Touring Machine Company

There is a new requirement for aircraft to be re-registered every three years. The FAA will mail registration documents to the address they have on file for you—unless they’ve mailed something and it’s been returned. The schedule for registration is as follows. The FAA will cancel the N-numbers of aircraft that are not re-registered or renewed. The re-registration fee for the first round will be $5.00.

Certificate Issued         Certificate Expires    Re-registration Required  (Any year)

        March                March 31, 2011           Nov. 1, 2010-Jan. 31, 2011

        April                June 30, 2011            Feb. 1 - April 30, 2011

        May                  Sept. 30, 2011           May 1- July 31, 2011

        June                 Dec. 31, 2011            Aug. 1- Oct. 31, 2011

        July                 March 31, 2012           Nov. 1, 2011-Jan. 31, 2012

        August               June 30, 2012            Feb. 1- April 30, 2012

        September            Sept. 30, 2012           May 1- July 31, 2012

        October              Dec. 31, 2012            Aug. 1- Oct. 31, 2012

        November             March 31, 2013           Nov. 1, 2012-Jan. 31, 2013

        December             June 30, 2013            Feb. 1- April 30, 2013

        January              Sept. 30, 2013           May 1- July 31, 2013

        February             Dec. 31, 2013            Aug. 1- Oct. 31, 2013

				

There is a bit of confusion over when 100 hour inspections are required. Even AOPA is a bit confused.

The FARs covering inspections are discussed in this post. The language covering 100-hour inspections needs to be read carefully. I can’t find the FAA opinion referenced in the following discussion, but it emphasizes the wording of the FAR. For our Cherokee, anyone can providing instruction—though if they are smart they’ll be on our insurance policy. Learning Fundamentals is providing an aircraft. No 100-hour inspection is required. Same thing is true if you use your own aircraft and receive instruction.

In addition, for our Cherokee, the insurance policy explicitly forbids commercial operations. We do not allow carrying a person for hire. Therefore, no 100-hour inspection is required.

I found a clarification letter fron the FAA at Aviation Banter.

May 3, 1984
Mr. Perry Rackers
Jefferson City Flying Service

Dear Mr. Rackers
This is in reply to your request of May 1, 1984, that we render an opinion regarding the applicability
of the 100-hour inspections requirement of Section 91.169(b) of the Federal Aviation Regulations to rental aircraft.
Section 91.169(b) of the Federal Aviation Regulations provides that, except as noted in Section 91.169(c),
a person may not operate an aircraft carrying any person, other than a crewmember, for hire, and may
not give flight instruction for hire in an aircraft which that person provides unless, within the previous 100
hours of time in service, the aircraft has received either an annual or a 100-hour inspection.
If a person merely leases or rents an aircraft to another person and does not provide the pilot, that
aircraft is not required by Section 91.169(b) of the Federal Aviation Regulations to have a 100-hour i
nspection. As noted above, the 100-hour inspection is required only when the aircraft is carrying a
person for hire, or when a person is providing flight instruction for hire, in their own aircraft.
If there are any questions, please advise us.

Sincerely,
/s/
Joseph T. Brennan
Associate Regional Counsel

This spectacular image of sunset on the Indian Ocean was taken by astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The image presents an edge-on, or limb view, of the Earth’s atmosphere as seen from orbit. Read more at NASA.

NASA has another view highlighting polar mesospheric clouds which occur near the boundary between the mesosphere and thermosphere atmospheric layers.

A recent FAA email pointed out this interesting fact about what is commonly referred to as “Maximum Demonstrated Crosswind”. From the Airplane Flying Handbook p. 8-16.

I’ve seen a lot of airplanes and I’ve never seen a placard indicating the demonstrated crosswind velocity. The general rule of thumb I’ve used is that 10kts is no big deal, 15 kts is tricky.

Using the information in the Airplane Flying Handbook, my old 182F has a V_SO (flaps out 40°) of around 51 kts. So the Maximum Demonstrated Crosswind is 10.2 kts. My 210L has a V_SO (landing gear down and flaps out 30°) of 51 kts. So the Maximum Demonstrated Crosswind is 11.3 kts. My Cherokee 140 has a V_SO (flaps out 30°) of around 48 kts. So the Maximum Demonstrated Crosswind is 9.6 kts.

FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION N JO 7110.528

Effective Date: June 30, 2010

SUBJ: Taxi and Ground Movement Operations

1. Purpose of This Notice. This notice amends Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)

Order JO 7110.65, Air Traffic Control, Paragraph 3-7-2, Taxi and Ground Movement Operations, by deleting the phraseology and procedure of issuing “taxi to” when authorizing an aircraft to taxi to an assigned takeoff runway, thus allowing an aircraft to cross all runways/taxiways which the taxi route intersects except the assigned runway.

2. Audience. This notice applies to the Terminal Services organization and all associated air traffic control facilities.

4. Explanation of Policy Change. This change establishes the requirement that an explicit runway crossing clearance be issued for each runway (active/inactive or closed) crossing and requires an aircraft/vehicle to have crossed the previous runway before another runway crossing clearance may be issued. At airports where the taxi route between runway centerlines is less than 1,000 feet apart, multiple runway crossings may be issued after receiving approval by the Terminal Services Director of Operations.

5. Procedures. Change FAA Order JO 7110.65, paragraph 3-7-2, to read as follows:

3-7-2. TAXI AND GROUND MOVEMENT OPERATIONS

Issue the route for the aircraft/vehicle to follow on the movement area in concise and easy to understand terms. The taxi clearance must include the specific route to follow. When a taxi clearance to a runway is issued to an aircraft, confirm the aircraft has the correct runway assignment.

NOTE-
1. A pilot’s read back of taxi instructions with the runway assignment can be considered confirmation of runwayassignment.
2. Movement of aircraft/vehicles on nonmovement areas is the responsibility of the pilot, the aircraft operator, or the airport management.
a. When authorizing an aircraft/vehicle to proceed on the movement area, or to any point other than assigned takeoff runway, specify the route/taxi instructions. If it is the intent to hold the aircraft/vehicle short of any given point along the taxi route, issue the route and then state the holding instructions.
NOTE-
1. The absence of holding instructions authorizes an aircraft/vehicle to cross all taxiways that intersect the taxi route.
2. Movement of aircraftaircraft/vehicles on nonmovement areas is the responsibility of the pilot, the aircraft operator, or the airport management.

Download the pdf

Two Polish hunters from Cleveland hired a pilot to fly them to Canada to hunt moose. They bagged four.

As they started loading the plane for the return trip home, the pilot tells them the plane can take only two moose. The two Poles objected strongly, stating, “Last year we shot four moose, and the pilot let us put them all on board and he had the same plane as yours..”

Reluctantly, the pilot gave in and all four were loaded. Unfortunately, even at full power, the little plane couldn’t handle the load and crashed a few minutes after takeoff.

Climbing out of the wreck, Stanisilaw asked Wladek, “Any idea where we are?”
Wladek replied, “I think we’re pretty close to where we crashed last year.”

GA gets a bad rap in the press sometimes. Here are a few stories of how GA makes it possible to do things you wouldn’t otherwise be able to do. I recently made a post on a ScienceBlogs site where I indicated that high deductibles or co-pays are probably a good thing for managing health insurance costs. I gave my experience as one data point and indicated that I have high deductibles on my car, house, and airplane as well and I end up saving a substantial amount of money. Rather than focus on my proposition that high co-pays are a good way to manage costs, he decided to attack my ability to even comment on the issue, since I am an airplane owner. Several others chimed in as well. I think there is a huge misconception about who owns airplanes and what they use them for. I know dozens of airplane owners and they are split about evenly between people who have regular jobs—electricians, welders, engineers, professors, and lawyers—and those who own their own businesses. All of them own planes that were made in the late 60′s or early 70′—so they are at least 30 years old. A large number of them are worth less than a car, but some are worth more. None are worth more than $200,000. Most of the owners have their plane because it lets them do things that they couldn’t otherwise do. The rest of this post is a list of flights that I’ve done or people I know have done lately.

Mike C from CPA

My last flight is typical of the advantage my MU2 gives me. I flew myself, one employee, and 3 clients to LaBarge near Pittsburgh. There were no airline flights capable of making an 11am meeting time, so that would require flying in the night before. We left the meeting at 4pm which would have required a flight after 6pm that got in around 11pm that night. The cost for such a flight would have been $1,197 with the 5 day advance notice we had. All total, about $7,000 for that trip plus around 30 hours total time invested by 5 people.

In contrast, I took off at 8am CDT, flew into KAGC, made the 11am EDT meeting, was back in the air by 4:40pm EDT, and landing in KEVV by 5:30pm CDT. Total cost (using $750/hour for 3.2 hours) was about $2,400 and time away was around 10 hours. The MU2 was a $4,600 cost advantage, and 20 hours per person, for just one trip!

