There was even one suggestion made to our website that we fabricated the information for some personal reason. Here is the exact news release as sent by the EAA but condensed where redundant due to length.

"The FAA Airports Division issued a new and revised FAA Order 5190.613, Airport Compliance Manual recently, catching just about every one off guard. Not only because it went from 94 to 691 pages of new rules and regulations, but because it appears to make major changes that could affect general aviation.

"For example, 'Autofuel was not recognized as an authorized aviation fuel, nor does it suggest that airports take actions to install self-service, ethanol-free premium grade autogas pumps to support the 100,000+ aircraft that use autogas as their primary, FAA-approved aviation fuel.'

"Also, the new manual failed to clarify the issue of providing reduced fair-market hangar rent for not-for-profit 501c(3) tax-exempt EAA chapters, whose community activities provide positive tangible benefits to their airports.

"EAA has successfully worked with the FAA Airports Division for several years in resolving this issue.

"Also, Light Sport Aircraft that can be trailered, owners/operators of recreational aircraft such as powered parachutes, weight-shift-control and gyroplanes will be denied access to airports. This action was recognized as an activity not permitted because of the FAA's through-the-fence (TTF) prohibitions.

"With the on-going development of special light-sport aircraft as recreational aircraft, including the roadable aircraft this issue needed to be resolved, but wasn't.

"Another item said the FAA considers incompatible are permanent or long-term living quarters on airport, part-time or secondary residences, and developments known as residential hangars, hangar homes, campgrounds, fly-in communities and airpark developments - even when collocated with an aviation hangar or aeronautical facility.

"That last one may pose the biggest problem for many aircraft owners and developers of airport properties.

"The two leading general aviation organizations, EAA and AOPA, are examining the new manual for areas that need to be improved or clarified.

"They will then work with the FAA Airports Division to address the problem areas."

"In EAA's initial review of FAA Order 5190.613, three specific areas were found that pose problems for airport users and tenants. Any airport that fails to comply with these new rules will lose all airport funding."

We questioned EAA whether they realized the magnitude of the order banning on-airport residences and what this could mean to people who use auto gas and have trailerable aircraft.

While we were waiting for a reply, facing a last minute deadline and working on our new website, two different readers said they had found a clause saying the FAA had also issued orders about what can be stored in hangars. That, apparently, turned out to be false and since the document is almost 700 pages long, we mistakenly took their word for it. Won't happen again.
UPDATE

As of late January, the word from the EAA that there is "no new information from FAA since that story was posted. EAA, which has had people read the entire 600-plus page document, is pushing for a meeting with the agency's airport directorate to work through the issues.

"Our position is that the long-standing FAA policy on through-the-fence agreements - not encouraged, but submit to local determination whether these agreements are good for the airport and ruling governmental body - is the best way to go."

The EAA added some pertinent background (their words):
* This is FAA policy, not regulation. The bad news is that the changes can come more quickly since it doesn't have to go through the rulemaking process.

EAA's point is that this policy change is basically rulemaking without the public input.
* This is for TTF (through the fence) agreements on publicly-owned airport or privately owned ones that accept FAA funding. If it's a privately owned and funded airpark, it doesn't apply.
* Local airport governance has always had the ability to prohibit through-the-fence agreements based on local determinations. Removing the new FAA policy won't change that, but the discussion would be on the local level.
* The new FAA policy runs counter to the agency's efforts to promote aviation participation.

To those attorneys who have e-mailed us that they can't find the relevent information regarding auto gas, airport properties or prohibitions on trailerable aircraft, perhaps you could contact EAA's lawyers, who seem to have had no problem finding them.

Why has no other publication picked this up? You'd have to ask them.

Tippin will officially be the 2010 CAF celebrity spokesman, including special appearances at various CAF events across the country, as well as filming and recording a number of public service announcements. A potential cross-country tour in conjunction with CAF exhibitions is in the works, a spokesman said.

