PropBlast

or so it would appear...

Aero-News Network reports that this Piper and Stinson most likely missunderstood who was going to be yield to the other. Turns out the pilots, who are neighbors, had communicated while the Piper Warrior II was on short final and both pilots apparently thought the other was going to yield.

Thankfully no one was injured in the accident since, as you can see from the photograph provided by Doug Reeves at VansAirForce.Net that the pipe came down to the side, protecting the pilot in the vintage Stinson 108-3 from the spinning propeller blade.

In the immortal words of Phil Esterhaus: "Hey, let's be careful out there!"

Not to be confused with "huddled masses" but more accurately a Heads Up Display (HUD) that might find it's way down into normal General Aviation (GA) aircraft? Talk about your disruptive technology! This has the potential to make Glass Panels seem so 2000....

The sample image shown at right is a simulation of what COULD be seen from the cockpit of your favorite bug-smasher in the near future. What would it display on you ask? A fixed screen between you and the windscreen like on 90's era fighter planes? No way! How about a head-mounted eyepiece that you look through like you see in all the cool helicopter movies? Nope. How about a drop down glass panel like you see on some commercial airliners? Not even close.

William J. Steele, a programmer at Microsoft, has been working on low cost, high information displays for GA aircraft for the last 5 years and he has patents on what he calls his VirtualHUD. The HUD doesn't really exist in a physical world, it is actually projected, via lasers, onto the disc of, get this, the spinning propeller out there in front of you!

He envisions this a "hand-held device" that can display not only standard instrumentation required for VFR and IFR flight including engine instrumentation and a Highway In The Sky set of boxes (shown above) for your flight plan! And since it is not a panel mounted device, no need for FAA approval! He claims that there should also be a little mini EFIS built into the back side of the device in case your prop stops running. LOL.

I  could go on and on about how absolutely cool this is but you really ought to go check this out your self on his website: http://www.virtualhud.com/. Oh, and in case you are wondering, he is licensing his technology so if you are run an avionics company or are a manufacturer, run this guy at Oshkosh and find out more about this exciting technology!

Twin pilots need not apply!

The addition of the HT-295 to Aspen Avionics approved STC list for their insta-pfd makes this odd looking bird that much more attractive. OK, sure that isn't what they call it but I like the name. Perhaps I should trademark it.

Unfortunately, the STC only lists the HT-295 and not  the H295 which is a conventional-geared model as opposed to the tricycle gear on the HT version. I was similarly surprised to see that the Cessna 182 (all models it appears) is on the list but neither the 180 or the 185 are.

Here is a fun factory promo extolling the virtues of the Helio and S-T-O-L

This video is courtesy of the guys at STOLAircraft.com.

Let met get this out first, lest anyone get the idea that I'm nothing but a "fan-boy" for Steven Force's work, that I've been listening to Old Time Radio drama programs since I was a child. I was so into it a few years back that I ran a very successful OTR website so I can honestly tell you, I know from good audio!

That being said, I was seriously moved by a segment of the Airspeed Online podcast that I listened to recently. However, I'm one who can easily "willingly suspend disbelief" and, as a result, find myself getting wrapped up in the emotions of a movie or an audio drama. Lori calls me a sap for this reason so I figured I'd try this piece out on her. She's a pretty tough nut to crack but even she admitted to getting "choked up" listening to Fingers in the Airport Fence Entwined. I was pretty proud of her that she got most of the aviation references; she only had a hard time visualizing the various airplane types mentioned.

All in, this is a fantastic piece of audio that every pilot should listen to and to share with their non-flying friends. Perhaps this will help them "get it"... You can download from the link above or you can listen here online using the flash player below...

They call it an Anatomy of a Mid-Air and talk about being in the right place at the right time! Aero-News.net has secured photos taken of a landing collision between a low wing Piper Cherokee and a high wing Glastar taildragger at Napa airport on New Year's Day.

The pictures clearly show the classic confrontation that we were all warned about in basic training. A low wing plane coming down on top of a high wing plane; each one in the other's blind spot.

Seeing this really gives one pause. How do you prevent this type of thing from happening TO YOU? Given that this was at a non-towered airport (dare I say "uncontrolled"?) and having a tower directing traffic would have gone a long way towards preventing this from happening.

