This is not good.

As each new days passes, less and less Americans have any faith at all in our current Congressional circus act. They flail, they lie, they cheat, they chase their tail like a dog, but they do not seem to know how to do anything right. So it is scary to read this:

Contract talks ended without agreement between the Federal Aviation Administration and the air traffic controllers' union Friday, leaving it up to Congress to come up with a new contract for some 14,000 controllers.

Anytime anything is “left up to Congress”, we are screwed. Does anyone really believe they’ll find a minute to think seriously about the guys at ATC when Halliburton is outside waiting for their envelope?

Didn’t think so.

According to National Air Traffic Controllers Association spokesman Doug Church, contracts talk are over.

The party line from the FAA sounds like they are greasing the wheels to place the blame for any and all things bad that happens with our national airspace system square on the controller’s shoulders, which is bunk:

FAA Administrator Marion Blakey said controllers make far more money than other public servants, control scheduling and hold back modernization projects.

Sounds like MB is making her case for user fees to help pay those high priced guys and gals up in the tower...which BTW sounds alot like Norm Mineta's song and dance about user fees when you think about it.

The NATCA fact sheet on this entire issue can be found here.

Do they even make
airspeed indicators for this?

Thirty minutes, JFK to Heathrow…not even enough time to be served soda pop and stale pretzels.

That’s the number being bounced around for future SST flights on airliners using Scramjet technology. Scientists from the UK – working with JAXA out of Japan – this week successfully tested a Hyshot IV aircraft, with these results:

The 4 feet 6 inch-long Hyshot aircraft reached a speed of 6,000mph - Mach 8 or eight times the speed of sound - during tests in Australia.

Still decades away from being applied to commercial flights, the scramjet works by combining and compressing air and hydrogen until they ignite, uses no fossil fuels and produces exhaust fumes made up entirely of water.

However, the scramjet can only compress the gas mixture sufficiently once it reaches five times the speed of sound. This means that any airplane fitted with the system would also need conventional engines capable of accelerating it to this initial speed of nearly 4,000 mph.

Read more about JAXA here, and the full article about the Aussie flight here.

GOP Representative
in SoCal sets new
world’s record for
screwing the aviation
community.

Remember the way Chicago’s Mayor stabbed us all in the back when his thugs came in and ripped up Meigs Field? Well now we find out from a very credible website, The Hill, that Rep. Gary Miller (R-Calif.) was taking notes:

Rep. Gary Miller (R-Calif.) pushed for a provision in last year’s transportation bill that allowed the city of Rialto, Calif., to shut down its airport. By doing so, he paved the way for his business partner, Lewis Operating Corp., one of his top campaign contributors, to buy the land from the city and make plans to build Renaissance, a community consisting of 2,500 homes, parks and 80 acres of retail space on the former airport property and adjacent land.

Normally, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has sole authority to close airports.

I try really, really hard to not make this into a GOP-bashing, Republican-hating blog, but they just keep giving me fits. I absolutely detest morally bankrupt politicians, and when they steal a perfectly good airport, I cannot contain my anger.

Of course, Miller claims he had nothing to do with this, and as per usual with anyone in the GOP these days, he is blaming someone else. I’m sure SADDAM must be responsible, since Bush blames him for everything from global warming to diaper rash.

There is plenty of he said-she said in this issue. It’s best to go read the article yourself, and then watch the AOPA site, as they have been all over this one, and their reporting is always first cabin.

And since the Rialto Airport is named after one of our most beloved aerobatic stars, Art Scholl, it adds more insult to injury.

VLJs not the only
new thing in the air

Sexy is a word that we pilots use often when looking at aircraft such as the RT-700 from start-up Aviation Technologies International in Orange County, CA.

According to the company, the RT-700 is a high-performance, pressurized piston twin that will be fast, spacious and fuel-efficient.

Keyword here folks is…piston.

This is not a jet, it will get its power from a pair of either Teledyne Continental TSIO-550A's or 360hp six-cylinder diesel engines being developed by French manufacturer SMA. And according to the manufacturer, the ultra sexy RT will go faster, further and higher than anything in its class…that is if there IS anything else in its class.

Ravi Tripuraneni, founder and president of ATI promises a first look later this year:

The redesign will be completed in the third quarter [in 2006] and a mock-up of the aircraft, which is targeted at the business and air-taxi markets, will be rolled out at October’s NBAA convention in Orlando.

Here are some features and specifications being bounced around the ATI website:

Advanced Technology
Liquid cooled, Single lever FADEC controlled engines
Flat Panel Avionics
Advanced Aerodynamic Design
2 in cabin baggage access locations
Refreshment/Entertainment Center
Belted Potty
42 gallons per hour at cruise
2000 hr. TBO engines
Option of lower cost fuels
Low cost per seat mile
Close coupled engines
25 G seats
Aircraft Recovery System
Air-bags
303 m.p.h cruise speed
2000 f.p.m. climb
1250 n.m. + reserves (max. range)
30,000 feet ceiling

Ramp appeal, check. Speed, check. Price? Well, we’ll see about that. In a world about to be flooded with VLJ hardware, this design ought to throw quite an interesting (and did I mention sexy) twist into the 2007 business aircraft sales picture.

Ouch.

Headlines around the world today are shouting that the Airbus A380 “passed” a crucial evacuation test held on the grounds of the company's production site in the northern German city of Hamburg.

You’ve seen the photos of the behemoth superjumbo, now imagine what the ride might be like as you careen nearly 30 feet down the evac slide with 872 other dudes following you out of the cabin. If the pile-up at the bottom doesn’t kill you, the friction on the way down might at least fry your tail:

In the simulated emergency, 873 people were able to exit the Airbus A-380 super-jumbo in 80 seconds, 10 seconds less than required. However, one man broke his leg and 32 other people suffered minor injuries. An Airbus spokesman says some people suffered friction burns while sliding down the escape ramps.

