Powerful.

Last night, I went to see United 93 at the 1035P showing, and can say without reservation that I have had a very, very restless night. Unless you take a handful of Ambien, do not see this film right before bed. See it during the day when you can go home and chill out with some Merlot because you’re going to need several hours – maybe days – to get over the sheer terror this film throws at you.

Prior to the feature, I sat through the usual previews, and as always, a couple were “horror” flicks, which I consider to be a real waste of perfectly good movie film. These were your typical slasher garbage aimed at the 13-18 year old male demographic, where a young, pretty, innocent girl is told not to go into the attic but does anyway, releasing the undead demons who chase her ass down and filet her into kabobs using shards of some kind of crucifix.

Boring. Terror…yawn…

Then there is United 93. You want terror? U93 delivers the kind of real-time fear that will send shivers down any spine. If you aren’t clutching the seat with both hands by the time this film is half over, you’re a cadaver, baby.

My assignment was to go to the theater to report on all the aviation inaccuracies I could find. We all know Hollywood has a way of sometimes getting it wrong when it comes to aircraft in movies, so with pen and tablet in hand, I sat ready to rip U93 to shreds.

I never picked up the pen.

Director Paul Greengrass achieves U93’s overwhelming power simply because it is so incredibly accurate, from a sheer aviation perspective. I am not a student of 9/11 facts and figures, so I’m not the guy who can say if he gets the timeline exactly right. But by utilizing FAA’s National Operations Manager Ben Sliney as a Technical Advisor, Greengrass is able to tap into the very heart of the FAA’s information pool…but wait, it gets better.

Greengrass also casts Sliney as himself, and Ben pulls it off perfectly. Who better to play the role than the guy who lived it? Brilliant. And while I do not know this to be true, all the ATC controllers working the screens sounded like real controllers, and not one "over and out" was heard. It also appears the ATC scenes were shot in actual radar facilities and ATC centers, because it looked perfectly real in every way.

Maybe it is the realism of the ATC scenes, and maybe it is the fact that we all know the unfortunate ending to this movie, but if there was ever a film that kept you on the edge of your seat, this is it. I nominate Greengrass for the Best Director Oscar® right here and now.

A couple of final notes. First, kudos to Greengrass for the way he depicted the violence in this movie. We all know the story, so we know that at some point, box cutters are drawn and things are going to get ugly. I’m happy to report that the Director handled this portion of the storyline with taste – never showing the wounds or the wounded’s face – and all with a minimum of blood. But the powerful terror that this film throws at you is far more potent than any slasher film showing any number of nubiles getting sliced and diced into oblivion…because THIS WAS REAL!

I give this film five stars out of four (if that’s even possible) and recommend it highly….that is if you can handle it. This is not a film for everyone, and frankly, I cannot even begin to feel the pain that the surviving families of U93’s passengers must have endured if they choose to see the movie.

Only one knock is that the White House's bungled response on 9/11 was completely removed from the story. If you know the tale of My Pet Goat, then you’ll be ashamed at how Greengrass caters to the right by eliminating any mention of that portion of the factual evidence that is so well known about Bush’s less-than-heroic handling of the situation.

Closing: As an aviator, this film hits the mark. As an American, watching it is like getting kicked in the head by a mule. The most tragic day in our nation’s history – September 11, 2001 – will forever be etched in our memories.

We will never forget, nor should we.

United 93

When I first heard about a movie coming out about the flight of United 93 on 9.11.2001, my initial thoughts were negative. As a screenwriter who is currently working in a historically-important aviation film script myself, I wondered how any writer could possibly make this horrible event into a theatrical production without glamorizing terrorism.

And since the cockpit vice recordings were just released to the public a few DAYS before United 93’s release, I had to wonder just how accurate this movie could be, from a purely aviation point of view.

But today, Roger Ebert released his review of the movie, and gave it four stars, his highest rating. This guy knows movies, so if he says it’s good, it must be good, at least from a cinematic standpoint.

Of course, the subject is still going to be very, very difficult to consume:

"To watch "United 93" is to be confronted with the grim chaotic reality of that autumn day in 2001. The movie is deeply disturbing, and some people may have to leave the theater."

With my two years of work fine-tuning Three-Eight Charlie’s script, I have gone to great lengths to make my story so accurate, any pilot who sees it (which I hope will be about 600,000 of you) will not leave the Cineplex shaking their heads, wondering how Hollywood could get is so wrong again.

