Tag Archives: NextGen

495 Heritage Flights

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:44:26 — 47.8MB)

The president of Planes of Fame tells us about the museum, restoring warbirds and historic aircraft, and flying heritage flights. Also, we look at the world’s largest jet engine, restraints on open-door helicopter flights, United Airlines and dogs, facial scanning at airports, the Boeing 737 Max 7 first flight, hacking the aviation industry, and GPS vulnerabilities.

P-51 Mustang, always a crowd-pleaser for heritage flights

Planes of Fame Air Museum P-51 Mustang

Guest

Steve Hinton is president of Planes of Fame Air Museum, which opened in 1957 and now has a collection of over 150 aircraft, more than 50 of which are flyable. The mission of the museum is to preserve aviation history, inspire interest in aviation, educate the public, and honor aviation pioneers and veterans. The Museum spans the history of manned flight from the Chanute Hang Glider of 1896 to the Space Age of Apollo, with locations in Chino, California and Valle-Grand Canyon, Arizona.

Planes of Fame Airshow 2018We talk with Steve about the Museum and the annual Planes of Fame Airshow, in 2018 to be held May 5-6 at Chino Airport in California with about 45 flying warbirds.

Steve explains how the Air Force Heritage Flight Foundation pairs modern aircraft with fighter aircraft from the WWII, Korea, and Vietnam eras for dramatic heritage flights around the world. This year he flew a P-51 Mustang leading two A-10s and an F-16 in the heritage flight over the Super Bowl LII opening ceremony.

Steve held a world speed record from 1979 to 1989 and won six Unlimited-class air races, including two national championships. He won four consecutive Unlimited races in one year and remains the only pilot ever to do so. He retired from racing in 1990 and was honored in 2016 with the Crystal Eagle Award from the Aero Club of Northern California.

Steve also owns Fighter Rebuilders, a military aircraft restoration company. He was our guest on Episode 386 in January 2016.

Learn more at the Planes of Fame Air Museum website, follow them on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

Aviation News

GE starts flight trials for world’s largest jet engine

On March 13, from Victorville, California, GE’s new GE9X engine flew more than four hours mounted to the company’s 747 testbed aircraft. The 100,000-pound thrust-class engine has a 134-inch fan and is intended for the Boeing 777X, scheduled for EIS in 2020.

Video: GE9X engine soars

Chopper flights with open doors, tight restraints grounded

Open-door helicopter flights are popular with tourists and photographers, but recently one of these flights went down in a river, killing all 5 passengers on board. It appears that they were unable to escape from the harnesses that held them in the chopper. The family of one victim has filed a lawsuit and the FAA issued a temporary nationwide ban on open-door flights unless they are equipped with restraint systems that open with one action.

United Airlines Chartered a Private Jet to Send Irgo the Dog Home

Bad press seems to dog United Airlines frequently these days. But they went above and beyond after mistakenly shipping a German Shepherd Dog to Japan. They returned the pooch via a privately chartered jet.

Facial Scanning Now Arriving At U.S. Airports

Customs and Border Protection is testing biometric scanning at some U.S. international airports at boarding points. Cameras at the gate send passenger photographs to CBP where they are checked against photos on file and to make sure that person is booked on the manifest. Some critics point to possible bias and privacy protection issues.

Boeing Says New 737 MAX 7 Aircraft Completes Successful First Flight

The smallest member of the family, the Boeing 737 MAX 7, flew on March 17, 2018, for 3 hours and 5 minutes. The flight test program now begins with certification and delivery expected in 2019. The airplane has a maximum capacity of 172 passengers and a range of 3,850 nautical miles.

Russian Hackers Attacked U.S. Aviation as Part of Breaches

Bloomberg reports that hackers were attempted to penetrate the U.S. civilian aviation industry early in 2017. Details aren’t provided, but Jeff Troy, executive director of the Aviation Information Sharing and Analysis Center (A-ISAC), said the attack had limited impact. Also that the industry has taken steps to prevent a repeat of the intrusion. US-CERT has issued a detailed report.

