Sunny and 42 degrees, the saturated blue sky is the first crack in the Wisconsin winter. Planted in the driveway like a human heliotrope I turned and opened my eyes in search of honking geese and squawking sandhill cranes, pathfinders for northbound flocks. A more mechanical buzz drew my eyes eastward to the effulgent Cessna working its way west.

More than anything I wanted to be aloft with the geese and cranes, basking in the sun that warmed the Cessna’s cockpit. But with a freelancer’s income and two kids in college, for the past half decade, and for how many ears to come,  looking up is as close as I’ll get. But I’m not complaining.

The FAA counts active pilots by current medical certificates. Given the declining numbers, I’m not the only one who let mine lapse. For many of us, flying is something we do for fun, which means it comes after higher priorities, like a roof, food, and providing for the family. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t host a pity party for one on days such as this.

At least I did until I talked to Steve Wood, a pilot who divides his time between the UK and US, and who has set nearly 300 speed records over a closed course, 90 of them FAI-recognized world records. After hearing his story, I realized that what’s most important is that I still look up when a sound, especially a flying-machine-made sound, draws my eyes skyward.

Read the rest of this entry »

When I saw the caller ID this morning with CNN’s address I figured something awful was up. Usually is.

“Can you talk about the Kennedy incident,” the producer asked me? Didn’t sound like she wanted me to talk about the impending runway closure. The young lady wanted my opinion on the kid controlling traffic at JFK last month (click the link below to listen). The father – a fully certified controller at JFK – and his supervisor were suspended for letting a young boy – the controller’s son – plug in to the tower radio with his dad and say “Cleared for takeoff,” and “Contact departure.”

Some callers on the CNN segment today were outraged that a controller would so thoughtlessly endanger the lives of so many people, while others thought a guy giving his son a taste for the job wasn’t a bad idea as long as dad was right there watching over things. And dad was doing just that. The kid never controlled anything. He said the words his dad told him to say, nothing more. And he sounded pretty good to tell you the truth which is why the pilots on frequency loved it.

No one at the upper echelons of the FAA or the controller’s union was laughing however and honestly, there was little else they could say. This looked bad for sure. In retrospect, this was surely a boneheaded thing to do, not because it WAS unsafe, but because it LOOKED unsafe to everyone. And PR is about the way things look, not the way things are.

First a few facts

The controllers at JFK are the Top Gun of their profession, as are the controllers at LaGuardia, Newark, Atlanta, O’Hare and dozens of other towers where controllers probably talk to well over a thousand planes every day. They are quite literally the best of the best. Anyone who’s flown an airplane into any of these cities will confirm that.

Read the rest of this entry »

The sharp increase in the number of accidents involving amateur-built experimental aircraft is the most disturbing piece of data in the recently released 2009 Nall Report. Published by the AOPA Air Safety Foundation, it dissected and analyzed 2008’s GA accidents to identify trends and factors.

Overall, the GA accident rate adjusted proportionally to 2008’s decreased flight time. Homebuilts, however, are about 10 percent of the GA fleet, so their accident and fatality numbers contribute to the overall GA safety rate. Remove—or reduce—the homebuilt data, and GA would have had a much safer year. 

Succinctly, per 100,000 flight hours, in 2008 the homebuilt accident rate  was 5x higher than store-bought airplanes. The fatal rate was 7x higher. Contributing to this is the interesting—but not surprising—fact that nearly twice as many homebuilt accidents were caused by mechanical problems and other causes that often start with a sudden loss of power.

It should be no surprise that this has captured the attention of many, and it won’t be a surprise when they attempt to remedy the problem with an online education effort. Before they invest too much in this, however, I suggest some research because, it seems to me, the Internet could well be a contributing factor to homebuilt accidents. Here’s my logic.

Read the rest of this entry »

The FAA published the final rule on 22 proposed improvements to sport pilot certification and operation in the February 1, 2010 Federal Register.  It’s taken me a month to brew the courage to read it because I felt that a number of them would take sport pilot down the same path the private pilot certificate followed in the last century.

