Airspeed

See the full show notes at www.airspeedonline.com. We talk to Boeing Stearman PT-17 pilot John Mohr of Mohr Barnstorming at the Battle Creek Balloon Festival and Field of Flight Air Show. John will be at Oshkosh July 23 through 29 and then he performs August 11-12 at the Bay City Air Show at Bay City, Michigan, August 18-19 at the Canada Remembers Air Show at Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and then August 25-26 at the Wichita Flight Festival at Withica, Kansas. After that, it’s on to Toronto, Terre Haute, Columbus, St. Petersburg, Randolph AFB, and Stuart, Florida. See more schedule information at http://www.mohrbarnstorming.com/. Thanks to John for taking some time to talk to us at Airspeed and thanks also to the Battle Creek Balloon Festival and Field of Flight Air Show. http://www.bcballoons.com/.

We talk to LCDR Craig Olson, Opposing Solo of the US Navy Blue Angels.  Dan McNew and I were treated to a Blue angels demonstration flight from the ramp of the Western Michigan University School of Aviation on the northeast corner of the field at Battle Creek International Airport (KBTL) in Battle Creek, Michigan. The Blue Angels arrived at about 10:30 local and the diamond and the solos, respectively, flew familiarization maneuvers between then and 2:30. The team then flew a full demo before meeting us out by the aircraft for interviews. Full show notes at www.airspeedonline.com. Blue Angels: www.blueangels.navy.mil US Navy Recruiting: www.navy.com US Marine Corps Recruiting: www.marines.com

We ran into Maj Jason Koltes, USAF, on the ramp at Battle Creek and managed to buttonhole him for a few minuteds to talk about the F-16 Fighting Falcon and what it's like to train and fly in the workhorse of the US fighter arsenal. See more about the Viper East F-16 Demo teams at http://www.shaw.af.mil/library/vipereast/index.asp.More about the Air Force in airspeed's sidebar or at www.airforce .com.

We interview Kathy Rocco, a director of the Battle Creek Field of Flight Air Show and Balloon Festival, on the Monday before the air show kicks off. Talk about busy!Get out to an air show this summer and, when you do, thank a volunteer.Check out the Battle Creek Field of Flight Air Show and Balloon Festival website at http://www.bcballoons.com/ for more information!See the NOTAM at http://tfr.faa.gov/save_pages/detail_7_5775.html.

Steve goes up in a highly-modified Pitts S-2C with pilot Brett Hunter.  Yeah, baby!

In the words of today's guest, "You're not truly sh*t hot until there's a comic about you." This week, we talk to Austin "Farva" May, the author of the relatively new web comic "Air Force Blues." Air Force Blues directs a finely-tuned wit at the US Air Force and fighter pilots in particular. We caught up with Farva at his home during a recent evening to talk about the Air Force, flying, and comics. May was an airborne surveillance technician on the Boeing E-3 Sentry for four years. The E-3 is a a military airborne warning and control system (AWACS) aircraft that provides surveillance, command, control and communications in all weather conditions. Click here for interview audio.Additional information: Air Force Blues website: www.afblues.com Farva's AWACker MySpace page: www.myspace.com/awackerWikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Force_Blues USAF Recruiting: www.airforce.com AWACker at Chairforce: http://www.chairforce.com/fun/awacker/awacker.htmCAPblog's entry about AWACker.com: http://capblog.ty

It's time once again to talk about the Civil Air Patrol, the auxiliary of the United States Air Force and one of the best volunteer opportunities in the country. As many of you know, I'm a CAP captain and the legal officer of the Oakland Composite Squadron (GLR-MI-238) and I also handle recruiting and public affairs duties.For this episode, we invited Midway Six, a Civil Air Patrol Captain and publisher of CAPblog, to join us to talk Civil air Patrol for part of a pleasant spring evening.E-mail us at steve@airspeedonline.com or leave voicemail at 206-339-8697 any time - day or night. You can also contact me directly at 248-470-7944.CAP Contacts:Website: www.cap.govTelephone: 800-FLY-2338CAPblog:http://capblog.typepad.comOakland Composite Squadron (GLR-MI-238) (My squadron!)www.oaklandcomposite.org

Long-time listeners to Airspeed will recall the episode we did last February about whole-airplane ballistic recovery parachutes and about Ballistic Recovery Systems, Inc., better known to some as BRS Parachutes.I’m a fan of the whole idea of ballistic recovery chutes. They provide an out in those relatively rare cases where no amount of diligence, skill, or luck will prevent you and your aircraft from having an unplanned interface with the planet. I’m talking about a control surface malfunction, loss of certain instruments in IMC, midair collisions, and engine failures where you’re too low, over unlandable terrain, or flying at night.Recent deployments in both a Cirrus SR22 and a German ultralight that produced the company’s 200th and 201st saves – as well as the popularity of the systems in new light sport aircraft – warrant revisiting the company and its products.BRS was founded in 1980 and is based in South St. Paul, Minnesota. The company develops and commercializes whole-aircraft emergency recovery parac

