick and choose the ones that exhibit the perfect mix of aviation enthusiasm and a professional writing style. I am looking for finished, quality writing, not rambling and rants.

There are a few conditions:

(1) Best thing to do if you wish to submit is email me a writing sample which includes a paragraph on what your story idea is and what story you want to tell. If it looks like something my readers will love, I'll place it on the blog, with links back to your site/blog or in some cases, your business. Of course, when used, your work will have all the proper bylines and attribution you deserve. Email me your writing sample here.

(2) This is a volunteer blog, there is NO money involved for me or anyone else. So your published post/article/story will generate a little buzz for your writing, but no paycheck.

(3) Please limit your writing sample to 500-1,200 words. Also, try to send a couple of pieces of art along as well and I'll edit the best one.

(4) With your submission, you grant me the right to re-publish the article on World of Flying, but nowhere else. I assume no ownership of anything you submit, you are just loaning it to my blog for publication.

(5) This is not the blog if you want to flame someone. Yes, your opinion is welcome and feel free to query me on any aviation topic. If you send in a finished piece, make sure it is written with taste and displays respect for anyone you mention. I am looking for people with good creative writing chops.

Should be a fun and pretty straightforward experiment. You have stuff in your head, and you got a b+ in collegiate creative writing. You really want to tell the aviation world a story, but maybe don't have a blog of your own. So please email me your writing samples and queries, and let me expand the horizon at World of Flying. Who knows, this might spark a new growth period with my blog, and I may end up hooking up with some new writers who want a outlet for their stuff.

I am looking forward to hearing from you. Let's build a community, shall we? Email me your writing sample here.

Dig Out Your Foil Hat, the EAA SchedulersAre Reading Our Minds Again

At last year's EAA Airventure Oshkosh, the organizers managed two of the biggest "gets" in all of aviation. A "get" is television trade jargon for landing that one big interview nobody else could...get. By landing scheduled visits by an Airbus A380 and WhiteKnightTwo, they helped push the show to an attendance of 578,000, a 12 percent increase over 2008.

And now, as the cheese hardens in Winnebago County, EAA's staff are at work trying to come up with that one big thing that will draw record numbers of pilots and aviation enthusiasts to the 2010 edition of their annual Late July Bratfest, airplane orgy and 'Smores cook-off.

So EAA apparently has cranked up their super secret mind reading machine, and after performing the equivalent of a wiretap on the GA community, have discovered that one big thing we will not be able to avoid Oshkosh 2010. This is from a very recent EAA release, courtesy of Dick Knapinski, EAA Media and Public Relations, who Tweets as @EAAUpdate:

75TH ANNIVERSARY OF DOUGLAS DC-3 CELEBRATED WITH AIRCRAFT REUNION AT EAA AIRVENTURE OSHKOSH 2010

What could be the largest Douglas DC-3/C-47 gathering in more than 60 years will be a centerpiece of the aviation activities at EAA AirVenture 2010, "The World's Greatest Aviation Celebration," which will be held July 26-August 1 at Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh. EAA is working with a large group of owners and operators of the venerable aircraft, which commemorates its 75th anniversary in 2010, to bring their airplanes and join the reunion at Oshkosh. The event is being organized under the theme "The Last Time..." as it likely will be the final time that more than 25 of these airplanes will be seen together, including formation flights. This is likely "The Last Time..." DC-3 fans will ever see this large a reunion.

So what is the one airplane that EAA knows will get us to come to Oshkosh? Yes, of course, the DC-3. Who doesn't like these great planes...they are my all-time favorites, and EAA's Grand Poobah tells us why:

"The DC-3, in both civilian and military configurations, has been a true workhorse aircraft since it was unveiled in 1935," said Tom Poberezny, EAA president and AirVenture chairman. "While the aircraft helped make air travel popular and profitable in the 1930s and 1940s, the fact that it is still used around the world today is a testament to the aircraft's design. We're looking forward to welcoming these iconic aviation legends to Oshkosh for AirVenture 2010." Douglas Aircraft made the first flight of its new DC-3 on Dec. 17, 1935 - the 32nd anniversary of the Wright brothers' first successful flight. It was first designed as an all-metal passenger airliner, later evolving to a coast-to-coast luxury transport complete with sleeping berths. By the late 1930s, it was estimated that 90 percent of America's airline passengers were flying in the DC-3. More than 14,000 of the type were built, with some 10,000 of them used extensively in all World War II operations theaters carrying the C-47 designation.

