One Internet Rumor
Killed Off

For a couple years now, we've all seen those shady, grainy images being sent through cyberspace showing a large Blended Winglet "Flying Wing" style airliner allegedly taxiing at a major airport. The email that accompanied the photo usually said this was a "super secret spy photo" of Boeing's next generation passenger craft. Some called it the "first look" at a 797, I called it Photoshopped hocus pocus.

I've never doubted that Boeing's own Skunk Works might be working on such a craft, but did doubt big-time that they had a full-sized prototype that could cruise around Boeing Field on it's own power. But recently, Boeing let at least a part of the cat out of the bag when they offered this press release on their own site, putting to rest the rumors:

Boeing Flies Blended
Wing Body Research Aircraft

CHICAGO, July 26, 2007 -- The innovative Boeing Blended Wing Body research aircraft – designated the X-48B – flew for the first time on July 20 at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in California. The 21-foot wingspan, 500-pound unmanned test vehicle climbed to an altitude of 7,500 feet during this first flight test, which lasted 31 minutes. The X-48B flight test vehicle was developed by Boeing Phantom Works in cooperation with NASA and the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory to gather detailed information about the stability and flight-control characteristics of the BWB design.

What has many people talking is the different applications for a blended wing body aircraft. The Seattle Times, who is consistently all over stories out of Boeing's Everett, WA base, said this:

Thanks to greater aerodynamic efficiency, a blended-wing-body design could be built much bigger than current planes and carry more passengers or cargo. For commercial applications, a big drawback is that most passengers in the cavernous interior would be far from windows. But Boeing is first looking at such applications as military cargo. George Muellner, president of the Advanced Systems unit in Boeing's defense division, said at the Paris Air Show last month that, with continued government funding, a blended-wing-body military-cargo plane could be in use sometime between 2015 and 2020.

All of this is very interesting. As a pilot who must – repeat MUST – always have a window seat, I would not care to sit in the gut of a BBW, or 797, or whatever they end up calling it, with the windows (if there are any) maybe 25 feet away. But I can see a day when FedEx, UPS, DHL and the USAF could use these efficient planes to get their stuff from A to B absolutely, positively overnight. If this design lives up to its early promises, there might be significant fuel savings to be had when many of them are placed into service.

And you do have to admit, the design of the craft is pretty cool. It is the kind of design George Orwell might have envisioned would be flying through our skies in 1984, in his view of a modernistic world (now) when cars flew and people never aged. Well, Terrafugia is close to the flying car thing, we are living longer then ever (60 is the new 40), and that space-age airliner is now one baby step closer to coming to a ramp near you.

Hedging his
bet with a
Skycatcher

A good friend recently returned from the Land of Cheese and Brats holding delivery position #426 on a new Cessna Model 162 Skycatcher. I've been trying to track down a C162 buyer for days, and this is great timing as I want to find out what is drawing current, licensed private pilots to the Skycatcher. What I found did not really surprise me:

At 78.5 years young, Fresno pilot John Pugliese has amassed 7,000 hours in a pilot career that has included ownership of a Fairchild PT-23, a Cessna 120 and his current bird, a 1952 Cessna 170. After a heart attack in the early '90s, Pugliese must now undergo additional scrutiny each time he is re-issued a third-class medical card. And while he is blessed with enough good health today to fly with an FAA medical card, he knows that may not be the case forever. "I'm hoping that Cessna can deliver my Skycatcher before the day comes when the medical card cannot be re-issued."

I'm certain Pugliese is not the only "senior" private pilot who is looking at Light Sport aircraft as a sort of "workaround" to current FAA medical rules. And as a refresher, let me pass along what the FAA says about the subject of Sport Pilot medicals:

Sport Pilot licensing rules require either a third-class FAA medical certificate or a current and valid U.S. driver’s license as evidence of medical eligibility (provided the individual's most recent application for an FAA medical certificate was not denied, revoked, suspended or withdrawn).

So as long as a pilot can move into an LSA before he/she is denied, all is well and good. However, once "the man" takes that card away, it'll take an act of Congress to get them to allow use of that driver's license in lieu of the medical card.

As an experienced aviator, Pugliese picked the Skycatcher for a number of reasons, all of them good:

"The main thing was the hydraulic brakes. I'm an old taildragger driver from way back, and sometimes you have to almost lock up one wheel to keep things straight. And nothing against Rotax, but I like that Cessna is putting Continentals in the Skycatcher, since it will be easy to find service coast-to-coast on that engine. I also like that parts will be available through an established Cessna dealer network, and at about five feet tall, I'm happy the Skycatcher's rudder pedals are adjustable. The plane fits me fine, and is really a great looking airplane!"

As a successful businessman, Pugliese knows that the $109,000 base price will climb before delivery day. A clause in the Cessna contract allows for cost of living increases and with California sales tax that he says is a staggering nine percent, John expects the Skycatcher to come in at around $140,000 without wheel pants or a ballistic chute. He expects that by the time Cessna delivers the 162, the Garmin G300 panel will change for the better, as avionics always do.

Bottom line: John Pugliese is one of those older pilots we all love...nice as can be, true to his fellow pilots, and always willing to take a young kid flying to spark their internal fires. When he gets the Skycatcher, it'll make a perfect platform to serve his mission profile, which is to poke holes in the sky while converting fossilized dinosaurs into altitude to chase down the elusive airport hamburger.

Mainstream media
piles on, again.

During the time of year when aviation celebrates everything that is good about our community, the major networks, cable outlets and wire services ended the week with a flood of stories that cast dark shadows across our world of flying, leaving more questions unanswered about damn near anything that flies. If you watched any of the major news networks or cable outlets in the last 48 hours, this is what you could not avoid:

(MOJAVE AIRPORT) A deadly explosion at the test site of a pioneering company building commercial spaceships has cast light on inherent dangers in rocketry that have been overshadowed by public enthusiasm for the adventure of space tourism. The accident, which killed three people, came nearly two years after Scaled Composites LLC first began designing its top-secret suborbital spaceship for British tycoon Richard Branson, who hopes to fly tourists by 2009. Scaled, headed by aviation legend Burt Rutan, is best known for its 2004 launch of SpaceShipOne, the first privately developed manned rocket to reach space. The tragedy stunned space tourism supporters, many of whom were betting that Branson's Virgin Galactic spaceline would be the first in the fledgling business to send well-heeled tourists out of the atmosphere.

And just as that story was growing legs, this gruesome report surfaced:

(PHOENIX) Two news helicopters collided and crashed Friday while covering a police chase on live television, killing four people on board. Both helicopters went down in a park in central Phoenix and caught fire. No one on the ground was hurt. TV viewers did not actually witness the accident because cameras aboard both aircraft were pointed at the ground. But they saw images from one of the helicopters break up and begin to spin before the station abruptly switched to the studio. Within a minute, other stations with helicopters in the area began reporting news of the crash.

My God, could it get much worse? Well, since they had your attention regarding aviation news anyway, leave it to the mainstream media to find a way to end the week with this kind of garbage:

At least twice, astronauts were allowed to fly after flight surgeons and other astronauts warned they were so drunk they posed a flight-safety risk, an aviation weekly reported Thursday, citing a special panel studying astronaut health. The independent panel also found “heavy use of alcohol” before launch that was within the standard 12-hour “bottle-to-throttle” rule, according to Aviation Week & Space Technology, which reported the finding on its Web site. A NASA official confirmed that the health report contains claims of alcohol use by astronauts before launch, but said the information is based on anonymous interviews and is unsubstantiated.

Frankly, I find that so hard to believe. Yes, maybe I can believe a couple of worn out freighter pilots stuck somewhere out in the hinterlands, when bored stiff, might chug some beer before flying checks over to the next county. So the idea that the best of the best of the best – NASA astronauts – would allow one of their own to get bombed inside the twelve-hour "bottle to throttle" rule is insane.

