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The “JetMan” plans a Grand Canyon flight on a jet pack

The Web Aviation blog has recently noted that Yves Rossy, a Swiss engineer and aviator who has been nicknamed the “JetMan,” will (on May 6) fly across the Grand Canyon on a jet pack. Rossy is the first human to achieve sustained human flight using the power of a jet pack that he controls with his body. Already he has used his jet pack to fly across the Geneva river, the Alps, the English Channel and partially across the Strait of Gibraltar where he was forced to ditch (unharmed) into the ocean due to poor weather.

The jet pack itself was designed by him and straps onto his body just like a normal backpack. Its powered by 4 jet engines that were modified from model aircraft engines that were then attached to the undersides of semi-rigid carbon fibre wings. However, the engines are not powerful enough to allow him to take off from the ground on his own and hence, he must takeoff from onboard a plane.

For steering, Rossy uses his body to act as a rudder and during past flights, he has managed to reach speeds of up to 304 km/h (189 mph). In other words, Rossy has plenty of courage to just strap a jet pack on and then fly across rivers, mountains and open water. Hence, we wish the JetMan the best of luck for his Friday jet pack flight across the Grand Canyon.

General aviation: Just another rich man’s hobby?

Drew Steketee, the former president of BE A PILOT, senior vp-communications for AOPA and executive director of the Partnership for Improved Air Travel, has written a thought provoking op-ed piece for General Aviation News about general aviation and how its increasingly out of reach for the middle class in America to enjoy. He began is op-ed by noting:

My General Aviation is for everyone — or at least for a lot of people of varying wealth and incomes. What inspired me in the 1960s was that firemen, farmers and school teachers in my town were flying. What a wonderful American story. But now?
….Today much of GA looks like a Rich’s Man’s Game, as it did in the 1930s. I think most of us strain to avoid the admission.

Drew went on to write about the decline of the American middle class in general but he also wrote about the growth in business jets and VIP transportation and specifically about how “big money” has flowed into bizjet sales, corporate aviation, fractional ownership and jet charters. He also noted that GAMA’s annual billing numbers had astounded people when they were at US$2 billion in 1980 but in 2009, this figure had increased to US$20 billion (down from US$25 billion in 2008).

At the end of his op-ed piece, Drew wrote that he longed for the “’good old days’ of busy, friendly airports and admiring neighbors” but he also pointed out that in the USA: “…there aren’t many school teachers and firemen out at the airport on a Saturday morning.”

Hence, we want to ask our UK and Europe based readers for their thoughts about how accessible general aviation is to the masses in the UK and Europe. In other words, has general aviation in Europe become just another rich man’s hobby?

The top 10 aviation attractions in the USA

If you are planning a vacation to the US, Travel site TripAdvisor has recently unveiled its list of the top 10 aviation related attractions in the US that were selected according to traveler ratings and TripAdvisor Flights experts. These attractions give visitors the opportunity to learn more about all aspects of aviation from airplanes and gliders to the space shuttle:

The National Air and Space Museum, Washington, DC . Easily the number 1 aviation related attraction in the world, the National Air and Space Museum houses the original 1903 Wright Flyer along with one of the largest collection of historic air and spacecraft in the world. And the best part is that admission is free.
Intrepid Sea, Air, & Space Museum, New York, New York. Centered on the aircraft carrier USS Intrepid, this floating museum offers a number of exhibits for aviation enthusiasts. The deck and hangar bay of the ship has a collection of some 30 aircraft plus a Concorde supersonic jet that is on loan from British Airways is on the Intrepid pier and can be explored inside and out. Admission is US$22 for adults and US$17 for children.
Wright Brothers National Memorial, Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. Located on the site where Wilbur and Orville Wright achieved the first successful aerial flight over one hundred years ago, visitors can re-trace the routes that the Wright brothers used to test their first aircraft. In addition, an on-site museum offers a collection of models, tools and machines used by the brothers. Admission is US$4 for adults and free for children.
National Naval Aviation Museum, Pensacola, Florida. Military aviation buffs would be interested in visiting the National Naval Aviation Museum which boasts more than 4,000 aviation artifacts and 150 aircraft from the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard. Admission is free.
Museum of Flight, Seattle. This museum is the home to more than 85 aircraft ranging from antiques to examples of modern aviation. In addition, the museum features a number of unique exhibits, including an air traffic control tower at Boeing Field, flight attendant uniforms from the 1930s to the 1980s and even an Air Force One aircraft that carried presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon. Admission is US$15 for adults, US$8 for youths and free for children 4 and under.
Pima Air & Space Museum, Tucson, Arizona. As one of the largest aviation museums in the world, the Pima Air & Museum features more than 300 aircraft and spacecraft in its collection plus more than 125,000 artifacts of modern aviation. Aircraft on display include the B-29 Superfortress, SR-71 Blackbird and World War II German V-1 “buzz bomb.” Admission is US$13.75 for adults, US$8 for youths and free for children 6 and under.
Boeing Aircraft Factory Tour, Everett, Washington. Visitors here can actually take a tour of the production facility to get a bird’s eye view of how aircraft are made. The tour also covers the production of several Boeing models, including the 787 Dreamliner, plus features an aviation museum. Admission is US$15 for adults and US$8 for children.
Pacific Aviation Museum Pearl Harbor, Honolulu, Hawaii. Built in the aircraft hangars that survived the attack on Pearl Harbor, this museum offers tens of thousands of square feet of aviation exhibits including a large collection of military aircraft dating from the World War II era. Visitors can also use the museum’s flight simulator where they can simulate take offs and landings on aircraft carriers and take part in a aerial battles. Admission is US$15 for adults and US$8 for children.
Gravelly Point Park, Arlington, Virginia. Just north of the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and across the Potomac River from Washington DC, Gravelly Point Park is a great place to watch planes take off and land as they pass right overhead. Admission is free.
Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum, McMinnville, Oregon. This museum is the home for a wide range of aircraft, from cargo planes and commercial jets to bombers and spacecraft. The museum also houses Howard Hughes’s famous wooden “Spruce Goose,” the largest plane of its time. Admission is US$20 for adults, US$18 for youths and free for children 4 and under.