So this weekend, I’m going to go see United 93, and see if they got the aviation stuff right. I’m not a scholar of 9/11 per se, so I may not be the best person to comment on the historical and/or political aspects of the film. But how they depict ATC, the operations of the aircraft, the pilot's language, etc. is what I'll focus on...and have a report up by Monday that will aim to report how much the director got right, and where they dropped the ball.

UPDATE 04.28.06 235P: Earlier, I mused about how United 93 Director Paul Greengrass could have possibly knew enough inside info to make this movie without the contents of the cockpit flight data recorder being made public until just days before the release. Under further investigation, there was a clue hiding in Ebert’s review:

At the FAA national center, the man in charge, Ben Sliney (playing himself) begins to piece things together and orders a complete shutdown of all American air traffic.

Yes, it was a very wise move to attach Sliney as first a Technical Advisor, and then as an actual actor. Maybe this was how Greengrass got “inside” the FAA to obtain the goods.

There is a very interesting interview with Sliney found here.

Highway freakin’ robbery.

There comes a time when we all get pushed over the edge. Today is my day. I woke up to this headline on one of the websites I peruse each A.M.:

ExxonMobil Netting $93,000,000 a day

$93 million a day profit.

This unbelievable headline was sitting just under another that shouted out the sick, disgusting truth about our country today:

Republican Bill Gives Billions In Tax Breaks For Oil Companies

With our King at 32% approval ratings in some polls, and our worthless Congress now at 22% approval in other polls, I ask you… how much more of this crap can you personally take?

I chuckle when I think about those loyal Country Club Republicans – the guys who drive Escalades and fly Baron 55s. Do they really have so much money that they can still support Bush when he is so obviously stealing from their pocket and passing the money on to his homeboyz at Big Oil? These are the same guys that bitch a blue streak about a $10 tie-down fee, and then turn a blind eye when they get so viciously screwed at the pump, thanks to W and Dead Eye Dick. I guess party loyalty has it’s price.

A quick look around the country on 100ll.com shows these outrageous prices for 100 low lead today:

$5.80 in Atlanta (ATL)
$5.10 in Los Angeles (LAX)
$6.31 in New Jersey (TEB)

Almost six and a half bucks for a gallon of avgas? Fill your Baron with 112 gallons of dead dinosaur juice and we’re talking $706.72 to go just over 700 NM. That works out to $1,300 for a quick roundtrip from the middle of Oregon to the middle of Cali.

So if anyone reading this actually enjoys getting raped at the pump, make sure you vote GOP this November. That way, W and Dead Eye avoid impeachment hearings, and you can still get that wonderful warm, fuzzy feeling in your heart as you transfer your hard-earned GOP dollars to the cronies at Big Oil so they can stash it on an offshore slush fund and avoid paying any taxes at all. So nice of you to contribute to their insane profits...I wish I had that kind of money to simply piss away.

Or, you can vote D in November and change the power structure of the House and Senate so we can impeach these clowns and begin serious investigations into Big Oil’s obvious price fixing schemes.

This is a “no-brainer” if there ever was one.

Cattle Call.

Every time I fly commercial lately, I get the sense that either I’m getting fatter or the seats are getting smaller. So I’m thrilled to report that my girth is not expanding (gym three times a week), it is in fact the seating space that is shrinking, so reports the New York Times today:

Carriers have been slipping another row or two of seats into coach by exploiting stronger, lighter materials developed by seat manufacturers that allow for slimmer seatbacks. The thinner seats theoretically could be used to give passengers more legroom but, in practice, the airlines have been keeping the amount of space between rows the same, to accommodate additional rows. The result is an additional 6 seats on a typical Boeing 737, for a total of 156, and as many as 12 new seats on a Boeing 757, for a total of 200.

An extra seat here and there is almost expected these days as Big Oil robs us blind with Jet A prices that are through the roof. But this is nothing compared to the idea that some Asian carriers are proposing to take full advantage of the new Airbus A380:

Asian carriers, by utilizing a standing-room-only option, would force passengers to be propped against a padded backboard, held in place with a harness, according to experts who have seen a proposal. This would maximize payloads because a typical economy class seat now weighs 74 to 82 pounds.

Now had I read this on some fringe web site, I’d blow it clean off and move along, nothing to see here. But friends, this is being reported by the NEW YORK TIMES, still considered by many as a legit source of news. So I have to believe they had someone actually fact check a story that is this nuts.

According to the report, the FAA does not mandate that a passenger be in a sitting position for takeoffs and landings; only that the passenger be secured. Seating must comply only with the agency's rules on the width of aisles and the ability to evacuate quickly in an emergency.

