Like many pilots, I still haven’t gotten my head around all the details related to the Next Generation National Airspace System. EAA AirVenture Oshkosh, I figured, would be the perfect place to learn more about its components, like ADS-B, the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast system, and have the people who really know paint me a big picture of how they all work together.

Imagine my surprise when a line-by-line reading of the forum schedule revealed just four NextGen presentations, none of them delivered by the people building the new system, and one of them, “Next Generations Homebuilts: Just Build Them,” while extremely interesting, had nothing to do with the NextGen system.

On Monday, Jamie Luster of FreeFlight Systems, which makes ADS-B equipment for store-bought and amateur-built airplanes discussed “ADS-B Ruling and Equipage.” He explained the differences between the two systems, Out, which will one day replace less precise ground radar stations, and In, which will bring weather and traffic info to the cockpit (one day in the now seemingly distant future). On Friday, David Zwegers, director of aviation safety at Embry-Riddle’s Daytona Beach campus discussed “ADS-B: What’s in it for me?” He showed how the GPS-based system will help accident investigation and prevention.

The most interesting of the four was Steve Fulton’s Tuesday showcase of serpentine instrument approaches through valleys to extreme mountain airports in China and New Zealand clearly demonstrated what performance-based navigation brings to NextGen. A Technical Fellow for GE Aviation Systems, he is co-founder of Naverus Inc., which created the PBN approaches to these extreme airports. Afterwards, on my way to the FAA hangar, out of curiosity I passed through the Federal Pavilion. There I stumbled on NOAA’s Role in the NextGen system, which equaled the PBN forum because weather is often a daily challenge.

Captivated, I joined a handful of people paying attention to the NOAA staffer. Weather causes 70 percent of aviation delays, and to overcome this, NextGen will better integrate the weather offices with ATC so that route selection will be proactive, not reactive. He expertly and patiently answered all questions, except one: he didn’t know why his presentation was not listed anywhere that I could find. He answered my last question, about the inefficiency of bureaucratic silos with a diplomatic shrug of his shoulders.

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That Future of Flight Training session at AirVenture a few weeks ago left me feeling pretty cranky … whiny even.  Not because of the session itself. All the folks on the panel, including moderator Greg Laslo, couldn’t have been nicer.

But we all walked away from the discussion with the same thought … now what? Considering the lousy turnout, as Scott Spangler mentioned last week, I left wondering how anything we spoke about could in any way affect how the management types view flight training or its foundational position within the industry?

So here’s an idea, let’s not make the argument for flight training any longer.

Let’s focus the light where it really needs to be, on the Big Picture, where everyone claims they’re looking anyway.

Without pilots, there is no aviation industry, period. No Part 135 charter, no corporate flight departments, no sightseeing flights and most of all, no airlines … nothing.

We need to stop pussy footing around trying to grab a few new students here and there to fly our shiny new Cessnas, and Cirrus SR-22s and Piper Warriors. Let’s be serious, none of the previous incarnations of any Learn-to-Fly programs have ever come even close to returning us to the old days when 17,000 new airplanes were delivered in a year and a commensurate number of pilot starts kept the Government Printing Office in business producing student pilot certificates. We’re all so focused on Learn-to-Fly though as the solution as if the only audience we need to succeed with are those potential customers for flight schools.

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On many levels the 2010 Electric Aircraft World Symposium was a surprise. Sponsored by GE Aviation and held at the EAA museum on AirVenture Friday, I expected a geek fest with a small audience of a hundred or less, because that’s the space available in the Founder’s Wing, the symposium’s original location. But when I hoofed my way to the museum, I saw Kermit Week’s Mosquito parked outside. Being an old all-wood airplane, I’ve never seen EAA do that before. The reason, I soon discovered, is that three or four times as many people had signed up, so they moved all the airplanes out of the Eagle Hangar (except for the XP-51), to make room for everyone.

The symposium delivered on my geek-fest expectations. Sitting at one of the round tables up front, three engineers networked and shared highlights of their careers and their most challenging projects. The agenda for the day-long event essentially followed the same path, with speakers from GE Aviation, Sikorsky Innovations, Tesla Motors, NASA, and electric aircraft builders including John Monnett and Pete Buck, the driving force behind Sonex e-Flight Initiative. Batteries were the primary topic of discussion, and Bertrand Piccard and Solar Impulse pilot Andre Borschberg talked about their project and the historic overnight flight of its photovoltaic flying machine that has a circumnavigation dream.

