Nice doggie, but he
still can’t type.

I’m off to California for a business trip, and all day I’ve been trying hard to get Sage, the family Keeshond (shown in photo) to fill in as guest blogger. He sure has lots to say on a number of issues, mostly the economy and how it effects the price of cheese and dog food. And he really REALLY gets pumped up when the subject is sanitation disposal – man, you ought to see him go freakin' nuts when the refuse truck shows up.

To verify that I’m trying to get him to type today, here is Sage’s first blog entry, verbatim:

ad; 9dhcv0 nc7d2uyg2bcf 8g ^ Walk GQ6 6qwv IV 7Yjaz533f,, Cheese vep Kennel vt5veofb cbw Michael nciceubeceuc ^%B&*hi Naomi hh Îfi‹ÏÓ˝ˆ‡ fl◊ˇ◊uyfutvgyyy! akjsnc77j &&& hnd Scott oaisj8 a6 ^$%%$% nciau. Truck

O.K, so his paws do not fit the keyboard. And it has been confirmed that the housesitter won’t guest blog either, so I guess I’ll be off frequency until November 6th or 7th…unless something happens in the aviation world that is so electrifying that I cannot stay away.

So chill out, take a week off of WoF and be sure to check back about November 8th.

Oh, go fly a kite.

I have a fondness for anything that flies, but you already knew that. What most readers of WoF do not know about Av8rdan is that I am Charlie Brown when it comes to flying kites.

But I have just returned from flying my new Spectrum Parastunter kite for the first time, and I can say that my street rep as a dunce when it comes to kites is gone forever. Stick in a tree, Charlie Brown…

The problem was…it took me fifty years on this planet to find the perfect kite. My new 54” Parastunter ($39.50 at workshopplus.com) is like a mini-parafoil just like those used for sky diving. While not a skydiving expert, from what I could read on this, the kite’s aerodynamics work similar to a ‘chute’s. And because this kite has no frame, you can crash it endlessly without any damage…it is virtually indestructible. That comes in handy if you’re, well, me.

My first impression is…very cool. Here’s why:

Most kites require constant wind to stay aloft. Not the Parastunter. It features built-in tunnels throughout the canopy that captures incoming wind and converts it to lift. This means that when the wind dies down, any forward motion creates just enough lift to keep it flying until the next gust arrives.

When the wind is rocking, you can do rolls, loops, stalls and other tricks all day. But when the wind dies off, the "low-wind" drill is quite simple. You simply fly it gently sideways until you hit the side of the wind envelope, crank a quick 180, and gently fly sideways the opposite direction. Back and forth, barely flying, forward motion creating useable lift, until you feel a tug on the dual controls telling you the wind is coming back. Then it's all about speed, baby:

When the gusts jump over the 15-knot mark, this kite rockets from one side of your 180-degree wind envelope to the other in about two seconds. It goes from STOL Maule to Lancair Propjet in the blink of your eye.

Only downer is that if not done right (the right-left-right low-wind drill), the canopy can "ball and fall" where it closes into itself, balls up and heads straight for the ground. This makes me wonder if real parachutes can do that, which – of course – could really ruin your day in a hurry.

Some clarity in
the confusion.

One of the most common topics that prospective VLJ buyers talk about is – you guessed it – the cost of insuring these new aircraft. It is definitely not news that premiums for fast, expensive iron can be the No. 1 hurdle most buyers face when upgrading to a high performance single, a piston twin, and now the many VLJs set to descend down upon the market.

In researching this topic, I came across this tidbit on flightglobal.com:

Single-pilot commercial operations with very light jets are unlikely to be considered an acceptable risk by insurers despite technological advances to make the latest generation of aircraft easier and safer to fly. This is the consensus of an NBAA aviation insurance and risk management seminar.

Reading that, you’re told that “commercial” ops are possibly going to be tough to insure single-pilot. That might be of concern to the growing number of air taxi startups that will fly Part 135, but what about the guy who just wants to blast through the clouds in his personal airliner chasing down a very high-dollar tee time? Well, this page on Eclipse Aviation’s web site has some answers:

Insurance will be available for any Eclipse 500 customer who successfully completes the Eclipse 500 Pilot Training Program. Willis Global Aviation, a premier global insurance broker, has published premium and coverage estimates for the Eclipse 500—the first available for any very light jet (VLJ). Rates are competitive with similar aircraft and high liability limits (up to $10M) will be available.

O.K., let’s take a look at the "estimates" they came up with:

Minimal Experience: Annual premium - $46,000 (hull and $1M liability); 500 hours total time (Private pilot with instrument and multi-engine ratings, very limited instrument and multi-engine time)

Medium Experience: Annual Premium - $40,000 (hull and $1M liability) or $47,000 (full hull and $5M liability); 1,000 hours total time (Private pilot with instrument and multi-engine ratings, 100 instrument hours; 200 multi-engine hours)

Very Experienced: Annual Premium - $29,000 (full hull and $1M liability), $38,000 (full hull and $10M liability); 2,500 hours total time (Commercial pilot with instrument, multi-engine and jet type ratings, 100 instrument hours; 500 multi-engine hours; 100 turbine hours)

So if you win the lotto and are moving up from your Cirrus to a new E-500 and have 500 hours, your IFR ticket and a multi rating, expect to cough up forty grand for minimum coverage, or about $109 a day whether you fly the thing or not.

As with anything that flies, time will tell what the accident rate will be. A prediction, you ask...with pleasure: After a spell of mishaps that will be more pilot error than aircraft malfunction, training will intensify to fill the gaps in pilot transitional knowledge, satisfying the insurance industry who will have raised their rates through 2007 and 2008. In 2009 – when the VLJ fleets have amassed a fair amount of safe, trouble-free cycles – look for insurers to bring premiums down to rates at or below what Eclipse is now forecasting.

Four More Years.

The BBC reported Friday that Virgin Atlantic is deferring its order for the new Airbus A380 by four years. The airline had ordered six of the new superjumbos for delivery in 2009, but now wants to delay their arrival till 2013.

Virgin is now extending its leases on a number of Boeing 747-400 jumbo jets to cover the delay. And while still flying they –47s, Virgin plans to monitor the A380 to see if can prove itself in commercial service before it puts its own A380s into operation.

This is just more bad news for the A380 program that hit the ground running but has since been slowed by a number of delays.

