Busy, busy, busy

Folks, I must apologize for my silence these last few weeks.  There are a lot of things I could write about right now, but I'm just tired so all I'll do is fill you in a bit on what has been going on.  A week or two before my last entry, Matt had the hood of his car pop open while he was traveling at 75mph on the freeway headed home from his reserve unit.  The wind caught the hood and slammed it into the windshield.  He wasn't hurt, but the insurance company called the car a complete loss.  Then a few days after the last entry, he was staying at a friend's house on his drill weekend.  He went to open the window and discovered that this one didn't have counterweights and it slammed back down on his finger.  See the x-ray below.  He has since had a pin inserted to hold the bones together while they heal.

Then, the remnants of Hurricane Ike moved into the area and through a wierd encounter with the jet stream resulted in tropical storm force winds (with hurricane strength gusts) hitting our area.  It took the carport off the house and dropped it on the wife's car, so we've been dealing with insurance companies, too.

 

 

Will VORs and ILS Really Go Away?

Flying Magazine has a weekly e-mail newsletter you can subscribe to and I do. Normally, what I read there is mostly a recap of news stories that I probably heard of through one of the many aviation-related RSS feeds I follow, but this morning's had a brief article by J. Mac McClellan under the "Left Seat" banner (which I haven't yet seen posted to their website, I'll update this post with a link back to it if I see it show up there) that I thought was pretty interesting. I don't like posting someone else's content in its entirety but I think this is worth it.

Will VORs and ILS Really Go Away?

It was more than 15 years ago when Richard Collins and I met with the then head of FAA airway and navigation and planning, and he laid out a detailed plan that would have decommissioned virtually all VOR stations and ILS equipment in less than 10 years. GPS, with the added accuracy and dependability of wide area augmentation system (WAAS), was going to make navigation stations bolted to the ground unnecessary and irrelevant. Obviously, it didn't happen.

Now the FAA is talking about starting to scale back the national network of VOR stations by 2010 because GPS and WAAS are a reality and we really don't need those costly to maintain navigation radio stations. Will it happen this time? I doubt it.

It would be easy to blame the many thousands of general aviation airplane owners who have not yet installed a GPS with certified IFR capability, and the much larger group yet to embrace WAAS. And that group, through AOPA and other associations, will complain, but they are not the real drag on transition to GPS, WAAS and the next generation (NextGen) air traffic control system. The real foot dragging comes from the airlines.

Though Garmin in particular has delivered many thousands of WAAS-equipped GPS systems for personal and business airplanes, the jets, especially the airlines, lag behind. Even the best-equipped business jets have been slower to get WAAS equipment approved and installed than piston singles.

Part of the reason is that certifying anything -- particularly primary navigation systems -- is just more complicated, costly and time consuming for a transport category airplane than for a light airplane. Another issue is that the flight management systems (FMS) found in nearly every jet guide the airplane anywhere by already using a combination of inputs from GPS, inertial navigation sensors, VOR and DME to navigate. A WAAS GPS adds very little tangible capability to a jet. And because the giant majority of runways used by jets -- particularly the airlines -- have ILS approaches, WAAS adds nothing to lower approach minimums as it can at small airports served only by non-precision approaches.

When you consider the dire financial straits of the airlines, and the huge cost of putting an airplane out of service to install an expensive and redundant GPS WAAS system, the airlines' enthusiasm for WAAS is really diminished. They already have the equipment to fly direct en route to an ILS approach with minimums down to a half-mile visibility or less. No way they want to spend money for benefits that are in the future, not today.

A notable exception among the airlines is Southwest, which is spending millions to bring its fleet up to required minimum performance (RNP) capability, including WAAS, in the hope it can fly precise departure and arrival procedures and save a few miles per trip. But as far as I know Southwest is alone among the major airlines in spending millions now in the hope of getting it back in fuel savings over future years.

So, sadly, I think a combination of factors will keep the FAA paralyzed. It will announce again, and again, that it is moving on, but the primary user of the ATC system, the airlines, won't follow. Even if the FAA sets a hard deadline and warns that it will shut off VORs, and then ILS approaches, on a firm schedule, it has no credibility. It has made such announcements before and they were ignored, and the schedule was not followed.

Some wag once said that changing the ATC system is like overhauling an engine while it's running. And that's very true. So far the inertia to preserve the status quo is more powerful than any benefits of change that can't be immediately converted into cost savings. When will all of this change? I don't know, and neither does the FAA.

What it takes (costs?) to become a pilot

Wow, two posts on flying in one day. That hasn't happened in a while, but I wanted to put something up about this before I forgot about it. There was a great post over on the Southwest Airlines blog about GA flying. Also, be sure to read the comments.

---Jim

How do I remain sharp when I can't fly that much

A problem I've had ever since I got my license, is that I can't really fly as often as I'd like. With the price of oil going up, avgas prices can't be far behind which only makes it worse. So the question is, what can I do to remain sharp when I can't fly and to make the best use of my time when I do get to fly? I welcome the thoughts of anyone out there who may be reading my blog (does anyone really read my blog?), but I'll list a few of the things that I try to do when I can't fly.

