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In Flight USA Articles
FAA Opens the Arctic to Commercial Small Unmanned Aircraft
A research vessel plying the icy waters of the Chukchi Sea above the Arctic Circle seems an odd place for a Federal Aviation Administration employee. But that’s exactly where Alaskan Region inspector Jay Skaggs was on September 12. His presence aboard the Westward Wind helped ensure the first FAA-approved commercial flights by an unmanned aircraft went off safely and without a hitch.
The Westward Wind, chartered by energy giant ConocoPhillips, carried four Insitu Scan Eagle UAS to perform marine mammal and ice surveys necessary to meet environmental and safety rules before drilling on the sea floor. Skaggs and the Insitu flight crew led by Jeff Kelly watched as the first commercial ScanEagle zoomed off a catapult and into the rainy Arctic skies. After a successful 36-minute flight, the ship’s retrieval system captured the UAS and the ground-breaking mission was complete.
The ScanEagle flight really represents the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. The flight is a product of efforts by dozens of people from the FAA, ConocoPhillips, UAS manufacturer Insitu, and other federal and international agencies who put in months of intense work behind the scenes to open up the Arctic for commercial UAS operations.
SAFE Asks FAA to Collect Recurrent Training Data
House General Aviation Caucus Membership Hits Magic Number of 218
Broad, bipartisan support for general aviation priorities in Congress
House General Aviation Caucus Co-Chairs Sam Graves (R-MO) and John Barrow (D-GA) on Sept. 12 announced that, for the first time in its history, more than half off the House of Representatives had joined the group. The current tally stands at 223 members. The purpose of the House General Aviation Caucus is to inform Members and staff about the importance of General Aviation (GA) to our economy and transportation system.
“Crossing the 218 mark is a great victory for general aviation,” said Congressman Graves. “Education is key to our efforts to highlight the everyday concerns of America’s pilots, so having the majority of the House participating in the caucus is important. General aviation carries 166 million passengers to around 5,000 communities over 27 million flight hours each year, and more than two-thirds of these flights are for business purposes.”
Embry-Riddle Tests Robotic Security Vehicle at Daytona Beach International Airport
(Embry-Riddle University)A team of Embry-Riddle students and faculty has successfully tested a fully autonomous perimeter-patrol system at Daytona Beach International Airport, believed to be the first use in the United States of a self-guiding ground vehicle for airport security.
Without remote control or other human involvement, a Ford Escape Hybrid equipped with a GrayMatter Autonomous Vehicle System employed GPS and a scanner with 64 lasers to identify its position and its environment.
GAMA Joins Other Aviation Associations Calling For End to Government Shut-Down
FAA REGISTRY OFFICE REMAINS CLOSED DESPITE RECALL OF 800 EMPLOYEES
NATA Urges DOT to Reopen U.S. Aircraft Registry
Small Business Roundtable Focuses on Challenges to General Aviation
GAMA STATEMENT ON GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN’S IMPACT ON GA MANUFACTURERS
Aircraft Spruce Announces Customer Appreciation Day Oct. 5
Aircraft Spruce Announces Customer Appreciation Day Oct. 5
Legendary P-51 Mustang Strega to compete at 50th National Championship Air Races
FAA Aims to Streamline Aircraft Certification
NASA Transfers Delay-Reducing Software to FAA
By Jim Banke
NASA Aeronautics
Research Mission Directorate
Timing is everything.
In delivering the punch line to a good joke, passing the football to a receiver in the end zone or launching a new crew to the International Space Station – knowing the exact moment to go is the key to success.
Air traffic controllers face that kind of scheduling challenge every day as they work to move thousands of passengers and tons of cargo efficiently and safely through every phase of an airplane’s journey from airport gate to gate.
Take departure, for example. Controllers must smartly direct aircraft from a terminal gate, along the taxiway, onto the runway and then into the sky, allowing the airliner to join smoothly with the busy air traffic lanes overhead.
To do this, controllers must determine as best they can the precise amount of time it will take for an airliner to get from its gate to a fixed spot in the sky, and therefore be able to predict when pilots should receive clearance to push away from the terminal.
Now a new computer software tool developed by NASA’s aeronautical innovators – the Precision Departure Release Capability, or PDRC – will soon help controllers better manage that part of the airplane’s trip.
