X-Plane for iPhone?
Believe it!

For anyone who has ever flown Laminar Research's amazing flight simulator X-Plane, it is an awesome and quite complex program that while being dirt cheap delivers a version of aviation reality that is about as good as it gets unless you buy time at FlightSafety or Simcom.

There can be no mistaking the fact that X-plane is a big, robust program. It is so scalable, I am sure many users never get under the hood to find out just what it can do. They fly around in a 747 or Cessna 172SP, happy to just keep their landings between the runway lights.

The more you know about X-Plane, the more the following from X-Plane seems like pure magic:

"X-Plane for iPhone is a fun little 'slice' of X-Plane that is just the right size to fit on the cool little platform that is the iPhone. We actually managed to get about 95% of the flight-model accuracy, many of the weather, sky conditions, and times of day, the default flight area, and 4 cool planes into this little sim, so you can fly around in the virtual skies when actually stuck back in seat 23-D, wishing you were flying instead!"

If you simply do not believe a real flight simulator can be crammed into an iPhone, go here and watch this youtube video, it is the real deal. And at only $9.99 through the iPhone App Store, it is a real bargain. Oh, you say you've heard about iPhone but have been living under a rock and know not what they can do? Well, X-Plane founder Austin Meyer has your back:

"If you don't have an iPhone, you should seriously consider switching to one.. they are SOOOOOO fun! With Google maps, a really easy and powerful search function (just type in 'sushi restaurant' wherever you are and watch little red pins drop onto the map showing every sushi-joint around you) your current position plotted on the map, and all your iTunes music all on the single phone (with a stunningly high-quality headset), it is simply amazing how much power these little devices have, and how easy they are to use! Much like a GPS, I can hardly imagine traveling without one!"

Speaking of Meyer, I wrote and told him how amazed I was that his company was able to fit this wonderful program onto an iPhone, and this was his response:

"The iPhone version of X-Plane is a fascinating glimpse into the future of mobile devices. Right now, we peer into a VIRTUAL world through our cell-phone, flying around in a make-believe airplane... but how long until the simulation is so realistic that the virtual world looks just like the real one? And is driven by your current location not a simulated one? At that point, the iPhone becomes like a pair of glasses that can see anything! Anyway, this is a first step down that road!"

Hey, if anyone can harness the GPS power of the iPhone and marry it to a flight sim, it is Laminar Research's team. And if you wonder why Meyer and his team are so stoked on the iPhone, this page will explain their love of Macs.

Now the real problem: I don't yet OWN an iPhone. In fact, I have yet to move into the world of "smart" phones...so does that make my funky little Samsung a "dumb" phone? My wife has an iPhone and loves it. And since my #1 reason to own a cell phone is to access aviation weather on Pilot MyCast – not yet available for iPhone – I must wait another 18 months or so for my current Verizon contract to expire. And trust me, the wait will be agonizing.

First Annual...
It's Coming

About a year ago, I embarked on a new journey, that of airplane ownership. It has been an exhilerating ride, one of joyous moments, deep contemplation, lots of learning and hours of simply fantastic flying. I could not be happier with "Katy" right now, she's hitting purrfectly on all cylinders, both figuratively as well as literally.

It has taken a while for me to feel really comfortable in the plane. The first 20 hours or so were spent getting to know her, but now she feels like my favorite pair of jeans. I can reach for switches without looking, know exactly how hard the door needs to be slammed to close properly, and how weird she flies if the fuel is not managed precisely throughout the four tanks embedded in her wings. And YES, those tip tanks do create a sort of centrifuge effect, 102 lbs. of liquid hanging at the outermost end of a wing will do that.

When I bought Cherokee 8527W, she came with a fresh annual and pitot/static certification. Except for 2-3 tiny things like ELT batteries and the need to swing the compass, she came through that annual fine, and despite it being close to 45 years since she left the Piper factory as the 28th 235 ever produced, she still is rock solid and airworthy.

But it's been just about a year now that she's been in the family, and you KNOW what that means:

Yes, I could fly her back to Van Nuys where the last guy who did an annual on her is based. He knows the plane, but what happens if he finds something that grounds her...or something that needs parts ordered? I'd be flying home commercial, then back down later to pick her up. Let's not EVEN talk about the fuel costs to get her down to VNY. While the no squawk annual with him was $800 because he knew the plane, the chance of maybe being stuck in Los Angeles is not attractive to me.

See, here's the deal...when you take your airplane to a new A/P for it's first annual, everything comes down to trust. Is the guy trustworthy? Unlike an automobile mechanic who isn't charged with some sort of DOT sign-off to deem the car roadworthy, with an A/P, the entire flying future of the airplane is in his hands. An A/P with low ethics could easily just say "you need to pull the wings and re-shimmy the wackenator drive shaft access hole bolt pins" and whatcha gonna do? He's already got your plane in a zillion pieces on his hangar floor, you either pay up and he signs it off, or you rent a U-Hual to truck the parts and pieces to someone who can put it back together. Either way you are screwed.

So in shopping for a guy up here to do my next annual, I think I have found one who will do me right:

I have had other owners tell me he's legit, and face-to-face, he seems like a straight up guy. He's changed my oil once, and was very thorough and loved the plane. Yes, he's at $1,100 for a "no squawk" annual, but that includes familiarizing himself with the logs, including all AD compliance. In mid-October, she goes in and I expect no real surprises. I'm going to estimate the final bill right now to be $1,785.33, due to one small fiberglass cowling fix I know needs repair. I base that on (a) my positive attitude, and (b) my belief that you get what you manifest, and I am manifesting an easy annual with just a couple of fixes needed.

Will I be right? Will I be way off base? Will I need my wackenator drive shaft access hole bolt pins repaired/replaced before flight? Check back towards the end of October, and we'll see how close my prediction is to reality.

