Coming up, coronavirus is impacting the aviation world.
We'll tell you how.
Plus, flying to Catalina Island,
the how's and the why's.
And it's not your grandpa's Skylark.
We check out a Monster 175.
AOPA Live This Week begins in just a moment.
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is an exciting experience.
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AOPA Finance, the right approach to buying an aircraft.
This is AOPA Live This Week
with Tom Haines and Alyssa Cobb.
Why do we fly?
Well, one reason, to go to amazing destinations
that are hard to reach without an airplane.
Catalina Island in California is one of the most famous
flying destinations on the west coast.
Air Safety Institute writer Alicia Herron
shows us there's more to Catalina than just the airport.
(upbeat music)
Santa Catalina Island,
a 75-square mile rugged piece of land
just 22 nautical miles off the coast of Los Angeles.
It is the only one of the eight channel islands
to have a public-use airport and the field is world-famous.
The Airport in the Sky earns its name
and a flight to Catalina is never boring.
The runway sits dramatically on top of a mountain
with drop-offs on both ends.
The field's location creates what is commonly referred
to as an aircraft carrier approach
and the recently repaved 3000-foot runway
presents an accessible challenge
to pilots wanting to fly in.
(pleasant music)
Check out the original, Spanish-style terminal building
that now houses the DC-3 Grill, an iconic airport restaurant
that overlooks dramatic peaks and valleys.
If you're lucky, you might even see
some of the island's famous bison,
who were brought over for a movie production in the '20s
and frequent the hills around the airfield.
The island is worth exploring beyond the airport
and there are activities to suit
a wide range of tastes and budgets.
Hike to a secluded bay and camp feet from the ocean
or take a shuttle onto Avalon,
one of two towns on the island.
The drive is an adventure in and of itself
and the mostly-unpaved, winding roads
offer amazing views at every turn.
In town, dine on fresh seafood, visit the casino,
or just walk around.
Learn about Catalina's unique wildlife
at the Catalina Island Conservancy's Nature Center
or stop by the Wrigley Memorial and Botanic Garden
to get a look at some of the island's
endemic plant life up close.
You may even spot a local Catalina Island fox.
(waves lapping)
Whatever you choose, Catalina Island is not to be missed.
The airport alone is more than enough reason to go
and the rest of the island
is more than enough reason to stay.
Alicia Herron, AOPA Live.
There's also a new Air Safety Institute
video about Catalina.
Now, it's the first in a new series
called Beyond Proficient.
So, this is all about how to get you
out of your comfort zone
and challenge your flying skills safely.
In this first video, you're gonna join a student and CFI
on a trip to Catalina and you're gonna get
all the tips and techniques you need to fly there.
You can find the video
on the Air Safety Institute YouTube channel.
And, speaking of Catalina,
it's one of the places you've told us is on your list
of Valentine's Day fly-out destinations.
At AOPA.org, we've compiled the top spots
suggested by our readers and viewers.
In addition to Catalina, you've told us about spots
in Kentucky, Cape Cod, upstate New York,
and plenty of others.
Find the full list on our website.
And you're sure to be in love with this.
How cool is it that the Pilatus PC-24 jet
has been fully certified for unpaved runways
and steep approaches.
Pilots can use the super versatile jet
on wet and snow-covered, unpaved runways.
The pilot shortage has the whole industry looking
for solutions to get more young people trained and typed.
In fact, United Airlines has taken the bull by the horns
in buying a flight school.
The airline bought Westwind School of Aeronautics in Phoenix
and will turn it into the United Aviate Academy.
United says 300 students will graduate
from the school this year
and there'll be no shortage of opportunities
for those students.
United looking to hire over 10,000 pilots
just in this decade.
The airline is also working to make airline careers
more accessible with new scholarships and financing options.
Meanwhile, ATP Flight School and SkyWest Airlines
have also joined up for scholarships
for future airline pilots.
SkyWest increased tuition reimbursements to $17,500
for pilot's training with ATP.
The funds are for students
in the SkyWest Pilot Pathway Program.
