Payload and performance. The Beechcraft Bonanza has been in continuous production longer than any other airplane in history. Its reputation for performance and payload have earned it a loyal following. The Model A36 shown here features a conventional (straight) tail, but until 1982 Beech Aircraft Corp. manufactured a V-tail version that the company hoped would save weight and possibly create less drag. More than 17,000 Bonanzas have been manufactured, which means the likelihood you'll spy one at your airport is quite good.
WHAT: Bonanza
WHERE: Over the Chesapeake Bay, Maryland
PHOTOGRAPHER: Chris Rose
A family affair
Students, new pilots share AOPA’s Indy Fly-In with loved ones
Alyssa J. Miller
With only two flight lessons under his belt, student pilot Brent Fazekas said he didn’t feel comfortable flying with his instructor to AOPA’s Indianapolis Regional Fly-In May 31 because of all of the anticipated traffic. So, they devised a plan that would still help him experience flying in: For his third lesson, they flew from his home base at Noblesville, Indiana, just outside Indianapolis, to the airport the day before the fly-in to practice takeoffs and landings.
Then, Fazekas drove his wife, Kristin, and their three young daughters, Kameryn, Kara, and Emily, to the fly-in. More than 2,000 attended the event, including 160 volunteers, with 475 aircraft flying in to Indianapolis Regional, and more than 60 to Indianapolis Metropolitan, the designated reliever. AOPA offered educational seminars for students as well as veteran pilots on topics including radio communication, unusual attitudes, and iPads in the cockpit. Pilots also perused aircraft that flew in as well as those on static display.
“This is awesome,” Fazekas said as he walked through the aircraft parking area with his family. “Lots of dream building.” Fazekas’ family is excited that he’s learning to fly, something he decided to do after his brother-in-law earned his pilot certificate last year. “I hope he’s as gentle driving an airplane as he is driving a car,” Kristin said of her husband. Fazekas is learning to fly a Cessna 172 but will need to step up to an aircraft with more seats later—they have another child on the way.
The fly-in also was a family affair for generations of pilots to meet and spend the day talking about all things aviation. Austin Malcomb flew an Experimental Vans RV-12 —that he helped build with his high school classmates—with his father, and met his grandfather, also a pilot, at the fly-in.
Malcomb, of North Vernon, Indiana, earned his private pilot certificate on January 4, his seventeenth birthday. He worked on and trained in the aircraft through Eagle’s Nest, a program in seven states that works with high schools to place an RV-12 kit for students to build and get three hours of college credit with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Purdue University, or Liberty University. Malcomb recruited his friend Jacob Lofgreen to help build one kit, and now a second. Both plan to pursue airframe-and-powerplant certification after high school. Lofgreen is studying for the knowledge test and said that flying the aircraft beats building it.
“You kind of feel like a miracle maker,” Lofgreen said of flying an airplane that he built. “It becomes your baby.” Students at the North Vernon Eagle’s Nest program received free flight instruction and checkrides (time donated by the CFI and an examiner). Learning to fly and build an airplane would be out of Lofgreen’s reach if it weren’t for the Eagle’s Nest program, and he said he takes advantage of every moment to learn as much as he can. “Nothing’s going to stop us,” he said. “There’s always a way, a solution around it.”
I knew the solo was coming. My instructor and I did three takeoffs and landings. He had me taxi to an FBO where he sent me off to do three takeoffs and landings on my own. I was very nervous, but once I added the throttle and made the calls “airspeed is live, gauges are in the green” and called out my airspeeds, the nervousness went away. It was a beautiful day to fly and I couldn’t ask for a better time to do so.
Spokane, it’s your time
AOPA is headed to the Northwest
Felts Field (SFF) in Spokane, Washington, will welcome airplanes, pilots, and the community on August 16 for AOPA’s regional fly-in. Join your fellow AOPA members for a full day of fun, including a pancake breakfast, a free lunch (RSVP required), informative seminars, a static display, and much more. Admission is free. Volunteers are needed for setup, aircraft marshalling and parking, and other duties. See the website (www.aopa.org/fly-in) to RSVP or sign up to volunteer.
