Thousands of EAA members and other aviators contacted their congressional representatives after warbird organizations reported that a proposed amendment to the House bill would bar the Department of Defense from loaning or gifting any U.S. military aircraft or parts to any entity except those that would put the aircraft on static display, such as in a museum.

EAA said it has learned that the amendment will no longer be offered to the bill. It would have precluded military aircraft from being loaned to private individuals, associations, or museums where there was any intent of flying the historic vintage warbirds, even at air shows or demonstrations of support for veterans.

While EAA members were expressing their views to their elected officials, Rep. Sam Graves (R-MO), a longtime EAA and Warbirds of America member, reached out to House colleagues - including the proposal's sponsor, Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) - regarding the devastating effect the amendment could have on U.S. warbird operations.

The House General Aviation Caucus and the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee were also valuable in conveying key information regarding warbirds and the proposed amendment in support of public response.

"We thank EAA and Warbirds of America members for acting quickly in support of warbird operations and for Rep. Graves' strong leadership efforts.

"This is an excellent example of how establishing good relationships in Congress and building an effective caucus can address these issues in a unified manner," said Doug Macnair, EAA's vice president of government relations.

"We also thank Rep. Turner and his staff for listening and considering the input of constituents, aviators, veterans, and aviation and military history enthusiasts."

EAA said it worked in conjunction with its Warbirds of America division, the Commemorative Air Force, Collings Foundation, and other warbird groups on the issue. This unified effort again proved the value of aviation groups being stronger together to preserve and promote GA.

The bill comes after 23 funding extensions and a two-week partial shutdown of the FAA in the summer and follows years of temporary funding extensions to keep the FAA running, while disputes over spending, labor rules and safety issues were a near constant.

The four-year funding bill includes an extra $6 million for Hawaii's airports.

The bill will also make it harder for workers to form a union. The FAA Reauthorization Act, passed Congress last week despite an outcry from major unions.

With long-term federal commitments in place, aviation experts say the pace of progress toward a new $42 billion system that could revolutionize air travel should quicken.

Airlines that are expected to invest up to $10 billion of their own in the complex navigation system known as NextGen were reluctant to commit as the FAA lurched from one short-term to funding extension to the next since the last long-term bill expired in 2007, the Washington Post reported.

"The airlines worried that without the certainty of long-term federal funding, the intricate new system might not be ready for use once they equipped their planes with the required technology," the newspaper reported.

"This critical effort to shift from our antiquated air traffic control technology to a GPS-based system will improve air traffic efficiency and safety, reduce fuel burn and pollution from aircraft, and bring costs down for consumers," said House Transportation Committee Chairman John L. Mica (R-Fla.).

The new bill also will provide funds for a critical element on the NextGen program: retraining of air traffic controllers in a system far different than the 60-year-old one now in use. NextGen is seen as essential in keeping the U.S. industry competitive with its foreign counterparts and preparing for a projected huge increase in air travel in the next four decades.

It will be partially paid for by a $100 take off fee on all turbine and jet aircraft in Obama's proposed 2013 budget, one that most Congressmen say has little chance of passing.

"This four-year bill will provide the funding stability we need to develop and train our next generation of controllers, along with the next generation of equipment and procedures," said Paul Rinaldi, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.

"It also ensures that the controllers and technicians who use this equipment and procedures every day will continue to be involved in their development."

Specifically, page 30 of the budget states: " ... the Administration proposes to create a $100 per flight fee, payable to the Federal Aviation Administration, by aviation operators who fly in controlled airspace."

The new fee-per-flight proposal would exempt all piston aircraft, military aircraft, public aircraft, air ambulances, aircraft operating outside of controlled airspace, and Canada-to-Canada flights.

It only took a couple of hours for AOPA, EAA and NBAA to issue press releases denouncing the proposal and promising a coordinated battle to oppose it.

Although the $100 fee came as no surprise to the aviation groups, which watched it appear in deficit-reduction negotiations in late 2011 and again in a recent statement from the White House, it was somewhat of a shock to see it in print.

