Guest Craig Fuller is President and CEO of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA). We talk about the U.S. Government proposal to charge $100 per flight for flights in controlled airspace, Representative Mike Pompeo’s America Flies petition, NextGen Air Traffic Control, EU ETS, and other topics.

The week’s aviation news:

• White House: ‘Why we need aviation user fees’
• Pompeo unveils general aviation campaign
• US Chamber says NextGen ATC should be ‘top priority’

David’s Aircraft of the Week is the O2U Corsair.

In this week’s Australia Desk report: Reality TV pilot in trouble with CASA, Australian registered Beechcraft Debonaires & Bonanzas affected by a serious airworthiness directive, Miranda Kerr is the latest celebrity promoter for Qantas, ex Qantas bean counter suggests a “fat tax” for larger airline passengers.

Find more from Grant and Steve at the Plane Crazy Down Under podcast, and follow the show on Twitter at @pcdu. Steve’s at @stevevisscher and Grant at @falcon124.

This week on Across the Pond, Pieter Johnson talks to Pele Johnson, a frequent business traveller across the Atlantic. Pele often gets the chance to travel business or first class and so we ask him what its like (because not many of us get to do this) and which of the two major British carriers he prefers to fly with. He’s a photographer and a talented guitar player. Maybe you have heard him play. Listen in and find out.

You can find Pele on Twitter as @denhelderstudio, on the web at www.denhelderphotography.com and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/denhelderphotography. Pieter can be found on Twitter as @Nascothornet or at the XTP Media’s Facebook Page.

Mentioned in the episode:

America Flies
Geveral Aviation Serves America
No big changes in air show safety rules likely

Other listener submissions:

Transparent Pricing at Thromby Air
Airport Love: Passengers Get Christmas Surprise in Quebec
So Many Errors: The Runway Incursion of United 1448
Aircraft maker set to land elsewhere
Maine gov still hopeful of landing Kestrel, says ‘we’re ready to make this happen’

Follow the @AirplaneGeeks on Twitter and on Facebook, send us email at thegeeks@airplanegeeks.com, or leave a message on our listener line: (361) GEEKS01.

Opening and closing music is provided by Brother Love from the Album Of The Year CD. You can find his great music at http://www.brotherloverocks.com/.

This is another Bits and Pieces episode. Occasionally, we take holiday weekends off and instead of recording a new episode together, we each contribute a pre-recorded segment and put them all together into a complete episode.

Here’s what we have this time:

Benet Wilson, the new Director of Media Relations for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. Benet talks about her new job and provides some information about the AOPA Air Safety Institute. Find her personal site at AviationQueen.com.

David Vanderhoof brings us three interviews from Northrop Grumman about UAVs from the PAX River show:

Walter Kreiter, Director BAMS UAS Business Development.

Tighe Parmenter, Business Development, Navy UCAS Program.

Dion Kolliopoulas on the Firescout.

The Across The Pond segment this week has Pieter looking at his aviation travels. What was his favourite aircraft to fly on, what was the best looking aeroplane that he had flown on, and where in the world is his favourite airport. He also describes the most unusual aircraft he has ever piloted. The full list of aircraft he has travelled on can be found on his blog Alpha Tango Papa.

In the Australia Desk report, Steve likes the current exchange rates, RAAF C-17 acquisition programme progresses, 4 ex-RAAF C130H aircraft gifted to Indonesia, 23 ex RAAF F111 airframes dumped in landfill in Queensland, Qantas CEO death threats investigation dropped by New South Wales police, Qantas social media blunder, Tiger Airways has best on time performance for 2011, Virgin Australia announces $68M loss, CASA announces review of UAV procedures.

Dan Webb brings us some airline news, including the slot swap between Delta and US Airways at Laguarda and Washington National airports, and some results (and speculation) on the recent FAA slot auction.

We received one listener v-mail on the recent tarmac delays at Bradley International Airport in Connecticut. We’ve got that as well as a response from Rob.

