Extreme airshow series
The new Association of Competition Airshow Pilots (ACAP) began its 12-city eXtreme Airshow Challenge tour in April in Fernandina Beach, Florida.
The idea behind the series is to couple a normal airshow with two segments devoted to extreme flying performances by seven pilots and have a panel of judges determine the winner. The competition pilots get points for bringing the crowd to its feet. Series founder Rick Rushing of Birmingham, Alabama, said, however, there will be quick disqualification of pilot routines that get too dangerous in order to get a reaction out of the crowd.
The show will be presented on two consecutive days in each city. In addition to the two competition segments, each show will have guest performers who are not competing. For the first show in Florida, Gene Soucy, with wing walker Theresa Stokes, will appear along with the Aeroshell Team, Mike Goulian, and, performing in a Super Decathlon, Greg Koontz.
The competition pilots in each city will be: Sergei Boriak, former world aerobatic champion and one of the top aerobatic coaches in the country; airshow veterans Matt Chapman, a former member of the U.S. Aerobatic Team, and Greg Poe, inventor of a maneuver in which he tumbles wingtip over wingtip; Jeff Mawhinney, Jon Melby, Jim Peitz, and Skip Stewart. Originally there were to be eight pilots, but 23-year-old Nick Nilmeyer of California died in March during a training flight.
The audiences do not vote, but can influence the points awarded by their reaction. Competitors are judged in five categories and receive one to 20 points in each one.
Rushing, an aerobatic enthusiast and former chief operating officer of a wireless data company, said the idea came from watching lots of airshows. By repeating performances by the same pilots in a series of cities, he hopes to generate a fan loyalty as seen in the Nascar series. He said 26 million people a year watch airshows. — Alton K. Marsh
AOPA Pilot photo of the month
Congratulations to AOPA member Steve Zimmermann, whose photograph of an out-of-the-way airport in Montana was selected by AOPA members as the March "Photo of the Month" in AOPA Pilot's 2006 General Aviation Photography Contest. Zimmermann took this striking photograph at remote Mission Field in Livingston, Montana. The contest runs through August; submit your own general aviation photographs. Cash prizes totaling more than $7,700 will be awarded, including a grand prize of $1,750.
Dept. of R&D
A concrete solution to a concrete problem
Runways don't come cheap. With the average two-mile runway costing $45 million to replace, the FAA is naturally concerned about stretching the mileage. The cracking of concrete sections at many airports has experts pointing the finger at deicing and anti-icing chemicals. Thanks to research by Clemson University civil engineering professor Prasad Rangaraju, there is a new test method available to determine whether concrete pavement can stand up to the chemicals. Rangaraju saw the problem as basic chemistry. The aggregates in a concrete mixture can be tested before a runway is built to see how they react with the ice prevention chemicals. Adjustments can then be made.
A rule of thumb
To find your reciprocal heading while flying on instruments, here's an easier way than trying to add or subtract 180 degrees. For known headings of 0 to 180, add 200 and subtract 20.
For headings of 181 to 360, subtract 200 and add 20.
Online Survey
I saw Elvis
Harrison Ford has been seen in more general aviation locations than Elvis. That's not too surprising considering Ford's passion for GA. In our latest online survey, we asked AOPA members about celebrity sightings at small airports. Unlike certain Web sites that keep up-to-the-minute info on stars and push the boundaries of privacy, we were interested in the past tense, stretching back decades. So, picture Star Trek's Leonard Nimoy at California's Truckee-Tahoe Airport. Or Goldie Hawn at Massachusetts' Nantucket Memorial Airport. Or Heather Locklear at Colorado Springs Municipal Airport. Rock bands are known for jet-setting to make concert gigs. The Rolling Stones were at Wilson Air in Memphis. Kenny G has been seen in multiple places flying an experimental aircraft. And Jon Bon Jovi was spotted in Kissimmee, Florida. Nascar drivers and crew use GA heavily and so do comedians. Bill Cosby has been everywhere and sometimes travels in sweats. And Joan Rivers was seen with her little dog at New York's Adirondack Regional Airport. Sports stars, too, use GA. Boxer Evander Holyfield was at Florida's Space Coast Regional Airport shortly after Mike Tyson chomped his ear (a.k.a. the "Bight Fight"). No survey such as this would be complete without at least one recent Elvis sighting. One member claims he saw the King in late March 2006 taxiing at Nashville International Airport in a pristine Cessna 195. So the next time you see somebody famous at your local airport, don't be surprised. And act natural. One charter pilot said he was flying a Cessna Citation with Bob Hope on board. When Hope stepped off, the line worker was so startled, he squeezed the fuel nozzle trigger and sprayed jet fuel all over himself and the ground.