While the technical information was interesting, a good primer on a field that grows ever more important with time, the keynote speaker, Burt Rutan, started with what we might see in Electric Flight: The Next 10 Years. Yes, he said, electric flight is now impractical, “but you have to start someplace.” To see where it first might deliver a commercial application, he suggested a YouTube search for 3D flight, what pilots flying electric RC models call fixed-wing hovering and stationary rolls made possible when an airplane has more power than weight.

Noting that he’d been coming to Oshkosh forever, Rutan said he stopped watching the daily air shows decades ago because they are loud, boring, and repetitive, with all the performers doing the same maneuvers in different combinations. (I’m right there with you, Burt.) Just imagine, he said, spinning the dream, of aerobats flying silent 3D performances  in scaled-up electric powered airplanes, like those seen on YouTube. “That is,” Burt said, nodding toward FAA Administrator Randy Babbit, who welcomed the symposium participants and said the FAA was a willing partner in the e-flight effort, “if Randy will let us do it.”

It’s my guess that 3D airplane flight will fly with the FAA long before 3D helicopter demos, another YouTube look at the future. Sustained inverted flight and other maneuvers must make the Red Bull aerobatic helo jealous, and it gives the team at Sikorsky Innovations something to shoot for, and I can’t wait! –Scott Spangler

Given the underwhelming participation at an 1130  panel discussion about the subject the Saturday of AirVenture Oshkosh, the general answer must be a big, boldfaced NO.

For the discussion of  How to Grow the Pilot Population, just seven of the nearly 100 seats in the Learn to Fly Discovery Center’s presentation area  were occupied, by 2.5 reporters and 3.5 independent flight instructors (JetWhine Editor Rob Mark was, as usual, the multitasker). The National Association of Flight Instructors organized the panel, and its chairman, Ken Hoffman, completed the audience.

Some industry members proved that they truly care about pilot population growth by participating in the panel. The moderator, NAFI Mentor Editor Greg Laslo, introduced them from the audience’s left to right:

Julie Filucci, a long-time CFI, manages the Cessna Pilot Center program, and she handed out a friendly, informative learn-to-fly booklet, You Were Never Destined to be a Passenger. With more than three decades in the flight training industry, Bob Anderson manages the Remos Aircraft Sport Pilot Center program. Jennifer Storm is AOPA’s director of public relations—and a flight instructor. Eric Radtke is president (and chief flight instructor) of Sporty’s Academy. And Jason Blair, NAFI’s executive director, is a CFI, designated pilot examiner, and flight school owner. Read the rest of this entry »

An EAA AirVenture Oshkosh participant every year since 1978, I started spending the week there in 1989, when I began a decade-long tenure as Flight Training magazine’s booth boy.  I spent roughly half that time in the old exhibit buildings, now the Federal Pavilion and GE Aviation Learning Center, and the remainder in one of the current exhibit hangars.

To pass the time when not talking to readers, and when roaming the aisles on my breaks, I began to take note of the changes from year to year. In the early years, when aviation was growing and stuffing another exhibitor into the old sheds seemed impossible, EAA built the new exhibit hangars and redesigned the outside spaces. And they quickly filled up.

Over the past three years the signs of an eroding aviation industry have been slight, but this year they were shockingly apparent, especially when I walked into Hangar C. Vast pools of open floor spilled from each of the large doorways. The aisles between exhibitors were maybe a third wider than last year, and for the first time in my memory some aisles were formed by the backside of the other aisle’s booths.

The migration of exhibitors with tenuous ties to aviation from the Flymart to the exhibit hangars has been gradual—and constant. Given the economy and the decline of the pilot population, this trend will surely continue. Some of the products displayed, demonstrated, and for sale were pretty cool, however. My favorite was this electric powered RC model that reminded me of the flying machines in Avatar.

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Sometimes we bloggers simply talk too much trying to express how we feel about something like AirVenture when simply letting the story tell itself works much better.

With that clever insight in mind, may I present for your review, a few photos that made me realize what a special place – what a special experience – traveling to this town is each and every year. Hint: It’s the people!

