When Aviation Meets the Winter Olympics

The last few nights, I have been thankful I operate my world from a Macbook Pro laptop so I can plant myself on the couch, watch NBC's coverage of the Winter Games, and still do a little swing shift work.

But me, well, being ME, I always seem to think in terms of how whatever I am doing relates to the glorious aviation world in which I live. Sometimes I think this is quite normal behavior – doesn't everyone pay $100 for a burger? – but just when I assume I'm getting close to thinking like a normal non-aviator, this happens:

Last Saturday night, we enjoyed the Eugene Ballet's unbelievable contemporary ballet Dark Side of the Moon, with a couple of new friends, one of which is currently a student pilot. In one of choreographer Toni Pimble's great pieces on the bill called Common Ground, a dance begins with a thick layer of white stage fog enveloping the entire stage. As the music picks up volume and tempo, you first see an arm appear up through the soup, and then a head. Another arm, another head, and soon, body parts are popping up everywhere. At intermission, I asked my student pilot friend if we were the only two patrons in the audience who thought we were watching "IFR dancing" tonight. He looked at me and said, "man, Dan, you've got it bad!"

Yes, I suppose I do. But being addicted to aviation is way better than anything I've been addicted to in my "colorful" past. Enjoying a love affair with flying machines won't get me divorced, or, like one particular uber-famous golfer, getting a little "stick time" on the side won't cause me to end up before the media making weak, fabricated apologies.

So as I sit here tonight watching the Olympics, I find myself wondering just what would happen if a bunch of pilots were to take over the games. Here's a few "improvements" we might see:

Wing Suit Ski Jumping: I'm mean no disrespect to the ski jumping community, but your sport is boring on TV. With minor exceptions, it appears that each dude lands in damned near the same spot...yawn. So why not let these guys wear Wing Suits and launch them of the top of the highest Peak on skis? Their jumps would them be measured not in meters, but in miles.

Red Bull Slalom: You take those rocket Red Bull race planes and strap on skis as if they were Piper Super Cubs headed out to the North Slope to slay moose. Set those giant Red Bull inflatable turn markers right in downtown Whistler and make these guys blast around the pylons at about 2' AGL.

Four-man Bobsleigh, Duluth Style: You watch the bobsleigh (didn't these used to be called bob SLEDS?) and ask yourself how much drag that ice must be causing. So why not let Cirrus Design build the sleigh/sleds using full composites and an efficient new design. I say we put wings on the sides of these big boy Flexi Flyers so they get just enough lift to let them fly maybe six inches off the ice. Fast? You betcha.

Seaplane Biathalon: Which drunken Eskimo came up with the idea of combining skiing and rifle shooting? So we get rid of the whole idea of skis – already plenty of other snow sports at the games – and put the athletes in DeHavilland DHC-2 Beavers on floats instead. Now a team sport, one guy flies from target to target while his buddy hangs off the strut blasting away at Volkswagen-sized targets floating in Burrard Inlet.

Men's Downhill Skiing: O.K., these downhill racers have balls, this we know. Their runs down a vertical sheet of ice look out of control, and when they crash, they really get pounded. But we, the insane, bloodthirsty fans, want more. I say we strap Martin Jetpacks on the racers and launch them down the mountain. Speed, sure thing. But when they hit those berms that are there now to create havoc on their horizontal stability, they can just goose the Jetpack and blast off towards the finish line.

Snowboard Halfpipe, Oshkosh Style: Yes, Shaun White is amazing, the absolute Michael Jordan of halfpipe. But a 1080 double backside McTwist can be a tad boring if your used to watching the afternoon airshow at EAA Airventure. So we make the half pipe a couple miles longer, and let Patty Wagstaff, Mike Guilian and Sean Tucker fit skis on their aerobatic aircraft. We let them redefine what spinning around upside down is all about, and they can even say "dude" in every sentence if they wish.