So you can bundle people like cord wood, strap them to pallets and load them with a forklift if you wish…so long as they don’t bounce around in moderate turbulence.

Yes, this is pretty far out there, and yes, the Asian carriers are just talking about this for short hauls between their overpopulated big cities. As a proud aviator, I sincerely hope that if that day ever comes, I’ll be long gone…off flying with Lindbergh and Papa Louie.

Arm yourself NOW!

We all have been in the occasional situation where we must be advocates for general aviation. Now, AOPA has made it easy to become the resident expert on a multitude of GA facts and figures by offering a free download of their new 2006 Aviation Fact Card.

On this card will be such handy information as this:

There are 609, 737 pilots holding certificates in the U.S., flying 239,162 licensed civil aircraft. Those flying machines carried 109 million souls to their destination in 2005, 17% of all flying passengers…but those GA planes burned only 6% of total aviation fuel consumed.

There is also some rather obscure data on the card. For instance, the next time you wish bury your trivia opponent while hangar flying, ask them how many VOR or VOR/DME facilities there are. I’m sure they won’t be able to craft a guess that there are 1,111 of them.

AOPA has made this a nice simple PDF download that prints out perfectly. Go here and get your copy today and throw it in your flight bag so we can be armed with info the next time we must defend GA against the un-informed masses.

Not your
Father’s
airliner

O.K., admit it..we’ve all been salivating over the Boeing 7E7 Dreamliner. It’s sleek, it’s modern, it’s cutting edge. In fact, it’s so damned good looking, I want it to slip into something more comfortable and meet me in the boudoir for some hanky panky.

I recently exchanged emails with a current 767 pilot who cannot wait for his name to climb the hiring chart so he one day will be left seat in a 7E7. Without going into paragraphs of detail here, he said it is common knowledge among current line pilots that the advances Boeing is introducing with the –E7 will change everything in commercial aviation.

Well, friends, I can lay testiment to that first hand.

Today, I flew the Dreamliner for the first time out of EUG, and there were two distinct flying characteristics that jump right out at you:

Rolling down 16R, I pulled back and at 95 KIAS, the nose shot skyward and the Dreamliner began it’s rotation. At 100 KIAS, we were flying, and before I could sip my Starbucks the nice young lady had brought me from the back, we were climbing at 3,000 fps. And with quick, easy flicks of my wrist, I could lay the 7E7 into a hard bank either direction as if it were a Lancair Columbia.

Now for those of you just tuning, in, you may be wondering how a lone aviation blogger in the middle of Oregon got the keys to a Dreamliner. No problem if you are a member of the X-Plane Community.

See, this Dreamliner was a very new X-Plane simcraft, and a very good one at that. It is amazing how much time these Simcrafters put into getting things exactly right, so I feel pretty confident that this simulated 7E7 flies somewhat like the real thing.

And we all know this is about as close to the left seat as I will ever get. I do have it on my list however to fly in the back of a 7E7, hopefully with some wide-eyed grandkids at my side.

The future’s
so bright,
they have
to wear
shades

Boeing announced today that Southwest Airlines has converted options into orders for 79 Next-Generation 737-700s. Airplanes covered by the converted options will be delivered between 2007 and 2012 in a deal worth approximately $4.5 billion at list prices.

Southwest, the first and one of the world's most successful low-cost carriers, operates an all-Boeing fleet of 452 737s. Boeing Commercial Airplanes president and CEO Alan Mulally thinks that is a very smart move:

"Southwest's continued choice of the 737 validates our shared view that passengers want affordable, comfortable nonstop service to where they want to go, when they want to go there. The 737 has contributed to Southwest's success through double-digit utilization rates, low fuel consumption, low maintenance costs and quick turnaround times."

With SWA being bullish on their –37 orders, they seem to have full confidence in their low fare pricing structure continuing to be a market benchmark for years to come.

The deal also set a benchmark of sorts for the 737 family:

With this order, sales of Next-Generation 737 airplanes (-600, -700, -800, -900, -900ER) have eclipsed sales of the Classic 737 airplane family. The number of Next-Generation 737s sold totals 3,162, compared with 3,132 Classic 737s sold.

Good news all the way around. That is – of course – unless your American, Delta or United. Will there come a day when all airlines are low fare? Yes. That day will come when we can fuel a jetliner with biodiesel made from a volatile combination of soybeans, okra and watermelon rinds that we grew somewhere out there in the square states.

Oh, sustainable fuels…that, my friends, is an entirely new post, coming soon.

