Skylark Flyers Blog

A public hearing was held on Monday February 9th regarding the possible sale of Robertson Airport in Plainville to the town. Statements were made by the Connecticut Department of Transportation, the FAA, the current owner and the current airport manager. A presentation was then made by Clough Harbour & Associates LLP based on their analysis of municipal purchase of the airport. The full report was over an inch thick, and I didn’t look at it. The presentation covered the existing and proposed physical, environmental financial and management aspects of the airport.

The discussion covered how airports are closing in Connecticut, and won’t come back. The airport property is 75 acres with a 3600′ runway and parallel taxiway. It has 3 storage hangars plus a maintenance hangar, a terminal building, fuel facility for regular and jet fuel  as well as 100 tiedown positions.

The FAA will contribute 95% of the funds for purchase. The State adds 3.75%. So the town will have to pay 1.25% of the cost, or about $107,000. The financial projections showed a small profit made by the airport. Operations are expected to be leased out, likely to the existing FBO, Interstate Aviation. Profit from operation is expected to be minimal, so to increase the profit, additional T and box hangars were recommended. Federal and State money would contribute to these improvements.

About 60 members of the public spoke. The vast majority were in favor of the purchase stating the benefits of the airport, the memories, and the future potential. However many of these people were not from Plainville, but they use the airport. At the end, two residents expressed their concern about the possibility that the airport could become a financial burden if there are losses. Questions were asked whether another corporation could be persuaded to purchase the airport. That wouldn’t be favorable to them since it would require a large investment with limited return. The Federal and State contribution wouldn’t be available. The airport owner, Michael Tomasso stated that the only interest he had in the purchase was from people who wanted to close the airport and develop the land.

The next step in the process is a referendum for Plainville which has yet to be scheduled.

The Microsoft-owned development team ACES studio has been hit heavily by layoffs, including the entire Flight Simulator team. According to Gamasutra, the only people left are six employees retained to fulfill contractual duties.

Microsoft hasn’t released a new version of the simulator since Flight Simulator X in 2006, and while its graphics are improved over earlier versions, it still doesn’t take advantage of the latest features of Direct X 10. Originally developed by SUBLogic, the Flight Simulator has undergone 12 major versions over 27 years.

Hundreds of add-ons are available for the simulator. Speculation on comments to the information is that Microsoft is migrating to the subscription model of software within their live.com environment instead of through purchased software.

Chapter members often ask about what the national EAA organization is doing for the chapters. A lot of times we don’t see items behind the scenes, or they have programs where we need to initiate contact. For instance, just imagine how devistating it would be if a chapter got in a situation where it didn’t have the necessary liability insurance.

Besides the insurance, here’s some things they’re doing for the chapters and individual members:

• They run Chapter Leaders sessions at the Air Academy lodge several times a year. This is at no charge to the members who only have to pay for transportation.
• Last year they improved the online calendar of events
• They organized an online speakers bureau. We will try to take advantage of some speakers who are in the area. If you have a topic you can share with other chapters nearby, please list yourself with your topics.
• The monthly chapter e-gram newsletter has information of interest to chapter leaders and members. If you would like to be added to the mail list send a message to banderson@eaa.org and include your Name, EAA#, Chapter#, and e-mail address.
• They put the archive of Sport Aviation magazine online for all members
• Chapters can reserve a group area for camping at Oshkosh.

Planned changes in 2009 include:

• An online method of submitting event insurance requests.
• An online method of renewing chapter information.
• Implementing a program for adult orientation rides.
• Implementing a web template so every chapter can have a web site.
• Starting a free six month trial membership program when a non-EAA member  joins a chapter.
• Providing a $5 Air Academy credit for each Young Eagle flown, up from $1.

The aviation authorities are making it more difficult to get rescued with your 121.5 Mhz emergency locator transmitter starting February 1. There’s an interesting thread over at Slashdot on this subject.

http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/16/0916226

A lot of the comments make excellent arguments that most pilots aren’t the millionaires jetting around the country. We’re just normal folks who decided to spend our hobby money this way. Ground based stations will still monitor 121.5. It may be more difficult to hear and pinpoint the transmitter without the satellite though.

I’ve been away from posting for a while. Let’s see if I can get more items listed here.

Here’s a summary of what the chapter’s been doing, and what we can expect to come up in the next year.

Here we go starting our ninth year for the Chapter. We’ve gone from a handful of aviation enthusiasts to about 35 members now. Our first pancake breakfasts were prepared on a small gas grill. One thing to note is that over all this time we’ve held the price the same.

We’ve made a lot of progress over the years. Some of our breakfasts have attracted over 100 people. Our corn roast has also become very popular. But our main accomplishment so far is how much we’ve progressed in our aviation education programs. Since we took over the Taildragger safety seminar and Fly-in about four years ago, we’ve expanded our programs quite a bit.

We now hold a second safety seminar in the spring, and in the past we had informational displays at the East Windsor Rotary Family Day, and at the FAA SafetyFest. Over the past two years we’ve developed a very successful Young Eagles program in association with Chapter 166 and several area aviation organizations.

One of the founders of the chapter, Mike Koczera has continued to support the chapter with the use of the airport for our meetings and events. We’ve helped the airport back by providing the television for the pilot lounge, painted the runway markings and sprayed weed killer on the pavement to help it last longer.

The past Presidents of the chapter have set a good foundation for us. Mike got the chapter going for the first few years and provided his aviation experience to teach his skills at several meetings. Eric Dixon then guided the chapter through the development years where many other organizations lose the fresh enthusiasm and fade away.

