Coming up, thunder rolls over Cape Canaveral,
and we're here to cover it.
We're on scene for the latest on Launch America.
Plus, a slew of new aircraft to tell you about.
AOPA Live this week begins in just a moment.
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This is AOPA Live this week
with Tom Haines and Alyssa Cobb.
Welcome to AOPA live this week, home edition.
I'm still locked down at home,
but Tom has managed to escape.
That's right Alyssa, we managed to escape to Florida.
We are here at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
as a matter of fact, being properly and appropriately
socially distanced from pretty much everything.
But yesterday, when we were out at the launch site
or near the launch site with some others
from Air Force Media to gather and hopefully
get imagery of the launch going off,
you know, Launchpad 39A was just across the water from us.
And it would have been a great setup for a launch,
but well, you know what happened.
This was to be an historic launch for many reasons,
Americans would be launched into space from American soil
for the first time in a decade,
it was to be an American rocket,
but more significant
a rocket owned by
and operated by a private company.
NASA was just the customer booking two seats
in the Dragon Capsule built by SpaceX
sitting on top of the Falcon 9 rocket,
another SpaceX product.
The two NASA astronauts, Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley
rode to that rocket in Teslas.
And billionaire, Elon Musk, who developed Tesla of course,
and started SpaceX.
The vice president arrived in Air Force Two
and a little while later followed by the president
in Air Force One.
And then we waited for the scheduled 4:33 p.m. launch.
Hurrying back to our cars,
when the thunderstorms rolled through.
We're sitting out here in the car,
in the heat and thunderstorms, at the viewing station
waiting for it to come up and we got
all the necessary supplies.
We've got our masks, we've got our almonds
and we've got our phones.
The weather was a concern all day,
but mission managers found enough optimism in the forecast
that they kept the countdown going.
About an hour before launch time,
the weather started to clear.
We all became optimistic and a T minus 40 minutes,
they decided to start pumping kerosene rocket fuel
and liquid oxygen into the Falcon 9.
Less than 30 minutes from launch, the weather officer said,
if he could have just 10 more minutes,
a launch might be possible.
16:45 local,
I think we'll probably be clear on all the rules,
but not quite, gonna make it for this.
There was an instantaneous launch window
at exactly 4:33, and if they couldn't do it then,
well, they couldn't do it at all.
(man on intercom)
Standby
Continue to violate a couple different weather rules
that we now do not expect to clear in time
to allow for a launch today.
And go ahead, end today's launch attempt, launch control
end the launch auto sequence and proceed
into the launch abort auto sequence please.
Launch aborting started.
And so Alyssa, we were very close,
just about 17 minutes away from launch,
when they finally scrubbed it, the clouds were starting
to go away.
It was starting to clear up, the light was getting nice.
It would have been a beautiful launch,
but unfortunately not to be,
but hey, we're gonna stick it out.
We'll be here.
Saturday is the next scheduled window at 3:22.
Hopefully that comes off, if not Sunday afternoon
is the next opportunity.
And we'll stick around for that too,
because this is such an historic launch,
an amazing moment for American space.
It is,
it is certainly and I hope it goes off well,
Saturday or Sunday.
Yeah, you and me both.
(laughing)
well, SpaceX may be the future of space travel,
but for one company, the future is diesel.
(intense music)
With that a new generation of the P2010 from Tecnam
now with the diesel engine, the P2010 TDI
being revealed in a YouTube premiere this week.
It burns Jet A in a new Continental CD-170 engine,
the three door, four seater burns 5.2 gallons an hour.
Now that's music to my ears,
and it carries 63 gallons, a range of more than 1000 miles
is possible and the company expects to have
a type certificate by July.
And on the experimental side, Bearhawk Aircraft
introduced a new airplane as well.
The Bearhawk 5 and that airplane
is the largest airplane yet from the company with six seats
and more interior room than a Cessna 185.
The airplane is expected to cruise
at some 160 miles an hour.
And will have an excellent take-off and landing performance,
says the company, you can build it with a Lycoming O-540
or an IO-580 with up to 315 horsepower.
The Bearhawk 5 will be sold as a kit.
And the prototype is undergoing flight testing now,
and WACO just got certification also for their float plane,
the YMF-5F.
Now, of course, that's a classic open cockpit WACO design
with Aerocet amphibious floats.
The combination is unique and certainly attention grabbing
and just after its certification, the first customer
took delivery of that new WACO.