BBC also reported these orders held by Airbus:

Emirates: 43 aircraft
Lufthansa: 15
Qantas: 12
Air France: 10
Singapore Airlines: 10
Fedex: 10
International Lease Finance: 10
UPS: 10
Thai Airways: 6
Virgin Atlantic: 6
Korean Air Lines: 5
Etihad Airways: 4
Qatar Airways: 2
China Southern Airlines: 5
Kingfisher Airlines: 5
Malaysia Airlines: 6
Source: Airbus

I think taking a “wait-and-see” approach to the A380 is a smart move by Virgin. But by the time they actually load passengers aboard the behemoth Airbus and fly it somewhere, they might also be offering people rides in space through their sister company, Virgin Galactic.

Man, these are exciting times to be an aviation writer. I just typed that very soon, we’ll see commercial space travel. Makes an aviator’s head want to explode.

A black box for GA aircraft, good or bad?

Not wanting to stir up any debate here, but is this a good thing or not:

Alakai Technologies Corp. has unveiled its Digital Flight Data System (DFDS) for Cirrus SR20 and SR22 aircraft. The safety product costs about $5,000 per unit, according to Brian Morrison, president of the company. The device is always on, monitoring engine and aircraft performance in real time and records 61 key aircraft, engine and flight parameters, creating a permanent safety record for flights.

You can slice this one many ways, but at least one large buyer of Cirrus aircraft thinks digital data recorders on GA planes is a great idea:

Steve Handey, president of Greenville, S.C.-based SATSAir, says he would consider putting the device in the more than 100 Cirrus planes he plans to have next year because it would help the company deal with the manufacturer and insurance companies if something happened.

I have to agree with Handey's way of thinking. If this system would lead to lower premiums, then full speed ahead. The NTSB loves the idea for obvious reasons, and the FAA currently does not require GA planes with fewer than 10 seats to be equipped with black box recorders.

Which leads to Big Question #1: Where does this leave the new crop of single-pilot VLJs about to sprout wings? Will VLJ airframes destined for air taxi work under part 135 (nine seats or less) be someday required to equip with a DFDS-type system? I’m going to research this and report back soon.

Seriously weird urban myth...debunked

Those of us who live on the Internets and use “The Google” often surely must have heard the wild rumors circulating recently that “The Google” had bought SpaceShipOne from the National Air and Space Museum to hang in their lobby.

Un huh. And pigs fly. (O.K., in all fairness, it is my theory that a pig may actually be able to fly if duct-taped to a JATO bottle, but I don’t want to start any more urban myths…)

The rumor was apparently started when people saw the photo shown in this post of a truck hauling what looks a heckuva lot like the real SS1 into “The Google’s” campus:

But techcrunch.com put the word out on the street quickly for the 411, and discovered that the Gazillionaire owners of “The Google” bought a replica of SS1 from Burt Rutan’s Scaled Composites and had it hung in building 43 at “The Google’s” headquarters in Mountain View, CA

So we can all go to sleep tonight knowing the real SpaceShipOne is safe, sound, and still hanging in the National Air and Space Museum’s “Milestones of Flight” gallery at their Mall museum in WDC.

Oh, and for those who are scratching their heads wondering why I am using the term “The Google” when you, me and everyone except W knows it’s simply “Google”, click here for the hilarious explanation. If you want to, try sending Ol’ George one of them thar email thingys using “The Outlook”…sorry, could not possibly resist a little snark action so close to the election.

Honda is getting serious about selling lots of jets

Honda Aircraft took its first deposits for 100-plus $3.65 million HondaJets during the NBAA Convention last week, according to president and CEO Michimasa Fujino. One sure thing that points to their devotion for this project is that Honda president and CEO Takeo Fukui was at the convention. It is being reported that the emergence of a high profile CEO like him at NBAA is a very rare occurrence.

And as if anyone needed still more proof that Honda is planning a large sales push:

Also on hand at NBAA was Doug Danuser, who recently joined Honda Aircraft as general manager of sales and marketing, migrating from a similar job at Honda’s Acura automobile arm. Danuser will oversee the dealer network, which currently consists of four companies that will operate five regional U.S. bases.

If you’ve every driven an Acura, you know these guys can build great cars and sell them like crazy. So with Danuser’s golden touch, it is a sure bet that the Hondajet will fly off the showroom floors in very high numbers.

On another note, you might have noticed two odd photos at right. They were found on a Japanese website, and I believe they may be some sort of early design for the Hondajet. However, I do not have a clue about how to read Japanese, so if any of my readers knows anyone who reads their language, shoot them this link and have them report back to me at World of Flying.

NBAA 2006 by the numbers.

One look at the statistics from NBAA’s 2006 convention and it is crystal clear that business aviation is exploding with activity. While many OEMs don’t disclose hard sales numbers for their trade shows, everywhere you look on the Internets are quotes and reports that indicate many buyers were writing really big checks in Orlando this past week.

This NBAA was one to remember:

• Total attendance this year was 33,088, a 14% increase over the 2005 NBAA show,

• This year, for the first time, all exhibitor space sold out a month in advance,

• Exhibitors brought 15 aircraft to the convention floor at the Orange County Convention Center,

• The static display at Orlando Executive sold out with 117 aircraft,

• NBAA estimated the convention brought $42 million to the Orlando area,

• Exhibitors bought over 1 million square feet of space -- that's 9% higher than last year, the previous record.

The upcoming year will be another record-breaker for business aviation sales as more and more VLJs are certified, and 2008 looks to be the year many of these airframes will be delivered. So it goes without saying that the NBAA 60th Annual Meeting & Convention scheduled for Sept. 25 – 27, 2007, in Atlanta ought to be even larger and more exciting than this year’s monster show…as it that is even possible.

One heckuva great
way to get around.

We’ve all heard of air charter, and we’re beginning to learn more about a new variation of that called air TAXI. It’s a bold concept that until recently had been built around the VLJ platform, usually the Eclipse 500 or Adam A700.

But SATSair is changing the playing field on air taxi big time by providing their air taxi service using Cirrus SR22s. The reduced operational costs of the –22 combined with a significantly lower initial aircraft acquisition costs create a business model that can be very, very attractive on short hops for business or pleasure within a 300 statute mile radius.

