Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Home Again

I meant to do more blogging here during AirVenture week, but ah, the best laid plans...

We had a great week. We produced two eps of the podcast. The second, #40, may be the best one we've ever done. I really like it.

The three of us also did a lot of work on our other AirVenture project: AirVenture Today.

Jeb was the managing editor, you can surf through all the stories here.

Dave's pics are included in many of the stories above, and in the gallery here.

And I summarized my AVO 2007 work here.

We're catching our breath for a couple days, and we'll be back with UCAP#41 later this week.

Sunday, July 22, 2007

AirVenture Oshkosh 2007

Good morning from Oshkosh.

Dave, Jeb and I have been in town for a couple of days now. We've been busy with our work preparing for the week working as part of the team publishing AirVenture Today.

The prep for the fly-in is going well. Fascinating airplanes everwhere. One cool one I saw is the full-sized mockup of the Bell civilian tilt-rotor. I didn't have my camera with me as I wandered by it last night, but I'll get a pic and post it.

I've started posting pics to my personal Flickr site. I hope you'll check back there throughout the week.

We also met with Fareed Guyot of EAA Radio and made the final preparations for Monday afternoon's recording, and live broadcast, of UCAP#39. That's gonna be fun.

More later.

-- Jack

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Remembering forgotten airports

Here's a fascinating website that is a collection of info, old pics, & old maps, of old & disappeared airports all around the U.S.

Schumer: FAA chief should go

From an AP/BusinessWeek story:

The senator faulted Blakey for what he said was a destructive feud with the nation's air traffic controllers. He said the controllers' decades-long poor relationship with the government has gotten even worse under Blakey.

"She has engaged in a counterproductive fight with the air traffic controllers, cut the number of controllers that are needed, and they sometimes lash back," said the senator.


Read more...

UCAP #38 "With Elan & Panache"

Add your feedback and discussion about this episode as a comment to this post.

Guest: Rick Durden. AirVenture 2007 is less than a week away. The Gang is all scrambling to clear the decks, and get packed for the trip. But they take a few minutes to gather in the virtual hangar to compare notes about how to get the most out of attending the fly-in, and what we're looking forward to seeing this year. Rick Durden shares some tips from his OSH Survival Guide... Gear, gadgets and new aircraft we hope to see... And we speculate on whether the Administrator will make an appearance... All this and more, on Uncontrolled Airspace, Episode #38 "With Elan & Panache"


Go to shownotes

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Near midair leads to aircraft parachute descent

This video was found featured in the AvWeb site.

According to the description on YouTube:

a plane towing a glider nearly collides with a plane and the glider tow line gets caught in the propeller, pulls parachute to safety , nobody injured



Embraer transponder may be put in standby accidentally

A story in the latest edition of AvWebBiz (edited by our own Jeb Burnside) reports that the FAA is warning that Embraer Legacy or EMB-135/140/145 regional jet pilots might be able to inadvertently put the transponder into standby mode.

It involves accidentally bumping it with your foot while using the installed footrests.

This is doubly interesting because the Embraer is the plane that was involved in the tragic midair in Brazil, where the authorities claimed that the U.S. pilots had turned off the transponder. We've said all along that this seemed extremely unlikely, because there's no plausible reason for the pilots to have turned of this important instrument.

But if it could have been put in standby accidentally.

Hmmm.

Monday, July 16, 2007

UCAP at AirVenture 2007

The UCAP Gang will be involved in three different podcasting events during the week in Oshkosh.

Monday, July 23, approx 6pm. UCAP#39 will be recorded from the grounds of the fly-in. It will be broadcast live on EAA Radio (AM 1210), and possibly streamed live on the net. Check the EAA Radio website.

Friday, July 27, 5:30 pm, AirVenture Forum Bldg#2. Pod-a-Palooza, the gathering of the aviation podcasters. The Gang will join with the makers of many other av podcasts for... well, we don't know what it will be. But it should be fun. Hosted by the Pilotcast Podcast.

Sunday, July 29, 9:30 am. UCAP#40 will be recorded, and aired live on EAA Radio.

Check this space for updated information on whether you will be able to observe/participate in the UCAP/EAA Radio sesssions. Right now the answer is no. But things change.