I think the key to this is to be extra vigilant in the pattern. If either pilot was aware of what was going on in the pattern around them (listening and making radio position reports) and keeping a mental picture (as the controllers call it "getting the flick") of where everyone else is in relation to yourself.

However, at non-towered airports, one needs to be extra vigilant as not everyone flying the pattern will have a radio or be making position reports if they do have one. 

I know as I came close to this once at French Valley airport. I was making position reports all the way around and then someone comes on while I'm on short final and reports that HE was on short final. I called out my altitude and wildly looked about trying to find him. I didn't spot him until he popped out ahead and below me over the threshold and I was in a high wing aircraft. I can't imagine if I would have ever seen him in the Cirrus. What I should have done was immediately radioed that I was breaking out of the pattern if I didn't immediately identify the target's location visually.

Needless to say this ended in a low pass over the airport and once again around the patch before landing. Never found the guy either...

The Aviation Mentor blog (what, you mean you don't have this fantastic blog set up in your mandatory reading list?) had a great post on VTF or WTF? He was bemoaning the fact that many pilots when they hear the controller tell them "Fly heading 180, vectors for the ILS 19R," they will automatically load the approach and select Vectors To Final when being presented with the approaches transition options.

The biggest problem with this that as soon as you do so, the approach controller will invariably tell you something like "three miles to SNAKE, cross SNAKE at or above 4000 feet, cleared ILS 16R" and then you're stuck trying to change the procedure at the last minute which can be stressful and take attention away from what you are doing.   

I had this happen a few times in training and I since learned to load a full-approach but this method of extending the centerline of the final approach course is quick and easy. Since I fly behind a pair of GNS430s, the G1000 section at the top of his post wasn't of as much interest to me as the following:

To get the intermediate fixes to display the Garmin 530 or 430, the sequence is a bit different. For this example, let's consider the Salt Lake City ILS RWY 16R, which has three intermediate fixes outside the FAF.

Load the approach with OGD or FANDS as the transition: It doesn't really matter which one you choose.

Activate the approach and you'll be dumped into the flight plan view. Press the small knob to enter cursor mode, scroll with the big knob and highlight BNKER (the FAF), then press MENU.

The Activate Leg option is highlighted by default, so press ENT twice.

This view gives you pretty much what you need, but if you want to see the magenta line extended out farther, there are a couple more steps.

First, make sure your OBS or HSI is set to the localizer front course.

Next, press the OBS button and you'll see the magenta line extended outward. Small problem, the intermediate fixes have disappeared.

Press the OBS button again and like magician David Copperfield, you've reversed the disappearing act and the IFs are shown again.

What, are they kidding? Cessna has confirmed that they  intend to complete the purchase of Columbia Aircraft out of bankruptcy, including warranty service for previously sold aircraft. That is a big win for Columbia owners who otherwise would have been orphaned; a hard pill to swallow after buying a plane that in most configurations would run over half a million dollars. And Cessna got the company for a bargain: $26.9 million dollars.

However, in a move that only a behemoth like Cessna could make, they've decided to relaunch these composite, low-wing aircraft as the Cessna 350 and the Cessna 400. Now I can understand the desire to roll these into your company name (and abandon the old name) but perhaps at the same time they should have put some more thought into the product naming. All of Cessna's existing single engine aircraft (including the turbine-powered Caravan) are know by their product numbers which lie in the 100 and 200 range. Names like Cessna 172, 180, 206, 210 are the stuff of legend.

The numbers in the 300 and 400 range up until recently were exclusively used by their twin engine propeller aircraft. The 310 and 404 come to mind immediately. However, now buyers and other aviators will need to keep in mind these exceptions when bandying and reading about Cessna aircraft.

Seems to me they should have chosen to keep both (much like Toyota markets cars under the Scion and Lexxus banners) leaving them as Columbia 350 and Columbia 400 or they should have renamed the company to Cessna and moved the model numbers into the normal Cessna ranges.

One wonders if they intend to drive innovation into this line as well (pressurization, turbine engines, 6 seats?) or just limp it along, changing the avionics as the market moves forward?