"I am very excited about working with the CAF," Tippin said. "As a son of a pilot, a pilot myself and patriot, the mission of the organization is especially important to me: acknowledging the history of this great nation and the service men and women who make our freedoms possible is stellar and I'm happy to champion the organization's efforts."

Tippin soloed his first flight on his 16th birthday. He became a commercial, multi-engine and instrument-rated pilot by the age of 18 and is also helicopter-qualified. A certified aircraft and power plant mechanic, he owns a 1941 Stearman, a 1946 J-3 Cub and a 1959 Helio Courier.

"Over the past two years I have gotten to know Aaron personally and seen his commitment to our Armed Forces and his passion for aviation," said Stephan Brown, president of the CAF. "We are honored that he has agreed to help us promote the educational mission of the CAF.

He's traveled to Iraq and Afghanistan during the Thanksgiving Holidays for the past six consecutive years to perform for the troops. As such, Tippin said he understands and has experienced first-hand the importance of supporting our military men and women.

The CAF headquartered in Midland, Texas, is the largest flying museum in the world, operating 156 vintage military aircraft and displaying them at air shows around the country, often reenacting historic air battles featuring the actual period aircraft in flight.

One of the more unique aspects of Tippin's role will be his participation as a pilot in select CAF vintage military aircraft.

"As a skilled aviator, he can walk the walk," Brown added.

Tippin is a country music performer, platinum recording artist and has 13 recorded CD's plus more than 30 charted singles. He performs nearly 200 dates each year.

Story And Photos
By Jim Mumaw

Cable Airport in Upland, Calif. was the place to be in more ways than one on the second weekend of January.

While a large portion of the country was enduring extremely frigid temperatures, the weather for the opening airshow of the season was more like a pleasant summer's day in the mid to high 70s. A crowd larger than last year's filled the parking areas early on and enjoyed blue skies streaked with clouds.

After the opening ceremonies, things took off at a fast clip as Julie Clark took her impeccably maintained T-34 Mentor into the skies. The San Gabriel Mountains provided a great background for her aerobatics as her smoke generators left colorful trails in the skies above the field.

Another longtime airshow veteran, paraplegic Dan Buchanan launched from the bed of his truck and put on a graceful demonstration piloting his North Wing hang glider above the heads of the crowd. Buchanan is a favorite of the kids as he never fails to visit with the youngsters while handing out portions of the bright ribbons he trails behind him during his flights.

Frank "Dr. D" Donnelly was back with his 1946 Taylorcraft, putting on a demonstration that would have been at home in at a 1940 grass roots airshow.

Rob "Tumbling Bear" Harrison, who will turn 69 this year, was burning up the skies in his Zlin-50 (see cover). Last year's Cable Airshow marked Rob's return from a near fatal crash.

This year's show was probably the final time to see him in his current aircraft as he will soon be at the stick of a newly painted Zlin. Wife Susan did the design work.

Clay Lacy brought his orange Pilatus Porter PC-6 and showed how little that runway is needed when it comes to shortfield landings and takeoffs. Lacy likes to end his demonstrations with a dead stick routine.

The weather was so nice that the sound of the wing flowing around the fuselage was audible to the crowds down below as it was when Donnelly ended his demos with engine off and the prop stilled.

There was a mid-air collision on Saturday, when an R/C helicopter got smacked by an R/C fixed wing. The impact of the two craft rang out like a pistol shot as parts rained down onto the runway.

If you like parachutes, the show had some nice offerings under canopy as well. Besides the flying of the colors during the National Anthem, a group made up of parachutists from no less than three teams did a mass jump from Sky Dive Perris's shark-mouthed Twin Otter.

No less than 18 jumpers joined up for a formation during Saturday's show. There was even a tandem jump with one fellow wearing an ear-to-ear grin as he enjoyed the experience.

Speaking of formations, the pilots of the Chinese CJ6 trainers as well as a huge flight of Vans RVs made sure the sky was filled with aircraft as each group made numerous passes.

Warbirds and classics (on the ground as well as in the air) rounded out the day with Nazzi Hirani's P-51-25NT Mustang "Su Su" flying both days as well as Man O War on Sunday. On that day the Planes of Fame P-38 Lightning "23 Skidoo" took off and made a couple of passes to the delight of the crowd.

