In the most recent round of government and industry talks late last week about who should pay for the proposed revamping of the US Air Traffic Control System, it looks like General Aviation (GA) may have finally got a break. It all centers around new taxes primarily for airline passengers, versus the introduction of completely all new user fees for GA. Under the proposed new rules, there would be a fixed departure tax per passenger, plus a per passenger tax based on distance traveled.

No one in the GA community was happy with the airlines attempt to spread their costs out through user fees to GA, especially Mom and Dad when they take the Bonanza out for a day of recreational flying. It’s not the Bonanza that’s usually on approach to Chicago’s O’Hare airport, so why should Mom and Dad be required to pay a fee that would go towards maintaining such a big, massive airport, which is primarily served by the airlines and not Mom and Pop in their Bonanza, no less? Even according to FedEx Chairman Frederick W. Smith, peak scheduling at 25 or 30 major airports around the country is what drives delays and the volatility of the air traffic control system.

On the other hand the airline’s argument for spreading their costs out was based around the term known as a “blip”, or what an air traffic controller sees on his screen when there’s an aircraft in his sector of the sky. Whether it’s a Boeing 777 or a small GA aircraft, there’s a return or “blip” on the screen representing the aircraft, no matter what it is. The airlines would just say “A blip is a blip…”

So, another plane in the sky, another potential candidate the airlines could share their costs with, since Mom and Pop would be getting the same basic services from ATC, even if they weren’t going into Chicago.

But we’re talking about an air traffic control system that primarily came about and developed into it’s current state in order to handle the needs of the airlines in the first place. The crux of the issue here is that the FAA is facing a $4 billion dollar plus short fall in the next five years in it’s plan to modernize this current system we have in place, which it says it needs to do in order to bring itself into this century technologically (something the author has no beef with BTW). This will also be required in order to handle the projected increased growth of commercial aviation here in the US at the same time.

Either way, something needs to be done. After last week, it looks as if instead of user fees, new taxes may be imposed on general aviation (another bad idea) but even more possibly on the airline passengers themselves… with the additional possibility that the airlines might see a tax decrease as well- something the Aircraft Owners and Pilot’s Association is not happy about either.

~Capt’n Chris

Filed under: Editorials | |

Hey all~
I will be releasing The PlaneMadness Podcast Episodes 9 and 10 concurrently next week. Episode 9 is made up of cool and interesting facts that you may or may not have already heard about the DreamLiner- I dug pretty deep though!
Episode 10 is just jam packed with all kinds of kudo aviation stuff that’s cool and interesting and I know you’ll appreciate it too~ A ton of relevant news stories, a piece on Southwest treating their employees right (again), 2 awesome aviation related photo essay sites, and 5 killer videos!

Other (exciting) news: I’m in the process of perfecting a system where I can script the podcasts from my trips and record them when I return home again. Hopefully with this new level of efficiency, I can and will turn out podcasts on a more frequent basis. At the same time, I will be killing time on my overnights (yey) while saving precious time when I’m at home (yey, again and again).

Oh, and last, (but not least): Please Check out my new About Page…

Take Care
~ Capt’n Chris

Filed under: Site News | |

Press release RoboSwift June 27th, 2007

Micro airplane will fly and observe like a swift

Aerospace engineering students at TU Delft, together with the Department of Experimental Zoology of Wageningen University designed the RoboSwift. RoboSwift is a micro airplane fitted with movable wings, inspired by the common swift, one of nature’s most efficient flyers. The micro airplane will have unprecedented wing characteristics; the wing geometry as well as the wing surface area can be adjusted continuously. This makes RoboSwift more maneuverable and efficient. Resembling the common swift, RoboSwift will be able to go undetected while using its three micro cameras to perform surveillance on vehicles and people on the ground. Furthermore, it can be employed to observe swifts in flight, thus enabling new biological research.

The RoboSwift team presented the design last Friday on the yearly Design Synthesis symposium at TU Delft. The team will build the high-tech micro airplane this summer; it is expected to fly in January 2008. The student team will build three RoboSwifts to participate in March 2008 in the First American-Asian Micro Air Vehicle competition in India.

