Air Force Lt. Col. Hector Santa Ana flew 35 missions during a 17-week blitz over Germany during World War II and 127 Berlin Air Lift missions. He also taught hundreds of Air Force pilots to fly before his retirement. A long-time resident of Millersville, Maryland, he died Dec. 9 of pneumonia at Dover, Delaware. Santa […]
Lockheed graduates TSS specialists
Forty-six Flight Service Specialists recently graduated from Lockheed Martin’s Flight Service Academy in Prescott Valley, Ariz., including John Lockheed, great-grandson of company founder Allan Loughead. Each of the 46 will be assigned to a Flight Service Station operated by Lockheed Martin. Students at the Flight Service Academy undergo 10 weeks of stringent academic classes, according […]
Veterans Airlift Command makes first flight
The Veterans Airlift Command, a network of volunteer private pilots, flew its first mission in November, carrying an injured Marine from Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, N.C., to his home in Florida. Last June, while serving in Iraq, Cpl. Christopher Brink was injured in a bomb blast that killed two others. While still recovering from his […]
Nall Report shows jump in accidents
The AOPA Air Safety Foundation’s just-released 2006 Joseph T. Nall Report shows a jump in the total accident rate for GA pilots in 2005 to 7.2 per 100,000 hours of flight time, up from 6.5 in 2004. The rate for fatal accidents also increased slightly, rising to 1.4 per 100,000 hours, compared to 1.3 in […]
Sponsor-A-Rivet for Red Tail Project
It takes a lot money – and a lot of rivets — to rebuild a P-51 Mustang. The Red Tail Project, a Minnesota-based not-for-profit organization that is rebuilding a rare P-51 flown by the Tuskegee Airmen, has kicked off a new campaign to raise funds for the project. The campaign is called Sponsor-A-Rivet. For a […]
Union says FAA ban a danger to controllers, flying public
Air traffic controllers say a September decision by FAA officials to ban weather radios, commercial radios and cell phones from its ATC facilities placed air traffic controllers in danger in the control tower cab and radar room at Daytona Beach International Airport when a Christmas day tornado roared within 150 yards of the facility before […]
Christmas day tornado rips through Embry-Riddle
Recovery efforts are still ongoing following a Christmas day tornado that caused extensive damage to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Daytona Beach, Fla., campus. There is substantial damage to several buildings on the campus, including Spruance Hall, which houses administrative offices, and the Student Center. The university’s maintenance hangar was destroyed when the tornado cut a 100-foot-wide […]
Foods pilots should avoid
What do beer, beans, cabbage and carbonated beverages have to do with aviation? These are foods that the 1944 edition of the Pilots Information File suggested pilots avoid because of the excess gas they produce in the body and the expansion of the gas at altitude.
All in the family
There are those who say naming your airplane after your spouse or girlfriend is a good way to make points with her. If that is so, then putting your spouse’s picture on the aircraft is the ultimate sign of devotion. Mike Kelly of Spruce Creek, Fla., saw it that way, so when he and Diane, […]