1-1-10: This notice was posted last June and is being posted again as a reminder. ALL pilots will be required to get a plastic certificate by March 31, 2010. That's less than one 3 months away. AOPA mentioned it again in a recent newsletter and it's probably time to do something about it to avoid the last minute rush. Here's an excerpt from the AOPA article: "The FAA's mandate is based on the reasoning that plastic certificates are more counterfeit resistant than paper ones. For newly certificated pilots, compliance is automatic, since all new certificates are being issued in plastic. For those who have paper certificates in their wallets, a replacement certificate can be requested online or through the mail." CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO

The Most Expensive Grand Prize ~ 12-31-09: The AOPA airplane giveaway this year is being touted as the most expensive and luxurious aircraft they have ever given away. At $315,000, the 310hp 180knot cruise Cirrus SR22 is not something that a low time VFR private pilot is likely to be riding around in, not unless you happen to be the winner of the 2009 AOPA airplane giveaway. A new paint scheme was added along with some other changes like replacing the backup artificial horizon, airspeed indicator and DG with a "backup" EFIS, which only cost $15,000.  And how does AOPA afford to give away such a plane? By the generous donation of J. Lloyd Huck a veteran pilot and philanthropist and since 1986 as retired chairman of the giant pharmaceutical company Merck & Co. That's right, he gave AOPA his $315,000 just like new, Cirrus SR22.  CLICK HERE to read more about J. Lloyd Huck.

Suborbital Space Tourism Flights ~ 12-27-09: "After a test program is completed, Virgin Galactic plans to start commercial flights with SpaceShipTwo and WhiteKnightTwo, which was unveiled in 2008. WhiteKnightTwo, the largest all-composite aircraft ever built, will carry the spaceship to above 50,000 feet powered by four Pratt & Whitney PW308A engines. SpaceShipTwo will then detach and fire its hybrid rocket motor, currently under development, and launch into space, according to the company." Space.com reported that the ceremony had to be cut short because of an unusual wind storm that blew their tent away minutes before they had received evacuation orders. CLICK here to see an EAA article about the windstorm.

Boston New England Air Show  ~ 12-23-09: According to an article in the Fosters, the Blue Angels will be coming to Pease for an air show being called the "Boston New England Air Show." The Fosters article went on to say that "it's been 20 years since the Blue Angels have thrilled crowds at Pease." The Boston New England Air Show is being brought to Pease by the Daniel Webster Council of the Boy Scouts of America and the Brain Injury Association of New Hampshire. The show has been about 10 years in the making and with its main focus being to bring a premier event for youths in the region. The show is scheduled to be at Pease on Aug. 28 and 29, 2010. They also said that tickets for the Pease show will go on sale on Jan. 25, 2010. CLICK on the Boston New England Air Show icon to see their webpage. CLICK on the Blue Angel icon to see the Fosters article.

The Iceway Is Open ~ 12-17-09: In a recent Aviation Brief sent to AOPA subscribers, an article was featured showing a link to a video interview with Paul La Rochelle of Alton Bay. "If you plow it, they will come..." Here's a section from the interview: "La Rochelle, and his friends Steve Bell and Roger Sample, were the three volunteers who tried to get the airport reopened in 2008. “There was a general consensus in the town that they wanted to see it happen again,” La Rochelle said. “We got talking among the business association and decided to see what we could do. Then we met with the New Hampshire DOT and they said someone had to be the airport manager. Everyone pointed at me."" By the sounds of this article, it looks like the Alton Bay Ice Airport will be back in 2010. 

Skyhaven Airport Planning Survey Results ~ 12-14-09: Thanks to everyone who participated in the Skyhaven Airport Planning Survey. If you still haven't had a chance to take the survey you're in luck. Here's a note from Peter Bruckner the Vice Chair of the SAAC. "With approximately 70 responses, the Skyhaven Airport Planning Survey has provided the SAAC with excellent feedback from the entire Skyhaven community.  This feedback will continue to be valuable in the ongoing planning efforts. It is now time to publish the results on the web for all to see. We will keep the survey itself up for anyone who wants to weigh in on airport priorities or wishes to provide comments to the SAAC." Click on the bar chart icon to see the results.

Class "C" Airspace  ~ 12-13-09: Sectional Charts are loaded with a variety of information. Staring at one area on the sectional initially looks like a mass of colors and printed words and various symbols and shapes. One unique feature of the Class "C" areas is that they are usually surrounded by magenta flags. They are reporting points that are sometimes mentioned in articles about controlled airspace. They are not mandatory but the "tracon" (terminal radar approach control) people like them. Looking at the Portland Class "C" airspace I noticed they didn't pop out at me. At first, it's like a puzzle. The longer you stare at it, the more flags you begin to see. Click on the Sectional icon and see if I missed any...