Keeping NextGen on the air

A task group co-chaired by AOPA looked at GPS interference when certain military activities are conducted. GPS signals are fragile, says AOPA and the FAA needs to ensure that alternate navigation aids and capabilities are available. The March 2018 report contains 25 recommendations:  Operational Impacts of Intentional GPS Interference: A Report of the Tactical Operations Committee in Response to Tasking from the Federal Aviation Administration [PDF].

Airline Story of the Week

Pratt & Whitney showcases the role of women in powering flight

Although not specifically about commercial aircraft, it is a great story about the contribution woman have made to Pratt & Whitney.

Interview

Airplane Geeks Reporter-at-Large Launchpad Marzari speaks with Ken VeArd from Pilot Partner about getting paper out of the cockpit. Ken was kind enough to offer a discount code for Airplane Geeks listeners. The interview begins at about 1:28 into the episode.

Mentioned

The Sticks, Stories, Scotch blog by listener Aaron.

Fingertrouble showed us a photo of this Short SC.7 Skyvan operated by Pink-Skyvan in Europe for skydiving activities:

Short SC.7 Skyvan

Credit

Outtro by Bruno Misonne from The Sound of Flaps.

 

477 Air Navigation with iFly GPS

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:23:03 — 38.0MB)

We talk with Adventure Pilot’s Brian Rutherford about aircraft route planning, air navigation, and iFly GPS. Also, Ryanair flight cancellations and pilot pay, a Bombardier CSeries order, and headway made for NextGen.

Guest

Adventure Pilot’s Brian Rutherford and the iFly GPS air navigation solution.

Adventure Pilot’s Brian Rutherford and the iFly GPS air navigation solution.

Brian Rutherford is sales and marketing manager for Adventure Pilot, makers of iFly GPS air navigation solutions. Brian describes the current air navigation landscape, the role of GPS and ADS-B, and how they work together. We look at the iFly GPS offerings and features.

iFly GPS is a multi-platform air navigation solution for iOS, Android, Windows, and dedicated systems that provides support for ADS-B traffic and weather. iFly GPS moving map navigation includes advanced features like geo-referenced hi-def VFR and IFR charts, de-cluttered vector mode, AutoTaxi+, RealView, and the comprehensive Active Alert System.

Brian holds a private pilot’s certificate and comes from the world of online retail, working at an Amazon subsidy called Woot.com as a buyer. He was a Sr. Brand Manager for a licensed apparel company called BioWorld. Brian also served on the board of EAA Chapter 1246, one of the largest chapters with 100+ dues-paying members.

Find Adventure Pilot on Instagram and Facebook, and be sure to listen for the special 10% discount code available to Airplane Geeks listeners!

Aviation News

Pilots’ pay rise set to cost Ryanair £88m a year

Ryanair chief Michael O’Leary has had to offer pilots a pay raise to get them to keep flying. This after “a rostering debacle” when the airline changed its holiday year. See also Ryanair cancels flights after ‘messing up’ pilot holidays and Ryanair may face legal action over flight cancellations.

Bombardier gets new CSeries jet order, but deliveries cut too

Engine delays from Pratt & Whitney will reduce 2017 CSeries deliveries to 20-22 from the 30 aircraft planned. Bombardier Chief Executive Alain Bellemare told analysts “This is a short-term issue that Pratt is actively addressing.” Meanwhile, Bombardier negotiated a letter of intent for 31 firm and 30 option CSeries orders from an unnamed European customer. The airframer says the order is not related to news that Airbus plans to take a majority stake in the program.

NextGen Progressing: Airlines Fail to Equip

AOPA describes NextGen progress contained in the U.S. Department of Transportation Inspector General report: FAA Has Made Progress Implementing NextGen Priorities, but Additional Actions Are Needed To Improve Risk Management. AOPA says the NextGen Advisory Committee (NAC) has four priorities: multiple runway options, performance-based navigation, surface operations, and data communications (or DataComm):

Multiple runway options allow the FAA to reduce the separation between aircraft because of improved wake categorization standards. The FAA has implemented this capability at some busy U.S. airports including Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport, and New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Performance-based navigation lets aircraft fly more directly from departure to arrival using satellite signals. Initial operational capability is three months ahead of schedule in the Northern California Metroplex. Between September 2014 and April 2015, the FAA conducted a phased implementation of 44 routes covering the greater San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento.