Also on hand were light observation craft such as the L-2 Grasshopper, a CAF AT-6, FM-2, a BT-13 and the big yellow bird itself, Big Panda, the An-2 Colt.

A couple of female models slipped past the lines for some impromptu posing but somebody decided they had to have permission, and they didn't, so they ran them off. What's the world coming to?

By Jack Cowan

Thomas Paine had it figured out, no doubt.

The present band of bandits doing their dirty work on the banks of the Potomac fulfills his prophecy. So what are we to do?

Many of my friends have thrown up their hands in total despair, choosing to sit quietly on the sidelines as the street fighters of the left do their ugly deed. I am afraid our country has been shoved farther to the left since the days of a famous progressive, Woodrow Wilson.

Much like boiling a live frog (turn up the heat so gradually so old mister frog is a goner before he realizes it) the self-proclaimed progressives - say Marxists - have all but brought America to her knees. And we have let them have their way.

Does it do any good to write, call, fax or e-mail them?

I don’t know. Sometimes I think they just don’t really care, they are so comfortable with their powers over us. Maybe it does. If you do crank on them there is a chance that it will.

On the other hand if you do nothing, nothing will be the outcome; guaranteed.

It is no longer enough to just vote. To save us from them we must correspond with them frequently as a minimum effort. We must also get more involved.Ê

The tea parties are worthy. So too is meeting with new candidates and sticking your manifesto under their pompous noses.

There is strength in numbers. The more hands that man the crank the better will be the effort. Grab hold and help. I am growing weary.

Another way is with money, not to them, but to the organizations that fight for constitutional rights. Political Action Committees do collectively what you and I cannot do alone, get in their face.

I donate to the NRA who fights for our second amendment rights, and to trade associations lobbying for small business, less regulation, lower taxes, etc. These groups offset the unions who donate millions to advance socialism.

Another favorite is Hillsdale College (www.hillsdale,edu). Visit their web site. Hillsdale is an oasis in a liberal desert of academia.

They prepare the young to pick up our baton in the race for freedom, when we become too feeble, too tired, to fight on. It will soon enough be their country.

A cub reporter once ask Wilbur Wright: “Isn’t flying dangerous?” Wilbur replied: “If you want to be perfectly safe, sit on the fence and watch the birds fly.”

Time to get off the fence, off the couch, off the drug apathy, and fly in their face.

It is still our country. Not for long if you don’t get in the fight. Oh woe is me is not acceptable.

The issue has always been; why do we do what we do?

I have been a pilot even longer than I've published this paper and have lost more than 100 close friends (my very best friend, in fact), acquaintances and business clients to airplane crashes - usually very high time, experienced former test pilots, airshow performers, airline drivers and instructors. But down they all went.

Yet the lure remains.

"Can't happen to me," mentality, you know. A perpetual, "Hey, y'all, watch this!"

So why would a person would strap himself into either a 70 year old cloth and fabric antique or a kerosene burning rocket sled with wings and count on everything going right, all the time, which is what we do.

And of course, according to the Second Law of Thermodynamics, nothing ever goes right all the time and things always gets worse (they call it entropy). We act as if Chaos Theory was just a myth.

Yet here we are, blissfully sailing along at two miles high, counting on those 50 year-nuts and bolts to hold together, the struts and fabric not to rot and tear away, the weather not to sneak up and smite us from behind. It's probably the same reason people ride motorcycles and drive very fast cars and ski down impossible slopes.

Because once we're doing it, no one can save us, but us. We can't count on anyone else to land our plane, or avoid that tree, or maneuver that bike around that blind corner at an insane speed.

It reaffirms our manhood (or womanhood, more and more) and our ability to cheat fate, to laugh in the face of danger, to say, "I did it." It speaks to the hunter in us (I have no idea what it means to women, except to prove they can do anything a man can do).

