Speed & Angels

I found this interesting documentary that follows two Navy pilots, Meagan and Jay, on the road to becoming fighter pilots. It centers around the now retired F-14 Tomcat and looks to be a must-see for Tomcat fans. Below is a brief abstract of Speed & Angels:

In 2003, Director Peyton Wilson entered the world of U.S. Navy fighter pilots. Thanks to unprecedented access granted by the Navy, Peyton captured and created the most intimate film ever made on fighter pilots. Epic High Definition aerial footage and stunning cockpit photography provide a dramatic backdrop for the larger story of fighting for your dreams.

Inspired by the passion of two young Navy officers she encountered, Peyton followed Jay and Meagan as they chased their childhood dream of becoming naval aviators flying the F-14 Tomcat. Their two and a half year journey takes them through dogfights in the Nevada desert, night landings on aircraft carriers off the Atlantic coast, and eventually to the biggest challenge young officers face: wartime deployment to Iraq.

What begins as a story of realizing a childhood dream turns into a story of fighting for one's life and career as Jay and Meagan face the realities of war.

Based on the original concept of producer F.A. Chierici, Speed and Angels is directed by Peyton Wilson.

The DVD goes on sale January 30th for $19.99 USD. Be sure to check out the preview videos and photo gallery.

Better late than never...

Thanks to both Jon and Nick for this, as I have been deep in the development trenches... Brett "Mavyryk" Schnepf has now began to blog a bit about things related to Flight Simulator ... and now Train Simulator. Brett also speaks of what he calls the "The Ronnie Van Zant School of Mynygmynt." You see, Brett is a huge Lynyrd Skynyrd fan. How he approaches his job, has been influenced in some way by a Skynyrd song... Thus, the RVZ School of Mynygmynt is born. Brett gives a taste of this radical thinking here...it's worth the read!

Glad to see you around, Brett!

Congratulations Bell 206 for 40 great years!

Who knew when in 1967 that Bell Helicopter delivered its first two Bell 206A helicopters that the series would be around 40 years later, being produced as strong as ever? Bell Helicopter announces today its 40th anniversary of the Bell 206, a helicopter that is near and dear to my heart! Upward and onward Bell 206!

Mike Shore Photography

I recently made the acquaintance of Mike Shore, a professional photographer from Austin, Texas. Mike's specialties are climbing/outdoor, landscapes, medical and aviation. Just have a look at his gallery to see some examples of the incredible shots he has taken over the past year. His Red Bull Air Race images will take your breath!

Follow the 500th Columbia

Spawning from Lancair, Columbia Aircraft Corporation in Bend, Oregon has a long history of making composite GA aircraft that is continually recognized for excellence. To celebrate their 500^th production aircraft off the production line, Columbia has created a web portal to follow it along the production process. It is quite interesting to see how composite aircraft are created in an assembly line - I invite you to have a look.

iFly - ground breaking new Aero Club

How cool is this? For the equivalent cost of owning and operating a older, antequated aircraft, you can have access to one of the most advanced single engine piston aircraft in existence, the Columbia 350. Erik R. Lindbergh, who I had the pleasure of meeting when I was at the AOPA fly-in June of this year, has co-founded this innovative new company. Too bad that for the time being, it is located only at a handful of airports in southern California. I hope that it becomes really successful, and spreads across the country.

Each Columbia 350 in their fleet will utilize the GARMIN G1000 with READY Pad^tm, an exclusive user interface device for Columbia aircraft. We at Eaglesoft do have plans for incorporating the Mindstar Aviation G1000 into the Columbia. No date set though...

Tomorrow, I'll be there...will you?

Three days into AirVenture, and already I've missed a lot! On Monday, Cessna announced their entry into the LSA arena with a proof of concept aircraft to test the feasibility of that section of the market. They also surprised the crowd with a flying demonstration of the Next Generation Piston they intend to produce. I'm very impressed with the sleek lines of this new aircraft, as it appears that composite construction will play a key role in its development.

