Shuttle Atlantis Ku band antenna will be replaced before launch next Sunday.
Posted 03:25 GMT by Dennis Collins
We launched for Durango at 7:30am local Saturday and made a quickie flypast Bob and Joanne Boyd in the "Green Hornet" Glastar. Pretty airplane.
Weather was classic CAVU over the painted desert, and not a ripple in the air. The colors are typically shades of red, purple, and white, but the monsoon has been very active this year, which added greens to the palette. This old volcano core added black as well.
The red rocks and spires north west of Window Rock are incredible from the air.
Durango is situated at the mouth of a lush valley carved by the Animas River.
We continued up the valley for a bit to see if we could find the Durango & Silverton narrow gauge train.
We found the train on one of the steep sections of the grade, going 5mph so no one will miss a thing. The picture doesn't do it justice.
We had lunch at The Palace Restaurant adjacent to the Rail Road Station. Here's the view from the table.
Reservations were at the Strater Hotel. Durango is filled with fine shops, restaurants, and entertainment, but we didn't leave the Hotel all night. From beer at the Diamond Belle Saloon with incredible ragtime piano playing by Molly Kaufman, dinner at the Mahogany Grille, to the "Melodrama" and back again to the Saloon that night, everything was excellent.
Next morning, we stopped for a few minutes to see the Durango trademark Narrow Gauge railroad. There's a reason this thing is black. Everything in sight of it is black from the coal soot.
There had been a Cirrus owners fly-in, and the La Plata airport ramp looked like this:
There was an interesting lesson in Arizona microclimates on the mountain range north of Window Rock Arizona. On the left are Ponderosa Pine forests at 7,000 to 9,000 feet with alpine lakes that we had flown over yesterday. On the right is one of the most barren deserts in the Southwest. It's obvious why.
With such a perfect trip, good weather, good beer, good people, and pretty sights, you just know there will be some fly in the ointment. We found out what it was when we got to the airport this morning. Note the airspeed. Note the mag switch. I'll have get a new key and/or mag switch next week.
Turning final,
Gas - fuel pump on
Undercarrage - Down
Mixture - set
Propellor - full forward
We're home.
Another Evening in Paradise.
Posted 02:29 GMT by Dennis Collins
August 21, 2006
What a day. Great morning flight to Durango. Lunch by the train station. Drive in the mountains. Beer in the Saloon with the best honky tonk piano I've ever heard. Dinner in the fine Strater Hotel restaurant, joined by more AZ82 folks and their friends from here in town. After dinner live Melodrama show and more beer in the Saloon. The ragtime piano was still pounding. I'm tired.
Many pictures when we get back tomorrow afternoon.
Posted 04:59 GMT by Dennis Collins
August 20, 2006
Happy birthday to Orville Wright, which makes it National Aviation Day. So I think we'll aviate to Durango Colorado. Flight Service has been called, the weather looks great, with almost no wind. Depart in about 45 minutes. We'll have two airplanes this morning and more folks driving up, so it should be fun.
Posted 04:02 GMT by Dennis Collins
A British historical group is working feverishly to restore a Vulcan Bomber in time to lead a flypast for Queen Elizabeth in 2007 for the 25th anniversary of the Falklands War. The Vulcan was retired in the mid-80's.
The Vulcan almost went it's entire career without ever flying a mission in anger. But the Falklands war saw some of the most daring bombing missions ever attempted when a single Vulcan bomber flew from Ascension island along with 11 Victor tankers to refuel the Vulcan, and each other, to extend the range for the 16 hour mission. A new book about the mission, Vulcan 607 is highly rated, and covers the rapid re-building of refueling capabilities including using parts from aircraft in museums, and re-training for skills not used by anyone in a decade.
Unfortunatly the Vulcan restoration project has run out of money and will soon be laying off workers. Go to the link and donate.
Posted 04:02 GMT by Dennis Collins
August 19, 2006
Posted 15:56 GMT by Dennis Collins
August 18, 2006
A few members of EAA Chapter 1044 from AZ82 are flying up to Durango Co. this Saturday. The weather is looking good so far.
Update: New weather forcast as of Friday morning. Durango is still out of the predicted rain in eastern Co., but we'll have to call FS and see whether they'll have any cloud cover. I doubt they will.
