NEW ZEALAND PILOTS OPPOSE FEE HIKES
New Zealand aviation groups are lining up in opposition to major increases in fees for obtaining and maintaining a pilot's license. The one-time "issuance fee" for a pilot's license is going up from $55 to $230 but it's the new "medical service application fee" that is raising the collective blood pressure of the pilot population. Starting in November, pilots will have to pay a flat $313 any time their medical fitness is assessed by the Civil Aviation Administration. For commercial pilots past 40 that's every six months for single-pilot operations. It's not just the pilot fees that are going up, though. The CAA charge-out rate for audit operations will go from $135 an hour to $208 an hour in November and will be $284 an hour by the end of 2014. In all, more than 150 fees are being increased. More...

NEAR SILENT (BOOM) SUPERSONIC NINJA STAR JET?
A team of researchers at the University of Miami has received $100,000 in NASA funding to further develop their ninja-star-looking bi-directional flying wing jet, which rotates 90 degrees in flight to achieve supersonic speeds with virtually no ground-observable sonic boom. The aircraft design is symmetrical along its longitudinal axis and its lateral axis, but one is longer than the other. It has two cockpits, each at one end of one axis, separated by 90 degrees. In flight at subsonic speed, the aircraft uses its longer axis as its wings, with its tips folded up into winglets. The aircraft transitions to supersonic flight by folding down the wingtips and using aerodynamic forces to rotate 90 degrees around centrally mounted twin turbofans. Once rotated, the shorter axis, an airfoil optimized for supersonic flight, serves as the wing. More...

MAKERPLANE: A PLAN FOR THE COLLECTIVE HOMEBUILT
The idea behind MakerPlane is to create an "open source aviation project" that allows people to build their own aircraft using personal Computer Numerical Control (CNC) mills and 3D printers. In that way, MakerPlane hopes to create an environment where people can produce aircraft largely "built on a computer controlled mill at home." The man behind the idea, John Nicol, based in Canada, is seeking to reduce the financial means and physical capabilities required by an individual seeking to build an aircraft. Aside from creating a new largely digital workflow for builders, MakerPlane would also seek to cultivate multi-media builder assistance products and physical builder assistance sites. Nicol has unveiled MakerPlane's first design, "Version 1.0," from Israel-based aeronautical engineer, Jeffrey Meyer. The design conforms to LSA weight and speed requirements. V 1.0 also aims to be a modular design and MakerPlane intends to offer plans, free. More...

L-39 PILOT DIES IN AIRSHOW CRASH
A member of the Hoppers civilian jet demonstration team was killed Saturday when his L-39 Albatros went down at an airshow in Davenport, Iowa. The pilot, Glenn Smith, of Frisco, Texas, was part of a three-ship formation when his aircraft went down in a field near the airport. The crash was visible to the crowd and resulted in a large fireball. The show resumed Sunday "out of respect for our fallen aviator," according to a note posted on Quad City Air Show website. More...

RICHARD BACH INJURED IN CRASH (UPDATED)
It's now been confirmed that celebrated author and longtime flying enthusiast Richard Bach was seriously injured when his SeaRey amphib clipped power lines and went down short of a runway on San Juan Island northwest of Seattle on Friday. His son James told The Associated Press his father's condition is improving. He has a broken shoulder and head injuries. Bach, whose short novel about a seagull's love of flight was considered a metaphor for Bach's own passion for the air, was a massive best seller and after Jonathan Livingston Seagull he penned dozens of books, many of which had an aviation theme. The 76-year-old Bach, who was interviewed by AVweb's Mary Grady in 2011, is an accomplished pilot who also started a blog that often mentions aviation. More...

THE NEXT JETMAN, TROY HARTMAN?
A new turbine-powered personal flying wing jetpack may be coming from San Diego-based Troy Hartman, an X Games skysurfing gold medalist and aerial stuntman who is actively testing his developing design. Hartman has not yet flown the complete rig but is testing its key components (see video). The ultimate solid wing design may be similar to that created by current only living Jetman, Yves Rossy. Rossy has successfully flown several noteworthy flights strapped to his own turbine-powered wing, including aerobatics (video), and a run in the Grand Canyon (video). Hartman updated his YouTube page Aug. 26 with footage of some of his most recent flight tests that included using the future wing's two-UAV turbine engines, without the wing, to power him aloft under canopy. More...

NAHF HONORS ARMSTRONG'S LEGACY
The National Aviation Hall of Fame (NAHF) will honor the legacy of the first man to walk on the moon by renaming one of its most prestigious awards as The Neil A. Armstrong Aviation Heritage Trophy, to be awarded this September. Formerly The Rolls-Royce Aviation Heritage Trophy, the award has been presented during the Reno Air Races, and sometimes by Armstrong himself, as part of the concurrently held National Aviation Heritage Invitational. It recognizes "the most authentic example of a vintage aircraft restored to airworthy condition." This year, and moving forward, it will carry Armstrong's name. Head of Rolls-Royce North America, James M. Guyette, said Rolls-Royce has been a proud sponsor of the National Aviation Heritage Invitational since 1998. He added, "I can think of no finer way" to memorialize Armstrong than to rename the trophy "in his honor, as a lasting tribute to his legacy." More...