Rob Mark, editor

Airspeed Editor Steve Tupper prepares a special brew at the Sennheiser, Jetwhine, MyTransponder party Thursday night

The week started out a tad wet. Forget tad, it was a watery mess and will surely affect overall attendance figures

Father and son management team – John (l), Jeremy (r) at Sonex Aircraft that won a portion of the Lindberg prize for their electric aircraft initiative

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For the decade I’ve lived just outside of Oshkosh, my favorite excursion of EAA AirVenture Oshkosh always takes place on Day 0. Otherwise known as setup up day, this year was little different, all because of the weather.

To say we’ve had a little rain is an understatement. In just July more than  10 inches has fallen, breaking a record set in 1912. Water has always been a problem during the 30-plus years I’ve been tramping around the grounds, but the subterranean system EAA installed in and around the exhibit areas worked great!

That doesn’t help the outlying areas where 10,000 airplanes park and campers numbering into five figures live for the week. The mass arrivals of Cessna, Bonanzas, Mooneys, and Cherokees didn’t happen, and the North 40 was barren on Day 0, aside from a few campers on the high ground at the west end.

But the sun was out all day, and EAA was doing its best to dry things out, so why don’t you take a (silent) walk with me…and end up at the Sonex Aircraft open house for a look at the Hornet’s Nest updates on the SubSonex jet,  now a three-wheeler, and the single-seat Sonex, the Onex.  If you’d like to take a photographic stroll with me, click more…

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As I write this, the start of EAA AirVenture Oshkosh is five days away. Between the daily rain showers and afternoon thunderstorms (yes, it’s pretty soggy here) the air is growing increasingly alive with the sound of engines I seldom hear during the rest of the year.

If you plan to be a member of this airborne symphony, or in the automotive conga line snaking its way into Wittman Regional Airport, and you’re free at 1130 on Wednesday, July 28, I urge you to visit the Learn-To-Fly Discovery Center for a panel discussion on the Future of Flight Training.

The LTF Discovery Center is on Main St., which connects the main gain to AeroShell Square, where all the big, cool airplanes are. And the discussion should be lively, which is one reason why (I think) NAFI Executive Director Jason Blair invited me to participate.

When he called to seek my participation, Jason, a loyal JetWhine reader, specifically mentioned some of my previous posts and said something about my not seeing the world with ordinary eyes. I’m not so sure of that, so you be the judge—here are my some of my recent training related posts:

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AirVenture 2010 will soon be home to thousands of airplanes, hundreds of thousands of people and dozens and dozens of great programs all designed to stimulate just about anyone’s curiosity about all things aviation. For the social-media curious, there’s something new this year … collaboration … with an attitude!

Jetwhine is teaming up with the Airplane Geeks, Flightblogger and MyTransponder to build an interactive session that answers the social-media question to which everyone wants an answer; how can we stop wasting time and money noodling with Facebook, Twitter and blogs and solve some of the real customer-engagement problems facing our industry.

The panel begins at 4 PM on Tuesday July 27^th in Pavilion 6 just north of the control tower and runs until 5:15 PM. That means we’ll run concurrently with the airshow so arrive early to get a seat up front.

Our panelists include Rob Mark and Scott Spangler from Jetwhine, Rod Rakic from MyTransponder, Dan Webb from the Airplane Geeks and Jon Ostrower from Flight Global. All are experienced social media practitioners who will tell us where social media’s headed and what your company needs to know to stay one-step ahead of your competitor.

If you’re “just” a social media aficionado hoping to follow the action or meet the experts, you’re most welcome to join us and listen in. But we also hope you’ll add your two cents to the discussion.

Whether you plan to join us or not, do send along a real-life aviation problem that social media has solved for you, or an area the industry needs to focus on where engaging huge groups of people might just be the answer for you or your company.

And just for fun, we’ll be auditioning a guest host for a future Airplane Geeks show, so plan to rehearse your best elevator pitch before next Tuesday about why YOU should be our choice. We’ll also have some Airplane Geeks T-Shirts to give away and of course, some of those incredible Jetwhine buttons to impress your friends at the show.

All our panelists should be on Twitter during the show by the way. Rob Mark’s @jetwhine, Dan Webb’s @danwebbage, Jon Ostrower’s @flightblogger and Rod Rakic is @mytransponder.

