H.R. 2881:
AOPA Approved

The House has given us a huge gift in the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2007, a.k.a. H.R.2881 which will certainly help as we continue to battle Bush's White House and the FAA on user fees and future FAA funding. This latest House version still gives plenty of money to ATC and airports, without handing Bush's buddies in Big Airlines a huge windfall profit. From AOPA.org:

The House got it right; an FAA funding bill that would modernize the air traffic control system, increase airport funding, and do it all within the existing tax structure. And no ATC user fees! "The leadership of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and aviation subcommittee refused to be bullied by the airlines or accept the FAA's claims of poverty," said AOPA President Phil Boyer. "They took a reasoned, rational look at what needed to be done and how to pay for it, and delivered a solution that promotes the interests of all segments of aviation.

I have to wonder how W and his airline cronies will wiggle out of the logic behind this bill, because it actually gives them MORE then they have been strong arming us for:

Nearly $13 billion would be available for ATC modernization (NextGen) and other FAA capital improvements. That's more than $1 billion beyond what the administration proposed in the FAA's actual bill. And airports would be slated for $15.8 billion in improvements over the course of the bill, some $4 billion more than what the administration proposed.

This version of the bill makes the most sense when compared to the other two versions floating around The Hill, when you look at this PDF comparison chart provided by Aopa:

The FAA's proposal increases fuel taxes 261% on GA piston aircraft, gives a $2 billion tax break to the airlines, and creates “opaque” user fees which replace current “transparent” passenger ticket taxes. The Senate's proposal leaves GA fuel taxes at the same rate, increases non-airline turbine aircraft fuel taxes by 124%, eliminates current fuel taxes paid by the airlines, and introduces new user fees.

Yes, under H.R. 2881, there are small fuel tax increases. But the increase for GA pilots from 19.3 to 24.1 cents per gallon is almost invisible. But while it looks to be the answer to our prayers, those (like me) who will be buying aircraft in the near future may see some increase in the “out the door” price of that bird:

H.R. 2881 adds massive increases to several FAA services that aircraft dealers and buyers must now factor in. A chart on Avweb shows these services – for things such as lien recording and aircraft registration – going up from ten bucks now to $495, a whopping 4,950 percent increase!

While H.R. 2881 is a huge step in the right direction for GA users of the airspace system, this is not yet a slam-dunk. AOPA calls this a 12-step process, so we must push on until the very end.

United Airlines
Takes a Dump
in my Inbox

I just received a load in my inbox from the airline I vow never to fly again: United.

Today they sent an email blast out to everyone who is a “member” on their site, spewing the same garbage they have been spewing in their seatback magazine articles. Along with the same rhetoric they have been trying to use to misinform the media, there was a link to this letter from their CEO:

Take Action to Reduce Air Traffic Delays

United is committed to providing our customers with the most consistent flying experience every time they fly. We rely on our partners who control our airports and the nation’s over-burdened air traffic control system to help us ensure our passengers arrive at their destination on time.

This summer Congress has an historic opportunity to address the serious congestion and delay problems in our skies by modernizing our air traffic control system. An efficient air transportation system using new satellite-based technologies will reduce delays and enable aircraft to fly more direct routes, burn less fuel, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the process. Travelers will experience increased productivity, more time with family and friends, and a more pleasant overall flying experience.

It is time to build for the future. Let Congress know that delays affect you and need to be addressed. Thanks in advance for your participation.

Sincerely,
Glenn F. Tilton
Chairman, President and CEO, United Airlines

Notice there is NO mention of how they plan to pay for this new, modern system? Gee, I wonder why that is, hmmm? Maybe it's because they are reaping major-league profits by shifting so much of that modernization onto the backs of GA users.

If you click on the smartskies.org link urging you to contact congress, you really start to get a grand look at the classic filth that the airlines are trying to use to bamboozle everyone except Bush, Blakey, Tilton and their cronies:

Outdated technologies require planes to fly convoluted routes adding up to hundreds of thousands of extra miles each year. Our air traffic control system is based on analog radio and radar technologies originally developed in the 1950s! This causes significant delays, and also burns millions of gallons of extra fuel. Air traffic is projected to grow by 33% in the next ten years, with delays growing by 62%.

O.K., we get it, air traffic is projected to grow. What the airlines are not saying is it's THEIR AIRPLANES that will make up the vast majority of that increase. What is conveniently missing is how they do not want to pay more to modernize the system they say is broken. Un freakin' believable. Then there is this gem:

A new system using digital, satellite technologies, such as GPS can help put an end to these delays and improve environmental performance.

Uh, hello? Maybe your aging MD-80s are still using LORAN, but we GA and bizav guys and gals are using those new-fangled GPS gizmos already.

And when they do get into the funding issue, they throw numbers around at will without so much as a sliver of truth:

Did you know some Members of Congress want YOU to subsidize corporate jets in funding air traffic control modernization? In fact airline passengers like you already pay nearly all air traffic control operating costs, while corporate and private jets get a free ride. These 18,000 private jets account for about 16% of the traffic in the nation’s congested skies, but they pay only 6% of the taxes which fund our ATC system.

I guess we are supposed to believe all 18,000 bizjets are flying AT THE SAME TIME! Of course, they finish off by implying that passengers are going to get a break once the burden of fundung FAA is shifted off their backs:

You can stop the madness! Contact your Members of Congress today and tell them passengers should pay ONLY their fair share of the costs for the air traffic control modernization that America needs to reduce delays.

So I guess we can expect lower ticket prices once all of us GA drivers stop riding the free FAA gravy train? Two words: Bull. Shit.

I am now officially boycotting United Airlines. I plan to fly anything else but the unfriendly skies by flying myself (while enjoying the free ride that the airlines pay for) or by driving. I'll walk across the square states before I'll give United another nickel. I can only speak for myself, but I'll bet I'm not the only GA user that has about had it with the ATA and airlines about now.

Glut?

Back in a generation long, long ago, there was a song about fleeting summer love, where a young man is singing “See you...in Sep-TEM-berrr”, and that song comes to mind today as I think about the reason there are so many GA planes sitting on the market. Read on to connect the dots...

As my regular readers know, I am very, very close to buying a new (to me) Piper Cherokee 235 for my aviation ad agency business and family fun. That explains those long nights with my head buried in Trade-a-Plane, or surfing across sites like Controller and Aircraft Shopper Online.

I have been "in the hunt" for a 235 for about 60 days now, and am still coming up short for the right bird with the right stuff in the panel at the right price. But I still have plenty of time to shop, and when it's time to pull the trigger and snag the flying machine, one will manifest itself for me.