AVMAIL: SEPTEMBER 3, 2012

Letter of the Week: Pilot Currency

Regarding the "Question of the Week": I belong to the "I-get-an-IPC-every-six-months-whether-I-need-it-or-not" club. I always do ("need it," that is). I'm discovering that even with the every-six-month constraint, I find the need to really "exercise" a skill which is difficult to put into words — for lack of a better term, I'll call it "problem solving," — and it's virtually impossible to do this alone.

The rote procedure of establishing oneself on a final approach course, keeping things centered and landing is a skill which, admittedly, needs regular polishing. The "higher level" skill is the ability to deal with the curve ball, the distraction. I'm absolutely convinced that the bulk of morbidity out there, practiced by pilots who have the training to know better, is the result of misdirected attention to unseen traffic, GPS knob fiddling when a simple twist of the VOR OBS would do, or just generally missing the forest for the trees.

One of the rewards of IFR flight is the smooth handling of these challenges. It's one of the hardest skills to practice, too. I like to rotate through a couple of instructors at IPC time, just to make the experience a little less predictable. I think that helps shake the rust off the problem-solving machine.

Anthony Nasr

Click here to read the rest of this week's letters.

AVWEB'S NEWSTIPS ADDRESS ...
Our best stories start with you. If you've heard something 255,000 pilots might want to know about, tell us. Submit news tips via email to newstips@avweb.com. What have you heard? More...

BRAINTEASERS QUIZ #175: BACK TO FLIGHT SCHOOL
"For of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these:" Back to School! (With apologies to John Greenleaf Whittier's "Maud Muller," 1854). Break's over, kids; time to review what you might've forgotten over the summer. This quiz will count toward your final grade.

Take the quiz. More...

TO MULTI OR NOT TO MULTI
That was the question we posed last month. Is it nobler in the minds of pilots to fly on multiple engines or forsake one throttle and -- by opposing the multi-engine fetish -- declare, "One sound power source is good enough for me!" Here now are the results of our single v. multi-engine poll. More...

AVWEB INSIDER BLOG: NO TIME? NO KIDDING
Cost is a big reason that many owners have reduced their flying hours. But so is lack of time. No surprise there, either, says Paul Bertorelli on the AVweb Insider blog. You probably don't know anyone who's working fewer hours than they did a decade ago, and neither do we. Modern life puts so many demands on the 24-hour day that flying gets bumped to the bottom of the to-do list. Plus, some additional thoughts on the passing of Neil Armstrong. Read more and join the conversation. More...

PODCAST: FLYING TO AMERICA
It's an ambition for many pilots in the U.K., and Flyer magazine publisher Ian Seager invited some of them along for the ride on his trip to AirVenture Oshkosh. Seager flew his Cessna 182 and talked to AVweb's Paul Bertorelli at the show in late July. More...

FBO OF THE WEEK: GILL AVIATION (KDWH, HOUSTON, TEXAS)

AVweb's newest "FBO of the Week" is Gill Aviation at David Wayne Hooks Memorial Airport (KDWH) in Houston, Texas.

AVweb reader J.C. Hyde visit there recently and experienced their first-rate service first hand:

Flew into Houston last week. I had arranged for a rental car to be available upon our arrival. What I hadn't planned for was the lost of my primary vacuum pump. When we arrived, [the] rental car was ready; when I asked about fixing the vacuum, the FBO instantly put me into contact with Rite-Way Aviation, whose owner, John Davis, met me at the aircraft. We hadn't even finished unloading before he was hooking the aircraft up to his tug, ready to tow it to their maintenance facility. [He got it] fixed that day and ready for departure. Between Gill Aviation and Rite-Way Aviation, a two-day planned stop did not end up in a long downtime waiting for repairs. And even the cookies were great!

Keep those nominations coming. For complete contest rules, click here.

AVweb is actively seeking out the best FBOs in the country and another one, submitted by you, will be spotlighted here next Monday!

SHORT FINAL

In view of all the recent hurricane news coverage, I recalled a pertinent exchange from the the Port Columbus, Ohio (CMH) tower. I worked at the "Lane Gate" vehicle check point for several years, regularly monitoring the tower frequency to get a "play by play" description of what was going on around me. I overheard the following exchange the day after the remnants of hurricane Ike came through, causing a lot of downed trees and subsequent power outages. A recently landed ERJ was taxiing to the ramp and called the tower:

ERJ:
"CMH Tower, American Eagle 1234. I hear you guys got a lot of wind yesterday. How much did you get?"

Tower:
"American Eagle 1234, Tower. The highest gust I saw was 68mph, and then the wind thingee blew away."

(78mph gusts were reported by the news media.)

Edwin Esson
via e-mail

HEARD ANYTHING FUNNY ON THE RADIO?
Heard anything funny, unusual, or downright shocking on the radio lately? If you've been flying any length of time, you're sure to have eavesdropped on a few memorable exchanges. The ones that gave you a chuckle may do the same for your fellow AVweb readers. Share your radio funny with us, and, if we use it in a future "Short Final," we'll send you a sharp-looking AVweb hat to sport around your local airport. No joke. Click here to submit your original, true, and previously unpublished story. More...

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AVwebFlash is a twice-weekly summary of the latest news, articles, products, features, and events featured on AVweb, the world's premier independent aviation news resource.

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