Volume 11, Number 31b — August 4, 2005

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This issue of AVweb's AVflash is brought to you by ... Wings to Adventure on The Outdoor Channel THEY SHOOT AIRPLANES, DON'T THEY?  YOU BET! They shoot them in stunning high-definition video, and you can see the results this Sunday at 2:30pm (Eastern) on Wings to Adventure television, the hottest television show ever created about general aviation. Just tune to the Outdoor Channel this Sunday, when series host Tom Gresham profiles the Cirrus SR-22 — the plane against which others are now measured — and a de Havilland Chipmunk, an affordable warbird with style. You'll also visit Wallaby Ranch, a hang-gliding park in Central Florida, and you'll catch a tip for organizing your cockpit. On Monday, August 8, at 4:30pm Eastern, WTA features a Great Lakes biplane, a new Mooney, and a tour of the Liberty aircraft factory. Satellite subscribers can add the Outdoor Channel "a la carte" for $1.99 a month. For more on this new series about aviation, visit http://www.avweb.com/sponsors/outdoor/avflash.

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

ADIZ-ESQUE ZONE TO BE PERMANENT...
The FAA is proposing to fold all the various types of temporarily restricted airspace around Washington, D.C. under a permanent designation called National Defense Airspace. According to AOPA, the zone will cover 2,000 square miles up to 18,000 feet and will be announced today. It had not been posted on the FAA Web site by 2 a.m. EDT. AOPA President Phil Boyer said the 15-mile no-fly zone centered on the Washington Monument, with laser warning lights and anti-aircraft missile batteries is adequate to protect the city. "But we take strong exception with the FAA's proposal to make the temporary outer ring of Washington's defensive airspace -- the Air Defense Identification Zone -- permanent. More...

...EFFECTS ON GA
Boyer says the government hasn't even made the case for the temporary restrictions, let alone creating permanent ones. "No general aviation aircraft has ever been used in a terrorist attack," Boyer said. "And the government has determined that not a single ADIZ violation was terrorist-related." He said the ADIZ is "operationally unworkable" and the FAA has neither justified the permanent zone, nor addressed the operational problems. He said GA-friendly alternatives have been presented, but those have apparently been ignored with this proposal. More...

FAA WANTS CHANGES TO FUNDING STRUCTURE...
FAA Administrator Marion Blakey is continuing to call for restructuring of the agency's funding base, a call that sent a chill through many of those attending her Meet the Administrator session at EAA AirVenture last week. In Oshkosh, she used the phrase "User pays also means user says." In a discussion with reporters in Washington, she again raised the specter of user fees. "I think it is very realistic and very important to look at a different set of structures of taxes and fees that ties the cost of the system more closely to the revenue that is coming in," she said, according to The Dallas Morning News. It will be up to Congress to decide what, if any, changes are made but the FAA is acting to help members in their deliberations. More...

...GAO SAYS AGENCY FACING $4 BILLION DEFICIT...
As if on cue, the Government Accountability Office released its own study of FAA finances and it's predicting a train wreck. According to the GAO, the agency will have a $4 billion deficit by 2010 if something isn't done. The GAO does not look at changing the revenue structure, as Blakey has been doing, and simply warns the FAA to cut costs, particularly in its Air Traffic Organization, which sucks up 80 percent of the budget. The paradox presented, however, is that somehow the FAA must find the money to invest billions in more efficient equipment while keeping the existing antiquated (and increasingly expensive) infrastructure operating as traffic volumes grow. More...

...AS CONTROLLERS AND BLAKEY KEEP SPARRING
By far the most costly item in the FAA budget is wages, and the determination to bring labor costs down is the FAA's clear stance as contract negotiations continue with controllers. Last week, Blakey revealed details of those negotiations, including controller demands for 5.6-percent wage increases and seven-hour work days. She added the agency's proposal for a two-tiered wage system, in which existing workers would not see any cuts but new controllers would be paid less. National Air Traffic Controllers Association President John Carr said, "We're not interested in discussing the specifics of negotiations in the press ... We're engaged in good faith negotiations and we're disappointed the FAA doesn't share that sentiment." More...