And along the way, I have discovered something worthy of ponder:

About six weeks ago, I located a cherry '64 235 in Los Angeles. It was pretty close to exactly what I need, but the price said “call”, so I did. The plane was in the $70,000 ball park, at that time out of my reach. I got a call from the dealer a couple of days later telling me the owner had slashed the price to close to $60,000 because he wanted it off the market. I again explained that I was thinking about September '07 for the buy. The dealer told me – as dealers often do – that at the reduced price, this plane will sell in days, so I'd better “jump on it” quickly. So this week I get a call from the same dealer telling me the plane is still sitting on a very stagnant market and the owner is willing to hear any offer.

This exchange confirmed something that ought to be very good for buyers like me in summer of 2007. It seems that all over the country, GA piston singles and twins under $100,000 are sitting on the market for weeks. TAP has had the same boring list of 235s for the last month...nothing is selling, period. The exception to this are the museum-quality versions of the 235, like the one that was listed for a month in NorCal for $89,000 and is presumed to have sold because it is no longer listed anywhere.

Moral of this story can be summed up in two words...user fees. I am guessing that airplane buyers are just lying low this summer, waiting out the FAA to see what their final funding re-authorization scheme boils down to when announced this coming September. There are loads of nice planes sitting idle, their “For Sale” banners flapping aimlessly in the wind:

This spells disaster for anyone wanting to pawn off their bird this summer, but is a gift for guys like me who will be seriously shopping with cash in fist in about 70 days. The key to this will be timing...jump in just days before the FAA announces no user fees or tax increase, at a time when sellers will have grown completely impatient and will look at any number. Some will have had their eye on an airplane upgrade, and will be chomping at the bit to make that buy. All that will stand in the way is that 235 sitting out at the airport, the one they've had for sale all summer without one single offer.

I've wheeled and dealed in the car and motorcycle markets all my adult life, and I know this: In the used airplane market and especially in a stale, down market, cash barks loudest. So it should not come as a surprise to anyone when you hear the two words I'll be using to negotiate this 235 buy to my clear advantage:

Make. Offer.

Time to call Cupertino?

If you've visited the Internets or watched TV news the last few days, you surely couldn't have missed the reports about domestic delays across the friendly skies due to United Airlines' computer woes.

From ANN: All domestic flights were grounded by the glitch from 0800 until 1000 CDT Wednesday morning. United's international flights were not affected. UAL Chief Operating Officer Pete McDonald said the problem was caused by failure of the carrier's Unimatic system, which handles flight dispatching operations, during a systems test. A backup system failed, too. "An employee made a mistake and caused the failure of both Unimatic and our backup system," McDonald said.

O.K., I may not be Bill Gates, and my mainframe MoJo might not win me a job at Cisco Systems, but I know a few things about these dastardly computers. I know enough to keep things backed up religiously, including having one complete Macintosh tower with identical software available ready to power up if my uber-dependable Macbook Pro laptop ever goes down. And as a pilot, I know the importance of redundant systems, which is why I cannot believe a giant airline like United doesn't have two – or three – gigantic mainframe systems in different parts of the country, running completely independent of one another to allow immediate switching when the main “machine” goes haywire.

Sure, it's more complicated then that, or is it? These days, monster networks like Google and Godaddy run 99.9999% uptimes, so why can't United? Maybe it's the system itself. Here's a look at some history of Unimatic:

December 18, 2006:
Flight Attendants have trouble connecting to Unimatic. Their problems appear to possess the following symptoms: (1) The screen freezes, (2) The page does not load at all, (3) A 'Network Connection' lost message appears or the page reports a disconnection, or (4) Sometimes a 'security certificate' warning appears

July 13, 2006
United techs are still concerned about connection problems with United's AOL Unimatic/Apollo access that originally began on July 5th. If users are experiencing trouble accessing Unimatic in any way, they are asked to immediately fill out a Unimatic Problem Report.

July 11, 2006
All three of the Unimatic/Apollo Web Servers are now shutting down on a frequent/regular basis. The increased shutdowns are due to the increased volumes associated with the release of the flight attendant bid packages for August. The same web servers that service Unimatic/Apollo are also used to manage traffic to the bid packages on AOL.

I could post on this for hours, there is so much bad news about this system out there. So the next time United's system crashes and planes sit forgotten on the tarmac, souls cannot board or the flight cannot leave the gate, if they use their lame “our computer system went down” excuse, it won't be like anyone saw THAT coming!

Or, maybe they can just fix the problem for good...

Europe's Oshkosh

The more I read about the Paris Air Show, the more I want to pack up the Samsonite, Macbook and my cameras and catch a red-eye across the Pond in a couple of years to witness this monster show firsthand. 'Paris' is where the rich meet the famous, where million-dollar deals are considered chump change, and where the really, REALLY phat cats go to buy their flying hardware.

Here is a quick look at some of today's headlines from Le Bourget Airport, pulled from various sources across the Internets:

Billionaire pitches supersonic business
jet at Paris Air Show

Texas billionaire Robert Bass is bankrolling an effort to build the world's first supersonic private business jet – called the Aerion – to aircraft manufacturers and potential customers. "With this plane, you can have breakfast in New York, fly to London, stay for four hours, and fly back to New York for dinner," said Bass. He gets around these days in a Falcon jet that flies below the speed of sound, how boring is THAT? His $80 million needle-nose jet had drawn lots of interest worldwide from those among us who have far more money then they could ever spend. Anyone want to wager that some of those buyers have Saudi addresses? Just a wild guess...

Cessna Nets Billion Dollar Order At Air Show

Boeing and Airbus aren't the only makers cashing in at Le Bourget. On Wednesday, it was Cessna's turn as the Wichita-based company announced the sale of 96 Citation aircraft to NetJets. The company offers partial ownership or rental of business jets. The deal is valued at more than one-billion dollars. The order includes 50 Encore+, 37 XLS+ and 9 Citation X aircraft.

Better then the MU-2?

Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is also in Paris, touting its MRJ – for Mitsubishi Regional Jet – which it hopes to put into production at the beginning of next year. The company will make a decision about whether to launch the jet in the first half of next year after consultations with partners. Mitsubishi believes there is a market for 5,000 regional jets of 70-90 seats in the next 20 years. The MRJ is not a foray into an unknown market: the company is a key subcontractor for Boeing, making fuselage and wing parts for a host of the US company’s large jets.

