Volume 11, Number 35b — September 1, 2005

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

KATRINA
Hurricane Katrina made landfall near New Orleans very early Tuesday with sustained winds near 150 mph and wind gusts over 180 mph. A storm surge compounded by runoff, a compromised levy and pump system and power failure have left the city and much of the region flooded without potable water, water pressure to fight fires, communication systems or the ability to store perishable food. It has been three days since the storm and the situation is not soon expected to vastly improve. There is now a rescue, refugee and looming health crisis in the region even as local hospitals struggle -- some without power, at least one with a flooded heli-pad, and all with vastly over-taxed human resources. Serving as a humanitarian and relief effort hub, a portion of New Orleans International Airport also now serves as a field hospital. CNN reported yesterday that the Mayor of New Orleans announced the city will be entirely evacuated with a goal of 15,000 people moved per day. For qualified volunteer pilots and concerned individuals interested in lending aid, organized efforts exist. See AVweb's NewsWire for opportunities. More...

...CRIPPLED RESOURCES STRUGGLE TO REGAIN FOOTING...
As aircraft from the military, Civil Air Patrol and Coast Guard Auxiliary, not to mention dozens of media helicopters, flocked to disaster scenes in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi, the FAA had some disasters of its own to cope with. Katrina did serious damage to numerous FAA installations, leaving controllers with little to work with, and, in some cases, nowhere to work from. "In Gulfport all the navaids were destroyed and the tower is uninhabitable. There was damage to other towers, as well," FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown told AVweb Wednesday. Three major TFRs have been established over New Orleans, the Mississippi and Alabama coasts and in many areas affected by the storm, operations are limited to rescue and relief aircraft for day VFR only. Three major airports were open for public use: Baton Rouge, Lafayette and Lake Charles. More...

...TCM MOPPING UP IN MOBILE...
Teledyne Continental Motors (TCM) is just one of the thousands of businesses trying to get back in operation after the storm. Its Mobile, Ala., factory took a direct hit and the roofs of two buildings were torn off. One production area got a little wet before tarps were in place but none of the equipment or inventory were damaged, Jay Wickham, manager of Continental Mattituck told AVweb. He said no staff members were hurt although some of their homes were damaged or destroyed. Wickham's shop is helping coordinate customer service enquiries for the factory in the wake of the storm. "Right now, the biggest thing is power. Without power they can't do anything," he said. More...

...VOLUNTEER AVIATORS HELPING OUT
Of course aviation, mostly the rotary kind, is playing a huge role in the aftermath of Katrina. Commercial aircraft along with military, Civil Air Patrol and Coast Guard Auxiliary units from all over the Southeast are being deployed to the storm-hit areas and there's no shortage of spectacular rescue coverage from the flock of news choppers also vying for airspace. Although the media flights were permitted initially, the skies got too crowded over New Orleans on Tuesday and Brown said they had to be stopped. She said there have been numerous calls from aviation organizations wondering how they can help. More...

WHY SOME AIRPORTS IN NEED WON'T TAKE $$$...
In almost any other circumstances, a $2.3 million grant from the federal government would be welcomed with open arms by a civic government. But the commissioners of Martin County in Florida faced a room full of protesters sporting yellow ribbons to signify their opposition to the county accepting the FAA grant to protect the local airport, Witham Field. In the end, the commissioners, in a 3-2 split, took the money, which will be used to buy eight to ten homes nearest to the airport. The protesters wanted the county to close 460 feet of runway that was built in 1998 and resulted in the residential encroachment on the runway protection zone. More...

...AND IS REJECTED IN CALIFORNIA
On the other side of the country, a deadlock by Oceanside, Calif. City Council means the city will lose $150,000 in FAA funding to build a perimeter fence. "The party's over on that one," Alan Cruise, president of the Oceanside Airport Association told the North County Times. Accepting the FAA money would require a renewed commitment to keep the airport -- which has just erected new hangars -- open for years to come. The grant was lost because council tied 2-2 in the vote on whether to accept funds. Mayor Jim Wood, who would have broken the tie, was unable to attend the Wednesday meeting. Deadline for acceptance was Sunday and no further meetings were planned. More...

DRUG-SMUGGLING POWER-CHUTER SHOT DOWN
The war on drugs hit new heights on the Afghan/Tajikistan border last month as Tajik officials boasted they'd finally stopped an aerial smuggler they'd been trying to shoot down for three years. That the aircraft of choice by the smuggler was a powered parachute apparently did little to diminish the sense of accomplishment by the ground-pounding border guards. The guards apparently got lucky sometime in mid August and brought the chute down but they didn't get the pilot, who was reportedly injured in the landing. More...