Crosswind Calculator  ~ 12-12-09: There have been many articles written about crosswind landings and around this neck of the woods it's something you get to practice quite often, especially around this time of the year. To help visitors with a quick tool to see the crosswind components I've added a graphical crosswind component calculator in the left column that's uncluttered and easy to use. Just click on the crosswind icon and the Crosswind Calculator graphics page opens. Then, all you need to do is to left click and hold either the red vertical line or the red horizontal line and drag it over the chart. There's a lot of calculators and charts out there, but this one I got at an FAA Safety Seminar impressed me for its simplicity and ease of use. To take the place of a pencil, I added the draggable red lines. You can also print the page with the lines in your calculated position.

Garmin GPS Goes Touch Screen! ~ 12-05-09: Keeping up with all the new electronic displays can be challenging, to say the least. If you have been flying in aircraft with conventional round analog gauges and haven't paid too much attention to aviation editorials in the past few years, you're in for a big surprise. A one hour check ride in a glass panel aircraft may not enough for a log book endorsement. Dynon, the maker of EFIS's and EMS's suggest reading the manual from cover to cover before taking to the airways. Until recently all the Multifunction Function Displays were accompanied with multifunction buttons... but that's changing. It appears that the touch screens are moving into the aviation electronics with their virtual buttons and menus all embedded on the screen like the new ipod's. Check out the new Garmin Aera 500 series GPS. Click on the icons of the 496 and 560 gps models to see them on Sporty.

WINTER OPEN HOUSE at Southern Maine Aviation ~ 12-2-09: "Southern Maine Aviation will be holding a WINTER OPEN HOUSE on Saturday, December 5th, from 9 am to 4 pm.  The objective is to invite the local non-flying public to come down to the hangar to find out what flying is about.  Airplanes will be on display, charts and approach plates will be laid out and flight instructors will be on hand to answer questions. A few activities are planned to keep the kids busy."  Be sure to check out their new glass panel Gobosh. The combined EFIS, EMS, and Garmin GPS take a little getting used to, but after a few hours of flight time and flipping through the MFD's provide all the information you need and more. Here's a Garmin 495 tip: When flying to a destination airport, to get airport information on the GPS, hold the "Direct to" button down for two second and the airport information page (similar to the AFD) pops up with all the airport runway, frequencies and a whole bunch more... Click here to see the Gobosh glass panel.

The End Of 100LL ~ 11-30-09: If you do a Google on "the end of 100LL" you'll get a large number of hits. In GaNews they said  “The industry hoped 100LL would survive, but it is going away.” Rhett Ross, president of Teledyne Continental Motors, who noted the company has tested “all different types of fuels, and we will be ready for it.” The articles are saying that the phasing out of 100LL fuel will happen by 2016 or 2017. The aviation industry is searching for an alternative to 100LL, which contains the neurotoxin tetra-ethyl lead. A potential fuel replacement is UL94, which would require modifications for some engines, and 100SF which can be produced from organic matter that contains sugar of cellulose. So the next time you stick the sump drain for a sample don't be surprise if the color isn't blue. Whatever they come up with, I hope it smells better than MoGas. Click on the GANews icon for more information.

Skyhawk, Gauges to Glass ~ 11-24-09: Here's a picture of a "state of the art" Skyhawk instument panel. It has a "Garmin G1000® glass cockpit with integrated Synthetic Vision Technology (SVT™). The avionics suite integrates all primary flight, engine and sensor data with the SVT’s three-dimensional terrain display for at-a-glance situational awareness. The G1000 also incorporates a fully integrated transponder and dual Nav/Comm/WAAS/GPS equipment. Two large, colorful, 10.4-inch high-resolution active-matrix LCDs gather and present real-time flight-critical data, including traffic information, digital altitude, heading data, and topographic and relative terrain mapping. It also features subscription-based XM WX Satellite Weather™ with XM Satellite Radio®. The avionics suite includes autopilot controls*, engine indication, crew alerting and a digital audio panel." Wow! Somehow, the name Skyhawk doesn't seem appropriate. 

Flying on Veterans Day ~ 11-15-09: Veterans Day was a great day to go flying. On a clear day, the White Mountains form a barrier along the horizon that's preceded by the lakes region area in New Hampshire and the border lakes along the Maine border. In this clip is Mousam Lake with Square Pond in the background with Great East hiding in the distance. Click on the small picture to enlarge and see what a 20x zoom will do at 1500 feet.