The release from Mitsu said they “have lots of manufacturing experience but not with a whole plane,” which explains a great deal about their MU-2, which has a "rough" reputation when it comes to safety. The MU-2 reportedly has the single-engine flight characteristics of a brick, and the model remains the one flying machine I will never let take me airborne. Ever.

Before I make up my mind to go catch the 48th Annual Paris Air Show in 2009, I need to know one thing: Do they serve Brats in Paris...or will I have to bring my own?

Paris Update

Airbus and Boeing are still locked into the dogfight today, announcing carefully timed orders to keep the world's media happy.

News out of Le Bourget this A.M. showed Airbus making a strong comeback:

Airbus signed Russian airline Aeroflot in a firm deal for 22 of the revamped A350 aircraft and received commitments from India's Kingfisher Airlines and Libya's Afriqiyah Airways to buy another 56. The firm order from Aeroflot was worth around $3.2 billion at list prices.

And it seems the media really wants Airbus to come out on top, trying anything to squeeze out something resembling good news:

Airbus, which headed to Le Bourget on the back foot after a management upheaval prompted by the A350 difficulties and problems with its flagship double-decker A380, attempted to cement a comeback with a raft of timed orders on Monday. It continues to hold a strong lead in the overall tally at Le Bourget so far. Aeroflot also signed a contract to buy five A321s on Wednesday and Etihad Airways agreed to buy four A340-600s, five A330-200s and three A330-200 freighters in a deal worth $2.2 billion at catalog prices.

But while the media was sipping Merlot and noshing on Bleu Cheese on the veranda over in France, the U.S. media dropped a bombshell on this side of the pond that is sure to resonate all the way back to the Airbus “booth” at the show:

ATLANTA - Delta Air Lines is considering “a massive Boeing order over a long period of time” and announced today they may order as many as 125 new 787 Dreamliner jets by the end of the year, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

Since scraping themselves up off the bankruptcy court floor, it now appears Delta can begin writing some serious checks that may actually cash. That will be good news for the guys/gals in Everett, who will now be busy building Dreamliners until their young children are graduating college.

Yesterday, the 787 line was sold out through early 2013, and this possible new order from Delta will further compound that situation. If this trend continues, one of the biggest problems Boeing will have – along with those annoying trips to deposit checks in the bank – will be how to ramp up their 787 production lines to keep the world's appetite satisfied for what may end up being the most successful airliner of all time.

Udvar-Hazy throws
down some serious
coin in Paris

Not since Ali vs. Frazier (was that the Rumble in the Jungle or the Thrilla' in Manila?) has the world seen the slugfest going on at the Paris Air Show in Le Bourget. I have been following the headlines on and off today, and it looks like both Airbus and Boeing's media people are working overtime trying to “one-up” each other and get their news out on the wires first.

In ROUND ONE this morning, Airbus slipped one through Boeing's gloves and landed one right in the kisser:

European plane maker Airbus received 339 orders and intentions of purchase, including 219 firm orders, during the first day of the 47th edition of the Paris Air Sow, John Leahy, Airbus commercial director said yesterday. During a press briefing, Leahy said the 339 orders and intentions of purchase had a total catalogue value of US$45.7 billion.

Stunned, Boeing stumbled into their corner of the ring. The media began chanting “kill, kill, kill” and ran headlines that suggested Airbus was going to smack down Boeing throughout the show. In ROUND TWO, the headlines suggested that the Airbus whipping was getting worse:

European plane maker Airbus said on Tuesday that it had received an order from an unnamed buyer who intends to use the company's A380 superjumbo, the biggest airliner in the world, as a private jet for the owner and his entourage. The maker would not reveal the buyer's name, saying only "[we] can't tell you who it is but he's not from Europe or the United States."

In ROUND THREE, the media continued their onslaught, reporting as if Boeing could not fight through Airbus selling one giant bizjet. As if they were trying to make up anything to keep Airbus on top in the headline battle, the following was released on multiple sites:

EADS unit Airbus will likely try again to launch a cargo version of its A380 super-jumbo jet in the middle of the next decade, chief operating officer for customers John Leahy said at the Paris Air Show.

Sure, by the end of the second day of the show, the world was reading that Boeing had been knocked around pretty good. Airbus no doubt was strutting around the ring, chest puffed out, cocky as a cagefighter. But while Airbus was flirting with the ring girls, they didn't see the haymaker that was about to be delivered by Boeing:

Boeing Co. scored a major coup Tuesday, announcing that the original launch customer for its rival Airbus’ planned A350 had signed up for another 50 of its own flagship 787 Dreamliners. Stephen Udvar-Hazy, chief executive of Los Angeles-based International Lease Finance Corp., the world’s largest airline leasing company, had originally ordered 16 A350s. The ILFC buy brings the 787 book to over 600 firm orders so far, easily outstripping those for the A350 at just over 100. Now, the Dreamliner is said to be sold out through 2013.

Outside the Boeing “booth”, Udvar-Hazy indicated there was more where that came from. “The momentum is strong,” he said, “you’ll be hearing more announcements in the months to come.” But the media wasn't quite through, and released this in ROUND FOUR:

Meanwhile, Airbus, the commercial jet unit of European Aeronautic Defense & Space Co., said Emirates airline is ordering eight additional A380 double-decker aircraft in a deal estimated at about $2.5 billion. The latest order brings to 55 the number of A380s ordered by the Dubai-based carrier.

This slugfest started yesterday, and concludes next Sunday, the 24th. If these first two days are any indication, the remainder of the Paris Show will be more of the same. I predict that when the final sales numbers are released, it will be Boeing standing over Airbus in the center of the ring, with the referee counting down towards 10. At about the 8 count, Airbus will stumble to their feet, and with the one eye that's not swollen shut, will stare down Boeing before stumbling on wobbly feet to the locker room, battered, bruised, defeated...for the time being. But there will be no knockout, and Airbus – still breathing and revived with new orders – will live to fight again at Le Bourget two years from now.

NBAA Media Alert

Just as I have been doing with AOPA, I am passing along a verbatim Media Alert today from NBAA. This is spot on:

NBAA Alerts Media to Airline
Spin on GA and Delays

In response to air traffic system delays on the East Coast last Friday, a number of news organizations recently asked the big airlines for comment about the causes of flight delays and congestion. Predictably, the airlines have tried to avoid responsibility and pin the blame for their delays on others; the chief Washington lobbyist for the Air Transport Association (ATA), inferred that general aviation is a significant cause of delays.

