Betting on Boeing?

O.K., right out of the gate, let me say that upon first review, this topic seemed really, REALLY far out there...until I read the fine print.

The Seattle Times is reporting today that a web site called bet2give.com is taking action on whether Boeing can deliver the Dreamliner in time:

At the bet2give site, you "bet" by deciding at what price to buy or sell shares that will pay $1 if Boeing delivers the 787 on time — and those shares will be worthless if Boeing misses the deadline.

According to the bet2give.com site, this scheme differs from actual Internet gambling because the winnings go to charity. You put down real money — $15 minimum — on whether Boeing hands over the keys to the first 787 Dreamliner on schedule to All Nippon Airlines in May 2008. But the fun doesn't stop with airliners:

The site takes bets on a whole series of future events besides delivery of the 787 — the upcoming U.S. presidential elections, the next Seahawks game, the chance that Osama bin Laden will be caught before President Bush leaves office.

So I guess if you have a few greenbacks lying around that have not yet been earmarked for pizza, AvGas or the electric bill, you can stroll over to this bizarro site and play the odds on the Dreamliner. If Boeing comes through and delivers on time, your favorite charity (from the bet2give.com approved list) wins...simple as that.

But if the guy that supplies toilet paper holders for the 787 comes in a day late and pushes the timetable up causing Boeing to miss that crucial appointment with All Nippon Airlines, someone else who bet against Boeing will win, and their favorite charity will get the dough.

Either way, it sounds like a win-win to me. Now just maybe I'll take some of that "Bush won't find Osama in his lifetime" action...

Get in Line Now

A few times every year, I like to revisit one of the most exciting aviation projects out there right now, Terrafugia's Transition roadable aircraft. And if you get caught calling this a flying car, no kudos for you!

Terrafugia was founded by graduates of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the MIT Sloan School of Management. The entire team carries credentials that proves they are all very qualified to bring this great, great concept to market. Their prototype development is right on schedule, with anticipated completion in late 2008 and first deliveries in late 2009.

While there have been many supporters of this courageous project, a few skeptics keep focusing on the folding wing design as a possible area of concern. But as this project matures, those concerns are becoming a non-issue as they showed off a full-scale wing at Oshkosh this summer:

Over the course of the show, the full-scale wing was cycled through a complete fold and extend process over 500 times. This represents roughly five years of anticipated usage. Terrafugia's engineering team is very pleased with the results of this cycle testing as no fatigue problems were encountered with the wing design. The proof-of-concept wing, like much of the full vehicle, is constructed using carbon fiber and Kevlar composite materials with aluminum hard points bonded into the lay-up. When extended and locked, both the over-center lock at the root of the wing and the double-redundant latch at midspan are visibly locked and flush with the skin of the aircraft. This allows for an easy and fail-safe preflight as the pilot can both see and touch the locks, confirming the wing is ready for flight loads. As per ASTM Light-Sport Aircraft standards, the wing is designed for +4 G and -2 G loads.

Sure, people always think first about that folding wing, but it is just one part of a very complex and bold design that marries a plane to a car. When you think about the million hoops this design team must jump through, usually the bumpers are not something that is top of the mind:

A Proof-of-Concept deformable aerodynamic bumper (patent pending) for use on the canard leading edge and elevator trailing edge has also been constructed and successfully undergone preliminary testing.

So while the big automakers say their latest Escalade wannabes are "aerodynamic" to allow the gargantuan pigs to get a mileage figure in the preferable 20s (when coasting downhill), Terrafugia is actually designing real aerodynamic car parts that are as much airplane as they are automobile. With such an intriguing design, you would think that Team Terrafugia would be in high demand at speaking engagements, and you would be correct:

Since returning from Oshkosh, members of the Terrafugia team have spoken at the SAE AeroTech Congress and Exhibition in Los Angeles, CA, the NCAE Leadership Conference on Aviation and Space Education in Arlington, VA, and at a meeting of the Burlington RC Flyers in Lexington, MA. At the beginning of October, Terrafugia will be speaking at the FAA Airports Division Central Region Conference in Overland Park, KS. The next show where you can meet the Terrafugia team will be the Sport Aviation Expo, held in Sebring, FL, January 17-20, 2008.

Just as a reminder, here are some quick specs on the Transition:

Seats: 2, side-by-side.
GTOW: 1320 lbs.
Useful Load: 550 lbs.
Engine: 100 hp Rotax 912 S (four-stroke)
Cruise Speed (75% power): 100 kts/115 mph
Fuel Consumption (75% power): 4.5 gph
Range: 400 nm (460 mi, 740 km)
Takeoff Distance over 50 ft obstacle: 1,700 ft (520 m)
Fuel: Super-unleaded autogas or 100LL

If the idea of landing at the local patch, sucking in your wings and driving off the field to your garage sounds appealing (of COURSE it does...), then go here and find out how little money it takes to get in line for this wonderful creation.

And, for the record, I am stating officially that I predict this project will succeed with certification and Team Terrafugia will meet its delivery dates as advertised. I have met these people, and using a term their generation can fully understand...they rock!

ABC News Gets
MEM Center Story
Partially Right

NATCA is today giving kudos to ABC News for their positive spin on how well Air Traffic Controllers at Memphis Center handled the major communications outage they suffered this week. In a NATCA transcript from last night's national report, ABC had this to say on behalf of the men and women working the screens:

In an instant, controllers at Memphis Center lost phone lines, lost most radio communication with pilots, lost three of 11 radar systems. There were planes in the air they could no longer talk to or see. Memphis Center declared what's called an air traffic control zero, ATC Zero. They were out of commission. The Center is responsible for 100,000 square miles of high-altitude airspace over seven states. At the time, there were over 200 airplanes there. This radar animation shows how the FAA and other controllers scrambled to clear planes out of the airspace. They did so within an hour.

I think the kudos really need to go to the poised, clear thinking controllers at Memphis Center. But while ABC is telling you about their excellant work keeping heavies from trading paint over Graceland, what they weren't telling you is the cause of the problem. And when 100,000 SQUARE MILES becomes an ATC vacuum, I go looking for the reason why.

It turns out I had to look no further than Professional Airways Systems Specialists (PASS), the union that represents 11,000 employees of the FAA and DoD who install, maintain, support and certify air traffic control and national defense equipment. In a press release distributed by Dave Spero, PASS regional vice president, the union said this, verbatim:

Yesterday’s communications outage at Memphis International Airport was completely preventable. At fault is the FAA’s failure to address serious deficiencies in Harris Corporation’s Federal Telecommunications Infrastructure (FTI), which provides circuitry and communications for the FAA.

The outage was caused by the loss of a circuit card at subcontractor Bell South’s central office, which prevented telecommunication lines from feeding information to air traffic and ultimately resulted in a complete shutdown of radar, radio and telephone contact at the Memphis ARTCC. Previously, when communications lines failed, a backup telecommunications system automatically came online to support these vital systems until the primary communications lines could be restored, thus preventing a full-scale failure. However, the FAA lowered the standards and definition for diversity in order to award this contract to Harris. As an effort to make the FTI contract more profitable, Harris Corporation merged the backup path for these systems together.

As I read these releases from PASS and NATCA, I cringe. I'm getting bombarded these days with bad news that paints a picture of our current FAA as a dysfunctional mess. I really want to disbelieve what I read from them, and I scour the Internets all the time for the counterpoint to what they claim. I look for stories about happy controllers working in tidy cabs operating state-of-the-art equipment that is failsafe to the point of being bulletproof.

