Volume 10, Number 26a — June 21, 2004

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The Top Headlines From AVweb's Expanded, Illustrated News Coverage At AVweb's NewsWire.

WELCOME TO MOJAVE, AMERICA'S FIRST INLAND SPACEPORT
If it's before 10:30 a.m. (Eastern Time), you may want to click through to KLOA online radio to see if their bandwidth can accommodate you for a live audio feed of the "first civilian pilot to cross the border of space in a civilian-funded vehicle" ... if it wasn't cancelled, or you're not already watching it on CNN. Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites -- the "you're not likely to know what we're up to next until we have to push it outside" people -- scheduled 10:30 a.m. (Eastern) today for its attempt to "push it outside" in a very big way with SpaceShipOne -- and they invited the world to watch ... relatively speaking. (On-site reporters were only kicked out of two buildings). Mike Melville found out yesterday at a press conference that he was chosen from three pilots for the unearthly task of piloting the nitrous oxide- and rubber-burning craft to space and back: "I am very excited. ... I am ready to go," he said. Straight up at Mach 3.2 to better than 300,000 feet and back. More...

... ORBIT, SOONER THAN YOU THINK
Rutan hopes success in this venture would initiate a new private space race to usher affordable space travel to the common (perhaps upper-upper-middle class) man. Rutan estimates first-generation public spacecraft -- and SpaceShipOne is scaleable -- will offer "rides" at $30,000-50,000 and second-generation craft will do it for closer to $10,000. "We're heading to orbit sooner than you think ... The next 25 years will be a wild ride ... and one that historians will note was done for the benefit of all," said Rutan. The people who drove to the site in the Mojave desert -- like Lauren from Oregon, Eric from Santa Cruz, or Richard and Susan from Three Rivers -- clearly shared Burt's vision that the event would be, like the Wright Brothers' first flight before a skeptical audience in Europe, an exhibition for the ages. "I just wanted to be here to see it," said Greg, who flew in from Falls Church, Virginia. Nobody mentioned the 90-degree temperatures and the blowing dirt. We were there yesterday, and invite you to have a look around. More...

TFRS ARE HERE TO STAY
"TFRs do serve a purpose, and they're effective," Robert Albracht, director of GA Operations at the Transportation Security Administration, told AVweb last Thursday in a conference-call interview with several TSA staffers. Essentially, the TFRs function to clear the sky, so security forces are not distracted by a multitude of targets but instead can focus quickly on any that don't belong. That means that GA pilots who blunder into the restricted zones will be noticed. "And when pilots venture into these zones, they are going to be dealt with," Albracht said. "I do have the feeling that the grace period, the leniency period, is over," he said, though he stressed that it's the FAA, and not the TSA, that determines what action will be taken against TFR violators. "There may be harsher penalties than there were at first." More...

... DESPITE EFFORTS TO CURTAIL THEM ...
Albracht added that his office has no control over presidential TFRs. "As long as the president travels outside the White House, and presidential candidates are moving around, there will be TFRs," he said. But the TSA office does have discretion over many other TFR requests, and many are turned down. Many large events, such as sports events and other gatherings, request TFRs. "There would have to be a threat, to justify that," said Robert Rottman, TSA security specialist. But certain events, such as the Super Bowl and major political conventions, are always going to have TFRs, Albracht said. "We definitely go through excruciating travails to winnow out only the truly deserving requests," said Rottman. "We're very aware of the impact these have on general aviation, and we try to keep that impact as low as possible." More...

... BUT GA AIRPORT SECURITY IS OK
As for security protocols at your local GA airport, the general feeling at the TSA is that the voluntary guidelines are working. "These guidelines were the end result of a truly collaborative effort among many industry groups, and they were all agreed to 100 percent," said Steven Calabro, GA security inspector. "Our aim was to establish federal guidelines so airports could know they were on the right track, and know what the feds would give a thumbs-up to." The working group also aimed to prevent a mishmash of state laws from being enacted locally. "Our anecdotal evidence is that GA airports are compliant overall, and are even going beyond the guidelines," Calabro said. More...