Curling: Who the hell invented curling anyway? My guess is some liqueured-up guys in either Manitoba or Upper Wisconsin got wasted one night out on the frozen lake while ice fishing, and started betting on who could slowly and with great precision glide their tackle box directly onto a mysterious yellow stain on the ice. But if aviators became curlers, that liqueur would be a cup of airport coffee, and the tackle box would be a cylinder jug off a timed-out Lycoming O-540.

So there you go, the Winter Olympics according to Av8rdan. Now back to the TV for more of Bob Costas' play-by-play during the three-man (and a woman) naked luge competition.

Flying Across America: An Effort weMust all Rally Behind

By Vincent Lambercy

Guest Blogger

You want to do… what?

Everything is in the project’s name, isn’t it? Flying Across America. We did not say it in the title, but as we have to fly back home, we will indeed fly across America… twice: from Florida to California, and back, in a bit less than one month. We want to have time to meet other pilots and aviation enthusiasts, and preach for General Aviation along the way. We also need this time because we will fly in Jason’s Cessna 150 – not the fastest aircraft ever, but a very economical one.

But…why? We’re two aviation nuts, intimately convinced that General Aviation is a great value to the community and we want to make more than blogging about it as we already do on Jason's blog and Vincent's blog. We want to turn this flight into a big and positive event. There are lots of things going on in aviation; lots of interesting places to visit that deserve more attention; lots of small organizations doing great work, and so on… We are in touch with many of them through our online activities, and we like to link them together, and not only on the net.

Undertaking this flight is our way to do something great to promote General Aviation, improve its image, and make people aware how good it is for all of us, flying and non-flying.

What’s our message? We want to share four values that are deeply associated with aviation: friendship, self-development, service, and fun. If you’re a pilot, you already know what we mean with friendship. I’ve met pilots from all parts of the world, from all branches of aviation, and we somehow all speak the same language, and belong to the same group. This universal pilot’s solidarity extends over distance, ages, and cultures. Being an aviation fan means being part of a great family. People which see pilots as egoists isolated in their cockpits should take the time to visit their local flying club… they would be surprised how social flying is. I mean, just look at this project. A U.S. Flight Instructor flying together with a Swiss private pilot living in Germany. If this is not international, almost universal friendship. You know, we never actually met, at least in "real" life. We'll meet the day before departure.

The self-development part is also obvious to all pilots. Learning to fly is not only about being able to take-off, cruise, and land. There’s a lot about decision-making, working together with others, and managing complex situations with limited resources, getting to work under pressure. Becoming a pilot changed the way I act in many situations, and in a very positive way. You know, once in flight, you have to cope with your decisions, stick to them or change them, but there is no “pause” or “reset” button. Take-off are optional, landings are not.

Many people think that General Aviation is made of business jets flying VIPs and rich yuppies flying in light aircraft. These things exist, for sure, but GA should not be reduced to that. Geneneral Aviation fulfills a lot of missions, from touristic sightseeing flights, aerial surveys of lots of things, medical transports, mail and freight, media relays to cover sport events, rescue operations, and it is a time saver for many businesses. The number of jobs directly or indirectly by General Aviation is impressive, and one should not see it as a costly hobby for a the rich and affluent. By the way, getting one's pilots certificate in Jason's aircraft costs less than $5.000. To say one more thing about what GA is doing for the community, to you know that most Christmas Trees are transported by the air from the plantations to where they are prepared for retail sales?

The fourth part of the message, the fun part, is probably the easiest to explain. Aviation is a lot of fun, in flight and also on the ground. Here again, we encourage skeptical people to visit their local airport and see what for a great community exists around each and every runway.

Do you really expect people to pay for your flight? Basically no, possibly yes. All clear? In a perfect world, we would fund the flying ourselves and raise funds for various charities. By the time we decided to start the project, we were not in a position to fund 100% of it ourselves, and this is why we decided to raise funds for both the flying and the charities. Our goal is however to fund as much of it as possible ourselves, and we are going in this direction. For example, I paid for my flight from Frankfurt to Jacksonville myself, not from donations.