Between the proposal, aimed at turbine aircraft, and a plan to eliminate depreciation rules that serve as an incentive to purchase business aircraft, business aviation fared poorly in the proposed budget.

"Regrettably, the Obama administration has chosen to impose fees on the use of private aircraft, which the majority of Congress on a bipartisan basis has consistently rejected," said AOPA President Craig Fuller.

"Pay at the pump has worked since the dawn of powered flight and it still works.

"The last thing we need right now is to create an expensive new bureaucracy to fix what isn't broken."

IF IT AIN'T BROKE ...

"Ideally, the president would work with general aviation to acknowledge not only this contribution, but also the industry's value in generating jobs, helping companies compete and succeed, and providing a lifeline to communities across the country," NBAA President Ed Bolen said.

"Instead, he's repeatedly proposed anti-general aviation initiatives like this one."

EAA said it was already in touch with GA Caucus leadership in both houses of Congress encouraging opposition to the user fee proposal.

Congress has repeatedly dismissed GA user fees in a bipartisan manner and reiterated its stance recently last month with the passage of the FAA Reauthorization Bill now awaiting the president's signature.

"The administration continues to paint this added tax on general aviation as an 'equal sharing' of the expense burden but, simply put, it is not that at all," said Doug Macnair, EAA vice president of government relations.

"It is an additional tax onus on GA aircraft owners and pilots, who already pay their fair share of the small percentage of air traffic services they use through fuel taxes.

"Even pilots who never use ATC services pay for the system through the use of aviation gasoline and jet fuel."

In a response to a petition, signed by close to 9,000 people, that urged the president to take user fees off the table, the Office of Management and Budget presaged the budget release by reaffirming the White House's commitment to pursuing the fee.

"While claiming to desire economic growth and more jobs, the Obama administration singles out one of the most respected industries and their highly skilled workers for punitive fees," noted AOPA President Craig Fuller.

"For inexplicable reasons, the administration singles out the business use of private aircraft as the one asset for which operating fees should be required.
"This is an odd approach for policy makers who elect to fly in Boeing 747s on business and personal travel."

Bolen said NBAA Members can make their voices heard with their representatives in Congress through www.nbaa.org/advocacy/contact/?ISSUE=nbaa0048, NBAA's online Contact Congress resource, which has a letter that can be sent to lawmakers opposing user fees.

"NBAA will continue to advocate for the industry's priorities as Congress considers the president's latest budget proposal, and our efforts will be most effective if the people in business aviation echo our message with their elected representatives," Bolen said.

"I encourage everyone in general aviation to contact their elected officials today."

New plane has six 747 engines, giant wingspan

It wasn't enough that they won the Ansari X prize, or that they going to start hauling rich folks to the edge of space, now Paul Allen and Burt Rutan have formed a new venture to carry cargo and people into orbit.

To do it, Allen and Rutan have announced they're building a gigantic new plane and forming a new company, Stratolaunch Systems. They say the new plane "will be the largest ever flown," with a wingspan of 385 feet - longer than a football field.

If it has a name, they didn't reveal it at a Mojave news conference Dec. 13.

Allen is a co-founder of Microsoft, a billionaire who owns the world's largest yacht (and the second largest) is reuniting with prototype SpaceShipOne builder Rutan in the new venture to carry cargo and people into orbit.

The new six-engine craft weighs more than 1.2 million pounds and has a 385 foot wingspan; the carrier aircraft for Virgin Galactic's commercial spaceship, is 141 feet. By contrast, the largest commercial airliner, the Airbus 380, has a wingspan of 261 ft 10 in.

Their plans call for a twin-fuselage aircraft with six 747 engines to carry a rocket high into the atmosphere and drop it, avoiding the need for a launch pad and the expense of additional rocket fuel. The system is similar to SpaceShipTwo, a commercial successor to SpaceShipOne, which clinched the $10 million Ansari X Prize in 2004 for the first non-government human spaceflights.

