2-4-14: The Wall Street Journal recently reported that due to recent changes in pilot retirements and new rules on training and rest, the airlines are experiencing a pilot shortage ahead of schedule. The airlines have reported pilot shortages several times over the past 15 years, once in 2000 and again in 2007. The problem seemed to go away after the economy tanked in 2001 and 2008. But this time they're indicating it's different and shortages are inevitable. Avweb and AOPA have had articles about the looming "airline pilot shortage" with some interesting viewpoints. In the Wall Street Journal article, one airline said said it expects to need to hire 1,500 new pilots over the next five years. The airline received 10,000 applications for those jobs in just six weeks, including 1,000 from its own regional partner. An Avweb article lamented in a 2000 airline pilot shortage article that, "Airline standards were so high most of us GA wannabes could do nothing but dream. The majority of normal human beings don't seem to have 20/20 uncorrected vision, thousands of hours of multi-engine and instrument time, a college degree, an ATP, and one or more type ratings."

1-30-14: Although the temperature was hovering around 20°F, the sun was shining and a brisk wind provided for optimum conditions for aircraft performance. A ride up the coast with a stop at Biddeford airport reveals a nice pilot lounge with coffee, microwave and a friendly atmosphere. I understand that they have a new airport manager and he is working on plans for restoring some of the services for pilots and aircraft. Back in 2011 a P-51 Mustang WWII aircraft from the Texas Flying Legends was at Biddeford to take James Shepard, an original Tuskegee Airmen Crew Chief living in Maine for a ride in one of the Red Tail Squadron aircraft. The Flying Legends keep their Piper aircraft at Biddeford airport in the summer time while the Flying Legends aircraft are kept at Wiscasset. 

FREE FACTORY BUILT RV-12S  1-27-14: Well maybe not quite free. If you buy something at Sporty's Pilot Shop you will be automatically entered into their airplane give-away contest. For quite a few years, they were giving away Cessna Skyhawks. But last year they gave away a Legend Cub and the year before that they gave away a Cessna SkyCatcher. By the way, what's happened to the SkyCatcher anyway... maybe it will become a collectors item. So, this year Sporty is giving away one of the first Van's RV-12s. The "s" is for signature series that's signed by Dick Van Grunsven's himself for aircraft that have deluxe upholstery with memory foam seats, autopilot, and a custom paint scheme. The panel has the Dynon Skyview system, GPS, Mode S transponder and autopilot, a Garmin SL-40 Comm Radio, Flightcom intercom and ELT. With the Rotax 912ULS engine, it claims to be able to carry 420 lbs of pilot and passenger along with a full tank of 20 gallons. I guess I'll have to place an order with Sporty. 

Alton Bay ice airport opens for 2014 season  1-24-14: According to AOPA the Alton Bay Ice Airport is open. Here's an excerpt from their email newsletter: "The return of cold weather to New Hampshire allowed the Alton Bay ice airport—a seasonal public-use facility on Lake Winnipesaukee, at the charted location of the Alton Bay Seaplane Base (B18) in Alton Bay, N.H.—to open late Sunday, Jan. 19, for the 2014 season, according to the airport’s volunteer manager, Paul LaRochelle." Click HERE to see some pics of the ice runway when it was maintained by OVA.

FAA Safety Seminar at Southern Maine Aviation  1-23-14: Another safety meeting at Sanford airport combined with the social event mentioned earlier on 1-12-14. The Rest Of The Story .Topic: Human Factors That May Have Contributed To JFK Jr's Fatal Accident On July 16, 1999. Date and Time: Saturday, January 25, 2014 , starting at 10:00 am EST Download Calendar File. Speaker(s): Aviation Medical Examiner Mark Rolfe . At this exclusive event, we will examine how aeromedical and human factors played a role in the JFK accident as we look at the case and examine the preflight, weather and flight conditions.

X-47B UCAS Makes History 01-22-14: The internet is buzzing with a lot of information about the X-47B. Here's a few comments from Popular Science, "It's the first tailless, "batwing"-style airframe (it's technically known as a "cranked kite" design) to takeoff and land on a carrier. It's the first jet-powered drone to operate from a carrier as well as the first unmanned combat fighter jet analog to come this far in its development." Well, if I understand it correctly, last summer on July 10th it made its first historic landing on the aircraft carrier, and a Northrop Grumman video is circulating around with some heavy metal guitar band background music to pump up the scene like a Hollywood movie trailer. Popular Science tries to calm anyone with concerns about autonomous flying robots making their own changes on their flight missions and ensures us that the flights are basically human controlled. However, the chief remote pilot does not have a joy stick. Instead, he has a computer screen and a mouse. It sounds like a preprogrammed mission is initiated by clicking a command on a computer screen and the aircraft autonomously flies from point A to point B and back again on its own. For further unclarification, see the POPSCI page on "Five Things the X-47B is Not." I wonder if inventors of the Lam aileron design were involved with those giant spoilers flapping on top of the wings. Look carefully in the video and you'll see those large spoilers sticking up in the air during slow flight and in the landing configuration. Another thing I was wondering was, what version of Microsoft Windows the chief pilot is running on his computer to control the drone? And, is he using Norton Anti-Virus? I hope he doesn't get this message, .

