Getting Closer...

Hang in there everyone, I am getting much closer to being back "on the air" as they say. Just ironing out some complicated issues that I will fully disclose very soon. Until then, please bookmark this site and check back in a week or so.

Av8rdan

Short Leave of Absence

To all my loyal readers: Just a quick note to tell you I am going to be "off the air" so to speak for a couple of weeks and won't be adding any new posts during that period of time. I would love to explain why but can't...so just check back soon and I will be back up and running - Av8rdan.

My Kingdom for
an iPhone 3G

With every passing day, my itty bitty widdle Samsung cell phone becomes more and more outdated and is now SOOO last month. It's as if the damn thing is being made obsolete right before my very eyes, a victim of technology charging off to the future at breakneck speeds.

Oh sure, at first, the u-740 looked cool. It flipped two ways, vertical resembling a regular cell phone, and the new, nifty horizontal way to offer a sideways screen and a QWERTY keyboard perfectly sized for a Keebler elf.

But since my wife chucked her brick and bought an iPhone, my widdle phone seems old school despite being less then one year into a contract. I do not use it for sending SMS texts, and make very few calls on it. I do use it quite a bit for Pilot MyCast, the very capable flight planning app from Garmin that costs $10 a month. I have been keeping it because I didn't think there was anything out there like Pilot MyCast for an iPhone. Oh how wrong I was:

ForeFlight Mobile 2.0 delivers full-on aviation weather and information covering 220 countries, 25,000 global landing facilities, 24,000 runways, 24,000 hotels, 9,000 fixed based operators and 11,000 transportation providers. It displays the data using the simply beautiful iPhone interface, and from screenshots, it looks like it's worth double the one time buy-in of just $69.99.

When you dig below the gorgeous GUI and look at what's under the hood of this app, it truly is reason to drop your mouth. Here is just a taste from their site:

– Continuously updated METARs, TAFs, and aviation weather imagery for thousands of airports and weather stations around the world.

– Search for a series of airports to see distance and direction between them as well as any recently assigned ATC routes.

– TFRs, NOTAMs, and Winds Aloft

– File new flight plans in under ten seconds

– Provides approach plates for all U.S. instrument procedures

– AWOS/ASOS Direct Dial™

This may make me finally buy out my current Verizon contract and drop the dollars on an iPhone 3G. With Pilot MyCast's subscription at $120 a year, and Foreflight at about $70 forever, I save $170 in the first two years of owning the iPhone. That savings will cover the buyout, but may not yet justify the cost of the iPhone. But at $199 for the 8GB model - ridiculously cheap for such a space-age communications tool – what am I waiting for?

Beats the heck out of me.

And if the stock market has a couple more days like today, I may not be able to use the "economic sky is falling" excuse to avoid buying the iPhone.

Roadable Aircraft
Hits the Road!

Those who read this blog frequently know I am one of the biggest fans of Terrafugia's completely awesome Transition. While others make waves in GA by designing bigger, faster, more luxurious VLJs, PJs and ELRBJs (expensive long-range business jets), the people working their slide rules overtime to build 'the next big thing' in GA are redefining what it means to be brilliant.

I truly believe there is no single aviation project being developed today that is more exciting than the Transition.

And if you have just stepped out from under your rock and have never heard of the Transition, I'll let the design team get you up to speed...from their website:

"The Terrafugia Transition® is a roadable Light Sport Aircraft designed by a team of award-winning MIT-trained engineers for today’s demanding general aviation pilot. Bring more flexibility and convenience to your flying. Keep your Transition® in your garage. Drive to your local airport, fly up to 400nm, land, convert, and drive directly to your destination. You’ll always be ready to drive or fly. Converting from road to flight mode requires a few simple commands in the cockpit and a normal pre-flight. Transform back to a street legal vehicle without having to leave your seat. Never let questionable weather cancel or endanger your trip again. Simply divert and continue on the ground until the weather clears. Designed to automotive crash safety standards, with an option for a full-vehicle parachute, Terrafugia’s commitment to safety is apparent in the Transition’s form as well as function."