This Just In:
Feds to Bailout
ENTIRE GA Community!
(Editor's note, don't take this seriously, it is SATIRE)

Dano News Network - (WASHINGTON, D.C.): After a grueling 48-hour marathon negotiation session, a bipartisan panel that included members of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Judicial Aviation Oversight and Senate Appropriations and Expenditures Subcommittee on Budget and Taxation has approved a sweeping $900 Billion emergency funding package aimed at propping up the ailing U.S. aviation sector.

The legislation will pump needed capital into every portion of the aviation community, and will add much needed cash to airframe and avionics manufacturers, FBOs, flight schools as well as individual pilots and aircraft owners. Highlights of this historic bill includes:

(1) Immediate cash influx to airframe makers: All U.S.-based major "Tier One" airplane makers such as Cirrus, Cessna, Mooney, Eclipse and Beechcraft will each receive $112 billion in cash to strengthen their weakened cash flow to offset weakening sales numbers. "Tier Two" makers such as smaller LSA manufacturers, and companies who sell in the U.S. but are based overseas – like Pilatus and Honda – will receive $34 billion each. China's Shenyang Aircraft – contracted to build Cessna's Model 162 Skycatcher – will receive $102.40, enough to offset their labor costs for a year.

(2) Suppliers of aviation services such as major FBO chains, smaller airport operations and all U.S. flight schools will receive $69 million each. Large aviation-based Universities such as Embry-Riddle will get $56 million per student to train the NextGen of pilots and aerospace engineers.

(3) The FAA will receive $89 billion to bring staffing of air traffic controllers up to NATCA-approved levels. Also in the package is another $345 million to buy new Macintosh computers throughout the FAA system, replacing their antiquated Windows-based systems now running Windows 98.

(4) Current, licensed pilots will each get a windfall of $750,000 in cash, enough to buy most seriously cherry piston-powered aircraft available today. Those with a minimum of 200 hours turbine time will receive an additional $1.2 million to allow quick purchase of most VLJ models.

While the aviation sector welcomes this infusion of cash, economists across the land were quick to question where the Feds will get the money. When asked this question point-blank, Treasury Secretary Joseph "Joe" Schmoe answered "we're going to steal it from Upper Mongolistan's new regime, since they are the only government left on the planet that still has a nickel to their names. We've already amassed 34 brigades of courageous men and women of the National Guard on their border to go in and remove the $900 billion from all Upper Mongolistan banks effective immediately."


O.K., you all know by now this is just Dano B.S. But is it any less crazy than the real Federal government bailing out a bunch of greedy Wall Street Golden boys who were so busy making record profits that they didn't see this whole financial mess coming?

Damn, these are some crazy times we are living in. Oh, and the largest bank failure in history just occurred after the Feds seized WaMu and gifted it on a silver platter to JPMorgan Chase. Yeah, you are correct, the "Feds" did the same thing with Bear Stearns when JP Morgan Chase snapped up that losing operation.

All right now...move along...nothing fishy to see here.

Would You Buy an
Airplane off eBay?

Who among us hasn't used eBay to buy something on the cheap, or to sell something that has been deemed surplus. We all have our eBay success stories, as well as our horror stories. But the one thing I still find almost unbelievable is the amount of aircraft being sold through eBay auctions.

Prior to buying 27W, our family Cherokee 235, I spend nearly a YEAR scouring Trade-a-Plane and the Internets searching for the right bird. It had to have the right avionics, with the right amount of hours on the engine. And of course, it had to be at the right price. Once I found 27W, I did a serious amount of due diligence through the FAA databases, and only after determining there were no holes in the service record – and that NDH really meant No Damage History – I scheduled a meeting with the plane and its owner for some quality face time.

It was at that meeting on the ramp at Fresno Air Terminal that I finally got to run my hand across Katy's wing, down her prop and across her fuselage. I got to poke my head under the cowl and look at every nut and bolt on the plane's sparkling newly rebuilt Corona Cylinder's Lycoming 0-540. At this meeting I also saw some things I didn't like – like some battle-scars on the wheel pants – things I would never see while inspecting digital photos of 27W on the web or email. And most of all, I got to fly her, possibly the most important aspect of a pre-buy because any pilot can tell if a plane is out of rig with about 2/10ths of a second as PIC.

I quickly and amicably came to agreement on price with the owner, and 27W was ours. As I look back on this transaction, I cannot imagine doing it "sight unseen" through an online auction. But a quick glance at the popular auction site tonight proves I am way wrong about this...it is quite a popular place to shop. Here are some highlights from eBay Motors:

There were 12 bids for a 1977 MU2 Mitsubishi Turboprop Twin, with the current high offer at $244,100. There were 19 people fighting it out for a 2002 Cirrus SR22, with a high of $165,100. But if you want to aviod all that bidding stuff, this bird can be snapped up with a "Buy it Now" price of $199,000. There was a couple of bids for a 2006 Cirrus Aircraft SR22-GTS with A/C and ice, currently topping out at just over $260 large. I though the 1968 Baron D-55 Aircraft with 400 hour engines looked like a steal at $49,950, and $80 grand for a Velocity 173RG also looked like a deal.

There can be no argument that airplane transactions can be complicated and tricky. We all know that it would be insane to buy a plane online without a pre-buy inspection. But as the minutes click down to closing on the auction, who has time for such trivial nonsense when you are bidding like crazy for your dream bird. Well, turns out some of the sellers have this all thought out. Here is a sample of language I found on more than one auction:

"Because of this type of “conditional” sale, the high bidder will not want to part with his money until he is satisfied that the aircraft is as represented. To handle this type of transaction, it is common to use the services of an Aircraft Escrow Agent. The Agent’s role is to hold the Seller’s documents and the Buyer’s money until certain pre-conditions are met and then the Agent will release the money to the Seller and the Documents to the Buyer. That concludes the transaction."