Lights were on,
but nobody was
home at Sea-tac

Imagine you’re hauling a gazillion pounds of Taiwanese stuff in a 747, happily talking to Seattle Center inbound to SEA. You get passed off to tower, but no matter how hard you try on your array of expensive airplane radios, you can’t get anyone to mutter “you are cleared to land”...easily a pilot’s favorite phrase.

What ya’ gonna do:

Airport officials and the FAA told Seattle television station KING-5 that a Taiwanese EVA 747-400 was on final approach to Sea-Tac around 3:15 am when it radioed the tower for landing clearance. When no one answered, the plane went around -- and remained airborne until a controller could be reached.

Aero News network and Associated Press are reporting that for 25 minutes in the early morning hours of April 11, the SEA tower was incommunicado to planes in the area. Seems now the FAA and SEA officials may be re-thinking their standard Ops procedure of having one guy run the tower in those late, low traffic hours.

Hmmm. Now maybe they might have thought of this before. Inbound heavies descending towards ONE GUY??? What happens if he has to, ummm, visit the “used food” department and relieve himself of a couple of massive Chile Verde burritos?

I guess now we know.

We're good…just nicked.

A few posts ago, I told you about Jay and Mary Honeck, innkeepers of the very cool aviation-themed Alexis Park Inn and Suites in Iowa City, Iowa. These are the kind of people we pilots dig, with 100LL running cool through their veins.

So I was worried about the Honecks as news rolled in like this:

IOWA CITY – Tornadoes tore across the University of Iowa campus, ripped walls off a downtown church and killed a woman in a mobile home outside town. The National Weather Service said five tornadoes touched down in Johnson County on Thursday night, the most destructive carving a 3 1/2-mile path of damage through downtown and the university.

It turns out that Jay was at an Airport Commission meeting debating such hot topics as runway pavement projects when all hell broke loose across Johnson County:

"Racing toward home, flying down a tree-lined street that offered a limited view to the south, I glanced in the direction of the reported tornado when, in a flash of lightning, I saw it. There was no way to judge scale or direction of travel, in that millisecond flash, but it was big. A giant, V-shaped funnel was looming over the city, and it couldn't have been six blocks away! In fact, for me to have been able to see it at all, over those trees, it was either 50 stories tall, or it was right on top of me!"

Damage to the Honecks was minimal. There was some roof and fence damage at the inn, but their home and hangar came through unscathed.

Glad to hear it. And from Oregon, the land of raindrops as big as cars, I ask you guys in Tornado Alley…how the hell do you get ANY flying in this time of year? I’ve heard of IFR, but man, Mother Nature gives it to you folks.

Jay has provided a great play-by-play from someone right in the eye of the tiger. I've published (with his permission) a PDF of the story here. (You HAVE to download this and read it, it'll blow your mind - dan)

Congratulations, Jerrie.

Today is a most notable day for fans of Jerrie Mock's around-the-world adventure. Forty-two years ago, history was made in Ohio involving a Skywagon and its amazing pilot. Read about it here.

The WHAT
Racing League?

Since I own an ad agency that specializes in aviation clients, I read (skim) way too many flying magazines and newspapers. I try to stay up on everything out there, so it was like getting kicked in the head by a ticked-off mule when I read about the upstart ROCKET RACING LEAGUE coming to a sky near you.

Yes, you read that right. Guys racing rocket powered aircraft around a closed course. Bet it’s not a coincidence that these racing rockets will be made in – where else – Mojave, California, which is ground zero to the exploding (no pun intended) commercial space travel industry.

So what the hell is rocket racing anyway? Well, this is so new – and so out there – I cannot possibly describe it fully in a blog post. I recommend you visit the Rocket Racing League website for complete details.

But here is the nutshell version:

The Rocket Racing League is an aerospace entertainment organization which combines the competition of racing with the excitement of rocketry. Each rocket-powered vehicle, or "X-Racer", will be based on an existing airframe, which will be modified to carry a 1,500 pound thrust rocket engine burning liquid oxygen (LOX) and kerosene. The first-generation of Mark-1 X-Racers will reach maximum speeds of more than 320 mph on a course that is one mile high, two miles long and one-half mile across.

While the action in the air ought to be a rush, there is a ground element to rocket racing that may be even more thrilling:

X-Racers will have the ability to be rapidly refueled, with initial refueling times on the order of 5 to 10 minutes per pit stop. Each vehicle will be capable of approximately 4 minutes of intermittent engine boost and 10 minutes of un-powered (glide) flight, allowing for 3-4 laps around the course between pit stops.