Finally, for those who like the outtakes, we have quite a few: a little from this episode, a few from the AusDesk, and past outtakes from Pieter Johnson. We finish up with part of the episode 174 pre-show that gives you a little insight about what actually happens before the show starts.

Mentions:

• Lynda Meeks, Girls With Wings.

Next week we’ll return to our usual format with the full complement of co-hosts and a great guest.

Follow the @AirplaneGeeks on Twitter and on Facebook, send us email at thegeeks@airplanegeeks.com, or leave a message on our listener line: (361) GEEKS01.

Opening and closing music is provided by Brother Love from the Album Of The Year CD. You can find his great music at www.brotherloverocks.com.

All post photos by David Vanderhoof.

This Special Edition of the Airplane Geeks podcast is the second of two parts with interviews from the 2011 AOPA Aviation Summit. This three-day event was held 22-24 September 2011 in Hartford, Connecticut. Max recorded brief interviews with exhibitors, speakers, and participants.

In Part 2, you’ll hear from:

Lindsey Dreiling, Admissions Representative, Kansas State University.

Sean Collins, Senior Technical Specialist, Government Affairs, www aopa.org, www.letsgoflying.com.

Lindsey, Summit attendee.

Bernice “Bee” Haydu, Woman Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), Letters Home 1944-1945.

Mason Holland, CEO and Chairman of the Board, Eclipse Aerospace, Inc..

Ben Freelove, Director of Operations/ Instructor, Tutima Academy of Aviation Safety.

Alan Klapmeier, CEO, Kestrel Aircraft Company.

Laura Gaerte, Air Race Classic all women’s transcontinental air race. From Century Aviation at DeKalb (Indiana) County Airport.

Mark Robidoux, Pilot Workshops.

Tom Ham, Production Manager, VoiceFlight Systems, with special (i.e., unexpected) appearance by Max Trescott.

Wayne Ellis, The Aviators TV show.

Follow the Airplane Geeks on Twitter and on Facebook, send us email at thegeeks@airplanegeeks.com, or leave a message on our listener line: (361) GEEKS01.

Opening and closing music is provided by Brother Love from the Album Of The Year CD. You can find his great music at http://www.brotherloverocks.com/.

This Special Edition of the Airplane Geeks podcast is the first of two parts with interviews from the 2011 AOPA Aviation Summit. This three-day event was held 22-24 September 2011 in Hartford, Connecticut. Max recorded brief interviews with exhibitors, speakers, and participants.

In Part 1, you’ll hear from:

Donald Purdy, ASRS Expert Analyst and CALLBACK Editor from the NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System.

Nadia Marcinko, Founder/CEO of Aviloop, the daily aviation deal website at www.aviloop.com.

Chris Donald from Big South Fork Airpark, www.BigSouthForkAirpark.com.

Ronald Jarmon from Island Air Express, a Panama City, Florida Flight School.

Carl Dietrich, CEO/CTO of Terrafugia, makers of the Transition roadable airplane. www.terrafugia.com.

Randy Gawenda, Sales Representative, Frasca International, makers of flight simulators. www.frasca.com.

Clay Murphy, a pilot and user of ForeFlight, and then Jason Miller,Co-Founder and Principal Developer at ForeFlight.

LtCol Tony Vallillo and Major Stephen Rocketto from the Civil Air Patrol, Connecticut Wing and Thames River Composite Squadron, Groton, Connecticut respectively.

Lynda Meeks from Girls With Wings, encouraging girls to become interested in aviation.

Eileen Minogue, Director of Operations , Patient Airlift Services, part of The Air Care Alliance and working with the Wounded Warrier Project.

Alexander Tock from King Schools. tock172 on Instagram

Stephen Marshall, General Aviation Sales/Marketing Director, Amsafe seatbely airbags

Follow the Airplane Geeks on Twitter and on Facebook, send us email at thegeeks@airplanegeeks.com, or leave a message on our listener line: (361) GEEKS01.

Opening and closing music is provided by Brother Love from the Album Of The Year CD. You can find his great music at http://www.brotherloverocks.com/.

