Coming up, tragedy in Connecticut.
We fly the new TBM turboprop,
and a tiny aircraft with a real punch
And a shoot off between video cameras
you can use on your airplane.
AOPA Live this week begins in just a moment.
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(AOPA introductory music)
This is AOPA of this week
with Tom Haines and Melissa Rudinger.
A horrible tragedy in Connecticut this week
a vintage aircraft down and lives lost
Wednesday morning a B-17 lined up on runaway six
at Bradley International Airport thirteen souls aboard
three crew, ten passengers.
November niner 3012, wind light and variable at 3.
Turn right heading zero niner 5 runway six at runway 33
cleared for take off.
Turn to 095 and cleared for takeoff - 93
Nine oh nine a B-17 owned by The Collings Foundation
was ready to go.
The 75-year old bomber is part of the Wings of Freedom tour
traveling the country offering flight
experiences in one of their three World War Two bombers.
The B-17 took-off from Bradley International
but never got much higher than about 800 feet according to
the FlightAware tracking system. Then a calm call
to departure control
Oh sorry guys, 012
but we would like to return to the field.
[Control Operator] - What's the reason for coming back?
Our number four engine we would like to return
to blow it out.
9012 you can proceed on to the downwind for runaway six,
and you said you need immediate landing?
If you got a chance yeah.
On the landing approach the aircraft
hit some ILS posts
then veered sharply of the runaway to the right
and hit the deicing facility.
And it was an intense fire, seven people killed,
seven injured, including one on the ground.
The Collings Foundation posted a statement on Facebook,
sending thoughts and prayers to those in the flight
and pledging cooperation with accident investigators.
NTSB arrived on the scene Wednesday afternoon.
So it's a real tragedy, I mean, many of us know
the folks associated with The Collings Foundation
and we just now starting to hear some names,
and the last thing, of course, we need,
it's for this to result in someone coming out
with a knee jerk reaction
and saying we need to ground this airplanes.
Senator Blumenthal from Connecticut,
is already making noise to that effect
and we just need to find out what happened
That's the big thing for me
when we have an overreaction, clearly it's a tragedy,
clearly we need to understand what happened
and if there's a remedy we need to remediate
but we don't know yet.
Right.
So it's pretty appalling that somebody would use
this tragedy to push an agenda.
Right, absolutely.
AOPA President Mark Baker was in front
of another congressional committee late last week
this time over on the house side.
Baker told the Transportation Committee
about the benefits to general aviation,
in the five year FAA re-authorization legislation
passed last year.
Included in the bill is money to help
train a new generation of pilots and mechanics,
extending the time between aircraft re-registration
to seven years, and hangar rules
that reflect the real world of aircraft building
and maintenance and Baker made another pitch
to bring back the rebate for installing ADS-B out.
We still got a lot GA aircraft out there
that aren't equipped, and we got a deadline
that's coming up very very quickly.
Are you concerned about that?
You think that people are just waiting
to see what happens with the price?
ADS-B equipment out mandate
which starts January this year, it's very concerning,
we have about 87 thousand aircraft
that probably will be equipped at that point in time,
leaving about 70 some thousand aircraft
that use that air space that are close to the cities
or above ten thousand feet,
that won't be equipped as of January 1, most likely.
The cost of equipment has come down,
that is we all know here the average age of
an aircraft is 45 years-old, you get a quartile
that are less than 40 thousand dollars in total value,
and this equipment was running between two and six
thousands dollars to put on this airplanes.
General aviation owners spent over
a billion in half dollars so far
to be participating in this mandate,
if it had a five hundred dollar rebate program in place,
it expired, it was very helpful
for a lot of this owners
that are doing this for the betterment
of the system, for traffic, they don't have to this,
they want to do this, we encouraging them to do it
but I would really encourage that
five hundred dollar rebate be reenacted.