In my humble opinion, we cannot move forwards from the Blakey/Bush era fast enough. And just as GM made nice with the UAW yesterday, there has to be common ground that FAA, NATCA and PASS can find to solve this problem.

Because unlike a UAW strike when ashtrays don't get installed in Escalades, if the unions ever get so fed up with the current state of FAA that they call another controller's strike, this country's stumbling economy will be toast.

Good News for Bend?

While the GA world remains abuzz about the possible acquisition of Columbia Aircraft by Cessna, the question remains about what will happen to the Bend plant when the ink is dry on that deal.

As I have been preparing my growing list of future destinations to fly my 235 (coming very, very soon...), I have always had a trip planned over the gorgeous Cascades to tour the Columbia operation. So like many Oregonians, we've all been waiting for some positive news on the impending relocation - or not. Today I found this on kansas.com via The Wichita Eagle:

ATLANTA - If Cessna Aircraft is successful in its attempt to buy Columbia Aircraft Manufacturing Corp., Cessna would retain Columbia's operations in Bend, Ore., and not try to move it to Wichita, said Roger Whyte, Cessna's senior vice president for sales and marketing. Whyte said he has spent a lot of time studying Columbia's line of low-wing, high-performance aircraft. "It's a very well designed, very well engineered product," Whyte said in Atlanta, where the National Business Aviation Association meeting and convention opened this week.

The Eagle story also said this:

Columbia's aircraft would complement Cessna's current offerings, he [Whyte] said. It would fit in the class above the 172 and 182. The addition won't affect Cessna's development of its next generation of piston-engine planes.

So let's see...what might the Cessna piston product line look like a couple of years from now. They are adding a Light Sport – a great idea – and will still continue to crank out wildly overpriced Skyhawks. But with the addition of a low-wing, high performance model, don't be alarmed when either the 182 or 206 gets the axe. I do not see them keeping them both AND developing the NGP too. The sale must still be approved by a bankruptcy court, Cessna said. The court is also establishing procedures that will let other interested bidders submit offers at a November auction.

And in closing, I have to again say that The Wichita Eagle continues to offer some of the best aviation coverage out there for a traditional (non-aviation) mainstream paper. The story on Cessna can be found here, and the writer, Molly McMillin, can be emailed here.

Next Best Thing
to Being There

I've always wanted to see the NBAA show, and this year is shaping up to be one of the hottest anyone can remember. But I've been busy getting a new web site to go live in time for their big product rollout at the show this week, so I wouldn't have been able to go even if I could buy a fleet of bizjets.

So I went there instead through the magic of cyberspace, and have been very surprised at the level of outstanding streaming video coverage of the show that is available on the Internets:

Over at Aero-News Network, their Aero TV Network is streaming daily "Aero Briefings" on a number of topics. This is one great source, but while ANN grows its viewership, AINtv.com is still the king of business aviation streaming show coverage. If the many "pods" streaming out of Atlanta right now on their network doesn't blow you away, then you need to keep the defibrillator paddles close at hand.

Streaming video on the web has always been a crapshoot. There has always been the tug-of-war between Windows Media Player files and Quicktime, and being a Mac guy, I preferred the latter. But today, a number of third-party solutions from Brightcove as well as Macromedia's Flash technology have leveled the field for the end user, and the result is very clean, very enjoyable Internet video. Just spend time on YouTube and you'll see what I mean. (and BTW, spending one minute on YT is like eating one of those damned potato chips...betcha can't watch just one...minute).

So go here or here and see what I mean. Just a word of caution...you had better block out some serious quality time with your 'puter...because you're going to find it very hard to tear yourself away from either of these sites once the videos roll and the fun begins.

Rumor No More

If you thought that the buzz about Cessna making a play for Columbia was just hangar flying B.S., this press release from Cessna's own site will prove you wrong:

Cessna Aircraft Company, the world’s leading manufacturer of general aviation aircraft and a subsidiary of Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT), said today it has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with Columbia Aircraft Manufacturing Corporation to acquire selected assets and certain liabilities of the Bend, Oregon-based aircraft manufacturer. According to Cessna Chairman, President and CEO Jack J. Pelton, “Columbia’s unique capability in the high-end single-engine piston market makes it a perfect complement to our Next Generation Piston product line and could provide our customers with the option of an outstanding low-wing, high-performance piston airplane. We believe the combination of this superb product line and Cessna’s world class support structure and brand will be unbeatable.”

This is far from being a done deal however. Columbia filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy today, opening the door for other "bidders" to throw their cash on the table:

Columbia submitted a motion with the Bankruptcy Court seeking approval of the sale to Cessna and establishing bidding procedures that enable other interested bidders to submit offers and bid at an auction to be held in November. The sale to Cessna is contingent upon the approval of the Bankruptcy Court and the satisfaction of the closing conditions set forth in the LOI, including the execution of a definitive purchase agreement with Cessna.

And if you thought Cessna was still on the fence about building a low-wing product to compete head-to-head with Cirrus, think again. The pull quote below is from Cessna's own press release:

“The sale of Columbia Aircraft Manufacturing assets to Cessna offers the best avenue to maximize value for all of Columbia’s stakeholders and existing and future customers. Cessna is excited about the prospect of adding the Columbia products to its product line and will provide additional capabilities, world-class processes and financial strength to effectively serve existing Columbia customers and grow the business.

This is one of those developments that can change an industry forever. I've always thought that just south of a half a million dollars was too much to pay for a pretty new Skylane with 13 fuel drains and a glass panel. But if the Kings of Kansas can debut a low-wing model in the near future, Cessna will then have something that in my book can rightfully be called a true 'Next Generation' machine.

Oh, and the photo that accompanies this post is a Photoshop "mash-up" of what a low-winger from Cessna might look like...or not. Please do not take this photo seriously, it is really just fun with pixels.

Out of Left Field

As the aviation industry stands poised to open the 60th annual National Business Aviation Association meeting and convention this week and celebrate a white-hot business market, one dark cloud still hangs over Atlanta. From Avweb:

The business aircraft market has never been hotter, but that doesn't mean everything is perfect. As the National Business Aviation Convention rolls into the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta on Tuesday, NBAA and its allies in general aviation remain embroiled in a political battle in Washington that could fundamentally change the way general aviation operates in the U.S. While there have been some encouraging signs about the future funding of the FAA, the battle over user fees is far from over, judging by the banners outside the convention center.

Organizers expect about 30,000 attendees and more than 1,000 exhibitors to talk business about aircraft in the coming few days, many opening their wallets to sign on the dotted line for a growing number of exciting turbine jet and turboprop flying machines. Everything from the PJ and VLJ makers will be on sale, with light jets, mid-size jets and mega-million-dollar global flyers soaring out the doors of the virtual showrooms, so to speak. And as commercial air travel continues its downward spiral into the pits of hellish-level service, expect the lines to be long at the booths of fractional operators such as NetJets and Planesense where smart buyers will be buying just the piece of jet or turboprop that they really need. Add to that a serious boom in the glass avionics world, and you have an NBAA show that is sure to please both buyers and sellers.

As I scoured the Internets for today's news on the ramp up to the show though, one sentence in the Avweb story jumped out from my monitor and kicked me right upside the head:

...And a pending takeover in the piston single sector could overshadow the turbine-oriented NBAA show, with Cessna rumored to be buying Columbia.