This concept will never replace full-blown air charter or the Flight Department model of a corporation owning their own plane and pilot. But for a company just big enough to require important staff to get there in person for valuable face time, meetings and hand shaking, or for the family or golf buddies who want some quick R & R without factoring in driving time, the SATSair model is ideal.

By far the most important advantage to this air taxi service over commercial air travel is that a Cirrus SR22 can operate into and out of damn near any airport. This means a quick trip by car to the little GA patch down the street, for a flight culminating at a destination just minutes from where you plan to work or play.

Seems this idea is catching on too:

SATSair will expand its service area to include Florida by November 1, 2006. They've also signed a contract with Cirrus Design to acquire 50 more Cirrus SR22 aircraft with options on an additional 50 in a deal valued at over $45 million.

The SATSair model can look expensive at first glance, until you look at what it would cost you to own and operate an SR22 and hire a pilot with 1,200 hours to fly it. Their basic time per Hobbs hour is $595, but with block time purchases, that can be reduced to $420. So for a 2.7 hour r/t, 203 NM trip from Eugene, OR to Seattle, regular price would be $1606. But when you buy the block and split that three ways to fill up all available seats, it is only $378 each r/t. Very respectable when compared to the airlines. And when you factor in the time, cost and hassles for parking, security and check-in flying the bigs versus the time savings of driving up to the SATSair SR22, jumping in and launching within minutes, that $378/pax seems mighty attractive to get your best people somewhere fast and back in the same business day.

And when those people get home and can catch Johnnie’s Little League game or Susie’s ballet recital, they’ll thank the CEO who made the brilliant decision to download the SATSair brochure and then made the call.

UPDATE 1 @ 637P: I just got an interesting email from someone asking why I was promoting SATSair like I was a spokesman (which I am not)...and so here is the quick and dirty answer: I have never spoken with anyone from the company – I'm just very envious of their forward thinking. But the big reason I wrote up this company on WoF is that I am a HUGE proponent of all pilots doing everything in their power to help the public accept general aviation. I see no better way right now than to fly a bunch of people around in luxury SR22s so they can go back to the office or country club and rave about how cool it was to fly in an air taxi. GA needs lots of new converts out there touting the respectability and efficiency of GA air travel, and SATSair is putting those people up in my sky. For that, they deserve a medal, and a post on this blog - dp

Nobody does it better.

If you want the real straight story on business aviation, Aviation International News is my recommendation for the most comprehensive resource for the very latest news from around the industry. This is not a plug, just this writer's personal opinion.

For instance, their October issue ran a very good piece that outlines the business jets in development, in flight-test or certified within the last year.

Here is the quick and dirty version of that list…but I urge you to go visit ainonline.com and read the full version…it is that good:

Adam Aircraft A700:
– Next delivery slot 2Q/08.
Aerion SSBJ:
– Expected to enter service in 2011.
Airbus A318 Elite:
– For flights up to 4,000 nm.
ATG Javelin:
– Certification pegged for late 2008.
Boeing Business Jets - BBJ3:
– $64 million and it’s yours.
Bombardier Challenger 605:
– Company claims a 99.8 percent dispatch rate.
Learjet 60XR:
– Adds Rockwell Collins Pro Line 21 panel.
Cessna CJ2+:
– The $5.745 million twinjet is selling like hotcakes.
Citation Encore+:
– FAA approval of the Encore+ is expected in 4Q/06.
Citation Mustang:
– First VLJ to receive full FAA certification.
Dassault Falcon 7X:
– Dassault claims 80 firm orders for the $39.2mil trijet.
Dassault Falcon 900DX:
– Improved short-field performance over the 900EX.
Dassault Falcon 2000DX:
– First deliveries expected by 2008.
Diamond D-Jet:
– Certification in 2Q/08, Diamond claims orders for 125 D-Jets.
Eclipse 500:
– Eclipse claims orders and options for 2,500 E500s.
Embraer Phenom 100:
– Certification planned for mid-2008.
Embraer Phenom 300:
– Mach 0.82 and a ceiling of 41,000 feet.
Eviation EV-20:
– The twinjet derivative of the former VisionAire Vantage.
Excel-Jet Sport-Jet:
– Work said to be suspended after ’05 prototype crash
Grob Aerospace G180 SPn Utility Jet:
– First deliveries slated for 2Q/07.
Gulfstream G150:
– NetJets has ordered 50 G150s with options on 50 more.
Honda HondaJet:
– Began taking orders this week at NBAA Convention.
Millennium Aerospace Foxjet:
– “Serious” order-taking after the NBAA show.
Raytheon Hawker 4000:
– Raytheon plans to deliver H4000s in 4Q/06.
Sino Swearingen SJ30:
– Received FAA certification in October 2005.
Spectrum Aeronautical Spectrum 33:
– Planned to take orders at NBAA.
Sukhoi S-21 SSBJ:
– Rumored SSBJ launch possible in 2015.
Supersonic Aerospace QSST:
– FAR Part 25 certification planned for 2013.
Tam-Air Epic Elite Jet:
– Certification planned for early 2008.

So many jets...so little time.

Bold moves in
Vero Beach

Maybe the biggest news yet to come out of NBAA’s annual convention going on now in Orlando is that Piper has officially announced their entry into the VLJ foray, and their choice of power is sure to surprise more than just this writer.

If you go to their press release here, you’ll see some very nice, high-resolution photos for download that show one engine perched up on the vertical stabilizer, looking a little like a baby Falcon with both side engines removed.

With one powerplant instead of two sucking up your Jet-A, you get this kind of performance (all numbers from Piper and at this point are only projections):

The PiperJet will be capable of reaching a cruising speed of 360 knots and a maximum operating altitude of 35,000 feet. The six passenger PiperJet – with an option for either a seventh seat or enclosable lavatory – offers a mission-capable profile and sensuous luxury that sets the standard in its class, with a range of 1,300 nautical miles and a full-fuel payload of 800 lbs.

With the dependability of today’s turbofan engines, having only one back there is a non-issue, for pilots. But it is still a bold move on Piper’s part since the public can still get freaked out about in-flight engine failures. Just ask Pilatus’ sales team about the song-and-dance they do every day touting the dispatch rates of their P & Ws.

The $2.2 million Piperjet is planning to offer a long list of very nice features, but this one jumped out at me:

The Piperjet will include “docking stations” for personal electronic items passengers bring onboard.