INSIDE OSH AIRVENTURE -- WHO FLIES THOSE WARBIRDS?
Doug Rozendaal arrived at Oshkosh flying a DC-3 and left in an F6F Hellcat. He doesn't own either of them, nor does he own any of the Corsairs, B-25s or Mustangs he transports to air shows for owners. With a small nod and smile he offered, "I've been very lucky in my flying career." Rozendaal's education with warbirds began with flying freight in DC-3s and Beech 18s. These airplanes were not the well-kept examples seen around Oshkosh. But they provided a good, if hazardous, classroom. One Beech 18 had Rozendaal in IMC handling an emergency with his right hand and holding a cup of urine in his left. More...

...UNIQUE SYSTEMS KNOWLEDGE...
Even normal operations in a warbird require procedures and systems knowledge you don't see on a Cessna or Columbia. "Every power change in a fighter requires rudder trim. You use rudder trim more than elevator trim on these airplanes," Rozendaal advises. We learned that climbing into the Corsair is complex enough; put your left foot on a slot in the flap, left hand to a slot in the fuselage, right foot to a hidden step in the wing, left foot up to that same step, and then swing your legs over and into the cockpit. For everyone's sake, don't slip while you do this. (The cockpit is ten feet off the ground.) Otherwise, Rozendaal says of the Corsair: "It's a straightforward airplane to fly." More...

...BUT IT'S THE STORIES THAT KEEP YOU FLYING
Flying the airplanes isn't what keeps people like Rozendaal in them. They are messy, expensive, cantankerous machines. "If you're flying these airplanes because flying them gets your rocks off, then you won't be in this business for long." It sounds cliché, but dedicated warbird pilots say the motivation burns from another source. It's the kid that come up and says he wants to be a warbird pilot, or the older gentleman with a misty look in his eyes. That's what matters. "You get these guys in the cockpit and all these stories come out. I ask them 'Have you told these stories to your family?' ... more often than not they haven't," says Rozendaal. "These stories need to be told -- and remembered." See you next year at the show. More...

NEW YORK CONTROLLERS FIRED
The FAA has fired nine air traffic controllers at the volatile New York Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) for allegedly failing to admit that they'd sought treatment for stress. It's the latest chapter in a simmering (sometimes boiling) dispute over the function of the facility, which the FAA claims was effectively taken over by the National Air Traffic Controllers Association membership in recent years. The nine controllers were accused of falsifying government documents by failing to acknowledge their stress treatment on a form that is part of their routine physical examination. The union claims the allegations are bogus because the FAA already knows who's taken time off for stress or any other reason. More...

OTHERS FIRST WITH WING PYLON ENGINES
Although it's not a common arrangement, Honda was apparently a little hasty in suggesting its wing-pylon-mounted engines are groundbreaking. Michimasa Fujino, the chief engineer on the project, told the crowd at the aircraft's first public appearance at EAA AirVenture that conventional aerodynamic wisdom dictates engines should be mounted under the wings or on the fuselage. "It was believed you never put anything above the wing, but I was skeptical of that," he said. As always, when a tidbit of aviation lore goes astray, AVweb readers are quick to point it out, and we received several e-mails noting that pylon-mounted jets actually made it into production on a German design called the VFW614. More...

FAA ENDORSES O'HARE PLAN
It looks like the FAA is going to approve Chicago Mayor Richard Daley's controversial plan to expand O'Hare International Airport (and pave over a couple of small towns and a pioneer cemetery). The FAA formally endorsed the $15 billion to $20 billion project as the most viable way to relieve the chokepoint in Chicago, which often wreaks havoc on airline schedules throughout the country. Final approval is expected in September and Daley says work will begin immediately after that. When complete, in 2013, O'Hare will have six parallel and two intersecting runways, a new terminal, parking for "oversize" aircraft (like the A380?) and more jet bridges. Most important, however, is the expected impact on O'Hare's terrible on-time record, the worst in the country. More...

