Wingtips October 2001

• TAYLOR MUNICIPAL AIRPORT’s gain and Austin Bergstrom’s International Airport’s loss: Mike Green, Mike Green & Associates, and Stuart Ashmun, Autorate, Inc. have now relocated their helicopter refurbishing business to Taylor. With the completion of runway construction in November, these entrepreneurs expect a positive effect on their business. -the attraction of new businesses and international clientele.
• HOUSTON AIRPORT SYSTEM – The Houston airport system has revamped its website in a number of ways, including changing to a simpler address. The new site includes weather, traffic, flight arrival, and facilities information. The site link to Bush Intercontinental Airport provides terminal maps, amenities, and a parking map with rates. Visit the Houston Airport System at www.Houstonairportsystem.org.
• SAN ANTONIO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT – U.S. Airways will begin offering three daily nonstop, round-trip flights between San Antonio and its Charlotte North Carolina hub starting December 9. The Arlington, Virginia- based airline also plans to start daily flights to San Antonio, Austin and Portland, Oregon starting June 2002.
• AUSTIN BERGSTROM INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT – There were, in July, 702,726 travelers that used ABIA, and 4.5 million so far this year, up 1.4 percent from 2000.
• PRESIDENT’S HELICOPTER UNIT – Marine Colonel John E. Page was recently selected as Commanding Officer of the HMX-1 Presidential Helicopter Squadron that will fly President George W. Bush. Page, a Texan, often visits his parents, Kenneth and Susan Page, who live in Austin. We are especially proud of John, since Susan works for TxDOT Aviation Division. Congratulations John!
• ROBERT GRAY ARMY AIRFIELD – Air Force One, with President George W. Bush aboard, has landed at Robert Gray Army Airfield at Killeen more than twice in Bush’s presidency. Bush has stopped at Robert Gray on his way to his Crawford ranch located about 60 miles northeast of Fort Hood, Texas.
• SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS – In March, the San Antonio City Council approved a contract with Keiser Phillips Associates LLC (PA) to develop an Air Cargo Flow Study. The study will be the first step in an overall marketing strategy to leverage San Antonio International Airport and Kelly USA in the creation of an “Air Cargo Center for the Americas.” The Flow Study will include air cargo forecasts and an assessment of infrastructure and facility requirements. It should be completed by year-end.
• HOUSTON AIRPORT SYSTEM – HAS handled 4,012,939 total passengers in June and over 22.5 million total passengers so far this year. IAH served 3.2 million passengers, HOU had 798,163 and Ellington Field (EFD) had 4,425 travelers in June. Year-to-date, IAH has served 17.97 million travelers, HOU handled 4.5 million and EFD registered 28,254 passengers. HAS handled 60.9 million pounds of cargo in June and over 356 million pounds for the first half of 2001. The U.S. and world economies may have slowed down, but Houston’s airports continue to grow.
• AUSTIN BERGSTROM INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT – ABIA’s parking space expansion is set to open this fall with an additional 589 parking spaces available to the public, bringing the total parking spaces on its grounds to 11,366. HONDO MUNICIPAL AIRPORT – No one was injured, but 19 aircraft were lost in August when fired destroyed a World War II-era hangar at the airport near San Angelo, Texas. The exact cause of the fire has not been determined, but it appears to have been started in a fuse box on the northwest side of the 32,000-square-foot building. The damage estimate from the fire is roughly 3.5 million.
• El PASO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT – Mike Nicely, manager of Texas Airports Development Office with the FAA, recently honored Leticia Ordonez, EPIA, program manager, for her efforts in the development and implementation of EPIA fiscal year 2001 projects – some of the major airport projects in which Ordonez was instrumental were a new air cargo center, a runway extension, the Yarbrough extension project and the La Placita project.
• SPITFIRE BACK IN TEXAS – The Supermarine Spitfire Mk 9/16Le, a rare non-bubble canopy version of the Mark XVILe, has finally arrived home at the Lone Star Flight Museum in Galveston. Restored in Florida, the Spitfire went to Hooks Airport north of Houston for its final paint job. The markings for the museum’s Spitfire represent those of Lance Wade, a Texan who scored 23 victories flying with the Royal Air Force in the Mediterranean Theatre. By the end of WWII, more than 22,000 Spitfires of all types had been built, making it the second-most produced aircraft in the Allied arsenal. In addition to serving with the United Kingdom, Spitfires were also operated by the United States, France, Soviet Union, Turkey, Belgium, and both Israel and Egypt in post war Mid-East conflicts.
• AIRVENTURE OSHKOSH 2001 – along with an estimated attendance of 750,000 participating in the event, EAA Air Venture 2001 saluted “Aviation Firsts” with an outstanding lineup of people and aircraft, including many first-time visitors to the annual celebration of flight. Total estimated aircraft flown to the event: 10,000; total showplanes, 2,481; international visitors registered: 1,819 from 72 nations; and media attending: 780 from 5 continents (North America, South America, Europe, Africa and Australia).