According to the EAA release, fewer than 100 of the aircraft remain airworthy in the United States. Oshkosh and Wittman Regional Airport also happens to be the home of Basler Turbo Conversions, one of the world's leading DC-3 conversion shops. Whether it's a powerful and versatile Basler BT-67 – the first-ever variant of the DC-3 certified as FIKI (flight into known icing conditions) – or Duggy, the Smile in the Sky, every DC-3 ever made seems to tug at our aviator hearts.

EAA says this is a work in progress:

"While exact details of "The Last Time..." weeklong festivities are still being finalized, planned activities will include a mass formation arrival, a designated aircraft display area, historical and technical forums/presentations, fly-bys and a special evening DC-3 commemorative program at Theater in the Woods."

One thing is for sure..this will be a huge deal...and required attendance for those of us who love the -3. If you care to learn more about this family of great airplanes, this site has it all. And one of the finest DC-3 restorations was Delta Air Lines DC-3 "Ship 41", a masterpiece that is worth learning about.

I had not planned on attending Airventure again this year, I usually go every other year, and reserve those off years as family vacation time. But with this DC-3 reunion on the schedule, who in their right mind would miss that massive formation arrival?

I have to be there...I have to.

My Personal Collection of WX Links:Not Lockheed Martin, but Not Bad Either

Tonight at a great party of the Lane County chapter of the Oregon Pilot's Association, a good friend of mine who is a student pilot asked what weather sites I use to make intelligent go, no-go decisions.

I explained that while Internet weather is great, in many cases it is not a substitute of a real, live telephone briefing. Sure, when it is "clear and a million" and the mission is a VFR flight to chase hamburgers, the web can be fine for your weather briefing. But if your planning an IFR flight in IMC, the web gives you a great look at the "big picture" but you really need to call Lockheed Martin at 1-800-WX-BRIEF before you go wheels up to do battle with towering cumulus and lowering freezing levels.

So here is my current collection of weather sites and links. The first grouping is the Jet Stream panels, because any interpretation of aviation weather cannot be made until you understand what the jet stream is doing. The second grouping marked "Flight Briefing" is the daily use sites, the really important ones I use every day even when I am not flying.

Enjoy*...and please note I ripped these straight out of Safari and did not test each link, so if you come across any dead ones, just move along.

JET STREAM

weather.com - Thursday US Jet Stream

weather.com - Monday US Jet Stream Forecast

weather.com - Tuesday US Jet Stream

weather.com - Wednesday US Jet Stream

weather.com - Friday US Jet Stream

weather.com - Saturday US Jet Stream

weather.com - Sunday US Jet Stream

JETS

Unisys Streamlines Plot

Unisys 4 Panel NGM

Near real-time Jetstream

FLIGHT BRIEFING

Latest OR METARs

Latest CA METARs

Latest WA METARs

KEUG

FD

KHIO WX

AWC Graphical AIRMETs

ADDS - CIP Icing

FRZG LVLS - WXU

Interactive GOES West

ADDS - Icing

NCEP Winds Aloft

West Coast FA

Intellicast - Visible Satellite in United States

WESTERN US GOES IR

NOTAMs

FAA TFRs

NWS RADAR USA

ADDS - TAFs

PAC NW NEXRAD

ADDS - LOWEST FRZ LEVLS

NCEP Winds Aloft

CCFP Convection Probs

Jet Stream Position

Wunderground Convective Outlook NW

ADDS - PIREPs Java Tool

OTHER FUN STUFF

NOAA GOES WESTERN US IR

IWIN Animations

ODOT roadcams

US RIDGE Radar

Oregon Text Weather Page

Interactive Weather Information Network

IFR/MVFR.url

Interactive Weather Informa.url

Wx.com Natls.url

SFONEX

G10WV/IR

G10

NWS All Doppler Radars

weather.com - US Airport Overview

GOES-8 EAST WV Sat

NOWCASTS

California - All Warnings

DUATS West Coast NEXRAD

DuPage Raw METARs

Convert Celsius

US Airports IFR/MVFR

ADF

National Hurricane Center

NWS

Q-Brief

FAA - Graphic TFR

IWIN-OR

WXTAP - Home

Time Zone Converter

AOPA Online: Weather

AOPA KEUG Text Weather

AOPA METAR-TAF-PIREP-WINDS

NavMonster US TFRs

DTC

DUATS

Lifted and K-indices

aviation weather abbreviations

DUATS NEXRAD graphics

UTC time

ADDS - METARs

National Airspace System

REALLY OLD SITES

DUATS WX MAPS

VFR/IFR

AV-WX

IFR/MVFR

Jet Stream

NOAA Graphical Forecast for Pacific Northwest

GOES 10IR

ORE-FD

ADDS WX - ICING

ADDS - TAF/METAR

Airline Dispatchers WX

CA MET

EUG WX

IWIN-OR

ADDS - TAFs

National Airport Status

nice west Sat

EUG NEXRAD

FREEZING LEVLS

If you have any "must-see" sites you use before a flight that are not on this list, please email me the names/links and I will try to pass them along.