Intrigued? Well, you should be, because this vehicle is a real game changer. It has ran into a fair amount of skepticism along it's path to production, including some who said before it never flies, it will never even be driven on roads. But the photo that accompanies this post – sent to me recently by the design team – proves without a doubt that (1) yes, it has been and can be driven on a highway, and (2) it looks vastly different than anything that has come before it, including the gray Infiniti in the photo. Sure, some might even say the Transition is pretty far out there in terms of accepted visual design, but did I mention that...it FLIES? Even a Lamborghini can't make that claim.

The other gripe I am sure the design team has heard is that it was hogwash that any roadable aircraft could ever be designed to fit into a standard garage. Wrongeroo again, dudes. The photo at top right clearly shows that the MIT design team has hit that mark too, as the vehicle easily slips into a standard single car garage.

If you absolutely HAVE to learn more about the Transition, visit with Terrafugia's leadership team November 6-8, 2008 at AOPA Expo in San Jose, CA. However, due to conflicts with it's power testing schedule, the "proof of concept" vehicle will not make the trip west.

And if you want to be part of the design process, Terrafugia is very interested in what you have to say about their project. There are two online surveys available that you can take that will ship your answers directly to the design team. Pilots can take their survey here, and non-pilots can take a survey here.

Of course, if you are an X-Plane® flyer, you don't need to wait until your Transition comes off the assembly line. Take a test drive/flight by downloading the simulated version here. I just flew it for the first time last night and yes, it is very cool.

Girl Pilot...
The Next Generation?

I have just returned from a few glorious days up in Portland (OR) where we enjoyed the birth of our first grandchild, a lovely little girl named Caitlin Grace. This was my first actual encounter with this whole birthing process, and while not actually "in the room", I was close enough on the fringe to feel the positive energy flowing freely from behind the closed door.

Proud parents Michael and JJ chose to bring Caitlin into this world at a birthing center, a very peaceful and spiritual place in SE Portland that was about as far removed from a traditional hospital birth as one can get. With a Certified Midwife leading her team of Midwives-in-training and other assistants, Caitlin arrived into a loving environment that will be the catalyst to a life filled with positive love and optimistic motivation.

And since I am a one note song these days about flying, of course the first question everyone is asking me is...when will I be making Caitlin her own set of keys to the family Cherokee 235...aptly named "Katy" in a strange sort of coincidence. My response is to first explain the following:

Everyone who knows me knows my feelings about girls (and women) flying. I have always said that the sky is no place for gender bias, and that a female is as welcome as any man to chase clouds around the sky with me. Young girls are general aviation's secret weapon, the one demographic that can cement GA's future. If GA can entice just a few young ladies per year to take flight lessons and achieve the freedom that comes from earning your private ticket, we will create a whole new wave of pilots who will be in our community for decades to come.

Caitlin is being born into an aviation family, but it is not guaranteed that she is yet an "aviator". My father was nuts about flying, I am obviously completely addicted to it, and Caitlin's daddy Michael is an aviation enthusiast who will one day be a licensed pilot. In our travels in 27W, he has demonstrated an aviator's hand on the "stick" and is a natural pilot. Like all of us, he must wait for the day when his finances and life responsibilities line up favorably so he can take his lessons and earn his ticket. But as I contemplate passing my love of aviation on to the newest member of our family, I must consider this:

I believe there are "pilots" and their are "aviators"...and we all know the difference. Ernest K. Gann describes an "aviator" as someone who, in the middle of a conversation, will stop talking when an airplane flies overhead, staring at the flying machine intently. He/she will be lost in the mystique of flight for those fleeting moments that the plane drones by...and will stare in completely wonderment at how the craft manages to stay airborne. "Aviators" never stop living their dream to fly...while pilots just get in, fly a route, and get out, sort of like driving a bus.

We will not know for some time whether Caitlin is interested in flying. It is a given that like most kids, she will naturally like airplanes, especially the one DooDah (apparently my given Grandpa name) flies her around in. But as she grows and matures into a little girl who can grasp the whole concept of flight, I will do everything I can to bring out the inner aviator in her...if one is in there waiting to come out. If she shows an interest in learning about how "Katy" works, what keeps her in the sky, and how we can fly from Portland to Disneyland with ease, I will help her learn...happily.