The plan is to land at Animas Airport around 10AM. Anyone can come. Some of us will attend the Durango EAA chapter Pig Roast that afternoon, and we'll meet for dinner and breakfast, locations to be decided when we get there. I'll be renting a mini-van for transportation downtown, but make your own overnight reservations (I think everyone is staying at the Stater Hotel).
Posted 02:51 GMT by Dennis Collins
STS-115 Atlantis flight set for Aug 27 on an ISS construction flight.
Posted 02:46 GMT by Dennis Collins
The Theatrical tour of the movie One Six Right is in Dallas tonight. The 9:00PM showing still has seats.
I bought a DVD of this at Oshkosh. Excellent. I wish they were bringing the Theatrical version to Phoenix. I'd see it again.
Posted 15:19 GMT by Dennis Collins
Alan Boyle has a good summay and lots of links for the X-Prize Cup to be held in Las Cruces NM in October.
Posted 01:51 GMT by Dennis Collins
August 17, 2006
LAX has no idea why their localizer keeps triping off. Funny this should start happening just days after they shut down a runway to "move" it 50 feet.
Posted 14:40 GMT by Dennis Collins
In Search Of: The original video data recordings from Apollo 11. The original video downlink that's now missing, was incompatible with other equipment, so what we've been watching all these years of Neal Armstrong's "one small step for (a) man", was re-shot from a video monitor on the ground.
Maybe they should look on eBay?
Here's the report on the search from the scientists at Parkes Austraila.
There was a very nice little movie called The Dish about receiving that video. You wouldn't think that such a thing would be exciting enough to make a movie about. But the quaint local goings on in 1960's Parkes Austraila combined with the mistakes and bad weather that nearly prevented that video from ever being seen make this movie a Thumbs Up.
Actors Sam Neill, Kevin Harrington and Tom Long on their "Cricket Field"
Sam Neill in the movie
The real deal: Chief of the CSIRO Radiophysics Division, Dr. Edward "Taffy" Bowen (right), with John Shimmins, deputy director of Parkes Observatory, in the control room watching the moonwalk (21 July 1969). Likley the tape being searched for is being written on the tape deck at the back of the room. Photo credit CSIRO.
Posted 13:44 GMT by Dennis Collins
Aero-news.net has an article about NASA engineers getting ideas from museum artifacts. But if you want to see the original full length article written by Jay Reeves, you can read it at the Washington Post.
Posted 13:17 GMT by Dennis Collins
August 16, 2006
First customer built aircraft powered by an Innodyn Turbine flies.
Posted 02:13 GMT by Dennis Collins
Europeans working on "hijack proof" airplanes with systems to take over in case of flight into incorrect places. There are folks that would say that Airbus pilots are already redundant, but I wouldn't be one of those.
Posted 01:55 GMT by Dennis Collins
Posted 01:47 GMT by Dennis Collins
Bigelow Aerospace is flying their private Genesis I spacecraft.
Outside view posted today:
Some goodies floating around on the inside:
I don't think they've got a handle on a practical way to launch, but what they now do have is spacecraft flight experience.
Posted 01:32 GMT by Dennis Collins
Charter operations booming on additional airline security measures.
Posted 01:22 GMT by Dennis Collins
August 15, 2006
Yesterday was the AZ82 Airport Homeowners annual meeting and last night everyone had dinner at Bill and Viki Powell's.
Local politicians Bill Powell and Theo Mulder.
After dinner, one of the kids collects everybody's name tags.
Posted 16:35 GMT by Dennis Collins
Boeing is building a 747 LCF - Large Cargo Freighter, for shipping 787 Dreamliner components.
Three aircraft will be built, the first two converted from ex-China Airlines passenger 747-400 aircraft.
They don't really look that big, compared to some of the original "Guppy" airplanes. But considering they started life as a 747 instead of a KC-97, they're obviously huge.
Capacity, 65,000 cubic feet. Should fly sometime this summer.
Posted 15:08 GMT by Dennis Collins
Hagerstown Md Aviation museum trying to buy the only flying Fairchild C-82. The Flying Boxcars were manufactured in Hagerstown from WWII until the 50's.