FAA RESPONDS TO 9/11 REPORT
After last Thursday's report by the 9-11 Commission critiqued the FAA's response on 9/11, the FAA issued a news release in its own defense. The FAA said its actions on 9/11 "demonstrated the urgency and initiative of many employees who were acting under intense pressure." Further, "As the 9/11 commission has noted, the FAA faced a situation it had 'never encountered or trained against' and no one involved had 'perfect information' that morning." The commission report found no fault with actions taken by the rank-and-file FAA workers. "Individual FAA controllers, facility managers, and Command Center managers thought 'outside the box' in recommending a nationwide alert, in ground-stopping local traffic, and, ultimately, in deciding to land all aircraft and executing that unprecedented order flawlessly," the report said. More...

A SHORT AIRPORT JOY RIDE, A $1 MILLION BILL
A 13-year-old girl was waiting in the car with her 13-year-old friend while her aunt ran an errand in the airport office at New York's Penn Yan Airport last Tuesday. The aunt looked out the window and saw that the two girls were driving the car, and ran outside to try to stop them. The girls apparently panicked, and crashed into a hangar door, which happened to have a $37 million jet sitting right behind it. The car got entangled with a wing, and the girls were trapped. Both suffered minor injuries, but were released after treatment. The jet damage was estimated at $1 million. More...

HANGAR, SCHMANGER! AUSSIE SCIENTISTS CREATE SUN-STRENGTHENED ALUMINUM
A new process discovered at an Australian research institute could lead to the production of aluminum airplanes that get stronger the longer they are left to "bake" in the sun. Roger Lumley, a scientist with CSIRO Elaborately Transformed Metals (CETM), says if aluminum panels are allowed to cure in the sun instead of in a high-temperature furnace, the metal becomes 20 percent tougher and up to eight times more resistant to rupture on impact. "We have developed two heat treatments using our new knowledge, both of which overcome the age-old problem of either increasing the strength of aluminum and reducing its fracture toughness, or vice versa," Lumley says. More...

SKYLANE'S GLASS COCKPIT CERTIFIED
The death of steam-driven round cockpit gauges advanced a giant step closer on Friday, when the FAA gave full type certification to Cessna for its Garmin G1000-equipped 182T Skylane. This is the G1000's first FAA aircraft-level certification, according to a Cessna press release. Cessna's CEO Jack Pelton said the all-glass G1000 system was the "ideal choice" for their single-engine product line because of its state-of-the-art integration and intuitive display. "The G1000 brings a new level of safety and situational awareness to the cockpit," Pelton said. Cessna said it took 300 orders within hours of announcing the G1000 option last October, and expects to deliver its first G1000 Skylane immediately. More...

EVEN FAA OPPOSES FAA NOISE NPRM
When the FAA asked for comments on its proposed new noise regulation for single-engine aircraft, it probably didn't expect to get publicly blasted by one of its own -- but that's what it got. "We request that this proposal be withdrawn and reconsidered," Scott Sedgwick, manager of the FAA's Small Airplane Directorate Standards Office, said in a memo posted to the public docket. Among his reasons for wanting to boot the proposal: "The assumption that single-engine training airplanes are a significant source of airplane noise is not valid ...The proposed noise levels do not reflect current technology ... They will place an uneven regulatory burden on the U.S. industry with no public gain." More...

SUMMER FLIGHT TO HELP KIDS IN NEED
When pilot Paul Wood, of Illinois, turned 50 this year, he decided to celebrate by doing something fun that would also benefit those less fortunate. Wood, who is a partner in an investment firm when he's not flying one of his airplanes, will embark on a long-distance flight July 1 in an Aviat Husky A1-B to help raise $250,000 for the Children's Home & Aid Society of Illinois -- and he's offering to match the first $100,000 in pledges himself. The trip is called Around the Country For Kids. "I hope to combine my two passions -- aviation and work for at-risk kids -- and fly all the way around the perimeter of the (contiguous) United States," Wood told EAA last week. More...

VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY VISITS ADAM AIRCRAFT
Vice President Dick Cheney visited Adam Aircraft in Englewood, Colo., on Friday to deliver remarks about the U.S. economy. "Being selected as the host company for Vice President Cheney's visit to Colorado is quite an honor," said Rick Adam, founder and CEO of Adam Aircraft. "We are living proof that the American economy is alive and well. Our expansion plans are well supported by the strong market and we look forward to creating many new jobs this year." Cheney praised the company as a model of optimism and innovation. "You're producing high-quality aircraft and selling them to satisfied customers," he said. "And that's a wise business plan." More...