So every 3-4 laps, every racer must dive in, refuel and relaunch without "trading paint", as they say in NASCAR. This ought to me interesting indeed.

One notable pilot with a legendary name has already signed on to pilot an X-racer. Erik Lindbergh, grandson of Charles Lindbergh and an experienced commercial glider and test pilot is also a spokesman for the league.

The Rocket Racing League plans to have a debut exhibition race at the X PRIZE Cup event in September 2006 in New Mexico. In the following 6 months, races at an additional two air shows and two auto race events are planned to take place, yielding the semi-finals at the Reno Air Races and a championship event in New Mexico at the X-Prize Cup 2007. There will be a total of six racing venues for the year. Plans for 2008 expand the circuit to include approximately seven venues, followed by approximately ten venues in 2009. Starting in year three, the Rocket Racing League will procure additional venues with the goal of keeping approximately one third of the venues outside of the United States, preferably in countries with viable X PRIZE Cup teams.

Paper vs.
Plastic

O.K., I’m going to attempt to state my favorite flight simulator here, without this turning into a free-for-all over which one is best, X-Plane or Microsoft Flight Simulator. Debating that kind of thing is a waste of time, sort of like the age-old debates that continue to rage over Apple vs. Windows, Ford vs. Chevy, Target vs. Wal*Mart, Piper vs. Cessna.

Or, a new one to add to the mix: Eclipse vs. Adam vs. Cessna Mustang vs. Embraer Phenom 300. Best to let that dog sleep.

But on the subject of sims, I love X-plane. Mostly because as a Mac user, developer Austin Meyers has always crafted his unbelievable sim first for the Mac (it’s actually designed in OS X) and then ports it over to run on Windows.

For quite some time, the bash on X-Plane was poor graphics. The latest versions feature far greater detail and are very pretty, but reviewers still give the nod to MSFS…at least on eye candy.

But if eye candy is your #1 reason for choosing a sim, you’re a gamer and not an aviator. Gamers like bells and whistles, flyers like realism, and in that arena, a long list of reviewers – including me – say that X-Plane wins every time.

Meyers, an aeronautical engineer, originally developed X-Plane to test new wing designs. From the data I have read, the program calculates the air flow over the airframe many times faster and with more precision that any other consumer sim out there. I also like the fact that you can tweak it to your heart’s content. My 4,000 HP DC-3 (2,000 turboshaft BHP x 2 sides) flies like a big phat Lancair, and my jet-powered Agcat Xtreme (photo above) is just plain crazy. You can download an endless number of exotic aircraft such as a TWIN MUSTANG! Until this morning, I didn't even know such a thing existed, now I can go fly all day for free.

In fact, those who tell you X-Plane is a game will be far off the mark. The FAA has approved the software for use in Modus full-motion simulators ($150,000+) for training towards your IFR, Comm or ATP ticket. This folks, is the actual, very same, identical program you can buy for US$59.

Unbelievable.

Rust.

There is an element of all pilot’s skill set that we sometimes forget about until they come back to bite us where we sit. That element is…rust.

I’m like many private pilots, flying only enough to be dangerous. Lately, the time between flights has lengthened due to demands of my real job and my screenplay project, and yesterday on an insurance checkout flight at my new flying club, I found out just how rusty one’s skills can become:

My log book shows just under 300 hours in 10 years, but I have not had any significant dual instruction in years. The bi-annual flight reviews I received during that period were simple “trips around the patch” affairs…nobody got killed=logbook gets endorsed for two more years.

So yesterday with my new CFI (who happens to be one of a handful of “Master” CFIs in the USA), I found out that I had developed very poor form in the pattern and on my approaches. I’ve never done well with check rides, and it is always double bad when you are up for a new CFI for the first time. I can write off 25% of my sloppy flying to nerves, but the rest was…rust.

I flew well enough to get my insurance endorsement at the new club, but Dorothy at TakeWING Flying Club exposed a flaw in my training that if not corrected may have resulted one day in twisted Skyhawk and reams of NTSB paperwork.

My recommendation: Never assume the skills you learned years ago are still fresh today. Utilize the FAA’s WINGS program to stay current and fresh, and make sure you go up at least once a year with your CFI so she can bust you for the sloppy flying skills we part-time aviators all eventually develop.

It may be the best decision you will ever make.

Catch 'em if You Can

A long-time good friend of mine – and one of the premiere biplane builders in the country – was recently featured flying one of his remarkable D-25 New Standards across the cover of the June issue of Air Classics Magazine. Subscribe to the magazine here.