It just seems odd that the company’s “spin” calls 32 people who volunteer to injure themselves in the name of aviation research a success. You know, when I think about it, ZERO seems like a great number to show that the plane “passed” the test.

This was a crucial test for the Goliath three-eighty in order to receive certification by European and U.S. authorities in time for delivery by the end of 2006. So far, 159 planes of the super-sized double-decker (which also is available as a freighter model) have been ordered, which is good considering it cost Airbus nearly $15 billion to develop. That might explain the flowery report, eh?

Airbus might want to ask the guy who broke his arm about the Spin Doctor version of the test results. And if you need to evac a three-eighty any time soon, I recommend timing your exit to be the last guy out the door, so there is a nice soft pile of tourists to land on.

And that seat cushion which doubles as a floatation device? It can be lubed up with the Merlot found in the beverage cart to slide quite nicely on those mondo inflatable slides.

Weeeeeeeeeee...

Just over 5 percent.

That’s the percentage of active, licensed pilots in 2004 that were female, according to an FAA report found here. Of 618,633 pilots, only 32,711 button their shirts the other way, including 14,620 private pilots, 7,421 commercial ticket holders, 4,811 ATPs and 5,589 CFIs.

These numbers confirm what many of us already know. They tell us that the non-flying female population is an untapped resource, and one that the aviation community should embrace, no pun intended.

Yes, there was a day – long ago – when ladies were not welcome in the cockpit, or in the sky for that matter, unless they were in the back serving coffee, tea or milk. Thank God that those prehistoric and chauvinistic days are over. Today, we all know women who are very good pilots, members in good standing within our ranks. The truth is, they’ve always been that way, and the 17th Annual International Women in Aviation Conference which concluded this weekend in Nashville will celebrate women who fly:

With the theme of "Reaching New Heights of Success," participants in the 2006 WAI Conference will be immersed in the tactics and strategies necessary for successful aviation careers. More than 3,000 women and men from all segments of the aviation industry are expected to attend.

Today, the conference winds down, but not until some very important people in our community took to the stage. Some of the standouts were:

• Brian Binnie, the test pilot who flew the first and the last powered flights of the X-Prize winning SpaceShipOne vehicle.
• Eileen Collins, Colonel, USAF (retired), a veteran of four space flights, who has logged more than 872 hours in space, including STS-114, Discovery (July 26-August 9, 2005) NASA’s “Return to Flight” mission.
• Robert "Hoot" Gibson, an Astronaut Hall of Famer who’s accumulated more than 12,000 hours in more than 60 types of aircraft over his career as a pilot, astronaut and aerospace consultant.
• Nicole Piasecki, vice president of Business Strategy and Marketing for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, responsible for leading strategic business planning and marketing of The Boeing Company's products and services.
• Will Whitehorn, Director of Virgin Group and President of Virgin Galactic, the company on the cutting edge of commercial space travel.
  

General and business aviation is enjoying a massive growth spurt right now, this we know. But what we don’t know is what grand things the industry can accomplish if we are successful in recruiting thousands of new female flight students to drop the dime and start learning to fly. There are literally millions of women out there – from 18-year-olds to baby boomers – who have the money or the passion to start flying.

Just think about one thing: If we can double the percentage of female pilots, we gain roughly 32,000 new aviation customers who will buy airplanes, fuel, avionics, headsets and flying lessons. So I ask you to join me in pledging to find one woman in the coming months that gives you a hint that she might like to try flying, and then go ahead and take her flying. While you are up, look over at her, and if she’s grinning from ear to ear, take her to a flight school near you and SIGN HER UP!

Man gets probation for shooting at remote-controlled plane

This is all over the web today:

CHELSEA, MICH. -- A Michigan man says he was defending his family when he fired a shotgun at his neighbor's radio-controlled model airplanes.

David Nuttle says the planes have been a nuisance. He says they scare his children, spook his chickens and cause his goats to faint. Nuttle says two shots hit one of the planes. He says it crashed when the child operating it lost control after being frightened by the shooting.

Nuttle pleaded guilty to one count of malicious destruction of property. He's been sentenced to six months of probation and 50 hours of community service. He also has to pay $154 restitution and $550 in fines.

Defending his family? Against what...incoming toy airplanes?

Quick, someone check the water up there in Chelsea. And there's only one thing to say about this guy's goats...they are SISSIES if they faint at the sight of an R/C plane overhead.

Goats, really, what good are they anyway? Milk tastes funny, you can't ride 'em, and they will never fetch the morning paper.

Bigger than a

NASA controllers based at Vandenberg AFB in Calfornia sent three microsatellites into space Wednesday morning, after the successful airborne launch of the Pegasus rocket carrying the satellites from a modified L-1011 carrier aircraft.

NASA's Space Technology 5 (ST5) Project is building and testing three smaller satellites called micro-satellites. Each weigh only 55 pounds when fully fueled and resembles a very large birthday cake at 20.7 inches across and 18.7 inches high.

The three ST5 satellites -- each no bigger than a portable television -- will conduct six different technology tests. If the project is successful in demonstrating that a number of small satellites can be networked together to act like one big satellite, we could see the day when a hundred or more satellites monitor the weather at one time.

This was bound to happen, as electronics just keep getting smaller and smaller. And because of their diminutive size, all three micro-sats will launch on the same rocket from a stacked position. The ST5 Project designed, built, and tested a new innovative Pegasus rack that will deploy each satellite like a spinning Frisbee.

Although small in size compared to other satellites, each of the ST-5 satellites is considered "full service," meaning they contain power, propulsion, communications, guidance, navigation, and control functions found in spacecraft that are much larger. After launching, each of the micro-sats will be positioned in a "string of pearls" configuration about 25-90 miles apart.

Read all about it at nasa.gov.

This is one VERY
smart company.