NSTB seeks better weather forecast delivery to GA pilots
Improving aviation weather information
Jim Moore
In 2010, a Cessna 182R struck mountains near Corvallis, Oregon, with two fatalities. The following year, a Eurocopter with five on board struck mountains on the island of Molokai, Hawaii. Another person was killed in 2012, when a Gulfstream jet struck terrain in Oregon, and four people died in 2013 when a Mooney M20E hit terrain shortly after departure from Angel Fire, New Mexico.
In each of these cases, weather forecasts provided to the public noted more severe weather conditions than were detailed in aviation weather provided to the flight crews, and the National Transportation Safety Board issued on May 6 a call for the FAA and National Weather Service to improve weather forecast delivery to general aviation pilots.
“What’s difficult to understand is why weather advisories from the National Weather Service to the general public, at times, provide more comprehensive information about weather conditions than the advisories they provide to pilots experiencing the same conditions,” NTSB Board Member Earl Weener said in a news release. “Why pilots would receive less information makes no sense, and increases the risk of flying in severe weather conditions. That is why this issue is on the NTSB’s Most Wanted List.”
The accidents were detailed in letters sent to FAA and NWS leaders, seeking action on recommendations to improve forecast data delivery to pilots. Improved aviation weather information distribution is among the items on the agency’s 2014 Most Wanted List, which is updated annually based on accident trends in all forms of transportation.
The announcement follows the May 1 launch of the “Got Weather?” campaign by the FAA and aviation groups, including the AOPA Foundation’s Air Safety Institute. That effort includes a variety of weather education products developed by the Air Safety Institute and other organizations that focus on specific weather conditions that have contributed to accidents, with a goal of making pilots better informed, and more aware of forecast information sources and other available weather products (www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/got_weather/).
The NTSB recommendations focus on improving situational awareness for pilots and controllers, and better disseminating important weather information within the aviation system.
“Safety will be enhanced for airmen and their passengers when pilots are given a complete weather report including all of the most current weather information,” Weener said.
Join the August Flight Training chat
Does talking to air traffic control leave you tongue-tied? Are you confused over where a two-mile base leg begins? Join the Flight Training Facebook chat at 3 p.m. Eastern August 5. One chatter will receive a $50 Aircraft Spruce gift card. Sign up for an email reminder.
Flight Training Facebook chats are sponsored by Aircraft Spruce & Specialty (www.aircraftspruce).
Applications open for AOPA flight training scholarship program
Supporting outstanding pilots
The AOPA Foundation will award 10 scholarships in 2014 to help support outstanding student pilots. Nine of the scholarships will provide $5,000, and a tenth scholarship will award $12,000, to student pilots pursuing an FAA sport, recreational, or private pilot certificate.
Award recipients will be chosen based on merit, including previous accomplishments, ability to set goals, and demonstrated commitment to flight training and general aviation. Applicants must meet the following criteria: be a U.S. citizen or U.S. permanent resident; be at least 16 years old; hold a current FAA student pilot certificate at the time of application; be a current and paid member of AOPA at both the time of application and when the scholarship is awarded; and not have completed the FAA practical test/checkride at the time of application.
Qualified candidates can submit applications online. Students will be required to fill out a series of essay questions and save responses using their AOPA login. Once the application is completed, students will receive a link to share with two references of their choice. They must receive two complete references before the application deadline. Once completed, applications will be reviewed by a team of AOPA staff.
The deadline to apply is August 22 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. The scholarships will be awarded at the AOPA Homecoming Fly-In in Frederick, Maryland, on October 4. The winners will be notified prior to the fly-in and do not need to be present to accept the award.
AOPA highlights aviation scholarships, recipients
Share these opportunities with others
Aviation organizations recognize the importance of investing in the future of aviation by offering scholarships. Share these opportunities with those who are in training for an aviation-related field.
Scholarship opportunities. Members of Women in Corporate Aviation (WCA), along with 12 corporate aviation companies, donate more than $100,000 to the organization’s scholarship fund. Available scholarships include $22,000 from CAE SimuFlite for Citation Jet 3 type rating training, $27,600 from FlightSafety International for type rating training in a Cessna Citation XL or Citation XLS, and three awards of $3,000 each from Universal Weather and Aviation for dispatcher certification training.
ForeFlight awards two $7,500 scholarships through the EAA for those pursuing their private pilot certificates. Applicants write a 500-word essay or a video on the topic, “How I will use my license to fly.”