Folks in the Southeast know that Bob Lock and his son Rob own and operate Waldo Wright’s Flying Service out of Kermit Week’s Fantasy of Flight Museum in Polk City, Florida. To us pilot types, that place is to an aviator what Disneyland is to an eight-year-old.

So go buy a copy of the magazine at your local newsstand, or book a flight out of FoF when you are in the middle of FL.

Or, if you want to catch up to always busy “Team Waldo”, try these stops on the American Barnstormers Tour, July 15th, 2006 – July 30th, 2006:

July 15th-16th: Air Zoo - Kalamazoo, MI (KAZO)
July 17th: Smith Field - Fort Wayne, IN (KSMD)
July 18th: Monroe County Apt - Bloomington, IL (KBMG)
July 19th: Frasca Field – Champaign/Urbana, IL (C16)
July 20th: SE Iowa Regional Apt – Burlington, IA (KBRL)
July 21st: Albertus Apt– Freeport, IL (KFEP)
July 22nd: Baraboo WI Dells Apt – Baraboo, WI (KDLL)
July 23th-24th: Wausau Apt– Wausau, WI (KAUW)
July 26th-30th: Air Venture– Oshkosh, WI (KOSH)

I will be trying to find Bob Lock at OSH when I am there 7/29 & 30, if not to buy a ride, then to at least shake his hand and see if some of that good old aviator spirit he drips can rub off.

HOT HOT HOT BOOK ALERT!!

For those of you that follow this blog, you know I am the driving force (and writer) behind the Three-Eight Charlie screenplay project, highlighting the life and historic around the world flight of Jerrie Mock.

You might then also know that her book, Three-Eight Charlie, is very VERY rare, and if you can find one at all, they fetch close to $500 and up. So it is very good news that today a signed first edition of the book appeared in a "no reserve" auction on eBay. I am not the seller, it is someone out of Spokane, WA.

If you want to bid, better get on this quick. Here's the link.

How about PhatBoy?

The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company today launched a new blimp without an official name. They did that because they are also launching a mega PR stunt, the “Name the Blimp” contest.

Simple concept. You name it, you get to have the blimp visit your town for a day, so says Chuck Sinclair, Senior Vice President, Goodyear:

"It occurred to us as we were preparing to invite America for input on naming the new airship, that the most compelling incentive to enter would be an opportunity to live that dream. Ask yourself, what would you do if you had the blimp for a day?"

So what WOULD you do with a blimp for a day. I sure the hell would rustle a few minutes in the left seat. Oh wait, it’s a freakin’ blimp, so they probably fly it from the right seat.

Then again, would flying a blimp really be that much fun? They fly kinda slow, have almost no roll rate, the stalls are really REALLY boring, and it is pretty hard to drop into the airport café for a $100 hamburger without a busload of ground crew to tether your ass to the bus (see photo above).

Here is everything you ever needed to know about Goodyear’s blimp program, and here is the info on the contest.

Fun with Widgets

I am never one to get into the “Mac vs. Windows” debate…it is like trying to argue which is better, Ford or Chevy, Cessna or Piper.

But as a graphic designer, I live in a Mac world, as does the rest of the printing industry. And recently, I started using Apple’s Dashboard utility, which allows the user to add cool little “widgets” to the desktop, which can be called up simply with a press of the F9 button.

And of course, as a pilot, I quickly went to the www and searched for aviation-related widgets. I found one freebie called “Aviation Weather” that displays current METAR info for up to 4 airports. Then I figured out how to display several at once, and now – as the photo above shows – I can hit one button and get current, instant WX for a number of airports.

This technology stuff, I love it one minute, despise it the next. Today, I love it…

And I thought $10 mil
for EUG's needless
runway was horrible!

This coming Thursday, Lambert (St. Louis) Airport and city officials will gather Thursday to open STL’s new 9,000-foot-long concrete runway that cost $1.1 billion to build and is said to be the most expensive improvement project in St. Louis history.

Over a billion for one runway? Un-huh.

This billion-dollar-baby has been in the works for some time:

Lambert faces a different reality than the busy conditions it faced in the 1990s when the federal government approved the runway plan in 1998. Back then Lambert was TWA's primary hub. Strong storms or heavy fog restricted landings to one runway, triggering a backlog that rippled across the country.

So TWA is history, and it appears that STL’s traffic has dropped so much the runway wasn’t really needed after all. Reports are that since 9/11, STL sees 36 percent less ops, and all but two of the 14 gates in Concourse D are empty.