However, in spite of the airlines' spin, nothing could be further from the truth, as demonstrated by the following indisputable facts.

1. Department of Transportation (DOT) data show that almost all delays are caused by weather and the commercial airlines themselves. In fact, according to the "Dallas Morning News," the DOT recently launched an investigation into "deceptive scheduling practices" by the airlines, focusing in particular on carriers that operated "chronically delayed flights without telling customers of the repeated problems." [Sources: Air Travel Consumer Report: May 2007, Tables 9 & 10, U.S. Department of Transportation, Office of Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings, Aviation Consumer Protection Division; "Dallas Morning News," 4/20/07.]

2. General aviation aircraft rarely use the same airports as the commercial airlines: FAA traffic data for 2006 reveals that, at the nation's 10-busiest airports, general aviation accounts for less than 4% of all aircraft operations. [Source: FAA: OPSNET data for all towered airport operations in 2006.] Furthermore, general aviation aircraft operators prefer to fly above and below the altitudes used by the airlines; the operators also commonly have the ability to change schedules and flight routes, all helping to reduce aviation system congestion.

3. The number of turbine business aircraft (jets and turboprops) in the U.S., which the airlines blame for system congestion, is deceptive because the figure overlooks the fact that turbine business aircraft average only about 370 flight hours per year – less than 10 percent of the flight hours averaged by an airliner's aircraft. The hours flown by business aircraft have remained essentially constant for several years, while airport hub operations have increased. [Sources: FAA General Aviation and Air Taxi Activity Surveys, 1999-2005; FAA Total General Aviation and Scheduled Aircraft Movements, 1997-2005].

4. Even air traffic controllers don't accept ATA's spin; National Air Traffic Controllers Association President Patrick Forrey recently stated: "Severe weather accounts for over 70 percent of delays, which are exacerbated by the hub-and-spoke operation, and the rest is either airline staffing woes, air traffic controller staffing shortages or the airlines' own operations."

At the heart of the airlines' predictable finger-pointing is their long-running attempt to use a Congressional funding process for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to shift billions of their costs onto general aviation, introduce new aviation "user fees" and assume control of the air traffic control system.

In short, the airlines hope to convince Congress that general aviation is a major driver of air traffic control costs and air system congestion to win on their agenda to lower their costs for operating in the nation's aviation system, while increasing their control over it.

Like other general aviation organizations, the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) supports modernization of the nation’s aviation system, so that capacity can be expanded where needs exist. But NBAA believes that the deceptions and finger-pointing by the airlines are drowning out meaningful discussion about how best to strengthen the system for all users, so that Americans will continue to have the world’s largest, safest and most efficient.

NBAA asks that reporters who have been told by the ATA that general aviation (which the ATA also refers to as "private planes" and "corporate jets") is a major contributor to delays contact the Association for a response with supporting documentation.

Blakey plays the
“gridlock” card.

If you believe what FAA Administrator Marion Blakey is saying about the future of our air traffic control system, the skies will soon grow dark from the shadows of all those VLJs and business jets. Here her current talking point:

"If we're unable to have a financing reform bill in place by September 30, when the current set of taxes expire, the delays and the missed connections and the headlines are only going to get worse -- much worse. Without a reliable funding stream, the NextGen program will start to slow down, and when the bow wave of delays hits, it'll be too late."

So the current funding stream is UNRELIABLE? That is complete BS, and everyone knows it:

AOPA: The current combination of fuel taxes and general fund contributions is perfectly adequate to continue building on a $2 billion-plus surplus in the Airport and Airway Trust Fund, and to finance modernization of the nation's air traffic control system — and do it fairly, without sacrificing safety, impeding air traffic, or ceding an element of control to airline interests.

NBAA: “The changes proposed by the FAA would overthrow a funding structure that has proven to be stable, reliable and efficient for several decades,” Bolen added. “Revenues going into the Airport and Airways Trust Fund are at record levels, and no less an authority than the Congressional Budget Office has said that the FAA will continue to have sufficient funds to fully support the transition to the Next Generation Air Traffic System. The fact is, the FAA’s scheme promotes radical changes in order to provide a giveaway to the big airlines.

Like I've said before, this user fee scam is the Katrinization of our FAA funding system. Take a good program and ruin it, all in the name of financial gain for a few key cronies at the very top of the airline management food chain.

Heckuva job, Blakey.

The most critical 'Paris' ever for Airbus

Not since a guy named Lindbergh landed there back in 1927 has Le Bourget been this important to world aviation interests. That is because at this year's biannual Paris Air Show, the two power players in the airliner biz are again going to duke it out toe to toe for world supremacy.

Every two years, Airbus and Boeing enter a cage match at this field north of the French capital, locked into a battle to see who can sell the most heavy iron. The last time these two met was 2005, and Airbus announced orders worth $33.5 billion, more than twice that of Boeing's $15 billion.

But analysts worldwide agree that these last two years have been painful for Airbus as they struggle to get the A350 and A380 to market. Businessweek.com runs one of the best stories out there on the current debacle that is Airbus:

Delivery of its A380 megaplane, originally scheduled for early 2006, is almost two years behind schedule because of wiring problems caused by mismatched design software. The delay plunged Airbus $750 million into the red last year and is expected to wipe out more than $6 billion in projected profits through 2010, denying the company a key source of financing to develop the A350. And, multiple redesigns of the A350 have already pushed its planned launch to at least 2013, five years after the 787 is expected to enter service.

These same analysts all agree however that Airbus is not going out of business. If they can get back on track, their fat order book – said to be in range of 2,500 backorders – ought to keep the lights on for a while.

Just how critical to the future of Airbus is this year's Paris show? The Businessweek article shines some light on that question:

But at least one big customer appears to have walked: Steven Udvar-Hazy, chairman of aircraft-leasing group International Lease Finance Corporation, the world's single largest aircraft buyer. He has repeatedly criticized the A350's design, and ILFC is set to place a major Dreamliner order during the Paris show, according to people familiar with the situation.

But while Airbus has been flailing, Boeing has been crashing the gates, pushing forward at record levels:

Total Boeing company revenues for 2006 surpassed USD $60 billion. The company set a company record in 2006 with orders for 1,040 planes, and as of June 12th, Boeing had 429 tallied in the book...going in to Paris.

With so much excitement surrounding the Dreamliner, and so much controversy surrounding Airbus, expect the tensions to run high at the Paris show, from load-in until the last exhibit aircraft has blasted off for home. If industry speculators are correct, we will see a wave of new business flock to Boeing's “booth”, cash in hand, ready to pounce and get a good spot in the 787 delivery schedule.