The last 24 hours before liftoff, these proud men and women who fly our space ships are under a microscope – everybody knows that – and are being poked and prodded like lab mice under the watchful eyes of a whole slew of NASA technicians. So now the media really wants the public to think that despite all that, some of these astronauts were knocking back shots of Tequila while flight planning their mission. Uh huh.

My condolences go out to the families of those who were lost this week in these tragic accidents in Arizona and California. It's just a shame that the blood-thirsty media couldn't have left bad enough alone without digging up this pathetic drunk astronaut story.

Not a Product Launch?

I'm sure the gathered media was floored when Eclipse Aviation company founder Vern Raburn taxied up to the Eclipse tent during a press conference in the new Eclipse ECJ, or Eclipse Concept Jet. According to many web stories floating out of KOSH this week, the ECJ – one a flood of new PJs or Personal Jets – was built in secret at the NASA Wallops Island facility in Virginia by a team of engineering companies selected by Eclipse, with design of the airplane handled by Eclipse staff.

I'll let someone else describe the specs of this one, and trust me, they will be sweet if those marks are met in the production model. But I want to address some initial confusion about the ECJ:

At the press conference, Raburn said "this is not a product launch," and described the ECJ as a "concept" aircraft in the spirit of the concept cars automakers have long created. He also said that over the next 12 months, Eclipse will weigh market and media interest and make a decision whether to proceed with development of the ECJ for production.

All well and good...until you look at the Eclipse Aviation website, shown above. A big splashy photo of the ECJ accompanied by the giant headline of "Introducing the ECJ" greets visitors on their home page. You just don't see General Motors coat their home page with flash that screams "introducing" for their concept vehicles...it doesn't happen. So if you didn't get the memo that this was only a "testing of the waters" and went to their site seeking a place to mail in your deposit on an ECJ, you'd be thrilled to see what awaits you...until you click through to the ECJ dedicated site and read the fine print.

Even if the ECJ is truly just a concept project from the Eclipse design team, it gives us a possible glimpse of the company's future. That may be surprising to some, and this quote from Raburn indicates that the last thing Eclipse wants right now is for any feathers to be ruffled:

[Raburn] assured the media that only a very few Eclipse employees had spent any time on the project in an effort not to deplete resources necessary to finish development and manufacturing ramp-up of the Eclipse 500 twin jet.

I write this with no money down waiting for an E500 to come off their assembly line. But I still have to wonder what the the most patient people in all of general aviation – Eclipse 500 position holders – must be thinking about this ECJ rollout show. Nobody but them really has earned the right to publicly whip Eclipse for spending even one man-hour developing the ECJ when the factory still isn't spitting out the E500s they've bought.

From the sidelines, it's way too easy to armchair quarterback this whole deal. So I'll wrap this post by saying I'm still a fan of Eclipse and as always, wish them the very best in everything they do. I just think they should have made a huge splash with a mock-up instead of spending their resources actually building an ECJ to fly into Wittman Regional in front of the world's aviation media.

Because they choose to go forward with actually building a flying prototype – in spite of all they have going on back in Albuquerque – it leads me to believe this was indeed a product launch, they just didn't think the timing was right to call it that.

But you do have to admit, the ECJ is very, very cool. What will make or break this project is price point, because it is designed to deliver performance not that far removed from the E500. If it comes in at anywhere significantly south of a million USD, they might just sell a load of 'em.

GA "Glass" is 15/16ths Full!

Make no mistake about this: 2007 will be forever remembered as the year that glass cockpits really took off, excuse the pun.

If you are strolling the grounds at Airplane Paradise this week – or like me, just watching the daily happenings at EAA Airventure online – you cannot possibly avoid the gusher of exciting news regarding a fantastic new wave of glass that is destined to find their way into your panel soon. If I were a steam gauge this week, I would seriously be fearing for my life.

Let's stroll the grounds together through the convenience of cyberspace:

Garmin is on fire: No other brand name in the air carries the same swagger as Garmin, and 2007 is their "breakout" year. Their flagship system, the G1000, introduces the GFC 700, said to be the first entirely new autopilot designed and certified for the 21st century. Take your pick of 10" or 12" flat-panel LCDs, or an optional 15-inch widescreen version for larger MFD configurations.

For your new kitplane, the G900X avionics suite is an all-glass panel designed for kitplane builders. The dealer-supplied G900X package comes with everything you need for a simple, straightforward installation, including WAAS-certified GPS/Comm with transponder on two 10.4 inch, high-definition LCDs.

G600 is a tidy retrofit package that combines critical flight data and displays it on two 6.5 inch diagonal flat-panel LCDs. These high resolutions screens are mounted side by side in a single bezel that fits neatly into the “six-pack” slot in your current instrument panel.

The Cessna Model 162 Skycatcher recently floored the media at Airventure when it was introduced with a small but powerful Garmin G300 display which provides primary flight and engine information in a split screen format.

Honeywell Bendix/King: Avionics powerhouse Honeywell is "energizing" its Bendix/King brand, introducing new products for the retrofit market, including the new KSN 770, a GPS/nav/com glass screen multifunction display (MFD) navigator, and the WAAS-LPV capable KFD 840 primary flight display (PFD). Deliveries are scheduled to begin in the second half of 2008.

Aspen Avionics: The Evolution Flight Display is a new glass cockpit system for certified general aviation aircraft, and is modular, expandable, and upgradeable. It includes three models of primary flight displays (PFD), starting at $5,995, and two models of multifunction displays (MFD), starting at $4,995. The Evolution system enables aircraft owners to upgrade their primary flight instrument "six pack" to glass cockpit technology all at once or in stages. You can download the Evolution brochure here.

Avidyne Entegra Flight Deck: The product line from Avidyne continues to be improved this year. Their Entegra EXP5000 Primary Flight Display (PFD) presents standard flight instrumentation plus moving map, weather, terrain, and traffic on a large 10.4-inch diagonal, high-resolution, full color screen, along with CMax™ approach plates that should really someday be standard equipment in all IFR-certified GA airplanes.

If anyone had any doubts about this glass cockpit thing having any staying power, on the shores of Lake Winnebago right now, you can find four gigantic halls full of reasons to believe the future of general aviation instrumentation is here.

The only question we all must ask is how long it will take before we all fly behind glass. If I had my way, it'd be tomorrow.

Big Airlines Doing
Just Fine Without
a Tax Break

As Oshkosh gets cranked up this year, the one issue that is front and center on everyone's mind is the impending FAA reauthorization, and the many versions of legislation that are floating around The Hill. AOPA – as do I – supports the House bill, and you should too:

One bill in the House of Representatives — H.R.2881, the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2007 — would pay for air traffic control modernization (NextGen), would continue a robust airport aid program, and continue an efficient tax system that fairly distributes FAA funding costs among all aviation users. And it has no user fees.

The Senate version of the reauthorization gives Bush's Big Airline buddies a gift that they do not need:

The Senate version of an FAA funding bill (S.1300), created by the Senate Commerce Committee, proposes giving the airlines a $500 million tax break by eliminating the 4.3 cents per gallon airline fuel tax.

Giving away handouts like this to gigantic corporations who lavish their CEOs with millions in compensation while laying off Gate Agents would be fine if they were still struggling to scrape themselves up off the bankruptcy court floor. But today, Associated Press reported that things are looking way, way up for Big Airlines:

United parent UAL Corp. on Tuesday reported its most profitable quarter in seven years, a $274 million second-quarter profit that reflected increased capacity on international routes as well as fuller U.S. flights and lower costs. JetBlue Airways Corp. also posted solid second-quarter earnings, showing a 50 percent profit increase. Among other U.S. carriers in the latest quarter, American Airlines parent AMR Corp. posted a $317 million profit last week; Delta Air Lines earned $1.77 billion, or $274 million excluding bankruptcy-related items; Southwest Airlines Co. netted $278 million; and Continental Airlines earned $228 million.

Does that sound like a group of corporations that need a tax break?