Would I buy a plane off eBay, yes, maybe, if there was an out such as this...a way to back out of the deal if the plane isn't as advertised. Still, I think I'm too "old school" to fully buy into online aircraft auctions, even though lots of people clearly have. I need to see and touch something expensive that I'm considering buying...crawl around underneath, look between the seats for evidence of smashed candy bars. I look for heavy wear on the rudder/brake pedals, proof that the last dude did a bit of stompin' when he lands...evidence that maybe more then a few of those arrivals weren't covered in grease.

So have fun, go crazy shopping 'til you drop on eBay. Maybe you'll snap up a bargain and laugh all the way to the bank.

We the People.
Screwed.

Warning! This is not my usual aviation post but instead another crazed political rant. If you don't mind Bushie and his pals picking your pocket to the tune if $7oo billion as they all head out the door, then you might want to click out of this post now. But if you are like literally everyone I know who thinks this Wall Street bailout stinks, then read on.

I have been doing an informal poll today, asking anyone I communicate with what they think of the financial bailout that BushCo is shoving down our throats. As I expected, not one person, GOP or Democrat, man or woman, is in favor of this bailout plan. None. Zero. Not one person.

But in polling a few of these people, the one thing that keeps coming up is this:

Average Joe and Jane on the street cannot comprehend what $700 billion looks like. Most of us dream of one day becoming a millionaire, and a 1,000 millions is a billion. Another 1,000 millions, and you'd still have just TWO billion. Look at the image above...that gigantic mountain of cash represents just $15 billion in one dollar bills. The little gray image in the bottom right is a CAR! I'll wager that $700 billion in ones would dwarf the Titanic.

We the people can't even wrap our brains around this enormous amount that the Bushies are proposing we taxpayers give to Big Finance. And this is the way they want it. After all, they are ramrodding this stuff through Washington so fast, they really hope you miss this gem in the legislation, reported all over including the Huffington Post:

"Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency."

That's right, no reviews of any kind. Now if this garbage plan was all above board, what harm would their be in a court or administrative review? They want you to look the other way on this bailout, and if we do, the population of this land is more ignorant then I thought possible.

O.K., now back to our regularly-scheduled programming...aviation.

UPDATE @ 745P ON 09.23.08: Right on cue, with the GOP squarely behind this bailout garbage, the other shoe drops and now we have this from CNNmoney.com:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The FBI is investigating Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers and AIG - and their executives - as part of a broad look into possible mortgage fraud, sources with knowledge of the investigation told CNN Tuesday. An FBI spokesman said that 26 firms were currently under investigation as part of the bureau's mortgage fraud inquiry.

I hope this FBI investigation makes Enron look like a two-bit shell game. Anyone want to debate the ethics of Bushie's Washington NOW?

O.K., seriously, back to aviation we go.....

Green Airplanes?
Better Believe it.

One of the most fascinating magazines on the newsstand is always Popular Mechanics, and their aviation stories are first rate. When I want to bury myself into a long, in-depth story with spectacular reporting and endless facts and figures, PM is where I always head.

A recent PM story by Chris Ladd is a great example of what awaits you in PM. His review of what types of alternative or "green" aviation fuels are coming our way is a must-read. Ladd's lede says it all:

"The friendly skies are getting expensive. Airlines spent $25 billion more on fuel last year than the year before, and they're expected to spend $50 billion more than that—$183 billion—by the end of 2008. The military is also concerned about the high price and foreign sources of oil, and that's got it testing synthetics and more. As cheap oil fades into memory, we get an update on research into new ways to power tomorrow's airplanes—and lower the cost of riding them."

I won't play spoiler and tip you off to what Ladd reports in his piece, you need to go here and read it yourself. But these few tidbits ought to get you headed in the right direction:

The PM article mentions Coal, Biofuel, Algae and Designer Hydrocarbons as the first four of the five green fuels Ladd highlights. Each of these alternatives to dead dinosaurs represent a clear path to help ween ourselves off of foreign oil. Coal and Biofuel might be more "top of the mind" in this discussion, and unless you are an alt-fuels expert, certainly a brow will be raised at the thought of burning fuel made from green, slimy algae in your 747. And when we think of these 'Designer Hydrocarbons' of which PM speaks, our mind may think of fuels made by Gucci and Versace, sold at trendy boutiques on Rodeo Drive. But it is the fifth form of green fuel that the PM article describes that is really, seriously, pollution free. Solar.

So you think powering airplanes by the sun is too far out there to be viable? Possibly, for now, but across the pond, the British-made QinetiQ Zephyr recently set the record for the longest unmanned flight of any kind – 82 hours, 37 minutes – powered by nothing more than sunlight. Let's ponder this a moment:

At this point, solar energy for aircraft power is still in its infancy. But as we arrive at a point where cars like the Tesla Roadster become available, is it such a stretch of our imagination to envision this technology evolving into the aviation market? The breathtaking Tesla Roadster rockets 0-60 mph in 3.9 seconds on its way to a 125 mph top speed...without burning a drop of oil in its all-electric power train. If they can craft such a road machine that can squeeze this kind of performance from a 248 HP engine with an insane maximum rpm of 14,000...imagine what might happen when that much power was hung off the front of a single-engine GA plane.

O.K., I know what you're thinking. When all the useful load is taken up by the weight of the batteries required to power an all-electric aircraft, would there even be enough useful left for a pilot? But remember, friends, who would have thought back when AOL 1.0 was unveiled that today we'd be surfing the web at 3G speeds...on our telephones? The power of U.S. innovation is massive, if we just provide the push to make it happen. I say we'll see a certified electric/solar GA plane in 10 years. This design may have a skin made of thin solar panels powering a bank of yet-to-be-invented super-light batteries or maybe some other solid-state "power containing" devices – think gigantic flash drives.

If you think this is just too far out there, consider this: Digital SLR cameras have only been around since 1991, and the first ones cost north of $30,000 for 1.3 megapixels! This week, Canon has just released their unbelievable 5D Mark II DSLR, a full-frame, 21 megapixel monster that also shoots full HD video at 1920 x 1080 resolution...at just $2,699 body only. This is the speed by which today's technologies evolve, and we all should expect no less for solar and electric powered vehicles, be they driving or flying machines.