Image from Airliners.net
Posted 04:21 GMT by Dennis Collins
NTSB report on the accident that killed Walmart heir John Walton has been released.
Walton loved flying. As an ultra-rich guy he could do whatever he wanted, so he flew crop dusters in Arizona. I sat in on a meeting with him at a company he funded, and he looked like a lanky Howard Hughes type, just not so crazy.
Posted 02:49 GMT by Dennis Collins
August 13, 2006
It's been weeks since I've had an Airport Webcam of the day. So here's one from Adelaide Austrailia, where it's already tomorrow morning. (This is a copied image, go to the link for the live shot)
Update: I just noticed that when you click on the link, the time is 30 minutes off from standard. It turns out that Adelaide is one of those wierd 30 minute offsets from GMT. Local time there is GMT + 9:30 hours;
Posted 23:43 GMT by Dennis Collins
LoPresti Aviation building a manufacturing plant in Belen NM to produce the Fury, the latest incarnation of he old Globe Swift. I've heard that Fury production would be "sometime real soon now" for, what? 15 years? It's a cool airplane, I wish them luck.
Posted 23:07 GMT by Dennis Collins
Boeing demonstrates satellite-to-satellite secure laser communications system running at 40 gigabit.
Posted 22:55 GMT by Dennis Collins
Camcopter S-100 fully autonomous UAV
Posted 04:52 GMT by Dennis Collins
A B-2 Stealth bomber from the 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., flies over the St. Louis Arch on Aug. 10. The B-2 flyover was one of several events celebrating Air Force Week in St. Louis. (U.S. Air Force photo/Tech. Sgt. Justin D. Pyle)
Posted 03:42 GMT by Dennis Collins
August 12, 2006
Some see changes in how airlines will operate. Surely the security environment will get stronger. But I see an even more radical change, where you can take your laptop on-board and avoid the strip searches and long lines at the airport.
Large airliners are todays Passenger Trains. Calling a jet AirTaxi to your local airport and avoiding hub-and-spoke airlines is today's first class travel.
Flying your own Lancair is a step even above that [gloat alert].
Posted 19:41 GMT by Dennis Collins
British airline plot busted after a "Go now" message from Pakistan was intercepted.
Posted 19:38 GMT by Dennis Collins
AOPA alerts on a Luke Air Force Base airspace grab with a proposed Special Flight Rules area near Phoenix AZ.
Blue areas would require ATC clearance, magenta would require contact.
I was a crew chief on F-4Cs at Luke back in the 70's, while I was getting my commercial ticket at old Glendale airport, and I've owned airplanes based at Scottsdale, Chandler and Mogollon Airpark, so I know a bit about the airspace and Luke's operations. Looking at Google Earth, it doesn't look like they have any more F-16's there now than they had F-4s, F-15s, and F-104s back in the day. So why do they need the airspace now? They've been flying about the same number of airplanes for at least 40 years. And don't tell me the F-16 is such a hot jet that they can no longer look out the windows. Nothing was hotter than the German F-104s they operated there.
You can tell by the chart that development has been held back from around Luke. Phoenix has been growing wildly, and could use that space. Various local governments have gone out of their way to prevent development so that Luke can stay there. And I've supported such things. I like the AF, and I feel they deserve a break.
But, this is over the top. They didn't need a SFRA in 1976 when I was flying around those areas, and they don't now. Phoenix needs that area to grow. The land is more valuable to the local economy as something other than an Air Force Base.
The Air Force can move into the Deep Desert at Gila Bend. That's where they fly the jets back and forth to every day and there's already an auxilary field there for emergencies. Just move the base there. Gila Bend could use the infusion of money. Phoenix and Glendale needs the land more than they need the money.
Posted 16:10 GMT by Dennis Collins
August 11, 2006
Today's airline bombing plot appears to be Operation Bojinka Part II. From Wikipedia: [Hat Tip - Michelle Malkin]
In 1994, [Ramzi] Yousef and Khalid Sheik Mohammed started testing airport security. Yousef booked a flight between Kai Tak International Airport in Hong Kong and Chiang Kai Shek International Airport near Taipei. Mohammed booked a flight between Ninoy Aquino International Airport near Manila and Kimpo International Airport near Seoul.