See you next week. And we’ll even tell you the meaning of #OSH10 in today’s title.

Rob Mark, editor

It seems that the capabilities of unmanned aerial vehicles will soon be complete. On July 1, DARPA announced a $33 million dollar contract for Northrop Grumman to demonstrate autonomous aerial refueling using two NASA Global Hawks.

The company will retrofit the UAVs with a probe-and-drogue system, with one being the tanker and the other being thirsty. The company didn’t give a lot of information on what it meant by autonomous, so let’s assume that the two UAVs will be programmed to meet at a specific location and time and the onboard systems will take it from there.

Just to make the accomplishment special, to quote the release, the refueling will “take place at a much higher altitude than has been previously demonstrated with manned aircraft. It will also be the first time that [high altitude, long endurance] UAVs have flown in formation.”

One wonder’s how high? Given manned tanker performance, most midair refueling takes place between 20,000 and 35,000 feet? (What say you experts in JetWhine land with first-hand experience?) The Global Hawk’s service ceiling is 65,000 feet, and unrefueled it has a published endurance of 36 hours.

The notice said the technology that makes this autonomous feat possible will benefit manned flight as well because it will reduce pilot workload. Yeah, automation does that.

As previously discussed (See UAV Pilot Shortage & Military Intelligence, UND Plants Seed of No-Pilot Airliners, and  No-Pilot Aircraft Go Vertical & Hover) it may eventually affect the military and civilian job market, or at least change a pilot’s job description. And let’s not forget another Global Hawk First: FAA clearance for operation in US national airspace.  –Scott Spangler

Each year since 2006 as AirVenture approaches, I take a minute to look back on the new friends I’ve made through our social media contacts on Twitter as well as here at Jetwhine. The blog is almost four years old, while my “Jetwhine” Twitter account was opened just before AirVenture 2008.

If I look back on any of the new relationships with a bit of extra fondness though, it would be the meet up I’ve had with the Airplane Geeks. I’ve been a closet radio guy all my life, so connecting with people all over the globe each week means something pretty special to me. My thanks to my other Geek buddies, Max, David, Dan here in the states and those two loonies Grant and Steve in the outback down under.

One thing we’ve noticed at the Geeks recently is a real rise in the amount of listener mail, as well as the downloads which of course tells us we must be on the right track.  People approaching us to be see if they can be a guest on the show also means a tip of the hat to my comrades for their hard work.

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One joy of small town living is our ability to watch the annual Independence Day fireworks from our deck when we don’t feel like joining the crowd counted in the thousands. Staged at a riverside park just a bit more than a quarter-mile away, as the Canada geese fly, most of the show  blossoms above the trees in multicolored galaxies of color and sound.

Between our ohhs and ahhs, my wife and I somehow started reminiscing about memorable birthday displays on previous July 4ths.  The mental movie of July 4, 1974 instantly started playing in my Cranial Cineplex. What made the show—shows, actually—is that I watched them from above.

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Flight instructors who can remember the answers that returned a passing score on the Fundamentals of Instruction test they had to take should be able to tell you that Rote is the first of four levels of learning. If they possess a good memory (or they took the test a few days ago), they might actually be able to parrot its FAA-approved definition: “The ability to repeat something which one has been taught, without understanding or being able to apply what has been learned.”

In simpler, more concise terms: Monkey See, Monkey Do.

Correlation is the highest level of learning. It means you employ all  previous learning and make relevant connections to aspects of a new situation and derive the proper response to what one might call a learning experience.  In between the first and last steps are Understanding, which is the ability to comprehend or grasp the nature or meaning of something, and Application, the act of using something learned and understood. 

Despite claims to the contrary, most aspects of aviation rarely step beyond rote. By not correlating the lessons learned from past experiences to new challenges, we’re bound to repeat our past actions, with the outcome a predictable route to prosaic mediocrity. If you doubt that rote is a contributing factor to more than a century of aviation tradition unimpeded by progress (another name for learning through correlation), permit me a few examples.

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Last weekend I had the honor of being a guest on Airplane Geeks, thanks to my JetWhine.com co-conspirator Rob Mark, who is one of the quartet of regulars. It was my inaugural podcast (Episode 101), and I greatly enjoyed the wide ranging aviation conversation, and I hope they invite me back.