We could have asked friends and family to support us and raise fund "privately" (and we did...) but we thought it would be great to associate as many persons as possible to this project, to make it a real community thing. We also plan a book and may be a DVD to relate all of it later. And if people want to support us in other ways than by donating money, they can buy branded items from our online shop. We have great tee-shirts, mouse pads and drinkware. Some FBOs en-route offered us discounted fuel, and we will be hosted by supporters at different stops, helping us to reduce accommodation costs. If you live anywhere close to our route and want to meet us, let us know.

What about the charity then? As said above, we do our best to fund the project ourselves, and save on all possible costs. We even envisaged chair-sleeping at FBOs, but this is not exactly safe on the medium to long term. Our goal is to raise money to make a donation to one or more aviation-oriented charities when the flight will be completed. There are many of them, pursuing different goals and doing a great job, and we really want to bring our contribution there. This is why promoting our flight on the net and reach as many people as possible is important to us. Any cent left after the flight will be donated, and we hope there will be lots of them.

What's the present situation? We've a bit more than one quarter of the required funds, but this is without taking in account the Frankfurt - Jacksonville airline flight, which is already paid for, and some housing and fuel discount offered by different supporters. These things can not be calculated accurately at this time, but be sure that we have a very accurate tracking of all the financial aspects of the project.

How to learn more? You can find all details on www.flyingacrossamerica.com. We post there about the preparation, about General Aviation, and we also run giveaways to encourage donations. During the flight, we will blog daily to report our progresses, and tell more about people we meet, and great places we visit.

The flight will start on the 19th or 20th of June, and will last until the 17th of July. Stay tuned, and help us spread the word!

More Fun With Google Earth

If you have ever played around with Google Earth, you know the possibilities to which you can "mash it up" are truly endless. Recently I found one of the coolest mashups around, courtesy of the good folks at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA):

NOAA's new KMZ Generator allows you to select from a long list of "KMZ" files which do amazing things when opened up in Google Earth. For instance, one that I tried and love overlays NOAA's superb RIDGE radar over Google Earth, and then refreshes when you launch G-Earth later.

This functionality really makes G-Earth even more enjoyable then before. Here is what you do:

Go here and make your selection from the choices on the pull-down menus and click the submit button. That will create a compressed file ending in "kmz". You will be then asked to open or save the file. Selecting "open" will uncompress the file within your default KML/KMZ application. Or, you can "apply" an application to open the file (open in?) and select Google Earth. When the app opens, you will see the current radar returns laid atop the part of the globe they cover. Do this for the entire country and you have one of the finest Radar research environments the public can access.

NOAA says the KMZ files also work in:

NASA WorldWind viewer

ESRI’s ArcGIS Explorer

Keyhole 2 LT and Keyhole 2 NV

That is today's weather tip. And today I really need some good news regarding the wx. I canceled an outdoor photo shoot for the 4th time because both myself and the subject - a high time CFI-I who can be considered a wx expert - thought KEUG was going to be fogged in today just like yesterday. As I stare out the window into clear blue skies, I am truly bummed...

This Girl With Wings Really Knows Howto Ramp up the Excitement About Flying!

By Lynda Meeks, Guest Blogger

Just last week I conducted my most recent iteration of the Girls With Wings presentation to a group of Girl Scouts located here in the Cleveland Area. Being able to interact with the girls is truly the most rewarding part of running GWW. The energy and enthusiasm I receive while talking to the girls reminds me why I’m putting in all of this effort to get out the message of Girls With Wings Inc., which is to use women in aviation as role models to inspire girls to reach their full potential.

I have given my presentation to over a thousand girls. Every group has been different, but it has to be just girls. If you’ve ever worked with kids before you’ll know why. If you get a group of boys and girls together the girls have a tendency to fade off into the background. This group of Girl Scouts did not have that problem. They were loud and, uh, hungry. Remind me to let the adult responsible for the group know they also need to be fed prior to a presentation!

The girls need lots of energy for this hour long, high energy, interactive GWW presentation, which teaches the girls “everything” they need to know to be a pilot, even though they said they’d “never” be able to figure this stuff out. Our goal is to broaden the girls’ horizons, increase their knowledge about their available opportunities, inspire confidence, and to have fun. An educator observing a previous presentation says, “It was a special event for them; motivating and inspiring. Girls probably feel freer to ask questions, be themselves, especially with a topic that’s traditionally male.”

