• Award grants of up to $10,000 to 10 nonprofit groups that perform charitable work through GA;
• Award flight training scholarships to individuals who want to learn to fly or pursue aviation careers;
• Provide free memberships to armed forces personnel who want to be part of the GA community; and
• Provide memberships through our AOPA AV8RS program that gives teens an opportunity to learn about and explore the world of aviation.

The one that intrigued me was the the first one.  I know of so many general aviation nonprofits out there doing work, so below is my list of organizations, in no particular order, I think should apply for a grant.

1. Wings of Grace Ministries –  I recently had the pleasure of writing about this Melbourne, Fla.-based nonprofit, which offers free flight training to youths age 13 to 18.  $10,000 would allow founder Dwight Bell to bring more youths — who are all members of AOPA’s AV8RS program – into the fold.
2. Tomorrow’s Aeronautical Museum — In May 2012, CNN profiled this Compton, Calif.-based program that provides flight training for inner city youth out of Compton Airport. As a minority myself, I believe strongly in the power of aviation to put — and keep — these youths on the right path. And I applaud any program that brings more diversity to the industry.
3. Girls With Wings — I first learned about pilot Lynda Meeks’ efforts to inspire young girls to fly when she appeared on the Airplane Geeks podcast on Nov. 8, 2011.  She offers scholarships, female role models, and events across the country designed for women and girls.  A foundation grant would help Meeks give away more scholarshps.
4. Candler Field Museum — Last month, I interviewed Ron Alexander, a retired Air Force and Delta Air Lines pilot, after he was inducted into the Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame.  One of his claims to fame is this museum, created to document the history of the original Atlanta airport, originally named Candler Field. Part of the effort includes a partnership with the Candler Field Flying Club, which has youths work in the museum in return for scholarships to learn to fly.
5. Tuskegee Airmen Scholarship Foundation — this Los Angeles-based organization provides scholarships to  deserving young men and women based on the criteria of responsible citizenship are character and achievement, rather than ethnic origin.
6. Professional Women Controllers — I met officers of this organization that promotes careers in air traffic control at this year’s Women In Aviation conference and did a profile on their efforts.  I’m sure a foundation grant would help fund their education and career development programs.
7. Air Race Classic — among the things this organization is dedicated to are encouraging and educating current

   and future women pilots and increase

   public awareness, two causes that fit well with the foundation’ mission.  Read my story on this organization here.

8. Pilots N Paws — I’m a dog lover, so I know first hand how much people love their pets. This nonprofit serves as a facilitator for people and organizations who rescue, shelter or foster animals, and volunteer pilots and aircraft owners willing to assist with the transportation of animals.
9. Recreational Aviation Foundation — this organization, a friend to AOPA, protects recreational air strips across the country, making them available for general aviation pilots to use.  Read here about the organization’s latest advocacy efforts.
10. Youth Aviation Adventure  – I’m in favor of anything that helps show kids and teens all the joys of being involved with aviation, which is why I like this program. In a single day youths go to participating airports to learn all about aviation, with the goal of inspiring them.

It was a crash party.  Olympia, Wash.-based Aircare Solutions Group celebrated the completion of its eighth full-motion aircraft cabin simulator by simulating several crash landing scenarios, reports the News Tribune.  Company executives, staff and other businesses who helped build the simulator were allowed to test the simulators and held a barbecue lunch after to discuss their experiences.

Drones hunt pigs, deliver marriage proposal. Electrical engineers Cy Brown and James Palmer are using camera-mounted drones to hunt and kill feral pigs causing damage to land in Louisiana, reports ARS Technica.  Photographer Jason Muscat used an RC helicopter camera and mounted an engagement ring to propose to his now-fiancee in San Francisco, reports Peta Pixel.

It was the least he could do.  Actor Charlie Sheen sent a private jet to pick up his ex-wife Denise Richards in New York on Mother’s Day so that she could get home to Los Angeles in time to take their daughters to school the next day, reports ContactMusic.com. Richards currently has temporary custody of Sheen’s twin boys with ex-wife Brooke Mueller.

On an upbeat note, here are new jets coming down the line:

Bombardier is offering its Learjet 70, 75, and 85 models this year along with the Global 7000 in 2014 and the Global 8000 in 2018.

Bombardier has announced the Challenger 350. Startup customer is NetJets in 2014.

Embraer’s Legacy 500, a competitor of the Challenger 300, will appear in public for the first time at EBACE this week with deliveries starting next year. The Legacy 450 will be delivered in 2015.

Pilatus has announced its PC-24 jet.

Nextant Aerospace is upgrading its Nextant 400XT (based on the Hawker 400) to the 400XTi. The company captured the early lead in a race with Beechcraft to modernize the Hawker 400 fleet after the former Hawker Beechcraft delayed its modificaton program six weeks due to cash-flow problems. The upgrade includes two 3,050-lbst Williams FJ44-3AP engines. The choice of engines is a heatedly contested argument between Nextant and Beechcraft.