After World War II, the private pilot requirements weren’t that much different from today’s sport pilot ticket. Then the FAA started adding requirements to keep pace with technology, which was only right. One  private ticket should be enough, but the NPRM appeared to put sport pilot on the same path.  Proposing that sport pilots get an hour under the hood violated every concept that led to the creation of this Day/VFR-only ticket. Yeah, new fixed-wing LSAs  have glass up to the simulated IFR training mission, but what’s the point, other than someone thought it was a good idea?

Reading elsewhere that only 150 or so people and AOPA, ASC, EAA, NAFI, and USUA submitted comments didn’t do much to assuage my cynical skepticism. Given the whole of aviation and its problems, sport pilot barely registers in the overall picture. With so few comments, I figured the FAA would approve its proposals and move onto more pressing problems.

Imagine my surprise to read that the FAA withdrew the problematic proposals—including hood time—and approved those that will benefit the greatest number of people. First among them is the use of Special LSAs, like the Cessna Skycatcher, by Part 141 flight schools (see Ground School Delivers Consistent Quality). With the outcomes of these proposals, the FAA has sedated by cynicism and planted a seed of hope for the future.

Read the rest of this entry »

I have a confession.

I’m responsible for much of the hate spewed at my friends Christi Day and Linda Rutherford at Southwest Airlines when a Southwest pilot tossed director Kevin Smith off a flight last week. The aircraft captain decided Smith was too gastronomically challenged to fit into the seat. Smith blogged and Tweeted ( let’s see, what’s a good word for rudely) about being asked to leave the flight which caused the airline no small amount of embarrassment, despite the fact that Rutherford posted a public apology on behalf of Southwest.

All I can say is that I’m really, really sorry to have put my friends in this corner.

I could have prevented this mess if only I’d spoken up about the chunky guy that squished me into a window seat when I climbed aboard a Southwest flight back from San Antonio to Midway through Nashville a few days before. But I didn’t. I was too uncomfortable to ask this guy to move they hell over to his own seat and leave me mine, even with the armrest down. Nope I sat sideways from SAT to BNA with my mouth shut.

And let’s be serious, that’s what this is all about … skinny, wimpy guys like me who don’t want to make a scene because they’re afraid a lunatic chubbo like Smith is going to haul off on them. So we suffer in silence. And we shouldn’t. I’m sorry they’re overweight, but it’s not my fault.

The Southwest people did the right thing by pulling Smith off the flight. Sure they could probably have offered him a free ticket rather than a voucher, but considering Smith’s short fuse, I doubt it would have helped anyway. That’s OK though. As one of my clients told me after the Smith affair, she would never change her mind about Southwest based on the rantings of a guy who had everything to gain for himself – as in free publicity – by going nuts on his blog and Twitter.

That being said, this incident again shows the power of social media on a brand. Ignore it at your peril.

And Christi and Linda. I’ve learned my lesson. I won’t be squished against the window again. I’ll speak up first next time so people like Kevin Smith won’t be able to say that some mean old airline is picking on them. I’ll pick on them first. But I’ll make sure I speak up nicely, using clean persuasive words in case it’s Smith sitting next to me — Rob Mark

At a fundamental level I understand the technology that makes no-pilot, remotely controlled aircraft work. And it seems to work well in fixed-wing aircraft that fly high in the controlled airspace (see UAV Pilot Shortage & Military Intelligence   and UND Plants Seeds of No-Pilot Airliners ). But down in the dirt and among the trees with the rotorheads, who must have 360-degree free-gimbal vision and hands and feet that play different instruments but must make precise music? No way.

Way. A billion bucks way. That’s what United Technologies is putting in Sikorsky Innovations, the effort to create a no-pilot H-60 Black Hawk and other projects to make helos fly faster, simulate vision, and monitor their own performance. The Houston Chronicle headline of the AP story was clear: Sikorsky Helicopter Will Need No Pilot.  

Kaman Aerospace and Lockheed-Martin beat them to it, according to an AP article in the Washington Post a week later: "Lockheed, Kaman Unmanned Helicopter Test a Success.” Fulfilling a Marine contract, the heavy-lift K-Max demonstrated programmed and remote-control flight, hovered at 12,000 feet, and delivered 3,000 pounds of cargo within the time limit. 

