Total eclipse
An Eclipse 550 flies beneath its namesake
The Great American Eclipse seemed like a natural phenomenon made for aviation. As weather watchers checked forecasts to determine the best viewing spots for the total solar eclipse that swept the length of the continental United States August 21, pilots were able to fly to locations with clearer skies. Many took to the skies during the eclipse for an airborne view, and pilots and nonpilots flocked to airports along the path of totality. And AOPA Editor at Large Dave Hirschman and Senior Photographer Chris Rose worked with One Aviation to pull off a remarkable photo shoot with the company’s Eclipse 550 jet in the midday darkness. The air-to-air team took off from Mount Vernon Airport in Illinois, about 15 miles from the zone of totality, with a Beechcraft Bonanza A36 as a photo ship. As darkness fell, Rose used a powerful strobe to light the subject airplane at 1:21 p.m.
Airport News
Making a difference
Pilot helps showcase airport’s value
By Mike Collins
Rod Kleiss moved his business to Grantsburg, Wisconsin, 15 years ago. After he sold it, he decided to become involved in local politics, and won a seat on the village board—where he learned that Grantsburg Municipal Airport (GTG), 60 nautical miles north-northeast of Minneapolis, had not been utilizing available FAA Airport Improvement Program funds to which it was entitled. The board was thinking about getting rid of the airport.
Kleiss was not a pilot, although his late father flew dive bombers off the U.S.S. Enterprise during World War II and was credited with three hits on three Japanese aircraft carriers. “I kept getting more and more interested, and I recognized what an airport could do,” he said. “People get one idea in their mind, and they fix on it—they had decided it was a hobbyist airport for rich people.” However, the airport could help revitalize the community.
He reached out to Andy Miller, AOPA’s You Can Fly ambassador for the Great Lakes region, for help starting a flying club. “When I talked with him about that, it came up that they needed some help,” said Miller, who coached Kleiss through the steps of holding an airport open house and fly-in during 2016. “One of the things we did was a Rusty Pilots class there at the field. I also helped him make some connections, including EAA Chapter 237 over in Anoka [Minnesota]. They just got out and started parking airplanes and giving kids Young Eagles rides.”
Lots of people saw signage along the highway and in town, and came out to the airport. “At least a half dozen people made the statement that they didn’t even know they had an airport there,” Miller said.
Another event was held July 2, 2017, with the assistance of EAA Chapter 1537 from Siren, Wisconsin. “It was a fantastic fly-in. The community support, once we tapped them, they really seem to appreciate the airport,” said Kleiss, who hopes to make the event an annual occurrence.
And while there’s still some resistance from the village board to investing in the airport, the new village president is much more receptive—and the village has decided to move forward with a project to seal cracks in the runway surface, which has been deteriorating. “They have gone from saying absolutely no support to saying, ‘We will fix this runway,’” Kleiss said. “Two years ago, they wouldn’t have considered this.”
Kleiss also was bitten by the aviation bug. “I just got my private pilot’s license in January, and I’m starting on my IFR now.” He bought his brother’s Cessna 152 for primary training, sold it, and bought a Cessna 172XP that is now being outfitted with a glass panel.
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Amid warnings, drones respond to hurricane
Authorized drones monitor flooding in Houston area
By Jim Moore
While the FAA, first responders, and other officials pleaded to keep untrained drone pilots from flying their unmanned aircraft in the disaster area after Hurricane Harvey, drone response crews from Texas A&M University’s Center for Robot Assisted Search and Rescue were deployed at the request of Fort Bend County’s Office of Emergency Management to monitor ongoing flooding.
As the scale of the catastrophe that inundated a huge area in and around Houston became clear, the FAA imposed temporary flight restrictions that were requested by emergency responders, including U.S. Coast Guard and National Guard aircrews. Operating in the Houston area while the temporary flight restrictions remained in effect required sponsorship by a government entity, and authorization must be obtained from the FAA System Operations Security Center.
Robin Murphy, director of the Texas A&M University Center for Robot Assisted Search and Rescue and the affiliated volunteer group Roboticists Without Borders, worked with a CRASAR team deployed to support the Fort Bend County Office of Emergency Management. Murphy expected the CRASAR team to be deployed for a month or more, with a mission to monitor the flooding that came first from a massive amount of rain, then from rivers swollen by the draining watersheds.
Authorized drones weren’t the only ones deployed after the hurricane. Even as rain continued to fall following the initial landfall of the hurricane on August 25, drones flown by private individuals and news organizations captured images of devastation—and, in some cases, interfered with rescue operations. The FAA warned that flying a drone without authorization in or near the disaster area may violate federal, state, or local laws and ordinances, even if a TFR is not in place.
ASI News
A little help, here
Tap a safety advisor when you need it
Wouldn’t it be nice to summon a personal safety mentor when your flight instructor is unavailable, and you’d like to brush up on a topic before your next flight lesson? The AOPA Air Safety Institute’s safety advisors and briefs can help. They are ideal for researching material, and they provide you and your instructor an opportunity to share and discuss the subject as needed. Several advisors were recently updated and converted from a portable document format to one optimized for mobile devices, allowing text and images to conform to your phone or tablet screen. These advisors also embed multimedia and offer links to delve deeper into the subject matter. Current mobile advisors cover maneuvering flight, collision avoidance, emergency procedures, decision making, fuel awareness, fighting fatigue, and volunteer pilots. Certain new advisors also incorporate former safety briefs (e.g., terrain avoidance, electrical fires, and misfueling). ASI plans to convert all advisors to the mobile platform.
Web: www.airsafetyinstitute.org/safetyadvisors
Help from ASI: VFR into IMC and night flying
On occasion, noninstrument-rated and even instrument-rated pilots get caught under lowering ceilings and in deteriorating visibility. Such encounters can be outright scary. ASI’s VFR into IMC: The Experience features experienced pilots who talk about the rationale that drove them to conduct such flights. The video is excerpted from ASI’s Weather Wise: VFR into IMC course, which hones pilot decision-making skills to avoid continued VFR flight into deteriorating weather. Find the key to flying safely after sundown. Ask your flight instructor to accompany you to an AOPA Air Safety Institute fall seminar and compare notes with the presenter and other pilots. Visit the website for dates and locations near you.
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