The Ninety-Nines and EAA award a $3,000 Karen Johnson Solo Scholarship to help a young woman between the age of 16 and 20 with flight training through the first solo and beyond.
Aerosim Flight Academy offers the chance to win a scholarship of up to a $10,000 for flight training under its Future Pilot Scholarship program. Students who complete the private, instrument, and commercial multiengine certificates and ratings through the Professional Pilot Program can receive a $10,000 scholarship. Those who complete their instrument and multiengine ratings and commercial certificate through the Professional Pilot Track can receive $7,500, and those who complete their private and commercial pilot certificates and instrument and multiengine ratings through the Commercial Pilot Program can receive $5,000.
Scholarship Winners. The General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) has awarded two $2,000 scholarships to a high school and college student. Cara Baldwin of Morgantown High School in Morgantown, West Virginia, won the Edward W. Stimpson Aviation Excellence Award, given to a graduating high school senior who has been accepted to and will be enrolled in an aviation degree core program at a university or college. Baldwin will attend Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida, where she will study aeronautical sciences. Alex Kwiatkowski of Lewis University won the Dr. Harold S. Wood Award for Excellence, given to a college student who is a flight team member at a National Intercollegiate Flying Association (NIFA) member school. He is a junior majoring in aviation flight management and minoring in both aircraft dispatch and business administration and has his private pilot certificate with an instrument rating.
The National Air Transportation Foundation (NATF) has named the winners of three aviation scholarships. Tyler Wilson, a student at LeTourneau University in Longview, Texas, is the recipient of the Dan L. Meisinger Sr. Memorial Learn to Fly Scholarship. Alovia Dudek, a student at Portland Community College in Oregon, has won the Pioneers of Flight Scholarship. Shane Fisher, a student at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Michigan, is the recipient of the 2014 Richard L. Taylor Flight Training Scholarship. Brian Nissel, a student at the Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics at the Hagerstown, Maryland, campus and an employee of Aero-Smith Inc. in Martinsburg, West Virginia, won the NATA Business Scholarship.
EAA awarded its Tubreaux Aviation Flight Training Scholarship to Matthew Callahan, an 18-year-old high school senior from Bellevue, Nebraska. The scholarship includes lodging and transportation to and from Shreveport, Lousiana's Downtown Airport, where he will learn to fly at Tubreaux Aviation.
Nevada’s Minden Soaring Club awarded eight scholarships of $1,000 each to local youth to help them finance their flight and ground instruction in preparation for obtaining a private pilot certificate in a glider. The scholarships went to those who had already started their training or showed an interest in flying gliders.
Scholarship roundup
Deadlines are quickly approaching for these scholarships.
July 1: Wings Over Houston Airshow scholarships
July 11: Angel MedFlight Worldwide Air Ambulance and the Arizona Business Aviation Association $3,000 scholarship
August 22: AOPA Flight Training Scholarships
PilotWorkshops offers IFR Bootcamps
Knock off the rust
AOPA Premier Partner PilotWorkshops is offering a new series of personal training sessions for instrument-rated pilots who want to knock off rust or build confidence in their skills.
IFR Bootcamp is a daylong session of scenario-based missions flown on an FAA-approved simulator. To increase the realism, the simulator utilizes the PilotEdge voice and data network to provide live air traffic control services during the session.
The simulators can be configured to Beechcraft, Cessna, Cirrus, and Piper aircraft, with more to come. Instrument panels support steam gauges, Garmin 430/530 and G1000, Avidyne, and Perspective, PilotWorkshops said. Boot camps will be offered in California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, New Hampshire, and Texas.
Boot camps were to begin in July. Pricing and schedules are being finalized. For more information, see the website.
CAP wins gold medal
Congress bestows top honor
The Civil Air Patrol has received a Congressional Gold Medal one year after it was first approved by the Senate. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) introduced the legislation in February 2013.
The CAP was founded December 1, 1941, a week before the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Within three months, CAP members were using their own airplanes to fly anti-submarine missions off the East and Gulf coasts, where German U-boats were sinking U.S. ships carrying oil and other vital supplies to the Allies. By the time that mission ended August 31, 1943, CAP’s coastal patrols had flown 86,685 missions totaling 244,600 hours. Seventy-four airplanes sent out from coastal patrol bases crashed into the water; 26 CAP members were killed.
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