Flying long days has proven to be a killer in more ways than one. Many have argued that this is the primary reason behind duty day and flight hour restrictions for commercial pilots flying part 124 and 135. Fatigue has been shown to cause pilot performance to degrade rapidly.

Recently, a COPA member detailed a recent Florida to California trip he and his wife took in one day, during daylight hours in Cirrus SR22. Total flight time during this trip was 11.21 hours with a total elapsed time of only 13:08 hours. Amazing endurance when you think about it.

In order to prepare and keep himself alert during this flight he took the following precautions:

• Hydrate heavily (to the point your urine is clear and not colored) for days before the trip
• Stop consuming coffee, sugar and mixed foods (milk and meat, cheese and chicken, etc) for days before the flight as well
• During the flight, consume only fresh fruit and vegetables (as much as you can eat) along with grains and beans. Stay away from soft drinks, coffee, sugar, power bars, milk or meat.
• During the flight, every hour review "Plan, Plane, Me and You" to verify all aspects of the flight are safe to continue
• Perform Isometric exercises once an hour
• Use O2 for the second half of the flight even though it was at 8500 (or 8000 for the IFR arrival into Santa Barbara)
• Remain engaged in the flight by performing mental and "whiz wheel" calculations on fuel burn and arrival/enroute estimates, making Pireps, evaluating WX, etc.

Good tips to keep in mind on longer flights...

We've mentioned it here before, but now you can actually place a deposit on a NEW Antilles Super Goose, a modernized version of the venerable Gruman G-21.

These updated amphibians will be using new tooling, construction and engineering to produce an aluminum and carbon-fiber composite airframe that will go into production with either turbine or radial engines.

They are targeting a capacity for 9 passengers plus pilot, state of the art avionics, fuel capacity of up to 586 gallons and extra storage in the nose and tail than the original. The turbine version will have a MGTOW of 12,500 points against an empty weight of 7,000 pounds. This a full fuel load capacity of approximately 800 pounds (those 10 people will have to be the proverbial 80 pound weaklings) so one would image it would be rare that anyone would fill this beast to the gills with fuel before loading up with passengers. They are anticipating a 200 knots cruise with 2,000 fpm climbs for 5+ hours plus IFR reserves.

All this goodness for a cool $2.2 million. I can hardly wait to plunk my money down on this one... Ok, so I would if I could but I don't ever see having that kind of money handy myself. Damn...

Learn more about it at Antilles Seaplanes website.

My good buddy Chris (who flies triple 7s for a living) sent me these great photos. I'm not sure who the photographer is but talk about some might fine flying... That is one big *ss flying ship to be maneuvering so close to the ground. It appears that every inch of Lake Elsinore was needed to scoop up their water and climb out.

Special thanks to the brave pilots and firefighters who all put their lives on the line to help us in southern California during these awful fires.

You've got to hand it to the braves pilots flying these tankers. The control they exhibit while maneuvering these massive machines so heavily loaded so close to ground is amazing.

Stumbled on a great new site when I was cruising around through ClearanceWiki.com. Ever heard of FlightCentral.net?

This site looks ready to take on AirNav.com for the one-stop shop for airport information. The biggest hurdle they are going to have to overcome, aside from the competition in this area, is the HUGE head start that AirNav has terms of the number of pilots (and FBOs and restaurants, etc.) that are contributing to the site.

That being said, once you've signed up for a free account on this system the home page becomes your own personal launch page. You can set up the MFD to quickly and easily display up to 6 different charts to get a quick glance at the weather in your normal flight areas. along the right side, you can also define your Favorite Airports, Favorite Links and Pilot Dates. The Airports will provide you with not only a quick link to the airport's page (SNA is shown) as well as the current METAR and a little colored ball indicating VFR, MVFR and IFR. Favorite links are obvious and the pilot's dates allows you to put up reminders of upcoming dates (medical, BFRs, inspections on plane, wife's birthday, etc.)