For an encore demonstration, with its four-hook carousel the unmanned K-MAX lifted loads with a combined weight of 3,450 pounds. On the single flight it delivered three of the four sling loads to preprogrammed delivery coordinates. A ground operator controlled the final delivery. 

Each demo mimicked the confined area challenges of Afghanistan. If technology can safely meet this challenge, say what you want, but it seems clear that the cockpit of the not too distant future will be a cubicle in some office building.

Read the rest of this entry »

A Global Express pilot friend of mine in Seattle, Val Trent – also an NBAA member – asked me a few weeks ago if I’d like to read something he’d written about the Polar Keyhole. At first, I thought maybe he’d started writing fiction and this was going to be the first installment. I was wrong.

This fascinating piece on the Polar Keyhole will expand the minds of pilots who have never flown way up north as it details some of the peculiarities of the basic magnetic compass we all fly with coupled up with the Flight Management Systems (FMS) found in most turbine-powered aircraft.  Val Trent is a former Army helicopter pilot with some 19,000 hours in his logbook and currently flies a Global Express. The only continent Val’s missed is Antarctica and he says that’s just fine with him.

Please welcome Val Trent to Jetwhine.

Read the rest of this entry »

One of the greatest joys I found in flying was diverting to some intended destination, usually to hide out from the weather. These stops were not an inconvenience to my schedule, they were an opportunity for adventure, to explore someplace I’d never been before, which is why I was happy to land at MachNoneFlying.com, “the online newspaper of low, slow, affordable and fun flying.”

I landed here because powered paragliders fascinate me. A PPG? It’s the fabric wing you wear like a parachute that’s powered by the meat grinder on your back. Yeah, I want to fly one, so I’ve been wandering around this afternoon looking for someplace to learn how, once it gets warmer.

In the PPG section it has a number of embedded videos that took my breath away. In one a Canadian mounted a camera in his canopy, and when he took off from the frozen lake, the snow looked like clouds and reminded me of those shots you see of the Space Shuttle orbiting Earth.

The second appears to be in a warmer clime and season, humming across agricultural lands and coastlines. Ah, now this is flying. No airports, no hangars or tie downs, no ATC, and no traffic. Keep the rig in the truck; freedom as close as humans can approximate to the birds. The ultimate antidote for thaasophobia. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to resume my research. There has to be a PPG school somewhere close. –Scott Spangler

I’ve actually been trying to write this article for quite awhile. It was much tougher than I thought simply because I’m what my wife the psychologist would call conflicted, unsure of where I stood, or at least I was until a few days ago.

If you follow us here, you’ll by now know I wrote a couple of articles on the two Northwest/Delta guys who blew past MSP last October. The Feds quickly decided the best recourse to stem the tide of public paranoia about pilots asleep at the switch was to revoke the certificates of the two cockpit crew members. Surprisingly, even to me, I agreed with the Fed’s decision.

Page 2

So what else is there to say you might be wondering if I’ve already decided that hanging these guys out to dry was the right course of action. That’s where social media all took over.

Although the responses I saw to the NWA story weren’t nearly as acrimonious as some of those from my experiences in West Palm Beach, it was pretty clear that many of you thought I’d lost my mind. I won’t mention any names but let’s just say that all of you are people for which I have an enormous amount of respect.

One said I’d turned quite cynical, another reader said I was crazy and wouldn’t have put up with the Fed’s action if it had happened to me while another said he was surprised overall at how quickly we seem ready to throw our brothers and sisters under a bus when they screw up. Actually, I believe he used the phrase “eating our young,” which made the point pretty graphically I’d say.

So here’s the deal. My job as an editor and a teacher is to comb the industry for topics and issues that Scott and I can both react to in a sort of teaching moment, which is of course, pretty convenient since Scott and I both moonlight as teachers. But a true teacher must also be a good listener. They must be open-minded enough to consider the views of others and maybe, on occasion, rethink a few of their own philosophies. In this case, I think all our readers who told me both online and off that I was goofy might just have been right.

But if I were going to rethink the whole NWA188 issue, I’d need to figure out just why I stood with the Feds, which traditionally I’d never do. Hence, the delay of a couple of months in writing this post. And seriously folks, I woke up a few nights thinking about this so I knew it was serious.