And the LaBarge trip was for a location that is a major hub! Try doing that to some of my recent destinations such as Franklin, PA, or Bluefield, WV and see what the penalty is for an airline flight! Both those trips were 6 people, too.

The airlines cancel about 2% of their flights, I canceled 0% in 2009. I also didn’t lose any luggage, nor had to deal with the TSA. :-)

Canceled Airline Flight

A friend was scheduled to fly out of our small airport and catch a connecting flight in San Francisco to attend a conference. His girlfriend is in sales for a big company and had meetings and dinners set up during the conference. Their flight was delayed for 2 hours and they were going to miss their connection and not arrive until late the next day. We weren’t able to get to San Francisco in time to catch the flight, but we were able to fly to Los Angeles where they caught another flight. She missed most of the opening reception, but was able to attend the rest of the conference.

Passenger pickup

On two occasions recently I picked up and dropped off relatives using frequent flier miles to travel on the airlines. Because of the way frequent flier seats are allocated, they couldn’t get flights to and from the same city. One person left from San Francisco and returned to Los Angeles. The other left from Santa Barbara and returned to Los Angeles. Rather than renting cars or taking shuttles I dropped them off. An hour flight and a short cab ride is much easier than a four hour drive and the hassles of picking up and dropping off rental cars. And it’s cheaper.

You can’t get there from here.

It’s a four hour drive from the Central Coast to Bakersfield. Depending on the airplane, it’s around an hour. So when my brother needed to fix a sensor on a farm in the Central Valley it was much more efficient to fly over, borrow an airport car from the FBO, fix the sensor and fly back. Rather than taking a whole day, it took about four hours.

You can’t get there from here. Part II

A good customer is in Stockton and once a year he gets a personal visit. It’s a long hot drive but just over an hour by plane.

You can’t get there from here. Part III

The daughter of a friend got an internship this summer at a local bakery. The roads from the Central Valley are quite dangerous and her father didn’t want her to drive it alone for the first time. He drove over with her and we dropped him off at an airport near his house. It took four hours for him to drive over and forty-five minutes to get home.

You can get there, but it’s a long drive.

I rent out a small airplane, a Cherokee 140, that people use from time to time for short trips. This summer it was used by one person to visit his mother in Napa for the weekend—something you couldn’t do if you had to drive. It also used by someone who took his three kids for an overnight visit to their grandfather in San Diego for his 92nd birthday—again something you couldn’t do if you were driving.

You can get there, but it’s a long drive. Part II

There are no flights to Portland Oregon from our airport, you need to fly somewhere else first. Your could drive for 14 hours or you can fly in 4 hours to visit your grandkids

Business trip

You can get really nice tile, ironwork, and woodwork in Mexico but you need to be there to order it if you want to be sure you get what you want. Having a plane means you can fly to Brown Field in San Diego, catch a cab to the border and walk across. It’s less than a two-hour flight but at least a six hour drive.

Business lunch

Recently someone rented the Cherokee to take his girlfriend to San Francisco for a business lunch. The Cherokee isn’t tremendously fast but it is much faster than driving. She arrived at her lunch relaxed and alert—rather than worn our from fighting traffic for four hours. The whole trip—including the lunch, took just five hours.

Vacation

Airline travel is difficult for healthy people, let alone frail old ladies. A friend in his late 80′s frequently visits friends in nearby states in his airplane. He can get to Phoenix in about the same time it takes for the airlines and avoids all of the hassles associated with airline travel.

Just for fun

The Central Coast is really pretty when it turns green with the rains. We recently took a slow flight up the coast just to enjoy the view.

Great article on flutter and why it is a problem for pilots. Breakups in flight because of flutter are rare because of the extensive testing that is done by manufacturers.

This is the video of the Commanche flutter test.

And one of a Boeing 747.

And a longish one on what went into testing the Airbus A380.

Experimental aircraft don’t go through the same kind of testing and breakups are much more common. Flutter is suspected in the breakup of several Zenith kit-built aircraft. Aopa has an article on it here. Zenith has issued a patch kit to address the breakup issues.

This pdf has some interesting pictures of flutter testing in wind tunnels and a bit of history of flutter testing.

And if that’s not enough. Hhere’s a full page of NASA flutter tests.

A Cessna 421 pilot describes his experiences flying for a small company in the 27′s and 80′s. Link

The last flight of a Cessna 421 Link