And while it is easy to speculate that Boeing will do some serious business at Paris, what will really make it a painful show for Airbus is if more previous A350 buyers like ILFC and impatient A380 buyers find their way to the Boeing tent. We can always assume a few will switch allegiances each show, but if the numbers are substantial, this show could be a memorable turning point in the history of commercial aviation.

A future so
bright, they'll
have to
wear shades.

This week, Boeing released their 2007 Current Market Outlook in a press release, and it shows that in the next two decades, demand could not possibly be higher for their products:

The Boeing outlook calls for a market of 28,600 new commercial airplanes (passenger and freighter) by 2026, with a much more balanced demand in aircraft by region over the forecast period. On a delivery-dollar basis, the largest market is projected to be the Asia-Pacific region, with 36 percent of the $2.8 trillion total.

Over the next 20 years, passenger and cargo airlines will take delivery of approximately:

– 3,700 regional jets - below 90 seats
– 17,650 single-aisle airplanes - 90-240 seats, dual-class
– 6,290 twin-aisle airplanes - 200-400 seats, tri-class
– 960 airplanes 747-size or larger - more than 400 seats, tri-class

Boeing is also focusing on become increasingly more green:

Boeing is focused on offering new airplanes that burn less fuel and spend less time in maintenance, allowing airlines to maximize operating efficiencies, lower their costs, and increase profitability - while providing the nonstop, point-to-point flights and frequency choices passengers want.

One thing the Boeing Outlook does not delve into is how much of that $2.8 trillion market share for new commercial airplanes will be theirs and how much will go to Airbus, if they are even around in 20 years. And with the rumors of increased Chinese airliner manufacturing, I'm sure that'll factor into all this.

That's all very well and good, but the real Boeing news this week is that their Boeing Store is offering this very cool 787 Dreamliner t-shirt.

Virgin Pretzels?

First, there was Virgin Atlantic Airlines. Then we all know Sir Richard Branson got into the space business, and helped fund the Burt Rutan-led project that flung SpaceShipOne into [not so deep, but deep enough to win the X-prize] space.

Then, we read that Sir Richard is launching Virgin America Airlines, to compete head-to-head with the low fare guys now flying those profitable North Atlantic routes. And just a few days ago, Sir Richard was everywhere in the media and the Internets, showing off his new Virgin Voyager enviroTrain, which runs on a fuel mix which is 20 per cent biodiesel, made from rapeseed, soybean and palm oils.

Then today, we see that Branson is jumping into the charter biz head-first. From Aero-News Network:

Virgin USA, the North American headquarters of Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, announced Tuesday the launch of Virgin Charter, a new online aircraft charter marketplace. Company representatives call Virgin Charter a full-service marketplace that brings together buyers who want to book private air travel with charter operators. Through Virgin Charter, sellers make their inventory available to a large customer base without changing the way they currently do business, and buyers search for available aircraft, negotiate pricing, purchase private air travel, and manage their entire trip online.

This is not the first time people have tried matchmaking in the charter market. In fact, there are many, many brokers out there doing virtually the same thing. One big difference with the Virgin operation, as is always the case with anything Sir Richard touches, is money, lots of money. It takes a great deal of shillings to grab market share, and I suspect Sir Richard has a few extra pounds hidden away just for this project.

And it looks like he's happily spending some of those shillings to acquire the right "walking stock":

The Virgin Charter team is led by founder and CEO Scott Duffy, a seasoned Internet executive and private aviation veteran who served as a managing director for one of the largest charter brokers of private aircraft in the world. The team also includes technology and aviation executives from Google, Expedia, eBay and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Said Duffy, "Virgin Charter's centralized marketplace will revolutionize private aviation by providing tremendous efficiencies to what has been a highly fragmented industry."

But this announcement begs the question: What is next for Virgin? According to Sir Richard, they are in no mood to slow down:

"We’re really excited about Virgin Charter’s potential in the market," said Sir Richard Branson. "Buckle up and prepare for a lot more exciting news from this impressive team of technology and aviation experts."

So let's see, what haven't they taken on? Airliner manufacturing, perhaps? It's not to far a stretch to see Sir Richard pulling a few zillion out of petty cash and buying, oh, I don't know, maybe AIRBUS? Or they could just buy out the world's largest pretzel maker and corner the market for what is passed off these days as food on commercial flights.

Or my personal favorite: VLJs. Yes, it's true, Sir Richard could theoretically one day start designing and building a slick, well-marketed light twin jet, maybe a VLJ with the range to cross the pond? Now that would be news.

Go ahead, tell me that's not possible, I dare you. Because last week, who would have thought he was getting in the charter business? Oh that Sir Richard, always full of surprises. One thing is for sure...he is keeping the rest of the aviation industry on their toes, trying to figure out his next move.

AOPA members strike back at airlines

As I team up with AOPA to fight user fees, I pledged long ago to occasionally offer verbatim copy from aopa.org when it gets this juicy and hot:

AOPA members — including some airline employees themselves — are stepping up to the plate to counter the propaganda in two airline in-flight magazines. And many have pledged to stash AOPA's downloadable counter arguments in the magazines next to the offending editorials.

One member wrote United's president, "I just want to remind you that it is me, as a U.S. taxpayer, that is subsidizing you! You should be mentioning that in your articles on funding the air traffic control system."

"I was very angry when I read your article about the misinformation being placed in the seat pockets of my airline," wrote an AOPA member and flight attendant. "First my airline takes a huge chunk of my salary and now this!" This member vowed to "talk to my passengers reading this garbage."

One pilot, a loyal United Airlines customer, eviscerated every one of the airlines' claims in his letter to the president. "The assertion that air traffic control does not use satellite navigation is patently false," he wrote. "A quick look at the paper charts carried by all pilots in the cockpit will show that satellite-based navigation is absolutely in use. A look at the terminal procedures publications...will show numerous satellite-based approaches into nearly every airport in the country."

He reminded the United chief that most airline delays are due to weather, scheduling, or airline crew or equipment problems. Noting that he kept a travel diary of every one of his airline flights, he said that more than half of his 30 most recent flights were late or delayed. Only two of those flights were late because of air traffic control flow delays.

He said he "laughed himself silly" when he read that ATC was being blamed for most airline delays. "The assertion that the FAA funding mechanism must be changed is something only a lobbyist could say with a straight face....Everything about the ATC system was designed to accommodate airlines, which is why they pay a larger share of the costs to operate it."