If she takes no interest in actually flying the plane – like her mommy – then that will be perfectly fine too. Our daughter-in-law is lovely on so many levels, and was initially not all that fond of small planes. But in the last few flights as a passenger on our way to California, she has grown to accept GA air travel as a safe and efficient means of transportation.

As a brand new DooDah, I am proud as can be. To see this beautiful little girl arrive into such a crazy mixed up world has given me hope that our future will be bright. Caitlin's parents have taught me a great deal about spirituality, about the way we need to think about life on this planet, in this universe. The ability to fly above the crust of this rock we live upon transcends the gap between this often dreary human life and the one that allows us to "slip the surly bonds" and FLY.

Make no mistake, just taking off with such a precious passenger as Caitlin will be golden. But if she ever asks me to show her how to fly, and looks up to me for guidance down the path that ends with her pilot's license, I will have achieved one of my personal goals. That will be to help create my "pilot replacement", the one aviator to continue my quest after I inevitably lose my medical years from now. Words cannot describe what it will be like for me to blast off in the right seat of a very cool composite all-glass plane, flown with precision by a brilliant young woman with a heart of gold and a steady hand on the yoke.

When that happens, my life's journey will be complete.

We, the People,
Have Been Duped

Try as I might, but with the combination of a failing economy atop a nasty, mud-soaked Presidential campaign, it is really REALLY hard to focus just on aviation these days. With NBAA in full swing and dark clouds hanging over the entire GA sector, it is impossible to avoid the global financial meltdown that is effecting all of us in this business.

As we watched Washington shove their ridiculous $700+ Billion "redistribution of wealth" bill down America's throat last week, I am not the only one who had zero hopes that this administration could craft a bill that was going to work. Opponents say this bill smells like it was designed solely to pad the pockets of greedy Wall Street country club buddies who lost their asses on risky investments. Well, up on "The Hill" today, ABC News was adding fuel to that fire:

"In the first Congressional hearing into the financial crisis, the former CEO of the bankrupt Lehman Brothers, Richard Fuld, became the poster boy for Wall Street greed today as he defended the $484 million he received in salary, bonuses and stock options since 2000."

Maybe the above pullquote might be a great example of how/why we got into this mess in the first place...the CEO of a BANKRUPT former financial giant being paid millions. But if you think it's that kind of ethics that has ruined your chance to get an airplane loan, it gets worse over at Huffington Post:

"Lehman's Golden Parachutes Were Being Secured While Execs Were Pleading For Federal Rescue - The now-bankrupt investment bank Lehman Brothers arranged millions in bonuses for fired executives as it pleaded for a federal lifeline, lawmakers learned Monday, as Congress began investigating what went so wrong on Wall Street to prompt a $700 billion government bailout."

Pissed yet? I sure am. And while Congress was running for the cover of "recess" after doing Poulson's dirty work, AP was reporting that down the street at the FBI, more dirty deals were being investigated:

"The FBI is investigating four major U.S. financial institutions whose collapse helped trigger a $700 billion bailout plan by the Bush administration, The Associated Press has learned. Two law enforcement officials said Tuesday the FBI is looking at potential fraud by mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and insurer American International Group Inc. Additionally, a senior law enforcement official said Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. also is under investigation."

So if you can't sell anything at NBAA, or get a loan to buy anything this week, there looks to be plenty of ethically-challenged clowns to blame. But wait, I thought we are all saved now that Poulson and his ex-Goldman Sachs whiz kids cobbled together a "rescue" plan that is supposed to save our economy. Well, how's that all working out:

"The Dow Jones industrials skidded more than 800 points and fell below 10,000 for the first time in four years, while the credit markets remained under strain. Financial markets took a despairing view of the future Monday, seeing contagion in a credit crisis that threatens to cascade through economies globally despite government efforts to provide relief. Investors around the world have come to the sobering realization that the Bush administration's $700 billion rescue plan won't work quickly to unfreeze the credit markets. Global banks, hobbled by wrong-way bets on mortgage securities, remain starved for cash as credit has dried up."