This Can't be
Good for Eclipse

From the very first day I heard about Dayjet and their air taxi model based on the Eclipse EA500 VLJ, I was rooting for them to write the playbook for how the fledgling air taxi industry would operate.

As travel by the commercial airlines falls deeper into an abyss of dissatisfied customers complaining about sub-par service, I have always felt an air taxi operation like Dayjet could ride into the business travel arena on a white horse and save the day. As they swept 1,000 of first-class passengers off their feet and into the air, their bank account would grow large.

But we all know that the EA500 had plenty of false starts, trials, tribulations and difficulties getting certified and into production. During those critical months of delay, Dayjet waiting on the sidelines as Eclipse went about getting their new VLJ signed off by the FAA. In the process, Dayjet burned through more then their share of operating capital, and this week, without a fat investor to dump millions into their piggy bank, the inevitable has happened. From AIN:

"The fate of per-seat, on-demand air-taxi firm DayJet is up in the air, and its aircraft are not. According to an FAA spokesman, the Boca Raton, Fla.-based company “parked” its entire Eclipse 500 fleet at noon today for economic reasons. AIN was unable to determine if today’s actions mean that DayJet has been shut down for good, or how many employees remain at the company. Eclipse Aviation also couldn’t be reached for comment on the status of DayJet’s remaining orders for approximately 1,400 Eclipse 500s."

That last sentence might be the worst thing that could happen to Eclipse right now. Their company has been like a soap opera of late, and with Avweb's Russ Niles estimating the EA500 order book at 2,500 earlier this year, losing 1,400 of those orders will make a seriously huge dent in Eclipse's operating strategy.

Avweb's Niles – in another article on their site – is reporting more bad news about Dayjet:

"DayJet, the pioneering air taxi operator that is Eclipse Aviation's largest customer has suspended operations and apparently vacated its Boca Raton headquarters. Although the company's Web site is still operational, calls to the main switchboard are being answered with voice mail. On Thursday, DayJet management were quoted in newspaper stories as saying the controversy over the certification of the Eclipse 500 would have no effect on operations and last week the company announced it was expanding service."

These are some very dangerous economic times we live in right now. When entire financial sectors melt down like they have this week, it just seems that our money markets are far too tumultuous to expect that enough paying passengers will want to part with enough cash to fly by air taxi. The exact demographic that air taxi's affordability appeals to – middle and upper managers and Boomers with decent amounts of inherited "old money" – is the demo getting hit hardest in this downturn. These are Dayjet's bread-and-butter customers, and if the analysts are correct, we haven't seen the end of this disaster yet.

Will Dayjet come back and someday dominate the air taxi game? I truly hope so. And will Eclipse be able to find 1,400 new customers with just north of a million to spend on a VLJ in this economy? That is a question that we will not be able to answer until 2009 because buyers of VLJs will be sitting on their money, watching in horror as their 401Ks disappear along with many of their high paying Wall Street and real estate jobs.

As the Bush years draw to a close, all of general aviation hangs on by a thread, playing chicken to see who can survive the rest of 2008. I sure hope one company that makes it to fight on next year is Eclipse, because it would be a shame to see them throw in the towel after so many years of hard work.

UPDATE @ 1218P ON 09.21.08: The Dayjet site has been replaced with the following, which pretty much closes this book: "DayJet Discontinues Passenger Operations - As of September 19, 2008, DayJet Services, LLC, has discontinued its jet services and canceled all future flights as a result of the company’s inability to arrange critical financing in the midst of the current global financial crisis. We regret the disruption and hardship caused by the sudden shutdown of DayJet services to our customers, employees, DayPort communities, suppliers and stockholders. Unfortunately, DayJet is unable to honor customer reservations or issue refunds."

I'm Ordering
My BBJ
This Week

After watching Bush's Clown Posse reduce our national economy to rubble, I've been trying to find some silver lining in all this bad financial news. The stock market is tanking, and nearly all major players in the craps game we call Wall Street are on the ropes trying to avoid Chapter 11 (or worse, Chapter 7). As I watch in disbelief as our country falls hostage to morally-bankrupt GOP Washington insiders, I had a revelation:

My personal business plan is to always carry no month-to-month credit card debt and pay only cash for my cars. As an airplane owner, I continue this fiscal responsibility, and am overjoyed with the Cherokee 235 waiting out at the Eugene Airport. But like all pilots, I sometimes long for the speed and flight levels capability that comes from turbine power. But in my realistic world, I may never actually own a jet. That is, until I take a page from W's playbook and use "fuzzy math" to buy it.

If you have never heard of "fuzzy math", go here and see how Bush used that term over and over to try and knock Al Gore off his mark during the 2000 Presidential Debates. Of course, Bushie could never actually describe what it is, but he sure knows how to use it to buy things:

So here's the deal: While I'd love a HondaJet, why settle for one when I can buy a Boeing BBJ? All I have to do is hang out in a cloak room with some GOP cronies who knows someone who knows someone who has access to the endless Chinese financial money pit. I then get those BFFs to trade say a million well-paying industrial jobs to the Chinese in return for a loan to buy the BBJ. Throw in the Empire State Building and I can gold plate the lavs in my new jet. What..pay it back? Are you insane? I have no intention of paying the Chinese back for this money because my "term" is up soon and after January 20th, 2009, it will be someone else's problem.

See, easy as pie. Just let Bush's fuzzy math buy your next airplane. Damn, why didn't I think of this before?

O.K., back from La La land now. I make this ridiculous point to spew some venom at an administration that has so miserably failed at minding our country's money. If you think I'm making this stuff up, CNN and CBS News will set you straight:

CNN - 09.27.2000: "President Clinton announced Wednesday that the federal budget surplus for fiscal year 2000 amounted to at least $230 billion, making it the largest in U.S. history."

CBS News - 09.09.08: "The federal government will run a near-record deficit of $407 billion for the budget year ending Sept. 30, 2008, according to the latest Capitol Hill estimates."