Tips For In-Flight Awareness Of Thunderstorms

• Monitor AWOS, ASOS and ATIS frequencies as you fly. Listen for changing ceiling and visibility conditions and high (above 60 degrees Fahrenheit) dew points. Some stations may even have lightning reporting capability.
• Fly IFR, or use VFR advisories/flight following if available. Having a frequency already at hand lets you listen in on any weather-related diversions and ask for advice about routing around storm cells and buildups.
• Keep a VOR tuned to HIWAS (hazardous in-flight weather advisory service). Note the VORS that broadcast HIWAS and listen to the recordings for such weather advisories as convective sigmets and airmets.
• Depart early in the morning — like 5 or 6 a.m. By leaving well before the heat of the day you can maximize your chance of avoiding the worst of the buildups.
• Maintain visual separation from building cumulus and towering cumulus clouds, even if you are on an IFR flight plan. Keep at least 20 nm away.
• Don’t fly beneath a thunderstorm.
• Don’t try to outclimb a building cumulus or fly above a thunderstorm.
• Don’t try to beat a thunderstorm to an airport.
• Periodically check in with flight watch (122.MHz) for weather updates.
• Use, and know how to use, lightning detection equipment and/or airborne weather radar.

Source: AOPA

By Bill Gunn

If you don’t know that GPS is a Global Navigation System, perhaps you have been on an extended vacation – on a deserted island. GPS has begun to alter modern life in the way the transistor did or perhaps the birth of powered flight did in 1903. If you fly an aircraft or operate an airport, GPS looms large in your life in that suddenly all airports can have an instrument approach with vertical guidance – as soon as the rest of the system is tested and available to the public. The pilots, the manufacturers and the FAA have rushed GPS into the cockpit only to discover that GPS approaches in general aviation aircraft are complex and frustrating events. This is made even more difficult by the fact that there is almost no commonality in the knobs and presentation on the instrument approach-capable GPS units from the various manufacturers. Pilots are left on their own to learn the intricacies of using their particular brand of GPS box while flying the aircraft, talking on the radio, completing the checklist, and perhaps a few other things – all at once.

So, the concept of Zen, which is defined as enlightenment that can be attained through meditation, self-contemplation, and intuition rather than through faith and devotion, comes to mind. Why? If you ask the individuals who have slogged their way to GPS proficiency, they will tell you to a person that you must have “oneness” with the particular GPS box they are flying. You must be proficient to the point that you know and feel the correctness of the steps you take to set up and fly a GPS instrument approach. Single pilot GPS operations demand more from the pilot in command than most other flight regimes. Learn the GPS box operation thoroughly, so thoroughly that you can solve any problem or change in clearance instantly; almost without looking at the GPS panel as you do it. More and more GPS systems are easier to use, but the pilot must still MASTER the unit before attempting a GPS approach in weather.

Airport operators want either an approach or improved approaches to their airport. As regional FAA offices can handle the requests, TxDOT Aviation will recommend airports for approaches. A current Airport Layout Plan (ALP) is essential. The FAA can start the approach review process as long as we can assure them the ALP will be current before approach publication. Improved airport markings, improved lighting, and items such as a local altimeter source are required or highly recommended as the approach is nearing publication.

GPS is the way of the future. The FAA fully intends to reduce VOR and NDB navigation as GPS becomes more available for IFR operation. Texas is ready.

Many women of achievement in aviation have been members of The Ninety-Nines, including Amelia Earhart who, with 98 other women pilots of her day, helped found the group in 1929. Today, more than 6,000 women from 35 countries continue to focus on the organization’s original goal of supporting women in aviation. Programs include aerospace education for children, aviation safety for adults and scholarships for advanced flight training. The organization also preserves the history of women in aviation through the 99s’ Museum of Women Pilots at their headquarters at Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City and the Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum in Atchinson, Kansas.