.....
The two had already converted fourteen bottles of contact lens solution into bottles containing nitroglycerin, which was readily available in the Philippines. Yousef taped a metal rod to the arch of his of foot in place of the detonators. Yousef and Mohammed wore jewelry and clothing with metal to confuse airport security.
On December 11, 1994, [Ramzi] Yousef built another bomb, which had one tenth of the power that his final bombs were planned to have, in the lavatory of the aircraft and left it inside the life jacket under his seat, 26K, after he got off the plane from a flight that arrived in Cebu. Yousef had boarded the flight under the assumed name of Armaldo Forlani, using a false Italian passport. The aircraft was Philippine Airlines Flight 434 using that aircraft on a Manila to Narita route. Yousef had set the timer for four hours after he got off the aircraft. The bomb exploded while the aircraft was over Minami Daito Island, near Okinawa, Japan. A Japanese businessman named Haruki Ikegami was killed after the bomb detonated. The Boeing 747-200 safely made an emergency landing in Naha, Okinawa. None of the aircraft's other 272 passengers or any members of the crew were killed, although 10 passengers in front of Ikegami were injured. Yousef then planned which flights to attack for Phase I.
......
The next plan would have involved at least five Al-Qaeda operatives, including [Ramzi] Yousef, Khan, Shah and two more unknown operatives. Starting on January 21, 1995 and ending on January 22, 1995, they would set the bombs on 11 United States-bound airliners that had stopovers all around East Asia and Southeast Asia. All of the flights had two legs. The bombs would be planted inside life jackets under seats on the first leg, when each bomber would disembark. He would then board one or two more flights and repeat. After all of the bombers planted bombs on all of the flights, each man would then catch flights to Lahore, Pakistan. The men never needed U.S. visas, as they only would have stayed on the planes on their first legs in Asia.
United States airlines had been chosen instead of Asian airlines to maximize the shock toward Americans. The flights targeted were listed under operatives with codenames: "Zyed", "Majbos", "Markoa", "Mirqas" and "Obaid". Obaid, who was really Abdul Hakim Murad, was to hit United flight 80, and then he was to go back to Singapore under another United flight which he would bomb. [1] [12] [13]
Zyed, probably Ramzi Yousef, was to hit Northwest Flight 30, a United Flight going from Taipei to Honolulu, and a United Flight going from Bangkok to Taipei to San Francisco [1] [16]
The bombs would have been timed before the operatives stepped off the planes. The aircraft would have blown up over the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea almost simultaneously. If this plan worked, several thousand would have perished, and air travel would have been shut down worldwide for days, if not weeks. The U.S. government estimated the prospective death toll to be about 4,000 if the plot had been executed.
Flights targeted:
* United Airlines Flight 80: Singapore - Hong Kong, which turned to United Airlines Flight 806: Hong Kong - San Francisco
* Northwest Airlines Flight 30: Manila - Seoul - Los Angeles
* Delta Air Lines Flight 59: Portland, OR - Seoul - Taipei - Bangkok (Bomber would board in Seoul and disembark at Taipei, bomb would explode on the way to Thailand)
* Northwest Airlines Flight 6: Manila - Tokyo - Honolulu
* United Airlines Flight 807: San Francisco - Seoul - Manila, which would turn around and fly another flight back Manila - Seoul - San Francisco (The bomber would board at Seoul and disembark at Manila, the bomb would activate after departure from Manila)
* A United Airlines Flight: Los Angeles - Hong Kong - Singapore, would then go on Singapore - Hong Kong - Los Angeles (The bomb would explode after takeoff from Singapore on the way to Hong Kong)
* A United Airlines Flight: Taipei - Tokyo - San Francisco
* A United Airlines Flight: Seoul - Taipei, would then fly Taipei-Honolulu (The bomber would board at Seoul and get off at Taipei, the bomb would explode on the way to Honolulu)
* A United Airlines Flight: San Francisco - Taipei - Bangkok, the flight would then turn around and go back to Taipei and San Francisco (The bomb was set to explode after takeoff from Bangkok)
* A Northwest Airlines Flight: Portland - Tokyo - Hong Kong, would turn around and go back to Tokyo and Portland
* A United Airlines Flight: Los Angeles - Tokyo - Hong Kong, the flight was set to go back to Tokyo and Los Angeles
Posted 15:48 GMT by Dennis Collins
Remains of Hizbullah UAV shot down by IDF.