Here in the US and elsewhere in the northern hemisphere, airshow season is either here or right around the corner. Weâ??re making some early calls to some of the performers that youâ??ll see this summer to get a preview of the upcoming season and to find out a little more about what makes them tick.Michael Mancuso is a fixture on the airshow circuit and this is his 10th year doing shows. He has 7,000 hours total time and commercial and instructor certificates. He started flying gliders at age 11 and soloed for the first time when he was 13. He and his family own Mid Island Air Service on Long Island in New York and Michael started Gyroscopic Obsessions in 1995 to teach aerobatics.He competed in IAC aerobatics from 1992 to 1997 and then spent from 1998 to 2000 with the Northern Lights.Michael flies the Klein Tools Extra 300L. The 300L is about 23 feet long and nine feet tall at the tail, and has a wingspan of about 25 feet. Itâ??s powered by a Textron Lycoming AEIO 540-L1B5 300 horsepower engine connected to a

Here's a change of pace from me running at the mouth. It's audio culled from three or four days of stalking airplanes through the rain, mist, clouds, and some sunshine.I though that it might be nice to shut up and just listen to the great big radial engine of Gene Soucy's Showcat or the JP-5 conversion stylings of the F-16 (both Thunderbirds and ships from the 107th Fighter Squadron at Selfridge ANGB), the F-15, and the A-10.The picture on the blog post is from the first day at Battle Creek. Spitting rain most of the day, but Gene Soucy was right up there in it, flying his heart out for the crowd.  

Many of us think of test pilots as leather-faced guys in Nomex flight suits with eyes permanently reduced to slits by squinting into the sun across Rogers Dry Lake Bed at Edwards Air Force Base. And there are some of those.But today we're going to talk about some test pilots who look a lot more like you and me. In fact, they are you and me.Now I'm not suggesting that you go strap some JATO rockets to your RV-4 and push the big red button. What I'm talking about is systematically exploring the operating characteristics of the aircraft you fly and yourself as the pilot.Here's an example. I've always wondered just how much altitude I would need to have before I'd consider trying to turn around and land on the departure runway if I lost the engine shortly after takeoff. There's even a great article about that very subject in AOPA pilot from four or five years ago. But I wanted to know what the numbers would be for the aircraft that I regularly fly and especially for me personally as the pilot in command.So I deci

Check out the audio for a great description of the fast-growing sport of powered paragliding. An aircraft that costs less than $7,000 that you can easily fit in your trunk and that you can learn to safely operate with five days of training? You bet!Not much in the way of transcript for this episode. I managed to get up on a flight this morning and did the intro and other housekeeping over the aircraft intercom for that "Yes-Captain-Force-actually-flies-aircraft-every-so-often" effect that's been so lacking since the weather and my professional obligations have conspired to keep me on the ground.We were recording for an upcoming episode that'll be called "Test Pilot: You" or something to that effect. The order of the day was to determine the minimum altitude from which one might consider returning to the runway in the case of an engine failure on departure. The larger mission was to show how GA pilots can - and should - explore the actual operational capabilities of their aircraft and themselves under controll

This episode is the first in a series that will run through spring. No yet idea how many episodes will be in the series or exactly what the content will be, but we know this: Spring will be here soon and with it the best time of year in the Northern Hemisphere to learn to fly. And, for that matter, there's still a lot of good flying weather left for those listeners in the Southern Hemisphere.If you've never been up in a general aviation airplane - or if you have, but haven't yet made the decision to start flight training in earnest, these episodes are for you. They're also for people who have started training on a certificate or rating but, for whatever reason, have stopped training.I know exactly what I'm talking about here. I didn't start flight training until my mid thirties. I had a year-long hiatis in my training for the private pilot certificate when my son was born. And I always seem to have a hiatis toward the end of the year because my law practice tends to get very busy at that time of the year. Cas

It's the season for icing here in the midwest. As some instrument-rated and other pilots can tell you, few things have higher pucker factor than looking out at your wings while you're in the clouds and seeing ice begin to form. Most general aviation aircraft don't have de-icing equipment on board and even those that do often aren't certified for flight into known icing conditions.For most GA pilots, that means avoiding icing in the first place - and that requires the development and use of the most effective anti-icing tool you have. Your noggin.Few are more qualified to provide authoritative information about icing than the professionals on the Icing Team and in the Flight Operations team at NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. We had the opportunity recently to talk to NASA Glenn pilots Kurt Blankenship and Bill Rieke and researcher Dr. Judy Van Zante, a contractor with ASRC Aerospace.Bill Rieke is chief of aircraft operations at the NASA Glenn. He began his flying career with the U. S. Navy in 19