Read the rest of this entry »

Ground school has been—and always will be—the most important part of learning to fly any aircraft. Whether it’s a Skyhawk with steam gauges or a glass-packed Skycatcher, the flying machine itself is just a training aid, the training tool where students practice what they have learned in class.

Despite its importance, the quality of ground school instruction is the greatest variable in the flight training equation. Cessna has removed this variable (at least at its more than 280 Cessna Pilot Centers) with its new Part-141 approved Sport/Private Pilot Course, which went online late last year and delivers consistent, high quality education in a virtual classroom to students when they are in a mood to learn.

Cessna gave us a preview a little more than a year ago (see Next-Gen Challenge: Selling Aviation), but based on the online demo, the company heeded an essential aphorism of success: under promise and over deliver.  Half the credit should go to the good folks at King Schools, Cessna’s educational partner, who developed and maintains (or so it seems, given the URL) the virtual classroom.

Read the rest of this entry »

When I give talks around the country about social media, I always try to mention what I call the primary intangible about these new tools … the opportunity to connect with new people, folks who are often in a position to help a younger person find their way within any industry. I’ve met people both inside and outside of the aviation and marketing world that I would never in my wildest dreams ever had the opportunity to connect with if I had not started my new career a few years ago as a blogger, Tweeter and podcaster.

I’d like to introduce you to one young fellow I recently met through Facebook, my least well organized social media tool by the way.

Art Ramey’s, a junior at the University of Alabama. He’s an aviation junkie like so many of the rest of us, but he’s not planning on storing all his career eggs in a single basket. It took me much of my life to really understand the need for a career duality to make a living in aviation. Art apparently had the right mentor because he’s also focused on Operations Management and Global Business in Tuscaloosa.

Art tracked me down at work a few weeks ago because he was searching for a little career advice on how to break into the business side of aviation before he graduates next year. He was persistent too and mentioned he’d called a number of people he didn’t know for advice. That’s drive. Cold-calling is one of the hardest chasms to cross when you’re searching for the right opportunity. Most students avoid it like the plague, in fact.

It didn’t take too long on the phone for me to realize that Art’s an atypical student. Despite the state of the aviation industry, Art wants in and is willing to do whatever it takes to get one of his shoes in the door. And he’s not going to take no for an answer. Most importantly, he’s not complaining about the industry is not at present, nor is he sitting around waiting for someone to deliver him the career he believes he wants. Read the rest of this entry »

A subscriber to the FAA Safety Team notices, I immediately open and read emails with “Emergency Notice” in the subject line. On Saturday, January 16, Emergency Notice NOTC 2101 said:

“The FAA has been made aware of an issue with an update to a navigation database that became effective on 14 January 2010.  To date, the known affected models are: Honeywell Bendix/King KLN 35, KLN 88, KLN 89, KLN 89B, KLN 90, KLN 90B, KLN 94, KLX 100, KLX 135, KLX 135A, KLN 900.”

It provided a link to a Honeywell website for more information. It described the problem succinctly in bold red letters:

After production and distribution of the Cycle 1001 databases (effective date 14-Jan-2010), Honeywell was informed by our data supplier, Jeppesen, that the data file delivered to Honeywell contained incorrect Dynamic Magnetic Variations for all terminal and en route waypoint records. For that reason, it is imperative that the incorrect databases NOT be used for arrival, departure, or approach operations.

In other words, airplanes with avionics that use the affected database are grounded until pilots download and install the corrected replacement. Fortunately, correcting a database error is a lot easier and expedient than correcting the same error on paper charts. It’s a pain, for sure, but imagine the inconvenience if pilots had to wait for new charts?

Magnetic variation is a term familiar to all pilots, the result of incorrect data is clear, an increased chance of metal meeting something hard, with an unfortunate outcome. But what in the heck is Dynamic Magnetic Variation?

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s nice to be the editor of an aviation blog like Jetwhine.com because I’m lucky enough to connect with people from all parts of the globe, folks I would never have a chance to meet in my everyday life. A few weeks back, Josh Saul sent me a note about his blog, wondering if I might go take a look. I look at every blog anyone sends me to, but honestly few are worth very much, I’ve found. Josh’s is different and pleasantly so.