NASA officially presented the prototype software by to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) during a ceremony at the FAA’s headquarters in Washington Tuesday, Aug. 6.
Proposed AD Demands Removal of Thousands of ECI Titan Cylinders
Mark Baker Named President And CEO Of The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association
Mark R. Baker has been named the new president and chief executive officer of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. (aopa.org)Mark R. Baker, a longtime general aviation (GA) pilot, has been named president and chief executive officer (CEO) of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), the world’s largest aviation association. Baker is only the fifth AOPA president since the association’s founding nearly 75 years ago.
“We are pleased to announce that Mark Baker has been selected as the next president and chief executive officer of AOPA,” said Bill Trimble, chairman of the AOPA Board of Trustees. “He has all the tools this job demands. Mark brings 35 years of involvement in the GA community as a pilot and decades of experience in leadership positions in the home improvement industry, such as Scotts Miracle-Gro Company and The Home Depot. He has an extraordinary understanding of the importance of serving our membership and advancing their needs. He is well-suited to build on the foundation established by his predecessors and move AOPA forward.
Contrails: Yesterday’s Treasures
By Steve Weaver
Beacon tower at U.S. Air Mail field at North Platte, Nebraska. (National Air and Space Museum Archives)If you’ve ever flown into the Elkins, West Virginia Airport (EKN) on a clear night you may have noticed during your approach to the airport that the rotating beacon became visible much sooner than you might expect. And if you stopped to consider that the airport is tucked into a broad valley guarded to the east and west by fifteen hundred foot ridges of the Appalachian Mountains, you might have wondered how you could see the beacon at all. The answer of course is that a beacon is located near the airport, but at the very top of the eastern mountain ridge. That in itself isn’t so unusual, but I find the origin of that beacon to be very interesting.
Aviation history has always had a great fascination for me. I love reading about it, and examining preserved items in aviation museums across the country is one of my favorite things to do. However, the thing that really fires my imagination is stumbling across the bits and pieces of yesterday’s aviation that still exist outside of museums.
Schubach Aviation Sponsors Rescued Shelter Dog “Charlie” on his Journey to Become Wingman for U.S. Military Veteran
San Diego air charter firm is funding costs to put Charlie through Shelter to Soldier’s training program to become a certified service companion dog for a U.S. veteran with PTSD
Charlie getting comfortable with his future role as co-pilot for a U.S. veteran. (Dennis Hoover Photography)For nearly all his life, he’s known only rejection and isolation. But “Charlie”, as the Schubach Aviation team has named him, is now on his way to becoming a certified service companion dog and the cherished wingman for a U.S. veteran with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as he or she navigates the hardships of daily civilian life.
Schubach Aviation is San Diego’s premier private air charter firm, with headquarters in Carlsbad, Calif. The company’s sponsorship will cover costs to specially train, house and feed Charlie, as well as pay for medical care, equipment, travel and grooming costs, as he goes through Shelter to Soldier’s three-step training program.
We Fly with the Geico Skytypers: A Truly Unique Act
By Larry E. Nazimek
Full team formation. (Geico Skytypers)The GEICO Skytypers are a precision formation flying team, but they are also an aerial advertising team that gets the messages out in a most unique way: “skytyping.”
“Skywriting,” with a single aircraft flying in patterns and releasing smoke to form large letters, was far more popular 50 years ago than it is today. What had been common then is not common now.
“Skytyping” is a type of dot matrix printing made by puffs of smoke released by a five aircraft flying line – flying abreast.
The 2013 Chicago Air and Water Show - Still Successful
By Larry E. Nazimek
Action took place both on the water and in the skies along the Chicago lakefront. (Geico Skytypers)Practically all the articles about this year’s airshows focus on the effects of the sequester that keeps military aircraft from performing. Many airshows were cancelled, and if you googled “Chicago Air and Water Show,” prior to the show, as you were typing in the letters, among the various options in the drop box were “Cancelled.” Suggestions that the show would be cancelled, however, were about as factual as the emails you get from the foreign princes who want to come to the U.S. and split their fortunes with you.
According to Mary May, Public Relations Coordinator of Chicago’s Dept. of Cultural Affairs & Special Events, cancellation was never considered. “We’ve been doing this since 1959, and we’re not about to quit now. The show must go on!” And so it did.