1929 – Richard Byrd, along with pilot Bernt Balchen, radio operator Harold June, and photographer Captain Ashley McKinley, make the first flight over the South Pole. Byrd and company flew in a tri-motored monoplane called the Floyd Bennett, named for Byrd’s copilot on his North Pole flight of 1926. Bennett had died the previous year. November

1937 – Howard Hughes, flying his own Hughes H-1, breaks the U.S. transcontinental speed record flying from Los Angeles, California to New Jersey in 7 hours, 28 minutes, and 25 seconds. During the flight Hughes averaged a speed of 332 miles per hour. January

1943 – Ann Baumgartner Carl of the Women Airforce Service pilots flies a Bell XP-59A to become the first American woman to fly a jet airplane. October

1947 – Air Force Major Charles E. “Chuck” Yeager flying the Bell X-1 “Glamorous Glennis” becomes the first pilot to fly faster than the speed of sound. The “Glamorous Glennis,” named after Yeager’s wife, reached a speed of 967 miles per hour, Mach 1.06, at an altitude of 70,140 feet. That was the fastest velocity and highest altitude reached by a manned aircraft up to that time. October

1949 – The first round-the-world, nonstop flight begins on February 26 at Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth, Texas. Captain James Gallagher, flying the B-50 Superfortress, ended his circumnavigation of the globe on March 2. The plane, carrying a crew of 14, averaged 249 miles per hour on the 23,452-mile trip. The Superfortress was refueled four times in the air by B-29 tanker planes. February

1950 – Colonel David Carl Schilling of Raleigh, North Carolina makes the first transatlantic, nonstop jet airplane flight. Flying a single-engine F-84E Republic Thunderjet, Schilling travelled a distance of 3,300 miles in 10 hours and 1 minute. The journey began in Manston, England and ended at an Air Force Base at Limestone, Maine. September

1953 – Major Horace C. Boren of Dallas, Texas becomes the first person to circle the globe via commercial airlines in less than 100 hours. Boren stopped at 19 airports during his 21,000-mile jaunt. He arrived at New York International Airport, Idlewild, New York on June 25, having completed his adventure in 99 hours and 16 minutes. June

1977 – Champion bicyclist and hang-gliding enthusiast Bryan Allen demonstrates sustained, maneuverable, human- powered flight while flying the “Gossamer Condor” for 7 minutes, 2.7 seconds in a closed course. The “Gossamer Condor” was designed by Dr. Paul MacCready and Dr. Peter Lissamen and was made of thin aluminum tubes, Mylar plastic, and stainless steel wire. By making the flight, Allen collected the $95,000 Kremer Prize, established in 1959 by British industrialist Henry Kremer. August

1979 – The first solar-powered long-distance airplane flight is recorded when the “Solar Challenge” flies for 22 minutes over a distance of six miles near Marana, Arizona. The 210-pound plane, constructed of aluminum and plastic, was piloted by Janice Brown. December 1986- The first round-the-world flight without refueling is made by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, flying on the Voyager, a front-and-rear propelled plane constructed mainly of plastic. Their 216-hour, 24,986-mile circumnavigation began and ended at Edwards Air Force Base in California. December

1989 – Pilot Lyle Shelton, flying a modified Grumman F8F Bearcat called Rare Bear, achieves the fastest speed ever by a piston-engined aircraft. Shelton reached a speed of 528.33 miles per hour over a 1-mile course at Las Vegas, Nevada. August

Personnel at the Flight Standards District Office (FSDO) are working with Dr. Charles Allen, Program Director for the Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation, Inc., to conduct a safety seminar for all the pilots and ground personnel that will be working under the contract this year. This meeting will be held sometime in the near future. The exact date, time and location is still to be determined. If you have a particular subject you would like to see covered at this meeting, contact John Boatright, Operations SPM at FSDO, 1/800/858-4115.

A T-39 Saberliner, is now available for static display, if anyone is interested. The interested party must pay for moving costs and come to an agreement with the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, which owns all static display aircraft. Plans are to dismantle the T-39 and send it to Davis Montham and the Boneyard in a few months. Kelly Air Force Base officially closed in July and is removing all vestiges of Air Force ownership as soon as possible. For further information, contact Richard Crow, TxDOT-San Antonio District, 210/615-5806

By Sharon Rostovich
Airport Manager
Draughon-Miller Central Texas Regional Airport

What a weekend we had at our little airport in Temple on August 18-19, 2001! With the arrival of the “Texas Raiders”, a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, and a PBJ1J, which was the version of the B-25 Mitchell medium bomber that the U.S. Marine Corps flew over the Pacific in World War II, 36 folks (some WWII veterans) took a ride in this 57-year-old B-17 beauty! You can imagine the memories that this event brought back to our WWII fighting men in attendance, who took the ride. Men like J. B. Young, 85, from Wimberley, who was then a young, flight engineer and top turret gunner during the war said, “… this ride was a lot better than when people were shooting at you.” Young went on to recall, “… they [enemy] followed me home one night, dropping bombs down the runway behind us.”

