AOPA Pilot Blog: Reporting Points

i’ll be in Florida all this week, scurrying around AOPA Summit, but I can’t let Nov. 4 slip by without wishing many happy returns to Evelyn “Mama Bird” Johnson, who turns 100. Johnson’s incredible career as a flight instructor and designated pilot examiner are detailed in Mike Collins’ article; he also profiled her for the November 1999 AOPA Pilot. Then and now, Mama Bird retains one of the fattest logbooks you’re likely to come across. Her 57,635.4 flight hours make her the highest-time female pilot and the highest-time living pilot in the Guiness Book of World Records.

I have just one “Mama Bird” story: Johnson was a featured speaker at a Women in Aviation conference several years ago. In a soft Southern accent–she was born in Kentucky and lives in Tennessee–she recalled just how she came to be a pilot. Her husband was serving in the military during World War II. Left on her own, she was looking for an activity to fill her quiet days. Should she try tennis? Golf? She saw an advertisement that read, “Learn to Fly” and said, “I believe I’ll do that.” What began as a whim became a career that influenced thousands of pilots. Happy birthday, Mama Bird!

This video shows the use of Eddie Kisfaludy’s Cherokee Six for oceanic research. With the help of his fiancee, freelance television reporter and pilot Natasha Stenbock, Kisfaludy is marketing an aerial video surveillance system he developed. His external camera mount doesn’t require a hole in the cabin floor. His day job is to support research at the Scripps Institution of Oceanic Research, University of California San Diego. Several of the researchers there have endorsed the system, not to mention scientists outside of Scripps. On another note, watch for Natasha’s airshow video soon on AOPA Online. You’ll see more about them in an upcoming issue of AOPA Pilot.

Both Eddie and Natasha led my formation flight from San Diego to French Valley Airport to photograph the Cessna SkyCatcher. The article appears in an upcoming issue of “AOPA Pilot.”

For the past two days Colorado and Wyoming have been hammered by the first real snowfall of the season. The wx geek in me took over and I was a clicking fool, capturing images and data of this remarkable weather event. A HUGE, very elongated trough dug southward over the mountain and central states. The snow came from an equally long frontal system at the eastern fronges of the trough. Meanwhile, east of the snow action, winds were out of the south at 60+ knots–at 5,000 feet! This is a low-level jet stream folks, and it’s sending juicy Gulf air inland. That’s what caused the tornadoes and flooding rains in Louisiana and Arkansas. Yikes–snow next to tornadoes. The accompanying water vapor image from yesterday says it all. Anybody want to go flying in the lower Mississippi valley today? I didn’t think so.

With Halloween in just a few days, I was reminded this morning of perhaps the only horror movie made that features vampires, creepy reporters, and general aviation. That would be the 1997 film “The Night Flier,” based on a short story by Stephen King.

The bizarre tale focuses on a reporter for a Weekly-World-News-ish type of rag who uses his Bonanza to take him all across the country chasing sordid stories. (I know, already it strains credibility–a reporter owning a Bonanza? Maybe those pulp rags pay a lot better than we know.) He travels to a tiny field in Delaware where a brutal murder has been committed. As the story progresses, he finds himself tracking a vampire who flies a black Cessna Skymaster. Yup, a black Cessna Skymaster.

I won’t give it away, but if you’re squeamish you should know that the final scene is, in keeping with Stephen King’s reputation, pretty gory. The vampire in question isn’t one of those Twilight/True Blood pretty boys. But as far as I can tell, no Skymasters were harmed in the making of this film.

SATSair, an air taxi operation based in Greenville, South Carolina, has halted operations “due to circumstances.” A recorded message indicates operations are unavailable “…October 24, 25, 26 and beyond.” The company had a fleet of 26 Cirrus Design SR22 aircraft. The suspension of services was not totally unexpected. Reports from sources in the Greenville area indicate five of the aircraft had been repossessed and did not have engines. Some of those may have been sold. Another report  indicates 10 additional aircraft are sitting on the ramp without engines.

Callers to the company’s maintenance operation were referred to the SATSair office which did not answer. A third source said many of the aircraft had “timed out,” referring to the engines, and were awaiting not only engines but an upgrade to the newest aircraft systems now available in newer SR22s. Company officials were not available to confirm the information.

AOPA Pilot reported in 2006 that SATSair had placed 50 firm orders for SR22 aircraft, and held options for an additional 50 aircraft.