Posted 05:22 GMT by Dennis Collins
Tule River indian tribe gets STC to install SMA diesels in Cessna 182s.
Posted 04:53 GMT by Dennis Collins
Check out a new link to Sulako's Blog. He's got some good videos, and read his blog on flying through a thunderstorm.
Posted 04:37 GMT by Dennis Collins
Military Blimps (Hat Tip - Gary Lynch)
Posted 03:46 GMT by Dennis Collins
August 10, 2006
Sorry this post isn't about airplanes. Stop now if you don't want to hear what's going on in Lebanon.
CNN Anchor Anderson Cooper was given a tour by Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon and reported
an explicit example of media manipulation.
[
Jonah Goldberg via Instapundit] They where
shown a line of ambulances and allowed to talk to the drivers. ...
And then one by one, they told the ambulances to turn on their sirens and to zoom off, and people taking that picture would be reporting, I guess, the idea that these ambulances were zooming off to treat civilian casualties, when in fact, these ambulances were literally going back and forth down the street just for people to take pictures of them.
Almost never in war does one side win by completely annihilating the other. Wars are won when one side is caused to have enough self-doubt that they quit fighting. The old method to cause this doubt was killing in battle. The new method is by using the media to generate this self-doubt.
We didn't learn that lesson when we "lost" Vietnam in 1975, amazingly three years after our military had left the country. Today, the West is condoning media manipulation in Lebanon (by the tactic of "civilian" casualties), and in Iraq (by the tactic of random acts of violence). The United States and Israel have militaries that allow us to win any battle we participate in. But our countries no longer have the stomach to control the modern media that is the Achilles heel that guarantees we will lose in war.
A free news media will always report "Man bites dog" stories over "Dog bites man" stories. It's not news when the West wins in battle, because we're expected to win. But it is news when a bunch of thugs "beats" an invincible Western Army. Thus the media will instinctively, with no forethought or conspiracy, report the thugs as victorious, while constantly critiquing our Army until we become filled with self-doubt and quit. A Victorious West is not news, but a victorious non-uniformed rabble *is* news, and the media is guaranteed to spin it that way until it becomes reality.
Posted 22:32 GMT by Dennis Collins
Avgas, at around $4/gal is getting to be one of the problems slowing the aviation industry. I'm amazed that the recent BP announcement that they will shut down parts of their feed lines in their Prudhoe Bay production field has gotten so little attention. There are predictions that this could drive auto gas prices from around $3/gal to $4/gal.
US gasoline consumption is at 383 million gallon per *day*. If this issue goes on for 4 months, that would make the cost to US consumers for this small problem over $45 BILLION dollars.
Now, the reason they're shutting down the pipelines is because they're afraid of another oil spill similar to a leak in March that spilled 270,000 barrels on the precious tundra. In other words, they're going to charge Americans $45 BILLION dollars, merely because a short feed line that has been operating continually for 30 years *might* break before it can be replaced.
I say, to hell with the risk to a few grass plants, pump that damn oil. The grass will grow back, even if it takes centuries. The Earth is 4 billion years old, a little oil spilled here or there is meaningless against such time scales.
The Lancair needs Avgas, and I see no reason to pay high prices for it merely because there's some small chance of making a mess in a frozen swamp somewhere.
Posted 16:32 GMT by Dennis Collins
Gander Newfoundland airport, a common refueling stop on trans-atlantic flights, could close.
Posted 16:16 GMT by Dennis Collins
The Russians will build you a brand new A-40 Albatross (NATO code name: Mermaid) for $22 mil.
Posted 16:06 GMT by Dennis Collins
The Abraham Lincoln returns to port.
USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) returned to her homeport of Everett, Wash., Aug. 8 following a five-and-a-half month deployment to the Western Pacific.
The Abe is such a huge ship that the sailors standing in formation spelling "RIMPAC2006" can just barely be seen. Click on the image to download a huge copy suitable for a screensaver or printing.
