AOPA Pilot Blog: Reporting Points

Microsoft reentered the flight sim market Wednesday with the launch of Microsoft Flight. The new product features the still-in-development Icon A5 Light Sport amphibian…and the game itself is free. Of course, add-ons are available; a North American P-51 Mustang is $7.99, a Maule M-7-260C is $14.99, and a Hawaiian adventure pack–with a Vans RV-6A–is $19.99. The website promises that more aircraft and terrain will be coming.

Fans of the previous Microsoft Flight Simulator product line, which ended almost a decade ago with the release of Flight Simulator X, should keep in mind that this new product is being marketed more as a game–it is a new product, not an evolution of what existed before. Initial user comments emphasize the entertainment focus of Flight.

Some enterprising student pilots–and instructors–used the previous Flight Simulator to enhance and accelerate flight training. Will Microsoft Flight be able to do the same? I don’t know; I haven’t had a chance to try it yet. Have you?

A pilot friend shared this video, in which a Mexican pilot successfully lands a Cessna 172 on a highway–after the propeller departed the aircraft in flight.

My Spanish is rusty…very rusty…and the audio isn’t very good, but the pilot appears to do an excellent job of keeping his cool, choosing a place to set down, and then landing. The latter might have been a challenge in itself, as video from after the landing shows traffic on what appears to be a rather busy road. It even appeared that he unlatched the aircraft door shortly before touchdown (do you remember that step from your emergency-landing checklist?).

The accompanying article doesn’t provide any detail as to who the pilot was, or when this occurred. I’d like to know more of the back story. Regardless, a tip of the hat for an emergency landing well done!

World War II’s Tuskegee Airmen are receiving well-deserved attention this month, following the release of George Lucas’ movie Red Tails. Here’s a short video well worth viewing, produced for the Smithsonian’s new National Museum of African American History and Culture.

I had the privilege of working with Patrick Anderson’s video crew while telling the story of Matt and Tina Quy’s original Tuskegee Stearman (see “Honoring the Tuskegee Airmen,” December 2011 AOPA Pilot). The plane is now on display in the National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center, and will move to the National Museum of African American History and Culture when the new museum is finished in 2015.

Yes, I’m the Mike Collins listed in the credits, but all I did was share a camera ship I had arranged. And I may have offered a few tips on air-to-air photography to fellow journalists who’d never done this specialized type of photography that we almost take for granted sometimes. And while I do appear very briefly in the video, I’m confident that has nothing to do with the credit line.

Sept. 11, 2001, was a day of turmoil for most Americans. After all the stress and anxiety of the day, it was great to get home to family. Only then did the last surprise of the day really hit home to me.

At home, outside, the crystal-clear blue sky was silent. No airplane noise. No contrails. No nothing.

How unusual is that? Here’s how the airspace shakes out above Frederick, Maryland: At the lowest altitudes are the Robinson R22s from our local helicopter school. They’re almost always flying, and frequently get far enough west of the airport to overfly our house. Above them is the fixed-wing traffic going to and from Frederick Municipal Airport. Next are the airliners heading south to Dulles; and a couple of thousand feet higher, eastbounds for Baltimore-Washington International. Higher still are the contrails of flights making their way up and down the East Coast.

Of course, they all were grounded that night. The only airplane noise came when the fighters flying combat air patrols above Washington, D.C., occasionally strayed in our direction.

Today, 10 years later, all the normal traffic was present and accounted for–although we did hear fighter jets, just once or twice. I much prefer the airplane noise, thank you very much.

As we reflect on the events that transpired 10 years ago Sunday, I was both intrigued and surprised to read a story I don’t recall hearing about previously: that of the first F-16 sortie scrambled to protect Washington, D.C., from United Airlines Flight 93–the fourth airliner presumed hijacked that clear September morning.

Lt. Heather “Lucky” Penney had just returned from two weeks of air-combat training in Nevada. She and Col. Marc Sasseville quickly launched to intercept the airliner. Not one of their squadron’s aircraft was armed, however–no missiles, no bullets. Their only plan, if they found the jet, was to ram it. Like high-tech kamikazes.

There are many places I was thankful not to be on Sept. 11, 2011. The cockpits of either of their fighters just shot to the top of my list.

Hours later, they learned that the passengers on the flight had accomplished their mission for them, causing the plane to crash in Pennsylvania. Penney’s story, recently printed in The Washington Post, is a short but compelling read.

That unselfish willingness to sacrifice all for the greater good has been seen in–and sadly, demonstrated by–so many of our military personnel and first responders in those dark days, and the days since. That’s what I will remember and honor this weekend. It’s also a fair bet that was the last morning there were no armed jets on alert in Washington.

Matt Quy, right, helps pull the Stearman's engine.

Visitors to the National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center at Washington Dulles International Airport on Friday would have seen this: the first half of an engine swap on the Spirit of Tuskegee, a PT-13 Stearman biplane conveyed to the Smithsonian by Matt and Tina Quy. After buying the airplane as a wreck, they discovered that it had been used in 1944 and 1945 to train Tuskegee Airmen at Moton Field in Tuskegee, Ala. Since its restoration was completed, they’ve been using the airplane to honor the airmen; a number have flown in the airplane and dozens have signed the inside of its baggage hatch.