This attempt by W and his cronies to blow one by us just reaks, much like everything else in Washington right now. When the Attorney General gets kudos from the Commander-in-Chief for lying to Congress, and when that Congress just spins it's wheels doing nothing to bring justice back to the Department of Justice, you know we've got trouble in this country much larger then user fees and airline tax breaks.

Still, the GA community is getting screwed, and even if it is still just a small blip on the Congressional radar screen, to us pilots, this issue is not just a blip, it is a 747 heavy at 12 o'clock, same altitude, opposite direction, closing fast!

An E-Plane
Debuts at OSH!

Oh, I love this time of year...it's like Christmas in airplane land. Pilots across the Fruited Plains wake up each morning – when not actually IN Cheese Country, USA – jump on the EAA website, and see what presents "Santa" has brought us. You just know it'll be new, it'll be exciting, and sometimes, well, a little bit out there on the fringe. From EAA:

One thing front and center at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh is innovation. Nowhere was that more evident that at 9:30 Tuesday morning when Sonex Aircraft introduced its proof of concept electric motor in a Waiex airframe.

O.K., on the surface, maybe a battery-powered plane is pretty strange...but exploring green technologies for airplane power is a great direction for forward thinking aerospace engineers to be headed. Once the current adminstration loses the White House after the 2008 elections and Big Oil cannot manipulate our country's environmental policy to suit their bottom line, we'll begin to see a flood of green products energing, including electric cars from all major vehicle manufacturers. So it really is nice to see our GA community working towards a similar end:

Sonex Aircraft, LLC and AeroConversions Products recently unveiled a new research and development initiative to explore viable alternative energies for powering the sport aircraft of tomorrow. In making the announcement, Sonex President John Monnett said, "E-flight is a push to explore viable alternative energies for powering sport aircraft and improve the efficiency and performance of current products and technologies to keep aviation affordable and recreational aviation available to future generations of pilots."

Yes, the gap is wide for those wanting to market a FAA-certified electric plane. But these two companies are gutsy enough to at least explore the possibility. Kudos to them.

If I were at the EAA show today, I would make sure to visit the Sonex or AeroConversions booths, find the principals and shake their hands, telling them thank you for having an open mind regarding the future of our planet, in an age where many still perceive the pursuit of green technologies to be a bad business model.

Or, maybe instead of the usual and traditional GA greeting, I'd just give 'em a "Green skies to ya!"

In this day and age, fads come and go daily. I actually heard today that having Attention Deficit Disorder is now hip in Los Angeles, go figure. But in aviation, things take longer to develop and “grow legs” as they say. One of those concepts is the invention of the Light Sport Aircraft.

Soon after FAA began haggling over the regulations that Sport Pilots would fly under, the first LSAs appeared on the scene. These were fine airframes from reputable makers, but they had funny European names nobody had ever heard of. Because of this, it has taken a while for some pilots to warm up to Light Sport as a legitimate pilot license, but in the last couple of days, that has changed forever. From Avweb:

On Monday at EAA AirVenture, Cirrus Design announced a partnership with Fk Lightplanes of Speyer, Germany to produce the Cirrus SRS (or SR Sport) light sport aircraft. First deliveries are expected next summer.

This is huge news, and comes a couple of days after Cessna announced the name and price of their LSA, the Model 162 Skycatcher. Both major manufacturers are getting into this market for all the right reasons, explained so well in a great story on Minnesota Public Radio's site by the top man at Cirrus:

"For years we have talked about how we, as an industry, needed to introduce more people to flying," said Cirrus Chairman and CEO Alan Klapmeier. "The SRS is yet another example of [us] providing a high customer value product that is easier to fly, more comfortable, loaded with safety features – all at an extremely affordable cost."

The SRS and Skycatcher are both at a price point that will allow just about anyone who can afford payments on an Escalade to begin flying. It is this vigorous new interest in Light Sport from some of the world's biggest names in GA that may in fact be the one thing that could turn around the decline in student starts we've all seen lately.

In the article on MPR, Cirrus co-founder Dale Klapmeier, hits the nail square on the head:

"When Alan and I were kids, we'd ride our bicycles to the airport to see what planes were there. Now, there are no kids at the airport. We want to bring kids back to the airport."

BINGO! Kids and airports...Hallelujah, someone at the top finally gets it!

See, one of my personal peeves has been the increasing price of entry-level flying machines. Sure, the SR22, Columbia 400, Mooney Acclaim and Cessna 206 are all wonderful, fast, safe, high-tech hardware, but they are priced far away from what all but the seriously wealthy can ever hope to afford. It is this high initial buy-in that has helped to shrink our pilot roles. But with the new generation of brand name, high-quality, super-efficient and just plain beautiful Light Sport Aircraft from the likes of Cirrus and Cessna, Average Joe and Jane can no longer whine that the cost of new airplanes is out of their reach, keeping them out of the left seat. With these LSAs, dreams will again be attainable.

More details about the Cirrus SRS will be released soon, as many of the final decisions about the plane are being decided as I type this. Rumors across the web today say the SRS could be closely related to the FL14 Polaris, which has some tasty specs that would need to be tweaked downward to meet LSA requirements.

I want to close by saying this: I consider Cirrus Design to be the poster child for smart aircraft manufacturing. They do what they say and deliver the quality products they promised. If anyone has any doubt that the SRS will be anything but wildly successful, you will be in a very small group, because this airplane – and the C162 Skycatcher – are going to return general aviation to a day we all long for, when kids return to the airport fence, just to see what is flying.

Cessna's
Skycatcher
Debuts Hot
New Garmin
G300 Panel

As everyone knows, this is the time of the year when all the really big aviation news spews forth in record doses. As a blogger/journalist, I will attempt to keep up with it during EAA Airventure 2007 while still working my day job. But this year, so much big news will be coming out of Wisconsin, it may be that before you can even read this post, an even hotter one will be posted.

So here we go, strap yourself in, this ought to be one helluva ride...

Right out of the gate, Cessna knocks the Light Sport crowd on their ear by introducing their LSA entry, which now has a name, a price, and a sales team. Called the Model 162 SkyCatcher, the $109,500 beauty will redefine the LSA market, and will draw many new airplane buyers and flight students to our community.

On first glance today at the Skycatcher, I see everything good. A gorgeous design, a very attractive price, and a futuristic interior that is stunning. But nothing comes close to being "news" like the panel, which could be a look at your panel of tomorrow:

The 162 will be equipped to meet both day and night VFR flight requirements. A single Garmin G300 display will provide primary flight and engine information in a split screen format. A Garmin SL40 Com radio, Garmin GTX327 Mode C transponder, and a 121.5 Mhz ELT will be standard equipment.

When you look at the Cessna photo in this post – which by the way shows a pair of G300 MFDs – it is hard not to imagine that same panel slipping comfortably into about a million older GA airframes that now fly behind steam gauges. With their proven innovation, Garmin has easily positioned themselves as the leader in GA avionics, and the G300 could be the start of something big.

Is it such a stretch to see this package morph into a retrofit for all those Skyhawk, Skylanes, Cherokees and Archers? What has me excited about this possibility is the price point. The VFR version of the G300 that comes in the Skycatcher must be quite affordable, because at $109K and change, Cessna could never afford to deliver the C162 with the usual [expensive] Garmin G1000-type suite:

That has to mean Garmin may be able to develop the G300 into a nice, clean certified IFR retrofit for somewhere in the $25,000 range. If they made it a full panel swap-out and even went so far as to develop a complete panel and G300 package, it would sell like crazy. Your avionics shop just yanks out the entire old panel, removes the rotten old wiring harness, and screws the pre-assembled G300 panel into place. Installing completely assembled dashboards is how all the car manufacturers do it now, so is it crazy to think that Garmin might soon be able to develop a panel swap kit for damn near anything? Who would want to spend north of $14K on a G530 to drive a bunch of tired steam gauges when you can double that amount and come away with a fully glass panel?