Say what? I like to think I stay pretty close to the pulse of general aviation, but have not seen a word of this"rumored" buyout of Bend, Oregon's Columbia Aircraft. So I delved further and this is what I found over at ANN:

The GA industry has been agog, the last few days, at the news that Cessna's parent company, Textron, is reportedly bidding to purchase (at least) part of Columbia Aircraft. ANN broke the news several days ago on the sale of Columbia Aircraft actively being pursued... and that three parties were identified as having interest in taking over all or part of Columbia Aircraft.

ANN reported a day later that the offer from one of the three parties wanting to acquire Columbia – Aerospace Entrepreneur Granger Whitelaw – has been rejected. It is not known whether Textron was the winning bidder, or if the third bidder might be the new owner. [Sorry, I could not find the ID of that third bidder anywhere]

An acquisition of Columbia by Cessna would rock the GA piston world. The last time I checked, the one prerequisite for a Cessna piston aircraft was that it have high wings...and of course the Columbias have a sleek composite wing sprouting from the belly. So if some of the chatter across the web forums in the last two years is to believed, Cessna has always had plans to build some sort of low-wing "Cirrus killer", and buying Columbia would be a big, in-your-face way to make that happen.

So as NBAA gets going, and AOPA Expo is just around the corner, as always things are abuzz big time. And over at the Cirrus tent in Atlanta, while people drool over the The-Jet, bet the farm that management will have their ears tuned to the grapevine for any official news that Textron has become a seriously competitive competitor.

Could it be True:
NASA Finds
Possible O.B.L.
'Undisclosed Location'

Forget Tora Bora, this is HUGE!

News out today from NASA seems to suggest they think they maybe sort of kinda might have found this on Mars:

Seven very dark holes on the north slope of a Martian volcano have been proposed as possible cave skylights, based on day-night temperature patterns suggesting they are openings to subsurface spaces. The find is fueling interest in potential underground habitats and sparking searches for caverns elsewhere on the Red Planet. Very dark, nearly circular features ranging in diameter from about 100 to 250 meters (328 to 820 feet) puzzled researchers who found them in images taken by NASA's Mars Odyssey and Mars Global Surveyor orbiters. Using Mars Odyssey's infrared camera to check the daytime and nighttime temperatures of the circles, scientists concluded that they could be windows into underground spaces.

So while we're being told by "officials" in W.D.C. that Osama bin Laden slipped out from under our collective noses near the Pakistani border, maybe this story from NASA casts new doubt on the whereabouts of OBL? After all, can anyone in the military or intelligence communities REALLY say for sure that he's NOT hiding in these Mars caves? When you look at his latest videos, the dull light washing over his unwashed face sure does look like the warm illumination that comes in from a "skylight" similar to the ones NASA has found on Mars.

Of course, I am just slinging horse by-products your way on this...but actual scientists ARE taking notice of this find:

"Whether these are just deep vertical shafts or openings into spacious caverns, they are entries to the subsurface of Mars," said co-author Tim Titus of the U.S. Geological Survey in Flagstaff. "Somewhere on Mars, caves might provide a protected niche for past or current life, or shelter for humans in the future."

You know, now that I think about it, Dick Cheney is always going off to his "undisclosed location"...maybe, hmmm, naw, can't be...

No Tax Cuts Means
A Guaranteed Veto

Today, AOPA and everyone else on the Internets is reporting that we, the GA community, have won a huge battle against user fees. This is a massive first step towards killing the reauthorization Ponzi Scheme that the 'The Current Occupant of the White House', the ATA and the FAA have cooked up for their Big Airlines cronies:

The House of Representatives on Sept. 20 passed H.R.2881, the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2007. The bill would fund the FAA through 2011, provide additional money for air traffic control modernization (NextGen), and increase the funds for airport improvements, particularly small general aviation airports. "H.R.2881 is a great model for funding our future aviation system," said AOPA President Phil Boyer. "And the best news for general aviation—no user fees, a modest fuel tax increase for NextGen, and no tax cuts for the airlines."

The House vote of 267-151 was mostly down party lines, proving that it DOES matter who you elect to office. This vote moves H.R.2881 to the upper chamber where it will get regurgitated into something completely different:

Meanwhile, the Senate Finance Committee was scheduled on the same day to debate changes to the Senate's version of an FAA funding bill (S.1300). Once the Senate bill is finalized and approved by the full Senate, a conference committee will resolve the differences between H.R.2881 and S.1300.

AOPA reports that H.R.2881 is an "historic bill addressing the needs of aviation today and into the future," said Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.), chairman of the Transportation Committee. "These are all-time high investments." Let's have Dow Jones' Marketwatch.com break down the numbers Oberstar is so proud of:

The bill would provide $68 billion for the agency that oversees U.S. airspace and regulates U.S airlines, bankrolling its operating budget and underwriting a major upgrade to the nation's air traffic control system to one based on satellite positioning. The increased spending would be partly financed by higher fuel taxes on airlines, increasing the tax rate on aviation gasoline by 25%, to 24.2 cents a gallon, and by 64% for aviation-grade kerosene [uh, it's called Jet-A] used in noncommercial aviation, to 36 cents. The bill would raise the fee that airports can charge passengers to a maximum of $7 a ticket from a $4.50, an increase that would go to expanding or improving airports, such as projects to reduce noise congestion.

It's that airport fee that ATA is trying to use to scare you into believing the shell game they've been playing with the public:

"The House bill does little to promote NextGen or correct the subsidy of corporate jets by airline passengers," said James May, the group's president and CEO, in a statement late Thursday. "Even worse, it imposes a $2.2 billion tax increase on passengers in the form of airport facilities charges."

So while the House is getting it right, the Bushies in W.D.C. will do whatever it takes to pad the pockets of their airline BFFs:

Some potential bad news for H.R. 2881, the House plan to reauthorize funding for the Federal Aviation Administration. On Wednesday, the White House threatened to veto the measure should it come across the President's desk. Dow Jones Newswires reports the Office of Management and Budget said the bill "falls far short" of what the White House believes is necessary to reduce flight delays. "It would make the status quo worse by undoing progress achieved in prior Congresses," OMB said, adding that President George W. Bush's "senior advisors would recommend that he veto the bill."

Uh, hello? The Bushies feel H.R.2881 'falls far short' of doing enough to curb flight delays? What are they SMOKING back there? This has always been not about FAA funding, but about airline profits. It has never been meant as a way to fund NexGen or actually develop a system that allows flights to arrive and depart on time.

It's just like everything else in Bush's Washington. Friends helping friends make money. I would love to say this win in the House was worthwhile, but being realistic, there is only one thing that will allow us to fund FAA without user fees and big tax increases. That is, if W's CEO cronies get some sort of a windfall, he'll sign it. And if they don't, it does not matter that he will be screwing each and every American who flies, Bush will smirk while he vetoes the final bill. That pen stroke will send this all back to square one, it may stop the FAA from being funded, and will cause serious harm to the entire ATC system.

Do we think he'll care? Not a chance.

A Colorful Collection
of Bells and Whistles

Many of my regular readers know I design web sites for a living, so I believe I know what a quality, well-designed site looks and feels like. And in the last few days, AOPA.org went live with their new main site, and the makeover is – in my humble opinion – a thing of beauty.