Another Snow Storm 01-18-14: If you were lulled by the springtime weather we've been getting, you were awakened this evening with a pile of snow to clean up. Although we only got around 5 inches in some areas, it still was wet enough to put the average snowblower to work. If you were shoveling and you have a bad back, then you're taking a hot bath this evening with a Ben-Gay rub down. I'm sure the snow piles near the ramp will be growing a few feet when this system is done. If you have a plane tied down out doors, then you will probably find the tail feathers stuck in the ground. Nothing like some wet snow on the horizontal stabilizer to drive the tie down ring into the mud and ice.

FAA Safety Seminar at Southern Maine Aviation 01-12-14: Here's some information about the Safety Seminar & the "5 Alarm Chili Cook Off" at Southern Maine Aviation: "It's that time of year once again! Bring in your favorite "hot dish" for the tasting at SMA annual 5 Alarm Chili Cook Off! Serving begins at noon. Awards given for: Judges Choice (to be judged by the South Sanford Fire Department Firemen), Peoples Choice, Most Creative. Get your pots and pans heated up and bring on in your best dish. Before you eat come and join Southern Maine Aviation for a 10:00 AM Seminar. Topic to be announced. You need not attend the seminar to join us for the 5 Alarm Cook Off. Bring in your dish. We have electricity for your crock pot needs. If you don't cook that is ok! Come on in anyway and try some of the best "hot" dishes around. $6.00 donation. All proceeds go to the Sanford Fire Department for CO detectors and fire detectors. For more information email Anne at accounting@flyingsma.com or call 207-324-8919. The 5 Alarm Cook Off and Seminar date is January 25th. Seminar begins at 10 am. The eating and judging begins at noon. See you there!"

EAA CHAPTER 225 NEWSLETTER  01-09-14:

 

January 2014, Wind, Snow and Hangar 5 01-08-14: Good news for student            pilots. Rumor has it that some instructors who worked for Rochester Aviation are in the process of setting up a flight school in Hangar 5. It still looks quiet at the FBO building but it sounds like the behind the scenes activities are ongoing. Speaking of Hangar 5, Glen Horne is busy working away on all kinds of planes. How about the Cherokee 180 that had to land in Connecticut because of fuel pump problems. The Cherokee's have both a manual and an electric backup. It sounds like the backup came in handy and they were able to safely land at an airport. The evening news is something you want to watch and not be a part of. I don't know how many planes you can put in Hangar 5 but it looks like it's near capacity. In spite of all that aircraft maintenance activity Glen tells me he still finds time to take his 4 wheeler that's converted to tracks, into the woods.

Escape Dynamics 01-01-14: Another company enters the space transportation race that has come up with yet another type of propulsion system. The lead figure in this company is a young graduate of Caltech by the name of Dr. Dmitriy Tseliakhovich. He is a co-founder, CEO and CTO of Escape Dynamics. According to a website "Lifeboat.com," Dmitriy earned his B.Sc. in Physics from Belarusian State University in 2006, his M.Sc. in Theoretical Particle Physics in 2008, graduated from Singularity University in 2010, and is currently finishing up his Ph.D. in Astrophysics at Caltech." It sounds like he has completed his PhD. Anyway, this new company is proposing to use an external microwave beam as the source of energy to power the space vehicle from the launch pad all the way into low orbit. By the looks of this vehicle, it won't be having any human carbon units piloting the craft. It's probably not a good idea to fly your Skyhawk between the beam transmitter and the space vehicle...

AH-46 Apache blades with embedded carbon nanotubes 12-29-13:
According to Machine Design, deficiencies uncovered in Iraq and Afghanistan showed helicopters spent too much time in maintenance, and they weren't fast enough and able to carry enough cargo. "Currently, aerospace engineers compromise between stability and vibrations when designing helicopter blades. Blades with good stability tend to transmit vibrations to the aircraft, boosting the need for maintenance. But blades that limit vibrations have stability issues that limit aircraft performance." According to this article, Army Research engineers are placing nanotubes throughout the blade givng it more strength and stiffness. If you want to strengthen something with nanotubes you can't go to Home Depot and buy some. A human hair is .003 inch in diameter. A carbon nanotube is .000000078 inch diameter.This helicopter bears a strong resemblance to the AH-64 that the Army Research website talks about. Maybe it's more than just a resemblance...