There is much more on the Skycatcher here, along with a downloadable brochure and specs. And if you've got five grand to plunk down for a deposit – and can scrape together another $104,500 or so – pull down the sales packet here and go to town. If you don't need to go fast, fly IFR or carry more then that one certain special someone, and want a brand new, drop-dead gorgeous airplane to seek out the elusive $100 hamburger, the Skycatcher may be your new airplane.

ATA Changes Direction
on User Fees!

Anyone who reads my blog knows about the battle we pilots wage, taking on Bush, the FAA, Big Airlines and the ATA in the cage fight of our lives. What is at stake is huge...user fees, but also the very future of GA as we know it.

I am one that believes like most GA and business pilots that if we were to lose this fight and let Bush's Big Airlines cronies win by imposing user fees on any segment of aviation, it is only a matter of time before a student pilot in Bakersfield will have to drop a check in the mail to O.K. City just to shoot a VFR practice landing. If you think that is crazy talk, you need look no further then Europe to see how bad it can get under a user fee scheme.

The proud GA community has been fighting back a lot harder then ATA and the Big Airlines expected. AOPA and NBAA have been hammering them every day up on The Hill, with our leaders like Phil Boyer and Ed Bolen showing up with a long list of talking points based on enough actual truth that it has apparently set the ATA Spin Machine reeling. From AOPA.org:

Appearing before a subcommittee of the Senate Finance Committee July 19, Delta Airlines COO James Whitehurst, speaking for the Air Transport Association (ATA, which represents most of the nation's airlines), proposed a new ticket tax that would include a fixed departure tax per passenger, plus a per passenger tax based on distance traveled. "It's not a user fee," Whitehurst said. It was a startling turnaround. The airlines abandoned their demand for user fees, and their "blip is a blip" contention that all aircraft impose the same costs on the air traffic control system, during a hearing. All that was left was their demand that they pay less and general aviation pay more.

Whoa. This is a HUGE abandonment of their “[the] horrible delays our passengers are experiencing are all GA's fault” garbage that they've been shoving down the public's throat in seatback rags and spam emails to frequent flyers.

One guy who definitely has a dog in this fight was one of several of the witnesses at the hearing who correctly claimed it's the airlines that have created the majority of system costs and ATC delays:

Eclipse Aviation CEO Vern Raburn told the subcommittee, "It is precisely the [airline] hub-and-spoke system that drives the majority of system costs, not the introduction of very light jets.... A triple-seven on approach to JFK takes up a heck of a lot more airspace than an Eclipse 500 on approach to Republic Airport 15 miles away."

You go, Vern!

So while this fight is far from over, this can only be a clear sign of two things: (1) our pressure on Big Airlines and ATA to stop rearranging the truth to the public is working, and (2) we can not, repeat NOT, let up that pressure. This is the time in this cage fight when we simply cannot blink, and it comes just as GA moves into the most visible period of the year, EAA Airventure Oshkosh:

CBS "The Early Show" weatherman Dave Price will be broadcasting live from the World's Greatest Aviation Celebration on Wednesday morning, July 25, and the producers of the show are inviting EAAers on the grounds to be a part of the action.

With the mob mentality of todays mainstream media, I predict the other big networks – along with everyone from Entertainment Tonight to the Oxygen Channel – will not take being upstaged by CBS, and will send their flock of satellite trucks to Wittman Regional Airport next week as if Paris Hilton and Britney Spears were seen mud wrestling out behind the Theater in the Woods.

And When Matt Lauer, Brian Williams, Katie Couric, Mary Hart, Oprah – and yes, even Rachel Ray – descend on Aeroshell Square, it is my hope that Boyer and Bolen are the talking heads that they corner for the sound bite. When that happens, the nation will finally understand how dishonest Big Airlines have been lately.

Schumer lands a body blow
in our user fee brawl

USA Today published an AP report recently that says Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. wants to see FAA Administrator Marion Blakey's head on a platter – so to speak – calling for her resignation over increasing airport delays that are slowing air travel across the country. The report also says this:

The senator faulted Blakey for what he said was a destructive feud with the nation's air traffic controllers. He said the controllers' decades-long poor relationship with the government has gotten even worse under Blakey. "She has engaged in a counterproductive fight with the air traffic controllers, cut the number of controllers that are needed, and they sometimes lash back," said the senator.

The AP story makes to very good points that clearly illustrates just how bad commercial air travel in the U.S. has become:

The problem is particularly acute at the three major airports in the New York City area. Between January and April, 38% of all flights at Newark Liberty, John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia airports were either late or canceled, leading to disruptions nationwide. In some cases, the delays seem to come without any weather- or crowd- related reason. At LaGuardia Airport between January and February, total passenger traffic dropped 3% compared to the same period a year ago, but delays still jumped 13%.

So while the ATA and airlines say it is a flood of GA and business jet travel that are causing “intolerable” delays at our nation's airports, Senator Schumer has made his way through the smoke and mirrors to see what might actually be causing the problem. Good for him.

AOPA has some great new info on the user fee fight here, which is related to the above post because of the way smartskies.org is blaming GA for the delays, while the airlines claim they missed their profit margin nut because of massive weather delays. So there is plenty of misinformation going around, but as far as Senator Schumer is concerned, he's seen enough to propose a pink slip for Blakey. And it is she who is playing with fire by siding with Bush and his airline cronies instead of basing the FAA funding reauthorization on actual truth.

Ought to be very interesting when the now “embattled” FAA Administrator stops by to face the music at these EAA Airventure events:

7/25/2007 7:50 PM - 8:15 PM
Theater In The Woods

7/26/2007 11:30 AM - 12:45 PM
Honda Pavilion

If you're going to be at OSH during those times, it is your duty as a pilot to make sure and catch the spin she'll be spinning. Just remember to wear your waders...

AOPA 'Battle Report'

As promised, I am presenting more great info here verbatim from AOPA, who is invaluable in our fight against Bush's user fee scheme. And if it has all been pretty confusing up until now, this will clarify everything. Click the image above to download a PDF to print out and show all your flying buddies...THIS IS MANDATORY!

From AOPA: User fees: A battle report
FAA funding proposal scorecard

The fight against general aviation user fees is far from over, and the outcome far from certain. With the September 30 deadline for Congress to pass a new FAA funding bill fast approaching, here's where we stand today.

We now have one bill in the House of Representatives — H.R.2881, the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2007 — that, if it makes it all the way through to the president, would pay for air traffic control modernization (NextGen), would continue a robust airport aid program, and continue an efficient tax system that fairly distributes FAA funding costs among all aviation users. And it has no user fees.

The members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee listened to the evidence presented by AOPA, the Congressional Budget Office, and the Department of Transportation's inspector general and concluded that the current aviation excise tax system can easily generate the revenue necessary to run the FAA and build NextGen. They kept taxes the same on the airlines and proposed a modest tax increase for GA.

AOPA supports H.R.2881. When the right time comes, we'll be asking you to tell your senators and representative that you want H.R.2881.

But there is a competing bill in the Senate. That bill (S.1300) includes user fees, and two powerful senators — John D. Rockefeller (D-W.V.) and Trent Lott (R-Miss.) — are pushing it. Sen. Rockefeller wants a GA user fee so badly that he has threatened to make sure that "all commercial airlines will get priority for landing" at the busiest airports if he doesn't get the user fee. Sen. Lott says it's S.1300 or "no bill."

While there are no guarantees, H.R.2881 is likely to move through the House of Representatives without major changes, particularly if pilot support for H.R.2881 remains strong. Transportation Committee Chairman James Oberstar (D-Minn.) and aviation subcommittee Chairman Jerry Costello (D-Ill.) are adamantly opposed to user fees, as are most members of the committee. And there is very little support for GA user fees in the full House.