Yes, I KNOW you were used to their old site, like you were used to that one pair of jeans we all own...the ones that make any fishing trip that much more enjoyable. But since AOPA launched their site back in 1995, the Internets have evolved faster then anyone can track. What is cool and hip and "wow" today on the web will be yesterday's news by the time most people learn about it. It is great to see AOPA recognize this:

"The present AOPA site has served members well for more than a dozen years and was placed online as the Web was just developing," said AOPA President Phil Boyer. "While our Web site redesign was a huge undertaking, the time was right to recognize the Web technologies that have evolved." AOPA Online houses more than 50,000 files of information, including advocacy briefs, magazine archives, photos, news stories, safety courses, and software applications. You can read about protecting airports and airspace, learn about flying, get medical and legal advice, chat with fellow pilots, download charts, find airport information, check out weather and flight restrictions, plan a flight, buy insurance, and even appraise the value of an aircraft, all in one location.

Five main tabs – for Flight Planning, Aircraft & Ownership, Government Advocacy, Training & Safety, and Membership Services – appear on every page of the new site, placing the information is where you expect to find it. The look is first-class as well, just more great work from the AOPA team of web designers that are second to none.

This new site is just another sparkling example of why you need to be AOPA. I dare anyone – ANYONE – to click the "Email me here" link at right and tell me one good reason why any licensed pilot or student pilot should not be AOPA. In case you've been under a rock, we are in a fight for our lives on Capitol Hill, and AOPA, along with NBAA and AAAA, are manning the front lines of this fight.

If you are not a member of AOPA, now would be a great time to change that by clicking here. If you want to visit the new site, click here. And if you want to engulf yourself in several days of aviation overdose, head to Hartford, CT. on Oct. 4-5-6 for AOPA Expo [registration info is here] where you may be able to talk directly with the AOPA team members that we all KNOW burned a tanker load of midnight oil to get this new site up and running.

No user fees,
no airline tax cut
H.R.2881 advances
in the House
(reprinted verbatim
from AOPA.org)

The House Ways and Means Committee has passed a bill advancing H.R.2881, the FAA funding bill endorsed by AOPA and the general aviation community.

"H.R.2881 is the framework of the best solution for all of aviation, and we're delighted that the Ways and Means Committee concurred with the recommendations of the Transportation Committee," said AOPA President Phil Boyer. "This bill ensures that there will be more than enough money to pay for air traffic control modernization.

"And the best news for GA — no user fees and no concessions to the airlines."

The Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over taxes, voted Sept. 18 to keep airline taxes, including the airline fuel tax, at existing levels. Aviation gasoline taxes would increase from 19.3 to 24.1 cents per gallon (an increase roughly equal to inflation since the last fuel tax adjustment), and the Jet-A tax would go from 21.8 to 35.9 cents per gallon. Money from the tax hikes on GA fuel would be earmarked exclusively for air traffic control modernization. (The committee passed H.R.3539, which actually modifies the tax code. The bill becomes companion legislation to H.R.2881.)

"We said from the beginning, take user fees off the table and we'll discuss whether there should be an adjustment in what GA pays," said Boyer. "General aviation is willing to pay more to improve the air traffic control system, unlike the airlines who wanted to change the entire FAA funding system to obtain a huge tax cut for themselves."

The bill now goes to the Rules Committee and then to the House floor, with a final vote possibly within days. The Senate Finance Committee is expected to consider its version of an FAA funding bill this week, although final action in the Senate may be weeks away.

The Ways and Means Committee also passed a short-term extension of the current funding authorization to allow time to complete action on new FAA funding legislation.

"We thank Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) and Ranking Member Jim McCrery (R-La.) for their leadership in providing the money needed to maintain and improve our aviation system," said Boyer.

Another Goes
Off to Fly
with Lindbergh

I had the privilege recently to join my wife in developing an ad campaign for a very likable pilot named Brad Morehouse. He was without question one of the most easy going builder/developers an agency could work with, and even though we only spent four days this year with him on a photo shoot at his home in Afton, Wyoming, he was what I would call a friend.

So it was with great sadness that we learned Sunday night that Brad had perished in a air racing accident this past Thursday while racing his L-39 Albatross fighter jet at the Reno Air Races.

Like most pilots, Brad welcomed other pilots and their families into his world as if we were all one big family. With his wife Leslie, Brad made Julie and I feel right at home as we photographed Brad's Afton Airpark, a residential fly-in community that he has been developing along with his partner, Barr McCutcheon. From the moment Brad picked us up in his Cessna 310 at SLC, to the morning of our departure from the Star Valley, Brad and Leslie played host in a manner that any traveling photographer would always remember. Ask for it, and it was mine. Move something into a better position to claim more preferable light, consider it done.

Brad was a joy to work with as a client. As Julie and I developed his campaign for the airpark, he didn't question our recommendations. As with any campaign, there is plenty of give and take, and always a few moments of light to moderate turbulence. Through this "getting to know each other" phase any agency must work through with a new client, Brad was a gentleman first, and a client second. He treated Julie with complete respect, and we looked forward to his phone calls.

We love our aviation clients, especially the colorful ones like Brad Morehouse. He never let us forget he was a pilot first and foremost, and when he was going through the training that was required to become PIC in the brand new TBM 850 he bought this year, he called us...just to chat about airplanes. And when he called to talk shop on advertising and I answered, he always started each conversation with "doing any flying, Dan?" And anyone who knows me, knows that question is music to my ears.

Brad was a guy who lived life to the fullest. He raced cars, he owned a stable of great airplanes, he bought and sold land with relative ease, and was a very successful car dealer back in the day. But as a pilot, he liked to keep it light, and I found out early on that like most pilots, he liked to kid around a bit. We found this out big time on the morning we were to depart Afton and head home after the shoot. Here's the kind of thing that gave Brad Morehouse a chuckle:

The plan was that he and Barr were going to fly us back to SLC in the C-310 to catch our commercial flight back to EUG. But with very low ceilings and icing in the WX forecast, Brad had to launch Plan B. He told us not to worry, he would loan us a car to drive to SLC, it was handled. So we packed up and he drove us to his FBO at KAFO where we finished up the last details of business. When we walked outside to get in the loaner, waiting for us was a gigantic Hummer H2, the biggest vehicle I had ever seen. This particular Hummer was owned by Brad's friend from Utah who had "wrapped" the H2 in a gaudy full-color Real Estate ad that shouted down to the other cars that drove by underneath the mammoth's windows. We would be doing Brad a favor by returning the Hummer to SLC, and as we climbed in, you could see the wide grin on his face. He was getting a really good laugh out of forcing two Oregon liberals to be seen driving a Hummer through one of the reddest parts of a very, very red state.

I cannot imagine what his family must be feeling right now. And while nobody on this Earth can say why good pilots are taken before their time, there is only one thing I can say about this tragedy:

I believe every pilot – when pushed to answer the question – would say they would rather leave this life at the controls of an airplane then by any other means. With that in mind, flying his L-39 flat out around the pylons at Reno was what life was all about to Brad, and he passed on doing what he loved.

So the next time Lindbergh, Jimmy Doolittle and Papa Louie jump in Doolittle's solid gold B-25 to go burn some of that endless AvGas we know is waiting for us in Heaven, they can now take Brad along for the joyride. I hope Jimmy lets him take the controls for a while, because I'm sure he'll give them all one hell of a ride.

I didn't get to know Brad Morehouse well enough and anyone who did should should consider theirselves lucky. I looked forward to flying our new 235 over to Afton and learning how to live from this great and pleasant man. Godspeed, Brad.

A Dream Fulfilled.

Forty one years ago, I fell in love with airplanes, listening to the traffic fly in and out of Fresno Air Terminal as radio calls blasted out of the "Old Radio" that I've written about before.

