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Dorothy Cochrane to receive 2020 Katharine Wright Trophy
The National Aeronautic Association (NAA) will award Dorothy Cochrane, who curates general aviation aircraft and other collections at the Smithsonian, the 2020 Katharine Wright Trophy. The trophy was established in 1981 and is awarded annually to an individual who “has contributed to the success of others or made a personal contribution to the advancement of the art, sport, and science of aviation and space flight over an extended period of time.”
The award recognizes Cochrane for “devoting over 40 years as a curator at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, collecting and preserving historical aviation artifacts that educate and inspire the general public about the importance of flight.”
Cochrane joined the Smithsonian Institution in 1977 as one of its first female curators. As the curator responsible for the Barron Hilton Pioneers of Flight Gallery as well as the general aviation, business aviation, aerobatic aviation, and aerial camera exhibit stations and cases, Cochrane oversees the collections of general aviation aircraft, flight material, aerial cameras, and the history of general aviation and women in aviation.
Cochrane acquired more than a dozen aircraft for the Smithsonian collection including a Fleet Model 2, Cirrus SR22, Grumman AgCat, Beechcraft King Air, Bill Kershner’s Cessna 152 Aerobat, Patty Wagstaff’s Extra 260, and Bob Hoover’s Shrike Commander. She was responsible for the restoration of Betty Skelton’s Pitts, Little Stinker, which greets visitors as they enter the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. She is currently overseeing the creation of new galleries as a part of the National Air and Space Museum’s seven-year revitalization and transformation project.
“We often take the National Air and Space Museum for granted, but it wouldn’t be the national treasure it is without Dorothy," said NAA President Greg Principato. “Dorothy’s whole life and career embodies what this award is all about.”
New life for Luscombe Model 8s?
Pioneering metal airplane may resume production
By Dave Hirschman
The owner of the Luscombe Model 8 type certificate plans to bring the two-seat aircraft back into production as a low-cost trainer. Steve Testrake, an aeronautical engineer, owns the Luscombe Aircraft Corp., which built two-seat all-metal, tailwheel airplanes beginning in the 1930s and shut down more than 50 years ago. He’s negotiating with officials in western New York for a production facility at the Chautauqua County-Jamestown Airport.
Testrake plans to start building parts for owners of the roughly 1,600 Luscombe aircraft on the FAA registry. Then the company will start assembling complete airplanes under the light sport aircraft rules, and eventually FAA-certified, tricycle-gear trainers for flight schools.
“There’s significant demand for a low-cost, economical trainer that’s not being addressed,” said Testrake. “Western New York has a skilled workforce of hard-working people that know how to work with metal.”
Testrake has self-funded the program to date. He said the company will generate revenue by producing parts for the vintage Luscombe fleet. “The design has been orphaned so long that parts can be extremely hard to find,” he said. “There’s a lot of pent-up parts demand. Owners of existing airplanes have been tremendously encouraging.”
Testrake estimates it will take up to three years for his company to start building LSAs and about five years for the first FAA-certified, tricycle-gear trainers.
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2020 EAA AirVenture canceled because of pandemic
This year’s Experimental Aircraft Association AirVenture fly-in event, scheduled for July 20 through 26 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, has been canceled amid coronavirus concerns, and the organization will issue refunds for prepaid admissions or allow participants to apply payments to the 2021 convention. “Ultimately, preserving the health and safety of all who would attend—and all the varying guidelines between states and countries from where our participants arrive—along with the massive commitments needed now for an event to meet EAA’s high standards, made cancelation the only option for this year,” said EAA Chairman and CEO Jack Pelton.
FAA issues regulations amid COVID-19
The FAA issued a special federal aviation regulation (SFAR) that provides blanket extensions of medical certificates and airman knowledge tests that would have expired between March 1 and May 31 to all pilots regardless of the type of their flying. The SFAR also provides flight review and instrument currency extensions under very limited circumstances to get pilots back in the air to support the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. Flight instructor certificates that would have expired between March 31 and May 31 will have a blanket certificate extension until June 30, 2020.
Idaho flying expert dies
Galen Lee Hanselman, 72, known to the aviation community as an expert in backcountry flying and author of a series of backcountry flying guidebooks, died May 6 in Twin Falls, Idaho.
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BasicMed program continues to help pilots fly safer
The BasicMed program is in its third year, and for thousands of general aviation pilots flying under the program’s medical privileges, it is a resounding success. To date, nearly 56,000 aviators have received a certificate of completion and are flying safely. Under the FAR Part 68 medical rule, pilots can fly aircraft authorized to carry up to six occupants with a maximum certificated takeoff weight of no more than 6,000 pounds. Pilots can fly up to 250 knots indicated airspeed and up to 18,000 feet msl.
But before hitting the skies, BasicMed pilots must have previously passed a conventional FAA medical examination or currently hold a valid medical certificate, including a special issuance, and then be examined by their personal physician. Once a pilot has successfully transitioned to the BasicMed program, he or she will not have to see an aviation medical examiner again unless a heart, neurological, or psychological condition arises. If a pilot is impacted by these conditions, he or she will need to go through the FAA’s special issuance process only one time unless the condition worsens.
Also, pilots are required to take an online medical self-assessment course, which AOPA offers for free.
The BasicMed comprehensive medical examination can be performed by an AME or by a pilot’s state-licensed private physician every 48 months (calculated to the exact day) and requires that the physician use an FAA-approved checklist. Airmen must also complete the online medical education course every 24 calendar months (calculated to the last day of the month) and maintain records of compliance. Once these two steps are completed, pilots are free to fly (under normal circumstances outside the coronavirus pandemic)—and that includes visiting international destinations, such as the Bahamas and Mexico. AOPA continues to work with officials in Canada.
AOPA has developed online resources including an eligibility guide online.
Aviation History
July 17, 1938
Going my way?
In July 1938, an Irish-American airplane mechanic—having restored a 1929 Curtiss Robin—flew from California to New York to propose he fly the Atlantic Ocean route his hero Charles A. Lindbergh had flown 11 years earlier, but U.S. aviation officials said no. Douglas Corrigan’s restored Robin was still no more than a “dilapidated crate,” said the powers that be at the time, believing it would not make the flight across the pond (even though Corrigan had been a mechanic on the building of Lindbergh’s custom-made Spirit of St. Louis). So, hat in hand, Corrigan departed New York’s Floyd Bennett Field ostensibly headed back home. Twenty-eight hours later, on July 17, he landed in Dublin, Ireland. He is said to have asked upon landing, “Where am I?” claiming his navigation equipment did not work, but few believed him. However, his feat was celebrated, and he was infamously dubbed “Wrong Way” Corrigan. National Wrong Way Corrigan Day is celebrated each July 17. Organizers say you could watch The Flying Irishman, a biographical film about Corrigan in which he stars as himself—or you could celebrate the day by telling someone you are going one direction, and then go the opposite way. “This is especially fitting if you have an airplane,” say the organizers. —Julie Summers Walker
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