The Spirit of Tuskegee over Moton Field, Ala.

Less than a week earlier, Quy took the plane to Moton Field in Tuskegee, revisiting its first duty assignment after being built by Boeing in 1944. His passengers included Leroy Eley of Atlanta, an 84-year-old Tuskegee Airman who drove to Tuskegee to see the historic aircraft.

Matt Quy pilots the Spirit of Tuskegee.

For the past month, Quy–a captain in the U.S. Air Force–has been making his way to Washington with the airplane. On the trip his stops included the Air Force Academy in Colorado; EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh; Moton Field in Tuskegee, Ala.; and Andrews Air Force Base, the latter for the 7oth anniversary reunion of the Tuskegee Airmen. Quy discussed the airplane and his journey with AOPA Live during AirVenture. Dik Daso, a National Air and Space Museum curator, accompanied Quy on the flight from Tuskegee to Washington, and blogged about the experience.

The Stearman punctuates an Alabama sunset.

The Spirit of Tuskegee made its last flight on Friday, Aug. 5, when the Quys flew it to Washington Dulles International and taxied to the Udvar-Hazy Center. Even then, however, the airplane continued to make history: It’s the first artifact to be worked on in the museum’s new Mary Baker Engen Restoration Hangar, a just-opened, 235,000-square-foot facility where visitors can watch restoration projects from elevated viewing areas. Among other details, Quy and the Smithsonian crew are swapping engines and brakes on the airplane, to return it as closely as possible to its original appearance.

The Spirit of Tuskegee will be displayed temporarily at Udvar-Hazy; in 2015, it will move to the Smithsonian’s new National Museum of African American History and Culture in downtown Washington, D.C. It will be the only aircraft displayed in the museum. Look for a story on this historic airplane in an upcoming issue of AOPA Pilot.

Sully's Airbus makes its way west.

The US Airways Airbus A320 that Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger ditched successfully in the Hudson River Jan. 15, 2009–when both engines failed after ingesting a flock of Canada geese–is making its last journey. And this time, it’s a road trip.

The airliner’s 120-foot-long fuselage is being trucked to the Carolinas Aviation Museum in Charlotte, N.C., following a circuitous route dictated by low bridges along Interstate 95. It’s heading west on I-70 and I-68, and then will head south on I-79 and I-77. Goes to show that GPS direct is not always the best route to file.

The airliner left Harrison, N.J., on June 4. The oversized load (the wings and tail were moved separately) is being hauled by J. Supor and Son Trucking and Rigging, which also helped to lift the aircraft from the water following the “Miracle on the Hudson” landing. Although the schedule is subject to change, the jet should arrive in Charlotte sometime Friday. 

You can follow the progress of the unusual movement online, and the airplane also has a Facebook page.

Just watched the space shuttle Endeavour take off on its final flight, the second-to-last launch of a NASA shuttle. Wow. Gives me goosebumps just watching on TV. Atlantis is slated to fly the final shuttle mission, STS-135, a 12-day mission currently scheduled to launch on June 28.

The shuttle program was still a novelty back in 1984, when I was credentialed as a newspaper photographer for STS-41D: the maiden flight for Discovery, and only the shuttle program’s 12th mission. While I was on the Cape for both scrubbed attempts in June 1984, I missed the launch itself in August (one of the shuttle’s three engines had to be replaced, resulting in a two-month delay).

About 13 years later, however, I did get to see a shuttle launch, when I was able to sneak away from an NBAA convention in Orlando for a couple of hours. It’s something you feel more than see, as the shock waves roll in–a long time after you watched the shuttle lift off. This is something to experience, and you have one chance remaining.

Today’s shuttle statistic: The solid rocket boosters burn 11,500 pounds of fuel every second.  OK, another “Wow.”

I’m still scratching my head over the 24-year-old pilot who landed a Piper Archer on New York City’s Rockaway Beach–about three miles from John F. Kennedy International Airport–on Monday night, and then reportedly told authorities afterwards that “It happens all the time in Alaska!” They apparentlyweren’t amused.

His conversation with air traffic control is downright bizarre, and the controller seemed to do everything he could to discourage the landing. The pilot was very careful not to declare an emergency.

The FAA is still looking into the incident. If you were the investigator assigned to this matter, what would you do?

Not too low, four Air Force T-38 pilots found out after a fly-by before a University of Iowa football game on Nov. 20, 2010. Following an investigation, the pilots were disciplined for flying too low and too fast, and the lead pilot will leave the Air Force, according to the Iowa City Press-Citizen.

How fast is too fast? Faster than 300 kts–and maybe closer to 400–below 10,000 feet msl, before the game and during a practice flight the day before.

How low is too low? The jets reportedly cleared a scoreboard by 58 feet. Radar put the flight at 176 feet agl, just 16 feet higher than the stadium’s press box.

The report noted that the fans inside the stadium enjoyed the flyover, and a number of YouTube videos appear to confirm this. It’s not clear how many fans’ ears are still ringing from the experience, however.