1. I read as much as I can about flying. I don't subscribe to as many magazines as I used to, but the ones that I still read cover to cover are: Aviation Safety, IFR, and IFR Refresher. I also read quite a bit from AOPA Pilot and AOPA Flight Training, and occasionally Flying.
2. I use the technique that my first instructor taught me, of armchair flying. That is, I'll plan a flight or pick a flight out of my log book and sit in my favorite chair and go through all the motions flying the flight in my head.
3. Go to the airport and watch/listen to the other planes/pilots.
4. Listen to ATC on my laptop.
5. Lately, I read blogs about flying, too. I happened across http://www.bloggingpilots/radar the other day which will provide me with more flying stuff to read and they are on Twitter, too.
   
6. Hope I hit the lottery so I can afford to fly as much as I want to (yeah, okay, not really, but it is nice to dream).
   

You'll notice, I didn't include 'use Flight Simulator' in that list. Frankly, I don't own a copy of MS Flight Simulator or the like anymore (I owned a Mac copy 20 years ago). One of these days, I may invest in a copy of On Top, but I haven't yet. The big problem with all of those options is that I don't use Windows as my primary OS except on the work-supplied laptop (where I can't install software that doesn't have a work purpose). Plus, it would help to have a bigger screen and yoke/pedals to make the most of those software packages. I'd like to think these help keep me a little sharper, but the fact is, I still could afford to spend a few hours with an instructor to knock some of the rust off. In fact, I need to get an IPC in to be IFR-current again. Oh, well. Last night, would have been a fantastic night to fly, tonight wouldn't be bad either. Well, off to dream about flying.

The true impact of McCain/Obama on personal income tax

By now, you've no doubt seen the ads by the McCain campaign stating that if Obama is elected your taxes are going to go up.  It turns out, the Washington Post analyzed the tax plans of the 2 campaigns back in June and your taxes will indeed go up if you make over $603,403/year.  For those making less than $111,000 you'll get a bigger tax break under Obama, from $111,000 to $226,000 about the same and from $226,000 to $603,000 you won't see any significant change in your taxes.  [start_sarcasm]Yeah, that's going to really hurt the middle class.  Oh, wait, the middle class goes up to $5,000,000/year, right?[end_sarcasm]  I have to admit, I didn't notice this story at the time, but Fred Anderson took note of it here (though he also got it elsewhere).  Oh, and you remember those temporary tax cuts in 2000 (2001?)?  That's where the increases come from, we just go back to where the tax rates on the top end of the scale were during the boom times of the late 90s.  They were a real drag on the economy, right?    I love the graphic, so I'm including it here, too.

That kind of reminds me of another graphic that Fred found that I thought was amusing (and unfortunately too true).

A bad day flying beats a good day doing just about anything else

Wow, I didn't realize it had been so long since I had posted anything here.  I got the chance to go flying on 17 Aug.  I originally hoped to fly down to Charleston, WV to visit a friend from college that I haven't seen in about 20 years, but at the last moment, she couldn't get away to meet me for dinner, so I flew locally.  One of my goals, when I get the opportunity, is to land at an airport I've never been to.  On 17 Aug, I got the chance to fly KVTA-4I3-4I9-KMNN-KVTA which added 2 new airports to my list (which now totals 37, I didn't land at 4I3, but I've been there before).  I was, however, reminded of why I prefer not to fly in the afternoon in August.  Even though it wasn't as hot that afternoon (28°C, atl 30.04, winds calm) as it has been this week, it was still pretty bumpy at 3000 AGL.  It was a pleasant way to spend 1.2 hours (on the Hobbs).  I've also been trying (though not succeeding as much as I should) to ride my bike (I'll have to put a picture of it up here soon).  My last ride wasn't too much fun, for some reason I felt lousy before I even started and my legs felt like crap for the whole ride, but I still averaged over 15 MPH, so...  I didn't get lots of sleep during the Olympics, often staying up to watch some of the live coverage until 01:00 or 02:00 (occasionally 03:00) EDT, I haven't watched much of the Democratic convention, but I'll probably post something political tomorrow.