Surface operations have improved. The FAA has implemented the System Wide Information Management (SWIM) Surface Visualization Tool (SVT) ahead of schedule at five terminal radar approach control facilities. The system allows tracon controllers to better monitor congestion and plan for changes on airport runways and taxiways, especially during inclement weather.

Data comm has been implemented at towers across the nation, approximately two and a half years ahead of schedule.

AOPA says, “Despite the achievements being made with NextGen technology and modernization, the airlines and their front groups remain critical of the current airspace system and are calling to overhaul it entirely.”

The OIG report states, “FAA is making significant progress in implementing the four NAC priorities. However, the Agency lacks a comprehensive process for effectively identifying or assessing risks, which could hinder its ability to fully implement its priorities. For example, while FAA took some steps to identify risks, it did not fully engage or include all stakeholders or effectively evaluate the severity of the identified risks to ensure its implementation milestones were realistic. In addition, FAA is not proactively mitigating risks to keep the NAC priorities on track. In particular, FAA and industry will need to mitigate several complex risks for capabilities expected for implementation and benefits delivery in the 2019–2020 timeframe, such as resolving issues with DataComm technology installed in aircraft. However, the Agency has not developed a detailed mitigation plan to address identified risks, involved industry in its decision-making process, or transparently reported its progress in this area.”

Mentioned

Stratux – A Raspberry Pi-based homebuilt ADS-B In receiver. Also available in the iFlyGPS store. For more information, see Live Weather and Traffic for Less Than $120 from EAA.

H.R. 4188: To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 621 Kansas Avenue in Atchison, Kansas, as the “Amelia Earhart Post Office Building.”

OGTA #11 – South Dakota Warrior: the John Waldron Story

John Mollison tells us that “Old Guys and Their Airplanes” (OGTA) released the award-winning documentary film South Dakota Warrior. The film explores the character behind World War Two’s Battle of Midway hero, LtCDR John C. Waldron.

Waldron established himself in history by leading his torpedo bomber squadron (VT-8) in what appeared to be a futile attack against the Japanese carrier fleet during the opening moments of the crucial battle on June 4, 1942. The story causes the viewer to examine the qualities and responsibilities of leadership. Waldron, along with 28 other men of his squadron, was killed during the battle. He valued his Native American (Lakota) heritage and made reference to this fact as a personal inspiration.

Sky Spotters – an entertaining comic from XKCD.

Credit

Intro music courtesy Brother Love from his Album Of The Year CD. Outtro by Bruno Misonne from The Sound of Flaps.

 

AirplaneGeeks 317 – The Navion

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:35:04 — 43.6MB)

Navion

The single engine Navion airplane, air traffic controller hiring guidelines, Air France pilot’s strike, robots flying airplanes, Delta Air Line’s refinery, and NextGen.

Guest

Chris Gardner is founder and CEO of Sierra Hotel Aero, holder of the type certificate for the single engine Navion airplane.

Chris has a commercial aviation background, as well as extensive experience with North American Aviation aircraft including rebuilding and modification for racing of the P-51 Mustang, the T- 28, and Navion aircraft.

We review a little of the history of the Navion and how it was originally envisioned by North American Aviation to attract the interest of pilots returning from World War II.

With Sierra Hotel Aero now owning the type certificate, there are opportunities to modernize and upgrade the airplane. Chris is working on an STC for larger engine for the airplane.

Sierra Hotel Aero provides rebuild and modification services, including installation of the BRS Aerospace ballistic recovery parachutes in Cessna 172’s and 182’s.

For more on the Navion, see Navion X and the American Navion Society. Find Navion Aircraft on Facebook.