Guest Susan Elliott is a senior member of the Delta Air Lines cross-divisional social media team. She has primary responsibility for leading strategy and implementation efforts surrounding issue management within emerging media. Susan also acts as company spokesperson and maintains day-to-day relationships with top-tier media and digital influencers. Like us!

Delta maintains a strong Twitter presence at @Delta, (for promotions and availability) @DeltaAssist (for customer service issues), and @DeltaNewsroom (issues management primarily for the news media). You can also find Delta on Facebook and YouTube, and at the Delta Blog. Susan’s own Twitter handle is @SusanCElliott.

The week’s aviation news:

• Lightspeed Aviation Foundation Announces 2011 Pilots Choice $10,000 Award Recipients at AOPA Summit
• FAA Hits Cessna with $2.5 Million Fine
• Boeing Loses Part of Atlas Air 747-8 Order in Jumbo-Jet Freighter Setback
• Airline groups oppose fees in Obama’s deficit plan

In this week’s Australia Desk Report, Steve and Grant talk about the RAAF order for the 6th C-17, Tiger Airways, Delta and Virgin Codeshare, Boeing pilot forecast for that region, and even a supprise cameo appearance by another Visscher. Find them on the Plane Crazy Down Under podcast, and follow the show on Twitter at @pcdu. Steve’s at @stevevisscher and Grant at @falcon124.

In our first Grill the Geeks segment, Dan get’s stumped by listener Jeremy, who asked, “Who has the Boeing customer number G1? H5? JH?” We also had no idea how to answer, “What is the Albuquerque box effect on hot air balloons?” Better luck next time.

Max played his interview from the AOPA Aviation Summit with Alan Klapmeier, CEO of Kestrel Aircraft Company.

Mentions:

• The Airline Codes Web Site
• NTSB Training Center
• FAA Aircraft Weight and Balance Handbook Aircraft Handbooks & Manuals

Follow the @AirplaneGeeks on Twitter and on Facebook, send us email at thegeeks@airplanegeeks.com, or leave a message on our listener line: (361) GEEKS01.

Opening and closing music is provided by Brother Love from the Album Of The Year CD. You can find his great music at http://www.brotherloverocks.com/.

This week we forgo the usual aviation news and industry guest to instead focus on listener mail. We received a lot of email, Facebook posts, and vmail on our listener line with questions and suggestions so that’s what this episode is all about.

Topics:

Ben on The World Airport Data App.

David on the educational path to an airline pilot job.

Micah on free holiday WiFi provided by Google and banning toner cartridges.

Don on the corporate use of social media.

Benet on the business aviation recovery.

David on a future ATC guest.

Richard on having a glider topic.

Allan asking who will be the next CSeries customer.

Anthony on AvWeb’s coverage of AOPA.

Ian his photos, new blog, oil-free turbine technology.

Hoovenson on the BA Flight 38 crash and the freezing point of water.

Stephen asks for the top 5 military Ace’s, top 5 business jets, and top 5 aviation CEO’s.

@flyingwithfish on the “new” CLEAR registered traveler program using “old” CLEAR data.

Tim on aviation enthusiast destinations in Florida.

We also have David’s This Week in Aviation history segment, the Australia Desk report by Steve and Grant from the Plane Crazy Down Under podcast, and Pieter Johnson’s latest Across the Pond segment.

Mentions:

The World Airport Data App

N-Number for US registered aircraft

VH Register for Australian registered aircraftFree Holiday WiFi

Paula Williams has written the book: Flight Plan to Success: New Media Marketing for the Aviation Industry

Ian’s new blog: YYCE3, his photos, and Oil-Free Turbomachinery Technology for Rotorcraft Propulsion and Advanced Aerospace Propulsion and Power, and this NASA article.

The Naked Scientists

Clear: What Gives? from the TSA Blog

TSA asked to ensure safety of customer data after Clear closing

Fantasy of Flight

Aviation Enthusiasts Corner

QANTAS 90th Birthday Celebrations 13th Nov 2010 by Plane Crazy Down Under Podcast.