While the lame duck cowboy who did nothing to stop this mess spends eternity roping cattle on his ranch in Crawford, at every airport in the land, FBOs and flight schools are being shuttered, and pink slips flood the factory floors of anyone making anything related to aviation. Greed and corruption looks to have won, at least for the time being.

But if we can survive until 11.04.08 and a new Sheriff comes to Washington on 01.20.09, I can see an energized nation pulling together to somehow fix this next year. How is anyone's guess, but if you vote for the same guys that looked the other way to create this debacle, you get the economy you voted for.

Still undecided? For a serious dose of reality, click here.

Nervous Times for
NBAA Booth Dwellers

Today the House passed a $700 BILLION dollar "rescue" bill that they originally had defeated. What the "tell" is here is that the pork-laden legislation only passed after the Senate added on another $100 BILLION in earmarks to buy enough "yea" votes in the house to pass this pig. And the speed at which this bill was rushed under Bush's pen so he could sign it into law should also be more proof that this entire bailout mess smells of back room politics and cronyism.

Whether this ends up being the needed catalyst that wards off the next Great Depression remains to be seen. But there can be no debating one thing, SOMEONE has flown our economy into the ground, and our credit markets are completely in the dumpster.

This all comes on the eve of the biggest U.S. trade show of the year for the business jet sector, the 61st NBAA Annual Meeting & Convention October 6–8 in Orlando. As the rich and famous gather to buy and sell seriously sexy flying hardware, it's not helping matters that the Internets are exploding this week with stories like this:

MSNBC: "The credit markets finally got a bailout bill, but the stranglehold hasn’t let up — a troubling sign that lenders and investors believe the package will only be a baby step in the long road to economic recovery."

The New York Times: "Small businesses often live at the mercy of their creditors. When times are good, loans are easy to get. When business sours, loans can dry up. With banks handing out fewer loans and raising interest rates, even healthy businesses are becoming worried that they will not get the credit they need to keep their doors open and their bills paid."

AP: "The government reported Thursday that factory orders took the biggest drop in two years in August as businesses cut back on purchases of large equipment and consumers spent less on autos, electronics, appliances and other goods. Credit markets, meanwhile, remained locked up as banks are wary of lending to each other, unsure of which might be the next to collapse."

Ouch.

So when an estimated 33,000 attendees gather at NBAA to gawk at the goods shown off by 1,200 exhibitors and 120 aircraft on static display this coming week, there will be a sense of uneasiness in the air. Sure, the filthy rich will still be paying cash for the high end stuff, and there might still be enough pre-existing loans still in the credit pipeline to spur on some sales.

But the middle income businesses and those individual buyers who have watched their personal wealth and 401Ks be plundered by Washington – these are the buyers of VLJs and PJs, a scary sector to be sure. I see no way this ends up being a normal sales year at NBAA for Cirrus and their Vision, Piper with their PiperJet and Eclipse with their EA-500 and -400. The reason is that these ships serve a pilot population moving up from a King Air, a Beechcraft A36, a Cessna 310. And unfortunately this might just be the group of buyers who will be sitting this one out, waiting for the election to be over, waiting for the credit markets to stabilize, and waiting for some sanity to return to their businesses.

Most of those 1,200 exhibitors will survive this economic mess, but not all. Those upstart makers and charter/air taxi operators – think Dayjet – that needs massive credit lines just to cling to life will have no choice but to fold their tents as available credit dries up. This is a sad, sorry situation for all those business owners and their employees who in a normal economy would be kicking ass and taking names.

Will this bailout – er, I mean "rescue" – bill be enough to get GA back on track financially? Maybe. Will it come soon enough to insure survival for many of the aviation brand names we know and love? That, unfortunately, remains to be seen.

But one thing is for certain: If you have the money to pay CASH for a jet this year at NBAA, you can count on some spectacular deals as hungry exhibitors drop their prices to the floor to move something, anything with wings.