It's why cowboys ride nasty bulls or bucking horses, for peer respect, for self-congratulation but also (in flying, anyway) it's fun, it's freedom, it's sitting perched on top of a cloud watching amazing sunsets no one else will ever see, it's watching passengers drop their jaws on their first flight as the ground drops away.

In short, it's a mystery.

But it's also self-congratulatory; when they hand you that piece of paper that says FAA licensed private pilot, your ego know no bounds. You try every way possible to get the fact that you're a pilot into every conversation (until your friends tell you to shut up about it).

And as you drive away from the airport after a successful flight (any flight in which you can use the airplane again), you look at all the ground-bound folks in the other cars and know that you can do something only one in 100,000 of them can do or would even try. Moreover, fewer than one in four who start flying lessons ever finish.

I've heard from many folks who think riding any motorcycle any time is a death wish yet I've been doing it for 60 years and, until I discovered sport bikes, had a total of one crash (not counting my years racing motocross, when it was a given) ... and that one was at 30 mph on a freeway on-ramp where someone dumped oil.

And I wasn't hurt and rode the bike home. Yet I've written more obituaries in this newspaper in the past 30 years of aviators I knew well than I ever imagined possible.

Still, I keep flying, riding bikes, driving fast, etc. Not because I have a death wish, but a "life" wish. It's not a mid-life crisis (I'm well past that) but mid-life "clarity."

It's in our blood, this slap in the face to fate.

We're a peculiar type of carbon-based life form; you don't see animals thinking up new ways to bend or break themselves. They only have one goal, to survive.

Men (and women, more and more) are different; we not only want to survive, we want to feel exhilarated, adrenaline-rushed and damn good about ourselves because we can do something few others can. Our heroes are fighter pilots, test pilots, airshow performers and astronauts - not exactly the kinds of professions where you can count on living long enough to check out assisted living homes.

I wouldn't have it any other way and deep in your hearts, neither would you.

John Locke had been airport manager long enough to know not to ask the city for a new windsock.

Budget cuts, they’d say. Patch the old one.

So he did. Over and over until he wondered if any of the original sock remained.

He stared up at the old rag snapping in the wind as though it boasted, “Still on the job.” John saluted, climbed into his yellow airport truck and pressed two dangling wires together to start it.

The truck bumped through the weeds past a coyote digging for gophers. John turned down a taxiway toward the hangars where George Theseus sat working on an old homebuilt biplane the color of a hangover sunrise.

George rarely flew and, when he did, it was usually just long enough to break something.

“What’d you replace now?” John asked while climbing from the truck.

George answered without looking, “Tailwheel. Found a new used one online.” He snipped a safety wire braid.

“Even came with some paperwork, 'cept I don’t read much Spanish.” And he tossed the wire twisters onto a bench. “Might be Italian.”

“Is there any part of this airplane that’s original?” John asked.

“Data plate,” George replied. “FAA fella once told me it’s the airplane’s soul; everything else is just parts.” George frowned. “’Course he ain’t never been back.”

Then, he turned to John with, “You wanna’ go fly with me?”

John shook his head, no, but helped move the airplane outside. It felt like pushing a carload of clowns on stage.

Nothing on the biplane matched. All four wings were red but none the same shade. The green-checked fuselage sagged in the belly, although George claimed it taxied straight “if you stayed on the rudder.”

The engine came from what had once been Yugoslavia, and the landing gear was for a much larger airplane. The propeller definitely looked amateur-built but spun easily when George pressed the starter button, which came off a ‘47 Dodge.

John admired the homebuilders on the field but had secretly vowed he’d never fly with them. Most were good pilots, but George wasn’t like most.

Unfortunately, the time George spent rebuilding his airplane left little time to fly, thus making him a thoroughly awful pilot. Not bad in the air, but it was getting back down again that accounted for the never-ending repairs.

So, later, watching George swerve off the runway and hit the windsock as though blaming it for the crosswind, John decided to save him. By the time John reached the wreckage George was untangling the windsock from the shattered propeller.

John stared at his windsock, shredded beyond repair. Then, he reached into the rear cockpit and with a penknife removed the data plate.