Saturday, July 14, 2007

Linden from Michigan, audio comment

Here's an audio comment we just got from Linden in Michigan. We'll probably respond to Linden's two subjects in a couple of upcoming episodes.




Or you can right-click here to download the audio comment.

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Mayday on the 405

I had forgotten about this...

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Oh. My. God.

It's deja vu all over again:
Oregon man takes lawn chair up to 13,000 feet, travels 193 miles

By Associated Press

BEND, Ore. (AP) - Last weekend, Bend gas station owner Kent Couch settled down in his lawn chair with some drinks and snacks - and a parachute.

Attached to the lawn chair were 105 balloons of various colors, each 4 feet around. Bundled together, the balloons rise three stories high.

Couch carried a global positioning system device, a two-way radio, a digital camcorder and a cell phone. He also had instruments to measure his altitude and speed and about four plastic bags holding five gallons of water each to act as a ballast - he could turn a spigot, release water and rise.

Destination: Idaho.

Nearly nine hours later, Couch was short of Idaho. But he was 193 miles from home, in a farmer's field near Union, having crossed much of Oregon at 11,000 feet and higher.
Read the whole thing...

The photo at that link is priceless.

Monday, July 09, 2007

Pod-a-Palooza audio promo

Produced by Steven Force of the Airspeed Podcast.

"Meet the voices in your head!"


Saturday, July 07, 2007

We knew it in our bones: Hi-Tech Does Not A Smart Pilot Make...

Smart pilotage, an old CFI long ago told me, comes from a combination of experience, good judgment (learned from surviving experiences) -- ahead of good being a good stick...and knowing how to blend them all.

So it came as small surprise that the AOPA Air Safety Foundation has found that hi-tech in the cockpit does dramatically improve situational awareness and reference tools...true safety benefits.

But all the hi-tech gear in the world does little to nothing toward improving judgment and decision making...which means, simply, the pilots crashing because they made a faulty decision should be fully aware of their flight attitude and position before the crunch.

At least, that's how it's always seemed...

Read more here:

http://www.aopa.org/whatsnew/newsitems/2007/070705glass.html

Thursday, July 05, 2007

GA in a BIG, big way...or, Not your father's Private Plane

We knew it was coming, now it's official, according to Aviation International News on Thursday:

Airbus Confirms First Buyer for Executive/VIP A380
Airbus CEO John Leahy confirmed at the Paris Air Show that the company has the first firm commitment for its giant A380 airliner for conversion to an executive/VIP role. Leahy declined, however, to reveal the name of the buyer, saying only that he was not American or European and the airplane would be for his personal use. While the first customer remains anonymous, at least for now, New York’s Edese Doret Industrial Design has presented an interior proposal (in the form of computer-generated images) to a Middle East customer. As the world’s largest airliner, the A380 comes with approximately 6,800 sq ft of cabin space and a price tag of about $300 million for the unfinished airplane. Independent completion and refurbishment executives estimate the additional cost of building and installing a highly personalized interior will add another $150 million or more to the price.

And $450 million is just the beginning...don't forget (ahem, cough, gasp) insurance, fuel, crew (flight and cabin) hangar rent (not your typical T or even corporate hangar) airport fees and ATC costs in Europe...and Canada...and the UK...then there's catering food and drink, and someone to clean all 6,800 square feet...

Maybe time to start a flying maid service...

Guess if you can afford $450 million, well, the care-and-feeding expenses won't be as hard to cover.

Now, if the owner's ever in our neighborhood, we'd love to hitch a ride...when it's ready a few years from now.

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Hang on!

Not a candidate for Off Field Landing of the Week.


David Allen's KISM ELT Story

Here's the full audio comment from listener David Allen about his work with CAP searching for ELT signals. We played the first part of this in UCAP#35.




http://www.uncontrolledairspace.com/audiocomments/KISM_ELT_Find.mp3

Monday, July 02, 2007

Alaskan Bush Pilot Pics

Thanks to the rec.aviation newsgroup for pointing us to this blog, filled with absolutely stunning pics by an Alaskan bush pilot. Each pic is more awe-inspiring than the previous.

One thing, all pics are on one really long page, so if you have a slow connection you may need to be patient.

But don't miss the pic of his boot next to the bear-footprint.




CORRECTION: It appears that this guy is not a bush pilot. The pics are from a vacation adventure to the NW.