HIGH-SPEED, GULFSTREAM STYLE
The majority of production aircraft will never set a record of any kind but Gulfstream's flagship G550 already has 15 speed records to its credit after only a couple of years on the market. The ultra-long-range bizjet went from Newark to Tel Aviv, a distance of 5,031 NM in nine hours and 52 minutes, which looks like an average speed of 510 knots (or Mach .86, according to Gulfstream). However, this was no stripped down, race-ready version of the G. Although the pilots were going for a record, the company said it was a passenger-carrying flight and the five passengers on board went about their business as normal. More...

HIJACK "CODE WORD" SETS OFF ALERT
Australia's security apparatus went on its highest level of alert for two hours when the pilot of King Air accidentally used a "secret code word" indicating he was being hijacked, while talking with air traffic control. The country's national terrorism emergency plan kicked into full gear, an emergency command post was set up in a bunker in Canberra, the nation's capital, and the plane was tracked by radar and real-time satellite images as it flew from Brisbane to Melbourne. All the while, controllers were peppering the plane's crew with "standard coded phrases used to determine if a hijacking was actually taking place," according to The Australian newspaper. Since the pilot wasn't speaking the same language, it was deduced that no hijacking was actually taking place and the alert was lifted. "It was an inadvertent use of a code word," said an unnamed government spokesman. More...

TUSKEGEE AIRMAN HOLD LAST REUNION
They never missed a rendezvous with bombers over war-torn Europe but the Tuskegee Airmen say they've had their last formal reunion. Members of the famed Red Tail squadron, unfortunately known as much for their heritage as their skill in the air, are getting too old to stage the annual event, which this year drew dozens of the P-51 fighter pilots, support crew and friends to Orlando. Of the original 992 African American aviators who made up the 99th, 100th, 301st and 302nd Fighter Groups, only about 200 are still alive and they're in their 80s. About 50 died in the past year. The remaining members will still get to meet each year but they'll do so in conjunction with another group of younger black aviators. More...

YOUNG COUSINS COMPLETE FLIGHT
In a year of remarkable aviation achievements (GlobalFlyer, SpaceShipOne) a solitary Aeronca Champ would easily escape notice as it putted over the countryside. But for a couple of 17-year-old cousins from New Jersey, the tiny tandem carried them to no less a sense of accomplishment than all of the well-funded exploits that captured the headlines this year. Last Sunday, Ben Dunkerley and Nick Reed did a flypast before landing at Hampton Air Field after a 6,000-mile round trip to California patterned after Rinker Buck's book "Flight of Passage" about two teenaged brothers who did a similar trip. "We read the book and thought to ourselves, 'We could do that,'" said Reed. More...

ZERO CRASH RATE IS AUSTRALIA'S GOAL
The Aviation Safety Foundation of Australia says it hopes to eliminate aviation accidents through a new education program. "Our aim is to reduce crash rates to zero," said Mark Riley, of Zauril Aviation, who developed the program. "This program has the power to change aviation safety in Australia like nothing else," he told the Border Mail newspaper. The program takes an airline-like approach to GA pilot proficiency, through recurrent training, and will be offered throughout the country starting later this year. More...

ON THE FLY...
Roof collapsed on Millville, N.J. flight services station...
Mineta will speak at AOPA Expo...
TFRs, including ADIZ coming to New York Sept. 14-28. 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...

NEW ARTICLES AND FEATURES ON AVWEB
COLUMNS
The Savvy Aviator #22: The Art Of Troubleshooting
Fixing a problem is the usually the easy part of aircraft maintenance. The hard part is figuring out what's wrong. A little troubleshooting can often save you a small fortune in unneeded parts and labor. 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...

AVWEB'S QUESTION OF THE WEEK ...
Hurricane Katrina has devastated large tracts of Louisiana and Mississippi, prompting the aviation community to ask, "What can we do to help?" This week, we'd like to know what you'll be doing to help the relief effort. PLUS: Results of last week's question on the Washington, D.C. ADIZ. More...

AVWEB'S PICTURE OF THE WEEK ...
Once again, we received a small (but high-quality!) batch of "Picture of the Week" submissions from our readers. We're tempted to crank up the encouragement and ask for more pics next week — but we'll settle for the same super-high standard of quality we've gotten the last couple of weeks, if we have to. Despite tough competition (and several last-minute reversals of the vote), Warren Woods of Palmer, Alaska makes off with this week's top prize — an official AVweb baseball cap. For a shot at a cap like Warren's, submit your own aviation photos. 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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