Now I do not claim to be an airport engineer, but you’d think that in all those years, someone somewhere might have re-figured this thing, hmmm? Over a billion for a runway? Give is all a break. Somebody was asleep at the wheel on this one, and I offer my condolences to the taxpayers of America.

As is the case so much these days, I smell pork a-burning in the kitchen, momma.

Tucker is a class act

As many of us already know, Sean Tucker parachuted from his aerobatic biplane this past Tuesday just south of Coushatta, LA. Tucker's biplane suffered a mechanical failure in the elevator control linkage during a practice flight in the aerobatic box at the Coushatta airport.

Aero News Network has a great piece on the incident here.

A few years ago, I had the pleasure to briefly speak with Tucker as he walked through the crowd at Oshkosh following his act, which, BTW, was awesome as always. I always try to compliment aerobatic pilots whenever I can, because what they do is actually much, MUCH harder than it looks. It is not only mentally challenging, but physically demanding beyond anything I could ever endure.

As I walked, Tucker just happened to stroll by within a few feet, going the same direction. So I threw him some verbal flowers, and he responded with an outstretched hand. He gave me his full attention for a good five minutes after asking me what I thought of the show. It is unbelievable that a star of his quality would care what one dude in a million at OSH thought about his act.

So as we walked, I tried to be honest, and told him I wouldn’t know the difference between a good airshow act and great one – they all look kickass wonderful to me. But I did tell him I know greatness on the stick when I see it, and he was one of the best. Sean smiled, thanked me and disappeared.

Very glad here to see he survived the incident. Sorry to see his beautiful Oracle Challenger go away, but Tucker will be back to his upside down sideways tailsliding self soon. Certainly in time for his appointment with the masses on the shores of Lake Winnebago in late July.

Tucker’s website has the latest on the story here.

Deal, or No Deal?

Above shot shows the GPS coordinates straight out of Google Earth, and the bottom one is a screenshot of what you see when you go to Maxim's website and click the link. Hmmm...

Seems everyone believed as I did that this is really a satellite photo shot from space. AP, Rueters, PRNewswire, CNN, CBS, everyone. But without the Maxim link clicked, there is no Eva. So my conclusion is that this is some sort of mashup, and not an actual Googlite image from space.

It is also a very cool PR trick that Maxim has thrown at the world, and the world fell for it. And we got to look at EL in a swimsuit for a few minutes, that's not all bad.

ATTACK OF
THE GIANT
HOUSEWIVES
FROM SPACE!

I’d love to swear that since this marketing trick utilizes satellite photography, it technically qualifies to be on an aviation blog.

I'd love to say that, but I would be lying.

This is just a way I can somehow explain how a very nice photo of the hottest Desperate Housewife ended up on my blog, when she's not in, around, buying or flying an airplane.

What you see above is an actual Google Earth shot of the latest Maxim Magazine cover. Yes, it appears to be real:

This kills one of the current urban myths that Google Earth’s images are old and outdated. Since this photo shows the current Maxim’s cover, it must have been shot by Google’s bird very recently…or at least Maxim had inside info on when the "Googlelite" might be floating aimlessly over the desert outside Vegas.

Eva Longoria cover "by the numbers":
Size: 75' x 110'
Material: Vinyl Mesh windscreen
# of stakes in the ground to hold it down: 125
Crew to install: 9
# of hours of printing: 25
# of feet of airline cable to hold in place: 2400'
# of hours to install: 15 hours

Anyway, as an advertising guy, this is pretty cool. And as a healthy hetero male, how can you go wrong with a 100-foot tall version of Eva Longoria? You can't.

UPDATE: Just got an email today saying I've been duped again, and that the Maxim cover is a fake. I have searched the web everywhere using every search term I could think of and cannot find a word to corroborate this guy's allegation that the cover was shot from an airplane and laid over a Google Earth photo. If it's truly a fakey, you'd think at least one media outlet would have posted the news. Also did a blogosphere search, and not one post to back this up. So, if anyone has links to news that this is a phony, please send them to me - dp

UPDATE II: Best I can gather, this appears to possibly be what is called a "mash-up" in Googlese, where a photo from an airplane is overlaid on top of Google's base satellite photos. No definitive proof of that yet, but I put in the GPS coordinates to the location and by going straight to Google and bypassing the Maxim link, it does not show dear Eva. A emailer says National Geographic uses this tactic all the time in Africa. Developing....

The End of the
Line for Delta?