The Old Radio is a 1940s-era Zenith All Band floor model, and it was that collection of wires, tubes and wood that coaxed my dad, Papa Louie, into a love affair with flying back in San Francisco many decades ago.

I also earned my private ticket at FAT, and as a young boy growing up in what I now call FresNO, the fence surrounding FAT was the one I hung on, watching planes inbound to 29L and 29R.

So it is very fitting that today, I made an offer right back at FAT that was accepted on the Cherokee 235 of my dreams. N8527W is a cherry cream puff with about 100 hours on a sparkling clean Corona Cylinders Lycoming 0-540, and some serious IFR avionics in the panel, including the S-TEC system 50 I had hoped for.

I was only passing through FAT on business, and the owner of 27W was kind enough to fly the 235 up from its base at Whiteman Airport in L.A. As I strolled around 27W inspecting her (him?), I am not lying when I say a wave of emotion washed over me. My dad and I had always planned to buy a plane together, but his stroke in the early 90s changed that big time. Now Papa Louie is flying with Lindbergh, gone west as they say. But standing there on the ramp where I fell in love with flying and where he took his 26 hours of flight training before fate struck its blow, I felt like I had his approval to buy the plane.

So I did.

All that stands in the way of delivering 27W back home to EUG is a successful pre-buy inspection and some FAA and bank paperwork. I cannot wait. Now all we have to do is name it. Somehow, I have a hunch the name Louie might work its way into that name.

Wrong Fix to a
Big Problem

AOPA.org is reporting that if you're a GA pilot who likes to chase your hamburgers outside the borders of the lower 48, there are some important rule changes you need to know:

If U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has its way, you'll have to electronically submit a passenger manifest at least 60 minutes prior to leaving or entering the United States. Yes, this applies to short trips across the border with your family or friends in your Cessna 172. The CBP's proposed rule released on September 11 is based on concerns of executives from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that the passengers on private aircraft should be checked against terrorist watch lists before exiting or arriving the United States. Currently, GA pilots entering the United States give Customs 60 minutes notice by phone. Upon landing, pilots provide passenger information during a face-to-face meeting with Customs officials.

O.K., I am all for increased border security, since we have such a lack of it right now. The border between Mexico and the U.S. is a joke, and the millions of illegals who have strolled untouched into this country demonstrates that DHS cannot honestly say for sure who is crossing that border.

So an increase in security aimed at GA planes sure seems like straws being grasped. The fact that DHS revealed this rule change on September 11th clearly shows they wanted this story to gain generous traction fast. Tightening the grip on GA does nothing to close the wide gaps in the imaginary fence where Texas, Arizona and California meet Mexico. But to John Q. Public, this does look like DHS is actually doing something to protect our borders, even if it is more hat then cattle.

The one part of this plan that has AOPA [and me] shaking our heads is this:

CBP would require GA pilots to file a passenger manifest and other information via its electronic Advance Passenger Information System (eAPIS). "The CBP simply plans to require pilots leaving these remote areas to land at another airport with Internet service and complete the information before entering or leaving the United States," said Andy Cebula, AOPA executive vice president of government affairs, "and that's not practical."

So let's see if we can connect the dots here. Before you depart any of the tiny GA aeroportos in northern Mexico, you first have to find Internet access. Uh huh. If you've ever been into any of the Mexican strips on Baja Sur such as Bahia de Los Angeles, finding a Starbucks with a wi-fi hotspot is not only impractical, it's impossible.

AOPA also raises questions about the requirement to submit a passenger manifest and other data before leaving the United States. Currently, pilots leaving the United States are not required to submit any information to CBP. The passenger manifest would be checked against a no-fly list, but the proposal does not address how passengers whose names match that of someone on the list will be handled.

So I guess making private air travel "safer" for a few GA flights a day is much better then plugging those Titanic-sized holes in our southern border.

The entire rule can be downloaded as a PDF here.

As the Door Was
Hitting Her in the...

FAA Administrator Marion Blakey used a national stage during her "farewell address" at Washington, D.C.'s, Aero Club to blame the airlines directly for the massive and unacceptable delays commercial carriers are experiencing this year. ABCNews.com said it best:

It has been a summer of record delays, and the administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration threw down the gauntlet to the nation's airlines Tuesday, warning them to take a hard look at their schedules, which she said "aren't worth the electrons they are printed on." Delays are particularly bad right now at the New York area airports. Blakey said to airlines that they need to make schedule adjustments there. "If airlines don't address this voluntarily," she said, "don't be surprised when the government steps in."

I find it very telling that FAA is completely shooting down the airline and ATA claims that the flood of business jets – especially all those little VLJs – will clog up our skies so badly that only fuel tax increases and user fees will save the system. As Blakey said Tuesday, it's their schedules to blame, and if the carriers think they'll continue to get a pass for publishing impossible schedules, here's proof to the contrary:

The main concern is at Newark and JFK airports, where Blakey later told ABC News, "at some times of the day there are schedules that can't physically be operated except under optimal circumstances, and we don't have many optimal days." She warned that the government could impose the type of solution they did at Chicago's O'Hare airport in 2004. The two main carriers there, United and American, had scheduled more flights an hour than the airport could handle -- and that was causing delays in Chicago and throughout the country. In November 2004 the FAA forced the two carriers to limit arrivals during peak hours. In the year following that move, delays dropped by 24 percent.

So now with FAA joining JetBlue, AOPA, NBAA and all of GA in blaming the airlines and not ATC or bizjets for this year's flight delays, maybe someone in Congress will see through ATA's smoke and mirrors to make the right decision and push H.R.2881 through to the Oval Office. Then, if the Current Resident of the White House has one tiny sliver of decency left in his weary, battle-scarred Presidency, he will sign that bill into law, keeping user fees off the table while funding FAA and NextGen.

Sobering 411 from NATCA

I get lots of info from NATCA's WDC Communications Office, and with each email, the news just gets worse and worse. So today, as I head out the door on a agency business trip (with a little airplane shopping thrown in), here is today's email from NATCA's Doug Church, verbatim. And if you have a beef with any of this, the guy to contact is at the end of the post:

Record Number of Resignations Since FAA Imposed Work Rules Further Deepens the Controller Staffing Crisis at Oakland Center

FREMONT, Calif. – Three more air traffic controller trainees have resigned from Oakland Air Route Traffic Control Center in the past four days, effective next Friday, bringing the total number who have quit to 14 since the Federal Aviation Administration imposed work rules and pay cuts on the controller workforce against its will one year ago. In a normal year, there are only one or two resignations at this facility, which controls the airspace above 10 percent of the earth’s surface.

There are currently 161 fully certified controllers on staff, which is 98 short of safe staffing levels established by the FAA and NATCA in 1998 and is even short of the absolute minimum of 175 controllers that the FAA said in March was needed after throwing out the 1998 numbers without any justification or staffing study. Of those fully certified controllers, 40 will be eligible to retire by the end of this calendar year.

Oakland Center has lost a total of 32 controllers and trainees since the FAA imposed work rules: The 14 resignations, six people who failed the training program, five experienced controller retirements and seven experienced controllers who left their position to take an FAA supervisor job at the facility.

On Monday, trainee Douglas Ridgeway resigned. He had six years of experience with radar control in the military. “He was cruising through the training program,” Oakland Center NATCA Facility Representative Scott Conde said. “He is now leaving the FAA to go to work for a contractor in Afghanistan.”