Several other companies are also competing to develop spacecraft to deliver cargo and astronauts to the International Space Station.

SpaceShipTwo, which is currently undergoing testing in Mojave, Calif., is owned by Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, which so far has reservations from nearly 500 private individuals and science researchers for short rides beyond the atmosphere.

The firm's aircraft will be manufactured and tested at Scaled's facility in Mojave. A launch site has not yet been selected.

More details in the January issue of Pacific Flyer

FAA Administrator Resigns After DUI Arrest

FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt, 65, was arrested on drunk driving charges in suburban Virginia on Saturday, Dec. 3.

He was initially placed on a leave of absence the following Monday but subsequently turned in his resignation.
A patrol officer saw him driving on the wrong side of the street and pulled him over about 10:30 p.m. in Fairfax City, Va., police in the Washington, D.C., suburb said.

Babbitt lives in nearby Reston, Va. and was the only person in the vehicle, the police said, adding that he was cooperative and released on his own recognizance.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood's office said department officials didn't learn of Babbitt's arrest until Monday afternoon.

Babbitt was replaced by acting Deputy FAA Administrator Michael Huerta who has been heading the FAA's efforts to install the NextGen navigation system that uses satellites for navigation instead of ground based radar. A new Administrator will have be approved by Congress.

Huerta was managing director of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. He also held several senior transportation department posts in the Clinton administration.

Babbitt was a pilot with Eastern Airlines for 25 years as was his father, "Slim," one of the founders of the Air Line Pilots Association.

The Administrator served multiple roles in ALPA including Executive Administrator from 1987 to 1990 when he was elected president. He served eight years in that position.

After leaving ALPA, he formed a airline management and financial consulting firm called "Eclat Consulting."

Former President Bill Clinton appointed Babbitt to the FAA Management Advisory Council and while in that position he was on an independent review panel advising government on aviation safety policies.

President Obama nominated Babbitt to the head of the FAA on March 27, 2009 and his nomination was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on May 21, 2009.

He was sworn in to a five year term on June 1, succeeding Robert Sturgell and Lynne Osmu, who had served as acting administrators after Marion Blakey's term expired in 2007.

At his confirmation hearing, he said his "number one priority is to focus on safety. This is a business where one mistake is one too many."

The retirement was effective Aug. 1, following this year's annual AirVenture fly-in and airshow.
Rod Hightower, current EAA president and CEO, will assume Poberezny's responsibilities.

Louie Andrew, vice president of the EAA board and chairman of its executive committee, said that Hightower's work with Poberezny over the past year prepared him well for the new duties.

Andrew said the Board unanimously passed a resolution praising the 64-year-old Poberezny for his leadership to the group and success in helping make the nonprofit organization what he called the world's leading aviation association.

Poberezny has led EAA - now in its 58th year - since 1989, when he assumed the top position after his father retired from active day-to-day involvement.

He has served as chairman of the annual EAA Convention for more than 30 years and assumed the title of chairman emeritus when his retirement was effective.

(More details in the August issue of Pacific Flyer.)

“It was completely out of the blue,” spokesman Greg Gibson tsaid. He said there had been no prior suspicion of health problems for Poe.

Poe was a passenger in a truck when he died, Gibson said, and had been riding a motorcycle earlier in the day.

Poe, known for routines in an ethanol-powered Fagen MXS, used his position as an aviation star to inspire children to excel and formed the “Elevate Your Life” program in 2002 after losing his teenage son to heroin addiction.

As part of the program, he gave presentations at schools and youth organizations around the country.

Remans Of Jacquie Warda's (inset) Aircraft

Airshow pilot Jacquie Warda, 58, was flying home to Danville, Calif. in her Pitts S1T about 10 a.m. on Sunday, June 26 after having performed at an airshow in Caldwell, Ida. when the unthinkable happened.