News

Two Illinois lawmakers seek to dump new FAA controller hiring rules

For years, when it came to recruiting new air traffic controllers the FAA favored graduates from FAA-accredited college aviation programs and also military veterans with aviation experience. The general public came last. But the FAA changed that not too long ago and started to favor inexperienced applicants. Some think this negatively impacts safety, and have introduced the Safe Towers Act.

French govt ups pressure to end Air France pilots strike

Air France pilots are worried that a a new Air France-KLM initiative to increase the size of its LC carrier Transavia will suck jobs away jobs.

Tiny Humanoid Robot Learning to Fly Real Airplanes

At the 2014 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems in Chicago, the PIBOT from Korean maker Robotis was demonstrated. It operated simulated aircraft controls autonomously.

Benet Wilson Named New Co-Editor-in-Chief at Airways News

Aviation Queen Benet Wilson is set to join Airways News, the strategic alliance between Airchive.com and Airways Magazine.

Memorium

Union leader Robert E. Poli led the 1981 air traffic controllers’ strike, which prompted President Ronald Reagan to dismiss 11,500 controllers. Poli died September 15 at his home in Meridian, Idaho. He was 78.

Airplane of the Week

Grumman OA-12 Duck USAF

Jamie Dodson presents the history of the Grumman J2F Duck. Be sure to visit Jamie’s website at NickGrantAdventures.com and have a look at his historical fiction novels.

Rob Mark’s Aviation Minute

Rob gives us a list of great aviation writers you should read.

The Australia News Desk

Grant and Steve join live from Steve’s studio, and talk about RAAF fighter pilots being deployed in an active combat area, the Women’s World Hot Air Balloon Championship, and the Great Tiger Moth Air Race in Australia.

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.

Mentioned

How Delta Bought A Refinery And Wound Up Saving Its Rivals A Ton Of Cash

Credit

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

AirplaneGeeks 273 – Flight Safety

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:44:35 — 47.9MB)

Photo by @nzaircraftfan

Guest Kevin Hiatt is CEO and President of the Flight Safety Foundation, an independent, non-profit, international organization engaged in research, auditing, education, advocacy and publishing to improve aviation safety. The Foundation’s mission is to pursue the continuous improvement of global aviation safety and the prevention of accidents.

We talk about the recent International Aviation Safety Summit: approaches (stabilized and otherwise), tactical safety and strategy, and a presentation from BEA on the lengthy AF447 investigation and the (inaccurate) suggestion by some that they were covering up for AF and Airbus.

Also from the Summit: Data gathering and sharing, and safety culture, including from the airline perspective. Dave Barger, Jetblue CEO, described how safety is one of the Jetblue five values.  Scott Winter, Assistant Professor of Aviation Sciences at the College of Aeronautics at Florida Institute of Technology presented on runway excursions.

Other topics we covered: NextGen ATC, where that’s going, and the impact on safety. The role of data in the future of flight safety world-wide. Flight Safety Foundation is working with the Mitre Corporation to take safety from a reactive mode (investigating accidents and implementing changes to prevent recurrence) to predictive mode using data to pinpoint areas that warrant examination to reduce future risk.

Before joining the Foundation, Kevin was the Vice President for Corporate Safety and Security at World Airways. Kevin was also with Delta Air Lines for 26 years in a variety of positions, including Chief Pilot at the Atlanta International Pilot Crew Base.

 The Week’s Aviation  News:

By Daniel from Sydney Australia

By Daniel from Sydney Australia

In This Week’s Australia Desk:

Grant is taking a break this week so PCDU’s Western Australia correspondent, Ben Jones (aka Jonesy) joins Steve for this report.

In the news, it’s Melbourne Cup week which, although a horse racing event, provides aviation enthusiasts a feast of extra aircraft and aircraft movements to check out.  One Melbourne based helicopter pilot didn’t enjoy the festivities quite so much when her Bell 206L flipped onto its side and crashed as it went to depart a local executive shuttle point in the city’s north.  Luckily, she escaped the wreckage with little more than a finger injury.