Ridgeway cites pay as the reason he is leaving. In his resignation letter, he writes: “I have been at Oakland Center since September 2006. It is one year later, and I am still at the same salary that I came in at. I am also making almost $1,000 a month less than I was when I made the decision to separate from the Air Force. … I sought a career in the FAA so I could make good money and not have to live paycheck to paycheck. Not so I could go into debt.”

Two more resignations occurred last weekend – a husband and wife, Patricia and Joseph Murgatroyd. They also cited pay. Both Patricia and Joseph had prior military experience and were “breezing” through the training program, according to Conde. Patricia wrote the following in her resignation letter:

“The FAA has been a long time dream job of mine, and has turned out to be WAY less then I expected. The pay is way less than I was originally offered. The management can’t seem to answer questions asked of them. Nobody seems to know the answer to anything except for the controllers who know how to do their jobs, and they are the ones getting the short end of the stick. There is so much overtime available and everyone keeps taking their name off the list because if you are on the list you only get one day a week off every week. People are being pushed through training either way to fast or not getting any training at all. Either case isn’t very safe.

“I love air traffic control and hope to one day to be able to return to the FAA if things ever get better; if the FAA ever realizes that it cannot function without the air traffic controllers and that not just anybody can be an air traffic controller.”

CONTACT: Scott Conde, NATCA Oakland Center Facility Representative, 510-673-0237

Blakey Replacement
Watch: T-minus 3 (days)
and Counting...

With less then 72 hours until end of business on September 13th – the day FAA Administrator Marion Blakey is stepping down – Businessweek is running a scathing beat-down of Blakey on their web site. The headline and subhead says it all:

Fear & Loathing At The Airport
Long lines, late flights, near collisions—everyone is unhappy with the state of the U.S. air travel system. Unfortunately, no one, especially not the FAA, seems able to do anything about it

The Businessweek piece pulls NO punches, and goes right for the throat:

When Marion C. Blakey took over at the Federal Aviation Administration in 2002, she was determined to fix an air travel system battered by terrorism, antiquated technology, and the ever-turbulent finances of the airline industry. Five years later, as she prepares to step down on Sept. 13, it's clear she failed. Almost everything about flying is worse than when she arrived. Greater are the risks, the passenger headaches, and the costs in lost productivity. Almost everyone has a horror story about missed connections, lost baggage, and wasted hours on the tarmac.. More than 909,000 flights were late through June of this year, twice the level of 2002.

Now that's gotta hurt. I find businessweek.com's aviation coverage to be about as good as it gets online, and their writers are not afraid to call 'em like they see 'em:

So why is it that we can put a man on the moon but can't fly him from Atlanta to Charlotte, N.C., without at least a two-hour delay? While Blakey bears some responsibility for the abysmal state of air travel, she follows a long line of FAA chiefs who failed to put much of a dent in the agency's to-do list. It's not a lack of money. Last year the FAA did not spend all of the money it was allocated. Nor is it a lack of knowhow. Existing technology could easily meet the demands created by the exploding number of fliers. Nor, for that matter, is it security concerns. Instead, it's a fundamental organizational failure: Nobody is in charge. The various players in the system, including big airlines, small aircraft owners, labor unions, politicians, airplane manufacturers, and executives with their corporate jets, are locked in permanent warfare as they fight to protect their own interests. And the FAA, a weak agency that needs congressional approval for how it raises and spends money, seems incapable of breaking the gridlock.

In just a few hours, the Blakey era at FAA will be history, remembered as an agency that for the last five years has been taking their wheel spinning cues from FEMA. While Blakey's team were busy rearranging the deck chairs on Bush's Titanic, personnel problems with air traffic controllers grew far worse. This is the biggest problem facing FAA right now...the deadly scenario of retiring controllers being replaced with seriously disgruntled new hires. This is not a bunch of Wal•Mart bag boys ticked off because they have to go chase carts in the rain, no, this is gigantic, darkened rooms full of angry controllers pushing tin with your family crammed inside.

Like a broken record, I say this again: Before FAA attempts to build NextGen, they need to resolve the growing beef with NATCA. That is Job No. 1 for the next administrator, a person we can only pray with have some actual aviation experience, and not be just another 'Heckuva Job' Brownie.

You Can Help
Find Steve Fossett

The search and rescue operation that has been launch to find world adventurer Steve Fossett has taken an unprecedented high-tech turn.

Fossett – who went missing early last week after departing Yerington in a Bellanca Citabria Super Decathalon owned by the Flying M Hunting Club – has been the subject of an intense well-coordinated search according to his web site:

8 September 2007 - Multiple air and ground searches for aviator Steve Fossett, missing since Monday afternoon, continue today, with some two dozen aircraft and ground teams participating. The Civil Air Patrol are continuing to cover an expanded (10,000 square mile) search area based from Minden airport while intensive 'low and slow' helicopter operations continue closer to the Flying M Ranch, Steve's point of departure. Thermal-image detection equipped National Guard aircraft have been flying at night as well. Teams from the ad hoc 'Flying M air force' based at the ranch itself, cooperating closely with the Nevada Army and Air National Guards, are flying their mostly rotary wing aircraft as low as possible - in many cases within 30 feet of treetop level, in order to find the missing airman.

As the search continues in the scorched Nevada desert, it is now going full speed in cyberspace as well:

New satellite images are also enabling internet-based anaysis by individuals hoping to help. The project is an 'Amazon Mechanical Turk' based effort with recent images from GeoEye, supplier of many images to Google Earth. Please see the MTurk site for details on how individuals can help review specific search areas.

Those of you who think you know a bit about Steve Fossett because you followed his 67-hour flight around the world in GlobalFlyer without stopping for fuel, well, you may not know him at all:

– He has set 93 aviation world records ratified by Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, plus 23 sailing world records ratified by the World Sailing Speed Record Council.

– In 2002, he became the first person to fly around the world alone, nonstop, in a balloon. He launched the 10-story high balloon Spirit of Freedom on June 19, 2002 and returned to Australia on July 3, 2002. Duration and distance of this solo balloon flight was 13 days, 8 hours, 33 minutes.

– Steve Fossett has been one of the world's most accomplished sailors. Speed sailing is Fossett's speciality and from 1993 to 2004, he dominated the record sheets, setting 23 official world records and nine distance race records.

– Fossett set the Absolute World Speed Record for airships on October 27, 2004. The new record for fastest flight was accomplished with a Zeppelin NT, at a recorded average speed of 62.2 knots.

– Fossett has competed in the 1,165 mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, in which he finished 47th on his second try in 1992.

– He also swam the English Channel on his fourth try in September 1985 with a time of 22 hours, 15 minutes.

– Fossett has run in the Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii, the Boston Marathon, and the Leadville Trail 100, a 100-mile Colorado ultramarathon which involves running up elevations of more than 14,000 feet in the Rocky Mountains.

– He competed in the 24 hours of Le Mans road race in 1996, along with the Paris to Dakar Auto Rally.

– Fossett is a lifelong mountain climber and has climbed the highest peaks on six of the seven continents.

Whew. I get tired just writing this list, and was literally blown away when I researched Steve for this post...I had no idea he was this accomplished. I also have no idea how his family must be feeling right now, because unless you live through the tragedy of having a loved one go missing for any reason (I have not), there is no way for anyone to feel their pain.

I wish the searchers – both in the desert and online – Godspeed, and hope they find Steve soon. The sobering fact that there has been no ELT signal transmitted from the Decathalon or his Breitling watch is unnerving.