Seven people who represented high rollers or were themselves high rollers patrolled the aisles of the National Business Aviation Association convention in Orlando this week looking for companies to buy. I met one of them at breakfast. His particular area was aircraft manufacturers and he said the others represent avionics buyers and other specialties. He wore a badge naming him an official of a firm that does not employ him. I checked later and found he was a guest of that firm’s CEO. I didn’t determine whether he was working in conjunction with the other six buyers or just working for himself.

I mentioned this to a woman staffing an exhibit for a small firm that builds infrared cockpit displays for aircraft. Five months ago during an aerospace show a seemingly hot prospect made an appointment with her for a briefing on the firm’s products. After she finished her presentation he said, “Now I can make you an offer for your company.” She explained she was an employee, and selling the firm out from under her boss did not sound like a good idea. She later called the owner and said, “I think I just sold your company.” The offer was rejected.

The recession will end well after the general economy recovers, says Chairman and CEO Bill Boisture of Hawker Beechcraft. He has pushed an aerospace recovery off to 2012 or later. Bonanza and Baron production will continue as long as the aircraft appear to be a “good business decision.” Check it out here.

I’m not going to get into details about the economy. There’s no need to waste electrons doing so. Let’s just all agree it’s bad. Despite that, work still has to get done. Goods and services are still being sold, and luckily for Brad Pierce, people still need to eat.

Pierce is the owner of a restaurant supply and consulting company in Orlando. He also owns a Cirrus and is profiled in the November issue of Pilot as part of our ongoing series explaining how GA serves America. Although the story is familiar to many members, the rest of the American public doesn’t understand the benefit of GA. Surveys show while they may know they have a local airport that’s somewhat smaller than O’Hare, they don’t understand who flies in or out, or why.

I first heard about Pierce at Sun ‘n Fun earlier this year from the folks at Cirrus, who wisely used a letter he wrote to tout the benefits of the airplane for business travel. But as we know, the airplane doesn’t even matter in the end–it’s almost always better than the airlines.

Pierce got a chance recently to explain that fact to a Senate subcommittee on a non-aviation topic. Since the Cirrus allows him to quickly travel to his state capital and lobby his state legislature often, Pierce has made relationships that resulted in an invite to talk about trade export in Washington. As part of his testimony, he plugged GA as a great technological benefit to his business.

I think the impact of actions like Pierce’s can’t be overstated. AOPA clearly has significant clout in Washington’s aviation circles, but getting beyond that is always difficult. Pierce was able to capitalize on his opportunity and mention the positive benefits of GA to senators that likely don’t know the story. It’s an opportunity we should all grab whenever possible. AOPA’s ranks of CEOs, company owners, and influencers has the chance to do this type of thing often. So make sure to help the cause whenever possible and keep GA strong.

AOPA Pilot Chief Photographer Mike Fizer photographed Cessna’s new Skycatcher above San Diego Tuesday night. This was the last of two formation flights I flew with Cessna test pilot Dale Bleakney. I also did a review flight during which I got a demonstration of proof that the spin problem is fixed. Bleakney cross-controlled it (full aileron, full opposite ruder), stalled it, and was still able to maneuver left, right, under perfect control. Then he had me do it. No problem.

We had a variety of light on our air-to-air led by a Cherokee Six. Rain clouds, rainbows, lenticular clouds piled 11 layers high over the mountains east of French Valley Airport (45 miles north of San Diego), and finally, night.

Turns out the Canon 5D can also capture still photos in very dark conditions. His camera was mounted to a multi-thousand-dollar gyrostabilizer. When it’s running, the plane moves around it–not the other way around. You look at the camera and think it is bobbing up and down, but actually that is the aircraft moving around the stabilized camera. We’ll have articles out on the Skycatcher in a couple of months.

If you were at Lake Tahoe Saturday night (9/27), perhaps among the thousands of people getting ready to run a marathon race today, you saw a Cherokee Six followed by a Diamond C1 above the lake at sunset. AOPA Pilot Chief Photographer Mike Fizer was in the Cherokee Six, and I had a great time flying formation behind him in the Diamond C1. We got some of the best photos and video Mike has ever captured. We staged out of Placerville at 2,500 feet, climbed to 9,800 to safely clear the mountains, descended down a valley to Lake Tahoe and entered the pattern at Lake Tahoe Airport at 7,500 feet. Look for Mike’s shots in future issues of Flight Training magazine, and check online for the video of the Diamond, still in weak sunlight at 300 feet, flying above a runway that was in the dark. Right place, right time.