Josh is the editor of Bush Pilots at the Alaska Dispatch. His is a blog you’re going to want to spend a little time with because airplanes in Alaska mean something totally different than they do down here in the Lower 48. Bush Pilot is full of original stories and video from pilots in the 49^th state. The still photography is astounding and the videos are creative and insightful if not doggone funny. Take a look at this one with a Beaver taking off from a truck. Only in Alaska. Or this interesting arrival into Seward. Have any white-knuckled tales or pictures from your Alaska flying? Email Josh at jsaul(at)alaskadispatch.com. Tell the folks at the Alaska Dispatch that the folks down in the nice warm Midwest said hi while you’re there.

Rob Mark, editor

Much has been made lately of the University of North Dakota’s new bachelor’s of science degree in aeronautics with a major in Unmanned Aircraft Systems Operations, taught at the Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences in Grand Forks.

UND is quick to point out that, right now, the military is the primary career opportunity for UAV pilots (see UAV Pilot Shortage & Military Intelligence), but let’s be honest, the no-pilot airliner is just around the corner.

The US Navy has been using the Category III Automatic Carrier Landing System for years. It’s so reliable Uncle Sam’s Yacht Club has reduced the number of cross deck pendants, from four to three, on its new nuclear bird farms, so the technology exists for demanding flight environments.  It’s only a matter of time.

Read the rest of this entry »

On a sunny day when the wind speed is 10 times the single digit temperature, giving into web wanderlust beats the hypothermia that awaits outside. An interest in historic byways lead me to the National Park Service’s National Register Travel Itineraries.

Created in 1995, I learned, the register connected public and private destinations by interest area to highlight thousands of sites on the National Register of Historic Places. In 2003, as part of the Centennial of Flight celebration, they launched Aviation: From Sand Dunes to Sonic Booms, which has an international reach.

It lists more than a hundred aviation sites by category – from the Wright Brothers and Aviation Pioneers to Air Power, Modern Aviation, and Space – and by state. Naturally, it includes all the well-known sites, like Kitty Hawk, but it was the unexpected sites that caught my attention and led to a list of warm-weather plans, because now would not be the time to visit Attu Battlefield and U.S. Army and Navy Airfields in the Aleutians.

Read the rest of this entry »

At a time when most people don’t give space travel a second thought, I wanted to share this short clip of the Apollo 11 flight – the first time a human – Neil Armstrong – set foot on the face of the Moon. It took place just over 40 years ago and was a very big deal to those of us back then as thousands of people worked together to make President Kennedy’s dream of putting a man on the Moon a reality. Their focus on a commitment, that ability to bring all these people together for a common purpose was something to behold.

As we enter another decade, ask your self whether we as Americans are as focused on anything so monumental as we were 40 years ago. We’re superb at taking partisan positions on just about everything today, but as the final flights of the Shuttle fleet quickly approach, where does space flight and the quest to look beyond our own planet for the answers to life’s questions fit into our national priorities?

I’ve had the pleasure of meeting a couple of the Apollo guys over the years. Even had lunch with Frank Borman and Jim Lovell a few years back. I still get all goose bumpy thinking about it. What’s going to do that for kids these days?

(Restored Apollo 11 footage – click to view) 

Rob Mark, editor

  As if President Obama’s anger over the security leak that allowed a Nigerian man to nearly blow up a Delta Airlines flight inbound to Detroit on Christmas were not enough, the White House now needs to contend with a PR quagmire created entirely by the TSA. Two aviation bloggers were yesterday served with subpoenas demanding they release the name of the source they used to obtain a security document the Department of Homeland Security said should not have been made public.

This is sure to become a precedent setting confrontation between journalists/communicators and the administration.

We spoke to Runway Girl, Mary Kirby, a blogger and journalist who was right in the middle of the debacle.

Listen to our interview here 

Flipping through the channels the other day I paused on Ellen DeGeneres’ talk show because the guest, Zach Braff of Scrubs fame, said a word that caught my ear, “Cirrus.” It seems he’s a new pilot, and to appear on the show, which is taped in California, he flew himself across the nation from his home in New York, and the audience cheered and applauded this announcement.