And to the Fossett family, I wish you strength and courage.

Who Needs A & P's
When You have...

As I scour the Internets each day, sometimes these posts just write themselves the second my eyes latch on to a headline like this:

Airline Sacrifices Goats to Appease Sky God

Now we all know the airlines are cutting costs, so maybe whacking a goat is way cheaper then hiring a bunch of union Airframe and Powerplant specialists. At least that's the way this story out of Kathmandu seems to read:

Officials at Nepal's state-run airline have sacrificed two goats to appease Akash Bhairab, the Hindu sky god, following technical problems with one of its Boeing 757 aircraft, the carrier said Tuesday. Nepal Airlines, which has two Boeing aircraft, has had to suspend some services in recent weeks due to the problem. The goats were sacrificed in front of the troublesome aircraft Sunday at Nepal's only international airport, an official said.

O.K., we can all agree the methodology might be way out there, but guess what happened after the goat was whacked...

"The snag in the plane has now been fixed and the aircraft has resumed its flights," said Raju K.C., a senior airline official, without explaining what the problem had been. Local media last week blamed the company's woes on an electrical fault. It is common in Nepal to sacrifice animals like goats and buffaloes to appease different Hindu deities.

Yes, this is one very large rock we all live on. And when the technology of modern-day jet travel meets the ancient cultures still very much alive in different parts of the world, I guess people of a third world will try just about anything to get their Boeing back in the air.

I just hope this kind of thing never catches on over here, because with the carriers doing everything they can to save a nickel here and a dime there, the airline mega-service centers may not be a safe place to frolic...if you're a goat.

Spaceport
America:
Unveiled!

Years from now, when my grandchildren are taking their kids out to the spaceport to look at the spaceships come and go, the terminal they may visit could possibly look similar to the design introduced Wednesday for Virgin Galactic.

Space.com's Special Correspondent, Leonard David, has published a great article that you absolutely must read if you are at all interested in space tourism. He begins by laying the foundation for the story:

Architectural and engineering teams have begun shaping the look and feel of New Mexico's Spaceport America, taking the wraps off new images today that showcase the curb appeal of the sprawling main terminal and hangar at the futuristic facility. When the 100,000 square-foot (9,290 square-meter) facility is completed -- the centerpiece of the world's first, purpose-built, commercial spaceport -- the structures will serve as the primary operating base for Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic suborbital spaceliner, and also as the headquarters for the New Mexico Spaceport Authority.

If you thought that this space tourism deal was all just blue sky dreaming, the details of the Spaceport America Terminal and hangar seem to indicate that there is no doubt this is for real, baby:

The terminal and hangar facility will also provide room for aircraft and spacecraft, and Virgin Galactic's operations facilities, including pre-flight and post-flight facilities, administrative offices, and lounges. The spacious maintenance hangar can hold two White Knight Two carrier aircraft and five SpaceShipTwo spaceliners - vessels now under construction at Scaled Composites in Mojave, California. The terminal and hangar facility are projected to cost about $31 million, and will provide a "Destination Experience" for visitors to Spaceport America. Virgin Galactic intends to sign a 20-year lease for approximately 84,000 square feet (7,803 square meters) in the building.

There is plenty more meat to this story, and as always, space.com has to be the first choice for anyone wanting to keep on top of the here-before-we-know-it space tourism industry. Make sure to go here and click to enlarge the small thumbnails down the right side of the page, to get a better look at the interior of Spaceport America, as well as the exterior elevations.

Simply amazing, and quite exciting. The only thing that stands in the way of space tourism becoming commonplace in our society is the price. If they can ever get the cost down to that of first-class airfare, we might just see this industry go crazy.

One final thought. I remember listening to a lecture by Burt Rutan at the University of Oregon here in Eugene, right after SpaceShipOne set the space record, the topic being...space tourism. He described in detail a day when we will see spaceliners launch into low orbit from gorgeous facilities, shut down their engines and coast effortlessly around the planet. After gliding through space for the majority of the route, the spaceliner's crew eases the ship back into our atmosphere on its way to a greaser landing many thousands of miles from their departure point. Unlike today's powered commercial flights that require a gazillion gallons of Jet-A and many, many hours to make the same trip, in a spaceliner, seriously long global flights become a fast and efficient no brainer.

And you can all but bet those global flights will launch from Spaceport America, a drop-dead beautiful oasis in the New Mexico desert.

GAO Not Buying
What ATA is
Selling Either

Yesterday, I posted about JetBlue making a break from the pack as the only major U.S. carrier to challenge the myths that ATA is trying to pass off as the truth as we all debate user fees and tax breaks for the airlines. If you visit the Smartskies site, you'll see lots of this:

FAA’s forecast indicates that general aviation jets will be the fastest growing segment of aviation between 2006 and 2016, flying an increasing number of hours each year. This amounts to an average annual growth rate greater than 10 percent. The FAA's forecast also envisions the introduction of roughly 9,000 new business jets during that time period.

Of course, Smartskies wants very much for you to believe a great deal of those bizjets will be VLJs:

Whether they fly to large airports or small airports, VLJ use of terminal airspace in congested metropolitan areas will drive FAA costs and delays.

But today, AOPA is reporting that according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report (pdf) commissioned by Congress, there are too many uncertainties in the VLJ market to accurately compare FAA costs associated with it:

The report, released August 24, compares eight VLJ forecasts. The GAO states that most of the forecasts examined predict an average of about 5,000 VLJ deliveries within 10 years worldwide. This means that the impact on airspace will be minimal at best. "The report validates AOPA's assertion that VLJs won't darken the skies," said Andy Cebula AOPA executive vice president of government affairs. "And VLJs certainly aren't projected to be enough of a presence in the aviation industry to be considered in the current FAA funding debate." Between 3,000 and 7,600 aircraft are forecast to be delivered as early as 2016 and as late as 2025. But those numbers depend largely on various opinions about the use of VLJs for per-seat air taxi operations, according to the GAO.

It would help this entire debate if the people over at ATA had first read this information from a September 29, 2006 article on AOPA.org:

"The system is in place today to accommodate the entry of new aircraft into the National Airspace System (NAS)," said Nicholas Sabatini, FAA associate administrator for aviation safety. "This is nothing new for the FAA. From when FAA's predecessor agency certified the Buhl Airster in 1927, to the introduction of the Boeing 707 and the dawning of the jet age in the late 1950s, the FAA has always been able to successfully assimilate new aircraft into the NAS." Both Sabatini and Michael Cirillo, vice president, systems operation services for the FAA's Air Traffic Organization, explained to the subcommittee that VLJs would fly at different altitudes and use different airports than airlines. They assured Congress that the FAA could safely integrate additional VLJ traffic into existing traffic flows. Reliever and regional airports had plenty of capacity for the small jets.

As usual in this whole charade ATA is trying to engineer, they really want the public to look the other way so they won't see the truth about what is causing the delays today, and what will cause them tomorrow. It's not VLJ's guys, it's your carriers and their impossible schedules. It's the damn hub and spoke system, and I'm not ready to declare that even NextGen will fix that.

What will fix it is having thousands of VLJs and LJs enter service, many operating as air taxis. Those new carriers will siphon off much of the prime revenue that keeps the major scheduled carriers out of bankruptcy court. Right now, the carriers are fat and happy, being the only choice other then wildly expensive charter for anything resembling "on demand" service. This whole "VLJs will darken the skies" rhetoric being spewed by ATA is their feeble attempt to keep the competition out of the market.