Qantas maintenance staff at it’s beleaguered Avalon base have approached the company with an offer to take three months off without pay, in a desperate bid to save the facility from closure.  It appears the company is determined to progress the closure plans however, as it continues to reduce it’s Boeing 747 fleet.  Avalon is the current home of Qantas 747 maintenance in Australia.

Ben tells us about local Perth-based participation in this year’s annual World Flight Australia, a virtual airline event that raises much needed funds for the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

Mentioned:

Photos:

This episode’s photos are provided by our listeners. Thanks to @nzaircraftfan for the Mustangs and Daniel from Sydney Australia for the Cessna 182 in flight!

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

Audio Transcription:

As a special for this episode, we have an audio transcription by rev.com.

Episode 261 – Matt Desch, CEO of Iridium Communications

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Air Tractor 502

Guest Matt Desch is the CEO of Iridium Communications, the world’s largest satellite system with almost 650,000 customers around the globe. Matt is a commercial/instrument/multi rated pilot and owns a Cessna T210. He also volunteers as a member of the Board of Trustees for AOPA, and flies for Angel Flight as well.

The $3 Billion Iridium NEXT program is set to launch 81 new satellites in a low-earth orbit constellation that will include ADS-B receivers to support the NextGen navigation system. These satellites will relay aircraft signals into the air traffic controllers in real-time to enable world-wide navigation. This will allow, for example, vastly reduced aircraft separation over the Atlantic, yielding and more efficient flights.  The service will be provided through Aireon, a joint venture between Iridium and Nav Canada.

Find Iridium on Twitter as @IridiumComm and on Facebook. Matt tweets as @IridiumBoss.

The week’s aviation news:

David Vanderhoof’s Aircraft of the Week: the Air Tractor AT-502.

Grant and Steve

Grant and Steve

In this week’s Australia Desk:

It’s Edition 200 of the Australia Desk!

First Boeing 787 in Jetstar livery rolls out of the Everett paint shop.

Worldwide Saber Reservation System crash takes Virgin Australia down with it.

A Virgin B737 collides with a Jetstar A320 during pushback at Melbourne Airport – up to $2million damage.

The New Zealand Government has issued a travel warning concerning flights taken in Tonga on board the Chinese produced MA60 turboprop aircraft, citing safety concerns.

Ryan Campbell continues his Teen World Flight, leaving the USA & Canada and touching down in Reykjavic, Iceland.  He’s heading to the UK and Europe from there.  Track his aircraft – VH-OLS.

AOPA Australia are holding a Safety Seminar in Perth on August 31st & September 1st at the Royal Aero Club of Western Australia, at Jandakot Airport.  Highly recommended for local pilots.

Here’s to the next 200 Aus Desks!

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. Australia Desk archives can be found at www.australiadesk.net.

In this week’s Across the Pond segment:

This week we continue our discussion with Oussama Salah on the Middle East and North Africa. We conclude the discussion on cargo and how a new airport should be built to fully integrate into the whole road, rail and sea transportation system. We also discuss the ‘evolutionary’ low cost versus full fair process with the news that FlyDubai is bringing Business Class into its existing low cost fleet.

www.linkedin.com/in/oussamasalah

www.oussamastake.blogspot.com

Find Pieter on Twitter as @Nascothornet, on Facebook at XTPMedia, and at the Aviation Xtended podcast.

DC-10 Water Tanker drop by Stephen Tornblom

DC-10 Water Tanker drop by Stephen Tornblom

Mentioned:

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

Episode 186 – Joe Bellino on Air Traffic Control

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Air Australia by Ryan Hothersall

Our guest this episode is Joe Bellino, a retired Air Traffic Controller. He was with the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) and after the 1981 Controllers strike he became the local union rep for the new National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA). Joe was a regional union VP from 1986 to 1990, and also the Executive VP of NATCA from 1991 to 1994.

We talk about NextGen ATC, controller fatigue, types of people who make good controllers and how to test them (or not) for native ability, aircraft separation, and other air traffic control topics.