The airplane costs just under $600,000.
Well, buckle up for some bad news.
The virus shutdown is leading to a big drop
in aircraft deliveries across the board.
The General Aviation Manufacturers Association released
first quarter numbers this week,
piston deliveries down almost 12%
compared to the first quarter of 2019.
Turboprops, even worse dipping 42%
and business jet deliveries down 19%.
It's not any better, over on the avionics side,
the Aircraft Electronics Association also reported a drop
in avionics sales.
There are more than $660 million worth of avionics
sold in Q1.
That's an 8.8% decrease from last year,
a little more than half of the sales
coming from the retrofit market.
And there's no good news for big aerospace either.
Boeing is laying off nearly 7,000 employees involuntarily.
More than 5,500 Boeing workers have already accepted
voluntary layoffs.
Now to the East of Boeing's Seattle plants
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is closing
its Moses Lake operations.
That will cost hundreds of jobs.
Mitsubishi was developing its SpaceJet Regional Jet
with Moses Lake doing flight tests.
And Rolls Royce is eliminating
some 9,000 jobs worldwide.
Most for its civil aviation business.
Rolls Royce is best known for its jet engines
for larger aircraft.
Yeah, definitely some bad news across general aviation,
but some good news for ForeFlight users
that popular flight planner and electronic flight bag
has some new features.
They've joined forces with FlightAware
to see real time traffic at your airports or anywhere else
When you've got an internet connection,
you'll be able to see traffic viewed by
FlightAware's extensive network of ground-based
ADS-B receivers.
Super excited about giving our customers the ability to,
see what's going on and local traffic patterns.
So if you're at home right now, thinking about,
you know, flying or whether or not others are flying,
you'd be able to use that ForeFlight traffic layer
to see flight activity.
You'd be able to, explore, you know, how aircraft
are flying around weather, but we're just super excited
about being able to bring this, joint capability to,
customers.
They can use that for long range planning around weather,
leveraging all the FlightAware data,
as well as right when you're firing up the airplane
and the airplane, your iPad still has LTE connectivity.
Suddenly you can get a sense of how many airplanes
are taxing, what runaway's in use,
what routes they're using.
It will greatly improve situational awareness
and combine the power of these two great applications.
ForeFlight has also added multi-tasking,
allowing you to run a second app
besides ForeFlight on your iPhone or your iPad.
These new features have been added free for all subscribers.
Well, hey, AOPA and others are standing up against
price increases by Customs and Border Protection
at some 60 airports across the nation.
AOPA and others sent this letter. CBP announced their
rate increase with little notice before the May 17
implementation deadline.
CBP changed its charges for custom services,
from a flat rate to full recovery billing.
The rate increases ranged from 29% up to 54%
at those airports and CBP says it's because of a drop
in revenue and the law, they say makes them take in
what it costs to provide their services.
And speaking of fees for service, what just happened
in Canada reinforces what AOPA has long said about
the dangers of privatized air traffic control systems.
NAV CANADA just announced ATC fee increases of some 30%.
Because of the COVID-19 crisis,
air traffic is way down in Canada and NAV CANADA
which is a private company has to increase fees
for everyone using the system in order to meet their budget.
Here in the US of course, air traffic control
is provided as a public service using aviation taxes
and Congress keeps it going even if there's
an economic downturn without sticking it to the users.
Well, at least for now, but stay tuned.
That's always a battle that's about to come back
over the horizon it seems.
Well, on Monday, we celebrated Memorial Day
at time to honor our military men and women
who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.
For Memorial Day, the D-Day Squadron
led a flyover of Southern California
called 'Operation SoCal Strong'.
15 World War II airplanes flew in formation to salute
veterans, frontline healthcare workers, and boost morale
for the public during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The flight path began at the Loma Linda Medical Center
and ended at the Chino Airport flying over
national cemeteries, VA Medical Centers, Zamperini Field,
and several other notable landmarks.
You may remember the D-Day Squadron from our coverage
last year from Normandy commemorating the 75th anniversary
of D-Day.
The flyover was another fitting tribute to our veterans
and frontline workers.
Well, when we come back,
we fly the latest and greatest from Bristell.
And low and slow over Lake Placid.
We'll be right back
(upbeat music)
Welcome back to Cape Canaveral.
Traditional graduation ceremonies of course
are canceled pretty much all across the country.
And there are a lot of creative ways though,
to celebrate the Class of 2020.