In the Senate, however, there are strong advocates both for and against user fees. It is impossible to predict if the user fee section will survive to a final vote, but Sens. Rockefeller and Lott have plenty of ways to persuade other senators to adopt their point of view, not the least of which is the ability to block any FAA funding bill from going to a vote if they don't like it.

There is a third bill that the FAA drafted, and it's the most onerous of all — user fees and huge tax increases. It's also all but dead, since neither the House or the Senate has acted on it.

With that overview, let's try to answer some of the questions we've been hearing from AOPA members.

Are user fees in or out?
As you can see from above, user fees are in the Senate bill, but they are not in the House bill, H.R.2881. Both bills will continue to move through their respective chambers and ultimately to votes in the full House and Senate. Then a conference committee will work to resolve the differences between H.R.2881 and S.1300.

That's why we have to keep letting Congress know that H.R.2881 is what general aviation pilots want.

Why not make business jets pay a user fee? They can afford it.
The Senate bill would impose a $25 per flight "air traffic control modernization surcharge" on all turbine-powered aircraft flying in "controlled airspace." Sen. Rockefeller points out that piston GA is exempt from that user fee under his bill, and that "$25 isn't exactly a back-breaker."

AOPA's position is that a user fee for some will become a user fee for all. History backs us up on that.

The hardest thing to do in politics is to impose a new tax or a new fee. After the tax or fee is in place, it is much easier to increase it and apply it to other groups. Ask the GA pilots in Australia and Canada.

General aviation interests in both countries initially supported a change to a user fee system because they got a "good deal" and a "seat at the table." The deals are not so sweet now, and GA is in decline in Canada and Australia because of new and increased charges.

If a certain segment of aviation is using the system more, it should probably pay more. But the way to do it is through the fuel tax, which is exactly what H.R.2881 does for both piston- and turbine-powered aircraft.

Aren't the certificate and registration fees in both bills user fees?
Yes, but they are fees that are already in existence, and they are quite similar to the fees you pay to register your car or boat. Both bills just make adjustments in the amounts.

Government and tax experts are nearly unanimous in that a fee for issuing a certificate or registering a vehicle is an appropriate and efficient way to raise revenue. A user fee for flying in the National Airspace System (or driving down a highway for that matter) doesn't come so close to passing the appropriate and efficient tests.

How would each of these bills affect me?
Assuming that you are our typical member flying a single-engine piston, H.R.2881 would increase your flying costs slightly because it would increase the avgas tax by 4.8 cents per gallon. That essentially covers the rate of inflation since the last tax increase, and it's an amount that AOPA thinks is worth paying to help modernize air traffic control and maintain a robust airport aid program.

S.1300 wouldn't change much for you now, but AOPA believes it would have a profound negative effect in the future. That's because we have no doubt that the $25 user fee will increase and will be applied to piston-engine aircraft as well. As we have seen in the rest of the world, user fees are the death of general aviation.

What happens if Congress doesn't pass an FAA funding bill by September 30?
In theory, the FAA would have to shut down. In practice, Congress would likely pass a temporary measure to keep the FAA's core safety-of-flight functions operating.

Other services — medical certificate issuance, aircraft certification, etc. — could possibly be suspended. Airport funding grants would also likely be stopped.

The government might also be forced to stop collecting aviation taxes. But don't expect the airlines to reduce the cost of ticket — they didn't in the past. Nor would the cost of avgas drop immediately. That's because the tax is actually collected at the refinery.

So it is important to keep the momentum behind H.R.2881 as the best bill for the future of all of aviation.

Really, Really Bad-Ass Boeing

At a large metro airport, traffic is flowing smoothly on a sunny afternoon, and inbounds are sliding in behind one-another creating the separated ballet that keeps all involved from trading tin.

About 10 DME from the outer marker, a plain Jane Boeing 747, in the livery of your United States Air Force, lumbers down the glideslope towards the fence.

But as the -47's Captain is trimming for final and dropping his gear, some ASSBITE in a Baron 55 who is late for his tee-time cuts him off in the pattern, no radio call, no respect. The Captain, flips open a switch cover on his right, ticks the switch into the ARM position, and smiles in the general direction of his FO.

The FO tries to keep things sane. “Cap't, no,” he pleads. But the Captain – on his last trip before mandatory retirement – is one assbite in a Baron over his lifetime limit. His weathered finger moves to a red button on his yoke, and as it's pushed, a gigantic round cover opens on the nose of the 747, revealing a giant turret. The turret immediately tracks the clown's Baron as he turns base to final, cutting off the inbound heavy...never a good thing. As the turret locks on the assbite, the bright light of a million suns explodes from the turret, instantly vaporizing the Baron in a white-hot explosion that would make Jerry Bruckheimer smile. It will be the very last time that assbite messes with Boeing's Airborne Laser, or ABL.

O.K., the preceding fictionalization was just for fun. The ABL – a very heavily modified laser beam with wings meant to destroy ballistic missiles – is not about to shoot down civilian planes...ever. But the story I told (again, for fun) was for a real Baron driver that cut me off one day at Harris Ranch in Coalinga, CA. Had I been flying the ABL, damned right I would have blasted the fool into nano-sized bits.

I'll bet you're reading this and saying you've never heard of a Boeing ABL? Well I had not either, until I saw this release today surface widely across the wires:

The Air Force has reached another milestone in its program to turn a Boeing 747 into a missile killer when a test crew of a 747 flying out of Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., on Friday tracked, targeted and — after compensating for atmospheric turbulence — successfully test-fired on a second aircraft, according to a media reports. “We have now demonstrated most of the steps needed for the Airborne Laser to engage a threat missile and deliver precise and lethal effects against it,” Pat Shanahan, a vice president at Boeing, told Reuters.

Boeing's site for the division covering all the military hardware they are developing had this to say about the ABL:

The ABL will locate and track missiles in the boost phase of their flight, then accurately point and fire the high-energy laser, destroying enemy missiles near their launch areas. It operates autonomously, above the clouds, outside the range of threat weapons but sufficiently close to enemy territory. The ABL engages early, destroying ballistic missiles in their boost phase of flight over launch area after it cues and tracks targets, while communicating with other joint theater assets as part of a layered defense system.

While not a space weaponry expert, I always had my doubts about many of the "Star Wars" plans that have been floated over the years to defend our country. But this one has teeth, it looks like it actually works, and it's manufactured by Boeing, who has a habit of getting things right these days. Of course, when it looks like a good thing, your government does this:

The system itself recently has taken some hits, however, with the House of Representatives cutting $250 million from the program’s budget for next year, and the Senate eliminating $200 from its version. Boeing has said that the cuts threaten to set the program back by years.

Heckuva job, Bushie.

FYI, the DoD's Missile Defense Agency site has some great 411 here, and Boeing's site on the ABL is here. You can also download an overview of the ABL here.

Gives you
wings.

Unless you've been living in a cave, everyone reading this has heard of – and most likely consumed – one of the many “energy drinks” out there today. It is a segment of the soft drink industry that has grown more then Austrian Dietrich Mateschitz could have ever envisioned when he introduced a little $2 can of dynamite called Red Bull to the United States back in 1997.

In 2006, the energy drink market generated nearly $4 billion in U.S. sales, much of that going to Red Bull, which holds by some estimations as much as 47 percent market share.

O.K., so about now you must be asking what little cans of caffeinated soda water have to do with aviation. Plenty, according to this great, great story from Air and Space Smithsonian Magazine about Mateschitz's Flying Bulls Collection.

It turns out that Mateschitz really, really likes airplanes, and like anyone with that kind of wonderful addiction – and his mountain of cash – he's amassed a wonderfully eclectic collection thay sprawls through several immaculate hangars in Salzburg:

Today, the Flying Bulls' ever-growing collection comprises a North American T-28B Trojan, a North American B-25J Mitchell, a Cessna C208 Amphibian Caravan, a Vought F4U-4 Corsair, five Fairchild-Dornier Alpha Jets, a Pilatus Turbo Porter PC-6/B2-H4, a Pitts S2B, a Bell AH-1Z Cobra helicopter, race pilot Lefty Gardner's old Lockheed P-38 Lightning, a Fairchild PT-19, Boeing Stearman, and the flagship, a perfectly refurbished Douglas DC-6B.