Saying that learning to fly was the fulfillment of a lifetime dream, Braff showed pictures from his flight, him smiling at a rear-seat passenger from the left seat and the left wing of the Cirrus above a solid blanket of clouds the color of burnished butterscotch in the late afternoon sun. Trying to describe the ineffable feelings of climbing through the layer and  being the only living thing in sight all he could says was, “It is amazing.”

Google led me to an article, Super Fly, Braff penned for BestLife, by the editors of MensHealth. Of learning to fly he wrote, “I earned my pilot’s license this past November, and it was one of the coolest moments of my life.”

His enthusiasm for flight and all of its benefits was an early Christmas present in a year buried in coal. As this year, which has not been the kindest to aviation, winds to a welcome close, my holiday hope is that 2010 will embody the enthusiasm of all new pilots and will begin a gentle cruise climb to better days that are peaceful and prosperous because people in all endeavors are working toward a common goal, not fighting each other for a larger slice of a shrinking pie. – Scott Spangler

I can’t believe it’s Christmas time again. Our thanks to the folks at Junior Flyer for this great Santa graphic too.

Scott and I are going to take the rest of the week off to hang out with family, but we both wanted to leave you with a couple of cool things to keep in mind this week while you wait for the arrival of the big guy.

First there’s the NORAD site that tracks Santa on the way to your house. Great fun for the kids. It also brings new meaning to use of the phrase bio-fuel.

And as they approach the North Pole on the way home, they need not worry about the weather as long as their Electronic Flight Back (EFB) is equipped with the proper North Pole approach plates.

Although the folks at GE are very proud of their new Green sleigh for Santa, the union representing the reindeer flight crew are not at all happy about the job losses the new vehicle might well create.

Finally, what would Christmas be without a good FAA flying joke.

Santa is about to take off on Christmas Eve for his annual ride when an FAA inspector approaches him in front of the hangar. “How long has it been since you’ve flown this sleigh,” he asks the Big Guy. “Exactly one year tonight,” Santa replies. “Well,” says the inspector, “I’d say you’re out of currency. We’d better take a ride together.

Wondering of course whether he did indeed turn in his paper certificate for a plastic replacement, Santa invites the inspector aboard. Being pretty quick, Santa couldn’t help noticing the 45 strapped to the inspector’s belt. “Why would you need a gun on a checkout flight?” Santa wondered.

“Well, I’m not really supposed to tell you this,” the inspector replied, “but you’re going to lose one on takeoff.”

Merry Christmas to everyone around the globe. Thanks for reading Jetwhine in this, our third year.

Rob Mark, editor

After World War II the airlines sealed the fate of railway transportation by offering an equivalent level of reliable, safe service more expeditiously. After more than a half-century of being the only way to go, the airlines grew increasingly dismissive of the people they supposedly served, all but shaking them inverted by the ankles to capture spare-change fees before folding them into a barren tube. And this after the government has disrobed them at the airport doorway. Stir in misguided management focused on quarterly bottom lines, and it’s wonder that the airlines are in decline. 

At the same time, the number of people traveling by train has been increasing, its growth limited by its atrophied infrastructure of rails just 56.5 inches apart. In early December my wife and I needed to be in Reading, Pennsylvania, for the wedding of her youngest son and for interviews and photos at the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum for an in-the-works article. Anticipating the multi-flight airline trip with the enthusiasm of a death-row inmate about to roll up his sleeve, on a whim we visited the Amtrak website, which proved a welcome surprise.

Our combined round-trip fare–which included sleeping accommodations and all meals–totaled $580, an amount about equal to the fees the airlines, as best as I could discover, would charge above and beyond the ticket price for baggage and other “services.” Granted, the train travel takes time. The Capitol Limited left Chicago at 1840 Central and arrived in Washington, D.C., the next day at 1340 Eastern. After a 2 hour layover, we’d board the speedy Northeast Regional Acela express for Philly. As railway virgins, we didn’t know what to expect, but we agreed it couldn’t be any worse than flying the airlines. It wasn’t…it was way better, and like many of the people we met along the way, we’ve become railway converts.

Read the rest of this entry »