What was that you guys in Fresno were saying about DEMOCRATS spending too much? That's a $644 billion dollar NEGATIVE swing with Bushie/GOP at the helm. This is just the budget deficit, and not the national debt, which now stands at $9,641,958,316,953.31. Don't EVEN try and figure out how much of that gigantic number you personally are on the hook for, because it is repulsive to know we each owe an estimated $31,639.17 according to this site.

So when you want to buy that jet of your dreams, finance it the way Bushie finances everything...with garbage loans written by Wall Street whiz kids with zero ethics and even less moral fortitude. And if you vote for the "hero and the hottie" [as the right wingers are calling McCain/Palin], we are all so screwed.

Who Saw This Coming?
Oh Wait...Everyone!

As the airlines go about the task of making flying in their pressurized tubes even more uncomfortable and irritating, they seem to keep finding new ways to piss their passengers off. You can almost hear the embarrassment in the flight attendant's voice as he/she tells you over the loudspeaker that water is FOR SALE on the flight. Water.

But having to shell out a couple of bucks for water pales in comparison to those insane baggage charges that all of the lines seem to be charging. And always on the cutting edge of customer dissatisfaction, now United has taken this to a whole new level. Here is ABC News with the details:

"United Airlines has doubled its fee for a second checked bag to $50, citing volatile fuel prices. United says the $50 one-way fee will apply for tickets bought beginning Tuesday for travel beginning November 10 within the U.S. or to or from Canada, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands."

Fifty bucks...one way? Are they insane? So let me get this straight. According to United's own site, if you bought an coach seat on or after 09.16.08 and are going on a long vacation with so much crap that you can't fit it into your backpack, you are so screwed. Two checked bags will ding you $65 going and $65 coming, or a total of $130 added to the price of the ticket. If that sounds like one hell of a cash cow, this story in USA Today will confirm your suspicions:

"According to data released by the Department of Transportation Monday, the U.S. airlines industry collected $183 million in excess-baggage fees in the second quarter of 2008. The DOT defines excess baggage as any bag that requires payment for checking."

Based on all of this, it explains why the overhead compartments on all commercial airliners I have flown in recently were stuffed full of someone else's stuff. You know the drill:

If you are unlucky enough to draw a late boarding group, trying to find space for a roller is impossible. On most flights now I am forced to jam my LowePro camera/computer bag under the seat in front of me...into that little space where your feet are supposed to go. That means because some other pax tried to save a nickel and carried on two rollers, a computer, a steamer chest, two large Snap-On Tools rollaway tool cabinets, and a Coleman ice chest full of dead carp (don't ask...actually happened once), I am stuck with my two left feet crammed into about 11" of floor space immediately under my tray table.

And now that the wholesale price of crude has dropped below $100, it makes carriers like United look greedy...trying to squeeze every last cent out of every living soul in their system. This gouging just makes Dano Airlines look that much better, and we still don't charge anything for water or suitcases.

Why Aren't Our Railroads Held to the Same Standards as
Our Air Carriers?

That is a very valid question I believe, in light of the horrific crash of a Metrolink passenger train in Chatsworth, CA that has claimed the lives of 25 and injured as many as 135 more. It is simply unacceptable that the railroad industry can allow this kind of accident to occur, but we must at least give respectable kudos to Metrolink officials for coming right out with the cause in this weekend's Los Angeles Times:

"Metrolink officials on Saturday said the train's engineer apparently failed to heed a trackside red light near a junction with a railroad siding. But they did not disclose how they knew the red light was functioning properly."

Some – including the 125,000 strong union that represents most train engineers – are saying this admission by Metrolink officials is "terribly premature" pending the release of the initial NTSB brief.

I think the key word in the above Metrolink statement is "engineer"...suggesting there was only one engineer driving a train heavily loaded with 225 commuters. The image above showing a Metrolink engineer eating his lunch in the tiny cab seems to confirm the lack of a "co-pilot" or even room for one. Had this been a Brasilia flying just 30 souls directly OVER the train crash site, we all know FAA regulations would have mandated two pilots on the flight deck. And we all know the reason why:

The Captain in the left seat runs the ship, aided by the First Officer in the right seat. In some cases, a crusty high-time Captain thinks the FO is dead weight, ballast if nothing else. But when that Captain ignores or cannot competently follow a life-and-death ATC instruction similar to the "red signal" allegedly missed by the guy driving the Metrolink train, it is the duty of the FO to step in, pull the plug on the Captain and take control of the plane.

There will be many lessons the train industry will learn following a crash said to be so grotesque that seasoned firefighters and rescue personnel could not handle more then 90 minutes inside the mangled first passenger car of the train. While it will be some time before we know the root cause of this disaster, CBS2 TV in L.A. is reporting something that is chilling if it turns out to be true:

"Local teenage train enthusiasts who knew the engineer well doubt that he was to blame. But one minute before the deadliest crash in Metrolink history, one teen said he received a text message on his cell phone from the engineer."

If this proves to be true – and it should be easy for NTSB to confirm – this needs to be the wake-up call for the train industry that two engineers should be required on the "flight deck" of any passenger train. And this next statement by me won't make the train guys any happier:

I'm sorry, but it just can't be that hard to drive a train. They seem to need only two gears, forward and reverse, a throttle and a brake. No weight and balance is required, the thing is just heavy, period. Altitude, well let's just say it pretty much remains "zero AGL" all the time. Once a train is moving, everyone at the train crossings is supposed to get to the hell out of the way, so the only real job of the engineer is obeying the stop/go signals and arrival/departure at stations. Compared to flying a jetliner, driving a train is cake. With redundant pilotage, the Metrolink train could have come to a full and complete stop well ahead of this crash.