But Mateschitz's Flying Bulls Collection is far more then just a bunch of very expensive playthings. These aircraft serve as the centerpiece of Red Bull's highly-successful worldwide marketing campaign...one that is nothing short of brilliant:

At this year's AirPower 2005, Austria's largest airshow, 250,000 people came to watch the Flying Bulls fly and display their hardware. There are also Red Bull-branded aircraft on the Red Bull Air Racing World Series circuit. The flashy flying and the gorgeous airplanes are evidence of Mateschitz keeping tight control on how his brand is presented to the world at large. He markets the energy drink directly to participants and hangers-on at extreme sports events, airshows featuring his aerobatic racing team, and the Formula 1 auto racing circuit.

As one who enjoys a career in advertising as it relates to aviation businesses, I have to shower the marketing team Mateschitz has put together with major league kudos. He's built an entire industry around those microcans of energy, and with his Flying Bulls Collection, he keeps the brand name out there, going fast, just like the people who drink those little cans several times a day.

I will never forget the first time I drank a Red Bull. It was about 300 degrees in Fresno, and I pounded those few ounces of liquid down in less then a second flat. It was gone before I knew it, and my first thought was that at TWO BUCKS A CAN, who the hell would ever buy this overpriced stuff more then once? Silently, to myself, I predicted the tiny can of energy would be a passing fad, and that the only way this juiced drink had a future was if they dropped the price to .79 cents and if it actually got you seriously wired. To me, it was D.O.A., being a too expensive drink in a can too small, with a bunch of ingredients nobody had ever heard of. Fuggitaboudit, I said to no one...Red Bull was toast.

Um, well, for the record, I was obviously way, WAY wrong on Red Bull. They are still two bucks a can, I am still not sure if they get me wired, but the world slams back 'The Bull” in record numbers...so much in fact, that an entire new world of cocktails has been invented featuring Red Bull as the mixer so you can party all night until the cows return to the dwelling.

I've got just three words I'd like to say to Dietrich should we ever meet: Great. Job. Dude.

FYI: Hattip to airliners.net, the class act of aviation photography on the web. They have a long and very good list of Flying Bulls Collection photos, found here.

Flight Line
Fever

This is the time of the year when all pilots not going to Oshkosh get really testy. Sure, to non-flyers, it's just a bunch of airplanes. But to anyone who has ever been lucky enough to tread on the sacred ground of Wittman Regional Airport in late July, Oshkosh – officially EAA Airventure Oshkosh – is like nothing else on this planet to the GA aviator.

There are many elements to Oshkosh, including four gigantic halls full of the coolest gear out there, and acres of endless airplanes on static display. Trying to explain what Oshkosh is like to a pilot who has never been there is an exercise in futility, because words cannot describe what that show is like.

One of the best things that some people forget about Oshkosh is that despite all the flying machines to gawk at, it is still an AIRSHOW! Each afternoon, the absolute best of the best in the aerobatics business dazzle those gathered along the flight line, putting on their best performances of the year. I learned the hard way how important these special afternoon shows are during the first year I spoke at a forum. It was scheduled in the afternoon, and I had just one of the 160 chairs in the tent filled with a breathing human. I found out how hard it is to compete with Patty Wagstaff.

Speaking of PW, I was looking over the airshow schedule (see below) and stumbled upon the makings of a blockbuster show. There in the middle of the schedule was this:


Oh. My. God. I can't even wrap my brain around what kind of show PW will put on while at the controls of a P-51. Last time I saw her perform at OSH, she did a routine that almost cannot be described in words...but I'll try:

After her usual unbelievable show, Wagstaff finished the crowd off with a series of maneuvers that any aerospace engineer will tell you seems technically impossible. She rockets by show center left to right at maybe 200' AGL and at full speed, and then begins a series of aileron rolls to her right. While continuing these lightening-fast 360-degree aileron rolls to the right, she starts a gradual turn to the left. Think about the coordination that must require. She completes a full circle, coming back to show center, all the while cranking and banking her Extra in this mind-boggling series of outside aileron rolls. Un freakin' believable.

Here is the complete list of performers from EAA, and it is as great as always:

AeroShell Aerobatic Team (4 T-6s)
Sergei Boriak (Suhkoi SU 31)
Dan Buchanan (Hang Glider)
Matt Chapman (CAP 231)
Collaborators (Sean Tucker, Eric Tucker, Ben Freelove, Bill Stein)
Dave Dacy Team (Stearmans)
Pat Epps (Bonanza)
Kyle Franklin (Super Cub)
Debbie Gary (Marchetti)
Mike Goulian (Extra)
Ed Hamill (Pitts)
Debby Rihn-Harvey (CAP 232)
John Klatt (Staudacher)
Bill Leff (T-6)
Liberty Parachute Team
Dave Martin (CAP 232)
John Mohr (Stearman)
Steve Oliver (Chipmunk)
Kent Pietsch (Interstate Cadet)
Warren Pietsch (Taylorcraft)
Red Barons (4 Stearmans)
Sean Tucker (Columbia)
Patty Wagstaff (Extra-Flugzeugbau 300S & P-51 Mustang)
Gary Ward (MX-2)
Matt Younkin (1928 Travel Air Mystery Ship)
EAA Warbirds of America
U.S. Marine Corps (AV-8B Harrier II jump jet)
U.S. Air Force (F-22 Raptors)

I've vowed to make the annual migration to the land of Cheese Museums and beer-soaked Brats every year that I'm on this Earth...but some years, life just gets in the way of that plan.

This is one of those years. UUURRGGGHHHH!

Getting Ugly
on The Hill

AOPA is out this week with a story that ought to make any GA pilot in West Virginia or Mississippi think twice about who the hell they elected. As we hit the eighty day mark before FAA funding runs out, two prominent Senators – one each from either side of the aisle – are using their wagging tongues as daggers to stab GA in the back. From AOPA:

"Commercial airline passengers shouldn't continue to subsidize corporate jets," said aviation subcommittee Chairman John D. Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) during a Senate Finance Committee hearing. "If we don't restore equity, then as chairman of this aviation subcommittee, I will address the equity issue by looking for ways to limit general aviation access to congested airspace." And in making his position crystal clear that there would be severe penalties if their FAA funding bill (S.1300) is changed or disapproved, Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) said, "We're going to have a fair bill or no bill, and I'm prepared to go to the mat."

In supporting their failed President to the bitter end of his failed second term, neither Rockefeller nor Lott mentioned that S.1300 would eliminate the fuel tax the airlines currently pay. To these Bush cronies, any tax break for Big Anything is a good tax break.

But AOPA points out that two other Senators aren't buying the airline's tax break:

Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) noted that, "We've had preferential tax treatment for the airlines, particularly in pensions." And Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) questioned that with all that the FAA was trying to accomplish, "why would you eliminate the fuel tax on the airlines?" He noted that the ATC user fee would likely discourage flights to smaller communities.

As we sift through the DC-BS that each side lobs across the aisle, one loyal Bush trooper was caught with her spin meter on MAX when questioned about the FAA's alleged budget crisis:

"We [the FAA] don't feel starved for funds," said FAA Administrator Marion Blakey in response to a question from Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.).

Hey wait a minute, Marion, I thought you, ATA and the airlines said the sky was falling? Which is it, is the FAA about to go under or do you have enough money to table Bush's user fee scheme forever? If you ask the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), it sure sounds like the current method of FAA funding is working out just fine:

Peter R. Orszag, CBO Director, said that with a forecast 7 percent annual growth in aviation tax revenues, the trust fund would bring in some $158 billion over the next 10 years, versus an inflation-adjusted FAA budget baseline of $135 billion.