In getting to know each other, Max Flight, the lead geek, asked about my other aviation activities. In the course of talking about the different aviation and non-aviation subjects I write about, I mentioned that writing for JetWhine was my favorite aviation gig.

The geek quartet seemed surprised at this. So I explained that this exquisite forum gives me the freedom to report and comment on the many facets of aviation I find interesting, unrestrained by the narrow editorial focus of most print and many online publications.

Pondering this self-inflicted epiphany during my celebratory post-podcast whiskey and cigar, publishing’s parochial focus makes sense in a media-rich environment. This outlook also seems to describe many who read them. If something doesn’t apply to their narrow aviation interest, they dismiss or ignore it. I wonder how this attitude has affected aviation to date. It certainly hasn’t done much for American politics.

For decades the slices have been fighting for a dominant share of the shrinking aviation pie. The conflicts are many: When it comes to paying for the national airspace system it’s the airlines versus general aviation. Airport access  issues often pit business against recreational aviators. Military and civilians take sides on who can use what airspace. Things get more contentious when the mix involves helicopters, light-sport aircraft, amateur-built experimental aircraft, powered parachutes, and weight-shift trikes.

Has anyone really considered the consequences of this internecine squabbling and parochial view of the world? The “surprise” of AB-48 is, perhaps, the most recent example of what can happen when people don’t think about their connections to the outside world—and events taking place there that might affect them. (See Pay Attention to California School Regs.) The evitable introduction of UAVs into American airspace is surely the next donnybrook.

Collectively, aviation is a minority in the economic and political tableau of American life.  To survive the growing challenges we all face, it makes sense that the tiny slices of aviation unite as a whole pie of mutual support to prosper in an ever demanding world. But given the entrenched narrow  interests of its participants, I wonder, is this possible? – Scott Spangler

In an era when airlines report $2.7 Billion in fresh baggage-fee revenue from work they used to handle for free, is anything sacred? Probably not.

In the U.S. though, Fixed Base Operators (FBO) still give away plenty for free and we all know it. But those days might just be coming to a end … and they probably should.

At last week’s Florida Aviation Trades Association Convention in St. Augustine, a discussion evolved not simply about how companies in a variety of other industries were learning from the airlines concept of fee for service, but that also like our friend Pogo mentioned here, we have probably to some degree wreaked this havoc as an industry on ourselves.

Imagine renting a car these days – no cheap item in Florida I might add – and telling them you’d like some cookies brought out when you arrive, along with some bottled water, ice for the first leg of your trip, newspapers to read during your next break 300 miles away and then too, perhaps a young intern to come out and vacuum the vehicle again because it’s not quite up to your standards.

They might laugh, but if they’re smart, they’ll give you everything you ask for … along with a nice little invoice for their efforts before you go.

The Way it Should Be?

I visited a swanky FBO outside London in March while I was there for a conference. Beautiful facility by almost any standards. In fact, the FBO at Farnborough is considered one of the best in the world. They’ll do anything for you. But they’ll charge you for almost every thing. Want to tanker fuel to save a buck, expect a ramp fee. Like to read the morning newspapers while waiting for the boss? Buy them. (I’ve actually watched pilots read an entire newspaper and then give it back to the girl at the desk because they were too cheap to buy it. Read the rest of this entry »

Is it karma that led NPR to broadcast a story on the dwindling number of student pilots in June? It reported an FAA estimate that this year’s number of student pilot certificates would total less than 60,000, a “10 year low.” If you remember, June 1989 was the inauguration of the annual National Learn to Fly Month, and that year the FAA issued 142,554 student certificates.

The FAA only posts 10 years of airman numbers, but GAMA’s Statistical Databook  archive provides FAA numbers back to 1964, and less than 60,000 student certificates is not just a decade low but an all-time low. Student certificates peaked at 209,406 in 1968 and reached an all-time high of 210,180 in 1979. They have been in decline since then, falling  into five figures in 1994. 

These numbers are student certificates issued. No one really knows how many students eventually earned a pilot certificate. And no one really knows how many quit before they got their student certificate, typically just before solo. (See General Aviation Won’t Find Future Pilots in Rear View Mirror.) An anecdotal presolo dropout guesstimation is 50 to 80 percent, so adding that  to the number of certificates issued means somewhere between 315,270 and 378,324 people started flying lessons in 1979.