Face it, we all love anything deemed experimental. We try not to get drool on a parked Lancair Propjet, but in reality, most of us can only dream about bolting a kitplane together, slopping a few layers of composite skin on and firewalling the throttle, hoping the damn thing stays together.

Personally, I have neither the time, money or technical skills to do the job. I border on being retarded when it comes to changing the oil in a Toyota, and trust me – I am the last aviator that has any business trying to build a flying machine.

But the smart folks at Glasair might have just revolutionized the fine art of building your own airplane. They’ve just announced their “Two Weeks to Taxi” program, which has been signed off by the FAA:

Marc Cook, a Glasair Sportsman 2+2 aircraft customer, went from quick build kit to 1st flight in 22 days, working 8-hour days, five days a week at Glasair’s Arlington, WA. Factory. An FAA representative toured the facility; reviewed the extensive program materials; inspected Cook's Sportsman; and, concluded that both the aircraft and the program comply with the letter and spirit of the 51 percent rule relating to Amateur-Built aircraft.

The new program says you’ll be flying your new Sportsman 2+2 in three weeks. And when the wheels and the Earth part ways, the fun begins:

• 160+ m.p.h cruise speed; 48 m.p.h. stall speed at gross!
• Roomy side-by-side cabin, wider than a Cessna 182!
• Enormous 300 lb. baggage capacity!
• 2+2 seating
• Take-off & landing rolls of less than 400 ft. at gross!
• Incredibly docile slow-speed handling qualities!
• Folding wings & removable tail for trailering!
  

Damn, son, that’s a lot of airplane for about $45 large. Add your own engine and avionics, and you have a seriously fun bird for less than $100,000. So max out the credit cards, re-fi the crib and tell momma she’ll be spending those three weeks in Tahiti...alone.

This is sad, but
also pretty funny.

The U.S. Treasury Department is about to auction off all of convicted Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham’s “stuff” to help cover the back taxes and restitution he owes, reports Associated Press today. Cunningham was sentenced to more than eight years in prison for taking $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors in exchange for helping them win government contracts.

The public was given a preview Tuesday of the loot, which was laid out in orderly rows in a warehouse near Los Angeles. Also on the site which allegedly shows the Dukester’s piles of swag is this:

ROBINSON R22 BETA HELICOPTER, WHITE w/BLUE TRIM, S/N: 1556, NO LOG BOOKS, MAINTENANCE LOGS, AIRWORTHINESS CERTIFICATE, REGISTRATION, PILOT'S OPERATING HANDBOOKS or KEYS, HOUR METER READS 2202.9, YEAR UNKNOWN, POOR CONDITION.

So after he abuses his power and the constituents in his district, he is caught abusing a perfectly good helicopter as well. I cannot for a minute accept his notorious scamming and bribery, but he ought to be flogged for letting the R22 fall into what is being called “poor” condition.

Too bad Duke-baby is most likely going to reside in a low-security Federal prison, languishing with cable TV and a pool. They ought to throw these convicted politicians in Pelican Bay State Prison, and let the Crips, Bloods and Mexi-gangs have their way with him. It would set the standard for crooked, fat, arrogant cronies everywhere…be nice or you get to be some murderer’s girlfriend in lockup.

FAA having too
much fun in OK City

A website out of Pennsylvania has published a great article today on some of the humorous fix names the FAA uses. We pilots have always heard of a few of these, but this article brings them all together.

It really is worth the time to visit and chuckle for a minute:

Airplanes approaching Newark International Airport in New Jersey toward the northeast will cross either HOWYA or DOOIN. Louisiana has RYTHM, Kentucky has BRBON and Massachusetts has BOSOX. Kansas City, Mo., has SPICY, BARBQ and RIBBS.

I have a couple of my own. You’re inbound to Washington, D.C., so ATC might vector you direct over DUFUS to LIARR before sending you over CRONY or would they send you direct NOWMD on your way to MPECH?

Just a thought.

30 million.

It’s being widely reporting today that airlines are losing more luggage than ever. An estimated 30 million bags were temporarily lost by world airlines in 2005, and 200,000 of those bags were never reunited with their owners, according to an industry report released Monday.

This “mishandled” luggage comprised only 1 percent of the 3 billion bags processed, but this growing problem cost world airlines $2.5 billion, compared with $1.6 billion in 2004.

SITA, a Geneva group who watches these things, says the blame lies with those always nasty plane changes:

Mishandling during baggage transfer was the largest single cause last year of a bag failing to arrive with its owner at the intended destination. Other bags were temporarily lost because of airport personnel failing to properly load baggage, ticketing errors, problems with loading or unloading, and weight or size restrictions.

And if you want a super deal on someone else’s stuff, the Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro, Alabama, sells more than 1 million items each year. Most of the merchandise sold is clothing, but also includes cameras, electronics, sporting goods, jewelry and - of course - luggage.

But SITA says that by using a tiny RFID computer-style chip on luggage tags to allow for tracking of luggage at all times over wireless networks, the carriers will reduce the number of misdirected bags. The RFID chips also allow for quick removal of baggage from airplanes when the passenger who checked them fails to show up for the flight.

Wow.

So when they do somehow manage to lose your bag, you can just go to lostmybag.com, login and see a GPS signal beaming up from the exact location of your Samsonite. Sounds kinda Star Trekky to me, but if this system works, jeez, why not go for it.

Wired.com as usual has a killer article on this new technology, found here.

Music from
Da Streetz
not welcome
in Da Air

A pirate hip-hop station that goes by the rap handle of Da Streetz broadcasting illegally near Miami International Airport (MIA) has been interfering with ATC communications, says the FAA. Departing pilots must switch to a back-up frequency when the so-called “music” clogs up the channel.

What is more irritating about this story is not that some rap dawg is spewing his crap into the air without a license, but the cops haven’t been able to stop him:

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement traced the signals to an antenna at a nearby warehouse. The cops didn’t find the “disc jockey”, but did confiscate equipment including computers and a CD players. But despite the seizures, the broadcasts have continued.