“You can’t do that,” George protested, but John waved the data plate. “You get this back after you learn to fly and buy me a new windsock.”

He slipped the data plate into his pocket and added with a sulfurous airport manager’s laugh, “Until then, I own your soul.”

Special to Pacific Flyer

On a blistering hot day in the jungles of Southeast Asia many years ago, my Navy unit received a message that we should stay away from certain grid coordinates - well away - the next day.

In fact, if we could get to Saigon, it would be better.

“What’s up?” our grizzled old chief asked the LT.

“I think the Air Force is going to create a new LZ (landing zones),” he replied.

“With what?” the chief asked.

“I don’t know, that’s above my pay grade, but we’re five miles or so away so it should be okay.”

“They ain’t using no nukes are they?” the chief persisted as we all listened intently. If the U.S. was going to escalate the war with nuclear weapons, we were going to ask for transfers to Alaska. Or Romania.

You see, officially, we weren’t even there. We were a spook group who wandered around in the jungles of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, putting up sophisticated antennas and establishing portable VORs for the flyboys.

Our only protection was a bunch of crazy Marines who actually seemed to enjoy the humidity, the heat, the possibility of being attacked by the world’s most dangerous snake, the Black Mamba, and shooting at folks they didn’t even know. Marines, we decided, had to take a sanity test to get in one of these long range recon outfits.

If they were even remotely sane, they were over-qualified. Our lads were just the opposite - geeks, nerds, linguists, guys who used to build sophisticated transmitters in their bedrooms and broadcast rude music to cars passing by. We learned that we could get along with the leathernecks as long as we didn’t ever challenge them physically (fat chance) or say anything rude about the United States Freaking Marine Corps.

Well, since we were, technically, an intelligence outfit we got on our backchannel radios and tried to find out exactly what it was the Air Force had come up with to create an instant landing zone. The best we could get out of anybody was that they were going to drop something out of a B-52 and we should get as far away from it as we could.

So we took some lawn chairs, a cooler, a couple of sun umbrellas, six crazy Marines and set up on top of a karst (a rock outcropping) about three miles from the grid coordinates. We knew what time the “event” was to take place but not exactly what was about to happen.

We got there an hour early and after sipping some native nectar and munching on our K-Rats candy bars, we aimed our cameras (bought fresh in Saigon) at the coordinates, which was nothing but dense, thick, overgrown, dangerous jungle full of evil little men in black pajamas.

Of course, a B-52 tended to come over at 40,000 feet so we couldn’t see him, but we had his radio frequency and heard him call control that he was preparing to drop. Let’s see, our brainiacs began figuring, he’s at 40,000 feet, terminal velocity is 132 mph depending on winds and drag, so it should be hitting right about KAPOW/WHOOM/WHAM!!!! The explosion occurred about 1,500 feet in the air and blew us all off the karst, back down the other side and into some thick, green, barbed bushes.

“Holy freaking s...t! What the hell was that! I think I’m deaf, am I deaf? Probably, and your nose is bleeding, ohmigod, ohmigod,” etc. etc. Those of us who were able, including all the Marines, climbed back up to the top of the karst and looked at the grid coordinates and there was a perfect, round, flat circle about a mile in diameter with absolutely nothing, and I mean NO THING within that circle.

Not a tree, not a blade of grass, and for sure no one in black pajamas. We looked around and all our gear was gone, blown into eternity or possibly Cambodia. And that’s was our first exposure to what we later discovered was a fuel-air explosive.

It actually makes the air catch on fire, plus everything the air touches. Most of us had burns on our faces and unprotected arms, nose bleeds, ear bleeds and scorched hair. It was a week before anyone could really hear, even with the headphones turned all the way up.

When we sneaked back to our hootch, the LT was standing in the doorway.

“You boys didn’t go out to the grid site to watch, did you?”

“Us sir? Why would you think that?”

“Possibly because some of you are naked and all of you look like you’ve been laying on the beach for week.”