Follow the @AirplaneGeeks on Twitter and on Facebook, send us email at thegeeks@airplanegeeks.com, or leave a message on our listener line: (361) GEEKS01.

Opening and closing music is provided by Brother Love from the Album Of The Year CD. You can find his great music at http://www.brotherloverocks.com/.

Photo by Steve Visscher.

Bruce Landsberg, President of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association Air Safety Foundation (http://www.asf.org/),
a nonprofit pilot education and safety organization, joins as this week’s guest. We talk about the week’s aviation news and discuss the resources offered by ASF for new pilots, experienced pilots, and prospective pilots.

The week’s aviation news:

• NTSB addresses volunteer pilot decision making
• 400 Park Geese Die, for Human Fliers’ Sake
• Airline Challenge to Congestion Pricing Is Rejected
• In a First, Full-Sized Robo-Copter Flies With No Human Help
• Boeing’s Concorde successor
• NBTA Calls for Fair Display of Airline Fees
• Ramblings on Meddling and the “Public Good”

Mentions:

• The Bradford Camps, the North Maine Woods sporting camp owned by Igor and Karen Sikorsky III.
• Stitcher, where you can stream the Airplane Geeks podcast (and others) right to your mobile device.

Follow the @AirplaneGeeks on Twitter and on Facebook, send us email at thegeeks@airplanegeeks.com, or leave a message on our listener line: (361) GEEKS01.

Opening and closing music is provided by Brother Love from the Album Of The Year CD. You can find his great music at http://www.brotherloverocks.com/.

In this episode, Rob, Max, and David discuss aviation news, with a focus on odd stories. Then Dan brings in Tom from The Airline Blog to talk about some additional stories. David has six interviews from the 2010 Joint Service Open House, as well as his usual This Week in Aviation segment. Finally, Steve and Grant have this week’s Australia Desk report.

The news:

• The Future of Airliners?
• Boeing apologizes for curt rejection letter sent to young boy
• SkyWest Airlines Flight Diverted after Alien Claim
• A viewing deck built right into your private jet
• New Lufthansa Bathrooms Made for Banging?
• Get Angry and TSA May Tag You
• More pilots needed, AOPA president tells Aero Club
• “Continited” Announces First 787 Route
• The end of Virgin Atlantic’s ‘splendid isolation’?
• Report: Air France-KLM to restart talks for big plane order
• Ryanair Announces 42nd Base at Barcelona El Prat

Follow the @AirplaneGeeks on Twitter and on Facebook, send us email at thegeeks@airplanegeeks.com, or leave a message on our listener line: (361) GEEKS01.

Australia Desk Report music is Journey of the Sorcerer by The Eagles, used in the British TV version of the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy.

Post photo courtesy listener Seb Spencer.

Opening and closing music is provided by Brother Love from the Album Of The Year CD. You can find his great music at http://www.brotherloverocks.com/.

Guest Martin Rottler makes a return appearance. Martin is an airline junkie, a licensed commercial pilot for single and multi-engine aircraft with an Instrument Rating, and a CFI. He’s also a graduate student at the University of North Dakota. This summer Martin will be participating in a project to bring aviation to tribal school students in North Dakota. Download the program overview here.  Find Martin’s blog at http://martinrottler.com/.

The news:

• ‘The future of GA is up to each of us,’ Fuller tells pilots
• Airline Carry-on Bag Fees Rile Cardin, Schumer
• Iceland volcano: Airlines face ‘logistical nightmare’
• Ash cloud costing airlines £130m a day
• Frontier And Midwest Airlines Merge
• UAL-Continental Merger Would Lead on High-Fare Overseas Routes
• Non-Stealth Teamed With Stealth Air Wing
• DARPA chief sounds the alarm: We need more nerds!!

We also have the This Week in Aviation history segment from David, and the Airplane Geeks Australia Desk report.

Follow the @AirplaneGeeks on Twitter, send us email at thegeeks@airplanegeeks.com, or leave a message on our listener line: (361) GEEKS01.