And that, my friends, is the crux of this whole matter. It's not about Smart Skies or user fees, or flight delays, or about the level of service you can expect while riding in the back like cattle. It's about profit, pure and simple. Would you expect anything else from Corporate America?

Not today, not in this America.

JetBlue is Not
Buying What
ATA is Selling

Anyone with a brain that does not work for FAA, ATA or BushCo has been throwing red flags at ATA's crazy shell game that's being driven in the back door of the U.S. Capitol. Their Smart Skies Campaign has widened the gap between the flying public and their member airlines, at a time when those same airlines are delivering a expensive, unreliable product.

Like Pavlov's Dogs, ATA's carrier cronies have fallen in line behind the FAA and White House tax scheme that cures that nagging tax problem the airlines have had to face. All major carriers, that is...but one, according to AP:

JetBlue Airways Corp. on Friday split from the trade group that represents the nation's major airlines on its plan to help finance the Federal Aviation Administration. The Air Transport Association prefers taxing passengers based on the distance between their origin and final destination, and ignoring actual miles flown on connecting flights. According to JetBlue, this favors the largest airlines using "hub-and-spoke" systems since they would avoid being taxed for the hundreds or thousands of miles racked up on those connections.

Whoa. Could this be the first crack in the hull of the Titanic for ATA and BushCo? From the looks of a letter sent Friday by JetBlue President and Chief Executive Dave Barger to House and Senate leaders, it sure appears that someone "in the game" now has thrown down the truth gauntlet:

"The ATA's formula penalizes JetBlue's low cost business model that efficiently avoids hubs and relies primarily on nonstop, point-to-point service," according to Barger's letter. "Similarly, all flights between the large markets of Miami-Orlando, Dallas-Houston and Los Angeles-Las Vegas, despite the burden they place on the busiest air traffic control centers in the nation, would also be exempt from paying the distance-based fee under the ATA's proposal. JetBlue has told the press that the ATA proposal will "mislead Congress into legislating which airlines using the (air traffic control) system pay their fair share and which airlines are provided statutory exemptions."

Mislead Congress? Wait a minute...isn't that what AOPA, NBAA and everyone in GA has been screaming all along about FAA/ATA's user fee/tax increase scheme? Yes, we've all been saying that loud and crystal clear, but now JetBlue has said it...and Associated Press has printed it.

But the question remains, will anyone in W.D.C. listen to the truth? As I write this, there are 502 days, 22 hours, 8 minutes and 40.5 seconds left in Bush's lame duck presidency according to this site, so will he even bother to sign any bill that doesn't grant his corporate buddies a tax break, such as H.R.2881, the bill supported by AOPA and NBAA?

I hardly think so. Because that decision would be based on facts and logic, not the Good Ol' Boy Network.

Bad Time of
Year to Fly
Fat, Dumb
and Happy

You arrive at the field ready to chase hamburgers, and the pre-flight goes well. Since you are only going a couple of cities over and the WX is clear and a million, you decide not to call for a weather briefing. You joke to your passenger that since your town's college football team is playing this afternoon, why not mosey over the stadium for a good look down at the game.

From about 2,000 feet AGL, you can almost see the cheerleaders whipping the crowd into a frenzy. How jealous those 50,000 fans must be down there, looking up at you as you circle overhead in your fancy airplane. But as you leave the stadium area on your way to securing a $100 burger, you're shocked to find you're flying formation with a couple of F-16s from the local National Guard base. They motion you to land immediately, where you're greeted by a black SUV full of Federal Agents who give you the ramp check from hell before "taking you downtown" as they say on the TV cop shows.

That scenario could take place if you bust one of the most easily forgotten TFRs out there today:

3/1862~ (Issued for KFDC PART 1 OF 2) Until further notice. pursuant to 14 CFR section 99.7, special security instructions, commencing one hour before the scheduled time of the event until one hour after the end of the event, all aircraft and parachute operations are prohibited at and below 3,000 feet agl within a three nautical mile radius of any stadium having a seating capacity of 30,000 or more people in which a Major League Baseball, National Football League, NCAA Division One Football, or major motor speedway event is occuring.

These events would have been valuable information, passed along by a briefer if the pilot in the fictional flight above had bothered to call for a briefing. But even before you call Flight Service, you can visit AOPA.org, where you'll find a comprehensive list of all stadiums and speedways that are covered in the blanket TFR:

Major League Baseball Parks

NCAA Stadiums

National Football League Stadiums

Major Motor Speedways

Do yourself a favor, take this TFR seriously. Before you fly VFR over any city right now, do one of these two things: (1) Call for a briefing and specifically ask for any stadium TFRs along your route, or (2) Consider asking for flight following, so ATC can grill you about your intentions should you fly to close to a stadium covered under the TFR.

If you do neither of those things, and you find yourself circling aimlessly over a stadium full of fans, expect a visit from Homeland Security. And if you see an F-16 appear as your wingman, keep in mind that the guy in that fighter jet with his hand on the trigger is talking to people who make NORAD look like the Boy Scouts.

A Very Slippery Slope

With the current state of affairs at FAA, there is plenty of reason to believe the agency that protects our skies is headed down that same "Heckuva Job Brownie" path as FEMA. If this doesn't scare you, it should.

As FAA tries to figure out how best to fund the Next Generation of Air Traffic Control in this country, lots of ideas are being circulated to generate enough money to pay for this massive project. And this weekend, Associated Press ran a story that seems to suggest that cutting ATC budgets is the worst NextGen funding idea of all:

The nation's air traffic controllers and the Federal Aviation Administration that employs them cannot agree whether enough qualified people are guiding air traffic or how safe the air space is today. With airline travel rebounding almost to the volume before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, delays on scheduled U.S. flights have reached a record high. Nearly one-third of domestic flights on major carriers were late in June. And air traffic is growing. At the same time, the FAA and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association been unable to agree on a new contract. A year ago, the FAA declared an impasse and imposed a contract. Since then, the retirement of experienced controllers has soared beyond the agency's forecasts. FAA Administrator Marion Blakey says the imposed contract "is saving taxpayers $1.9 billion over five years ... to invest in 21st Century air traffic systems."

FAA says that safety will be improved with Nextgen, because precise satellite tracking can handle traffic flying closer to one another. That's great, until they reach the fence, says NATCA:

"You still have to land them one at a time," responds union chief Patrick Forrey, who says more runways and controllers are needed. "NextGen is going to take years. They need to do something...now."

With the number of fully-certified controllers dropping to 11,467 in May according to AP, and with 3,300 trainees working positions next to them, that is 14,947 total bodies in the system. So this next pull from AP really tells the whole story:

The FAA-imposed contract cut starting pay by 30 percent, eliminated incentive pay for experienced controllers and gave managers more authority over staffing. Since last September, controllers have filed 220,000 grievances.

That's an unbelievable 14.71 grievances per controller in the past year! Even one grievance per controller is unacceptable, but damn near 15 each? Talk about a system that is broken...maybe beyond repair.

Before FAA tries to build NextGen, they desperately need to make up with NATCA and get ATC back to an operational level that does not resemble NOLA's Lower Ninth Ward after Katrina hit. This management vs. labor debacle is a sad state of affairs, and unless FAA and NATCA can sit down and work out their differences, the millions of commercial passengers inside the airliners flown under the positive control of the Next Generation of disgruntled air traffic controllers, will be screwed.