The new double decker airplane has made its first trip to a major airport in Frankfurt. The Airbus a380 is expected to enter the commercial airliner market in late 2006 when the first delivery goes to Singapore Airlines. The AFP reported that approximately 10,000 showed up to view the arrival of the Airbus A380 at the Frankfurt airport.
I saw this out the window of the airplane as we were decending into San Antonio, TX. I found through a little searching that this is the work of a local land owner in the Austin area with a last name of Lucke. A blog called Google Sightseeing featured this image in a post that actually drew a comment form the nephew of the landowner.
I am looking forward to activating my new flying forum. Now the forum will not literally be flying, but hopefully the flying folks will put flying stuff in it. I have not found much on terms of flying forums so I thought I might start one. Let me know what you think. Leave a comment here or drop me an email at theozz@gmail.com.
I have not been keeping up on my “Best Day of Flying” stories as I wanted to. I expected to have several up by now, but I have been busy with other things. There will be more to come very soon. In the meantime I want to tell you about a great few days of flying that I almost got.
I received an email from the local aero club last week. A fellow member was moving to Alaska and needed his Cessna 172 delivered to Alaska. He could not supply anything other than fuel money, therefore the person delivering the plane would have to get home on their own dime. I have not been active enough flying to feel comfortable making a trip like this alone, but figured I could round up a seasoned pilot friend to join me. I found out while searching for a co-pilot that this trip would take about 50 hours of flying time. This was much more than I thought and I learned that the owner would be okay if we could just get the plane to Montana. He felt he could get it to Alaska pretty easy from Montana. I really wanted to try the Alaska trip, but knew I could not possibly e away for more than a couple of days. I did some calculations and found that I could get the plane to Montana in about 16 hours of flying. This could easily be done over a long weekend with two guys sharing the effort even with some mild delays. I saw this as a great adventure and training opportunity as long as I had the right person with me. The owner needed the pane moved immediately to get the plane up to Alaska before the winter weather sets in. I started looking again for a friend.
I knew I could probable get two people home on flyer miles. I have enough flyer miles for at least a couple of free round trip tickets on different airlines. I figured it was worth burning a couple of tickets to get this type of experience even if only to Montana.
I did find a pilot friend/instructor to go along, but he needed to ask his wife. I told him that I needed to ask my wife if I could be away for a few days too. I knew that she would encourage me to go since she has been trying to get me to take some time for myself to go flying for a while now. She did, but reminded me that we should pray about it.
God spoke pretty clearly once again as he has with many other situations in my life lately. First of all I found that none of the airlines had one-way reward tickets to Charleston, SC out of anywhere in Montana. The even more convincing answer was from the phone call I received from my friend. He barely got a chance to talk to his wife before they received a call that his wife’s grandfather had passed away. God spoke pretty clearly to me in this matter I do believe.
I will not be writing about a “Best Day of Flying” to Montana. It was a great dream while it lasted.
Hopefully Virgin Galactic can get a truly non-bias journalist into space for the first time without a major disaster. CNN Journalist Miles O’Brien was working as the network’s space correspondent while his employer was working a secret backroom deal to get him a ride on a shuttle mission back in 2003. Now there’s a conflict of interest if I ever saw it. This was NASA’s second attempt to put an American journalist into space. The first attempt was halted by the Challenger disaster in 1986.
All of the ethical concerns of NASA sending a journalist into space should be over within the next three years since there will be plenty of space flight seats for those with the cash. Virgin Galactic plans to build commercial space craft that they claim will be ready for flight in 2008. All you need is a $20k down payment on the $200k price tag for a seat on one of the first commercial space flights already being booked by Virgin Galactic. The Virgin Galactic web site has a place to sign up here if you have the cash.
The Virgin Galactic web site says:
Virgin Galactic is a company established by Richard Branson’s Virgin Group to undertake the challenge of developing space tourism for everybody.
Virgin Galactic will own and operate privately built spaceships, modelled on the history-making SpaceShipOne craft. These spaceships will allow affordable sub-orbital space tourism for the first time in our history…
The grand entrance of SpaceShipOne to AirVenture was the opening act to the announcement of this new service. Virgin Group’s Branson and SpaceShipOne builder Burt Rutan to form The Spaceship Company that will build the new commercial spaceships.