Welcome to the second episode in our two-part series covering the modified Boeing 747s that NASA uses carry the space shuttle orbiters when they need to be repositioned between Edwards Air Force Base in California, Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and other locations. We talked about the basics of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, or "SCAs" in Part One, in which we also interviewed SCA crew chief Pete Seidl. If you missed that episode or if you're a recent subscriber, please be sure to download that episode as well. Today we're going to talk to one of the pilots who flies NASA's SCAs. To say that Gordon Fullerton is an SCA pilot would be true, but to stop there would be to fail to outline as rich an aviation and aerospace career as anyone could claim. He's presently associate director of flight operations at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in Southern California. In addition to flying the SCAs, his assignments include a variety of flight research and support activities piloting a variety of multi-engine an

Subscribe to Airspeed through iTunes or your other favorite podcatcher using the feed http://airspeed.libsyn.com/rss or listen to audio at http://airspeed.libsyn.com.Everyone knows that the orbiter of the Space Transportation System (or "STS," and more popularly called the "Space Shuttle) doesn't always land back at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral in Florida. Sometimes, it lands at Edwards Air Force Base and, if needed, it could land at White Sands or one of several other emergency landing sites around the world.That's great, but it puts the orbiter several thousand miles away from its launching facility at the cape.So how does the orbiter get around? Most of you know that the answer is that you mount it on the top of a specially-modified Boeing 747 called a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft or "SCA." But, if you're like me, you probably didn't know much about the SCAs. How are they different from a stock 747? How many are there? What's it like to maintain an aircraft like that? What's it like to fly it?Wel

Subscribe to Airspeed through iTunes or your favorite podcatcher using the feed http://airspeed.libsyn.com/rss or listen to the audio at http://airspeed.libsyn.com. See the show notes at http://www.airspeedonline.blogspot.com. _________________________________________________ An air traffic controller gave me a number to copy the other day. And it was a good thing.I spent a little time this week on the phone with Mark Schad, who is a terminal area controller for the area surrounding Lambert-St.Louis International Airport. 13 million passengers went through the airport in 2004. Besides being the airport featured in Planes, Trains & Automobiles and a Seinfeld episode, it has 25 separately-charted approaches, including simultaneous close parallels. And that doesn't include all the satellite airports for which St. Louis approach provides approach and departure control. More than enough for any controller or pilot to shake a stick at.Mark is also a pilot with enough ratings to have to get a separate bag for hi

See the Airspeed blog and show notes at www.airspeedonline.blogspot.com. Sometimes, it's good to stir things up a little. This episode has nothing to do with aviation, aerospace, jet fuel, or tearing up the sky. If you're in the mood for an aviation-related episode and don't want to listen to anything else, please skip this episode and pick us back up in January. If you're tuning in ffor the first time, my apologies. This really is an aviation and aerospace show and you can check out prior episodes for your aviation fix until the first new episode of 2007 comes out. But we're going to change things up this time. Airspeed is about to pay an homage that the podsphere owes to a very special medium and a very special time. Airspeed is finishing out a great first year. A year in which we've met lots of new people, flown in a lot in different aircraft, and realized the dream of the podsphere - Ordinary people making the closest thing they can to art and reaching out to touch other ordinary people. If you're older -

See the blog at www.airspeedonline.blogspot.com. Today we're going to revisit one of the most important aspects of flying - And that's the music you listen to while you do it!Sure, there are more important things - like safety - but the fact remains that putting together the right soundtrack can make your flying even more inspiring. If you have an audio input to the intercom in the aircraft you fly or otherwise have a means of listening to music while you fly here's some music that you should consider adding to your playlist.Bear in mind that safety comes first. If the music results in any chance of discraction or a miscommunication or failure to give or receive a communication necessary for the safety of the flight, leave your music player at home. But if you can manage the volume of the player, not have to fumble with it when your should be doing other things (playlists are helpful here), and satisfy yourself as pilot in command that you can hear and be heard in the cockpit and at the controller's workstati

It's December 3.  I had hoped to post a new episode this weekend, but the usual stuff that happens to me in December is happening again.  Not surprising, really, but I thought I'd give you a shout to let you know that I'm not podfading.  Just busy as heck with stuff that puts food on the table, so I have to put off for a little bit the stuff that puts fire in the belly. Stay subscribed!  I have interviews in the can from two different NASA centers, permission from a rock group of which you may have heard to use some great music for a spoken-word piece, and special permission for New Year's airing of one of the best-kept secrets in narrative. So stay subscribed.  I'll be thinking of you guys and producing the new episodes in fits and starts as I get the chance. Fly safe!