‘MORPHING’
RoboSwift will have a span of 50 cm span and 80 grams weight. It can follow a group of swifts up to 20 minutes and perform ground surveillance up to one hour thanks to its lithium-polymer batteries that power the electromotor, which drives a propeller. The propeller folds back during gliding to minimize air drag.

The unique morphing-wing design features are taken from the swift. Morphing means the wings can be swept back in flight by folding feathers over each other, thus changing the wing shape and reducing the wing surface area. RoboSwift also steers by morphing its wings. Doing so, the micro airplane can perform optimally, flying efficiently and highly maneuverable at very high and very low speeds, just like the swift.

RoboSwift carries three onboard micro cameras: two mounted on the wing to look forward and one in the belly looking downward (indicated by the green cones). By means of a head mounted display projecting the camera images the pilot can look through RoboSwift’s cameras from the ground.

RoboSwift can sweep its wings back and forth, changing the shape and the surface area. By doing so the airplane can fly more efficiently and more agilely than fixed-wing aircraft. The airplane is powered by means of a special propeller that folds during gliding to minimize air drag.

The students found out that using only four feathers, much less than the bird uses, already provides the wing with sufficient morphing capacity; this feature makes actual production of the design feasible. Steering RoboSwift is done by asymmetrically morphing the wings. Sweeping one wing back further than the other creates a difference in lift on the wings that can be used to change the direction.

EFFICIENT
The team based the project on research performed by its tutor ir. David Lentink, who published a study into the swift’s flight characteristics in this year’s April issue of Nature see [1]. During its life, a common swift flies a distance that goes up to five times the distance to the Moon and back. Lentink c.s. found the swift is such an able flyer because it continuously adjusts (‘morphs’) its wings to the prevailing flight conditions to fly more efficient and more maneuverable. Airplanes can do a lot, but so far they do not fly nearly as good as birds in terms of performance and efficiency. In a ‘standard’ civil aircraft, the wings are held a fixed position with respect to the fuselage during the full length of the flight. This is inefficient because flight conditions change in different flight phases. With their variable wings, birds can deal with the different conditions encountered during flight, thus reducing the power required to do so.

RoboSwift steers by sweeping back one wing more than the other. The difference in wing position allows RoboSwift to make very sharp turns.

Although a few military aircraft, such as the F14 Tomcat and the English-German Tornado, are equipped with so-called swing wings, none of these aircraft significantly reduces the surface area of the wing, thus missing out on the benefits made possible by morphing. Also, these aircraft do not steer by means of the variable wing shape.

Website Link

Filed under: TidBits | |

Did I just read what I think I just read???

Police Allege Mesa Airlines Pilot Stole iPod At Security Checkpoint - ANN

Teen Arrested After Snorting Cocaine On Tray Table During Flight - ANN

Body Found in Airplane Nose Gear - Time

I think the Moon is a little closer to the Earth, scientists haven’t discovered that fact yet, and the increased gravitational pull is having an effect on the judgement cortex of the brain, in certain individuals -

Filed under: TidBits | |

Hi all,

Well I’ve been working my but off, back after being off for two weeks. I was able to get a lot done around the house, albeit with a nasty sinus infection over week one; I don’t know if I mentioned that I’m putting in our backyard on my own, but that’s another story.. This trip I’m on has taken me all over the west/mid-western US and now I’m up in Canada… We’ve been hit with an especially busy thunderstorm period on this trip and it’s created delays and a heavy additional work load- Not fun.

But I’ve got a great crew and besides that what more could a Captain ask for???
(Maybe just clear skies but I guess in life, like in flying, clear skies are just not a guarantee).

I plan on getting Episode #9 out ASAP.. Problem is that I work a 4 gone / 2 home schedule for the rest of this month, so as it is, life on my days at home is going to be busy enough !!!

Anyway, I’m looking forward to telling you all about the cool things I’ve researched on the DreamLiner, which I think you’ll find as interesting as I did.

Fly Safe
~Capt’n Chris

Filed under: From Work | |