Sweet. This is what the future looks like when twenty and thirtysomethings that grew up with computers design airplanes. There can be no escaping technology these days, and we all have our pods, our ‘puters and our Palms that have to plug into something every so often. It makes great sense to offer docking capabilities right there in the cabin. This is the kind of forward thinking that has me so excited about business aviation right now.

If you wish to register at Piper’s “Jetwatch” site, go here and follow the prompts.

Do it today.

Readers, I have some very bad news for you…you’re going to die. I know, that really sucks, but so far nobody has found a way around that part of life. Happens to the best of us, and sometimes, it happens when it shouldn’t.

Take Papa Louie for instance. Readers who have followed my writing career in magazines like AOPA Pilot know that Papa Louie was Louie Pimentel, my dad, and one of the greatest guys to every wear the badge of the Fresno Police Department.

Papa Louie would have made a great pilot, but he never was able to have the shirt ripped off his back and earn a ticket:

Family obligations always stood in the way for him to actually begin flight school. It wasn't until he retired from police work and was free of the financial burden of raising kids that my dad was able to finally get started on his private pilot certificate. As could only be expected for a guy who had enjoyed a love affair with airplanes for much of his life, he jumped in with both feet at age 62 and was well on his way to his ticket when fate dealt him a surprise blow. With 25.1 long overdue hours logged, my father died suddenly of a stroke, never having soloed.

If you want to read the rest of the story on this incredible man and how he fits into my own personal love of aviation, my original AOPA Pilot story entitled “Papa Louie, the Old Radio and Flying” can still be found here, if you are a member. If not, click here to download the story as a PDF.

Since that dark day when I received the news of his passing, many other friends and family members have also passed, from stroke, heart disease, and the big C…cancer. Too damn many to count in fact.

I’m writing all of this to just say one thing to anyone out there who has at some point in their life had a passion for aviation and wished they could learn to fly: Do it today…because you really don’t know if you’ll have a tomorrow, do you?

Don’t put it off, take the plunge, take a second on the house, rob the piggy bank, do it today. Do not let money be the blockade…it will be worth every penny, I promise. Call a local flight school, take that first lesson, and persevere until you solo and ultimately get your ticket.

Because you really never know. Do it today.

A very, very smart move.

The Cessna Aircraft Company has long been synonymous with “general aviation aircraft”, so much so that non-flyers often tell others that they saw a “Cessna” fly over when they see any small aircraft in the air. Cessna is to aircraft as Xerox is to copy machines and Google is to search engines.

No company gets to that point in their history without making all the right decisions and very few if any bad ones. So it is no surprise that Cessna is moving forward with flight testing their proposed Light Sport Aircraft. Their new LSA prototype departed McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita, Kan., at 8:33 a.m. on Friday, performed a variety of flight maneuvers at speeds in excess of 110 knots (127 miles per hour), and landed 9:05 a.m. at Wichita’s Mid-Continent Airport a few miles away.

And the move is nothing short of brilliant. Why, you ask? Well, let Cessna’s Jack Pelton tell you:

“An important part of our thought process in looking at LSA is the value in terms of new pilot starts. Experience has shown that Cessna brand loyalty is a powerful force in our success, and we believe this new category of aircraft could provide a conduit for new pilots to grow through the Cessna product line in the years ahead. We also believe our extensive sales and service network could provide an important market advantage, which, in concert with our design and manufacturing experience, could make this an attractive extension of our product line.”

This is the kind of obvious forward thinking that allowed Cessna to be one of the two airframe makers (along with Cirrus) that brought general aviation back from the dead.

By Cessna getting into the LSA game, it does one HUGE thing…it validates the entire market sector. I for one cannot keep track of the new LSA aircraft coming at us pilots every day here and abroad, and could not tell an Icarus from a Tecnam from a Jabiru if you lined them all up on the ramp in front of me.

By the very nature of Cessna being IN the game, all other LSA aircraft get a serious boost in respectability. It will assure prospective buyers of other LSAs that these are aircraft worth investing in, no matter what name you buy.

The Light Sport Aircraft category is a market sector well worth watching. I was slow to warm to LSAs, but with Cessna as a player, I'm really beginning to see the value of bringing new pilots into our community at a level that delivers the same basic rush as flying on a private ticket, but without near the cost to get in the air.

LSA is here to stay...consider me convinced. With one flight test, Cessna just told me so.

Touched a nerve? I’d say so.

This week’s GA accident in NYC has sparked a seriously depressing amount of talk from public officials and TV talking heads about the apparent dangers to the public from general aviation aircraft. The outcry was enough for the FAA to issue a TFR that has closed down the East River corridor to fixed wing aircraft.

Here’s a taste, from AOPA’s Phil Boyer:

Mayor Daley's latest rants have sent me over the edge. He used the accident in New York to once again demand a no-fly zone over downtown Chicago for general aviation aircraft. It was expected, of course. He has an irrational hatred for piston-engine aircraft, as evidenced by his illogical tirade this week. "They should not jeopardize, through intentionally or by accident, a single- or two-engine plane flying over our city [sic]," the Meigs Field destroyer exploded at a press conference. (I don't think he was including Boeing 737s, 757s, and 767s in his list of twin-engine aircraft.) "Remember: a single- or two-engine plane can kill as many people as possible if they want to."

It was this kind of public ranting that has pushed Boyer to launch a major blitz on the organization’s web site trying to bring sanity to the train wreck that has become the media coverage of the Lidle crash.

Boyer – and many of us – are lit off big time over so many people sounding an alarm about the media spin of the "danger" of light aircraft. Boyer’s opinion, as is mine, is that there are many other threats out there far more dangerous to our cities than GA aircraft. He makes some very, very good points in this article.

I do not want to steal Boyer’s thunder on this one…this story is just that good. It is a MUST READ for every pilot, do you hear me? YOU MUST READ THIS…and then jump on AOPA’s bandwagon and tell anyone that asks that no matter what they read in the papers or see on TV, no person has every been killed from a terrorist attack using GA planes.

Go read Boyer’s article here, and then forward it to all your flying buddies.

Fury = Excitement.

Let’s play a word game, shall we?
See if you can complete this exercise:

1. Cessna = dependable
2. Eclipse = value
3. Cirrus = innovative
4. Oshkosh = heaven
5. Lopresti = _________ ?

If you filled either in the word FAST or SPEED next to #5 above, you must be one of us…the aviators who know the kind of magic any product from LoPresti Speed Merchants can do to your bird’s top speed.