Cool aviation jobs
Name: Capt. Nicole Malachowski, Air Force Thunderbird No. 3 pilot
Does it ever get boring flying an F-16?
No! Because even when we're just transiting from point A to point B, sometimes I'll turn around and look at the aircraft behind me and it's a painted red, white, and blue, beautiful, wonderful F-16 and I'm just, "I can't believe I'm here and I'm able to do this with such a great group of people." It's very humbling.
What happens if you have to sneeze when you're flying in formation?
No big deal, you just sneeze. There's a little bit of movement...a very small amount...you can have, so it would have to be a pretty darn big sneeze. Because our training is so progressive and step-by-step, you definitely know where your boundaries are. There's always going to be a little bit of movement in that formation. So if I have to sneeze or if I get a crick in my neck, I know where my airspace is, we all own a chunk of airspace. The biggest concern for me, being on the right wing, is the No. 4 aircraft, the slot pilot who flies left and down underneath me. So I know that if I need to move or something, down is not the place to go.
What's the best gem of wisdom you've got from one of the more veteran Thunderbird pilots?
Relax. Just wiggle your fingers and toes.
What's the worst part of your job?
I can't think of a single thing that is negative about this at all. And that goes for my entire Air Force career. I don't have any negative stories, and that's not pandering to the audience, I'm completely serious. I just love what I do. The great part of being in the Air Force and certainly on this team is you're surrounded by people who love what they do and that makes it awesome to come to work every day.
Do you ever fly general aviation aircraft?
I did get through my solo, at the age of 16, in a Cessna 152, right down the street at North Las Vegas Airport. I am from Las Vegas. And when I went to the Air Force Academy, I did a lot of flying in the gliders as a cadet soaring instruction pilot. But once I entered pilot training in 1997, I've done nothing except fly jets since then. I know that one day when I'm retired from the Air Force I'll get back into the 152 and it will be a good time.
What was it like that first time you flew in the tight formation used in the show?
The day that the delta came together, all six jets flew together for the first time, it was just a beautiful thing; each person fulfilling their position on that team to make it come together like that was wonderful. It's really just a sense of pride that we all have. And it's not just in the pilots, you have to remember it's the pride of the delta coming together with the 120 enlisted people that work in this team, that help us get there.
Do you remember when you first wanted to be a pilot?
When I was 5 years old, my dad took me to an airshow. I saw the F-4 Phantom fly and I absolutely fell in love with it, the power and grace. I looked my dad in the eye that day, and I can actually remember this, and saying, "I'm going to be a fighter pilot."
What's your favorite airplane you've flown?
I've only got about 150 hours in the F-16 (military pilots log actual flight time, not taxi time, but add 0.2 hours for each sortie), and what I do in the F-16 is primarily just fly it: take off, fly formation, and land. I don't know how to employ the F-16 as a weapons system. Whereas the F-15E and I have gone to two separate wars together. I have just over 1,000 hours in that aircraft. I certainly know how to employ the F-15E as a weapons system. I certainly appreciate the increased maneuverability of the F-16 over that of the F-15E. But my heart still lies with the F-15E. But I'm a lucky girl to fly the F-16, no doubt about it. — Jason Paur
Skywritings
People laugh when they know something is true. Such is the case with retired airline captain David Gwinn's nonlinear perspective on a linear 39-year aviation career. In Airways and Airwaves, Stories I Tell to Friends, Gwinn compiles aviation clichés, jokes, quotes, poems, greatest lies, and many of his antics that were originally recorded in his columns in Plane & Pilot magazine. "What separates the flight attendants from the lowest form of life on Earth? The cockpit door." Gwinn also includes spoof photos you may have seen bouncing around the Internet over the years. The 296-page soft cover book sells for $23 and is available in bookstores. For more information, see the author's Web site.