OSHKOSH ATTENDANCE UP
It will come as no surprise to anyone who was there that EAA AirVenture was bigger and busier this year than it has been in recent years. After a few years of modest (but nonetheless unsettling) declines, this year's big show boasted a 7-percent increase in attendance to about 700,000, according to figures supplied by EAA media boss Dick Knapinski. A healthy portion of those folks arrived by air, as evidenced by the jammed aircraft parking and camping areas. (Possibly an indication of pilots' attraction to this year's particularly historic collection of aircraft.) More than 10,000 planes arrived over the seven days. There were almost 3,000 show planes, including a record number of homebuilts (1,267), 924 vintage planes, 386 warbirds, 196 ultralights, 130 seaplanes and 24 rotorcraft. More...

WEATHER LIKELY MAIN FACTOR IN RUNWAY OVERRUN
Weather may be the single biggest factor in the runway overrun of an Air France A340 at Toronto's Pearson International Airport on Tuesday. "It was definitely an extreme storm, something we haven't seen in a long time," Brian Lackey, vice president of operations for the Greater Toronto Airport Authority, told reporters Wednesday. "As we were looking out the window, we were commenting that storm was extremely severe and we hadn't seen one like that." The plane skidded 200 yards off the end of the runway into a ravine and caught fire but none of the 309 people aboard was seriously hurt. More...

ROD MACHADO, BOB CHAMBERS AND MEMORABLE MOMENTS
You probably don't know who Bob Chambers is, but if you're one of the thousands of pilots who have watched Rod Machado's Defensive Flying video then you've heard Chamber's voice. Defensive Flying includes a recording of two MU-2 pilots and ATC as they suffer a double engine failure in IMC over the mountains of British Columbia. Bob Chambers was the copilot on that flight. He had no idea Machado had made his story famous. He met an AVweb reporter at this year's AirVenture, got to talking about MU-2s and found out he was a celebrity of sorts. Chambers began to retell the events of 20 years ago and had to sit down as the memories came back. More...

ON THE FLY...
Occupants of SUV died after collision with Piper Archer...
Mooney's Gretchen Jahn got a promotion...
U-2 celebrated its 50th birthday...
Four skydivers died in Cessna 172 crash. More...

AVWEB'S NEWSTIPS ADDRESS ...
Drop us a line. Heard something that 130,000 pilots might want to know about? If it caught your eye, it will probably interest someone else, too. Submit news tips via email to newstips@avweb.com. You're a part of our team ... often, the best part. More...

AVWEB'S 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...

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AVWEB'S QUESTION OF THE WEEK ...
This week, AVweb wants to know what you think about the changes to the Washington, DC ADIZ. Unfortunately, we can't offer a wide range of analysis in our answers — we'll have to rely on your letters and commentary to fill in the gaps — but, for the purposes of "QOTW," we'd like to know which blanket statement comes closest to matching your attitude. PLUS: Results of our pre-AirVenture survey on NATCA and the FAA. More...

AVWEB'S PICTURE OF THE WEEK ...
"Picture of the Week" returns today, marking the end of our annual AirVenture hiatus — and boy, did we get some great photos while we were away at the show this year!  Rather than combine the past few weeks' entries into one contest, as we have in previous years, we're going to break it up by week this time — and award three hats for the three weeks that have passed since our last original "POTW" contest!  Our first hat goes to Shawn Van Horn of Washington, Indiana, whose eye-popping sunset photo is this week's top winner.  Hats also go to Tom McLaughlin of Battle Creek, Michigan (our July 21 winner) and Pete Thielen of Green Bay, Wisconsin (our July 28 winner).  Look for their photos — and lots of bonus pictures! — in ourJuly 21 andJuly 28 galleries! 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

Letters to the editor intended for publication in AVmail should be sent to mailto:editor@avweb.com.com. Have a comment or question? Send it to mailto:newsteam@avweb.com.

Today's issue written by News Writer Russ Niles:
http://www.avweb.com/contact/authors.html#rniles
AVweb's editorial team: http://avweb.com/contact/authors.html.

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