A question more pressing than the accurate number of those who dropped out or completed training or is why are increasingly fewer Americans signing up for training? Looking at the primary factors involved, from training to recreational and career possibilities, the answer seems clear: becoming a pilot is no longer relevant to people today, especially to those who will become the next generation of professional pilots.

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Flight schools and instructors nationwide should be paying close attention to California Assembly Bill 48 (AB-48), which imposes new requirements (and fees that pay for their administration by the Bureau of Private Post-secondary Education) on those who educate pilots aspiring to an aviation career. (Schools and CFIs that teach people to fly for recreation are exempt.) This is legislation that could easily travel to other states. If they want to avoid the situation those in California now face, schools and instructors must break out of their aviation cocoons and get proactive.

Breaking out of the cocoon in critical. AB-48 makes clear that flight schools and instructors are not in the aviation business. They are in the education business, specifically post-secondary education, which AB-48 conventionally  defines: “Postsecondary education” means a formal institutional educational program whose curriculum is designed primarily for students who have completed or terminated their secondary education or are beyond the compulsory age of secondary education, including programs whose purpose is academic, vocational, or continuing professional education.

In response to AB-48 many schools and CFIs say they are already regulated by the FAA. And when it comes to the subject they teach—aviation—that’s true. Nearly three dozen other fields, from acupuncture and auto repair to  engineering and veterinary medicine, are in the same situation. There are an estimated 400,000 students paying more than $4.5 billion in tuition to private post-secondary schools in roughly three dozen career fields, and, like aviation, each of them must meet the minimum  knowledge and skill standards for their chosen field.  AB-48 is all about the business operations at these schools, not the curriculum. (See my previous post on the subject: California Requires Pro Training Standards That Don’t Involve Stick & Rudder Education.)

Aviation was exempt from the old post-secondary regs, and the Initial Statement of Reasons explains why AB-48 “Repeal[ed] section 73470 (FAA Certified Flight Schools) – “This section is obsolete because it is based on the former law.” The same rationale applies to truck drivers and others, so it’s not just about aviation. The tacit reiteration is that AB-48 is not about what a school teaches, but rather the sound operation of an educational institution, which includes protecting students.

Looking at it another way, no matter what their course of study, had private post-secondary schools followed accepted educational business practices, legislators wouldn’t have to impose the requirements on all of them to protect students from the unscrupulous few.

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Pilots earn their certificates for many reasons, but it’s been my experience that they only keep flying after the checkride if they have a goal, a purpose for being airborne more satisfying and fulfilling than the empty aeronautical nourishment of the hundred dollar burger.

For some it’s exploring the backcountry. For others it is aerobatics. And for Steve Wood, it is setting FAI world speed records over a recognized course in this homebuilt Glasair Aviation GlaStar, affectionately known as Goofy, for its N-number N600FY. I’ve mentioned Steve before, in Looking Up to Sustain a Future in Aviation, and noted that he’d set 90 world speed records.

Just before the three-day weekend I got an e-mail from Steve. He mentioned that he’d just run across the March 9 post, and “I thought you might like to know that on 16 April—yes, I took a day off from Sun ‘n Fun—I provisionally set a further 11 FAI World Records bringing my total to 101 records.”

In his usual manner, he planned the out and back flight to Nassau, Bahamas, with precision and attending to the multitude of details required for any record attempt. The success of any record attempt is determined by the planning, he says. To ensure the accuracy of the overhead times at each of the cities to and from the international destination (Nassau), he flies IFR and talks to each tower before the flight.

Five of Steve’s April 16 city pairs were Daytona, Orlando, Titusville, Vero Beach, and Fort Pierce to Nassau, a total one-way distance of roughly 350 nautical miles. On his way home to Spruce Creek, a fly-in community outside of Daytona Beach, he set another five world records from Nassau to the cities he passed over on the way down. Number 11 was a round-trip record between Daytona and Nassau. His top speed was 240.47 km/h (149.43 mph) between Nassau and Titusville. 

“Why did I do this? Well, it’s OK having the most records of any British pilot and the most records set in a US registered homebuilt, etc., etc. But I thought I would be the very first to break the 100 world record barrier. Others may set more records than me in years to come, but now at least I will have been the first to break the 100 record barrier—a bit like breaking the sound barrier for the first time!”