Feedback from teachers, Girl Scout leaders, etc., and the girls is overwhelmingly positive. If you can believe it, the girls want follow-on information and are actually disappointed they didn’t learn more. With our presentation, we sow seeds of curiosity. As Asma writes: “Yes, I do want to learn more stuff about how to fly a plane.” Emily says, “I must do more research.” In the evaluation form we provide to the girls, the first question is Before you came to visit my class, I didn’t know that pilots were __. Overwhelmingly, the blank is filled in with “Girls” or “Women,” and even “Cool.” Because the presentation includes practicing radio calls using the phonetic alphabet Girl Scout Hannah says, “I learned how to talk in ‘plane slang.’”

Girls are also prompted with My advice to other girls my age after hearing me talk about being a pilot: and the majority of the girls say, “You can be anything you want to be.” Often the “can” and “anything” words are underlined many times. For many of the girls you will speak to, they’ve received the support of friends, family and other adults, and know they can be anything they want so this just gives them some more options to pursue. For some girls this is the first time they have really heard and understood this message. The first time you make this presentation to a group of girls who have limited exposure to their opportunities; the looks of understanding and optimism on their faces will blow you away. Says Sage, “What I thought was most interesting was that we got to try something new.”

The girls are asked what they learned from the presentation that they want to share with friends and family and most write they want to go home and share, “That I met a girl pilot and she told me what I need to do to so I can be a pilot.” Additionally, Tori advises, “listen; because she has some great info.”

“I thought she was awesome,” Peyton critiqued after a previous presentation to Mrs Urbancic’s class, especially, says Tia, “when she let us blow up balloons.” This is a statement always heard after the last hands-on demonstration: using a balloon to make your “airplane” fly. The last statement on the form is When I grow up I still want to be a __, but I may fly airplanes just for fun! There are quite a few careers written here, but a truly telling and insightful response from 5th Grader Amanda, “don’t stick with one ‘life goal.’” Girls With Wings wants to have a positive effect on our future, by encouraging girls to have wings no matter what they might dream…

This presentation was no different. At the end of the formal part of the program, with their physical needs met, a group of girls stood around and asked me the questions that were on their mind. The first girl came up to ask me what plane I flew and I was able to show her a brochure for the Citation X. This then led to questions about where I flew to, was I ever scared, what I do if there’s a storm ahead, and such. There’s a picture of the airplane flying across the Grand Canyon, and this is always a wonderful opportunity to be able to talk about the view from my office, and how much I enjoy that my job makes it possible for me to see the world.

If you’ve ever done a career day, you’ve seen a little of this yourself. Girls With Wings wants to continue to spread its message and so has been training representatives around the country that can do our presentation. Additionally, at the Women in Aviation, International, conference this February 25-17th in Orlando, Florida, Girls With Wings is presenting, in conjunction with another nonprofit organization, Youth Aviation Adventure, a seminar on “Attracting Kids to Aviation.” Please visit www.GirlsWithWings.com to learn more about our volunteer organization and stop by the online store, where funds are raised to continue and expand our efforts.

My Summer of Love: The Assignment of aLifetime is One I Will Never Forget

For those who follow my writing here, you know my admiration for the DC-3/C-47 has never been higher. Those who join me in loving these great old warhorses and passenger liners know there is something about this make/model of aircraft that elevates them beyond simply vintage status.

When I heard that the crew at thelasttime.org was organizing a massive formation flight of DC-3s and C-47s into Oshkosh for opening day of the 2010 Airventure Airplane Bazaar, Camp Out and Brat Festival, I instantly knew I had to be a part of this adventure. But how?

Let's start at the beginning.