Electric Green Taxiing System 12-22-13: The "Electric Green Taxiing System" article appeared in the latest AOPA Smartbrief. The articled focussed attention on Airbus working with Safran and Honeywell on a new electric drive system that will allow airliners to push back from an airport ramp and taxi to and from runways using electric motors in their wheels, without using their jet engines. Ten years ago this would have been unheard of because the size of an electric motor strong enough to drive one wheel of the main gear would have been the size of a small car. With the advance in hybrid electric motor technology industry has been able to shrink electric motors. Motors have been pumped up with the advance of rare earth magnets. During the 80' and 90's the common Alnico magnets that were stuck on everyone's refrigerators became replaced in industrial components with a rare earth material called neodymium. The neodymium magnets are approximately 10 times stronger and are used in everything from computer drives to RC electric planes.

Space Freighter To Space Station  12-15-13: Since the Space Shuttle was decommissioned, the International Space Station has had to rely on supplies being delivered by Russian space craft until some American commercial companies bidding for the job would be ready. Last September a company by the name of Orbital Science Corp. made a successful test delivery to the space station with their Cygnus delivery capsule. Although they are called commercial corporations they appear to be very tightly integrated with NASA at their launch site at the Wallops Island Flight Facility on the coast of Virginia. The capsules are launched on top of an Antares rocket made with rocket engines from Aerojet Rocketdyne of Sacramento California. An interesting note about the rocket engines is that they are not new engines.  They are actually rebuilt rocket engines bought from Russia from a warehouse that is used to store rocket engines built in the 1970's. The engines were built to launch Russian cosmonauts to the moon but were never used. Aerojet Rocketdyne bought about 35 of the rocket engines in storage and rebuilt them for the Antares rocket.

Snow Squalls, Wind and Taylorcrafts 12-13-13: Winter has arrived and a more spirited level of flying with ice and wind and snow. Although the ramps are covered with a wintry mix the taxiways and runway are clear and ready to go. With a density altitude of -2000 feet, that's right, minus 2000 feet, your old Skyhawk will feel like a high performance aircraft (almost). With a cold front moving down from Canada some mini squalls were floating around to make things interesting but small enough to maintain VFR and fly around them. Ice patches on taxiways at some airports can make for some interesting gyrations when encountering some gusty crosswinds. The framework icon in this article is the beginnings of a Taylorcraft that Glen Horne is working on in Hangar 5. Click here to see some pics of the day.

EAA CHAPTER 225 NEWSLETTER  12-09-13: Hanger flying starts around 6pm with the meeting beginning at 7pm. We have a guest speaker on a topic important for all of aviation. December's meeting will be held this Tuesday , Dec. 10th .in the EAA 225 club house. Our topic is 'Bird Strikes & Airplanes, given by Jacob Ricciotti. 

Another Hybrid Airship Idea 12-06-13: A computer systems technician working at a College near the Goodyear Tire and Rubber company has come up with an idea of a blimp for shipping freight. A couple of variations from other ideas published in the past are to fit it with wings, turbo-prop engines, and an empennage to make up for about half the lift generated by helium. The other unusually feature is the internal structure of the blimp that uses an internal framework modeled after cable-stayed bridge construction, bearing the pressure on towers. This is a key feature that will enable it to lift loads weighing up to 160 tons.

Stealth Helicopter Designs 12-02-13: "The Army has signed technology investment agreements with Bell and Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Sikorsky, Karem Aircraft, and AVX Aviation to develop prototypes for light- and medium-sized helicopters. The four teams will compete for the business as part of the Joint Multi-Role (JMR) Technology Demonstrator Phase 1 program. The teams have nine months to submit prototypes. Two will be chosen to be built by 2018, with full deployment by 2030.
The helicopters must be able to travel at 265 miles per hour (double current speeds); be able to hover at altitudes of 6,000 ft.; and must be quieter than current models."

GP Aviation Services at Skyhaven 11-28-13: Here's some great news for pilots based at or near Skyhaven: Glen Horne of GP Aviation Services will be open for business at the Skyhaven maintenance hangar (Hangar 5) starting December 1. Glen is well known to the Skyhaven pilot community and formerly provided services at Skyhaven as Ossipee Valley Aviation. He has signed a lease for Hangar 5 and will be providing comprehensive aircraft maintenance and repair services for all aircraft from small singles to light twins. Come on by Hangar 5 to welcome Glen back to Skyhaven! You can reach Glen by phone at (603) 387-1506 or by email at seaplane31@gmail.com