We have a good footing for the future. In the past, our web site won a chapter award at Airventure. The web site provides the timeliest information to our members. Our newsletter which provides more in-depth information to the members will now be published by Charlie Falke, who is also taking over most of the web site tasks.

We now look toward what we can accomplish in the coming year, and in subsequent years. We plan on continuing our two Young Eagles events along with Chapter 166. We will also maintain our ongoing relationship with the FAA Safety Team to hold spring and fall safety seminars. The social events won’t be ignored either. We will continue to build on the breakfasts and cookouts we hold. Improved publicity may get additional visitors to help our fundraising effort.

An ongoing request is to have a building or restoration project for the members. The problem is that we have no place to work on it. In order to pay for the construction or rental of a building along with operation, we will need to increase our income significantly. In the past year the chapter obtained non-profit status which may be the key to us being able to obtain more substantial contributions.

To accomplish this, and to continue our programs, we need the participation of our members. The chapter would dissolve without our great volunteers. We can only accomplish more with greater involvement. If we are able to develop a workshop, the chapter will be able to have activity at the airport on most days of the year. We’re still a relatively small group, so I would like to ask everyone to see if they know someone who they can recruit as another member.

EAA isn’t an organization where you just send in your dues, and get a magazine in return. It’s about member activity. We have the potential of a lot of achievements in the coming years. Your commitment and enthusiasm can make it happen.

Our trip to the Aerodrome started out well. Bill flew there in the Tiger Moth, and Mark flew there in his L-5. Three road vehicles made the trip, and everyone arrived within ten minutes of each other. The weather couldn’t have been better with sunny skies and light winds.

A tour of the museum was held shortly after we arrived so we were able to get some detailed information on the planes no longer flying or restored for display.

They were able to put quite a few more planes in the air than during our last visit two years ago. A couple of the more temperamental planes were only hopped down the runway, but there was a good selection of aircraft.

This is the last season for Stanley Segala’a Flying Farmer routine. I’m glad I got to see it one more time. Stanley takes the Piper Cub and does a high performance (Well, as high as you can get in a Cub.) takeoff. Then he performs loops, rolls, and finishes with a engine-off landing where he stops the plane at the center of the runway to pick up the had he forgot to get when he left.

The show concluded on a tragic note though. The Nieuport 24 bis and Fokker DR1 tri-plane were doing a mock dogfight routine. They were going to do a head-on pass, but the Nieuport appeared to stall in the turn coming back to the field. The routines performed there are quite low, so the pilot was unable to recover and was killed in the crash. I was watching the Fokker at the time, so that is what I’ve heard from people watching the Nieuport. The pilot’s name is expected to be released tomorrow. According to NTSB records, there have been 10 accidents at, or near the Aerodrome in its history. This was the first one that was fatal.

The crowd was reported as very large yesterday.

At the EAA annual meeting EAA President Tom Poberzny announced that a program will be starting next year that will bring AirVenture to the members all year long. No details were provided. He also said that besides the airshow and vendors, there were 1,200 events scheduled during the week.

Earlier this week, the Cirrus Jet made its public debut.

The site change plan will start to be implemented over the winter.

International visitors were up this year from last 1,657 vs 1,333 from 64 countries vs. 56 last year. The declining value of the US dollar is making the trip to Airventure more affordable for people outside this country.

Significant events were that John Travolta’s 707 had a compressor problem on takeoff last night which caused quite a commotion, but nothing besides an aborted takeoff. The plane taxied back and took off about 15 minutes later.

The old tower will be coming down probably in September, so get your photos of it now.

I heard that a couple years ago they started a new rule when removing porta-potties from the grounds to knock on the door first.

400 Warbirds were registered this year, an increase over last year.

Last night was the Gathering of Eagles dinner/fundraising event for the Young Eagles program. 1,060 people attended including Arnold Palmer, Harrison Ford and John Travolta. Mr Ford also attended the chapter presidents’ reception at the Ford pavilion.

The V-22 Ospry tilt-rotor aircraft arrived and did a demo at the show.

On a sad note, two people died in a Lancair Legacy while on short-final to runway 27.

The changes to the Experimental Aircraft Builder rule is getting a lot of attention this year. While the stated purpose of the change is to ensure that the builder has actually put the plane together, the exact wording includes the separate terms of assembly and fabrication. These aren’t clearly defined. Right now we are in the extremely short 30 day comment period, so we need to comment on this rule now. It doesn’t need to be too technical. Just read the summaries provided by EAA and AOPA. Then put your thoughts into writing and get it out to help preserve your ability to build your own plane.

I’ve been listening to EAA Radio, and Glen and Harrison Martin, developers of the Martin Jetpack have said that they won’t be flying the unit again this week. Initially they said that there were insurance issues, but currently they say they’ve been working very hard this week, and along with the jet lag from traveling from New Zealand, they are quite fatigued. Therefore they won’t be risking an accident at the show.

The big event was the first public demo of the Martin Jetpack. The “Jetpack” is actually a ducted fan system, similar to the “Any-Time-Now” Moller SkyCar. It actually sounds like a big leaf blower. However, the Martin unit actually flies. A few hundred people were expected at Aero-Shell Square for the demo, but thousands showed up for a glimpse. The pilot flew a few feet off of the groun. A more extensive demo is expected later in the Wednesday airshow. In fact, the Jetpack was heard early this morning about 7:30 AM.

XCOR demonstrated a Rocket Racer. The modified Velocity aircraft that uses a liquid oxygen and kerosene fuel. The plane made a flame about 15 feet long, and sounded like an acetylene torch. The engine is turned on and off as necessary during flight-fuel permitting. It will fly again during the airshows on Friday and Saturday.

It looks like people aren’t letting the high fuel costs keep them away. The North 40 camping area is full.