The name of the late Roy LoPresti is synonymous with very high-end engineering that has punched up the speeds of such well known makers as Mooney, Grumman, Beech and Piper. What you don’t know about Roy is that he was part of the team which built the Lunar Lander and took us safely to the moon and back. My guess is it would have taken Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin a lot longer to play golf on the moon had LoPresti not been involved.

Here is the money quote from loprestifury.com on Roy:

Every design Roy touched went faster, flew higher and felt better. He called his final work the "Fury". A technical masterpiece meant to incorporate the classic American lines of a WWII fighter with new and innovative technologies from his fertile mind.

The LoPresti family of Vero Beach, Florida is made up of Curt, David, Ann, Bud, Jim and Peggy LoPresti, and owns the Fury design and the prototype. Roy left behind the plans, the tooling and even the bill of materials with every nut and bolt specified.

LoPresti has just set up a 100,000-square-foot production plant at the Belen airport in central New Mexico, located about 30 miles south of Albuquerque. They’ll be soon building the certified LoPresti Fury and selling it for an estimated $295,000, according to an article on ABQjournal.com.

What you’ll get should be one of the most exciting planes to hit the market…EVER! I do not make that statement lightly either, just look at these specs:

• Max speed (Lycoming IO360).....222 MPH
• Cruise speed.....215 MPH
• Stall Speed (flaps).....54 MPH
• Fuel Burn 75%.....10.5 GPH
• Range (with 45 minute reserve).....1000 SM
• Rate of climb (at sea level).....1350 FPM
• Service Ceiling.....21,000 FT
• Design Gross Weight.....2300 LBS
• Empty Weight.....1450 LBS
• Useful Load.....850 LBS
• Engine.....Lycoming IO 360A1B6 (200 HP)
• Fuel Capacity (Useable Fuel).....60 GAL
• Baggage Capacity.....200 LBS

And check out these features:

• Fully Aerobatic (Ultimate Load 7+Gs)
• Military style HOTAS (Hands On Throttle And Stick)
• Dual independent redundant brake systems
• Curved parallax correction instrument panel
• Roller bearing jet design push rod controls
• Sequenced main gear doors
• RAM boost air induction
• Custom guage selection (Analog or Digital instruments)
• Completely flush riveted

World of Flying is going to be following the story of the Fury…I cannot possibly stay away. What true-blue aviator could? Let me say it another way, if you don’t drool on your Nikes at the sight of this baby, you don’t live in my world.

Saw this one coming.

In light of all the strange news coverage that has circulated around the Cory Lidle crash, it was only a matter of time (pun intended) before someone said this:

From time.com:

The investigation into the crash of the small airplane owned by New York Yankees' pitcher Cory Lidle is just beginning, but already aviation experts and pilots are quietly speculating that it may be yet another case of "too much plane." Much like the crash that claimed the life of John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife and a friend in 1999, there are signs that this may be a case of a relatively inexperienced pilot who ran into trouble in a high-performance plane that he had not yet mastered fully.

I recently completed my first-ever flight as PIC in a Cirrus SR22 which by “high performance” standards is a step up from the accident plane in NYC. Not boasting here, but I greased the first landing, and the plane was not at all hard or demanding to fly. In fact, the ease in which the Cirrus flew was due to its superior handling and spot-on controls. It was no harder to fly than the Skyhawk I regularly use to chase hamburgers, so I find this speculative reporting sadly unfortunate.

The media – once again – is just throwing out anything that fills space, without really talking with aviation professionals first. Had they spoken with actual pilots, they might have learned that flying a Cirrus after training in a Cessna is like driving a Miata after training in a Chevy pickup…same concept with better handling and quicker acceleration, but not so much different that the Miata is going to get away from you in the Mall parking lot causing complete loss of control.

Lidle, day two
(we are all students version)

Not going to go all day on this tragic accident again, because there is still just a ton of bad information out there today about this crash. The first thing I saw in the morning paper was "news" that the bodies of the flight instructor "and his student" fell out of the plane to the sidewalk below. This made me wonder how many people out there are now thinking that because Lidle is being called a "student pilot" by the mainstream media, that MUST mean he was just a greenhorn at the controls, a "fact" that may have contributed to the crash.

But as any good CFI will tell you, "student pilot" is a license that is not the same as "private pilot"...the ticket Lidle held. And that same CFI will tell you we are all students in the cockpit, and that continuous learning is vital to air safety. My guess is that Lidle was getting a little bit of dual to sharpen his skills in the SR20 prior to his XC westbound back to his home on the Left Coast.

Of course, the mainstream media didn't bother to ask the right questions to clear this kind of thing up. After all, they were on deadline getting that "Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie Are Friends Again" story out there as "Breaking News"...

SR20 carrying Yankees pitcher
Cory Lidle crashes into NYC high-rise

Tragic breaking news today out of New York City, where New York Yankee pitcher Cory Lidle was confirmed dead as the only person aboard a Cirrus SR-20 that crashed into the Belaire Condominiums at 524 E. 72nd Street.

As is always the case with airplane crashes, the mainstream media is publishing “facts” fast and furious, and we are getting this kind of conflicted reporting:

From the NYT website: The plane was flying under visual flight rules and was not in contact with air traffic controllers, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

But CNN has it a different way:

There was a mayday, FAA reports, from the pilot involving a problem with fuel before the aircraft crashed into the 50-story high-rise on Manhattan's East Side.

This will eventually get sorted out when someone actually gets the straight story from FAA and NORAD, which by the way was involved for a while as this was thought to have been a possible terrorist attack. On that news, the Dow Jones took a quick beating, but did recover somewhat in late day trading, showing once again how skittish this country still is about the news of airplanes flying into buildings.

My only concern with this story so far is of the make/model of Lidle’s plane. After my recent demo flight in an SR22 where the sales guy took great pains to show off the big RED HANDLE built into the headliner, I have to now wonder why any pilot would knowingly fly a Cirrus into anything without first deploying the BRS chute. If it’s there, use it, even if you have to drift into gridlocked Manhattan traffic.

This story is quickly developing…

UPDATE #1 @ 306P: Confusion reigns supremo...now Raw Story is running this "fact": The FAA indicates that it was a two-engine plane flying under "visual rules"--not in contact with any tower.

