Who would be willing to pay $84,000 for an airplane trip from Chicago to Tacoma, Wash.? The folks at the Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma would, when the passenger is a beluga whale calf. The whale was flown aboard a chartered Air Force DC-8. “The animal was in a cradle made of fiberglass and reinforced […]
News
Relocation of Florida’s Panama City Airport moves forward: State and federal grants so far total more than $139 million
The FAA has awarded a $72 million grant for the relocation of Panama City-Bay County International Airport (PFN) in Florida. Those funds will be added to $67 million in grants from the Florida Department of Transportation for the airport relocation project, which has been in the works since 1995, when a study indicated that the […]
Why airplanes are better than women
You may have heard the jokes about “Why airplanes are better than women.” George Artigas from Pembroke Pines, Fla., has a shirt that outlines the argument and what better place to wear it than at an air show like Sun ‘n Fun? According to Artigas, the shirt does generate chuckles from some people, but caused […]
A different kind of hangar dance
What do you get when you supply local celebrities with dance lessons and invite them to a hangar dance? You get an aviation museum fund raiser, of course. For the second year in a row, the Pearson Air Museum in Vancouver, Wash., is holding its Dancing with the Stars fund raiser. “We did it last […]
the buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
“Rock your wings with gusto.” — Instructions for acknowledging the tower in the NOTAM for the EAA Fly-in in Arlington, Wash., July 11- 15. “As they have in the past, airlines attempt to blame others for their own flight delays.” — Ken Mead, former inspector general of the Department of Transportation, on new ads by […]
Talk about your early birds! Woodpecker Tiger Moth arrives months, yes months, before the big show
When you fly a light vintage airplane, you have to factor in lots of extra time when you want to be some place. For Sun ‘n Fun fly-in attendees Tom Dietrich and Steve Gray of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, that extra time meant leaving home several months in advance. You read that right: Months. “We tried […]
WHAT IS DUAT?
The DUAT (Direct User Access Terminal) system is an online weather briefing and flight planning service created in 1989 when the FAA awarded contracts to two companies, Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC) and Data Transformation Corp. (DTC), after an open bidding process. The two companies process millions of transactions a year, with a transaction defined by […]
The fight of thier lives… Is DUAT an endangered species?
Every day, pilots — lots of pilots — go online to check weather and file flight plans through the two FAA-approved DUAT providers. In fact, in one month alone, CSC DUAT provides 2.5 million weather briefings. “We run giant numbers,” says Leon Thomas, DUAT program manager at Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC). And those numbers have gone […]
Newest Murphy aircraft to be unveiled at Oshkosh
The Murphy Yukon is expected to make its debut at this year’s AirVenture in Oshkosh. Developed by Darryl Murphy and Richard Hiscocks, the Yukon is the original concept design behind two of Murphy Aircraft’s popular high-wing tail-draggers – The Super Rebel and the Moose. “We started this aircraft 10 years ago, but it grew into […]