Alton Bay Ice Airport Annual Ice Carnival! 

Alton Bay Ice Airport Is Open! 1-27-09 - More information coming soon...

Halt on new rules could affect ADIZ 1-23-09 -  An article from AOPA says that the Obama administration has put a halt on all new and pending regulations. They go on to say, "Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s White House chief of staff, on Jan. 20 issued a memo to the heads of executive departments and agencies asking them to stop moving forward with all regulations that have not yet been published or taken effect until they can be reviewed by the new administration. In some cases, agencies have been asked to reopen the comment period." Could this affect the new SFRA? Click on the icon for more information.

Alton Bay Ice Airport 1-23-09 - We've recently had some inquiries about the status of the Alton Bay Ice Airport. Sorry to say, but as of now, we do not have anyone who has volunteered to manage the ice airport. So for now, the ice airport remains closed until we obtain a staff to manage and maintain the ice runway.

Ski-Plane Fly-In At SMA 1-23-09 -In a recent email from Gerry Peterson, he mentions that Southern Maine Aviation is having a "Ski-Plane Fly-In" at the Sanford airport on Saturday Feb. 14th.  Breakfast 7:30 - 9:30 at $6; Seminar on the new ELTs at 10:00; snow sculptures and other fun events.  Sounds like a good time. Click on the SMA icon to visit their website.

Sequential Inaugural TFR's! 1-17-09 - AOPA has issued warnings on the presidential TFR's from Jan 17 to the 20th. Navigating around the Class B & C airspace requires a level of knowledge and awareness of rules and regulations, but flying south of New York around this time of the inauguration for most people shuts down the air space for normal VFR. AOPA says, "Inauguration airspace restrictions to affect entire Mid-Atlantic region. Pilots who do travel for the inauguration should be aware that the FAA has issued numerous airspace restrictions for inauguration-related events beginning Jan. 17 and continuing through the inauguration on Jan. 20. Although they will not all be active simultaneously, restrictions are slated for at least three states as well as the District of Columbia and will range in size from narrow corridors to TFRs with a 30-nautical mile radius." Click on the picture icons for more information.

1-8-09 - Did you receive your FAASTeam postcard? Click on the postcard icon to check it out. The FAASTeam program has gone through some updates. Here's a quote from their site: "Each of the eight FAA Flight Standards regions now has a Regional FAASTeam Office dedicated to this new safety program and managed by the Regional FAASTeam Manager (RFM). Based on the makeup of the aviation community in each region, the RFM has selected a group of FAASTeam Program Managers (FPM) with specific aviation specialties and assigned them to geographic areas of responsibility within the region. FPMs do not report to work where the RFM resides. They are "hosted" at FAA facilities within their assigned geographic area but they still report directly to the RFM.
This new structure allows each regional FAASTeam to station employees throughout the region and still remain focused on its plan to reduce accidents."

Transponder With A Squitter!  1-3-09 - Garmin GTX 330 and GTX 33 transponders will be equipped with a 1090 MHz extended squitter (ES) capability. It will allow the transponder to send aircraft speed, altitude, heading, and identity messages to ADS-B equipped aircraft and ground stations. The FAA "NextGen" ADS-B requirements talk about ADS-B "in" and ADS-B "out" capabilities. Apparently, the "squitter" gives the transponder the ability to meet the ADS-B "out" requirement by sending out aircraft data. If you want your aircraft to have the ADS-B "in" capability, you will need another piece of equipment like the Garmin GDL 90, which is a Universal Access Transceiver (UAT) that also collects ADS-B “in” signals that show weather and traffic. For now, renting a vintage aircraft at you local FBO you most likely will find yourself with a "boiler gauge" instrument panel and triangulating VOR vectors with your com/nav radios. But that appears to be changing in the not to distant future...

FAA Pilot's Handbook 2008 12-29-08 -Have you seen the 2008 FAA Pilot's Handbook? It has 17 chapters that covers a wide area of information. Here's an excerpt from the preface. "The Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge provides basic knowledge that is essential for pilots. This handbook introduces pilots to the broad spectrum of knowledge that will be needed as they progress in their pilot training. This handbook is useful to beginning pilots, as well as those pursuing more advanced pilot certificates. The current Flight Standards Service airman training and testing material and learning statements for all airman certificates and ratings can be obtained from www.faa.gov." Click on the "Pilot's Handbook" icon to visit the FAA website.

Winter Time At Skyhaven 12-27-08 -Winter has arrived in full swing. It's been a rough December in many ways and finding a blue sky day at this time of the year can be a challenge. After reading all the emails and magazine articles about winter flying and taking the AOPA quizzes on winter flying and the hazards of restricted airspace, you are then ready to check the NOAA weather forecast, satellite and radar charts, prog charts, METAR's, TAF's , winds aloft and NOTAMS, you are finally ready to go flying... well, almost. The aircraft preparation phase of your flight may require some brush-up on GPS operation. For all the so-called "boiler gauge" pilots, the transition is somewhat tedious, but a necessary requirement, seeing that the FAA has been talking about shutting down the VOR system in the not to distant future. Click on the icon in this article to see Skyhaven after the snowstorm.