Those students get career mentorship, higher seniority,
and a guaranteed First Officer interview at SkyWest.
And AOPA is working to connect pilots with employers.
You'll have a chance to visit with recruiters
at the AOPA San Marcos, Texas, fly-in.
Over 16 recruiters will be on hand at the AOPA career fair
that's presented by American Airlines.
The fly-in is taking place May 29th to the 30th.
The event will be co-located
with Go Wheels Up!
Texas, a major air show, car show,
and music festival that'll share the airport
with AOPA's fly-in that weekend.
Find all the details and get discounted tickets
that are just launched 2020 fly-in website.
Now, on a different note,
the coronavirus is infecting aviation.
The National Business Aviation Association
is canceling its Shanghai show
due to concerns over the virus.
NBAA holds the convention every year
in partnership with the Shanghai airport authority.
The health concerns prompted the association to stop
the show and focus on next year.
In the last eight years, the Asian Business Aviation
Conference & Exhibition has become the premiere
business aviation event in Asia.
Now the virus has also affected the big Singapore
Airshow, it was scaled back this week.
Some 70 exhibitors, including giants like Lockheed Martin,
Raytheon, and Gulfstream withdrew
before the show even opened.
Show organizers are limiting the number of public tickets
and taking the temperature of every person
arriving on the show grounds.
Meanwhile, drones are joining the battle
against the coronavirus in China.
Terra Drone company Antwork is contacting Chinese
hospitals to provide medical sampled delivery drones.
Company says its automated and unmanned operation mode
can reduce the chance of contact between samples
and personnel during transportation
and improve delivery speed.
The first medical delivery drone flew last Thursday
in Zhejiang province,
one of the hardest hit by the virus.
And drone-like aircraft Cora could soon
be carrying passengers.
Cora's a self-flying two-seat E-VTOL
Cora's owned by Wisk, a US-based urban
air mobility company, Boeing a partner in that company,
Wisk just entered into an agreement with
the New Zealand government to start a trial
flying passengers in Canterbury.
Cora has been flight-testing in New Zealand since 2017.
Coming up after the break, what the NTSB is saying
about the helicopter crash that killed nine people,
including Kobe Bryant.
And a 175 with no-holds-barred on modifications,
we'll be right back.
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to consider before purchasing an aircraft.
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Learn more at aerospacereports.com.
Welcome back, the NTSB is releasing more
information about the terrible crash
that killed Kobe Bryant.
They're not calling it a preliminary report,
but rather an investigative update.
A witness on a mountain bike trail was close
enough to see the belly of the rolling Sikorsky S-76B
before it hit the side of the hill
just 50 feet below his elevation.
The January 26 crash killed nine people
including Kobe Bryant.
The pilot appears to have lost situational awareness
and struck terrain.
Daher just delivered the 300th 900 series TBM
and this signature TBM 940 went to our own Dr. Ian Fries.
A custom paint scheme includes Dr. Fries's
signature carnation.
You always see a carnation in Dr. Fries's lapel
because it's an honor of his patients.
He's a senior aviation medical examiner,
an aeromedical advisor to AOPA
and he serves on our AOPA foundation's Board of Advisors.
This is the fourth TBM for Dr. Fries.
I guess they kinda like his single-engine turbo prop
as mush as the carnation.
(chuckles)
He does, congratulations, Ian.
Well the President released his proposed budget
for the Federal Government this week.
It's what he wants to spend in fiscal year 2021,
which actually begins in October.
Total budget is $4.8 trillion, that's with a T,
4.8 trillion bucks,
about four-tenths of one percent of that
is proposed for the FAA.
However, that's still about 17.5 billion dollars
and that's about $93 million less
than what the FAA got this year.
Best news for general aviation:
no user fees.
Not so good news:
no more money for unleaded fuel research.
But, hey there's a saying in Washington:
the President proposes and Congress disposes.
What that means is that the White House budget
is really just a suggestion.
Congress will decide how much will really be spent
and, as we've seen before, that sometimes
can take a very long time.
Well, for decades, you have come to know and love
the AOPA pilot information center.