Of the 5,930 Delta pilots either active or furloughed, 5,295 pilots (who average $151,000 per year) voted yes on the strike authorization ballot being pushed by their union, the Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l (ALPA).

Atlanta-based Delta sought approval to reject its contract with its pilots so it can impose up to $325 million in long-term pay and benefit cuts, which would include a wage reduction of at least 18 percent. Delta's pilots previously agreed to $1 billion in annual concessions, including a 32.5 percent wage cut, in a five-year deal in 2004.

This could get ugly before the dust settles:

An arbitration panel must decide by April 15 whether to void the pilots' contract. The union has said it will strike if its contract is rejected. The nation's third largest carrier, which is operating under bankruptcy protection, has said a strike would put it out of business.

This is a tough one to swallow. I cannot comprehend making $151Gs a year to get the chance to fly big jets… it would be a dream job at half that salary to a pilot like me. But I’ve never had the responsibility of keeping 200 pax alive either when things get dicey, and that’s when you want a happy, high-paid driver in the left seat.

If Delta does not survive this round of union bickering – if this is the real thing and the pilots do walk – Delta says it will go down in flames financially. That would change the commercial aviation landscape big time, pushing almost 6,000 trained, professional pilots onto the job market.

And if that happens, look for the new upstart air taxi guys waiting for their fleet of Eclipse’s to be built to become knee deep in resumes. And with only two legacy carriers left, watch for JetBlue and Southwest to fight it out for those empty Delta gates at hubs across America.

Boeing keeping very busy

Ever wonder really how many airplanes Boeing can deliver in 90 days? We’ve seen the pictures of their mammoth factory, which looks to the untrained eye like complete chaos…parts and pieces strewn everywhere. But when their craftsmen and technicians bolt those pieces together, the company is able to deliver quite a few birds.

Here are their first quarter delivery numbers for 2006, released today:

Commercial Airplanes Programs
717.....2
737 (Next Generation).....72
747.....4
767.....3
777.....17

Total.....98

Integrated Defense Systems Programs

AH-64D (New Builds).....9
C-17.....4
F/A-18E/F.....10

A really awesome reason
for any pilot to visit
the Heartland of America

First things first…I have never met the owners of this Inn, but I suspect I will someday, because the Alexis Park Inn and Suites in Iowa City, Iowa is so very, very cool if you’re a pilot.

I just discovered this inn by dinking around the web tonight, and am completely jealous of the innkeepers, Jay and Mary Honeck, because this is an idea I wish I’d have thought of first. Think Oshkosh meets the Residence Inn. Damn nice rooms, service and prices, all served with Iowa hospitality and this kind of aviation passion:

The Charles Lindbergh Suite…the name says it all! This suite is a huge 600+ square foot, two-bedroom non-smoking suite, decorated with Lindbergh (and Lindbergh-era) artwork and memorabilia.

And yes, they like pilots, a lot. That’s why they give a quick and simple 10% off room rates to members of these aviation organizations: AOPA, Airnav.com (user members), EAA and Cherokee Pilots Association.

Alexis Inn and Suites also offers something that they claim no other hotel in America offers, airplane rides:

The Alexis Park Inn & Suites is the only hotel in America that can offer you an airplane ride during your stay! We have worked out a great deal with Jet Air, Inc. (our local airport operator, just 300 yards away) to provide 30-minute airplane rides for up to 3 guests -- for only $75! Sit back and enjoy the ride, or -- if you'd like -- your Certified Flight Instructor pilot will let you take the controls!

They also have posted on their website easily the wildest collection of “out there” aviation video clips I’ve discovered anywhere, stuff like the Airbus Autoland Crash -- The very first fully automated aircraft flies into the trees...or something called “Jet versus wall” in which the wall wins. Check these out here.

To read a very good article on the place, check out Julie Boatman’s article in AOPA Pilot here, and read the Inn's list of amenities here.

I just love to plug businesses that have this much good taste for aviation, so the next time you have reason to visit Iowa City, you are hereby ordered to stay at this hotel. No excuses, give them your business or they’ll replace the airplane stuff with cheap sofa art from Wal*Mart.

O.K., only kidding about the sofa art.

Not kidding about how important it is for us in the aviation community to support people like the Honecks who really know how to welcome wayward aviators.

Here is the contact info:

Alexis Park Inn & Suites
1165 S. Riverside Drive
Iowa City, Iowa 52246
Toll Free: 888-9ALEXIS
Local: 319 337-8665
Fax: 319 351-4102
Email:AlexisParkInn@mchsi.com