250 KNOT HELICOPTER ~ 11-15-09: Sikorsky Aircraft has been working on a helicopter that they want to go 250 knots. Here's an article from Time Compression magazine. "The product developers at Sikorsky Aircraft (sikorsky,com) are working on x2 Technology and have built a demonstrator with its Light Helicopter Div. of Sikorsky Global Helicopters. (And while on this subject, Igor Sikorsky, father of the first successful helicopter, established the company in 1925.) The x2 Technology aircraft is being developed to travel at up to 250 knots (288 mph). By way of comparison, the VH-60M Black Hawk and S-92 Superhawk helicopters, which are quick, have a top speed of 151 knots (174 mph). The x2 demonstrator is what is known as a counter-rotating coaxial rotor helicopter, which provides the means by which it can not only go fast in a forward direction, but has what is described as "excellent Iow speed handling, efficient hovering, and autorotation safety," You may notice that it doesn't have a conventional tail rotor. To help achieve speed there is a pusher prop," an auxiliary propulsion system." Check out the rotor on this thing...

Autonomous Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs)11-12-09: Here's an article from a recent newsletter I get. "Researchers at MIT have created an MAV capable of "high-level autonomous behaviors in unconstrained, GPS-denied environments." Translation: Lightweight laser scanner-equipped RC helicopter can accurately navigate through an unmapped room and locate a window or perform obstacle avoidance on its own." The claim these people is making is that this small unmanned flying vehicle uses lasers, cameras, and sensors to make a map on the fly (pun intended), and navigate in and around obstacles and barriers. Check out the video...

Win A Brand NEW SkyCatcher LSA!11-11-09: Here's what Sporty's Pilot Shop has to say about the SkyCatcher: "We chose the SkyCatcher for our next Sweepstakes because it is the ultimate personal airplane,” said Sporty’s President Michael Wolf. In addition to the proprietary Garmin G300 avionics package, thrust is provided by a composite propeller mated to the Continental O-200D engine developed specifically for the Light Sport market. It has a 44-inch wide cabin, along with a unique under panel center stick control. Any order placed with Sporty’s until May 10, 2010 will enter the customer as a potential winner of the Sweepstakes airplane. The winner will be officially announced at Sporty’s annual Fly-In, scheduled for May 15, 2010." Let me see now, there must be something I can order through Sporty...

Rocket Man ! 11-9-09: Could this be the ultimate in personal flying? Nino Amarena wants you to, "strap a rocket engine to your back, ignite some hydrogen peroxide and shoot straight up amid plumes of superheated steam — like a miniature version of the space shuttle. He'll put a couple of handles on your rocket for steering. You'll be able to go up and down, side to side, forward and back. You'll be able to yaw while watching your feet dangle above the scenery below. It will cost you $210,000 and the rides will be short — about 40 seconds each. There's also some danger. Wendell Moore, who invented the rocketbelt for Bell Aerosystems in the early 1960s, stopped flying after shattering his knee in a crash. Amarena can guarantee, though, that your experience will be intense." "You have 133 decibels of noise and 400 pounds of thrust on your back." Click HERE to see the full article. Click on the rocket man icon to visit the Thunderbolt website.

Win A Brand NEW Remos LSA! 11-7-09: AOPA has announced that they will be giving away a new Remos LSA aircraft for their 2010 aircraft give-away. That's a departure from the traditional AOPA giveaway where they take an old vintage Piper or Cessna and make it like new inside and out. Did somebody say that GA single engine sales are down 49%? Could LSA's be the spark to keep things going? The Remos has some pretty impressive spec numbers and boast carrying two 200 lb pilots and full fuel. So what's it going to be; eating fruits and vegetables so you can fly your 150, or eating Dunkin Donuts and riding around in a Remos. Here's a website with some nice pics of the Remos http://www.fitaviation.com/fleet/remos/remos.html

"3 things you should NEVER say to ATC" 11-1-09: That was the title on an AOPA weblink. However, when you click on the link you must give your email and sign-up for a weekly email to see the answer. Once you register for the weekly email,  you are brought to a web page that has an interview with two ATC controllers where they, "Tell us some of the major headaches that pilots inflict on you, and what are some of the major mistakes you see on a regular basis." After reading the article, I would say the short answer is, "Be professional at all times." No chit chat, slang or CB radio lingo, or kidding remarks. Here's a good article AOPA published back in '95 about good radio technique, http://www.aopa.org/asf/asfarticles/sp9504.html

Cessna SkyCatcher arrives from China 10-30-09: The news is coming in about the new 162 SkyCatcher arriving in Wichita, Kan., this week from China. It is also being called a light sport aircraft and is manufactured by Shenyang Aircraft Industry in China but will be assembled in the U.S. Will the skycatcher compete against the other light sport aircraft already out in the market? Time will tell for sure. It has certainly received a lot of news about the flight test. One thing I haven't heard to much about is the unusual single horn yoke. How about the glass panel? Or should I say, how about the EFIS and EMS with it's MFD's and GPS? Not familiar with EFIS and EMS? Sorry, you'll need a "check ride" for the glass panel. You'll also need a separate night check ride for the glass panel. Going from round analog gages to straight line digital horizontal and vertical slider bars, bugs, chevrons, and tick marks takes a little getting use to.