This gem of an airplane is the oldest, continuous Flying B-17 in existence and is based at Ellington Field in Houston. The Texas Raiders is authentically painted in the colors of the 38th Bombardment Group of the U.S. 8th Air Force and was built in 1945. The restored aircraft flies annually at various airshows in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Crew members are volunteers and members of the Confederate Air Force (CAF) and pilots, professional aviators with commercial air transport experience.

There were about 5,000 attendees, who flew, drove or walked to this event and were treated to a vintage T-6 Trainer, a beautiful formation flight of RV-6s, a fly-by of outstanding biplanes, including an aerobatic pilot who decided to show off his aviation skills! Our police helicopter and our ARFF truck gave some folks the thrill ride of their lives as well. Temple Aero provided Fun Flights to 85 future aviators and our Civil Air Patrol kept the crowd going with delicious food and beverages during both afternoons.

The most memorable part of this two-day event was meeting so many of our honorable WWII veterans! And, the emotional reminder that this unique aircraft and its crew members fly today as a tribute to the generations, who have served our country to preserve our freedom in the United States.

Over 1,000 people were drawn to the Wood County Airport Dedication and Business Exposition which was held in June to celebrate the culmination of four years of work and approximately $1.3 million of improvement on the local airport located in Quitman, Texas.

The airport facility now has a 4,000-foot runway. extended from the original 3,400 feet 60 feet wide and with a 300-foot compacted overrun at both ends. This runway is capable of handling all propeller aircraft as well as small jets. A major feature of the improvement project is the Precision Approach Path Indicator (PAPI) at the end of runway 18, which directs approaching pilots into the proper glide path. Moreover, the runway lighting system is now radio-controlled, under low, medium and high intensity settings. Another important feature is a new, energy efficient beacon with greater candle power, which is aided by a new and taller beacon tower that can now be seen by pilots for many miles.

The completion of the Wood County Airport upgrade and extension project creates new economic development opportunities for the area by making it more attractive for new businesses and energizing the growing Wood County tourist industry.

At the end of the ceremony, officials, dignitaries, special guests and curious spectators were treated to several flyovers, bright balloons released against a sparkling sky, static displays and an array of World War II airplanes parked on the tarmac. Indeed, a great time to celebrate this accomplishment!

Lindy Award Winners

Silver Lindy:
Homebuilt Reserve Grand Champion (Plans): Thorpe T-18C, N18XS,
Bernard Fried, San Antonio, Texas

Bronze Lindy:
Bronze Lindy Homebuilt (Plans): Hatz, NX824PC,
David Guillot, Pasadena, Texas
Bronze Lindy Homebuilt (Plans): Falco, N70WR,
William Russell, Houston, Texas

Homebuilts Plaques:
Outstanding Workmanship (Kit): LancairIV-P, N52PC,
Craig and Pat Dilsch, Texarkana, Texas
Outstanding Workmanship (Plans): Pober Pixie II, NX37PH,
Michael Hoye, Heath, Texas

Vintage Aircraft

Vintage Plaques (Antique):
Runner-Up Customized Aircraft: 1940 Boeing Stearman A75J1, N5708N, Charles Luigs, Bandera, Texas

Vintage Plaques (Contemporary):
Outstanding Beech Multi-engine: 1960 Beech G18S, N933GM, Carla Payne, Fort Worth, Texas
Outstanding Class IV Multi-engine: 1957 Piper PA-23, N3187P, Michael Luigs, Bandera, Texas

Warbirds

Silver Lindy:
Judges Choice: L-39, N139Mississippi,
Jim O’Neal, Houston, Texas
Preservation Award: F-51D, NL6168C,
Lewis Shaw, Dallas, Texas

EAA Web Editor Award
This award was founded in 2000 to recognize the importance of this new communication technology to the promotion of aviation and local EAA Chapters. The top web editor for Texas included:
Fourth Place: Don Parson, EAA Chapter 12, Houston, Texas

“Aviation First”
Dick Keyt of Granbury, Texas, set his own “Aviation First” during 2001 EAA Air Venture at Oshkosh, Wisconsin. On July 26, he topped the previous 500-kilometer record for his aircraft weight by nearly five minutes. Keyt performed the record- breaking flight during the July 26 air show, flying from Oshkosh to Monticello, Iowa and back in 70 minutes, three seconds, at an average speed of 307 mph in his Polen Special.

Congratulations to all the winners!