AOPA Pilot Blog: Reporting Points

It’s that time of year again. No, not tax time (although that will be coming soon).

Drinking my morning coffee, I noticed a bird on my back deck with a large twig in its mouth. A few minutes later when it clicked (I was on my first cup), I went out and looked inside the grill, where I found a nest construction project that was well under way. They’ll be doing the same thing at the airport, in your engine cowlings (and any other openings into the fuselage that they can find). It was a great reminder to check carefully for avian urban renewal efforts before our spring flights.

Now to see if the impromptu cowl plugs I put in the grill vents were effective….

It’s been exciting to bring AOPA Pilot into the fold of magazines that offer digital editions, in addition to printed copies. A digital edition is an electronic version of the magazine that you read online, or download to a portable electronic device.

The February 2011 edition is available to read online now. The link will work on personal computers, Androids, and BlackBerrys.  There’s a non-Flash version that should automatically be delivered to iPad and iPhone users–but don’t judge the digital edition based on that; you’ll want to wait for our apps to be completed and approved (we’ll let you know through AOPA ePilot and AOPA Online as soon as they’re available).

The printed magazine is not going anywhere; the digital edition simply provides other ways to access your magazine’s content, with the added bonus that videos, audio podcasts, slideshows, and additional multimedia content are built in. AOPA members can add the digital edition to their memberships, or switch their print subscription to digital, online.

Check out the digital edition. Let us know what you think. And please resist the temptation to read it while flying, especially if you use your mobile device to display approach charts.

You read about Colton Harris-Moore, the infamous 19-year-old better known as the “Barefoot Bandit”—and the five airplanes he stole—in the November issue of AOPA Pilot.

Tonight he’s the subject of 48 Hours Mystery: Chasing the Barefoot Bandit, which will be broadcast by CBS at 10 Eastern and Pacific. The show tracked Harris-Moore’s escapades over a six-month period.

Dick Rutan helped film the episode. The show wanted a Cessna Corvalis for some aerial scenes, and Mark Smith—a cameraman who also is an instrument-rated pilot—found Rutan’s. Rutan agreed to help and even choreographed a takeoff that was shot from a car beside the Corvalis on the active runway.

“I had a great day filming with the crew,” Rutan said afterward.

Harris-Moore’s last flight, which ended with a crash landing in the Bahamas shortly before his arrest in July, was in a Cessna Corvalis 400 stolen from John Miller of Bloomington, Indiana. If you miss the broadcast Saturday night, it’s available through iTunes.

Will you have to add “charge batteries” to the preflight checklist for your Cessna 172? Maybe someday, if George Bye of Denver and his Bye Aerospace are successful.

His goal is to develop–and get FAA certification for–an electric propulsion system for the venerable Cessna 172. Performance would be about the same as its piston-powered predecessors, but you’d have to land every two hours for a charge. That might be workable in the training environment but presents a challenge if you’re looking to cover some ground with a long cross-country.

His idea is the subject of a lengthy video interview, produced Nov. 3 by EV World, a website focused on sustainable transportation. The interview was conducted over the Internet using Skype.

Ever tried to get out of Teterboro, New Jersey–or anywhere else–on a busy weekday afternoon, when you’re likely to be issued an estimated start engines time?

Business-jet pilot Mike Wagner has. The talented musician has used some of that wait time to write a song and produce a video, which can be seen on YouTube, in which he parodies the Beach Boys’ classic “Kokomo” with lyrics like these:

“Ooo, I wanna get you out of Teterboro
We wanna leave
But they won’t let us go
Just heard on the radio
We’re stuck in Teterboro.”

If you’re a pilot who’s ever had to wait anywhere, this 3:44 video should be guaranteed to make you laugh.

The video can be seen in high definition on Facebook (Facebook login required).

Have you ever dreamed of landing on the expanse of Rosamond Dry Lakebed at Edwards Air Force Base–or even just flying over the historic site? This may be your chance.

The Air Force Flight Test Center will host its first-ever GA fly-in on Oct.1. The center will give 100 civilian pilots the opportunity to fly themselves into Edwards’ airspace–and land on the lakebed–for the 2010 Flight Test Nation Lakebed Fly-in.

Apply well in advance of Sept. 10, which is the date of a lottery that will select the 100 lucky pilots and 20 alternates. More information is available online; the application to participate is online as well.

Personally, I enjoy living in the Mid-Atlantic region…but unique, once-in-a-lifetime bucket list opportunities like this make me wish I was in California.

I had already left AirVenture 2010 when one of Southwest Airline’s Boeing 737s,  N948WN–a month-old 737-700–arrived on July 31.  The jet carried a special “2010 AirVenture” logo on its nose.

The arrival of an airliner at Oshkosh is nothing unusual; last year the show saw the gigantic Airbus A380, among others.  But a recent post on Southwest’s blog describes the Aeroshell Square experience as seen through the fresh eyes of an airline employee who helped to coordinate the Boeing’s arrival. You can read the post here.

Arrived in Oshkosh last night after covering the DC-3 fly-in held last weekend at Sterling, Illinois. It was a fantastic event–yes, there will be a story in a future issue of AOPA Pilot–but the most memorable aspect was watching two dozen DC-3s and C-47s fly overhead yesterday afternoon on their way to Oshkosh.

Did you happen to hear that music as they arrived at AirVenture, or perhaps as they passed overhead somewhere along the way?

It was a concert that I would love to hear again, but nothing like that is on the schedule–and such a gathering may never take place again. If you missed it, there’s a slide show on AOPA Online.

After a morning of meetings, I retrieved a voice message from my wife. She had called to report seeing five taildraggers–at least three of them Piper Cubs–heading northeast together near Frederick, Md., earlier today. “That just made my morning,” she said.

I’ll bet lunch that they are en route to Lock Haven, Penn., where the 25th annual Sentimental Journey to Cub Haven Fly-In continues through this Saturday, June 19. 

Wish I was following them. It’s a great event, and a gorgeous day. Maybe next year….

Pay attention to your coastal flying this summer. Weather Services International (WSI) is calling for 18 named storms, 10 hurricanes, and 5 intense hurricanes (category 3 or greater) in its most recent tropical update for 2010. Those forecast numbers are well above long-term averages.

Fly in the northeastern United States? According to WSI’s hurricane landfall forecasting model, the Atlantic coast from North Carolina’s Outer Banks to Maine is twice as likely as normal to experience a hurricane this year.

“The El Nino event is steadily weakening,” said WSI Chief Meteorologist Dr. Todd Crawford. “More importantly, however, eastern and central tropical Atlantic sea surface temperatures are currently at record warm levels for April, even warmer than the freakishly active season of 2005.” For more, see the WSI website.

The 2010 hurricane season began yesterday.