TFR OVER BOSTON   10-23-09: FAA TO ESTABLISH TFR OVER BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ON FRIDAY (today). A notam has been issued that will restrict flight in the area 
during President Obama's planned visit. See AOPA Online for a graphical depiction ( http://www.aopa.org/images/whatsnew/newsitems/2009/notams/9-6165.gif ). ==> 30 nm radius TFR <== Location: BOS VOR's 290-degree radial at 2.8 nautical miles Surface to 17,999-ft-MSL Times:
11:05 a.m. until 4:10 p.m. local Friday, October 23, 2009Requirements for flight and operations not authorized ( http://www.aopa.org/whatsnew/notams-special.html ) ==> 10 nm radius no-fly zone <==Location: BOS VOR's 290-degree radial at 2.8 nautical miles Surface to 17,999-ft-MSL Times: 11:05 a.m. until 4:10 p.m. local Friday, October 23, 2009.

TFR OVER TEANECK, NJ  10-20-09:FAA TO ESTABLISH TFR OVER TEANECK, NJ, ON WEDNESDAY A NOTAM has been issued that will restrict flight in the area during  President Obama's planned visit. See AOPA Online for a graphical depiction ( http://www.aopa.org/images/whatsnew/newsitems/2009/notams/9-5807.gif ).
==> 30 nm radius TFR <== Location: TEB VOR's 253-degree radial at 3.2 nautical miles
Surface to 17,999-ft-MSL Times: 4:10 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. local Wednesday, October 21
Requirements for flight and operations not authorized 
( http://www.aopa.org/whatsnew/notams-special.html )
==> 8 nm radius no-fly zone <==  Location: TEB VOR's 219-degree radial at 10.7 nautical miles
Surface to 17,999-ft-MSL Times: 4:10 p.m. until 5:15 p.m. local Wednesday, October 21
6:50 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. local Wednesday, October 21 ==> 9 nm radius no-fly zone <==
Location: TEB VOR's 021-degree radial at 3.9 nautical miles Surface to 17,999-ft-MSL Times: 4:40 p.m. until 7:25 p.m. local Wednesday, October 21

TFR OVER NEW YORK 10-19-09:  FAA TO ESTABLISH TFR OVER NEW YORK, NEW YORK ON TUESDAY A NOTAM has been issued that will restrict flight in the area during 
President Obama's planned visit. See AOPA Online for a graphical depiction 
( http://www.aopa.org/images/whatsnew/newsitems/2009/notams/9-5623.gif ).
 ==> Class B Airspace <== Location: Within the lateral limits of the New York Class B Airspace Surface to 17,999-ft-MSL Times: 2:50 p.m. until 9:50 p.m. local Tuesday, October 20 
Requirements for flight and operations not authorized http://www.aopa.org/whatsnew/notams-special.html ) ==> 8 nm radius no-fly zone <==
Location: Centered on the JFK VOR/DME Surface to 17,999-ft-MSL 

EAA Young Eagles 10-11-09: The EAA 225 Young Eagles flight rally was on at Skyhaven yesterday in spite of some brisk wind. The tradition of the EAA giving kids between the ages of 8 to 17 a chance to fly for free has been going on at Skyhaven for a number years and provides a wonderful opportunity to not only experience the thrill of flying, but also to see some of the technical aspects of what's required by the pilot to ensure passenger safety, FAA compliance, and adherence to the aircraft specifications. Click HERE or on the "Kids Fly Free" icon to see more pictures.

Where's My Six Pack? 10-9-09: Aviation six pack that is... For many years, the familiar analogue instruments on airplanes became like a religious experience. Once you learned how to fly in a Cessna or Piper aircraft you found that no matter what instrument panel you looked at, whether it was a WWII aircraft, or a Boeing passenger jet, the avionics were basically the same. When you sat in the pilot seat, there they were! Fixed in location, with the "Artificial Horizon" surrounded by the airspeed indicator, altimeter, DG, Turn & Bank, & the Rate of Climb. But now, that's all going away. Not only that, but at the push of a button, all your primary avionics disappear to reveal screens and menu's that are too numerous to mention in this article. This has become even more prevalent with LSA's. Click on the 6-pack icon to see the striking difference between the Digital Glass Panel and the traditional Avionics 6-pack.

EAA Young Eagles Free Plane Rides for Kids 10-8-09: The local EAA  Chapter is having another Young Eagles Event here at Skyhaven, October 10, 2009. For more INFORMATION and a printable poster click HERE