We must assume that the "avionics" on today's passenger trains are probably not as sophisticated as even those on a Cessna 182 with G1000 panel. But even without GPS and autopilot, systems designed to prevent this kind of crash have been proposed in the past. Again, from the LAT:

"The NTSB for decades has recommended collision-avoidance devices for corridors where passenger and freight trains use the same track. Friday's disastrous collision might have been prevented if Metrolink and the region's freight railroads had installed sophisticated warning and control devices, according to safety experts who have been calling for such improvements for decades."

If large transit systems like San Francisco's BART trains can be operated by computer to keep from trading paint, a have to agree with NTSB that some sort of kill switch on passenger trains couldn't be all that hard to install. That way, when that lone engineer is distracted by something in the engine, asleep or possibly text messaging his buddies and blows a stop signal, the power gets killed by radio and the emergency brakes automatically apply.

I mourn for the families who have lost loved ones in this crash, it did not need to happen. This is one time the train people need to take a safety lesson from commercial aviation. We would have a lot to teach them, starting with redundant crew requirements up front. And with the quick admission by Metrolink that they believe the engineer is at fault, will anyone be at all surprised when the flood of lawsuits pour in and bankrupt this carrier?

Tonight, tomorrow and forever, I sure hope every other passenger train in America has two crew up front. Because if they don't, the next Chatsworth is certainly out there just waiting to happen.

Debbie Shouldn't
"Do" DFW

The age of in-flight Internet connectivity is upon us, with at least one major U.S. carrier coming to this party. Bloomberg has the details:

"American Airlines offers Internet access for $12.95 on 15 Boeing Co. 767-200 jets that make 25 daily flights between New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and Los Angeles or San Francisco, and between New York and Miami."

This has been a long time coming, and I am one of the many who support having access to the WWW while on a long cross-country flight. Instead of watching an archived copy of "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" for the 12th time – wasting time as the miles pass beneath you – with a serious high-speed broadband connection, you could actually get some work done en route. The functionality of in-flight broadband is enormous, giving passengers the ability to change connecting flights, obtain rental car reservations and make lodging plans when the airline screws up and gets you into the gate too late to catch the last plane home.

But like anything new that involves technology, there are a number of bugs that need to be worked out in this system. My personal peeve is the $12.95 charge American is proposing. That amount is preposterous, it should be free, as all broadband access should be. Whatever the cost is to outfit an existing or new airliner with passenger broadband access, that charge should be amortized over the life of the plane. And making it "free" instead of up-charging for access would go a long ways in the PR department. Even Starbucks has essentially made their broadband free, as have most progressive airports and millions of cafes nationwide.

But while my opinion about the proposed charge is just a pet peeve, it seems the flight attendants who will wander the aisles of Internet-equipped airliners have a much bigger gripe, and it is a valid one:

"Just weeks after American Airline started offering in-flight wireless internet, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants is urging the airline to add filters restricting passengers from browsing porn and other inappropriate sites, according to a Bloomberg story. Many passengers and attendants have reportedly complained about the issue."

I have to agree 1,000 percent with the flight attendants. I am not one to normally support any sort of censorship on the Internet, and have no qualms with people looking at online porn as long as it is in their own home or in some other private viewing location. But in the close confines of coach-class flying, there is no room for barelylegalgirlzgonewild.com. I make my case:

"I don't want to sound like a prude here, I have nothing against porn per se. This is a free country, and it is out there to consume, just as cocaine is out there to be snorted. I believe porn is highly addictive, and as one who chooses not to do drugs or drink, I also choose not to look at Internet (or any other) porn. Would I tell a dude on the street what he can look at online, no. But wedged into the middle seat of three-across coach seating with a crusty old geezer just inches away as he whips himself (hopefully not literally) into an erotic frenzy by grazing in some porn cesspool is simply unacceptable. Then, if the slut-like nymph on the other side of me sees the first dude's porn and starts watching something that get's her off, it is easy to see how the situation could deteriorate rapidly into...well, let's not even go there."

There are filters out there that are very good at limiting what a broadband network's users can access. They are not 100% flawless, but are close enough to eliminate porn for those seeking to view it on an airline system. The day when the U.S. carriers figures this all out cannot come soon enough for me. Then – after in-flight broadband has been perfected, someone can start Porn-oh! Airlines, with full access to even the most disgusting things out there on the web. I can't even begin to imagine what the flight attendants on that line would be wearing...or not.

Tanker Replacement
Project...Tanks

In another stroke of pure Bush-league genius, seven years of hard work by our best and brightest aerospace engineers were flushed down the toilet this week as Washington once again failed to complete even ONE task that somehow helped to improve our country.

Aero-News Network is all over this sad story, one I'll bet you didn't see coming:

"It may be the final postscript in the KC-X tanker competition... but it's not a satisfying ending. On Wednesday, the Department of Defense notified the Congress and the two competing contractors, Boeing and Northrop Grumman, that it is terminating the current competition for a US Air Force airborne tanker replacement."

Great. So in this ridiculous decision, nobody wins. But at least Department of Defense Secretary Robert Gates wasn't afraid to lay blame where it most likely belongs...at his feet. Here is more from ANN:

"Over the past seven years the process has become enormously complex and emotional -- in no small part because of mistakes and missteps along the way by the Department of Defense," said Gates in testimony before the House Armed Services Committee. "It is my judgment that in the time remaining to us, we can no longer complete a competition that would be viewed as fair and objective in this highly charged environment."

You'll remember that the KC-X tanker – a $40 billion dollar contract – was awarded to a team comprised of Northrop Grumman and EADS on February 29, 2008. But after the Government Accountability Office (GAO) made the decision to uphold a protest from Boeing, the Pentagon stepped in to referee the resulting mess. As late as last month, The Pentagon and DoD were still moving forward on KC-X, releasing several clarifications to the original KC-X RFP. That was before the hammer came down and the whole project was back-burnered to create one more BushCo mess the next administration will have to clean up.