While Beechcraft has no jets coming down the soon-to-be-sold jet line, upgrades to the Hawker 400XPR continue. Winglets developed  at Sierra Industries will be certified in the fall and made available for installation at Beechcraft service centers. Originally, certification of the winglets was expected in January 2013 with deliveries in February. The 400XPR also includes conversion to 3,200-pound-thrust Williams FJ44-4A-32 engines.

Cessna is coming out this year with its M2, the new profit-saving (Cessna-saving?) Sovereign, the new Citation X, and in the first quarter of 2014, the first flight of the Latitude with certification in 2015. The Mach 0.86 Longitude (Cessna’s biggest jet for the next five years) will enter service in 2017. A single-engine turboprop is still in testing, still not ready for public announcement. The SMA diesel-powered piston-engine Skylane JT-A will be certified in June.

Dassault announced the super-midsize Falcon 2000S and 2000LXS.

Gulfstream is working on a replacement for the G450/550 mysteriously code-named the P42. The Gulfstream 650 is making its first appearance at EBACE.

Landing gear is helpful. It was an unusual sight at Spirit of St. Louis Airport – a 1980 Centurian P210 doing a belly landing, reports KSDK.com.

He should have given a hoot. A man who allegedly repeatedly harassed and kicked an owl while paragliding and captured it on YouTube has created a firestorm among animal lovers and paragliders, reports FOX 13.  The Humane Society of Utah suspects it knows the man seen in the video and has asked for an investigation.

Miracle landing number one.  Quentin Elkins is lucky to be alive after his aircraft lost power and made an emergency landing four miles from Knoxville Downtown Island Airport, reports KnoxNews.com.

Miracle landing number two. A pilot of a seaplane had to make an emergency landing in Inlet, N.Y.’s, Seventh Lake, reports WKTV.  He was able to swim to shore uninjured.

Drugs in airplanes just don’t fly.  Two men are facing federal drug charges after the aircraft they had parked at Texas’  Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport was found to have  98 bundles of marijuana, four bundles of hashish and two bundles of mushrooms aboard the Piper PA-28, reports the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.

This was a test. This was only a test.  You will be forgiven if you thought a recent training exercise by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service looked real. Fifty firefighters worked with ambulance crews, police officers and workers from other agencies to participate in a drill that used the crash of an aircraft into a high-rise building in Glasgow, reports STV News.

Wheels would have been helpful.  Pilot Roland Rinnerberger made an emergency belly landing at Scottsdale Municipal Airport, reports KJRH-TV.  He was not injured in the accident. Video of the landing can be seen here.

It just blew its top!  Two pilots departing from Midland International Airport flying a World War II-era German Messerschmitt Me 262 lost the aircraft’s rear canopy because it hadn’t been latched properly, reports the Midland Reporter-Telegram.  

It’s always good when you can walk away.  A pilot who made an emergency landing in a vineyard in Santa Rosa, Calif., walked away with no injuries, reports ABC7 News.  The pilot reported he was having a problem with the throttle, which caused his aircraft to idle.

The final waypoint on this STAR for arrivals landing to the west on Runway 26 Left or 26 Right is KEAVY, and like many waypoints today, there’s a story behind it.

Keavy Nenninger learned to fly while she was in high school by pumping gas into airplanes at Moontown Airport–a grassroots airport with a 2,180-foot grass runway just outside of Huntsville, Alabama. Ralph Hood wrote about her checkride in Flight Training magazine in the way that only Ralph Hood could write. She earned a degree in aerospace engineering from St. Louis University’s Parks College of Engineering and Aviation in 2010. There, Keavy was a member of the college’s flight team. She pursued a career in aviation, a passion that she lived and breathed. I met her once at a Women in Aviation conference and remember thinking, “Here’s somebody that’s going places in this industry.”

 Tragically, Keavy died July 23, 2011, in an aircraft accident in Maryland. “Keavy’s adventurous spirit was infectious and she died doing what she loved most–flying,” her obituary read.

Today would have been her 27th birthday.

Her friends will gather for a cookout at Moontown Airport on Saturday evening, May 4–not all that far, by air, from KEAVY, just northwest of Atlanta.

Water landing number one.  Four passengers aboard a Beechcraft A36 Bonanza managed to walk away with only minor injuries after the aircraft made an emergency landing in California’s Big Bear Lake, reports the LA Times. The pilot was attempting to land at Big Bear Airport after reporting he was having engine trouble.

Water landing number two. A pilot and his passenger sustained minor injuries after the Cessna seaplane they were flying flipped after landing in Florida’s St. Johns River, reports WTEV-TV.  The landing gear had been left down.

It’s two treats in one!  AvWeb reports seeing the Discovery 201, a pickup truck/aircraft combination at the recent Sun ‘n Fun Expo. The aircraft is a derivative of Russia’s Akord 201, which was used as a  heavy-hauling utility airplane.

Not the glider landing he wanted.  Glider pilot Jeff Long was not injured after his motor glider crashed into a tree at the Beechcraft Heritage Museum in Tullahoma, Tenn., reports the Tullahoma News.