If you're ever flying east of Austin, TX, look for this landmark. A land owner carved his last name, "Luecke," out of trees and bushes. The letters are half a mile high, and the word is two and a half miles long, big enough that it can occasionally be seen from the Space Shuttle as it passes overhead. I saw it for the first time about a decade ago as I flew a DC-10 from Orlando to Los Angeles. From 39,000 feet, it was so big it startled me. (The photo above simulates what it would look like from 60,000 feet up!)Google Earth allows you to zoom in on the carving and examine it in great detail. The closer you get, the more you appreciate the work that went into creating it, and how utterly huge the thing is.Isn't it amazing what some people do with their spare time?
The Australian government has killed another aviation business, this time an aerial safari company whose tours were on my list of Things to Do in Life. Read about it on the business' own website.We have to be vigilant here in the U.S. for this kind of misunderstanding about General Aviation. There are more than a few politicians who'd like to see every airplane that's not a business jet or airliner grounded permanently. It can only happen if we let it happen.
Let's imagine, for a minute, that you're a successful business person, a wealthy adventurer, or just an average person with big dreams. (Maybe you already are, in which case you'll be even more interested in this.)You learn about the rapid advances in technology which have allowed private Space Tourism to begin blossoming as an actual, viable endeavor. You watch in fascination as Burt Rutan and his talented crew from Scaled Composites devolop Space Ship One and win the Ansari X-Prize by launching it to the edge of space (not just once, but several times!). Every week, it seems, you read about some new effort to develop a private spaceplane. You dream about the day when you might be able to actually buy a ticket for such a flight. You learn that Rutan is, right now, developing Space Ship Two, a commercial space plane, and that several others are close to actually taking advance reservations for suborbital flights.
You're a smart person, though. You know that despite the apparent ease with which these first, fledgling privately-funded steps into space have taken place, anything involving space travel will come with inherent risks. You know that a million things can happen. However, you're savvy enough and intelligent enough to weigh the risks against the rewards, and you decide for yourself that the risks and financial costs are worth it. To see the blackness of space, view the majesty of the curvature of the earth, and feel the freedom of Zero-G while you take in a spectacular view of our home planet would be an experience beyond words.You'd be forgiven for laughing out loud (or maybe crying) if you read the FAA's recently proposed regulations for space flight. Someone out there might be able to wade though its weighty 120 pages and count the number of times that it addresses "Release of Liability," but I don't have the patience to do so.Its final irony -- the paragraph that brings the lofty endeavor and magnificence of spaceflight right down to ground level, as only the FAA could do -- is the final one. Here it is:= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =Federal Register: December 29, 2005
Docket Number FAA-2005-23449
AGENCY: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), DOT.
ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM).
Human Space Flight Requirements for Crew and Space Flight Participants
Sec. 460.53 Security.
An operator must implement security requirements to prevent any space flight participant from jeopardizing the safety of the flight crew or the public. A space flight participant may not carry on board any explosives, firearms, knives, or other weapons.
Issued in Washington, DC, on December 22, 2005.
Patricia G. Smith
Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation.
[FR Doc. 05-24555 Filed 12-23-05; 10:26 am]
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Kinda brings a lump to your throat, doesn't it?Thanks, FAA, for reminding us that travel in any kind of moving conveyance is a dangerous activity, and for looking out for the safety of future space travelers who might be tempted to bring along a sidearm, or maybe some fireworks, to celebrate their $200,000 trip to the edge of the atmosphere. We'll all feel much safer about the experience now.
Here's wishing everyone in the aviation industry a Happy New Year. I hope we have a better year in 2006 than we've had in the last several years. I'm pretty optimistic. There are a lot of wonderful things on the horizon for all of us.Technology is delivering better and faster information to the cockpit, and we're finally beginning to see truly user-friendly software and hardware that delivers what we've always been promised: useful, clearly-presented, real-time weather information; comprehensive Electronic Flight Instrumentation Systems (EFIS) that don't cost as much as a four-bedroom home; engine and systems monitors that can record thousands of datapoints for post-flight scrutiny; low(er)-cost Traffic Collision Avoidance Systems and Ground Proximity Warning Systems for general aviation; more realistic simulators and training devices; graphical flight-planning software; and the list goes on.Many new aircraft designs are appearing, new paradigms of air travel are in the works and, presumably, more aviation career opportunites will follow. Air travel in the USA is safer than it's ever been, and the oft-assured and long-awaited collapse of the major airlines hasn't occured.It's not all roses. We must continue to address the destructive factors that have crept in to our industry, including the rapidly-mounting cost of liability insurance that threatens entrepreneurial innovation and private ownership of aircraft; absurd TSA "security" requirements; draconican airspace grabs, such as the Washington, DC ADIZ; pop-up TFRs; repeated threats to the warbird and vintage-aricraft communities which threaten to ground our aircraft; costly and largely unnecessary Airworthiness Directives; and the current pension crisis that threatens many US companies, including airlines.Pilots, we have little direct control over many of these issues, so we should concentrate on those we can control. Specifically, we need to make sure that we don't contribute to our problems by doing stupid stuff. For example, the repeated violations of restricted airspace by private pilots has kept General Aviation in the public limelight this year, especially among politicians and the media. Let's all make a New Year's Resolution to improve upon that unenviable track record next year.Best wishes and happy flying. I look forward to 2006!
Does anyone out there have any information about this video -- where and when it was shot, for instance?
Pulling Closed
by Buck Wyndham
Dedicated to those who know what it means.
* * * * * * * * *
Flash-Flash. Flash.
Crystalline strobes of reflected sunlight pierce the clear air
Bounced from frozen ponds and ice-covered marshland,
Unseen from any angle except ours
We rise fast, without effort, tilted as far as mathematics allows
One wing toward the bright sun
The other at farms and fields and woods,
And a man shoveling snow from his driveway
Higher in seconds than any other conveyance except dreams
Could provide
We know what is coming.
Our horizon will expand to reach the edges of world
And details of river and city and roads will begin to blur
Into a great continuity of life and fractal patterns.
Attachment to detail will fade
And attraction to the whole will grow stronger.
But right now, in this place that few ever see
In this in-between place of low and fast and rising,
We enjoy the seconds of bliss
And observe with fascination the details of the
Receding quilt of life below.
The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) has created an online multimedia program entitled Guide to Talking to Reporters. It's seven minutes long, free, and very worthwhile. You can watch it right now on your computer.Most people in aviation don't have a clue how to deal with a reporter who suddenly appears and wants their opinion about an aircraft incident or accident, or a story involving a local airport. Too often, people's comments are taken out of context, misunderstood, heavily edited, or poorly delivered in the first place. This program presents the basics on what to do and what not to do, for the good of the aviation community, when a reporter sticks a microphone in your face.
This program is highly recommended viewing for all General Aviation pilots and aircraft owners.