Posted 15:49 GMT by Dennis Collins
Aussies push for "open skies" airline agreement with the US.
Posted 15:37 GMT by Dennis Collins
The Greensboro, NC HondaJet site will not just build aircraft, but host a new Honda division.
Posted 15:33 GMT by Dennis Collins
My internet connection died last night so no posting. Sorry.
Posted 15:30 GMT by Dennis Collins
August 9, 2006
Honda Aircraft Co. will be based in Greensboro, North Carolina
Posted 14:32 GMT by Dennis Collins
August 8, 2006
ILS failed at LAX this morning, cutting arrival rate in half.
Posted 20:33 GMT by Dennis Collins
Hezbollah fires UAV weapon at Israel. It was believed to be an Iranian "Ababil".
Update 3:
Third try to get the UAV type. Fox News now says this was what was shot down over the ocean
heading for Tel Aviv.
Posted 19:50 GMT by Dennis Collins
The Washington Post says that the student pilot population has gone from a high of 200,000 down to 87,200 in 2005.
"Today's youth don't want to do anything that is so regimented" as learning to fly, [Jerry] Sprayberry said. "When I was young, aviation had some adventure to it.
This is one reason why I'm talking up Air Racing. By definition there can be no "regimentation", in an air race, because no one knows who's going to win. The Reno Air Race is the most exciting aviation spectacle that you can ever see. Not because it's dangerous, but because it's unrehearsed. When you watch an aerobatic display at Oshkosh, you know the pilot is doing something they've practiced literally hundreds of times. Ho hum. But at Reno, you don't know who's going to win, and who's going to blow up an engine and deadstick their P-51 in front of you with oil all over the windshield.
If the SuperBowl were rehearsed, where every play was pre-ordained on someone's script, would you watch it? That's the difference between an ordinary air-show and an Air Race. Even the AirVenture Cup could have been exciting, had we actually been presented to the audience, and not had to sneak into the airport with no notice. My wife was there when we landed at Oshkosh, 60 air racers, on July 23, and no one she asked knew anything about any air race, or even that there had been one.
EAA's CopperState fly-in will be held in a couple of months. They used to have a "CopperState Dash" race, but apparently not this year. While across the Atlantic, 1.5 million spectators showed up to watch a Red Bull air race. Granted, the private pilots in an EAA sponsored event aren't going to do what the Red Bull racers do. But it might be a wee bit exciting, and non-regimented, if the Air Racers could finish to some audience attention at Oshkosh Show Center. Or even have a race at all at CopperState.
Here's a "Big Crowd" at Oshkosh, only a hundred yards from Show Center, when the heavily promoted Blue Angels did a fly-by.
Here's a "Big Crowd" at a Red Bull Air Race. This screen shot is from a video, and the shoreline video of the standing room only crowd by the water went on forever.
Posted 18:42 GMT by Dennis Collins
UAV Safety. More information on the Predator B crash in April. The UAV passed as close as 100 feet over houses before crashing, after the operator shut the engine down at 14,000 feet.
Posted 04:33 GMT by Dennis Collins
Aviatrix Canada on Communication.
By the way, don't try to keep track of where I am or build a map of the company routes based on the names I assign to the airports. I make up new ones for each posting, and when I reuse the same names, they aren't necessarily applied to the same bases. I'm trying to give you the same feeling of complete bewilderment that I experience daily.
Posted 04:18 GMT by Dennis Collins
We flew to Sedona AZ for breakfast this morning. Some folks from here at AZ82 met us on the way and took a few pictures.
I haven't removed the AirVenture Cup Race livery yet. I've been checking into whether there will be a Copperstate Dash this fall, so I might still need it.
Posted 03:19 GMT by Dennis Collins
August 7, 2006
A bit off the subject, but today is the World Wide Web's 15th birthday. The article mentions that the telephone took 70 years to achieve widespread acceptance, and many other common technologies took similar long times. Since I'm an eternal optimist, I think the web has only just begun.