So the Feds unplug this “Da Streetz” dude, and the loud thump of America’s most inferior music continues to invade outbound airline cockpits. Hmm, this is just a wild theory, but maybe THEY SEIZED THE WRONG EQUIPMENT!

Now I’m going to go on the record as saying that there should be a place on airwaves for low-power radio stations. If the FCC would winnow out a hole in the FM band for guys like Streetz to spew forth, maybe they wouldn’t have to use 118.3 for their spewing. Pirate radio is going to be out there, might as well give them a place to call home. It’s like giving the drag racers a strip out on the edge of town so they won’t kill innocent people on rural highways.

But until that happens (which we all know is way too logical of a solution), it would really, really be a good idea of find Senór Streetz and shut his ass down, right now, before a couple of –67s trade paint over Miami Beach.

And while we still can’t manage to find Osama, you would think that as the world’s alleged Superpower, the FCC’s whiz kids could find one lone rapper with two turntables and a CB radio on steroids.

---

UPDATE 032006 1119A: Reports from South Florida say that a federal engineer who specializes in frequency transmissions has arrived in Miami to help investigators locate the signal. On any given day, between nine and 20 illegal stations are playing in South Florida, according to the Florida Association of Broadcasters (FAB), which deems the region the pirate capital of the nation. And, FAB is reminding the media that Pirate broadcasting is a third-degree felony in Florida.

Now if we can just do this with our ground troops

Canada has the right idea when it comes to aerial support for their soldiers on the ground in Afghanistan…and this is a first, reports the Canadian government.

Using real-time video and a host of infrared and other specialized sensors, an entire flight of possibly 12 French-made Sperwer tactical uninhabited aerial vehicles the drones will soon be sent aloft to track down insurgents before they become a threat to Canada's 2,200 troops on the ground.

This is news because this represents first organized formation flight of pilotless aircraft. So that wingman out there will actually be a technician on the ground sitting in an Ops center that resembles the cockpit of an aircraft. The Ops Tech will monitor a variety of sensor data produced by the TUAV's onboard computer, which in turn is relayed to troops in the field.

This is indeed a major step for pilotless military aircraft, which I think is great. And just watching these these badass remote-control babies take off must be a thrill:

The French-made Sperwers are blasted into the air on a truck-mounted rail-launch system, going from zero to 160 kilometres per hour in one-quarter of a second.

Now what we need are remote-operated, driverless Humvees to lead our troops down all those Iraqi roads where IADs await. It’ll be confusion for the insurgents, not knowing which Humvee is real, and which one is the decoy.

But then again, that makes way too much sense.

Germany’s Thielert AG
coming to America big time

In a bold $10 million deal, Germany’s Thielert AG plans to expand its range of piston aircraft engines products by acquiring Texas-based Superior Air Parts, Inc. Currently, Thielert is market leader in the manufacture of certified jet fuel/diesel engines for piston aircraft.

If you’ve never heard of Thielert, you will soon…as they may be the company that makes your next aircraft engine, one that comes with a built-in feature of being able to pull up to the fuel island and boldly tell the line guy to “fill it with Jet A”, just like the Gulfstream drivers.

Thielert Group was founded in 1989, and sells it’s jet fuel engines under the Centurion banner. These engines are said (by the company) to reduce the level of direct flight costs by up to 60 percent as compared with conventional aircraft engines commonly used today.

CEO Frank Thielert confirmed that they have major expansion plans:

"With its outstanding products and established brand name, Superior Air Parts is the ideal acquisition to help us enhance our market position. This acquisition marks our final step along the road into the US-American market for engines and engine components and the expansion of our presence there.”

Teledyne/Continental and Textron/Lycoming can’t be happy about this news, but for the aircraft owner, we have been past due on engine evolution for quite some time now, and a marriage of Thielert and SAP will certainly push that envelope big time.

Here’s your chance to
dance on the cutting edge

If you’re an engineer that is interested in the aerospace trades, composite manufacturing or commercial space travel, this is your wake up call. Opportunities like this do not come around every day, and those who snooze will lose.

Down at what is now called the Mojave “Spaceport”, you’ve probably heard of a guy named Burt Rutan who builds very, very efficient composite aircraft at his company, Scaled Composites. Well, Uncle Burt needs you, now.

I believe Rutan could be one of the most important and talented aerospace engineers of all time, and he and Scaled are now riding the new commercial space travel wave that will soon be launching regular Joes (with very fat wallets) into space. If you’ve ever heard this brilliant flying machine builder speak about SpaceShipOne, NASA’s current shuttle program, or the future of private space travel, you literally get chills...he's not just dancing on the cutting edge...he IS the cutting edge.

Now Scaled is working fast and furious with Richard Branson on building SpaceShipTwo, a larger version of SS1, and they have put the word out big time for help. Here are just a few positions open: Composite Fabricators, Materials and Process Engineers, Direct CNC Programmers for a 5-Axis Gantry Milling Machine, 5-Axis CNC Gantry Mill Operators, CATIA Draftsmen, Technical Drawer/Draftsmen, Composites Manufacturing Engineers, Composites Design Engineers and Avionics Engineers.

And then there’s this position:

Program Business Manager (Department of Defense Clearance Required)

DoD clearance? That’s interesting. It might be just that Scaled wants this person to be able to work on the many intricate details of shooting people through the same air where our military flies, or it could be, um, well, different. Not going to speculate here, you can connect your own dots if you wish.

If you’re looking to get your hands dirty building space ships, here’s a few things Scaled would like to see in your skill set:

• Able to give 100-percent each day
• Must enjoy a fast-paced research and development environment
• Must have passion
• Must possess a talent in building quality things
• Can work well in a team atmosphere
• Is very trustworthy
• Must enjoy doing ‘milestone-making’ work

So you think you’ve got what Scaled wants, then here is their online application. And Space.com has an awesome article on Scaled's hiring campaign, found here.