The week’s aviation news:

In this week’s Australia Desk report: Air Australia goes bankrupt only three months after re-branding from Strategic, leaving 4,000 passengers stranded and 96,000 ticket holders wondering if they’ll get any refund. We’re joined by senior aviation journalist Ben Sandilands as we discuss the events and what led up to them. The news provided a perfect diversion for Qantas CEO Allan Joyce, as he delivered very poor profit figures and announced 500 job cuts during the week.

Find Ben Sandilands online at Plane Talking and follow him on Twitter as @planetalking. 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.

On Across The Pond this week, Pieter talks to James Cliff, PR Executive and Commentator for the Blades Display Team, one of Europes best aerobatic display teams.

You can find The Blades team on Twitter at @thebladesteam on the Web at www.theblades.biz, and on Facebook as The Blades Aerobatic Team. Pieter can be found on Twitter as @Nascothornet or XTP Media’s Facebook Page.

Mentioned in the episode:

White 767s at Dulles maps.google.com 38.942792,-77.449264

Links from listeners:

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/.

Episode 127 – Required Navigation Performance

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RNP Flight Paths

Our guest this episode is Captain Steve Fulton. As a pilot at Alaska Airlines, Steve helped develop the world’s first Required Navigation Performance (RNP) procedure, and he was a principal author of the RNP RNAV criteria in the FAA Advisory Circular on this topic. Steve is now a Technical Fellow with GE Aviation, and a co-founder of what was formerly Naverus now GE PBN Services.

Graphic courtesy GE Aviation. To learn more about RNP and what it means for the airline industry and for the environment, see these videos:

We also have the aviation news from the past week, Steve and Grant’s Australia Desk Report, and Pieter Johnson with his Across the Pond segment.

The week’s aviation news:

Mentions:

  • TarmacLimits.com The impact of tree-hour tarmac delay rules and fines on passenger travel time and welfare.
  • AirlinesAngel has a passion for aviation, with specific interest in the areas of customer focus and social media.

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/.

Episode 100 – The First Hundred

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To celebrate the first hundred episodes, Rob, Max, David, and Dan are joined by founding co-host Courtney Miller. We discuss the week’s aviation news and reminisce a bit about the first hundred Airplane Geeks episodes. That plus This Week in Aviation and the Australia Desk report.

The news:

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/.

Episode 96 – Karlene’s Flight to Success

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Delta A330 by Mark Hsiung

Our guest this week is Karlene Petitt, a long time airline pilot, currently flying with Delta. She blogs at Flight to Success and she’s also an emerging author. Karlene describes her training to fly the A330, what it’s like to pilot for a major U.S. airline, and how pilots like to be in control but sometimes are not. Karlene also brings a lot of good insight into current airline news. We had such an interesting conversation with Karlene that we had to skip a lot of the news.

Benet Wilson from AviationWeek helps out with the co-hosting. By the way, she’s got a new blog going called The TRAVEL World According to Benet. Also, Steve Visscher and Grant McHerron from the Plane Crazy Down Under podcast joined us live for the news:

David returns to provide his This Week in Aviation history segment.

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.

Thanks to Mark Hsiung for permission to use his Delta A330 photograph above.

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/.

Episode 95 – Alaskan Bush Pilots

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1943-Norseman-Aircraft by Jim Oltersdorf

Jim Oltersdorf joins us to talk about bush flying in Alaska. Jim is a pilot and an accomplished aviation and outdoor photographer and writer. He thrives in extreme and high-risk areas, and he’s produced a high def documentary film called Alaska’s Bush Pilots, The Real Deal , A true story about the pilots, their aircraft, nature and the wilderness of Alaska. You can find Jim’s personal page at http://www.joltersdorf.com/ and his site for the film at http://www.alaskasbushpilots.com/.

We also have with us this episode Bob Poole, the founder of the Reason Foundation, a free market think tank. Bob has some interesting things to say about the NextGen ATC system that’s been in the works for over a decade. Bob was among the first to propose the commercialization of the U.S. air traffic control system, and his work has helped shape proposals for a U.S. air traffic control corporation.

We favored our guests over the news this time, but we did mention:

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. Find more BroLo at his site: http://www.brotherloverocks.com/.