Posted 21:04 GMT by Dennis Collins
Coronado, Calif. (Aug. 3, 2006) – Family members of a pilot assigned to the Roughnecks of Fleet Logistics Support Squadron Three Zero (VRC-30) Detachment Two, carry his flight gear during a homecoming at Naval Air Station North Island. VRC-30 is returning from a five-month deployment to the Western Pacific aboard USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72). U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Dustin Kelling
Posted 20:45 GMT by Dennis Collins
Airman 1st Class Matt Aggers (left) and Staff Sgt. Randy Broome perform a final check of the stowed twin wings on four ground-training Guided Bomb Unit-39 small-diameter bombs loaded on an F-15E Strike Eagle at Royal Air Force Lakenheath, England, on Aug. 1. (U.S. Air Force photo/Master Sgt. Lance Cheung)
Posted 20:31 GMT by Dennis Collins
Bonehead media headline of the week:
Jet stalls in Angola after run-in with goose
Posted 03:04 GMT by Dennis Collins
Federal Court OKs expansion of Chicago O'Hare.
Ruling against two Chicago suburbs, a church and several people, a federal appeals court Friday kept the green light on for Chicago Mayor Richard Daley to press onward with a $15 billion expansion of O'Hare International Airport.
I only hope that there is no federal money for this paid with my tax dollars. After Meigs field, screw Mayor Daley. I still make it a point not to connect through Chicago when I'm flying in the Big Bus.
Posted 02:25 GMT by Dennis Collins
If you watch closely, you may be able to see a major tectonic shift in how people fly. Skeptics of the VLJ and common air-taxi flying rightly point out that, "air taxi" operations have existed for as long as airplanes. Why should things be different now?
It's tempting to think that in the early days of aviation, companies built big airplanes on a whim, and entrepreneurs bought them because all of them simultaneously, and for no particular reason, got the idea that people would want to fly on an airline. Why did this confluence of ideas all come together at one time? The answer is: Promotion. And we are now witnessing a massive promotion effort that aviation hasn't seen in more than 50 years.
The National Aviation Hall of Fame has honored pilots, aircraft designers, manufacturers and astronauts, virtually all of them "hands on" with an airplane or the airplane business. One of those people did none of those things, Will Rogers. Will never even owned an airplane. What he did was promote aviation, almost every day. Rogers had a daily syndicated newspaper column in hundreds of newspapers, including the front page of the New York Times. And when he spoke live, as he did perhaps thousands of times all across the country, he would talk up aviation.
Because of his promotion, and promotion from others, people invested in airports, manufacturers, and airlines. People invested their time to learn how to fly. All of them "knew" that airplanes were the Next Big Thing and they were all determined to be a part of it.
I'm not sure the source of the VLJ Air Taxi promotion, but you can see the results everywhere in media such as ABC News, The Charlotte Observer, Business Wire, All Headline News, Forbes, Jackson Hole Star-Tribune, The Sunday Times UK (that thinks that Honda has the market lead), The New York Times, Albany Times Union, FOX News, Scotsman UK, International Herald Tribune, and the Earthtimes.org, to name a few from Google. And I left out the obvious aviation media sites, as well as New Mexico sites near the Eclipse factory. These are all "outside" media talking to potential Air Taxi customers, and there were many more.
Many of these articles are skeptical about whether this VLJ Air Taxi idea will work or not. But that's OK. As they say, any media is good media, just as long as they mention your name.
All this attention has built a critical mass of manufacturers, operators and investors, which make the success of Very Light Jets self-fulfilling. These people will spend whatever money, and bend whatever politicians ear that it takes to make this a success.
Despite the huge inertia of the regulatory agencies, the airlines, the unions, and the rock hard training we have all had in "how we do things", I'm convinced that this will bring about major changes. All those bright ideas of "highway in the sky" and off loading aircraft separation duties from ATC will happen, but not because they're a superior method of handling air traffic, but because the old ways simply won't work with the traffic load that's coming.
The aircraft industry is living in interesting times.
Posted 00:51 GMT by Dennis Collins
August 6, 2006
Marine MV-22 Ospreys back from England.
Posted 16:23 GMT by Dennis Collins
Winner of the Bronze Lindy at Oshkosh for plans built airplane was an 18 year old, who started his Baby Ace project at 14.