As you can imagine, Boeing is happy with the termination of the KC-X competition, while Northrup Grumman seems to be fuming. Here's ANN again:

"In its own statement, Northrop said the Pentagon's decision only serves to further put off the needed replacement of the Air Force's aging fleet of KC-135 Stratotankers. "With this delay, it is conceivable that our warfighters will be forced to fly tankers as old as 80 years of age," Northrop spokesman Randy Belote said."

80 years...Huh? So NG is saying that in 2037, we will still be flying KC 135s? That is 29 years away, and while we know that at this moment in time, our government seems to be unable to develop a replacement for the Stratotanker, I have to believe that somehow, they'll get their heads together in 29 YEARS to come up with a NexGen flying fuel farm.

ANN's Realtime reporting again hits one out of the park on this story. If you do not have their site bookmarked and are not checking it multiple times a day, you are not riding the cutting edge of aviation news. As a writer, I love their style of reporting, it is raw, timely and complete.

As to the Lame Ducks running our country today, this ugly news is just more of the same smoke, mirrors, rhetoric and shell games that has been the Bush trainwreck these past eight years. That's not government we can believe in, said Senator McSame, I presume.

Great Way to
Honor Those Who
Flew the Mail

In these busy times, technology seems to control our lives. I now have four separate remote control devices – TV, antenna rotor, DVD player and surround sound audio control – just to watch television. And when you want to communicate with someone across the street or across state lines, the usual means these days is email...that is, when it works.

Email is an evolving technology that will never be right until someone can develop a system that eliminates all spam and phishing schemes, and also offers a simple reply "receipt" showing the recipient actually received and opened your email. Without those two features, reading and sending emails on some days is an exercise in frustration.

But way WAY back in the day, we sent mail another way...we wrote words on paper BY HAND and affixed a stamp to the outside of a carrying device called an envelope. It often took days for mules to shuttle these "letters" to the next state, that is, until the Postal Service got a grand idea to fly large canvas bags of these "letters" using a fleet of dangerous biplanes flown by stout pilots with more balls then brains. Some background from the USPS site:

"The Postal Office Department played a vital role in developing the nation's commercial aviation industry. In 1928, depending on the weather, delivery could take five to 10 days. First-class letters traveling coast to coast today are transported by air and take three days to deliver. Airmail delivery started in 1918 at a cost of 24-cents, or $3.43 in today's dollars. United Airlines, American Airlines and other commercial carriers first got off the ground as contract air mail carriers. To keep the mail moving by flying at night the Post Office installed radio stations, towers, beacons, searchlights and boundary markers. The Post Office also equipped planes with luminescent instruments, navigational lights, and parachute flares. Once the public recognized the mail got there safely, passenger service began. Today, the Postal Service continues as the airline industry's largest customer and invests more than $3 billion of its $6.5 billion annual transportation costs to air transportation."

To commemorate the beginning of this incredible air mail journey, the following is being planned this week by the USPS:

"A restored airmail passenger biplane that crashed in 1928 will navigate America's first transcontinental airmail route and depart from Republic Airport in Farmingdale, NY on September 10. Mail on the six-day, 15-stop flight will fly on the nation's oldest operating passenger airliner -- a restored open cockpit Boeing 40C biplane that has interior seating for four passengers."

The Boeing 40C was meticulously restored to perfection by Aviation Historian/Antique aircraft restorer and Boeing 40C Pilot Addison Pemberton of Spokane, WA. He will be joined on the flight by 1927 Stearman C3B Pilot Larry Tobin and 1927 Stearman C3B Pilot Larry Tobin, both antique aircraft restorers.

While this schedule might change due to weather and/or the usual mechanical weirdness that comes with flying these beautiful restored biplanes, here is the route of flight from USPS:

Wed., Sept. 10 -- Depart New York Republic Field 9:30 a.m. Arrive Bellefonte, PA late morning. Depart and arrive Cleveland, OH Burke Lakefront Airport (BKL) late afternoon/early evening.

Thurs., Sept. 11 -- Depart Cleveland (BKL) 9:30 a.m. Arrive Bryan, OH (OG6) late morning. Depart and arrive Chicago, IL Lansing Airport (IGQ) late afternoon. Arrive Iowa City, IA (IOW) early evening.

Fri., Sept. 12 -- Depart Iowa City 9:30 a.m. Arrive Omaha, NE (OMA) late morning. Depart and arrive North Platte, NE, (LBF) late afternoon.

Sat., Sept. 13 -- Depart North Platte 9:30 a.m. Arrive Cheyenne, WY (CYS), late morning. Depart and arrive mid-afternoon Rawlins, WY (RWL). Depart and arrive Rock Springs, WY (RKS) early evening.

Sun., Sept. 14 -- Depart Rock Springs 9:30 a.m. Arrive Salt Lake City, UT (U42) late morning. Depart and arrive Elko, NV (EKO) late afternoon. Depart and arrive Reno, NV (RNO) early evening.

Mon., Sept. 15 -- Depart Reno 9:30 a.m. Arrive Hayward, CA (HWD) late morning. Depart Hayward mid-day for San Francisco (SFO or Chrissy Field). Return to Hayward.

And in closing, I think it is interesting to look at the progress we have made in sending a letter from New York to San Francisco. In 1860, it took 14 days, 4 by rail and 10 by Pony Express. The early air mail flyers cut that to 1 day, 10 hours, 20 minutes in 1924, and today, according to USPS, that same piece of mail can make the trip in 6-7 hours.

Which – on some days – is still faster then email!

GA Aircraft:
Utility,
Defined.

There are many, many reasons why we fly general aviation aircraft...from chasing the elusive $150 hamburger to introducing flying to children through Young Eagles flights. But as I sit here debriefing from a successful long XC from Oregon to near San Diego, I cannot contain my elation at how smooth and convenient this trip was, start to finish.

We bought Cherokee 8527W for both business and pleasure, and in this trip, we enjoyed some of both. It was a trip that would have been impossible on the airlines at ANY price, and proved once again that flying your own GA aircraft is one great way to get around.