As nice as the front page is, the really cool stuff is found on an Airport's page. For example, you'll find at left my home field of KSNA. What I really appreciate is that it gives you a quick glance at the most important stuff right up top. The Runways section holds the pertinent information about runways (runway names, length x width and surface types) but if you are using a modern browser and you hover over a particular runway, you'll get a pop-up item that shows you the crosswind based on the current METAR! You'll also find a communications box up top, as well as a sectional and aerial view of the airport.  Below that you'll find blocks for Current Weather (showing METARs and flight conditions ball from this and nearby airports (as well as links to historical weather for this airport)), Forecasts with links to Radar, Satellite, Surface charts and Area Forecasts, and Winds Aloft information.

You'll also find a convenient little tabbed box on the page that not only lists the various Approaches, Arrivals procedures, Departure procedures and Other. All of these link to the actual PDF files direct from the digital TPP provided by the FAA. The files pop-up in the same "Lightbox" style shown above with the surface chart.

Each airport page also includes across the top the identifiers, an indicator of whether it is towered or not Elevation, coordinates, distance from named city as well as links to a pop-up (more Web 2.0 goodness) for the actual page from the current AFD, the official airport diagram, a link to the airport official website, NOTAMS, a link to add to your Favorites (see the front page description) and a button to open up Google Earth at this location.

There is one other button here and that is to visit the airport Community page. The Community page is a nice feature that shows a calendar of events, the number (and an list of first name) of different types of pilots that have registered on the site with this as their Home Airport, a chat window, an image gallery (coming soon), a blog and information about local EAA chapters and CAP squadrons. This is a great feature that will only grow in value as they get more participants in the site.

Running across the top of every page (with the exception of the Virtual Community and Pilot Lounge) there is a tabbed strip with quick links to take you to MyFlightCentral (the home page), Flight Planning, the Airports page, Weather and the Pilot's Lounge. Each of these tabs remembers the most recently viewed Airport or Flight Plan so you can move about the site without fear of losing the work you've performed on the site.

There is some rudimentary flight planning (basically distance between airports with True Course, time en-route and fuel burn (the last two if you have provided your normal cruising airspeed). What is really nice though is this is presented on a page that is suitable for printing that contains much of the elements you'd need to have all your ducks on one page to assist with departure and arrival airports. In addition to the close-up of the section you'll find boxes for Frequencies, Runways, Current (and historic) weather, Forecasts and Terminal Procedures for each airport.

Of course you'll find standard information like Airport Businesses, Remarks, Comments, and Fuel Prices (coming soon). This is the area where the needs the contributions and the frequent visitors that others like AirNav have since the majority of this information is supplied by pilots and FBO owners. I wish the folks behind this the best of luck with their new venture. I think this has GREAT potential and it is the upgrade that AirNav sorely needs. I think if either this company bought AirNav (for the content and traffic) or AirNav bought this company (for the technology to implement their content in) you would have an UNSTOPPABLE combination. I have to admire the chutzpah required to try and create a new (and in my mind better) airport/flight planning community-driven information site like this when there are so many other competitors in the arena already with such a big head start...

Wanna take a tour? Click here to watch slick video describing the features of this site. In the meantime, go to this site, join and start filling it up with information about your local airport!

BTW - Another "wish list" item I'd like to see? If they could cooperate with Leftse.at website to add an online enhanced logbook application for pilots to track their flight hours, wow, would that be fantastic!

I recently added a new podcast to my phone (that I use as my MP3 player) to try it out and all I can say is WOW! Airspeed Online (available for podcast subscription for free at http://airspeed.libsyn.com/) blew me away from the first minute I listened to it.

Stephen Force, in addition to being an aviation and technology lawyer (as he often mentions in the show) is someone who's enthusiasm for all things aviation is only matched by the production quality that he brings to the show.

His background in radio and music appears quite obvious in how well his podcast sounds, as well as the mix of natural and studio sound brings together a fantastic job of putting you in the left (or right) seat as he flies or talks to other aviators. But what I find refreshing is just how good his writing is.

Actually, I take that back. His writing is fantastic! All you have to do is listen to his podcasts to marvel at the amount of time I would imagine he spends on putting these together. He is eloquent without being too slick and his self-deprecating sense of humor is perfect. To prove it, here are some of my favorite episodes, each for their own reason.

