Volume 12, Number 3a — January 16, 2006

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

LIVE FROM SEBRING, THE U.S. SPORT AVIATION EXPO
Exhibitors were plentiful and crowds were too, as the second annual U.S. Sport Aviation Expo wrapped up yesterday under sunny skies in Sebring, Fla. Visitors got to check out more than 100 light-sport aircraft on the field, and EAA issued over 75 new student sport-pilot certificates. "There's a 30-knot wind here today, so not too many demo flights," EAA's Ron Wagner told AVweb on Saturday. "But the first two days, there was a lot of flying going on. We're getting a really knowledgeable audience, a lot of them are here trying to decide what to buy. What we're seeing is a really vibrant new segment of aviation coming alive." There are now 24 LSAs on the market, with Taylorcraft's Taylor Sport the latest to be certified, just last week. "And now here we are in the midst of this really exciting event, and some of these manufacturers have already sold out their 2006 production," Wagner said. More...

GATHERING THE LSA FAITHFUL, AND THEY'RE BUYING
No official crowd estimates were available, but overall, Thursday and Friday were strong, EAA's marketing consultant Dan Johnson told AVweb. RANS founder Randy Schlitter was there with two airplanes (an S-6 and an S-7) and said he could have sold each one of them several times over if he didn't prefer to take them home himself. Saturday was a little slow due to the weather -- stiff winds plus temperatures in the 60s, cold by Florida standards. Johnson said exhibitors were satisfied with the attendance. "The parking lots are pretty full, and every time you look at an airplane, there are people around every one," he said. Johnson also noted that a bizjet flew in and unloaded some top Cessna officials who evidently came to check out the LSA scene. Also flying in was Advanced Aero's inverted V-tail airplane, a single-seat prototype that flew for the first time just last month. More...

SPORT PILOT INFRASTRUCTURE
The EAA Sport Pilot Tour will continue in 2006 with nine more stops, the next one Feb. 18 in Phoenix, Ariz., Johnson said. EAA's Ron Wagner expressed enthusiastic support for the tour, saying that manufacturers sold about one airplane apiece at each of the six events last year. The rest of this year's stops will be announced later this month, Johnson said. It's also getting easier to find sport-pilot training. Last week, EAA reported that there are now more than 320 flight instructors in the U.S. ready to take on sport pilot students, and you can find one near you via their online database. The list also includes those who can instruct in amateur-built aircraft, powered parachutes and other less-common types. More...

ON THE GROUND AT SEBRING, TIM KERN, FOR AVWEB
See AVweb's NewsWire For More LSA Expo Coverage... More...

CIRRUS LANDS SAFELY IN TREE BENEATH CHUTE
A Cirrus SR22 with three people on board landed gently in a grove of trees adjacent to a road near Childersburg, Ala., about 4 p.m. Friday after the pilot deployed the ballistic parachute. All three walked away from the airplane unhurt. The pilot, Kerwin Day, is a certified flight instructor and ATP-rated pilot with over 12,000 hours. He reported that he had control difficulties while attempting to maneuver through an area of in-cloud icing conditions, according to a news release from BRS, the maker of the chute system. The airplane was not equipped with an icing protection system. Day said that while trying to climb to a higher altitude to escape the icing, the airplane began to shake and entered into a stall; it then turned sharply and Day experienced a total loss of control. More...

THE CHUTE RELEASE: HOW IT FELT
"I pulled the chute and got a sudden jolt against the seatbelt," Day told BRS. "The nose pitched down and very quickly leveled itself and in less than a minute we were on the ground." All three exited the airplane, and a call was placed to 911. The Childersburg Fire Department responded, and the group was taken to the fire station. Later, as the three drove back to Atlanta by car, they spoke with BRS via cellphone from a barbeque restaurant, happy and relieved. "This is how we think any aircraft incident should come to a close, with somebody getting on a cellphone and calling home," Bill King, the vice president of business administration for Cirrus, told NBC-13 News. More...

AN UNUSUAL PIREP
The airplane had departed from Birmingham, Ala., headed for Orlando. NTSB investigator Corky Smith told The Daily Home that the pilot filed an IFR flight plan and obtained a DUATS weather briefing before departure. The aircraft entered the clouds at an altitude of 5,000 feet, and at 7,000 feet began taking on ice. At about 8,000 feet, while climbing out of the clouds, the buffet began followed by the spin to the left. The pilot reduced power and applied opposite rudder, but the aircraft did not respond. He then informed ATC before pulling the ballistic parachute. The happenings resulted in a pilot report of unusual text: PIREP: MGM UUA /OV SCD 270004/TM 2200/FL090/TP SR22/IC SVR ICG 077-090/RM ACFT WAS DESCENDING BY PARACHUTE DUE TO SEVRE ICG BUILDUP. More...

PILOTS SPEAK OUT AGAINST D.C. ADIZ
On Thursday, federal officials held their first public meeting with pilots from the Washington, D.C., area who will have to live with the government's proposed permanent Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ). Over 30 speakers took a turn during the six-hour-long meeting, recounting their personal experiences with operational nightmares, safety hazards, and economic loss, AOPA reported on Friday. The 11-member panel seemed "unresponsive," AOPA said, but the FAA says they are paying attention. "We will look at all the comments and consider the many creative recommendations we have," an FAA spokeswoman told AOPA. More...