And you've just got to love this money quote, a parting shot from a letter author to United's CEO:

"Poor business practices have caused the current instability in the airline industry, not the fees they pay to monopolize the ATC system."

Could not possibly have said it any better myself.

Flight Tracking
on Steroids.

If you are like me, you just love Google Earth. But you know that The Google can be like digital heroin, highly addictive but oh so much fun. And no, I've never even seen heroin, wouldn't know the stuff if you dropped a dime bag on my head.

One of the things I like about Google Earth is something called “mashups', which is the by-product that comes from the marriage of some sort of digital data with Google Earth's data. The kind of mashups out there are truly endless, and I suspect that right now, if you really had to know the physical address of everyone who has order pepperoni pizzas online from Pizza Hut in the last five minutes – in real time – some geek would have thrown together findpizzaorders.com which delivers the mashup.

But pizzas are not airplanes, so that site wouldn't matter in my world. But this one does:

One really outstanding mashup I found tonight is courtesy of FBOweb, a very good site that has a bunch of really nice information. One thing FBOweb offers is real-time inbound IFR flights to any airport that accepts commercial IFR traffic. A few years ago, I create a mashup of this data, long before the term “mashup” has even been invented. Go here to see what IFR traffic is inbound to a bunch of big US airports.

Something else FBOweb offers is an amazing mashup that tracks flights via Google Earth. You can specify a particular flight and watch it fly over real terrain, or click large airports and track all traffic around say, LAX or JFK. Oh, but it gets better:

If you are adept at using Google Earth, you can pan and zoom around until you get basically a side view of the aircraft's track. It shows up as a series of 3D lines, showing the plane's vertical situation. Click on the little airplane icon, and you also get the plane's altitude, and even the IFR clearance and route of flight. And if you turn your mouse sideways and tap it three times, you get the phone number of the flight attendant. O.K., kidding about that last one.

So if you have some time, go play on The Google and watch some airplanes...just don't blame me if you start missing appointments, or your wife starts asking who the hell you are when you finally show up in her bed.

A Counter Punch
from AOPA

Man-oh-man, these AOPA guys are playing hardball when it comes to fighting the airlines and Bush's crazy user fee scheme.

Just a few days ago, AOPA reported that the seatback magazines for United and Northwest Airlines were running articles trying to turn the public against GA. AOPA told us these articles were corporate B.S. that was about as far from the truth as is most everything else even remotely related to W's White House these days. (O.K., that last part is my opinion, not AOPA's)

I'm sure AOPA would have loved to run full-page color counterpoint ads, setting the record straight. But of course, the enemy would never let that happen. So AOPA has taken a different approach, asking the GA community to pitch in and help:

AOPA has made available for download two “counterpoint” articles – one for United flights and one for Northwest flights – that pilots and friends of the GA community can download, print out and stuff into the seatback magazines.

Whoa, that be some serious punching going on.

Here's the verbatim text of the United “ad”, taken form the AOPA PDF:

Lies Make the Skies Very Un-Friendly. This airline (and others) have been feeding passengers like you a steady string of lies about a serious issue that will affect all airline passengers: how the FAA is funded and managed in the future. Why? Because the airlines are — again — looking for another huge tax bailout from the government (that means taxpayers — like you).

Smart Skies? Hardly. In this magazine there’s an article called “Smart Skies.” It’s written by the head lobbyist for the airline industry and he makes the following statements that grossly distort the facts. He says…
• There isn’t money to modernize Air Traffic Control (ATC) system [AOPA FACT: There is plenty of money to modernize the ATC system. Even the government says so!]
• That satellites aren’t being used in the ATC system [AOPA FACT: Satellites are – today – an essential part of air navigation.]
• Airline delays are caused by the ATC system [AOPA FACT: A recent DOT report said that the delays are a result of weather … or the airlines themselves!]
• The efficient way the FAA is funded needs to be modernized [AOPA FACT: The FAA’s current funding system has resulted in nothing less than the largest, safest, most efficient air transportation system in the world!]
• The airlines pay more than their “fair share” of costs to run the FAA [AOPA FACT: The airlines pay more because they use far more of the system (that was designed just for them) than anyone else.]

What do the airlines really want? Another bailout, another major tax break, another loan guarantee. In the last decade these have totaled more than $37 billion! You deserve to know the truth. Before the airlines try to change a good thing, we urge you to visit www.aviationacrossamerica.org today. There you’ll learn how and why our air transportation system is the envy of the world. And why it’s so important to keep it that way. Have a good flight. And let’s keep the skies friendly for all air travelers.

Placed in this magazine by a fellow traveler and concerned pilot.

AOPA says it probably won’t surprise anyone to learn that this Washington lobbyist has, in every case, distorted the facts. They conclude by stating what we already knew: "[these statements are] just another effort to mask the incompetent ways the airlines run their business."

AOPA is also providing the following snail mail addresses in case you wish to mail either airline's CEO a letter describing your grief over this situation:

Douglas Steenland, President and CEO
Northwest Airlines Corporation
2700 Lone Oak Parkway
Eagan, MN 55121

Glenn F. Tilton, Chairman, President, and CEO
UAL Corporation
77 Wacker Drive
Chicago, IL 60601

Would you like that
unveiling supersized?

The buzz-term “go big or go home” is bouncing around our culture these days, and it looks like the Marketing Whiz Kids at Boeing have taken that to heart:

Boeing will stage 787 rollout “extravaganza” at Qwest Field

Boeing expects to fill Qwest Field on Sunday, July 8, with as many as 50,000 employees and retirees invited to view a live simulcast on the stadium screens as the first 787 Dreamliner rolls out in Everett. At the Everett plant, aviation VIPs, politicians and journalists from across the world will join several thousand Boeing employees who work on the Dreamliner inside the 787 final assembly bay. The Qwest Field simulcast is for ex-employees and current Boeing workers on other programs.

The public will also have a chance to join in on the fun because the rollout will be carried live at 3:30 p.m. that day via satellite on DirecTV (channel 576) and on DishNetwork (channel 9601). The event will also be streamed live around the globe in nine languages over the Internet from Boeing's website.

The Seattle PI's blogger James Wallace ran some more direct information on his blog, coming from a copy of the internal email from Boeing:

Employees and retirees may invite one guest each. Those interested in attending are asked to register no later than June 15 at GRP NW Community Relations and provide the number in their party. Email confirmations will be sent shortly afterward. Because of space restrictions in the stadium, attendance is limited to 50,000 people, and registrations will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.