Those who know the backstory of Av8rdan might not even know that this whole writing gig of mine actually started by accident. How it has led to the most incredible assignment of my career is worth a read:

It was the summer of 1979, and the crew of a supermodified open wheel race car invited me to the infield of Madera (CA) Speedway to attempt to capture their car on film. The images turned out like the perfect racing shot you always see, stop-action capturing the car so clearly you can read the small print on the logos while the crash wall whizzes by as a blur in the background. Everyone was so crazy about these shots, they egged me on to send them to a little West Coast racing rag, and they used every shot! I had written a couple of long creative sentences for each shot as cutlines, and in a detour from their usual design, they ran the photos with the extended cutlines. And then they asked for more.

Soon, I was holding a Western Racing News Press pass, a magical piece of paper that would get me though the pit gate at any speedway I desired. I covered modifeds, midgets and sprints at dirt and paved tracks such as the legendary Ascot Park in Gardena, CA, and the Sprint Car Nationals in Knoxville IA. It wasn't long before I became a commodity:

One day I get a call completely out of the blue, it was Chris Economaki. If that name rings a bell, he was all over TV and racing trade papers back in the day, and was Publisher of the National Speed Sport News, the sport's leading paper. He asked if I'd be interested in covering the Portland Indy car race at Portland International Raceway in Oregon. I jumped at the chance. And soon, I was sitting across a table in the media room with (not lying here) Mario Andretti, Rick Mears and Emerson Fittipaldi, waiting for me, the correspondent for the most respected racing paper in the land to ask THEM questions. It was, until this week, the high point of my 30+ year journalism career.

Yes, this was a high point, but I left the racing scene forever years ago and have gladly moved on to aviation stories. It would be hard to top a dream gig like hanging with racing royalty at PIR, but I have managed to nail down something that to me, at this point in my life, will eclipse the PIR gig with ease:

Back to the DC-3/C-47 mass arrival and formation flight. As the organizers fed me inside information for this historic and mammoth effort recently, I began to think of ways to be on one of these flights, to make a little history, to create one of those grand hangar flying stories I get to tell my grandkids years from now. It soon hit me that I DID know one of the owners/movers/shakers of a DC-3, Mitch Carley, the creative mind behind Duggy. You have smiled yourself watching the big yellow "Smile in the Sky" entertain everyone at Oshkosh and around the nation. O.K., at least that was a place to start.

I began to think about what I could do to make someone understand my passion for this airframe, this event and this moment in aviation history. I fired up the Macbook Pro and sent a crazy idea into cyberspace:

Carley has known for a while that I hold Duggy in very high esteem. I have told him point blank that no other aircraft on this planet does more to bring kids into aviation than Duggy, and I respected that. I have posted at length many times about how all aircraft have a soul, and of all flying machines, maybe the DC-3/C-47 has the most personality of anything flying. I know this is true because I swear that for the brief moment I stood inside Duggy at an Airventure a few years back, you could feel the pulse of this magnificent ship. The stories these old planes can tell, the battles they have waged and won, the weather they have flown through to bring their pilots and passengers home safely...you can feel all that buzz inside Duggy. So I made an offer to Duggy's owners...simple but sincere. I will document the formation flight for them on the house and report what I see to the world as best I can in return for access to Duggy for the flight. I wanted to be inside the coolest ship in that 40-ship formation when the skies over show center at KOSH darken and the sound of EIGHTY huge radial engines create the most beautiful melody of symphonic airplane noise ever organized.

After an exchange of a million emails with Carley and Team Duggy, I am happy to report we have struck a deal to allow me to be onboard for the flight. In fact, I plan to meet up with them in Fargo, ND where Duggy lives and ride into Rock Falls, IL – the staging airport – for the pre-formation flight festivities. It will be the most notable, most important and easily the coolest journalistic assignment I could ever imagine:

People often say I get way too wrapped up in aviation, that I make more of it than is required. I say that is complete rubbish. We only go through this thing called life once, and in that time, we must make our own way. A serious love of aviation chose me, and like hundreds of thousands of aviators, it is my calling, my life's work. I want my aviation legacy to be one of giving back, of making a difference. That's why I am both humbled and stoked to get to spend time with Duggy and his crew, and write about it where ever I can. The whole Duggy concept is equally brilliant and infectious, and imprints a love of aviation on young minds in a way no other flying machine can. Through my involvement with this flight, if I can get more kids to discover the Smile in the Sky and have their dreams of flying come triumphantly to life, I will have done my job.