UPDATE #2 @ 312P: NBC10.com is reporting that they have "learned that Lidle was not instrument rated to fly the plane and could only fly when visibility was good." They also state that "it was an overcast day in Manhattan"...speculating about cause already?

UPDATE #3 @ 319P: From Newsday: "Federal Aviation Administration officials said the two dead were a flight instructor and a student pilot." So we can be reasonably sure Lidle wasn't the CFI, so was he the student pilot? There are reports circulating that he just bought he SR20, and the FAA registration does show the plane's ownership as "in question"as he applied for a 120 day extension of the registration application on 8.29.06...so maybe this was an insurance checkout flight?

This whole affair is confirmation to me that fact checking is a dying art. More confusion to come...

UPDATE #4 @ 355P: Man, this thing is getting weirder by the second. Here's a very interesting quote from the NYT website: “The whole plane has a parachute on it,” Lidle said. “Ninety-nine percent of pilots that go up never have engine failure, and the 1 percent that do usually land it. But if you’re up in the air and something goes wrong, you pull that parachute, and the whole plane goes down slowly.”

UPDATE #5 @ 635P: O.K., I am officially pissed off about this. I Googled the blogosphere, and there are numerous posts flying everywhere that Lidle's crash was a suicide. But when you read these posts, the crux of the deal is that they hate the New York Yankees and therefore Lidle must have "flew a kamikaze mission" as one clown wrote, ending his post with "F the Yankees". Another loser writes that he "flies like he pitches"...that is just sick. Mindless drivel from people who give all bloggers a bad name. Even if I had clear evidence somehow that these sports dopes are right, I've proud of the fact that I have the common decency, class and respect for the deceased and his family to not post such crap just to get a jab in against his team.

Your tax dollars at work, or not.

A new website popped up recently called fedspending.org – a project of OMB Watch – that crunches federal spending data obtained from the Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS).

Their site map offers a number of very specific search mechanisms that I used to find out who was the top five aviation corporations that were recipients of government contracts paid for by you and me. And just FYI, this is not a rant either, so long as the money was spent on legit uses and not filtered through some crony-filled Board to pay for yachts, caviar and Pradas for a fatcat who is only on the Board because he plays golf with the CFO at an exclusive country club.

For Fiscal Year 2005, Lockheed Martin tops the list with $24,779,249,050 (that’s twenty four BILLION to the financially challenged) in contracts, with Boeing second at $18,124,179,292. Northrup Grumman was third with $13,492,944,639, followed by General Dynamics at $10,434,759,504 and Raytheon at $9,160,834,849.

Collectively, that's about $75 BIL...not chump change for a Superpower to spend on defense. I just wish that we didn't waste so much these days on offense. I'd like to still think we could defend ourselves should North Korea continue to be pissy about that whole "Axis of Evil" bit.

Write your own caption:


I admit that I'm addicted to airliners.net. It's this kind of image that tells me that's not really a bad thing. Oh, and you've got to love the one bird stuck up under the hang glider's right wing yelling "mommy, mommy, mommy"...too much.

More bad news
from across the pond

With the news out of Paris Monday that Airbus chief executive Christian Streiff resigned after only three months at the helm, it seems the world’s press is piling on as the troubled A380 program pokes along.

Airbus stunned investors recently by doubling the A380's production delay to two years. It is being reported that these holdups could wipe $6.1 billion off EADS profits over four years. In a Reuters article, Streiff pointed fingers at their Hamburg, Germany plant:

Obsolete design software has reportedly been the root of the wiring installation faults that have pushed the A380 behind schedule. Streiff described the Hamburg plant as "the weakest link" in the A380 production process.

Ouch.

As Airbus and Boeing duke it out in the world airliner supremacy battle, Airbus seems to have been put on the defensive by recent sales figures announced by Boeing…further widening the sales gap. Through 2006, numbers being reported by both companies have Boeing winning the orders war 723 – 226. If this were a football game, well guys, we’ve just entered the fourth quarter and Airbus is about a zillion touchdowns behind.

I’m wondering if Airbus may now regret trying to build an airplane roughly the size of Texas. There’s a limit to everything, and in jetliners, bigger apparently doesn’t automatically mean better.

Airplane,
the Next
Generation.

If anyone still needs validation that Boeing is as strong as ever, they’ve just released their third quarter delivery numbers, and they are off the charts.

The fact that Boeing delivered exactly 100 airplanes in 3Q 2006 has to be rough news for the folks across the pond, with 81 737NGs, 13 777s, three 747s and three 767s going out Boeing’s door. That’s a 60 percent increase over 3Q 2005, and pushes the company’s 2006 deliveries to just five birds short of 300.

The “King of the Low Fare Airliners”, the 737 is by far the company’s biggest seller, and offers a number of emerging technologies that are state-of-the-art in commercial airliners. But here are some obscure facts about the –37 family that you didn’t know yesterday (courtesy of Boeing):

• Overall, the entire 737 family is the best-selling commercial jet in history, winning orders for more than 6,000 737s.
• More than 541 operators fly 737s into more than 1,200 cities in 190 countries.
• With more than 4,100 airplanes still in service, the 737 represents more than a quarter of the total worldwide fleet of large commercial jets flying today.
• On the average about 1,250 737s are in the air at all times; one takes off or lands every 4.6 seconds.
• The 737 fleet has carried more than 12 billion passengers.
• Since its commercial revenue service history began in 1968, the 737 fleet has flown more than 75 billion miles -- equivalent to approximately 403 round trips from the Earth to the sun.
• Airlines ordered 737 models of the Next-Generation 737 before the first airplane was delivered on Dec. 17, 1997.
• There are approximately 36.6 miles of wire on the Next-Generation 737-600/-700/-800/-900 models.
• On average, there are approximately 367,000 parts on a Next-Generation 737 airplane.

All this talk of 737s gets me thinking again (in my freakin' dreams) about owning a BBJ. With one of those, I could forget chasing hamburgers forever and could chase some serious Filet Mignon instead.

This time, it’s no joke.

Last April 1st, I got caught up in an Internet April Fool’s joke about Wal•Mart selling the Eclipse 500. My inbox exploded, and I was jabbed a good one. Maybe it was the quote from Vern Raburn in the story that sold me.