I know I won't be in Seattle for this event, but I sure like the feel of it. Three BIG cheers for Boeing for giving the official debut of this wonderful airliner the party it deserves. I am counting the days until my first 787 ride.

Apparently,
this IS war.

Each day, we pilots grow a bit more tired of the airlines pitch to America about how GA is ruining our airspace system. Now AOPA is reporting that at least two airlines – Northwest and United – have taken their propaganda to a completely new level:

The airlines have begun stuffing seatbacks with anti-general aviation propaganda, right next to the sick bags. AOPA has been anticipating such stealthy maneuvers as the FAA funding debate spools up. So far, editorials have appeared in two in-flight magazines, Northwest's NWA WorldTraveler and United Hemispheres, under the headline "Smart Skies," the namesake of the airlines' political initiative.

Now I'll forever defend our freedoms of the press, it's the one thing that allows me the privilege to pound away via the Internets on issues that I feel need addressing. And yes, they are the airline's magazines, and like always, the guy who buys the ink gets to say what goes between the covers.

All that would be fine, if the carriers were spewing something resembling the truth. They blame those nasty delays getting off the tarmac on an overloaded ATC system being clogged by too many of us little guys. But AOPA is not buying what they are selling:

[It is a] dramatic oversimplification to blame GA for all their woes, namely air traffic delays. "If only it were that simple," said AOPA President Phil Boyer. "At the top 10 busiest airports in the United States, the FAA's own data for all towered airports show that general aviation makes up less than 4 percent of all aircraft operations." A June 5 front-page story in USA Today said that about 40 percent of the delays were caused by weather. Other factors were late-arriving aircraft, maintenance and crew problems, and flight coordination at airports. The article also said that flight delays are at their worst in 13 years.

This dogfight is starting to stink, as if some GOP gasbag was trying to steal the election by swiftboating his Dem opponent. So shoving this garbage in the faces of their paying customers as they sit crammed into coach seems pretty desperate to me.

Oh, but it gets better:

The airlines' trade organization, the Air Transport Association, has also started running ads on the CNN Airport Network, making the same claims. They were countered by the Alliance for Aviation Across America.

As I read these reports about the airlines and ATA stepping up their propaganda campaign, it smells to me like their handlers must be sensing that “Big Mo” is turning against them up on The Hill. They won a recent Senate subcommittee decision by one lousy vote, the thinnest of all possible margins. They now are trying to turn America against GA, hoping they'll make a good enough case to incite fear in the hearts of the flying public so that they'll contact their representatives in D.C. and beg for them to smack down GA and save the poor airlines.

But here is one big flaw in what the airlines are planning. See, every member of their ticket buying passengers knows someone who flies GA aircraft, or maybe has a pilot in their family. The GA community has roots that travel far into the very fabric of our Society, and in this instance, the airlines and ATA have completely blew this one, because we pilots are a very vocal bunch. We talk to everyone we meet about flying, and the topic these days is how the big bad airlines are trying to screw us to the floor to pad their pockets.

I suspect those seatback articles will piss off more people then they will convince. Don't buy what they are selling.

Is it September yet?

Chasing
Hamburgers
with Lindy.

There are only two kinds of pilots, those who are still alive and well, and those who have gone off to – as I call it – fly with Lindbergh.

It is with sadness I must report that Charlie Minkler has gone off to fly with Lindy.

Of course, most of my readers have no clue who Charlie Minkler is, but I can assure you that you'd have remembered him if you'd ever met him. Charlie was about 95 the last time I saw him down in Fresno, at a meeting of the Central Valley Aviation Association (CVAA). He was still damn spry, and could remember my name as if he were my age. He might have moved a touch slower as he approached 100 years old, but he never lost any of his lifelong passion for flying machines and the pilots who flew them:

When I think about what a pilot who was born in 1907 has seen in their lifetime, it boggles my mind. In the same year that Santa delivered Charlie on this planet (yes, he was a Christmas baby) – a guy by the name of Ben Epps (see photo) was flying the very first airplane in the state of Georgia. This was only four years after the Wright's got the party started at Kitty Hawk, and airplanes were still nothing but sticks, wire and fabric.

At about 10 years old – the official age when young boys fall in love with airplanes – Charlie might have dreamed about flying across the battlefields of Europe, chasing down the elusive Red Baron in World War 1.

As a young man, Charlie watched commercial aviation evolve from Boeing biplanes hauling a few courageous souls sprawled out atop the mail bags, into silver eagles with two engines like the DC-3 which were capable of carrying people coast to coast. When he was into his 40's, he most likely was astonished when the Brits launched a new-fangled jet airliner called a DeHavilland Comet in 1949, considered to be the world's first commercial jet airliner.

Charlie was two years from retirement age when the first Boeing 747 entered service. He spent his working years as a telegraph operator for the Santa Fe Railroad, along with minding the family general store in the microscopic town of Minkler, a “blink and you'll miss it” speck on the road to California's Sequoia National Park. He was never far from an airport or a cockpit throughout his adult life, and he developed a reputation as an adventurer without fear. He finally gave in and actually earned a real pilot's license at age 72, and at an age when most men would be happy exploring a La-Z-Boy, Minkler immediate took off in a Cessna 150 on a solo trip...to the Arctic Circle!

As is always the case with our senior pilots, Charlie lost his medical along the way, and was grounded...more or less. Rumor has it that he bought an ultralight to still “fly” but actually really only taxied it around Reedley Municipal Airport...a stone's throw from Minkler, which he called home his entire life.

Somewhere along the way, he met up with a very likable lady pilot named Kathie McNamara. He and Kathie made trips around the world together, to Africa for a safari, or to Australia to explore the outback on a “fly it yourself” air tour. Kathie had a Cessna 150/150, and you can be certain that Charlie was almost permanently welded to the right seat. And at age 98, Charlie flew commercial down to Argentina to live out a lifelong dream of riding with the Gouchos. You've gotta love that!

The last time I saw Charlie, it was 2003, and I was working hard to get my Welcome Sky Aviation Scholarship Program up and running. The program was simple...coax rich pilots to donate money, and then pay for flight training for the best and brightest 16-21 year olds we could find. It was a way to cultivate new pilots, to replace those who have lost their medicals.

