MONTREAL — EnergyOr Technologies, a fuel cell energy developer, announced its fuel cell powered Faucon H2 UAV completed a 10-hour, 4-minute flight. From the press release, the Faucon H2 has a 3-meter (9.84 foot) wingspan, a 1.2-meter (3.93 foot) length and 9-kg (19.84 pound) mass and cruises at 65-100 km/h (40.38-62.13 mph). After reading the […]
Opinion
Lake Tahoe Airshow pictures
LAKE TAHOE, California — Ed Rosiak, president of the California Pilots Association, attended Saturday’s (August 27) Lake Tahoe Airport‘s Airshow. Below are a few pictures from the ramp, and from Ed’s email to me, a few comments on the airport. “What is important to understand is that just a few years ago the South Lake […]
Avgas production lower than reported
While searching for recent usage stats for auto gas and ethanol production I stumbled across this table in the EIA data. I had never seen this table before when analyzing avgas stats. What an eye opener! The first thing that struck me as odd is that there is no avgas produced in PADD 1, which […]
Mountain High supports civilian, military pilots
Mountain High Oxygen and Supply has built its 3,000th two-person O2D2 Pulse-Demand Oxygen Unit. I spoke with Mountain High’s Robert Jamieson who confirmed the first unit was shipped in 2008, and they’ve delivered about 1,000 units per year since. In fact, about the time the O2D2 came out, Jamieson mentioned that the Department of Defense […]
When life hands you lemons…
When life hands you lemons, the most popular response is to make lemonade. This month, my glass runneth over. So do my refrigerator, kitchen counter, and oven. I have made the proverbial lemonade, along with sweet tea with lemon, unsweetened tea with lemon, lemon icebox pie, lemon bars, lemon-pepper chicken, and lemon curd. As it […]
Waseca Municipal Airport adds autogas
Maynard Stensrud, long-time owner of Stensrud Aviation and manager of the Waseca Municipal Airport (ACQ) in Waseca, Minn., reports that ethanol-free autogas is now available at his airport. “We support quite a few pipeline patrol aircraft, and they save a great deal of money by burning autogas. At this time, 87 AKI ethanol-free autogas is […]
Have you put on some weight?
I have a copy of the Federal Aviation Regulations, published by Boeing Field’s Merrell Aviation in Seattle. It dates from 1965 and is deliciously compact. For example, Part 91 spans 21 pages ranging from 91.1 (Applicability) to 91.175 (Rebuilt engine maintenance records). Pulling just one section (91.5 — Preflight action) from 1965 reads as: Each […]
Texas governor calls for ethanol waivers
In a clear sign of the continued erosion of support nationally for the ethanol mandates contained in the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA 2007), Texas Governor Rick Perry (a former USAF C-130 pilot) has called on the EPA to issue waivers to states, according to this recent article in AGWEEK. Adding to the […]
Prepare for a bumpy ride
Given the option of taking the pessimistic view or the optimistic view, I’ll more often than not take the brighter alternative. I prefer to believe that one person who is willing to put in significant effort can make a difference. There are plenty of examples of this phenomenon in our history, and I will refrain […]