* The World of Flying legal team wanted me to tell you that this list is meant for ENTERTAINMENT ONLY. Any use of these links for actual flight planning is done so at your own risk. I assume zero responsibility for anything that happens as a result of you clicking any of these links.

Jetliner Dreams in a Mechanical Wonderland

(editor's note: This is part two of two. Part one is here.)

In part one of my post on my recent factory tour of Boeing's Everett Assembly Building, I gushed over the completely awesome scene of looking down on actual 747s being fabricated right before my eyes. I tried to put into words the sheer size of this facility, certified by the good people at Guiness (the book, not the beer) as the largest building in the world by volume.

Now, in part two of this post, I want to try and explain what the rest of this fantastic tour is like. As I write this, the words will not do justice to what any pilot feels and sees when he/she takes this tour. We've all grown up around Boeing's stellar line of jet aircraft, and I'm sure I speak for all of us when I say how magical it still is to see something as big as a 747 actually achieve the lift required to fly hundreds of souls to Grandma's house. So to see these legendary craft be built is an experience sort of like EAA Airventure Oshkosh...it has to be seen to be believed.

The tour of the assembly building starts in the two 747 assembly bays, and after a short bus ride next to fresh new aircraft right out of the paint shop, we descend into another of those infinite underground tunnels towards the 777 assembly bay:

As we viewed the 747 lines, each aircraft that was nearing the end of production was literally surrounded by gigantic structures made of a combination of scaffolding, tools, ladders, carts and people. We tourists wondered aloud how much of a production it must be just to remove all that stuff and move one 747 from this station to the next. But as we looked down upon the one giant bay that is the 777 line, it looked like a sleek, streamlined version of the -47 line. It had to be that way...because like modern automotive assembly lines, the 777 line MOVES! O.K., it moves at 1.5" per hour, but that is still a foot per eight-hour shift.

The 777 line was shut down this Thanksgiving weekend, so I didn't get to see it "move". But just try and comprehend this for a moment...so many parts, so little time:

When the 777 line is up and running, Boeing's team of workers can crank out one of these mammoth liners in 7-9 weeks, a big improvement over the 16 weeks it takes them to build a 747. But imagine the pressure these workers must be under to build such a complex machine as it is "moving" through the factory. There is no time for slacking, there can be no weak links in this chain. This truly is a job best suited for superheroes.

Once we pulled our jaws back up from the floor at the 777 bay, we walked around a wall and saw the most anticipated part of this tour, the maternity ward where the most exciting airliner ever conceived is given birth:

Because the large components of the 787 Dreamliner are constructed elsewhere and flown via Dreamlifter to Everett, the 787 assembly bay looks quite different than the others. At our right was Dreamliner #10, resting on the landing gear, in the very last stages of construction. Behind it was a 787 marked with a large #11, which still was being assembled. To our left was another -87 marked #12, still waiting for wings and nose section to join some mated fuselage sections. If you are, like me, completely in lust with the 787, you cannot help but to almost well up a little looking at these Dreamliners coming together. Sure the first flight is still possibly a couple of weeks away (according to this report on Flightblogger), and yes, the delays have been frustrating for anyone watching the program. But when you actually SEE the Dreamliner, all of that goes away and you simply stand amazed at the sight.

There was one big thing I noticed about the 787 line that was missing from the 747 and 777 lines. Slide rules:

Since both the 747 and 777 are mature, fully-vetted models, their assembly bays had a bare minimum of desks and other office areas in which to work out any manufacturing glitches that arise. That's because they've got everything in those designs clicking right along, so the engineers have moved on to, you guessed it, the 787 line. As I looked down on that new line from the Observation Deck, I could not help but to notice that one entire side of the bay was covered in cubicles, desks, workstations, walled-in meeting rooms, computers, white boards, file cabinets and everything else Engineers need to think - and design - on the fly. I got the distinct impression that they are still sort of "figuring out" the 787, even as the Dreamliners slowly make their way out the hangar door. This tells me that the 787 is a work in progress, an evolving ship that will only get better as each heads over to the paint hangar.

If you've stayed with me this far through parts one and two of this post, I'm sure you have made future plans to visit Everett, Washington and take this tour. For any person who loves to see how things are built, this will be the best $15 you will ever spend in your life. For any licensed pilot – especially those EAA'ers who have their own little version of Boeing in their garage or basement – this will be an unbelievable, almost indescribable adventure to airplane land.