Posted 16:10 GMT by Dennis Collins
ANN posted a non-story today. They headline a doom-and-gloom article that NASA's new Aries rockets will have the same foam as the Shuttle external tank (Oh *NO*). Then they go on to admit that the foam can't hurt anything, because there are no space shuttle re-entry tiles for it to hit.
Funny.
Posted 15:28 GMT by Dennis Collins
August 5, 2006
Arkansas Air Museum looking for new director.
Posted 13:59 GMT by Dennis Collins
Aviatrix Canada flies north,
Even More North, to the land of Infinite White.
Click here for >>>
Part 1,
Part 2,
Part 3.
Posted 13:51 GMT by Dennis Collins
Dave from Phoenix has another incredible image at "Flight Level 390".
Click the link for Dave's blog and click again on the image there for something big enough for a screen saver.
Posted 13:43 GMT by Dennis Collins
Natural gas drilling will begin at DFW airport.
Posted 13:38 GMT by Dennis Collins
August 4, 2006
Marthe Richard, a contemporary of Mata Hari, spy, double agent, pathological liar, former prostitute, the politician that outlawed brothels in Paris, ... and the sixth woman in the world to pilot an airplane.
Above is the movie poster from the 1937 french movie (mostly fiction) about her service as a spy.
Posted 21:27 GMT by Dennis Collins
Space Station astronauts on a space walk now, doing a little construction.
You can watch NASA TV here.
Posted 17:22 GMT by Dennis Collins
Cute new LSA from Ion Aircraft.
Rollout earlier this year.
Posted 13:47 GMT by Dennis Collins
Honeywell develops "Micro Air Vehicle" with the ability to "perch and stare".
Posted 03:51 GMT by Dennis Collins
New EA-18G "Growler" begins testing at Patuxent River.
Patuxent River, Md. (Aug. 2, 2006) - A new era in Naval Aviation begins with the first EA-18G Growler aircraft. The next-generation electronic attack aircraft, for the U.S. Navy, combines the combat-proven F/A-18 Super Hornet with a state-of-the-art electronic warfare avionics suite. The EA-18G will feature an airborne electronic attack suite based on Northrop Grumman's Improved Capability III system, a radically new jamming and information warfare system. The EA-18G is expected to enter initial operational capability in 2009. U.S. Navy photo
Posted 03:40 GMT by Dennis Collins
Oshkosh attendance was a mere 650,000. Just a small get-together, as usual.
Posted 00:30 GMT by Dennis Collins
August 3, 2006
Cessna's Next Generation Piston aircraft.
The artwork doesn't show as much detail as some of the telephoto fly-by images, but it's pretty. Note they completely blacked out the side where the four doors are.
More artwork of the LSA. Click the images for full size versions.
Posted 23:58 GMT by Dennis Collins
The Farnborough Aircraft "F1 Kestrel", single engine turboprop, made it's first flight July 29.
This image is pre-first-flight computer generated. Go to the link for actual flight pictures.
Posted 16:25 GMT by Dennis Collins
March AFB uses falcons to keep birds off the aerodrome.
Birdman Alan Colussy, 30, commands a squadron of four trained falcons -- Moose, Sierra, India and Nimbus -- to terrorize birds posing a danger to aircraft at the Riverside County base.
Posted 01:30 GMT by Dennis Collins
First commercial flight out of Mogadishu, Somalia in 11 years.
Posted 01:26 GMT by Dennis Collins
August 2, 2006
Gulfstream announces "synthetic vision" flight display.
Microsoft has been selling flight simulator software for 25 years, letting 10 year old kids land airliners at LAX. GPS has been operational for 10 years, and finally someone has figured out that if you put the two together it might make flying easier.
Posted 14:36 GMT by Dennis Collins
Louisiana man hacks into Korean Satellite.
Posted 14:26 GMT by Dennis Collins
Cessna claims LSA prototype wildly popular.
Posted 14:18 GMT by Dennis Collins
Global warming is caused by airliners.
I'm just glad there isn't three miles of ice covering New England any more. I wonder how those Neanderthals got rid of it?
Posted 01:56 GMT by Dennis Collins
Push to raise mandatory airline pilot retirement to 65
Posted 01:45 GMT by Dennis Collins
LAX moving 25L 55 feet south.
Posted 01:41 GMT by Dennis Collins
August 1, 2006
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