At that 2003 CVAA meeting, Charlie came up to me, remembered my name, and said “Dan, I really appreciate what you are doing with that program of yours. Guys like me won't be around forever, and we need the young ones coming up behind.” I told Charlie that one of our Welcome Sky students had just earned his private pilot ticket on a scholarship donated by Mazzei Flying Service in Fresno, and as founder of the program, I was going to honor Charlie's many years of flying by declaring that Adam Peterson, the Mazzei graduate, was “officially” going to be replacing him in the sky. Charlie smiled wide and replied “you know, that Adam, I hear he's a fine young pilot.”

On that day, a torch was passed. As the career of one pilot was ending, another began. And now Charlie has gone off to fly forever with Lindy, Jimmy Doolittle and Papa Louie. And many years from now, I too will show up at that hangar party, and I'll enjoy a cold one with my dad before we all pile into Doolittle's solid gold Mitchell Bomber to go out for a joyride, burning up some of that endless AvGas we all know is waiting in Heaven.

TurboJET Power
for Lancair?

Whenever pilots sit around at the coffee shop and debate the “fastest single-engine GA plane”, they usually end up settling on the Mooney Acclaim or Colombia 400 as the winner. Of course, we are talking piston power here, but if you really want to put something hot between your legs and rip the clouds to shreds, there is nothing quite like the Lancair IV-P (hint...the “P” is for Propjet):

With a 750 h.p. Walter 601E turbine burning 33 gph, the IV-P has a power loading ratio of an almost unbelievable 5.1 lbs/hp. (For a point of reference, your Grandpa's Cessna Skyhawk has a power loading ratio of 15.2 lbs./hp.) When you have that much power, a IV-P pilot enjoys a rate of climb as high as 7,000 fpm solo, and 4,000 fpm at gross weight. Once you get to a typical cruising altitude of 24,000 feet, you and three of your very good friends can blaze across the sky at 370 mph for a maximum of 1,400 statute miles.

When you look at specs like this, it is hard for the human mind to imagine a single-engine plane performing any better. But we mere mortals are not engineers at Lancair, and Aero-News Network is reporting that Lancair is set to debut something even faster then the IV-P:

The new aircraft will be unveiled on July 25, 2007 during AirVenture 2007 in Oshkosh, WI at the Lancair tent in the North Aircraft Display area. The company's keeping mum on just what type of aircraft the new product will be... but Lancair promises this exciting new aircraft can only be considered evolutionary and in keeping with the true spirit of Lancair. “We began this project three and half years ago with a clean piece of paper," teases Timothy Ong, General Manager and VP of Engineering. "The result is an aircraft that will be faster and safer than any other single engine aircraft in existence today."

So let's see, what could provide power for a singe-engine plane to make it eat up real estate faster then the IV-P? There can only be three possible answers to that riddle:

(1) Rocket power: Sure it would be weird, and yes, for a few exhilarating moments, the IV-R would be much MUCH faster than the IV-P. But the range would suffer...unless you could punch out of the atmosphere into space and glide along in low Earth orbit. Now that's an idea for a homebuilt...a personal spacecraft?

(2) Nuclear power: Not sure if the government would be cool to this idea, and not sure where you get the enriched plutonium needed to keep the IV-N flying. But bet your farm it would be powerful...with the heat of a thousand suns blasting out your tailpipe all at once!

(3) Turbojet power: This is my guess/prediction. Everyone has jet fever these days, and mounting the Walter or maybe even a Pratt inside the fuselage of the Lancair V-J (my guess as to the designator) would be an instant hit. Would we see cruising speeds in excess of 500 MPH? I say yes, because Lancair doesn't do anything unless is bodacious, humongous and downright bad-ass. A homebuilt jet...hmmmm.

So there it is, enough data and speculation to produce saliva in the mouth of anyone who has ever dreamed of building a Lancair. If this prediction comes true, having a kit Lancair with a turbojet engine would be the model that could pave the way for someone like, oh I don't know, maybe Columbia, to eventually build a certified model of the V-J. I honestly don't recall the relationship between the two companies, but as I write this, I really hope they collaborate one day on this kind of project.

The ticket.

There comes a time in every pilot's flying “career” when you must push beyond the private pilot single engine land rating and earn the legal FAA right to fly on instruments. From the day I earned my ASEL ticket in 1996, I knew I'd one day add the instrument rating to my license, but just as it was when I earned my private, lots of roadblocks stood in the way.

But 2007 is different.

Call it the aligning of stars, a ship coming in, or the manifestation of something brought on by the Law of Attraction. Call it luck or call it great business acumen, but our phone has been ringing off the hook this year. This additional business has created the need for me and the creative team to find a fast, efficient way to cover the Western United States without having to wade though the nonsensical hogwash of airline ticketing and pricing, and their insane and inefficient hub and spoke system.

It is not news that we are planning to get a cherry Cherokee 235 soon, I have written at length about that decision. But with airplane ownership in the Great State of Oregon comes a new requirement – an IFR rating:

Why? Well, let's just say that those stories about endless rain here are not all myth. Yes, many locals will tell Californians that it pours buckets 24/7/365, hoping to keep them on their side of the Siskiyou Range. But the truth is, if you want to get out of the Willamette Valley on most days from October through late March, you had better plan on filing IFR to plow through the crud and get up on top.

So today I begin the journey of earning one of the toughest tickets in aviation. I have had the itch to fly IFR since meeting Field Morey, owner of Morey's West Coast Adventures in Medford, OR. Field – who says he's named after an airport because his pop couldn't name him runway – takes pilots on IFR Adventures into seriously cruddy real weather to Alaska, the Rockies, SoCal, the Idaho backcountry and the Southwest in his Chelton-equipped Turbo 182, or his brand new 2007 G1000-equipped Turbo Skylane. He became a new client this year, and when I updated his website, I became hooked on what he teaches.

But Field's IFR Adventures are out of my league. At 275 hours with only a handful of those under the hood, I am not ready for his intense, advanced IFR teaching trips. So today I meet with a CFI-I to get the ball rolling, taking baby steps towards Job One...passing the written. I will work to improve my scan on my X-plane simulator, and shoot endless simulated ILS approaches, trying to strengthen my skills, which are rusty when it comes to simple tasks like flying the VOR needle.

I figure about 60 days of book learnin' ought to do it, using the Gleim CD-ROM system recommended by my CFI-I. About the time that I finish that course and pass my written, I will be flying home (VFR) my new (previously-loved) Cherokee, sometime in August or September. After 20 hours in the right seat of the new bird, I will begin amassing real-world hood time, working towards the day when I pass the check ride and the FAA turns me loose into the clouds, sometime next winter.

Earning that ticket in the heart of a notorious Pacific Northwest storm season ought to be, um, interesting...but also oh so rewarding.