• Intro Flights - This is a fantastic resource to point potential aviators at to learn more about what to expect and how to get started.
• Understanding Stalls - Ever had someone who just doesn't get it? In particular, media near you that need some education on aviation and how things work? I'd love to see this podcast be a part of the general education at J-Schools...
• GA is No Threat - Another great educational piece that sooo many reporters could benefit from.. Even better, by familiarizing themselves with this information, most pilots could better assist local media in understanding GA.
• Take Your Kids To The Airport - Again, another superbly written piece that every pilot should listen to and take to heart. Every pilot should take their kids, and perhaps their neighbors kids, ramp flying any chance they can get!
• So Long 18 - You can truly feel his pain at the loss of such a trusty steed.
• Upside Down and Hair on Fire... - Well written as always but I found Mr. Force's excitement to be contagious.

The list goes on but there are the ones that when I was listening to them I said to myself "You've GOT to blog about this!". If you want to read the show notes at the address we showed at first or you can read his blog postings at http://www.airspeedonline.blogspot.com/.

According to the Palomar Airport Association:

CALIFORNIA BUDGET BENEFITS AIRCRAFT OWNERS
As part of the California budget that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed August 24, anyone who purchases an aircraft outside the state is exempt from paying California sales and use tax if the aircraft is kept outside the state for 90 days. The 90-day period had been the standard until 2004 when the state experimented with a temporary requirement that changed the exemption time frame to one year. The temporary change is expiring, and the legislature has declined to extend it or make it permanent.

The blog "Think or Thwim" has a posting about "How to Hide An Airplane Factory". I'd heard the stories of Los Angeles area airplane manufacturers, that covered their factories with mesh that made it look like farmland, complete with houses and other buildings but I thought it was McDonald Douglas in Santa Monica, not Lockheed in Burbank. Regardless of who did it, this blog has some great photos.

Before:

After: 

You'll find more pictures on their website as well as an interesting tale (or urban legend) of Jack Warner (of Warner Studios) painting Lockheed with an arrow pointing to the factory on the roof of his studios so that the Japanese wouldn't bomb the studios by mistake. Who knows if that one is true though...

Just stumbled on this Cirrus video on YouTube. This is "sister plane" to 334CM that is on the line for rental at Sunrise Aviation. Kinda fun to watch.

Google Earth has a built-in flight simulator that is hidden away, until you launch it the first time (or at least version 4.2 does). Once you've loaded the flight simulator, you can launch it again in the future using the same Ctrl-Alt-A keystroke combo or you can launch it from "Enter Flight Simulator" from the Tools menu.

If you hit the Ctrl-Alt-A keystroke combination from within the main application, you should be presented with the following window:

If you aren't seeing this pop-up, you may need to go into the Options | General | Language Settings menu and set it to English (or English (United States)) in order for this to work.

Anyway, once you choose your aircraft and a start position you are off and running. Choosing the SR22 might make life easier for you as it is a slower aircraft than the F16 however, regardless of which aircraft you choose, you will be presented with a HUD (Heads Up Display) like you would find in a modern fighter.

The keyboard controls are pretty tricky so if you have a joy stick or flight yoke, you might have a better time of it. Otherwise, you can find a list of keyboard shortcuts using the Help button on the launch screen shown at top (or use this link).

I cratered it in the first few times I flew it but succeeded in doing a loop in the virtual SR22, something that I would NEVER try in our real-life SR22. Give it a shot! If anyone out there has a better time flying it, please let me know using the comments below.

I wonder if this has anything to do with Northwest's lack of pilots to fly their planes? Perhaps they got a cabbie to do their taxiing for them?

I'm not sure when or where this picture was taken, just found it sitting on Pricesless420.com recently.

A pilot on his first solo flight might be facing federal charges after virtually shutting down Indianapolis International Airport until he as told to land. 3 flights were held until he was safely on the ground.

One often hears stories about pilots getting lost on their first solo flight but this is a pretty memorable one. The 69 year-old pilot thought he was at the Purdue University Airport, about 50 miles away rather than the large commercial airport.

He was not arrested on the site and it is unclear if he made it home safely. Hopefully he will and his CFI will spend a great deal more time with him on navigation.