Tuesday, Honda announced their intentions to mass produce the HondaJet. I can't wait to have a look at this plane. I know that they have been testing this aircraft in Greensboro, NC at their Honda Americas R&D facility. Honda has produced a cool video showing it off too.

Who knows what else will be announced at Oshkosh!

See you at Oshkosh!

It is with great pleasure that I announce my attendance at EAA's Airventure 2006, all courtesy of the fine folks at Microsoft's ACES Studios! You see, I have been "deputized" as a junior FS evangelist by Hal, and will be lending a hand at the FSX booth at Hangar B Thursday through Sunday, July 27th-30th. I have been penciled in to be at the booth each afternoon from 1-5pm.

There will be a handful of other junior FS evangelists there giving the ACES team a hand in spreading the good word at Oshkosh. They range from ACES alumni, ACES team friends, and current 3rd party developers. Let me introduce you to:

Jon Bach - Jon is Corporate Intellect Manager and Senior Test Consultant for Quardev Laboratories, a Seattle test lab specializing in rapid, exploratory testing. In his ten-year career, he has led projects for many corporations, including Microsoft, where he was a test manager on Systems Management Server 2.0 and feature lead on FS 2004.

Roy McMillion - Roy is an ACES alumnus, once on the test team for FS 98 through FS 2004. You can check out his "about" page to learn more about him. Roy works with Jon at Quardev Laboratories and does aviation photography in the Puget Sound area as a semi-professional hobby.

Glenn Norman & Michelle Goodeve - Glenn & Michelle are a colorful couple from Canada who are friends of Hal. Glenn is an astronomer, writer, and pilot, who is rarely seen without his actor/writer/pilot parter Michelle.

Katy Pluta - Katy is a Microsoft FS MVP (and has been for as long as I can remember) and is on the Project Magenta team. Katy is often found in the flightsim usenet newsgroups, giving a helping hand to those in a bind, and is also known to frequent the Simflight forums as well.

Justin Lamb - Justin is a good friend of mine that I've known for several years, thanks to Flight Simulator. Justin has done many repaints, namely for aircraft produced by Kirk Olsson.

Of course the booth will also be manned by official ACES team members, but they were unable to pull a full compliment away from Redmond, hence their calling in the reserves.

I look forward to seeing you there!

AOPA Fly-In - how fun!

I was lucky enough to get to tag along with Roy and his instructor, Jeff Simpson, this past Saturday flying up to the AOPA Fly-In at KFDK in Frederick, MD. Roy was seen as some sort of celebrity, as we were told by many that this was the first time an award aircraft has made the trip back to Frederick during the Fly-In. Roy even got a mention on their Fly-In highlights page!

I got to meet Erik Lindberg, the new spokesman for the AOPA Project Pilot program. I also met Tom Horne, editor for AOPA Pilot magazine, who is also responsible for the restoration of the Cherokee Six they are giving away this year. The highlight was Rod Machado and his hangar talk. According to Roy, the trip was worth seeing him alone!

It took about 3 hrs to get up there, and about 2.75 hrs. getting back. I even got a chance to check out the in-flight entertainment by watching a DVD for a bit on the way back. Speaking of that, be sure to check out where AOPA has put a screen in the Six. Thanks for an awesome trip, Roy!

Are you with me Steve?

Funny video of this guy getting some high-G medicine. Watch how he tries to keep chewing his gum!

Rest in peace Scott...

The aviation community mourns the loss of Scott Crossfield, the man who was the first to achieve Mach 2 and was the lead test pilot for the famous X-15. He was flying home Wednesday from Alabama to Virginia in his Cessna 210A N6579X when he encountered trouble northwest of Atlanta, GA. Eyewitnesses claim that they heard the engine shut off in flight and several thunderstorms were in the area at the time. The plane was found in a heavily wooded area, so finding a suitable emergency landing spot must have been out of the question. His luck at avoiding death had run it's course...

Scott was known for his death-defying moments during his test pilot years. The one that I remember most was where the #3 X-15 rocket motor malfunctioned and blew up as he was in the cockpit during a ground test. My sincere condolences to the family.