08-08-08

Yeah, that isn't how I'd normally write the date, but as of 12 minutes ago, that is today's date.  If you've had a television on in the last month or so, you are aware that today will be the opening ceremonies at the Olympics in Beijing.  I'll probably watch at least part of them although I don't get the thrill out of that that I did back in the 1970s.  I don't remember the Olympics in Tokyo (my excuse is that was only 2) and my only memory of Mexico City is a little bit of the closing ceremonies.  I wish I could say I remembered Bob Beamon's incredible jump or the raised fists of Tommie Smith and John Carlos, but I don't.  I only vaguely remember athletes running all over the place on the field in the stadium during the closing ceremony.  I also remember similar scenes from most of the Olympics since (with the exception of 1980 in Moscow which we boycotted and I believe didn't get any television coverage in the US).  I guess I have lots of memories and dreams tied up in the Olympics.  As long as I live, I'll never forget Jim McKay coming back on the air to say "they're all gone" in 1972.  The travesty of the gold medal game in basketball in those same Olympics.  Mark Spitz.  Being haunted a bit by the fact that the name of the guy who lit the torch in Montreal in '76 was Stefan Prefontaine.  Realizing sometime after those Montreal Olympics that I was never going to be tall enough (or talented enough) to play center for the US basketball team in the Olympics and starting to wonder about this team handball thing (a sport I believe I've only ever seen on TV twice and both were just brief glimpses during Olympic coverage).  I bought my first color TV so that I could watch the LA Olympics in color in that big 19" screen (it replaced the 9" black & white that I had used throughout college) in 1984.  It was probably inevitable, but I think the Olympics lost a little something when they let the pros in, but most of the athletes from "the other side of the Iron Curtain" were pros for years before that.  Still, I did enjoy watching the original "Dream Team" of Magic and Michael and Bird in 1992.  I have a new HD TV for this year's Olympics and I'll watch a fair amount of the competition, but I'll probably be annoyed that all we see is the Americans.  Oh, I'll root for many of the Americans competing, but they aren't always what I want to see.  Sometime back in the 80s In 1976, I saw a series put together by Bud Greenspan called (I believe) the Olympians Olympiad.  The ones that I still remember were about the runners.  In particular, since that time, I've been fascinated by Emil Zatopek and Abebe Bikila.  I never got to see either of them run, but they are fascinating stories.  Yes, I'll root for Michael Phelps to break the Spitz record, but I doubt he'll set world records in all of his finals.  I'll watch the US basketball team in hopes of seeing them play as a team and not a bunch of selfish whiners.  I'll definitely root on the US softball team though they probably won't need it, they should dominate the way Magic and Michael and Larry did hoops in '92.  But, I'm mostly hoping that I'll see something that will stick with me, remind me that there is good in people, take me back to my youth.  I hope never to see another day like that tragic one in Munich, but if there is, I'll probably be watching just like I did when I came home from school for lunch that day.  The Olympics are back.

 

This was one of 2 signs like this along the road in Nicaragua that we drove by nearly every day.

Update: 2008-08-09 00:52 UTC - corrected the info on the Bud Greenspan series

Check these out

Okay, these links are to a couple of posts in Fred Anderson's blog, but he actually is pointing to stories written by two others.  I thought they were both pretty good, so I figured I'd share them.  The first was written by a Unitarian (not sure who the author actually is, I haven't followed the links to see if NonnyMouse is identified further in the original) and discusses forgiveness after the tragic shooting at the church in Knoxville on Sunday.  The second is actually from the Huffington Post and I agree with Fred, I wish the Obama campaign would follow this advice.  By the way, where did the McCain campaign come up with the notion that calling his add "low politics" was somehow "playing the race card"?  McCain used to be someone that I admired even if I didn't entirely agree with him, but lately, not so much.  He's abandoned some of the positions I admired and is falling in line with everything that I detest about the current administration.  It makes me sad.

More on Ellie and other random thoughts

I guess I didn't mention in the last post that Ellie's middle name (Noel) was because she was a Christmas present to the kids (yes, I know it was July, but we explained to them that she was part of their Christmas present).  I still find myself tearing up from time to time.  I think the worst part for me is that I wasn't here.  I was in DC at SANSFIRE, which was a lot of fun, but that meant I wasn't here and didn't really have a chance to say goodbye.  Well, I guess it must be real because I just brought her ashes home.

On a brighter note, we have a functioning pool again.  The pump broke the night before I left.  Fortunately, the water has been just about perfect this year, so we just shocked the pool a couple of extra times while we waited for the new pump to arrive.  It got here on Monday, I got home on Tuesday, but didn't feel like doing anything about the pool, I was still trying to deal with Ellie not being in the house.  Yesterday, was pretty warm, but they were calling for rain, so I figured it was a better idea to try to mow the lawn after work.  This morning (I took part of the day off, since I was in class Saturday and Sunday last weekend at SANSFIRE), Shane and I finally got under the deck and disconnected hoses (trying not to lose too much water), pulled the old pump out, put the new one in and reconnected hoses.  The water is flowing again and should clear out the cloudiness (which really wasn't too bad and there was no live algae that needs to be dealt with) in about 3-4 hours.

Ellie Noel (19 Apr 1995-28 Jul 2008)

I'm pretty sad this evening.  Ellie joined us when she was 3 months old, 13 years ago this month.  This afternoon, she succumbed to congestive heart failure.  We have pictures (not digital) of her when we first brought her home.  In those days, she used to trip over her ears and get me up in the middle of the night every night (even recently, I used to joke that I only got a good night's sleep when I went out of town, though if I'm totally honest, she was sleeping through most of the night for the last few months).