Only 1,600’ agl and literally miles from anywhere in the remote eastern Oregon high desert, her engine blew and spit out all its oil. She was suddenly and completely blinded by engine oil that covered her closed canopy.

She glanced at the oil pressure gauge and saw that it was on zero and the prop had gone to flat pitch, the blades acting like sails.

Outside visibility was nil but she turned away from the upcoming mountains, and tried to get out a Mayday. But, as she put it, the Pitts “glides like a rock.”

The best she could hope for was a level, dead stick landing but with no attitude indicator — which aerobatic airplanes almost never have — and no outside visibility, she had few options.

“I kinda’ thought, ‘This is it’ ... I thought I was gonna’ die; there was so much oil on the windscreen I couldn’t see the ground. The canopy was literally black with it.”

Suddenly, the airplane slammed into the dirt at 4,850’ MSL.

Pitts aren’t that easy to land on a smooth, paved runway. Try it in the middle of the desert scrub with zero visibility and no power.

As the plane bounced through the sagebrush, apparently nose low, something tipped it which dug the right wing into the dirt and it began a nose over tail, end over end tumble two, maybe three times, coming to rest upright in a cloud of dust.

Warda found herself sitting upright, a blessing, and that the cockpit had remained intact. But her problems weren’t over.

“Fire!” she worried as she undid her four-point aerobatic harness, struggling to get the canopy open. Fortunately, she had also been wearing her helmet and never hit the panel.

Nevertheless, it took her at least 15 minutes to get the canopy open enough to exit her mortally wounded bird with the special patriotic paint job for its 1986 flight around the Statue of Liberty.
Miraculously, the plane did not catch fire and she was mostly unhurt.

“When it was all over, I thought, ‘This does not look like heaven,’ ” she said in a telephone interview from her northern California home.

She said she had three bottles of water and her red parachute, which she spread out on the ground, expecting to be at the remote location overnight. She tried her cell phone but there was no signal.

While pondering her predicament, it occurred to her to try the radio in the plane’s wreckage. It worked!

So did the GPS so she had a more or less precise location, 30 miles southwest of Burn, Ore. She put out several Mayday calls before a passing plane responded.

“I talked to every airliner that went over head,” she recalled. “About two hours later, a Civil Air Patrol plane flew over and I was able to talk to him.” The CAP pilot was able to radio her exact position to a rescue helicopter.

“I didn’t cry until the helicopter landed,” she said, “but it was tears of joy.”

Seamus McCaughley

Airshow performer James "Seamus" McCaughley Jr., 43, of Santa Paula, Calif. was killed last month when a Cessna C-180 in which he and 40-year-old Kristin Keppel of Glendale were flying crashed into a riverbed near the airport.

Keppel, reportedly his girlfriend, also died in the crash. The aircraft was destroyed by fire.

An FAA spokesman said initial information suggested the crash occurred shortly after takeoff when the plane's engine failed and it struck a power line. The accident occurred about 8:20 on a Sunday night, a quarter mile from the Santa Paula Airport in the rugged terrain off South Mountain Road.

Ventura County Sheriff's Deputies say it wasn't easy getting to the crash site.

Once there, rescue teams found one person dead inside the plane and another in the area.

McCaughley was raised in a flying family nd learned to fly in his teens, followed by a five-year term in Army aviation. He was also a devoted auto and motorcycle racer who built his own cars and bikes, friends said.

But after a serious injury on a race bike, he decided to pursue his first love - aerobatics. Immediately after earning his commercial pilot's license he was employed towing banners, flying aerial photography and then joined the Skytyping team.

A licensed A&P, McCaughley redesigned and rebuilt his Christen Eagle II into an faster, more maneuverable air show aircraft.

"He was a massive talent, a great stick and a charming and impetuous guy - I had hoped for big things from him in the airshow business," said airshow superstar Rob Harrison.

"I really liked the guy, flew some shows with him, and will miss him keenly."

Harrison also penned a poem in his memory, which will be in the August Aeromail section.