FAMILIES SUE OVER DEATHS OF JET PILOTS
The families of two pilots who died in the crash of a Pinnacle Airlines CJR-200 regional jet after both engines failed shortly after it attained 41,000 feet filed suit last week in Florida. The suit alleges that heat damage in the engine caused by a faulty oil pump was one factor that made it impossible for the pilots to restart the engines. Named in the suit are the aircraft manufacturer, an airline, three part makers and a maintenance company, The Associated Press reported last week. The two pilots took the airplane up to FL410 during a repositioning flight in October 2004. A controller who questioned the jet's model and altitude told the pilots, "I've never seen you guys up at 41 there." The crew responded, "Yeah, we're actually ... we don't have any passengers on board, so we decided to have a little fun and come up here." More...

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TWO WALK AWAY FROM DITCHING IN RIVER
At 20 years old, Benjamin Sharp, of Rolling Hill, Calif., already has 600 hours of flight time. So when the engine quit in the Piper Cherokee he was flying on Friday afternoon, all that training kicked in. "We popped out of the clouds and I looked around, checking my options," Sharp told the Curry Coastal Pilot. "It was an automatic process. It was instinctual. We were in a ravine with no place to land. The water was the only option." He told his passenger, 19-year-old Adam Castle, to open the door before they touched down in the North Fork of the Chetco River. Once afloat, the two climbed out across the wing to a nearby gravel bar, then found a house and called 911. More...

737 BECOMES REEF
After almost 30 years of flying passengers across North American skies, a Boeing 737 sunk off the coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada Saturday, to the cheers of hundreds of onlookers. The retired Air Canada jet became British Columbia's seventh artificial reef and, long after it carried millions of winter-weary Canadian tourists to Florida, it will become a tourist attraction itself. The 100-foot airframe was winched from a barge and lowered into Stuart Channel, near Chemainus. Within minutes divers reported a level landing on the ocean floor 88.5 feet below and the jet's four-year journey from wreck to reef was complete. More...

FEDERALLY FUNDED SERVICE FLIES SR22S FOR YOU
A small air-taxi service in North Dakota is ramping up operations, thanks to an injection of federal funds under the U.S. Dept. of Transportation Small Community Air Service Development grant program. A contract signed earlier this month released $1.25 million to launch Point2Point Airways. The company must match the funds with its own money. Point2Point says it will provide affordable, customized air travel to businesses in Bismarck and other communities in the region. The company has two Cirrus SR22 aircraft and plans to have 5 to 10 airplanes operating by the end of this year, company spokesman John Boehle told AVweb last week. Boehle says the company will sell blocks of time similar to bizjet programs ... but these are at roughly $350 an hour. More...

NASA RESTRUCTURES AERONAUTICS RESEARCH
NASA has overhauled and restructured its aeronautics research program, Lisa Porter, NASA's associate administrator of the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, announced last week. "NASA is returning to long-term investment in cutting-edge fundamental research in traditional aeronautics disciplines," Porter said. The key goals will include working to master the science of subsonic (rotary and fixed wing), supersonic, and hypersonic flight, and to directly address the needs of the next-generation air transportation system. The new programs include fundamental aeronautics, airspace systems, aviation safety and the aeronautics test program. More...

GLOBAL AIRLINE DEATHS DOUBLE IN 2005
The number of people who died in airliner crashes worldwide more than doubled last year, Flight International magazine reported last week. In 2005, 1,050 people died in 34 fatal accidents, the highest number of fatalities since 2000. In 2004, there were 464 deaths. None of the fatal crashes involved major world airlines, and many involved older aircraft flown by airlines in countries with poor safety records compared with the rest of the world. Nigeria had two fatal crashes in which 225 people died, and Sudan saw three fatal accidents, all involving old Soviet-built aircraft. "It was a disappointing 12 months given the outstanding safety performance in the previous two years," said David Learmount, Flight International's operations and safety editor. More...

ON THE FLY...
Columbia Aircraft off on 30-stop road tour...
Need charts? RunwayFinder has sectionals online...
Beach-buzzing pilot sentenced to 240 hours community service...
New runway approach lights CVG extend across Interstate 275...
AD requires cable inspection in some American Champion aircraft...
EAA's Young Eagles program has now flown over 1.2 million kids...
GlobalFlyer has landed safely at Kennedy Space Center...
Three aircraft came too close over Dallas on Nov. 2. More...

NEW ARTICLES AND FEATURES ON AVWEB

COLUMNS
CEO of the Cockpit #53: Snow Day
A snow day may be a day off from work or school, but if you're an airline pilot it probably means delays and de-icing. AVweb's Kevin Garrison has had many snow days -- some of them even involved throwing snowballs in Florida.

Audio Clip
When it comes to ice detection, knowing where to look is half the battle. Click through for a free clip from our experts.

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Reader mail this week about Australian air safaris, ATC pay raises and more. More...

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SHORT FINAL...
Actually broadcast on the West Palm Beach (KPBI) ATIS during the first week of the new year.

"Attention all pilots, don't land on taxiway Lima located between runway 27 right and 27 left... [pause] ...Duh!" 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:
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AVweb's editorial team: http://avweb.com/contact/authors.html.

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