The helpful AOPA staff stand by and answer
your aviation questions, over the phone,
or by email or chat.
And now there's a new tool to connect AOPA
with you called the Online Pilot Information Center.
The format for the Online PIC, or Pilot
Information Center, is a mechanism where
a question may be out there, you can ask a question,
people can up-vote them, or add to them
and they will continue to bubble to the top
as far as like, the most popular responses.
There's also opportunity to acquire badges
and things of that nature.
So, it's a fun, interactive way to be able
to interact with the staff here at AOPA.
The online PIC replaces the AOPA Hangar.
You can find it at the URL on your screen.
What would you do if you could make
any modification you wanted to a certified aircraft?
How would you create your ultimate budget dream airplane,
and do it legally, of course?
One intrepid owner and his young A&P set out
on a quest to build a monster bush plane
out of a humble Cessna 175.
AOPA Live's Paul Harrop shows us what they've done
and how they did it.
This ain't your grandpa's Skylark.
No, this machine is so much more impressive.
Well, the idea was that
I just wanted to kind-of find something
a lot like a diamond in the rough and build it.
And Jeff's like, "What do you think?"
And I was like, "We should do some cool stuff with it."
The 175 started life as a trike
with a geared engine.
And the guy that I bought it from
had put it on its tail with an STC.
And it still had the GO-300 and he put
the 180 gear legs under it.
And so, when we got it, we said what we want to do.
So owner Jeff Whitely and A&P Kyle Bushman
put an O-470, and 80-inch prop, over 31-inch tires.
But, they weren't done tinkering there.
We have a leading edge cuff, we have VG's,
we have VGs on the vertical underneath the horizontal,
we've extended the elevator on the back
to get more effectiveness on the flare.
And all the old systems got gutted.
And so, in this case, it's a lot safer airplane
because we put in every system
that's essential for flight.
We put in brand new everything,
and we literally did just the minimum.
The panel is all in for $7,500.
We figured out we could do dual-like Pad Pros,
a cheap engine monitor, the BOM,
we could get synthetic vision.
It also has angle-of-attack and they didn't
pay aviation prices for the rest of the stuff, either.
We went with a lot of automotive-type, you know,
things off of Amazon, switches, and things
just to kinda customize it to us.
But do like lights, and we put rock crawler lights on it.
To do all this legally, Kyle called around
to the FSDO and found a DAR who frequently works
in the motion-picture industry.
So I said, "Let's do it the right way,
"we'll go through it and like, I said don't,
"we don't wanna do loopholes, we just wanna
"do it the right way, what is that?
"And if it fits our mission, we're gonna do it."
And so that's how we got to experimental
exhibition class, and if fit what we wanted
to do perfectly.
The rules for experimental exhibition allow
the airplane to be taken to airshows as a demonstrator
and for the pair to fly it around
to stay proficient in it.
There's no longer a radius from homebase that
the experimental exhibition class aircraft
may be flown for proficiency, so it doesn't
effect the practical usability of the airplane.
And if they ever wanted to, the airplane could be taken
back to certified.
But, that's not the plan.
Since I shot this story at High Sierra Fly-In
last Autumn, they've added leading edge slats
to this experiment of ingenuity.
Paul Harrop, AOPA Live.
Wow, that is quite a piece of work there.
It is.
Interesting how they've taken, you know, an old
airplane, and a lot of, you know, older technology
and rounded gear-swap and that sort of thing,
and married with it a lot of new, simple, off-the-shelf
kind of things, for the panels and the lights
and all that sort of thing.
Yeah, the $7,500 panels are what caught my attention.
(laughing)
Really, the amazing things you can do once
it's in an experimental category.
Absolutely, yup.
Well, that's our program for this week,
be sure to like, comment, and subscribe on YouTube.
And let us know what you think,
the address is on your screen.
(upbeat music)
The people of AOPA's Legal Services
Plan work to help protect your certificates,
and they love to fly as much as you do.
The AOPA Legal Services Plan is offered
as part of our pilot protection services.
It's a members-only benefit provided
to thousands of pilots like you.