So this past week, I heard from a reliable (but anonymous) source that Sam’s Club – sister chain of Wally World – was going to announce this Saturday, October 7 that they would be selling a very special Cessna Mustang.

Like The Who sang back in “the day”…I wasn’t about to get fooled again.

Well guess what…it’s true this time. For $2,734,600, you can go online and buy the Citation Mustang Jet package, which includes:

• Lifetime Advantage Plus Membership to Sam’s CLUB.
• The Citation Mustang, S/N 510-0002 (the first Mustang built that will be available to the public.
• Private jet transportation to Cessna Headquarters to select exterior and interior options
• Private jet transportation to pickup your new Cessna Citation Mustang Jet in Q4 of 2007

At first, I was still a little skeptical. After all, this whole deal is way, way out in left field for “normal” online sales. Sure, maybe Neiman-Marcus might try this, but Sam’s Club? They do what they do very well – sell things cheap in large quantities – but business jets? Someone was yankin’ my chain…had to be.

I needed some validation, so to the internets I raced, where I found this on PR Newswire:

BENTONVILLE, Ark., Oct. 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Sam's Club, one of the nation's largest membership warehouse clubs announced it will make available Cessna's Citation Mustang Jet for $2,734,600 complete with a rare lifelong Membership to the Club as part of its Once-in-a Lifetime packages for the 2006 holiday season. The highly in-demand jet will be on display at the company's Home Office at 8th Street and Walton Blvd. Saturday, Oct. 7, from 7:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.

Wow.

So when this story breaks big time next week, World of Flying readers will know it is not an urban legend, although I suspect the mainstream media will have some fun with it. And to the guys and gals at Sam’s Club who pulled this off – major hat tip to ya’…this may well be the retail scoop of the century.

UPDATE 1: Aero-News Network is rightfully taking credit for spawning this idea back on 4.1.06. Now, if the Pope starts taking flying lessons, or if a Russian aircraft carrier is parked in the Pacific and begins serving as a mid-point bizjet refueling station enroute to Hawaii, I believe I may start asking the ANN people for lotto numbers or maybe the winner of the 2007 Super Bowl.

UPDATE 2: This Sam's Club/Cessna Mustang story is all over the Internets this morning, so it looks to be true. The actual, real, only way to tell however is for someone to go to downtown Bentonville, AR at 8th and Walton this morning from 730A - 10A and shoot a photo of the Cessna Mustang that Sam's says they'll be parading through town. If anyone gets that shot, come back here and email me the pic so I can post it using the link in upper right corner right below my profile - dp.

UPDATE 3: O.K., I can now put a name to this story. Here is a quote from the local Benton County, AR paper: “The Cessna takes us to a whole new level,” said Scott Williams, vice president of e-commerce for Sam’s Club. “ We are always trying to come up with new and exciting and unexpected values for our members. This Cessna just took it to the next level.”

Cirrus to take jet orders at NBAA

We all knew this was coming:

Cirrus Design will formally announce their jet project at the upcoming NBAA show Oct. 17-19 in Orlando. The single-engine jet will cruise faster than 300 knots, flie as high as to 25,000 feet, and deliver a range of 1,000 nm, all costing less than $1 million. And yes, it will have a full-frame parachute.

Cirrus VP of sales John Bingham said about 1,500 people worldwide will receive a package this week that will give them information on the aircraft, but there will not be an aircraft or mock-up at NBAA where you can put down your deposit of $100,000 and buy a spot in the production schedule.

A quick check of cirrusdesign.com just now did not reveal any clues on this project…yet. But the Avweb story is available here.

UPDATE: 1:06 - Cirrus has a website up now for this project, found here....but it is currently just a home page with a phone number of 800.705.0246. They are calling this plane "the-jet"...and as a marketing person, I can only hope that is a preliminary name. I'm sure the braintrust in Duluth will come up with something better soon. Developing...

2006 NBAA Talking Points

I am AOPA all the way, that I will proudly confess. But I swear here and now that the minute I buy a twin or anything propelled by turbine power, I’d also raise the flag of the National Business Aviation Association in my hangar.

This year’s NBAA annual meeting and convention – October 17-19, 2006 in Orlando – will bring together thousands of attendees and over 1,000 exhibitors to participate in this year’s event which features 5,200 booth spaces [sold out] in nearly one million square feet of exhibit space. The Static Display at Orlando Executive Airport will display more than 100 business aircraft.

Anyone who watches the current trends in business-class aviation will tell you straight… there has never been a more exciting year to attend the NBAA show. Recently, NBAA’s media department released a set of talking points which will help anyone explain the vital role aviation plays in increasing business efficiency, productivity and competitiveness, and enhancing economic activity:

• About 97 percent of the U.S. Companies that utilize business aviation include a broad cross-section of businesses – large, medium and small, located in every state in the country.

• The types of general aviation aircraft used for business widely, ranging from propeller-driven airplanes to jets to helicopters. Although the fleet includes international business jets capable of seating 19 persons and flying New York to Tokyo non-stop, the vast majority seat six passengers in a cabin roughly the size of a large SUV and fly an average stage length of less than 1,000 miles.

• Almost 5,300 public use airports are accessible to business aviation in the United States, compared to the 558 that serve the scheduled airlines.

• A 2000 study showed that civil aviation (of which business aviation is a part) contributed more than $900 billion and 11.3 million jobs to the U.S. economy, at least 9 percent of the U.S. GDP of $9.9 trillion.

• There are approximately 11,000 US companies operating about 16,000 aircraft for business purposes in the U.S.

• Studies have shown that business aircraft passengers felt they were significantly more productive aboard business aircraft than they would be even in their own offices.

• Business aviation enjoys a safety record that is in most years comparable to that for the commercial airlines.

• A 2001 study concluded that “use of business aircraft can and does contribute directly to shareholder value by improving performance at every level.”

NBAA was founded in 1947 and based in Washington, DC. The Association represents more than 7,000 Companies and provides more than 100 products and services to the business aviation community. Learn more about NBAA and how to attend this year's convention here.

Paper or Plastic?

We all know about the Piper vs Cessna rivalry, and Ford vs. Chevy is always a big source of arguments too. Packers vs. Vikings will get blood boiling in the Land of Brats and Beer, but if your business is selling (or buying) extremely big jetliners, these may all pale when compared to Airbus A380 vs. Boeing’s 747-8 Intercontinental.