Interesting local Jetport news : FAA news site

While browsing the local television station's site for the current weather radar signature, I happened to glance at the front page, and saw an interesting story regarding the ATC radar at KGSP, the closest jetport to me. I also found an article at the local newspaper's site as well. It seems that the trees are causing blind spots in the radar screen, causing aircraft to suddenly disappear and then reappear on the screen. According to the WSPA story, there was a close call with a near mid-air collision recently due to the problem. Doing a search, I haven't seen any other problems at other airfields in recent history due to trees blocking the radar.

It's kind of interesting to note that the chairman of the board at GSP is none other than Roger Milliken, the former CEO of Milliken & Company, the company I am employed. He's a huge supporter of the environment, and has an extrordinary love for anything relating to plant life. In fact, he has a staff horticulturist that looks after all plant life on his 70 or so manufacturing locations. That being said, I'm sure Roger is cringing a bit knowing that they are cutting down trees that he (probably) had planted many years ago.

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While doing my searches for relavent information regarding airport radar, I found a pretty interesting site that summarizes all FAA-related news that is current. Since the FAA is pretty much where it's at for all things aviation (at least here in the states), it seems to be a good place to find out what's going on. Check it out.

Oracle Challenger destroyed!

Sean D. Tucker is one of the premier aerobatic demonstration pilots in the country - at least for now, he'll have to find another aircraft to perform those aerobatic displays. Today, Sean had to bail the Oracle Challenger while performing a practice flight in Louisiana near Shreveport this morning. I first read about this on Aero-News.Net this morning soon after it occurred. A local television station posted this report showing the extent of the damage to the Challenger.

The Oracle Challenger is especially memorable to me, as it was a particular paint scheme I painted for my friend Mikko's FS 2002 version of the Challenger. I hope Sean is able to get another aircraft constructed that was as cool as the Challenger.

An Airbus A380 built in 7 minutes!

Watch this amazing 7 minute time lapse video showing the complex logistical achievements of Airbus in constructing the new A380.

I am uncertain of the time frame that actually takes place, but the ballet of workers that coordinate and place this monster together sure make it look easy!!


Just look at the torque wrenches being used to attach those Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines! I'm particularly impressed with those large main gear mechanisms. The doors are quite complex - a great challenge for anyone wishing to recreate them within an environment such as Flight Simulator.

I'm not too much into heavy iron, but I just find this aircraft to be simply amazing in design and aeronautical achievement. This aircraft is something that was illustrated as a hypothetical "cruise liner of the sky" in Popular Mechanics and Popular Science magazines that I often read in my younger years. I never really thought would become a reality. I guess that's what I get for thinking.

Bob Hoover's amazing aerobatics

Thanks Mike for linking me to this incredible video showing footage of R.A. Bob Hoover in a BBC documentary describing and showing how he performs incredible aerobatics first with engines off in his North American Rockwell Shrike Commander 500S, and then he performs a loop while pouring a glass of tea...without spilling a drop!! I sure wish I were able to have seen this first hand!

Advanced Garmin 480 feature

I was browsing a few aviation related blogs that I enjoy reading from time to time, and I ran across this interesting article describing the hold function of the Garmin 480. I find it quite interesting to note the Garmin 480 is the "...only panel mounted GPS with WAAS that is IFR certified under TSO C146 for use as primary navigation." John goes on to describe this as being able to navigate along airways, such as a VOR, even if the waypoint is out of service. Interestingly enough, the Garmin 430/530 and G1000 are certified under TSO C129 for IFR flight, meaning that they cannot be used as primary navigation if any navigational aid is out of service.

He has several nice screens showing what a hold looks like, and how if the aircraft is so equipped, can be flown with the autopilot. This is quite interesting, as I have done several practice holds with Roy in his Twin Comanche, and he just so happens to have the Garmin 480 in his plane.

Listen to live ATC streamed over the 'net!

A good friend of mine sent me a link the other day for streaming ATC chatter. The site's called LiveATC.net and if you have an interest in hearing traffic at your favorite aiport, give the site a "look and listen." There are a lot of major airports in the USA and some international ones as well. All that is required is Windows Media Player.