AILING TRANSPONDER? THEN GET OUTTA D.C.
When the transponder malfunctioned on a King Air inbound to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport recently, it sparked a panicked evacuation of the Capitol building ... despite the fact that ATC was fully aware of the aircraft and the pilots had complied with all the protocols. So, to prevent future such unsavory scenes, ATC has changed the protocol. In a NOTAM, the FAA said that effective immediately, anyone flying in the D.C. Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) who finds their transponder is not doing its job must immediately exit the ADIZ by the shortest, most direct course. Further, any pilot who knows the transponder cannot comply with the ATC requirement to continuously transmit had best stay out of the ADIZ altogether. More...

PLAN TO REVOKE PILOTS' LICENSES ON SUSPICION ABANDONED
Faced with a lawsuit by pilot unions, the government acknowledged on June 11 that regulations it had issued in January 2003 allowing it to revoke the certificates of pilots suspected of being security threats cannot be lawfully enforced. The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) and other unions had challenged the regulations as unfair and inconsistent with due process, because they permitted a pilot's certificate to be revoked on mere suspicion, and did not allow for any procedure to contest the revocation. As the litigation progressed, the FAA and the TSA ultimately promised "never to enforce the rules," ALPA said in a news release Friday. More...

ON THE FLY ...
California Pilots Association sued to block fuel farm near runway...
Indiana helicopter pilot faces drunk-flying charge, a misdemeanor...
Slot reservations required for flying near Boston during DNC...
U.S. Navy pilot Marcel LeBlanc named Attack Aviator of the Year...
EAA borrowed a museum B-17 to replace its damaged B-17 on tour...
EAA's Freedom of Flight award to Dick Van Grunsven, of RV kitplanes...
UAVs will be deployed June 30 to patrol the Arizona-Mexico border...
An ultralight pilot in Oklahoma landed safely after deploying chute. More...

AVWEB'S NEWSTIPS ADDRESS ...
Heard something that 130,000 pilots might want to know about? If it caught your eye, it will probably interest someone else, too. Drop us a line. Submit news tips via email tonewstips@avweb.com. More...

NEW ARTICLES AND FEATURES ON AVWEB
Time for a changing of the guard. One of AVweb's most popular columnists, John Deakin, is taking a leave of absence, and will return occasionally in the future. (Read about his plans here.) Meanwhile, our newest columnist is a long-time contributor to AVweb. Linda Pendleton, a CFI and currently the Flight Training Manager for Eclipse Aviation, will bring us the latest from the world of flight training. In her first column, Linda discusses concerns she has about the state of the instructor/student relationship. Is the CFI solely responsible when a student is not properly signed off for solo, cross-country or even the practical exam? Is the student not at all to blame if they didn't learn all the subjects in the practical test standards? Like all of AVweb's columnists, don't expect Linda to sit quietly and toe some party line -- she leaves no one off the hook. More...

READER FEEDBACK ON AVWEB'S NEWS COVERAGE AND FEATURE ARTICLES ...
Reader mail this week about the panic in D.C., colorblind pilots, mass arrivals at Oshkosh and much more. More...

BUSINESS AVFLASH
HAVE YOU SIGNED UP yet for AVweb’s NO-COST twice monthly Business AVflash? Reporting on breaking news, Business AVflash also focuses on the companies, the products and the industry leaders that make headlines in the Business of Aviation. Business AVflash is a must read. Watch for a Business AVflash regular feature, TSA WATCH: GA IN THE "SPOTLIGHT". Sign up today at http://www.avweb.com/profile/ More...

SHORT FINAL ...
During our Civil Air Patrol mission today, we were monitoring the local tower and overheard the following traffic from a Piper Cub to the Tower:

Piper Cub: On final approach Runway 27.
Tower: Be advised there are slow movers crossing 27 at 1.
Piper Cub: That's O.K., we're slow movers, too. More...

AVflash is a twice-weekly summary of the latest aviation news, articles, products, features and events featured on AVweb, the Internet's Aviation Magazine and News Service. http://www.avweb.com

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Today's issue written by News Writer Mary Grady:
http://www.avweb.com/contact/authors.html#mgrady
AVweb's editorial team: http://avweb.com/contact/authors.html.

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