F-15 Strike Eagle courtesy Photography by Hank Plumley.

Opening and closing music is provided by Brother Love from the Album Of The Year CD. Visit his site at http://www.brotherloverocks.com/.

Benet Wilson from the Aviation Week’s Business Aviation Now blog joins the geeks as we talk about the latest news in aviation.  Make sure to follow Benet on Twitter @bizavweekly.

We learn two things in this episode:

1. Canadian Geese are mean.
2. Swans are meaner.

You’ll see.

But first, the news:

• NTSB: Plane crew saw significant ice before crash

• Fuller supports FAA funding bill in congressional testimony

• The eskimo isn’t smiling at Virgin America
  • Virgin America Should Be Considered “American” for Now

• It’s Official–Canada Geese Hit Flight 1549

• Carson: Boeing prepared for possible 10% 2010 production cut
  • Boeing Frontiers

• Cessna: Business Aircraft Are Good for Businesses
  • CessnaRise

Rand Peck joins Max and Court this week and Court goes on a couple of rants.  Rand joins us from his site at FlyingWithRand.com and his blog, Rand Peck, a Life Aloft.  There’s plenty of news to talk about, and we hit the highlights.

GA groups call for industry input on TSA plan

US House Transportation chairman takes aim at alliances

Aurora Flight Sciences Displays GoldenEye 80 Unmanned Aircraft at Virginia AeroSpace Legislative Reception

Max and Court welcome Martt Clupper of AirPigz.com on this episode as they talk about the latest in aviation news, and provide a bit of commentary to spice it up.

Victims of Plane Crash Worked for Air Travel Sites

Pilots turn out in force to tell TSA impact of security plan

Obama Officials Tell Citibank To Ditch Plans For $50 Million Private Jet

JAL Flight Brings Aviation One Step Closer to Using Biofuel

Airline losses for fourth quarter mount

S7 cancellation latest hurdle for 787 program

Max and Court welcome Will Hawkins, Rico Sharqawi, and David Allen from APilotsStory.com and Pilots Flight Pod Log Podcast.  We wrap up 2008, and discuss the breaking news out of Denver:

Data recorders found after Denver plane accident

ExcelAire Pilots Face Criminal Trial

British Airways, Qantas Talks Fail on Ownership Split

AOPA: TSA Plans To Step Up GA Scrutiny At Commercial Airports

TSA to listen to pilot concerns on proposed security program

Ten Worst Air Travel Stories of ’08

Max’s pick of the week is the Plane Spotter Radius Search.  Drag the little plane spotter guy to some location on the map (typically someplace near you) and it shows the planes within a 10 mile radius.

The Airplane Geeks are now on Twitter!  You can follow us @AirplaneGeeks.

Make sure to sign up for our new newsletter, “Airplane Geeks Week in Aviation.”
We’ll be bringing you these show notes, as well as some of the week’s news we didn’t have time to cover.
You can sign up at AirplaneGeeks.com.

Brother Love is responsible for this episode’s opening and closing
music, and you can visit his site at brotherloverocks.com.

If you have a question or a comment for the Airplane Geeks, you
can send it to thegeeks@airplanegeeks.com.

You can also leave us voice mail at (812) 757-4252. If you have
a question you’d like mentioned on the podcast, this is the best
way to go about it.

Richard Aboulafia, an industry analyst and VP of analysis at Teal Group, joins The Geeks this week as we talk airplanes.  It turns out that Richard is not only very knowledgeable about the aviation industry, but he’s also very funny.  We spend almost the entire hour talking with him about the news:

Airlines’ on-time performance improves in Oct.

Invest in Aviation Infrastructure, Groups Tell Congress; Relatively Small Investments Could Yield Big Local Returns

Analysts see worrying trend in airport incursions

Embraer Phenom Wins Brazilian Certification

Bombardier to bring CSeries 110 to market first

ANA Mulling Seeking Compensation On Boeing 787 Delay

Airbus and Boeing plan loans for buyers

AIA dailyLead Special Report: Looking forward to 2009