Gee, Marion, let me help you out on this. Even with my limited math skills, I know that $158 bilion is more than $135 billion!!! This is precisely the kind of government shell game we get when the lamest duck and his buddies try to bamboozle the citizenry when they think we aren't watching. They think we pilots are busy watching them fumble the ball on Iraq, on immigration, on health care, on the environment and on Katrina, but they would be way wrong in that. To GA and most professional pilots, Job No. 1 is beating the user fee fiasco they are trying to shove down our throats.

And I'll close this post with a pull from AOPA, which ought to make your skin crawl:

The funding authority for the FAA and the government's ability to collect aviation taxes will expire in about 80 days. If an FAA funding bill (called a "reauthorization bill") is not approved before then, the FAA could be forced to stop operations.

Eighty days. Now, my friends is not the time to blink. This needs to be top of the mind all day, every day to anyone with a pilot's license, anyone who wants to start taking flying lessons, or anyone who manufactures or sells anything pilots use. Remember, AOPA had endorsed H.R.2881, the House FAA funding bill. Memorize that last sentence, and tell your pilot friends to tell their pilot friends.

Senate bill, bad, House bill good.

Somebody Buy
This Guy a
Discovery Flight!

Some people will do just about anything to join us GA pilots in the sky. One “aviator” from my home state of Oregon recently made national news when he tied over 100 helium balloons to a lawn chair and launched for Idaho. Numerous wire services described the aerial excursion:

Kent Couch traveled nearly 200 miles and more than nine hours in such a contraption Saturday, with little more than a pair of sunglasses, a radio and a parachute at his side. He attached more than 100 helium-filled balloons to his lawn chair and took off from his gas station in Bend, Oregon. "It was serene, just like you're on top of a cloud laying there," Couch said on "Good Morning America" today. "It was just like being on ice, nice and smooth." Couch traveled as high as 13,000 feet as he floated eastward toward his intended destination of Idaho. He said he heard cattle and children as he drifted among the clouds, using water jugs to control his altitude.

Couch told the Bend Bulletin newspaper he's been dreaming of such a flight since he was kid. He said he would see the clouds and wish he could jump on them. This trip up was his second “flying lawn chair” balloon trip. His first – in September, 2006 – ended with a parachute jump, when the gas station owner couldn't land his flying chair.

Couch says he's thinking about a third try, if it's OK with his wife. Un huh. Maybe this guy ought to head over to the local patch and take his first real aircraft lesson, because he obviously has the chops to launch skyward, it's his choice of flying machine that is highly questionable.

But as weird as this all seems, there are a handful of people in our country who take the concept of “Cluster Ballooning” quite seriously. One such guy has made this his lifelong obsession:

My name is John Ninomiya. I have been flying hot-air balloons for almost twenty years; over the last seven years, much of my flying has been in single-person hot-air balloons called Cloudhoppers. Eight years ago, I decided to fulfill a childhood dream by learning to fly with a cluster of large helium balloons. I have made forty helium cluster balloon flights since that time. All of them have been among my most magical flying experiences. With half a dozen pilots worldwide, cluster ballooning remains something between an extreme sport and a personal eccentricity, for the moment. At present, I'm the only regularly active cluster balloonist in North America, and to my knowledge, have completed more cluster flights than anyone in the world.

While some may say Ninomaya might be whacked, he makes a point on his website that this is not all fun and games:

Cluster balloons, like all balloons, are aircraft that require skill and training to operate safely. Before I began flying cluster balloons, I was an FAA-licensed hot-air balloon pilot and had over four-hundred hours of pilot time in conventional hot-air balloons and Cloudhoppers. These skills are not rocket science, but they are NOT something you're going to figure out on your first flight while you're drifting toward the high tension lines and imminent crispy-critterhood!

If you really have some time to kill, you can go to Ninomaya's site and view more information and videos on Cluster Ballooning then you'll ever really need.

Now please excuse me while I cut this post short so I can go out to the shed and attach the Goodyear Blimp to my toilet and fly to Mars...

Good Glass, Bad Glass.

There can be no disputing the fact that as each day passes, more planes are delivered with all-glass panels, while at little fields across the land, old, tired birds with steam gauges are being retired. This transition to glass panels creates what the acronym police call TAA, for technologically advanced aircraft, and AOPA's Air Safety Foundation (ASF) looked at the safety record of these glass wonderbirds.

Speaking recently in Duluth at M5, the fifth annual migration (fly-in) of the Cirrus Owners and Pilots Association (COPA), ASF Executive Director Bruce Landsberg had this to say on the subject:

"TAA are neither as good as proponents say nor as bad as detractors contend. These aircraft provide situational awareness tools that have dramatically improved aspects of GA safety. But those tools are not enough to overcome a pilot's faulty decision making or a lack of experience in how those aircraft are operated."

Landsberg makes a great point about how TAA has helped pad the order books of makers like Beechcraft, Cessna, Cirrus, Columbia, Diamond, Mooney, and Piper:

[Landsberg] said that industry excitement over TAA has reinvigorated GA aircraft sales and attracted more people to learning to fly. The new study finds that some TAA capabilities such as a moving maps, fuel management systems, and widescreen attitude indicator displays have helped to substantially reduce fuel management and maneuvering flight accidents as compared to aircraft equipped with traditional "steam gauge" instrumentation.

The full ASF report, available here as PDF, concludes with this point, which is a good one:

In the end, these discussions are not so much about airplanes but about the people who operate them. Although the on-board technology and performance of TAA is rapidly evolving and despite the fact that the pilot-training industry is making a strong attempt to better integrate pilots with their aircraft, pilots, for the most part, have not changed.

As I stand on the threshold of my next aircraft purchase later this year, I find myself thinking about avionics a lot these days. I'm also studying for my Instrument written test, and have just completed Peter Dogan's great “Instrument Flight Training Manual”, so panel pondering is top of the mind to me now. I find myself wishing I could get into an all-glass environment, but I know that day will come when I buy a future [expensive] plane, not this next one. But the desire to learn glass is there for me, which is the main ingredient to make flying TAA machines as safe as traditional steamers. I suspect that many TAA accidents are caused by the same guys/gals – many are senior Boomers – who are determined to learn their GPS, someday, but as of yet can't get past "direct to" and wait until the run-up area to program that into the box.

Time is TAA's best friend right now. In the next few years, the trend towards glass panels will continue to spread, and I can easily envision a day when you won't be able to buy a new plane with steam gauges as primary flight instruments. Sure, they will always be there as a backup, stuck in some unused part of the panel. But the future is glass, we all know that.

Hat tip to ASF and Landsberg for keeping the world informed on these kinds of important issues. Safety is something we all say we embrace, but in reality, most hamburger chasers spend more time trying to save a nickel a gallon on AvGas then on practicing partial panel flying or simulated engine outs. Our view of safety should not be to simply embrace the concept, but to really hug it with both arms, smothering it with all the strength we can muster.

More info on TAA and safety can be found here and here courtesy of AOPA.

Cessna Makes the Right Decision

Yesterday was the day that the Light Sport segment of general aviation finally got vindication and validation. No longer will anyone view the smaller LSA flying machines as step-children of all other aircraft. That's because Cessna has decided to move forward with building their own LSA.

This can only be seen as very good news for GA as a community. No other maker has the name brand recognition as Cessna, and it's pretty common to hear non-pilots refer to any small GA plane as a “Cessna”...even ones with low wings.

This decision to greenlight the LSA shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who has seen the Cessna proof-of-concept mockup at the 2006 Airventure or at Sun nFun this year. From the minute the gates opened during those shows, crowds flocked to the Cessna LSA display, and never stopped gawking until the afternoon airshows began, which drew everyone to the flight line. Watching this kind of interest develop first-hand back in Cheese Country was proof to me that there is indeed a market out there for a Cessna-made LSA product.