Fax or mail resumes to: Scaled Composites, LLC, 1624 Flight Line, Mojave, CA 93501, FAX: 661-824-4174

More on K-State/Salina (see below for full story)

I just LOVE this story. The more I read about these students at K-State/Salina guiding GlobalFlyer around the world, the more interesting it becomes. So join me in the fun:

Here is everything you'll every want to know about the K-State/Salina team. If you’ve got RealPlayer, you can spy on Mission Control in real-time and see how many pizzas these Wildcats will eat in the next 24 hours (I’m guessing 12, from Domino’s). And if you’ve got Google Earth, track the flight with the .kmz file here.

---

SIDEBAR: I just saw a TV news report last week on ABC about how many college kids are getting stinking, fall-down drunk these days. It makes me feel good to say I believe this group of students is not among that crowd. I'll bet they've already figured out that Boeing doesn't hire losers who hurled their way through college.

An aviation marriage
made in heaven

I just love it when I read about the accomplishments of our country’s best and brightest young aviation students and pilots. So I was stoked beyond belief when I found out that Steve Fossett’s latest record attempt in GlobalFlyer was being planned and implemented by a group of students at Kansas State in Salina.

This is best said in the K-state press release:

SALINA - Kansas State University at Salina students will assume a major leadership role in the next record attempt of Steve Fossett, aviator and pilot of the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer aircraft. The GlobalFlyer completed the world's first solo flight around the world in March 2005, and set the non-stop distance record last month. K-State at Salina students and faculty were involved in both previous flights.

The next flight will be an attempt to set the closed-course distance record and is slated to begin and end in Salina. Unlike the 2005 flight, which also took place in Salina, Virgin Atlantic will not be sending staff to Salina for the flight. For that reason, K-State students, faculty and staff will be providing the leadership and infrastructure for the operations in Mission Control, as well as handling the Web site maintenance and mission updates throughout the flight.

"It is no wonder that Steve has asked our students to be involved in this project," said Dennis Kuhlman, K-State at Salina dean. "He strives to encourage and inspire young people to work hard and achieve their dreams, and this is a tremendous opportunity for our students to be a part of a very inspiring project."

As during the last Salina-based attempt, students were selected to support the flight planning, mission control and aircraft ground crew operations. In addition, a Web update team is being assembled and trained to assist with computer connectivity on the ground and updates to the Web site that will track the flight. It is estimated that the Web update team will eventually include more than a dozen students.

This is a marriage truly made in heaven. When you match these young minds with the aviation enthusiasm that Steve Fossett possesses, great things can happen.

The K-state/GlobalFlyer web site is wonderful, check it out here. To keep up with near real-time flight news, read their blog here.

Well, not ALL the airlines
want to bait and switch
your next Internet ticket purchase

As reported all over the ‘Net and in a post below, the major airlines have been lobbying Congress HARD to make advertising Internet fares a confusing mess so they’ll be able to offer seats at one price and then tack on all sorts of extra fees, enabling airlines to mask the true costs of flights. Click the $99 fare to Deluth and it becomes the $300 ticket from hell AFTER you press purchase.

This could not possibly be more bogus.

But the Department of Transportation is not signing off on this whacked idea just yet. Here are four widely-published scenerios they may choose to accept:

• Maintaining the current situation, which allows only government-imposed fees and taxes to be tacked on to the price of the fare at the time of purchase.

• Require that advertised fares also include the cost of fees and taxes.

• Eliminate most requirements for advertised fares. Airlines could advertise lower fares, so long as they tell passengers the full cost of the fare when they go to buy the ticket.

• Eliminate fare-advertising rules altogether.

Before you fume over this, there is a bright spot. While the bigs support loosening the advertising rules and messing with your head on your next online ticket buy, at least two carriers, Southwest and JetBlue, have gone on record in opposition to easing the advertising rules. Good for them.

As usual, these two carriers get my vote as forward thinkers. Southwest has always been able to skirt big losses by intelligent hedging on fuel buys, and Jetblue – despite recent losses – is always on the cutting edge of just about everything in the industry. When was the last time you saw a TV monitor at each seat on American, Delta or United? Or pillows. Or food. Get real.

So the next time you log on to buy airplane tickets, think about the two outspoken carriers that want to give you their price fair and straight. I fully expect the DOT – part of our limping Federal system – to turn this issue into a future snafu du jour, and I plan on flying SWA and JBU any chance I can. Sure, I might have to drive two hours to catch their bird, but being in the ad business anyway, I really, really hate deceptive advertising, so as I drive to PDX, I'll be grinning knowing a honest airline will be getting my money.

Go get 'em, Frederick!

Team AOPA is working overtime on user fees, and has launched their most pointed offensive yet on the ATA's plan to have the airlines tell Congress how to fund the FAA.

This is must reading for anyone who currently holds a GA pilot's license, owns a GA plane, or would like to get their license and a plane in the future.

I'm not kidding, go read this NOW.

Buyer beware if airlines have
their way with Congress

Buried deep under the boiling cauldron of woe surrounding the collapsed Dubai ports deal is this potential bombshell.

ABC News is reporting that New York Senetor Charles Schumer is launching big red warning flares telling U.S. airline ticket buyers to watch their back. According to Schumer, the major airlines are lobbying Congress to ease current advertising restrictions that they say will boost online sales. But if this passes, it looks like one big corporate shell game.

Says Schumer:

They'll say they had to bill an extra $99 for a fuel surcharge and then there was a landing fee surcharge, and then there was a tax surcharge, and so the consumer thinks they're getting a flight for $99 and they get billed for $300.

So that hot price you initially saw and spent time searching for will suddenly change before you hit purchase, indicates Schumer. And more of us are doing our ticket buying online – about 47 million of us – which is up 17 million from one year ago. The mainstream media is only hearing of this today, so expect a lag of a day or so before it shows up on the evening news or in large daily papers.

