Behind The Yoke

Needless to say Oshkosh was incredible. It was my first time going and I was blown away. I couldn’t believe the number of aircraft that were there in one place. It was overwhelming.  I’m not going to write much about it because words can’t express the feelings you experience. Exhilaration is one word that comes to mind. The full effect hasn’t worn off completely. Yes I’m still in recovery from Oshkoshitis BUT AirVenture 2010 is the near distance.  I’ll make it. Hopefully by then I’ll have my certificate. Here are the pictures I took of the event.

Wow - I haven’t posted in a while. Been very busy working on starting a business and getting married. Yay! Finally! With that being said, my leisure time for the last two months was stretched thin.

Its time to get on with the second chapter of my life. Time for harder work. Hard work comes rewards and rewards for me means flight lessons. With gas being so expensive now its literally impossible for me to afford flying. My father-in-law and I are going flying on Wed or Thurs. It’ll be awesome to be in the skies in the ole Twin Commanche again. Very much looking forward to the day when I can be in the left seat.

On a different note…if you’ve haven’t noticed I’m kinda of a freak about SR-71’s. I was very excited to stumble upon this guy who builds stuff from actual SR-71 parts. Way cool! 

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been working on a project for the aviation blogger community called Wingaroo. Its a new search engine specifically created to search aviation blogs. Here is the introduction I wrote on the ‘about’ page:

Wingaroo was created in 2008 for the aviation community. Wingaroo provides the opportunity to discover hidden jewels of information from high quality, hand picked aviation blogs. We understand that thousands of people from around the globe dedicate countless hours with their personal blogs writing about their experiences and interests. Aviation bloggers provide a much more personal experience and touch for their readers than their commercial counterparts and its about time to give them some credit.

Wingaroo is a custom built search engine specifically created to search aviation blogs. Its powered by Google’s Custom Search Engine program. Sites are added to the list daily so you can always have a rich search experience.Updates and developments to our site will always be documented on Wingaroo’s blog to keep you informed.

I hope everyone gets some good use out it. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to improve your search experience. Once again…welcome to Wingaroo.

There’s been a lot of talk lately on the boards that there is a growing number of people concerned that GA is slowly dying. AV Gas is getting more expensive, training costs are soaring, the government is proposing more and more user fees, the number of new pilots is going down every year, etc.  And then there’s the cost of parts and maintenance, another whole side of the problem.  Basically, general aviation is getting far too expensive for the regular Joe and there’s no real solution in view.

So what do we do? Well, basic consumer economics tells us that if we manufacture more of a particular product that’s high in demand and make them more commonplace, the costs will eventually come down. Take flat screen TV’s for instance. Right when they came out they were expensive as hell, wait another five years and they’ll be $200 - $500.

I know for a fact that there is a great demand for airplanes. Everyone and their mother would want an airplane if they were as cheap to own and maintain as a car, period. But we all know this isn’t the case at all.

So in comes flying cars and personal flying machines. Mmm…how nice does that ring? We’ve all at one time have had the dream of the Jetson’s becoming a reality. Sitting in gridlock traffic sucking in the fumes listening to bad talk radio wishing that our car could only hover and avoid it all. I’m here to say that this concept is well on its way.

NASA has a program called “The Highway in the Sky” or SATS (Small Aircraft Transportation System) that is designed to let millions of people fly in their own flying vehicles where and whenever they please. “The long-term goal is to improve travel between remote communities and transportation centers in urban areas by utilizing a new generation of aircraft between the nation’s 5,400 under-utilized public-use general aviation airports. One of the most revolutionary aspects of the SATS approach is the use of a software system that will sequence aircraft into the SATS airspace in the absence of an airport controller.”  Of course there are many issues to consider but my point is that the concept is VERY real but far from being implemented. Most people aren’t even competent behind the wheel of a car let alone in an aircraft so safety is obviously the biggest issue.

Anyhow, aside from the numerous dynamics involved with making flying cars a reality, people are building them. For instance, Paul Moller makes the Skycar: The first and only feasible, personally affordable, personal vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) vehicle the world has ever seen.” Woody Norris has his AirScooter. Jay Carter uses CarterCopter technology to get in the sky. And then there’s Terrafugia, Inc. which makes “a roadable Light-Sport Aircraft that will be able to land at the airport, fold up its wings, and drive on the road.” The Cafe Foundation, made up of EAA members, were selected by NASA to host their 2008 PAV challenge. They create PAV (Personal Air Vehicles). Check out their video called “Race To The Future.” A very entertaining  perspective on how aviation may look in the near future.

We have a long way to go with all this flying car stuff but we have to start somewhere and these people above are the pioneers in the new wave of aviation. Will GA aircraft be relics someday? The EAA believes so. NASA believes so.  I tend to believe so. It’s my feeling that one day this “Highway in the Sky” will be filled with personal flying machines replacing the big jets.  This is only the beginning folks. Imagine what the airspace will be like in 25 years? We can only wait.

For the past five years or so, I have constantly thought about where the aviation business is heading. With all these canceled flights and delays I just knew that the public would have a breaking point of tolerence. The days of waiting in the baggage check line for two hours, going through security check-points, having to take your shoes and clothes off just to get on a plane will one day end.

I’m not going to get into the nitty-gritty details but in my opinion large carrier companies like Delta, United and American are going to have to shift their business plans completely in order to compete with low-cost carriers, specifically low-cost regional on-demand carriers like Day Jet (an article from NPR explains Day Jet’s concept) and fractional jet ownership companies like NetJets and Jet-Alliance.

Common sense should tell you that as the number of travellers go up every year something will have to change. The trend is already well on its way in business aviation. Regional business jet travel is exploding by leaps and bounds. Business jet sales are up so high that companies have to wait years for their planes to be delivered because suppliers are stretched to the limit. In other words, maufacturers like Boeing can’t build planes fast enough for their customers. Even used jets that go on the market are gobbled up immediately. So what has to happen?

I’m entertained by the idea of the site Share Your Flight which “allows pilots, whether they own or rent, to post upcoming flights which have available seats. The pilot basically takes the total amount of the flight expenses and divides it by the total number of seats on the aircraft This dollar amount is what the pilot is asking in return to help pay for a share of the operating costs.”

Pretty cool idea. Doesn’t make the pilot or company much money but the concept has potential. Its my feeling that the industry has to become more personalized and flexible. Almost like the yellow taxis but in the air. The ultimate challenge is keeping the operating costs of airplanes down so it can benefit both the customer and operator. Seems to me that the first thing that needs to happen is get more people trained in aviation. We need more
pilots, mechanics, analysts, etc. but that’s a whole other issue. Uhhh…so many dynamics.

All and all its pretty hard to predict what direction the industry will go. We all know what we’d like to see happen but there are so many factors involved aka government regulations, costs, fees, who knows when the change will oocur. One thing is for sure its going to be a slow process. We have to start somewhere. Lets give thanks the small operations above that recognize we need change because the number one thing they need is support from the public. The more recognition they get the faster things will happen.