Cessna played their cards close to the vest up until just recently. In a June 18th, 2007 Flight International interview, Cessna Chairman, President and CEO Jack Pelton had this to say:

Question: Customer demand is clearly there for your LSA proof of concept, yet the first quarter 2007 deadline you set to either enter the light sport market or not has passed without a decision. Why?

Pelton's answer: “We're feeling more and more comfortable that we're getting the design solidified. Now we're focusing on how to get it manufactured to be as cost-efficient as we can, and we hope to have that answer soon. As a company, we aren't going to say “yes” until we're able to offer actual orders guaranteeing a certain price and a certain delivery.”

I believe that the Cessna LSA will open the doors to a large number of future pilots who love the lower cost of a Sport Pilot ticket, but have stayed away because they just didn't feel comfortable training in a Jabiru or Icarus. Those aircraft – and most all other LSAs – are solid VFR platforms, but have zero name recognition and no safety history. By flight lining Cessna's LSA, flight schools will be able to offer that same lower cost flight instruction in a bird that those new students will easily recognize.

Here is a good pull from the Cessna press release:

The concept aircraft Cessna unveiled last year has a high wing spanning 30 feet, side-by-side seating for two, a tricycle gear and a 100-horsepower engine. It also has dual control sticks, upward opening doors, toe brakes and a castering nose wheel. While the aircraft will not be a large source of revenue for Cessna, "We're going to sell a lot of them," said Cessna spokesman Doug Oliver. Cessna said that it estimates a market for 600 of the light sport planes a year as long as the price is kept at about $100,000 or less.

Good work, Cessna. I'm glad you have decided to pull your single-engine line out of park and finally begin a much-needed move forward with this LSA and the NGP. We all know that while the 172, 182 and 206 lines are solid, reliable machines, many consider them to be overpriced, and are starting to look a little dated compared to the SR22 G3, the Columbia 400 and high end Mooneys.

Bet the farm that Cessna will move forward soon towards a Thielert-powered, all-composite, all-G1000 line of piston singles. And I'm not some sort of guru figuring that one out, it is the only logical choice Cessna can make to freshen their product line. And the decision to build the LSA is the first step in that effort.

A Quick Reference Guide for GA pilots

AOPA is reporting that quite a few of their members are fed up with many of the major U.S. carriers as a new wave of airline misrepresentation propaganda hits in-flight magazines:

Fasten your seatbelts for a turbulent ride. The airlines are pulling out all the stops — inaccurate TV spots, e-mails to frequent fliers, and in-flight magazine editorials. Continental, US Airways, and American Airlines are the latest to publish editorials that contain factual errors and portray general aviation in a negative light. And airlines such as United are paying the price. More than 1,700 AOPA members (and counting) have written United in response to an e-mail campaign on June 27 that urged its frequent fliers to support FAA funding changes, including user fees. This is the second time in less than a month that United has offended loyal passengers, including their premier executive million mile fliers.

For those who can't keep up with this down and dirty cat fight we are involved in with the airlines, here's a quick and easy reference guide to help you determine which carriers are publically trying to screw GA, and those who so far are staying clear of the gutter. Use this guide to scratch the offending carriers [shown in strikethru] off your list the next time you book commercial air travel:
If you want to fight back, AOPA has published a PDF rebuttal ad that you can download here, print out, and insert into the airline's seatback magazines.

While many AOPA members have made their position clear, one in particular really nails it:

"I suppose if your company name was 'United Bus Lines' you would waste your political capital to try to convince Congress to tax the corporate car user to pay for all of the roads!"

I couldn't have said it better myself. Is it September yet?

Dreamliner
Arrives
in Style!

Boeing's marketing people in Everett must be given a major hat-tip today for the gigantic premiere event that has just concluded at Boeing Field.

With always classy Tom Brokaw as MC, the build-up to the unveiling was uptempo and exciting, with everyone on hand being introduced in groups, from airline and supplier reps to the guys and gals from the factory floor:

The best way to tell those two groups apart, was that the suits were wearing ties, and the hourlies were wearing shorts and Seattle Mariners caps.

After a long line of flight attendants from all the airlines that have placed orders made their way to the stage, it was time to the birth to take place:

The music began to build, and would have been at home at an Olympics Opening Ceremony. It was grandiose and powerful – lots of triumphant horns – and was the audience's clue that the show was really about to begin. Behind the giant stage, a screen the size of the largest hangar doors ever built showed an animation of 787s moving in and out of a gate area at a major airport. As the animation progressed, the liveries changed to show all the carriers who are firmly in the order book.

Then as the music reached crescendo, the stage, screen and hangar doors parted simultaniously and ceremoniously. Very slowly, a slit of sunlight first appeared, showing a small white tug. The crowd sensed this was it and leapt to their feet. As the doors widened, there it was...the first fully-assembled 787! The very tip of the Dreamliner appeared, and the crowd went nuts. The doors sooned opened fully and the most beautiful airliner any one of us could ever imagine came into full view.

The tug slowly brought the nosegear of the 787 into the hangar, and the crowd was released to circle it and begin generating large amounts of drool. The flash of a million cameras illuminated the composite fuselage, and the Dreamliner was born.

Personally, I could not visualize this airplane looking any better then it just did at the unveiling at Everett. It just makes me want to be up close and personal with a Dreamliner ASAP.

One small note to Boeing: Could you guys have made it any more troublesome to watch the streaming video of the premiere event on a Macintosh? O.K., I get it that aerospace engineers and bean counters use Windoze boxes, but would it have been that much to ask to make a Windows Media Player AND Quicktime stream available?

Boeing Invites the
World to View the
787 Premiere

I have a busy weekend planned, so time to actually “blog” will be as elusive as those six special Powerball numbers so close to my heart. To satisfy my personal responsibility to keep something fresh on WoF, here is Boeing's press release about Sunday's blowout party and Dreamliner premiere at Seattle's Qwest Field.

Here is their release verbatim:

SEATTLE, June 28, 2007 -- Boeing will broadcast the Premiere of its newest technologically advanced passenger jet - the 787 Dreamliner - to viewers around the world. The 787 Premiere will be carried live and in nine different languages on Sunday, July 8, at 3:30 p.m. PDT or 10:30 p.m. GMT via satellite and Webcast. To view the Webcast, viewers may log on here.

Boeing will broadcast the Premiere to more than 45 countries using 35 satellite TV networks. Satellite television subscribers may tune in the following channels, depending on their satellite service provider: Specific channel or frequency information can be found on the Premiere Web site.

U.S. and Canada
DIRECTV satellite 4S/8, Channel 576
Dish Network satellite EchoStar #8, Channel 9601
IntelSat Galaxy 11 K15 Analog
IntelSat Galaxy 11 K20 Digital

Mexico and South America
Satmex 5 K19, Digital 9Mhz
IntelSat Galaxy 11, K20 Digital

Europe and the Middle East
Eutelsat, W2 Digital
Eutelsat Atlantic Bird, AB1F5BE Digital

Asia
AsiaSat Direct-to-Home (DTH) Service
AsiaSat 2 XP 2B, Channel 3 and 4, Digital

South Pacific
Optus, B3 Digital (Eastern Australia and New Zealand)
Intelsat 12 (Western Australia)

The 787 Premiere will be broadcast in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish.

Leading up to the 787 Premiere, Boeing will debut a special series of videos to celebrate its 7-Series family of airplanes - the Boeing 707, 717, 727, 737, 747, 757, 767, 777 and 787. The videos, along with fact sheets on each airplane, are historical perspectives of the 7-Series of commercial airplanes, showcasing the wonder and glamour of flight since the 707's debut in 1958.

Matching airplane model numbers to the dates, Boeing will launch one video per day leading up to the 787 rollout - beginning June 30 with the 707 and continuing through July 8 with the 787. The videos will be available on the 787 Premiere Web site, which can be accessed via Boeing's Internet home page at www.boeing.com.

Everything you possibly need to know to view this show via satellite can be found here.