More from Schumer's release:

The airlines are attempting a very deceptive move which would make it impossible for consumers to know who has the best fare. I've always been concerned about disclosure, which is the way we work in the free enterprise system, so that consumers can shop around.

Under existing law, airlines and ticket vendors must advertise the total price of the ticket. The DOT does make certain exceptions for taxes, fees, and other government charges, but this is a completely new deal – a raw deal for the pax in the back. Developing story…

The pride of Bend, Oregon could not be hotter

When we pilots talk about sleek, expensive all-composite new GA aircraft these days, the Cirrus SR22 G2 is usually the subject.

But the Columbia Aircraft Manufacturing Corp. has been red-hot recently, and their line of all-composite ships cannot be overlooked. CAM Vice President of Marketing and Sales Randy S. Bolinger says it best:

Columbia hit its stride in 2005. The facility expansion and production ramp up was completed, deliveries were very strong, new products were introduced and sales demand was excellent. In the future, I think we’ll look back on 2005 as a turning point for Columbia.

I’d say so, looking at their sales numbers. The company’s 2005 deliveries of its 350 and 400 aircraft were up 68% over 2004, with proud new pilots flying 115 new aircraft away, up from 78 in 2004. Part of that very healthy growth can be attributed to international sales in Mexico, Brazil, the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Malaysia and Australia.

If you want fast, think about the Columbia 400 family, the world’s fastest certified piston aircraft, with intercooled, twin-turbocharged, four-place aircraft certified to FL250 with a cruise speed of 235 knots. Their normally aspirated line – Columbia 350, 350i, 350SL and 350SLX – are also four-place aircraft with a cruise speed of 191 knots.

Find out everything you want to know about the “other” line of composite ships out there here, and to compare the Columbias to the Mooney Bravo, Beechcraft A36 and Cirrus SR22, click here.

A "virtual workplace" to build the
airliner of our dreams

World of Flying has just become an official media outlet for Boeing media, allowing me to access and publish news and images from the most amazing aircraft company in the world. The photo and cutline below is a great place to start:


Brian Bodge (front, center), 787 program senior specialist engineer, leads a technical discussion between the 787 Program in the Global Collaboration Center in Everett, Wash., and Jeff Swada (left screen, far right), a senior lead engineer in Wichita. The collaborative technology enables a virtual workspace that allows engineers on the 787 program, including its partners in Australia, Japan, Italy, Canada and across the United States, to make concurrent design changes to the airplane in real time. Designing, building and testing the 787 airplane digitally before production begins will improve efficiencies and reduce errors.

There can be no dispute that the 787 will be an airliner that will change everything, from a company that – over the years – has grown quite good at changing everything. Here's three numbers that define Boeing: 707, 747, 777.

Soon we will add 787 to that elite list.

More questionable weirdness
from our limping Federal government

In the soap opera of cronies trying without much success to run this country right now, this is just flat out weird.

AOPA is reporting that FAA has pulled the public transcript of Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) public meetings off the Web, claiming they were "ordered to do" so by the Department of Defense and security officials:

FAA officials told AOPA that they were ordered to remove the transcript of the first meeting from public record so that Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and Defense Department officials could scrub it clean of any security sensitive information (SSI).

AOPA, and it’s 406,000 member pilots, wonder the same thing…what do they have to hide? So AOPA has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to get the information back in public view.

My real president, AOPA’s always capable Phil Boyer, said this:

"How ridiculous can you get? These were public meetings covered by the news media. Do they honestly think security information was disclosed during the public meetings?

Apparently they do.

NWA takes easy
way into the sky

News today out of Minneapolis is that Northwest Airlines has bought the operating certificate (OC) of bankrupt FLYi Inc., the parent company of Independence Air.

The OC is a document the FAA requires airlines to have, and buying someone else's is considered far easier than performing the red tape paperwork dance with OK City and Washington, DC to start up a new regional airline from scratch.

Also listed in the sale are "related assets" which NWA didn't name. One can only assume these assets might have wings attached.

This comes on the heels of last week’s tentative agreement NWA with pilots which allows it to start a subsidiary to fly planes with 51 to 76 seats.

So the timing of Flyi going belly up was perfect for NWA negotiators as it made available an OC that the line could acquire to start their regional deal. And you just know that fact played heavily at the bargaining table. What this means for NWA pilots is anyone's guess.

I just hope they come up with a catchier name than…TED!

Another hit from Garmin

The awesome panel-mount GPS systems from Garmin just keep on getting better.

Today, the company announced the GMX 200, a multi-function display or pilot’s demanding the ultimate in situational awareness. The GMX 200 raises the bar with a viewing area that is almost 20% larger than other panel mounted MFD units. An advanced backlighting scheme dramatically improves the color and contrast, resulting in chart depictions and images that are brighter and more vivid in all lighting conditions.

The features and improvements on this unit are endless – too much to enumerate in a post to my blog. So I advise you to let Garmin tell you all about it.

Cassini: Pockets of water
exist on one of Saturn’s moons

If you’re a biologist, geologist or land developer, this news from space.com is huge:

Saturn’s moon Enceladus may have pockets of liquid water lurking beneath its surface, feeding great jets that spew from the satellite and hinting at the possibility of a habitable environment. Observations from the Cassini spacecraft currently studying Saturn and its myriad moons shows Enceladus to be a geologist’s dream, with an active plume spewing water and other material spaceward, as well as a hot spot of thermal activity at its south pole.

Jeffrey Kargel, a research scientist with the University of Arizona’s Department of Hydrology and Water Resources, said this in a related article in Science:

“Any life that existed could not be luxuriant and would have to deal with low temperatures, feeble metabolic energy, and perhaps a severe chemical environment. Nevertheless, we cannot discount the possibility that Enceladus may be life’s distant outpost.”