Even the Marines were awestruck and, according to them, they’d been everywhere and seen everything. Since we weren’t even officially in that country, there was no report filed.

But, sometimes, late at night, when I can’t sleep, I can still see that monster sucking all the air into a gigantic, almost majestic, ball of fire, then exploding outwards. What were we thinking?

And, what do they have now they aren’t telling us about?

]]> http://www.pacificflyer.com/2010/02/want-to-see-your-world-explode/feed/ 2 http://www.pacificflyer.com/2010/02/ram-aircraft-can-do-it-all-with-engines/ http://www.pacificflyer.com/2010/02/ram-aircraft-can-do-it-all-with-engines/#comments Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:14:25 +0000 PacificFlyer http://www.pacificflyer.com/?p=548

This one, unlike Cessna's which is made in China, will come from the Czech Republic and was already being manufactured. It was previously sold as a SportCruiser by Czech Sport Aircraft.

It made its first appearance at the U.S. Sport Aviation Expo in Sebring, Fla. last month where the two companies revealed a licensing agreement. Piper said it will start deliveries in April.

"Piper's heritage dates from what was one of the original 'LSA' aircraft of its time: the venerable Piper Cub," Piper CEO Kevin Gould said. "Consequently, Piper is in many ways returning to a market segment we played an integral role in inventing ... but with all the modern, state-of-the-art elements that our customers expect today, from design and manufacturing to performance, avionics and reliability."

There will be three models; the basic PiperSport ($119,900), training-oriented LT ($129,900) and professional model) LTD ($139,900). All will be powered by the Rotax 912 that will run on premium unleaded mogas or 100LL.

Useful load at the mandated maximum weight of 1,320 pounds is 600 pounds. If the seat and baggage load allow, the tanks will hold 30 gallons and maximum range is 600 nm.

Piper's hope, of course, is that customers who like the PiperSport will eventually move up to the larger, faster and more sophisticated models, which seems to contradict the idea of an LSA in the first place. It was designed as a plane for people who weren't sure they could pass their physicals, weren't interested in learning complicated radio procedures, navigation and night flying.

Nevertheless, "The PiperSport is an amazing entry-level aircraft that will bring new customers into Piper and lead the way for those customers to step up into more sophisticated and higher performance aircraft within our line over time," Gould said.

The PiperSport features a rate of climb of 1,200 feet per minute and is capable of reaching a maximum cruise speed of 138 miles per hour and an altitude of 10,000 feet. The aircraft has a gross weight of 1,320 pounds and 600 pounds of useful load. With the ability to run on automotive fuel, the PiperSport's 30-gallon fuel capacity gives the aircraft a range of 600 nautical miles and the ability to refuel virtually anywhere in the world that offers either 100LL or premium, unleaded automotive fuel.

Each model features leather seats and is equipped with a 100-hp Rotax 912 engine and a BRS complete aircraft parachute recovery system. Each model also features the same gross weight, speed, fuel capacity, and range.

As to specific models, the PiperSport includes:
* Dynon D100 Flight Display
* Garmin 495 GPS
* Garmin SL40 Nav/Com
* Garmin GTX 328 Transponder
* Ameriking ELT
* PS Engineering PM3000 Intercom

In addition the PiperSport LT substitutes the Dynon D120 Engine Monitoring system for the PiperSport's analog display, and the top-of-the-line PiperSport LTD also features the Dynon AP74/HS34 autopilot.

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After several years on your airplane you will still have no oxidation come off on your waxing and cleaning rags with Stewart Systems products.

We at Stewart Systems believe that our covering and finishing products are the best on the market and the safest to use. Our technical support team is always ready to answer your questions about product application.

The Stewart Systems top coats come in over 50 colors, and color matching is available for most colors. Item by item our covering products may seem more expensive than our competition, but our products don’t require additional solvents and reducers for application.  Our top coats are high in solids and you will use less paint to achieve a quality finish.

Stewart Systems CD/DVD package is available for $20.00 from the factory in Cashmere, Washington. Our demonstrator airplanes at shows are done following our application manual with no extra color sanding or enhancements.

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