So watch this space for some future Duggy stories as I delve into the backstory of how this wonderful yellow machine came to life...because it is a fantastic tale and I promise a good read. And then, from the time I hit Fargo and hook up with Team Duggy to the time we go wheels down on rwy 36 at KOSH, I will be burning up Twitter, Qik and this blog covering this gigantic flight like no other.

It is the chance of a lifetime...and this is going to be a wild ride. Please accept an invitation to join me and together we can get to know the friendliest aircraft ever. My goal? Be the one place on the web that people want to go to read about this formation flight of legends. With your help re-tweeting and sending the URLs out to the world, we can collectively draw major attention to what Robert Odergaard, Tim McPherson, Rob Challans and Carley do with Duggy.

Together, we can make dreams happen.

So You Want to Fly Balloons?Here's What You Need to Know First

This is part two of my e-interview with commercial balloon pilot Kathy Lee, the operator of SpiritWind Hot Air Balloons. Part one of this story is found here.

World of Flying: Describe the ongoing training you do throughout the year to stay proficient, and what types of FAA regulations you must adhere to in order to stay legal to fly passengers.

Kathy Lee: As with any pilot, FAA requires that in order to act as pilot in command, the pilot needs to have 3 take offs and 3 landings in the aircraft in which he/she holds a certificate, also must do a flight review and ground school with a CFI (commercial flight instructor) every 2 years.

WoF: Is it hard or relatively easy to fly a balloon? Describe a takeoff and landing.

KL: Of course take off and landings are the most crucial aspect of any aircraft. The pilot must first find equilibrium, the point at which the basket is hovering just above the ground, and then heat the envelope to the point at which it will rise at a controlled rate.

Landing is best with passengers when you can perform a glide slope landing, bringing the balloon to parallel with the ground and gently setting down, however, there are many safe approaches and it is not uncommon for a balloon landing to involve some tilting and dragging of the gondola as well and still be safe.

WoF: What is the most dangerous thing that can happen to a balloon pilot if they are not tuned in to the weather.

KL: Oh my, I can not even imaging a pilot not being in tune with weather. As a balloon pilot, I am not only in tune with the area in which I am flying, I want to know what is coming my way within 50-100 miles. The worst peril will be the wind, wind shears and lightening.

WoF: What does a balloon cost to buy and maintain. Also tell us if they require an annual or 100-hour inspection, and also what it costs you to fly a balloon one nautical mile (in general terms).

KL: Plan to start at $25,000 for new sport balloon, this will include the envelope, burner system and gondola, up to $50,000 and beyond for special shape commercial balloons. Used balloons are available at much lower prices depending on what you might be in the market for. One might plan on spending at least $350 on the annual if there are no repairs, if repairs are needed then that can become rather expensive as well. The insurance will depend on the percentage of commercial time you have.

More than the price of the propane is figured in with the cost of a flight. The balloon is powered by propane which might take, depending on the temperature and payload, 30-45 gallons for a regular sports balloon, which in that case, can cost about $70-100. This depends on the price of propane at the time. All hot air balloons are registered aircraft and therefore fall under FAA required 100 hour or yearly inspections at which every inch of the envelope is inspected, checked for porosity and must pass a pull test for fabric durability, the burner is inspected and serviced, the basket (gondola) is inspected for integrity, and all the proper paperwork required to be carried in the aircraft including the airworthiness certificate.

WoF: Have you ever scared yourself while flying a balloon?

KL: Early on as a private pilot, I had done my flight planning, it was a very warm summer afternoon, flight services told me there was nothing on the radar as far as cells indicating lightening. I was flying alone getting some time logged, my son and a friend were on the ground chasing, I looked ahead a very short distance and suddenly saw a small cell with lightening in it, I immediately searched for a landing site, set down safely and packed up. Since then I am very cautious when the humidity is high.