A pilot from Pennsylvania, for example,
found a way to do it using his airplane.
Carl Jenkins' son Keegan is a 2020 high school graduate.
Carl and Keegan hopped in their trustee, Piper Cherokee 140
and set out to create this fitting message
for 2020 graduates on FlightAware.
The tip of the heart falls directly over
Keegan's high school, Warrior Run in Turbotville
Pennsylvania.
Congratulations to Keegan and all of the 2020 graduates.
And we're honoring flight students as well,
who are graduating scores of proud parents,
flight instructors, students themselves share their
favorite aviation themed photos of graduating students
with us.
They shared the magic moment of first flights,
the preparation for solos,
the satisfaction of conquering checkride jitters,
and dreams to shape the future of aviation.
Find the photos and read some of the graduate stories
on our website.
Sleek and powerful, usually aren't words used to describe
light sport aircraft, but they do describe
the latest and greatest from Bristell.
AOPA technical editor Jill Tallman, takes us for a flight
in the Bristell 915.
(relaxing music)
If you think light sport
automatically translates to underpowered,
then you haven't met the Bristell 915.
The 915 is similar to the Bristell 912,
but it has a Rotax 915iS turbo engine,
which makes 141 horsepower.
The extra power translates into an SLSA
that can climb at 1200 to 1500 feet per minute.
One of the pluses of the Rotax it's sips,
just five gallons of fuel per hour.
The Bristell's low wing and canopy evoke speed.
The black and yellow checkered flag wrap on this airplane
do not look at all ironic.
However, the airplane is still limited to the 120 Knot
top cruise speed for light sport aircraft.
The Bristell handles nicely, feels solid and it features
capable of Garmin G3X avionics.
With an IFR avionics package, leather interior,
and advanced paint scheme,
the outdoor price is around $281,000.
That's about $130,000 more than the Bristell 912
and a lot for an LSA.
But Bristell customers asked for this airplane,
and if pilots want such a beast
and are willing to pay for it, who are we to argue?
Jill Tallman, AOPA Live.
You can read more about the boosted Bristell
on our website.
Well, lists are hard to build because inevitably
you leave someone out.
Now, most of the time they're mature about it
take it in stride, like waters off a duck's back, right?
But then there's Bryan Turner, from Just Plane Silly.
We built a list of favorite YouTubers
and we named a lot of people.
We'll go ahead and see,
we got to get Airboyd I like that channel.
Aviation 101.
Aviation 101 Josh Flowers, Oh, it's in alphabetical order
I thought my name would be under his,
so we got Nancy Bradshaw, I subscribe to her.
BruceAirFlying, Cargospotter.
Look at all these people, Captain Joe,
Captain Joe is on the list.
Cirrus Driver.
Cirrus Driver, right below that Cirrus Instructor
Cirrus are really great airplanes.
You know who likes Cirruses, Julie?
You know who likes Cirruses, Julie Walker?
A lot of people like Cirruses, Julie.
Let me put on my favorite hat and tell you all about them.
A lot of people like Cirruses.
I like Cirruses, it's a great plane.
But, somehow Just Plane Silly,
didn't make the list.
And Bryan, well, he's just being plain silly about it.
I found it, I found it.
You're okay, Julie, you're off the hook.
This is an article about me by Jill Tallman at aopa.org.
Yeah, this one's about me because my channel
is Just Plane Silly.
It's titled 'Never forget to be silly'.
And that is, that is so fitting
and they got a picture of me with a
well, that's not me, that's Captain Roger Victor.
Yeah, silly guy.
Really, you know who else is silly?
A lot of people are silly, Jill
You know what, I don't, that's fine, that's fine.
I don't need to be on the cover of next month's issue
Jill and Julie.
It's all in good fun, he says,
well, Ryan or whatever your name is,
we are sorry for the omission.
It will totally happen again.
Now you can find Bryan's channel by searching
Just Plane Silly on YouTube.
And I recommend you check it out.
Now he may not have been before,
but now he's definitely on a list
and we'll let you figure out what list that is.
Well, that's it for this week.
Thanks for joining us.
Yeah, Let us know what you think.
You can always see the address on our screen
and comment on our YouTube channel.
We'd love to hear from you and we'll leave you this week
with some beautiful imagery from Ed McNeil.
It's from his unique turbo-charged AirCam
with reversible props over Lake Placid.
See you next week.
(relaxing music)
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