Space.com wrote on 7/27:
The announcement was made today at the Experimental Aircraft Association’s (EAA) AirVenture gathering being held July 25-31 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The yearly event spotlights homebuilt aircraft, antiques, classics, warbirds, ultralights, rotorcraft—as well as the emerging commercial spaceflight business.
This news comes only a week after the story broke about CNN journalist Miles O’Brien who reports that he nearly missed a chance to be the first American journalist in space. O’Brien was reporting on NASA operations in 2003 when the Columbia shuttle broke up on reentry. The day of the disaster obviously hit home with him according to a July 22, 2005 The San Diego Union-Tribune article that said:
His wife showed up at the studio and cried when she saw him. O’Brien told her to go home. He didn’t need the distraction.
That was pretty insensitive to say the least.
The Political Teen has the video coverage of today’s Discovery Shuttle launch.
CBS ran a story last night that briefly mentioned that the FAA has recently revoked some medical certificates due to certain medical conditions. This little piece about medical certificates is the part I want to expand on. The story primarily focused on a young pilot in Florida who was able to learn to fly even though he suffers from a spinal cord injury that does not allow for him to walk. It was a great story and I applaud CBS for pointing out that an injury like this does not shatter all dreams.
I just recently went in to my Aviation Medical Examiner (AME) for a FAA Second Class medical certificate. I got the certificate, but it was not the easiest trip to the medical examiner this time. I have been diagnosed with hypertension since the last time I was awarded a FAA medical certificate. Here is what the FAA has to say about hypertension.
“The Examiner may issue first-, second-, or third-class medical certificates to otherwise qualified airmen whose hypertension is adequately controlled with acceptable medications without significant adverse effects. In such cases, the Examiner shall:
1. Conduct an evaluation or, at the applicant’s option, review the report of a current (within preceding 6 months) cardiovascular evaluation by the applicant’s attending physician. This evaluation must include pertinent personal and family medical history, including an assessment of the risk factors for coronary heart disease, a clinical examination including at least three blood pressure readings separated by at least 24-hours each, a resting ECG, and a report of fasting plasma glucose, cholesterol (LDL/HDL), triglycerides, potassium, and creatinine levels. A maximal electrocardiographic exercise stress test will be accomplished if it is indicated by history or clinical findings. Specific mention must be made of the medications used, their dosage, and the presence, absence, or history of adverse effects.
2. Summarize the results of this evaluation in Item 60 of the transmitted application and forward the appropriate documents to the AMCD.3. Report the results of any additional tests or evaluations that have been accomplished.
4. If appropriate, state in Item 60 on the FAA Form 8500-8 that the applicant’s blood pressure is adequately controlled with acceptable medication, there are no known significant adverse effects, and no other cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, or arteriosclerotic disease is evident.
5. Defer certification if the person declines any of the recommended evaluations.”
I reported on my application for my new medical certificate that I had been diagnosed with hypertension since my last FAA examination and that I was taking blood pressure medication regularly to regulate my condition. I was referred back to my attending physician just like the rules above require. I did all of the tests required including blood tests, ECG, and daily blood pressures for a few days. During this process my attending physician told me that several of his other patients were pilots who had been diagnosed with hypertension. He said that many of them used the same medical examiner for their FAA medical examinations and that this was the first time he had ever been asked to provide the items listed above. That inforamtion was very disturbing to me.
I can only come to a short list of possible reasons why a pilot would not need to go back to their attending physician with this issue especially using the same AME that I use.
The last reson in this list is the most disturbing to me and the one that I fear is the more common reason for my doctor not seeing his pilot patients coming back for the same reason that I did. I can only speculate on that.
I encourage any pilot who has been diagnosed with anything new since their last medical to report it on the application. Any false or information intentionally omitted from the application leads to an invalid certificate. I find it difficult to believe that a pilot who is able to remember to take medication every day could forget to list blood pressure medicine on an application for a medical certificate that clearly asks for the information. A pilot who lands in court due to some aviation related incident might easily be found at fault regardless of other circumstances simply due to operating an aircraft with an invalid medical certificate.