WoF: What was the craziest thing a passenger has ever done while on a balloon flight with you.

KL: I had a couple celebrating an anniversary, she sat on the floor of the gondola for more than 1/2 the flight! I have also had proposals, flights after weddings and the list goes on, Each flight is amazing!

WoF: Balloons are considered romantic...why is that?

KL: I think that songs and movies have a big part in bringing romance to being suspended in the air in a basket floating above the earth with the one you love and it has been my experience, that is true in every sense with all my passengers.

WoF: Describe your favorite balloon flight of all time, where, when, and why it was your favorite.

KL: My favorite flight was in Gallup, New Mexico in the Red Rocks. I launched from the valley, rose gently as I floated against the smooth red rocks and could actually reach out and touch the rocks as my basket hugged the contour of the surface then continued on to fly over the peak of the mountainous rocks, down into the next valley and on to the beauty of the rocks ahead awaiting my balloon's arrival. It was totally exhilarating.

You Have More in Common WithHot Air Balloon Pilots Than You Think

We've all seen them – brightly-colored hot air balloons – floating aimlessly across a scenic countryside, free as the breeze.

As fixed or rotary wing drivers, we have stared at these vintage beauties, a sort of bizarro flying contraption that without much effort transports us back to 1783. That's when Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent d'Arlandes decided to fill a large balloon with heated air, jump in a gondola strapped at the base and drift skyward in search of their fate, or their triumph. The idea of humans flying balloons was so out there at the time, King Louis XVI had a tough time buying into the fun, and actually tried to send up condemned criminals as the first pilots.

As a powered aircraft pilot, I have tremendous respect for balloon pilots. To fly a ship with zero mechanical controls other than vertical lift and descent must take superhuman pilotage. You do not slide out to the field on a lazy Saturday afternoon, whip out the balloon and fly fat, dumb and happy over to the next 'Berg for a $100 burger. Unless the wind wants to go get a burger too.

Recently, a commercial-rated professional balloon pilot took the time to answer some questions for my endless series on interesting aviation people. Kathy Lee has been flying hot air balloons since 1994, and now operates SpiritWind Hot Air Balloons. Here are Kathy's answers, presented below in part one of this very intriguing two-part interview:

World of Flying: First, give me a quick background on you, your piloting/aviation/ballooning career, the kinds of planes and balloons you have flown, and licenses, ratings and type ratings you hold.

Kathy Lee: I am 57 years of age, a Christian, a mother of now a 40-year-old son, and a registered nurse. I began as ground crew volunteer about 1991, however, I did not take my free flight for crewing due to fear of flying! In 1994 my desire to fly became stronger than my fears.

I have never had a desire to fly a fixed wing, so I chose to be limited to LTA at this time. I trained in Nashville, TN, and in Louisville, KY in an Aerostar balloon. It was a 90, which means it holds 90 thousand cu. ft of air and 2-4 passengers plus the pilot. After obtaining my student certificate, I bought my first balloon, a new Aerostar 90 named SpiritWind. I have since earned my commercial rating, which means that I can take passengers for hire as well as do flight training. I have owned three hot air balloons, the second and the one I now own is a Cameron Balloon 80 (thousand cubic feet), but due to the weight of the aircraft, can still carry 3 passengers. I have attended festivals in New Mexico, Florida, Kentucky and St Jean sur Richie Leu, Canada.

WoF: Describe how you navigate and "steer" a balloon, and describe the pre-flight planning process for a flight.

KL: Balloon flight planning begins as much as two days prior to a flight. I look at several weather sites on the web the day before the flight, call my ground crew and passengers, place them on stand-by, look again at my weather sources several hours prior to the flight, then call flight services to ask for an official weather report and file a flight plan 4 to 5 hours prior to my flight. Right up to flight time, I will put up a pi-ball, (helium filled 12-inch balloon) to get a visual of winds.

Part of the pre-flight planning also includes obtaining permission, if necessary, to use a desired property from which to launch depending on where you wish to end up down wind. Balloons go with the wind. There is no motor and no control over the direction, only altitude, however, due to the varying wind directions at different altitudes, a good pilot can guide his or her balloon close to a planned landing site.