Let's take a quick look at how Dano Airlines beat the pants off the scheduled carriers, again:

Day One began with an easy southbound leg from Eugene to KGOO (Nevada County/Grass Valley). Funny identifier, but a very nice field actually. We lunched with a client and were back in the air at 3P for the longest leg of this multi-city journey. Just after 7P, we touched down on the USS Fallbrook, a little GA strip north of San Diego with major league drop offs at both ends. Fallbrook Airpark (L18) sits atop a "mesa" so it gets plenty of wild crosswinds blowing from everywhere. After tip-toeing through LA Center's front yard, I landed long and gave Katy's old-school hand brake a serious test as the runway disappeared on rollout and the cliff at the end of runway 36 loomed large in my windscreen. By the end of this day, we were visiting a niece and her family, including new six-week-old baby.

This was a day that could not have happened without a GA plane at my disposal. Between landing at larger regional airports, car rentals and drive times, social meetings in both NorCal and SoCal in the same day would have been impossible.

Day two was a relatively easy trip north to Fresno Air Terminal for two days of business meetings and a Saturday wedding. By landing at Atlantic Aviation instead of going through the cattle yard where the scheduled guys drop off their cargo, we were in our rental car and rolling before my luggage would have touched the carousel inside the FAT terminal. A serious boost to our productivity.

We packed a lot into the two days on the ground in Fresno, business meetings, lunch with family, dinner with clients, a brief stop at a client's trade show booth, and the wedding. Did I mention that we also brought along a rather fragile wrapped baby gift in 27W? The gift arrived perfectly intact...an impossible feat via the airlines as it was too big for carry on, and it would have got murdered as checked baggage.

Day three was the simple return trip to Eugene. But our family had an important celebratory affair planned in Portland, Oregon at 4P, and our day was starting at a friend's home in the foothills 30 nm east of FAT. By flying Dano Airlines, we were able to coffee up and get to Atlantic by 8A – which had the plane fueled and ready – and were wheels up at 820A. The fltplan.com flight plan was spot on all the way north, and we arrived back at EUG just past noon. With the convenience of GA flight, we were able to get our ground transportation turned and were on the road to Portland to make our afternoon function just fine.

Yes, there is a slim chance we could have MAYBE caught a commercial flight from FAT through SFO to PDX and MAYBE rented a car and MAYBE slipped into the function at about 6PM, two hours late for the gig. But did I mention we brought back about 20 linear feet of custom picture frame moulding, a gigantic – and delicate – Peacock feather (don't ask) and several bags of fresh California tree fruit and grapes? These items could not have survived the overhead bin of the Friendly Skies, but in the Katyliner, they made the trip in perfect condition.

This, was the kind of trip that our Cherokee 235 was built for way WAY back in 1963, and 45 years later, it is still flying splendid sorties on a near-perfect schedule, sipping 12 GPH at about 130 KTAS. Oh, did I mention that the S-Tec 50 A/P flew every leg of this trip as accurately as a $620,000 Cessna 400? Sure, some of today's composite ships are faster, sleeker and have more pretty pictures on their panels. But when you get right down to it, my old school cruiser can complete the same mission [in more flight time] burning less gas while lofting more useful poundage skyward.

And at $555,000 less buy-in and dirt-cheap insurance, that is some seriously affordable utility.

Hoop,
Jumped Through

This past week, I made it over one of the biggest obstacles standing in the way of me earning my Instrument Airplane rating. After many MANY hours of studying, I am happy to report I passed the IFR written examination.

Now the first question I am sure you are asking is this: What was my score? Well, let's just say I passed and leave it at that. From this answer, you might be able to decode that since I am not bragging about a 98, or even a 90 that my score was not worth bragging about.

Was a lower then expected score indicative of a student who does not know the material or did not study? No. Was it because I do not take tests well? YES! Or was it the study materials used? Maybe.

Let's break all this down, shall we:

I was told by many instrument-rated pilots that the IFR written was one of the hardest FAA tests there is. That would explain why I spent what felt like thousands (O.K., maybe hundreds) of hours studying. I spend an enormous amount of time on weather questions, and only got a tiny handful on the test. But I was slammed with ADF, RMI and HSI questions, when I have never even flown behind those instruments. Why ADF questions remain in their database is beyond me. What, no Loran questions?

And while I understand that the world is going to GPS big time, Katy does not have an IFR-certified GPS, so we are not training those approaches right now. So I was left out in the cold on about 5 questions pertaining to GPS approach plate interpretation. Sure, I will need to know that stuff later on, but I am not training for it now so it was foreign.

I fully understand that the FAA does not readily know what avionics my 235 has, so they cannot be expected to craft a test just for me. But now that I snuck in under the wire and passed their test, I guess I can go about forgetting those ADF questions. And when the panel gets updated to include a Garmin 430 or better, I reckon I'll have to dig back into my personal knowledge bank and summon up the little tidbits of DME arc and GPS approach digital data that is hidden away in my steam gauge brain.

As to my choice of study materials, I used the Gleim red book and CD-R that accompanied it. At well under $100 and cheaper then the competition, I'd have to say the program is adequate. The only big problem was the quality of their reference graphics and legends. It was impossible to read tiny print on some of these graphics without going above the 100% viewing threshold, but at 125% and above, the graphics went muddy and unreadable. As a graphic designer, I found this appalling in a day when nice clean graphics are so easy to produce and transmit. If I had a do-over, I'd go with the more expensive Sporty's or King DVD programs.

But I did pass, and would not have without Gleim in my back pocket. I now move into the "finish up" stage of my IFR training, that netherworld between the point where you know how to fly the approaches but are not yet at the magical 40 hours in the logbook. I can easily plan IFR flights, fly safely in the system and land after bouncing down an ILS. But the one HUGE question remains...can I do it with an FAA Examiner in the right seat?

I have chosen to put that check ride off a couple of months due to life getting in the way of quality training time. And also, I want to up in the cold, moist crud a few more times so I feel comfortable flying in our famous Oregon Sunshine.