I realize that I have not provided any specific instances of people getting in trouble with invalid medical certificates. I hope my first story on such a thing is not related to someone I know. I hope that this story helps my fellow pilots understand the importance of filling out official applications correctly and completely. My Second Class Medical was granted. It was not the most fun process I have ever endured, but I see it as necessary.
Sources:
AOPA Online Members Only - Medical Subject Report - Hypertension
FAA Guide for Aviation Medical Examiners – PROTOCOL FOR EVALUATION OF HYPERTENSION
I just could not stand it any longer. I have been planning to add some of my flying experiences to my blog. I have planning to start the fun of sharing cool flying experiences for a while. I am going to start by giving you my favorite or best days of flying. I have many and I think I can narrow it down to about five. I can not guarantee that I will stop at five, but I will save the best one for last. It will be titled “Best Day of Flying Ever”. Today I will share my first experience that took place in 1994 just two days before I was awarded my Private Pilot’s License.
I mentioned my ramp side tour of DIA (Denver International Airport) when writing about my family’s recent trip to the New Bridge in Charleston, SC and that just got me all stirred up about flying stuff. I got even more excited about my flying when I won a prize from the drawing at the Charleston Air Force Base Aero Club earlier this evening during the monthly safety meeting. My prize was a $100 credit towards airplane rental or merchandise.
I decided to dig out an old photo yesterday from my early flying days. Well, I did take my first flying lesson when in high school over 20 years ago. Considering that I guess a ten year old picture is not my early flying days after all. Yes this picture was taken over ten years ago and it was well over ten pounds ago. The photo was taken in front of what I believe is Gate B42 of the Denver International Airport. This picture was pinned to a bulletin board in my garage. I have not been able to put my hands on the other pictures that were taken that day. I will share more as an amendment to this story when I find them.
The airport construction was complete at DIA but the baggage system was not functioning properly. One of the pictures I am hunting is a very cute photo of a lady pulling a wagon across the tarmac with a sign tapped to the side that said, “Alternate Baggage System”. I am pretty sure they eventually got things working without the use of her wagon. The city of Denver was trying to find some creative ways to use the airport while waiting on the baggage system problems to be corrected. This fly-in that I attended was arranged for GA (General Aviation) pilots to bring their small planes into DIA on September 25, 1994. I flew in from Cheyenne, WY with two of my best friends one of which became my friend after first becoming my flight instructor. Kevin is now flying Apache helicopters as a maintenance test pilot in the US Army. He stopped by my house to visit a couple of years ago. He was at my side that morning with my other friend Jim in the back seat. We joined the hundreds of other people and their small planes as we arrived and departed DIA within a matter of just a few hours on that Sunday morning. I never heard the official count, but rumors were that over 500 propeller driven airplanes arrived and departed DIA that day within approximately six hours. I was required to bring my instructor due to the fly-in being restricted to those with a minimum of a Private Pilot’s License. As I said earlier I was just two days from my private pilot check ride. Kevin was planning on going anyway. I was scheduled to take my check ride the prior week but had to cancel it due to weather. I was actually planning for DIA to be the first place I landed as a licensed private pilot. Instead DIA ended up being one of the last airports I landed at as a student pilot.
It was such a cool experience. The air traffic controllers had us landing two on each runway simultaneously. I landed hot (fast) that morning mid field of runway 17R. I had a faster airplane breathing down my neck and the controller had asked me to keep my speed up to keep things in order. I must have been doing 90 knots when I completed my decent down to the runway. It was not a big deal since I had about a mile of runway left over to bleed off airspeed before touching down. The runways at DIA stretch out to more than two miles each in length. You read more about the airport at www.flydenver.com.
This was by far one of the most memorable flying experiences for me as a pilot not to mention a once in a lifetime experience. It is not very often that you get to land a Cessna 172 and taxi right up to the commercial terminal of one of the world’s largest airports. There will be more “Best Flying Day” stories coming soon.
Congratulations to Capt. Nicole Malachowski for being named the first female pilot assigned to the US Air Force Thunderbirds. She is currently an F-15 Strike Eagle pilot for the USAF and recently served in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Read the complete story here.
Thanks to CNN.com for running such a great story.
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