We would also like to ask our readers in the USA: Are there any other aviation related attractions worth noting and visiting that should be added to this list?

What are the differences between flying in Europe vs. the USA?

Vincent, the blogger behind the Plastic Pilot blog, is in middle of his Flying Across America project and already he has written a great post outlining some of the differences between flying in Europe verses the USA. Vincent began by noting that the stories about how easy it is to fly there are true and the differences between flying in Europe verses flying in the USA are huge.

Here are some of the differences that Vincent noted:

Airport operating times: In Europe, you must check on airport operating time while in the USA, airports are open 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.

VFR procedures: In Europe, VFR pilots are requested to approach along certain routes while in the USA there are no VFR approach charts or VFR approach procedures.

Flight following: In Europe, flight following is not available 24/7 whereas it is available all the time in the USA. Moreover, Vincent noted that there are much more advisories from flight following in the USA than from FIC in Europe. In fact, Vincent noted that:

So far, in 16 hours of flight from Florida to Texas, we got the following kind of information:
Traffic information
Weather at our destination
Weather around our position, like the intensity and size of precipitation
Vectors around weather and restricted areas

Vincent then commented that the best part of this is that controller gives information spontaneously.

Vincent concluded his post by commenting that there are plenty of differences between flying in Europe and flying in the USA and he promised to post more about these differences in the near future.

Cirrus SR-22 Perspective in San Francisco

Seriously, with a title like that I don’t need to add any hype to get you to read this post. It can hardly get any better than flying a brand new plane with the latest avionics in one of the most beautiful parts of the world. Well, actually, it does if you fly with a great instructor like Max Trescott. He literally wrote the book on the G1000 / Perspective and he’s great fun to fly with.

I flew for two afternoons with him. We met at the Sky Kitchen at San Carlos airport. It’s a classic American diner with an airport out of the window. The airport ICAO code is KSQL, presumably named for the Oracle database company which has its headquarters nearby.

On the first day, during lunch Max and I had a great chat about aviation and blogging. We were so absorbed in the conversation that the waitress threw us out because we were hogging the table but we hadn’t noticed that we’d finished eating. (If I had noticed, I assure you I would have carried on eating. An empty plate is a challenge for me.)

After lunch, though, the work began. We went to the West Valley Flying Club where Max briefed me on the basics of the Perspective cockpit. Then we went out to the aircraft – a beautiful, almost-new Cirrus SR-22 Turbo with Perspective avionics and all the toys. It was in its own hangar and so it was spotless and shiny; unlike the planes I fly here which live outside. There’s a little electric tow truck so you don’t have to break a sweat getting it in and out. To get fuel, you just radio the fuel company and in minutes a nice chap comes and fills the tanks. I think the US is aviation heaven.

We flew east towards Stockton where we did some auto-coupled and hand-flown approaches using the GPS and ILS. The weather was perfect – good visibility above cloud but a nice thick cloud layer from about 2,000 feet down to about 300 feet. Perfect for actual IMC practice.

Since I hadn’t flown for six weeks and there was a lot of new stuff to deal with, I felt very rusty. But Max was very patient and the whole thing felt relaxed and unstressful. Certainly, the Perspective makes it very easy to fly providing you get it set up properly. The highway in the sky indicators make it very simple to fly an approach and the autopilot will fly holds and other complex stuff that the Avidyne system I normally use won’t do. I also like the ability to climb at a given airspeed on the autopilot; this is going to help people avoid autopilot-induced stalls and improve engine cooling on hot days.

Other cool features include: satellite weather, XM radio for long trips, Jeppesen charts and the range circle which adjusts in real time as you lean the engine. With the keypad on the centre console, it looks, feels and works pretty much like an airliner FMS.

I had two concerns, which may resolve themselves with more familiarity. The first is that there is a lot to learn. I had a few “why is it doing that” moments. It’s all very logical but you need to understand how it thinks. For example, you can set the autopilot to fly an approach and it will descend with the procedure or glideslope automatically. Except if you have a higher altitude commanded on the altitude bug. The logic is that it doesn’t want to descend lower than the higher of the two settings. But if you don’t know that you can find yourself levelled off when you were expecting to keep going down.

The second concern is a more minor one, but I like the way I can switch the Avidyne MFD between north up and track up. With north up, I can make position reports and estimate distances easily – this is important with airspace restrictions and intensive ATC around London – and then I can switch to track up for terrain, TCAS etc. While the Perspective will switch, it requires major hackage in the system settings and so we flew with track up all the time.

The second day felt more comfortable. I was beginning to get the feeling for the basic features of the system so that I could concentrate on the details, the approaches and my checks. This time we headed southwest towards Salinas and Monterey. We did a bunch of different WAAS and GPS approaches, some with the full procedure using the autopilot. I love the way it can just fly itself into the hold and then sit there all day until you tell it where to go next.

The view out over the Pacific was fantastic and it was a real treat to be flying into Monterey. Max says that you can see whales sometimes.

Heading back towards the Bay Area, the low cloud looked great over the peninsula.

As a special treat, we also flew an approach into Moffett Field for a close look at the airship hangars.

I won’t say that the best bit of the trip was putting the plane back in the hangar. It wasn’t. I was sad to be done with my flying on this trip. But getting to drive the electric tow tractor was a big compensation.