And in the process, he brings attention to the causes for which he flies, Flying Scholarships for the Disabled, Able Flight, and EAA Young Eagles. Most who learn of Steve’s accomplishments are, like me, impressed, thankful…and jealous. Others feel threatened for some insecure reason, and they have whispered to me that Steve sets records for personal glory. My only response is a single-word question: So? And if the whispers get a bit uppity and self-important, I pose another question: What keeps you flying regularly and, more importantly, what have you contributed to the world of flight?” – Scott Spangler

Reflection is an unintended consequence of a wide interest in aviation, and connecting past with present is the EAA AirVenture Oshkosh reunion of the iconic airplane that earns its keep still, even as it approaches its 75th birthday. Some call it the DC-3, others know it as the C-47 or R4D, and it is remanufactured for 21st century service as the BT-67 at Basler Turbo Conversions, across the airport from the AirVenture Grounds.

A mass arrival of this patriarch of aviation is planned for AirVenture’s opening day, Monday, July 25, and an organization—The Last Time—was formed to make it happen, safely and on time. More than 40 of these historic airplanes will gather the weekend before, July 24-26, and a handful of events have been planned at the rendezvous airfield in Rock Falls, Illinois. (The Whiteside County Airport, SQI, is on I-88, the Ronald Reagan Memorial Tollway, 143 nm south-southwest of OSH.)

My first flight was on a mallard-tailed North Central Airlines DC-3, which carried my mother and me, a mid-1950s toddler, to visit grandma in Battle Creek. Later, I spent uncounted hours reading the exploits of pilots who flew it in civilian and military service. Given its uninterrupted tenure and reliable service in even the most dire situations, the DC-3 embodies the ideals of what commercial aviation should be and it is this spirit with which I measure what commercial aviation has become.

And when I read stories like “As Attention Wanders, Rethinking the Autopilot” in the Chicago Tribune and “ Future airline pilots may be less experienced, less ethical, in short supply, NTSB told” in the New York Times, I think of a story Ernie Gann told me, in Hostage to Fortune, I think. He was a new copilot, wrestling with stormy weather through the controls. To simulate lightening, perhaps, his crusty old captain flashed matches to flames before his eyes. 

Ignoring these incendiary distractions Ernie concentrated on flying his beloved DC-3. Less than pleased to be so challenged, he was happy to be sitting in that seat, understanding what a privilege it was.  Oh, how far aviation has come, how much it has gained—and how much it has lost. Maybe aviation today needs to recapture some of the old spirit or, at least, to be reminded of it. A reunion of former civilian and military DC-3 crews and passengers is one of The Last Time’s Whiteside Airport activities. It will be interesting to hear their reflections on the arc of airline progress. –Scott Spangler

Discussion over the state of professional pilot training is continuing several weeks after we posted Pro Pilot Training Evolving to Industry Needs.  Proficiency-based training has been a central theme, as has educating pilots past the bare minimums set forth by the FAA. I knew examples of this existed, but I couldn’t remember where until an online article by the Terra Haute, Indiana, Tribune-Star, ISU Hosting Annual National Intercollegiate Flying Association’s National Competition, jogged my memory.

If you’ve never heard of NIFA, it “was formed for the purposes of developing and advancing aviation education; to promote, encourage and foster safety in aviation; to promote and foster communications and cooperation between aviation students, educators, educational institutions and the aviation industry; and to provide an arena for collegiate aviation competition.”

NIFA members are extra-curricular flight teams at 77 two- and four-year collegiate aviation programs nationwide. They are in 11 regions, and the top finishers in the regional Safety and Flight Evaluation Conferences are this week (May 17-22) competing in the 90th annual national Safecon. In the 1990s I reported on a half-dozen of them, and seeing that the event rules are relatively unchanged, it is still my opinion that these aeronauts are aviation’s best hope for the future. Looking at NIFA’s sponsors, from Cessna and Sporty’s to NBAA and name-brand regional and major carriers, the industry seems to think so, too. 

The most concise explanation why this is true is that these students, most of whom are just a year or two into their aeronautical educations, embody the “beginner’s mind,” as defined by Michael Maya Charles in his exquisite book, Artful Flying.  For them, the minimum performance parameters spelled out in the FAA’s Practical Test Standards are not a final exam but a place to start.

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