WoF: How does one learn to fly balloons, at a flight school or is it a skill that is "handed down" from one balloon pilot to another.

KL: There are flight schools, however, due to the expense and time, most pilots elect to hire a local pilot to provide his FAA required instruction as I did. As stated above, a commercial pilot is also certified to train students. My instructors made sure that I knew the navigational charts, weight and balance, all the FAA rules and regulations of air spaces as well as being able to perform emergency procedures. So with that said, if you have a desire to fly a hot air balloon, be sure that your instructor is serious about teaching you all the aspects of ballooning and safety that goes with flight and ground school.

To pilot a balloon, you must have a pilot's license, or airman's certificate, just as you would for an airplane or any other aircraft. The only differences are the category of aircraft and the specific training requirements. The FAA issues balloon pilot licenses, Federal Air Regulations, Part 61 - Certification: Pilots, Flight Instructors and Ground Instructors.

WoF: Bust one myth about hot air balloons.

KL: Most people believe that ballooning is more dangerous than most aircraft, in fact it is the safest form of aviation known to man today.

A Quick Flight Through Sim Land

Lately, the WX in the Great State of Oregon has lived up to its rep as a place where the words "gray" and "winter" are synonymous.

This week, when the WX Gods were winning, I sat down at an old Mac and an equally old 21” monitor in our guest room, a spot that had been claiming that space for many months as ground zero for the late-night IFR practive sessions as I worked towards the rating I now enjoy.

Those who read World of Flying religiously know I fly X-Plane, and love it. So tonight I again got the new system working, and can now slip into my training chamber any time I want, wake the G4 from sleep, and quickly begin flying. And while some folks think X-plane may be a fun toy, I am here to tell you it is far from it:

Even though I own a Piper Cherokee 235, I choose to modify the ultra-stable and quite realistic Cessna 172SP that comes with the program, changing it into a true IFR platform. It comes from the “factory” with a very nice panel, which I've tweaked to include two VOR heads with glide slope, two King flip-flop Nav-Coms, a DME, a GPS that will track fixes, and an S-tec 55 approach-capable autopilot. I boosted the engine to 235 horsepower, and adjusted all settings to achieve true realism in flight characteristics.

So how does this rig work?

On my first flight, I set the cloud deck at about 800' AGL, with tops at about 3,000 AGL. I flew the ILS down the pipe to Eugene Airport's 16R, but at about 1,000 AGL, things didn't feel quite right, so I decided to try a missed approach, going outbound on the EUG 205 radial towards VAUGN intersection. After a few minutes headed SSW and level at five grand, I spun the heading bug back to about a 340 to set back up for another try at the ILS, and the S-tec gently turned me back north-northwest. All was fine, up on top the WX was clear and a million:

About 7 NM northwest of the field, I set the vertical speed on the S-tec to 1,000 FPM descent, and then dialed in 130 on the heading bug. A quick switch on the a/p from GPS to HDG began a slow turn into the clouds back towards EUG so I could intercept the rwy 16R localizer. When the #1 VOR started twitching back to center, I switch the a/p again to NAV 1 and BINGO, it turned me right onto the approach. I stabbed in the “APCH” button on the S-tec, set power at about 1,700 RPM, and without touching the controls, watch as the plane slid down towards where I assumed the numbers would be if it were clear, right on the money.

But I was still squarely in the soup. When I popped out of the muck, sure enough, I was two lights red, two lights white on the VASI. I kicked off the S-tec and greased a fine simulator landing. Best of all, this little excursion up into the clouds cost me nothing, how cool is that?

I believe X-plane is a very powerful tool for IFR pilots like me to practice basic maneuvers and procedures before ever getting in the real plane. As I enjoy the privileges that comes with my IFR rating, I will continue to work these exercises on the sim, so that when the time comes for me to slip into the left seat of Katy to go bust holes in the clouds, I can get up to speed quickly when the Hobbs is turning and the AvGas is flowing.