Kenneth McCool has released the ninth edition of his book Aviation Meteorology Unscrambled: For VFR and IFR Operations/Certificates and Ratings. The mammoth 700-page soft cover book serves as text, workbook, and resource on all things related to weather for student pilots on up to ATPs. The latest includes a new chapter featuring papers on weather topics written by experts. The book normally sells for $45, but AOPA members get a 10-percent discount. For more information, e-mail McCool or telephone 940/726-3528.
Remembering Scott Crossfield
A. Scott Crossfield never stopped thinking out of the box, and that's what advanced NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) hypersonic research through the 1950s and into the space program.
Respectful but cautious of analysis, Crossfield preferred "agricultural solutions" when it came to addressing problems in the field. He carried this philosophy to North American on the X-15 project. In designing its seat, Crossfield turned to the industry that had experience in keeping a person comfortable for long periods of time in a high-vibration environment: the tractor industry. The X-15 seat was designed around a tractor seat suspension, a design that was simple and effective and embodied Crossfield's cleverness in engineering solutions. Crossfield was a complex thinker, and in all the focus on his flying achievements, his true genius was in an ability to apply engineering principles to push the limits of aviation.
Today, I teach the same philosophy to my aeronautical engineering students at the Rochester Institute of Technology, emphasizing that the best designs are simple and elegant. During towed-gliding tests of the Wright 1902 glider for the Centennial of Flight pilot training program, Crossfield insisted on keeping the system simple. No pilot-operated emergency release, no audio to the driver, only a single-point release system in his hands. If the glider got out of control, he would drop the rope that sometimes pulled with 100 pounds of force. He was right about this one — any time we looked at adding systems for safety, the compromise was complexity and a higher probability of failure in judgment. Crossfield's experienced leadership gave us success on November 20, 2003, when I flew a reproduction 1903 Wright Flyer 97 feet under control. It was exactly 50 years to the day after Crossfield's landmark Mach 2 flight in the Douglas D-558-II Skyrocket.
At NACA in the 1950s, dreams became reality because the dreamers also operated the slide rules and flew the airplanes. Scaled Composites is carrying this torch now, but it needs to extend beyond Mojave and into every technological direction that challenges us today. Fifty years after pushing flight envelopes, Crossfield was still pushing the intellectual envelope. Which is why, at 84 years of age, Crossfield's mission was not complete. But death does that to people. On April 19, aviation lost one of its best friends, A. Scott Crossfield, in what appears to be a thunderstorm-related accident north of Atlanta, in his 1960 Cessna 210A.
"A good case for ideas is that they are useless until engineered into things," said Crossfield. He never let a good idea pass him by. His energy and enthusiasm for reaching for the unknown has to touch students, industry, and NASA alike. Our survival depends on it. — Kevin Kochersberger, Wright Experience pilot and engineer
What's in the June issue of AOPA Flight Training?
- What Your GPS Won't Tell You. Learn the common pitfalls of these handy navigational devices.
- Seal of Approval. What do accredited aviation colleges offer that other schools don't?
- Specialty Landings. Short-field, soft-field, off-field? We need to keep proficient in these areas.
The June issue mailed on May 1. Current AOPA members can add a subscription to AOPA Flight Training for $18 per year. For more information, call 800/872-2672.
AOPA ePilot Headlines
Recent news from AOPA's weekly newsletter
First flight for D-Jet
Diamond Aircraft Industries has completed the first flight of the single-engine Diamond D-Jet. The 1.1-hour test was conducted at the North American headquarters in London, Ontario, on April 18.
Columbia 400 certified in Canada
Transport Canada has given type certificate approval to Columbia Aircraft Manufacturing for its Columbia 400 single-engine piston airplane. This is the third Columbia model certified in Canada.
Mooney intros new speedster
Mooney has introduced its new aircraft, the 280-horsepower turbonormalized M20 TN Acclaim, which will replace the Bravo in its product line.
Parachutes for faster aircraft?
Ballistic Recovery Systems is researching the prospect of producing parachute systems for aircraft in the 5,000-pound, 220-knot range.
Twin Otter may return
The type certificates for de Havilland Canada's vintage aircraft have been purchased by Viking Air of Sidney, British Columbia. Viking Air will decide this summer whether to put the DHC-6 Twin Otter back in production.
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