We read everywhere that Airbus customers are growing weary of delays in the A380 program:

Aero-News recently reported that many A380 customers are getting antsy. Emirates – by far the largest A380 buyer, with 45 jets on order – considers the delay "serious." The company is now "reviewing all its options," according to Emirates president Tim Clark

Airbus parent company EADS has taken a hit in their stock prices too, dropping a reported seven-percent in the markets Wednesday. Meanwhile, Airbus acknowledged Tuesday it's likely to get worse before it gets better. Translation: they are in it deep and are scrambling to build the behemoth on any kind of timely schedule.

Meanwhile, Boeing says this about their entry: The 747-8 Intercontinental will provide 450 seats and an 8,000 NM range. It will provide lower trip costs and nine percent lower seat-mile costs than the 747-400, plus 21 percent greater cargo volume.

When you fly the heavies, operating economics are king, and the 747-8 will offer clear improvements over the A380, so says the boys and girls of Everett. The 747-8 is more than 10 percent lighter per seat than the A380 and is projected to consume 10 percent less fuel per passenger. That translates into a trip-cost reduction of 21 percent…this is huge.

But if I were the guy making the decisions on which one to fly, this may well be the deciding factor:

The 747-8 Intercontinental can use the existing infrastructure and ground equipment at most airports worldwide, while the A380 – with its significantly taller airframe – demands that airports re-configure jetways and ramp areas to accommodate the Airbus.

I’ve never been able to jump on the A380 bandwagon. Maybe it’s because I cannot possibly jump that high.

Are the Reviewers right about Flyboys?

Scanning the Internets for reviews about pilot Tony Bill’s movie Flyboys this morning, I found mostly bad news. A nice word here and there, but generally the non-flying mainstream media has been brutal to the film.

Here are some snippets:

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Bob Townsend said "[Flyboys] is a cartoonish melodrama about WW I aces that never gets off the ground. Airplane buffs will be lured by the promise of spectacular dogfights…and the colorful, computer-generated French Nieuport biplanes, German Fokker triplanes and period bombers and zeppelins do look pretty good.” But only good enough for him to give it a D. Ty Burr of the Boston Globe said that once it gets going, Flyboys is “reasonably ripping,” and gave it a B-.

However, many reviewers panned the digital special effects:

"The numerous dogfights are so souped up with digitally composited imagery that the thrills and the machines themselves end up diminished." said Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune, who gave it a C. William Arnold of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer was blunt as hell, saying "...rousing as it is in places, the movie's CGI aerial battle sequences never look quite real. As imaginatively as some of them are staged, the action scenes are never authentically gripping. This seems to be the hidden handicap of our new digital filmmaking era in which all big action sequences are generated in the computer and look vaguely like cartoons.”

Ouch.

Comments welcome on whether this flick is worth the price of popcorn.

I got plenty
of nuttin’…

With about a million and one scandals coming down in Washington Monday, I was distracted to say the least....so anything that resembles actual aviation news and views will have to wait for another day.

Call it Predatorgate or La Cage Aux Foley, your choice…but this meltdown on one side of the aisle is what it looks like when an entire party throws theirselves under the bus. I get flack every time I mention politics in this blog, but damn, you have to admit, even Bay Buchanan and the Washington Times are having a blast with this one. Can you say i-m-p-l-o-s-i-o-n?

The only thing that fell into my aviation inbox today via a friend was a few links to some rather wild aviation videos, found on Google Videos and Youtube.

There’s an unbelievable display of “helicopter ballet” found here, and if you ever wondered if a C-130 Hercules can land on an aircraft carrier, here is rather scratchy proof.

Of course, you will need to watch this video to see what happens when you drive behind a 747 that has all four engines blazing, and you'll want to get your NASCAR crash hat on to watch this collection of unfortunate endings to otherwise perfectly good airplanes, be my guest here.

Your future sky...
according to the airlines

A 767 thunders through the sky, racing eastbound towards LAX with a full load of souls in the back happily snacking away on tidbits. The noon sun burns bright, but around Albuquerque, the sky grows dark as night. It is there – at the epicenter of the VLJ universe – that the shadow of a million and one itsy bitsy mini-jets (as the media loves to call them) is blocking out the sun. The sky is thick with these little private airliners, and the 767 must maneuver brilliantly to keep from sucking one of those darned little VLJs into its massive engines.

That’s a dramatic encapsulation of what life in the flight levels will soon be like, according to the airlines and the Air Transport Association (ATA). In this story, John Meenan, executive vice president of ATA says:

Flying as high as jetliners, though at slower speeds, they [VLJs] have the potential for really gumming up the system. Even 1,000 more vehicles in the system would be a significant new burden.

But in this AOPA story, both FAA and industry experts recently told the aviation subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee that the ATC system could handle the 5,000 VLJ aircraft that some forecasts say will eventually be added to the fleet.

My real President, Phil Boyer says it best:

"One by one, credible sources from throughout the government and aviation industry are demolishing the airline's and the FAA's rationalizations for user fees. The system is not headed for overload, and as verified in the House hearing this week, the existing tax system is perfectly capable of funding air traffic control modernization.”

Last week, the Eclipse 500 received full type certification – very good news for the hottest of the VLJ sellers. Other entries from Cessna, Adam, Honda/Piper and Embraer will soon begin appearing regularly on ramps across the U.S., including many of the 5,000 or so smaller airports that the airlines do not serve.

Cessna CEO Jack Pelton recently said “we are talking about maybe 300 VLJs a year coming into the system,” and that Cessna feels that the FAA is ready to handle the introduction of a new class of aircraft into U.S. airspace. Over in Englewood, Colorado, Adam Aircraft President Joe Walker said “light jets will serve secondary and remote airports that large jets avoid, so airline congestion won't increase.”

So while a few VLJs inbound to Teterboro may clutter the radar screen at the NY TRACON, pilots flying jetliners headed for JFK and LGA are already used to a mess of traffic. Likewise for the airspace around DFW, LAX, SFO, MIA and ORD…a few more targets on the screen won’t cause anyone a moment of grief.

And at the other 4,995 or so airports where a VLJ can land, having an inbound Eclipse or Hondajet mix it up with the usual hamburger chasers poking around the patch might just keep all involved a little sharper.

And that's certainly not a bad thing.