Oh boy, here we go. Just when Richard Branson and others were starting to dream big about commercial space flight, we find the first tidbits of news that maybe Enceladus will be the new ‘burbs once the land developers get their hands on it.

A nice sound byte, but…

On Tuesday, Secretary of Transportation Norm Mineta told a House Appropriations Committee hearing there would be no GA user fees in the Bush administration's FAA funding proposal:

“What is before OMB has no user fees imposed on general aviation. I've said this to AOPA at their annual convention...there would not be GA user fees."

While this sounds all well and good, this pilot – and the association that represents me in Washington – is not biting, at least not hook line and sinker. AOPA remains concerned about the future and has their eye on congress, and you can read their position here.

Mineta makes a point that this is as much a safety issue as a funding issue. He says the DOT is "concerned that GA pilots likely wouldn't file flight plans if they were charged for them."

Oh really? Are we to believe that under the current funding system, all those itty bitty airplanes up there are filing nice little VFR flight plans now? Most everyone I know flies with flight following, which by the way has been much easier to obtain post 9/11. So DOT/FAA seems to be playing the "safety card" and leading the uninformed to believe that with user fees, a bunch of cowboys with yokes in their hands are just going to be flying around under the radar, hiding from the FAA so they can avoid those gosh derned user fees.

I really want to believe Secretary Mineta is on our side on this. And if it turns out he is looking out for the best interest of GA, I'll admit that pigs fly too.

Do you know the
way to Cupertino?

A software crash of the main FAA radar in the New York region today caused a ground hold on all planes at all area airports, creating delays throughout the day, according to officials.

So you’d think that with such a major center controlling so many planes at one time, they’d have redundant systems. Makes sense, but wait, this is our Federal government at work:

The FAA switched over to backup system, called Dark Dark, which took nearly 30 minutes to become operational.

Huh?

During that time, all flights were delayed from taking off in New York airports, as were all flights destined to New York airports. Air commuters are now being told to expect delays traveling in and out of all three regional airports for the rest of the day. All flights that were destined for the New York region were subjected to a ground hold at their airport of origin during the software crash, delaying their departure at least 30 minutes. Incoming high altitude flights were spaced out to 15 miles apart to give pilots more room, meaning they will land later than expected.

So as a Mac user, I have to wonder what operating system and software this vital ATC center is using, hmmm? This may explain why there are great big CONTROL ALT DELETE buttons on ATC panels in the FAA system. (O.K., that part is pure hooey, but I couldn't resist)

A stop all Eclipse owners should make on their way to Albuquerque

In the VLJ horse race, Eclipse has always been out front in terms of positions held and value by way of their $1.3 million price. And with positions full well into 2007, for a lot of people out there, those assembly lines cannot get cranked up fast enough.

But before anyone on that elite list climbs aboard their personal freedom ship, they will be smart to visit www.pilotinvestors.com.

Ryan F. Partin, Founder, President & CEO of Pilot Investors is trying to match Eclipse 500 owners with new VLJ charter customers as a means to make those E500s generate some capital to go against the direct operating costs of owning the ship. It’s a damn fine idea, and had my six numbers been drawn when the Powerball was floating around $365 million, I’d be on Partin’s site in a heartbeat.

This is mandatory reading if you are a E500 position holder, and is time well spent even if you're just intrigued by VLJs.

Raburn serves up
‘Crowe’ to his skeptics

From the day that Vern Raburn announced his lofty goal to build a full-tilt personal jet for about a million USD, the skeptics lined up en masse to blow his plan out of the water. “Can’t be done,” said some pessimists, "it'll never happen," said others, to the occasional “Raburn is plumnuts crazy.”

So this milestone was especially sweet:

Vern Raburn, Eclipse Aviation president and CEO, joined his employees to witness the initiation of the production line that will build the company's Eclipse jet. His first customer, David Crowe, stepped up to engage the friction stir welding of one of his future jet's cockpit side panels and to drill window attachment holes in the cockpit frame.

The idea of inviting his very first customer to fire up the E500 assembly line is a brilliant PR stunt, coming from a company that seems to be doing everything right. All major wire services picked this story up, and now the world knows that Eclipse has officially moved from pipe dream to legit aircraft production company.

Crowe made these remarks while watching his E500 being built:

It takes some pretty special people to have the dedication to carry through a project like the Eclipse 500. Folks who work here are not just punching timecards -- I can feel that every time I visit.

Crowe will receive his Eclipse 500 right after the anticipated FAA certification due to come in late May. I have to say that Raburn and Eclipse must be quite confident in the timing of that airworthiness certificate hitting their mailbox. It takes some serious cajones to fire up the assembly line and begin building customer jets when the FAA still holds the cards to your future.

But then again, just about everyone in aviation knows it takes cajones to even TRY to build a twin-engine bizjet and sell it the price range Raburn has promised.

Congratulations to everyone at Eclipse who made this special day happen. It marks a big turning point in the future of aviation, and this is OFFICIALLY the green flag dropping on the VLJ horse race.

Can Delta withstand
a $136 billion hit?

A Philippines court has fined Dutch airline KLM $238,000 for losing Jose Tiongco’s bag eight years ago while en route from Manila to Almaty, Kazakhstan, where he was giving a lecture at a World Health Organization conference. Tiongco claimed his reputation was tarnished when he stood before his audience in jeans, T-shirt and sneakers.

As we might expect, KLM is appealing the decision. I suspect all legal eyes from the legacy carriers are watching this case, because if left to stand, this award would set major precedent and cost them a bundle:

Delta Air Lines, the third-biggest airline flying in the United States, lost more bags than any other carrier in 2005. Its customers filed 573,419 lost bag reports.

Delta's potential liability if every one of those bags resulted in this kind of punitive damages would be a stunning $136 billion!