AIRSPACE TRICKS & TRAPS! 12-20-08 -Not to long ago, AOPA published an article called "Tricks and Traps" in coping with TFR's. But if you're not careful, the traps can extend way beyond TFR's. In addition to being vigilant on the status of TFR's, it's probably a good idea to have a mental picture of the everyday standard condition of the airspace. What if you could look out the window from the space shuttle and see all the class B, C, and "Restricted" airspace like stadiums and power plants? Well thanks to the folks who have come up with Google Earth 3D add-ons, you can. Click on Google Earth icon in this article to check it out. Notice in the Google Earth depiction a new SFRA around Washington D.C. I colored with an orange circle. Also, you can click on the light blue icon on the right to read an AOPA article about he SFRA. Needless to say, flying from New England to Florida VFR is not a direct route. To download the 3D kmz files for Google Earth, check out the bottom of the home page right column.
The SFRA area goes into effect Feb. 17, 2009. Make sure you are prepared by completing the FAA’s online ADIZ training course, Navigating the New DC ADIZ, by Feb. 9. Anyone planning to fly within 60 nm of the Washington, D.C., (DCA) VOR/DME after that date must complete the course before flying in the area. 

Virtual Flying 12-14-08 - Another great link sent in by Jim. The tricks that programmers are doing with Macromedia Flash player is incredible. A company called Electric Oyster has put this demo interactive video together to demonstrate what they call Flash based 3D providing services ranging from development of interactive web gadgets and games and online communities. Click on the blue sky snow covered mountain icon to check out this amazing video. When you get tired of that, click on the darker icon with the red and green dots to see a different twist on Tetris.

Gobosh Visits Skyhaven 12-11-08 - Is it an E-LSA or an S-LSA? Actually, it's a Gobosh G-700S Light Sport Aircraft. After looking at this bird for a while, I couldn't resist taking it for a ride to find out for myself what all the talk on Light Sport Aircraft is all about. Now I know, and have to say that it's a lot of fun to fly. It's not the same as flying with Dan McCue in the L-39, but the bubble canopy and the control stick between your legs gives you a similar feeling. Ok, it's not the same as cruising 400 knots, but 110 knots at around 4gph is pretty hard to beat. Click on the icon to see my pic's on the Skyhaven ramp.

Google Earth Sectionals? 11-28-08 -  Somebody has not only scanned all the sectional charts in the U.S. but also figured out a way to overlay the sectionals on GoogleEarth. The article link submitted by Jim Dubois gives you intructions on how to do the overlay. Click on this link for the instructions...
http://www.wikihow.com/Overlay-Sectional-Aeronautical-Charts-in-Google-Earth

Pay-Phone Still Exist! 11-28-08 - Believe it or not, pay-phones still exist. You don't see them very often but apparently someone recognized the need to have one at the airport. Did you forget you cell phone at home? No problem, try the pay-phone that's right near the entrance gate.

We Have Gas! 11-28-08 - The fuel farm is self-service. Click on the credit card fuel stand icon to get more information.

B2 Stealth Bomber ~ 11-28-08  - Here's a unique pic submitted by Jim Dubois. The NH Air National Guard continues to be a major presence at Pease serving the Air Force with some very unique refueling missions. When you  hear jet noises up in the sky, it's not always passenger traffic going to and from Logan. Click on the icon for a view from the boom operator of one of the Air Guard's tankers...

An Interesting Aircraft   ~10-15-08  - Did you stop by and hang around for a while? Well I did, and I was rewarded with seeing some rare and beautiful aircraft stopping in at Skyhaven. It has a max cruise speed of 184 knots. That's 211 mph.  There might be enough time for a few more articles and one of them will be of another beautiful aircraft that looks every bit as streamline as this Cirrus, but it was built in 1946... come on back and check it out, you won't believe your eyes...

Aircraft On Take-Off At Skyhaven10-6-08 The lens on my camera is always looking for something unusual or out of the ordinary. Maybe for some folks this aircraft is ordinary, but for many aviators whose log books consists mainly of Cessna 150 and 172 entries, the sound of an aircraft with a little extra horsepower under the hood will catch your attention every time. I'm not sure what this aircraft was caught on take-off, but it seems to have some get-up and go. Click on the picture icon to check-out a short video clip. (Could it be a Navion?)

Medical Helicopter Transport at Skyhaven 9-27-08 A common sight here at the airport is to see special medical flights by helicopters often times to bring people who have been in a bad automobile accident. Skyhaven airport's location is like a hub to the surrounding cities. It's easy to access and provides a relatively short flight to medical facilities like Boston, Portland, and Hanover. Although the airport ramp is surrounded by a chain link fence, emergencies crews have special access codes that allow them direct entry to allow them to drive the ambulance right up to the medical transportation helicopter. Click on the helicopter icon to see more pictures. 

Young Eagle Rally Event At Skyhaven 9-27-08 Here's a message from Gerry about the Young Eagle Rally coming up in October. "Our chapter will be holding another Young Eagle Rally for an All-Day event on Saturday, October 11th.  We will be doing a Pancake Breakfast for anyone needing something warm to eat as well.  If you have time, please stop by." You can [click here] to check some pics I took during their 2004 event. It's a great way to introduce kids to flying. Click here for more info..

The Leaves Are Turning Colors... 9-23-08 Yes, the end of the summer has come, and Columbus Day is around the corner. Sad to say, but I took the motor off the boat last weekend, and it looks like the cover will be coming off the snow blower in the near future. But not to fear, there's plenty of raking coming up after those beautiful leaves decide to pile up in my backyard. Looking towards Salmon Falls Rd from 43G, it looks like a large patch of trees in Berwick have decided to lead the way in showing us a preview of coming attractions. Click on the icon to take a peek...