Of course, that’s not going to happen because most bags eventually turn up. But every one of us knows someone who has had to make that speech to the Board of Directors in shorts and sneakers, or (like me) has had to hit the Wally World at midnight in a strange town buying something cheap from China to wear on a business trip after XYZ Airlines sent my bags to God knows where.

Luggage roulette, not my game. And when my bags actually follow me across the country and are spotted riding the carousel, I still marvel at the feat. I've been burned with lost luggage more times than I can count, and when the system actually works, it's a freakin' miracle.

In an Oshkosh state of mind,
don’t ya’ know

I have calculated that it is exactly 5,678,843 days until Airventure 2006.

In the mean time, I’d like to share some statistics from last year’s OSH show to try and describe just how big this show really is:

Oshkosh 2005 by the numbers:

700,000 - Estimated attendance

10,000 - Total aircraft arriving at Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, as well as other airports in the Oshkosh area for Airventure

2,927 - No. of showplanes (includes 1,267 homebuilt aircraft (a record), 924 vintage airplanes, 386 warbirds, 196 ultralights, 130 seaplanes and 24 rotorcraft.

789 - No. of commercial exhibitors and vendors.

1,813 - No. of registered international visitors (from 65 nations). Top nations: Canada 424, Australia 290, Germany 170, Brazil 148, South Africa 121.

904 - No of media representatives on site, from five continents (up from 711 in 2004).

41,000 - No. of campers (aircraft and drive-in camping areas) in 13,700 camping units.

If you are a pilot and you have never been to OSH, do it this year. The minute begin to walk the grounds of Wittman Regional Airport, your jaw will drop and you will be promising yourself that until you depart this life, you'll have a standinng date in late July to the land of Cheese, Brats and 5,000 calorie breakfasts.

And if you plan on going this year, you should have made your hotel reservations back in 1998, the last year a hotel room was available within a 25 mile radius of OSH during the show.

The 'Katrinazation' of
FAA User Fees

Considering the current disarray of our Federal government, is it any surprise that U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Norman Y. Mineta is changing his tune so often on the subject of user fees?

Here is Mineta at AOPA Expo in November, 2005:

"I can tell you right now from my perspective, the solution will not be user fees."

His words were welcomed with resounding applause. But wait…here is Mineta last month speaking to the Aero Club of Washington:

"Soon, the Bush Administration will propose a new, cost-based financing system for the FAA – a plan for locking onto a financial course capable of sustaining America’s aviation leadership."

So which is it, Norm? Yes, no, maybe? Sorta? Kinda?

Truth is, the lack of truthiness with this administration has made me skeptical that we will ever know a thing about user fees until the day the hammer comes down. And when AOPA reports that a Canadian user fee system is failing, does anyone – even you Red State pilots – honestly think Washington is capable of implementing user fees that are anything CLOSE to fair? The only thing fair to them will be that Halliburton's planes will get a pass on their user fees.

Anyone wanna bet me on that one, hmmmm?

These guys screw up anything they touch, and the last thing GA needs is to have this White House shove their feeble attempt at user fees down our throats. It will be an aviation version of FEMA's inept response to Hurricane Katrina, and so many Americans are already forgetting that 1,300 souls died in that Bush blunder. If we let W and "Dickie the Fudd" Cheney anywhere near GA, we will lose big time.

And at a time when we have things rolling along so nicely too. GA growth is all around us, and apparently we can't have that. Let's stop this train with some bloated fee structure that all but kills the recent growth we all embrace. That, my Red State friends, is your President at work.

(Note to those who email me when I go off all political...I am NOT a Democrat, I am an Independent, and distrust both sides of the aisle equally. I try – really – to hold back, but damn, have you seen the news today? AP has footage from a FEMA videoconference call showing W knew about the possible devastation coming to NOLA and STILL bungled it all up. Did I mention that 1,300 people died? And the GOP tried to impeach Clinton for one damned blow job... arguhhh!)

Bad news, good news
out of FAA Conference


At the FAA’s 31st Forecast Conference this week in Washington, a report entitled FORECAST HIGHLIGHTS 2006-2017 has been released, and the picture is not good for commercial airline pax.

It is however, some very, very good news for those who build VLJs, because we all know that as airline service deteriorates, more and more smart flyers will shift towards on-demand air taxis, fractionals or outright personal air transportation ownership.

Here are some pull quotes from the report (link to the entire report below):

The size of domestic aircraft will decline this year by 1.4 seats. Legacy carriers continue to replace their wide-body and larger aircraft with smaller, narrow-body planes. Additionally, demand for 70-90 seat aircraft will continue to increase, which furthers the decline in the overall number of seats per aircraft.

And this gem about VLJs:

General aviation is expected to receive a boost from relatively inexpensive twin-engine microjets, which may redefine “on-demand” air taxi service. Next year, 100 microjets will join the fleet, growing to 400-500 per year through 2017. The number of general aviation hours flown will also increase by 3.2 percent per year through 2017.

Microjets? Isn’t the rest of the industry calling them Very Light Jets? It’s no wonder the mainstream media speaks of VLJs as if they were a bunch of “itty-bitty whittle jets” due to fill the sky soon.

And just how many of us will be crammed into those skinny coach seats:

An important yardstick, though, remains the number of passengers that traveled. Last year, that number was a record 739 million, up from 690 million the previous year. U.S. commercial aviation remains on track to carry one billion passengers by 2015.

David Stempler, president of the Air Travelers Association sums the Forecast Report up this way as he mulls the future:

"Fares will be down, crowds will be up, delays will be longer. You're more likely to be in the middle seat, or next to someone in the middle seat, or sitting at the gate because you got bumped off the airplane."

Great. Smaller seats, more people fighting for them. As it is now, commercial airline travel is such a joy. So like many others, I shall predict a continued boom for GA and business aviation, that is a no-brainer if there ever was one.

Here are all the links you need to follow the conference:

Main conference page

Forecast 2006-2017 - Full Report

FAA Conference fact sheet

FAA Administrator Marion Blakey’s remarks