Well the current ADS-B rebate is no more
you still have one tiny chance to get one
so mark your calendar, on October ninth
at 1 PM eastern there's a chance
to grab one of the few unclaimed rebates,
login into the FAA's ADS-B webpage for more information.
Another new jet enters the market
Brazilian manufacture Embraer announced this week
that did has received both FAA and European certification
for the midsize Praetor 500, the fly by wire midsize
has a stand-up cabin and a 33 hundred nautical mile range
base cost about 17 million bucks.
And speaking of high-end turbine aircraft
there's a new single engine turboprop
that has several features traditionally only found
at the top of the turbine market.
AOPA pilot editor large Tom Horne has the story
about the TBM 940.
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There's a new TBM in town,
the TBM 940, it retains the same performance
as its TBM 910 and 930 predecessors
but has two major new standard features
on its instrument panel, autothrottle
and an automatic ice protection system.
I recently flew the 940 with Nicolas Chabbert,
senior VP of Daher's aircraft business unit.
Engine start is almost automatic.
So to start this you would put the fuel on auto
(beeping sound)
and then hit the start.
The autothrottle system allows you
to set a desired air speed
and instead of you moving the power lever,
the autothrottle system does it for you.
You can set the autothrottle system,
it's made by Garmin, by the way,
manually or call our pre programs speed profiles
for climb, cruise and descent.
This is Florida so thunderstorms popped-up
and we used the Garmin GWX 70 weather radar
to pick our way to several clusters of cells.
The 940 is automatically ice protection system,
uses a tail mounted vibrating probe
to sense the unsettle ice increasing.
When ice forms the vibration frequency changes
triggering the system in to action.
You can use the autothrottle for landings as well,
here we are on approach of Pompano Beach,
with the system holding speed into short final.
When we disconnected for landing, of course,
TBMs don't have trailing link landing gear
and can be a challenge to land sometimes,
but this time I got a good one,
and just in time, a thunder storm was moving in.
You usually see autothrottles only on big jets
but 940 lays down a new marker
for the turboprob market.
Will we see the autothrottles on
more turboprop singles? I think the answer is, yes.
Tom Horne, AOPA Live.
You can read all about the TBM 940
in the October turbine edition of AOPA pilot magazine.
And another new aircraft just made
the trip across the pound,
the first two Tecnam P2012 Travelers
just landed in Massachusetts, they are first of a bunch
of one hundred order by commuter airline Cape Air.
The 11-seat aircraft is the first
new piston twin to come on the market in a very long time.
And speaking of traveling,
how about some free stuff just for flying?
So we have a new program working with ForeFlight
and Jeppesen Boeing clearly, to incentivize,
or give a little extra reward to those
that file flight plans and fly,
hopefully more often and to more places,
which is our shared mission,
so when pilots file flight plans,
using ForeFlight, be it IFR or VFR,
they get entered into to drawings
for all kinds of different prizes,
hopefully giving them yet another reason
to do more flying.
The grand prize includes an Ipad Air
and Sentury ADS-B receiver
and a ForeFlight Performance Plus subscription,
and remember we also have the Pilot Passport challenge,
check in to an airport using our app
and get another chance to win a prize, so go fly.
And take a young woman flying
or at least out to the airport,
this Saturday is Girls in Aviation Day,
and there are advanced plan all around the world.
With an aviation international spearheading the event
and airports, and FBOs, museum, universities,
and corporate member all pitched in to spread the word
about the wide variety of career choices
for young women in aviation and aerospace.
Go to wai's website and find an event near you.
Always a great event.
Yes, it is. It's wonderful to see the girls
out the airport and understanding
that there's opportunities there.
Absolutely.
When we come back the best point of view camera
for recording your flying adventurous.
And a flying nail gun
what will they think of next?
AOPA Live this week continues in just a moment.
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Welcome back.
Two stewards of the flight training industry,
received much deserved recognition last week.
John and Martha King, were inducted into
the National Aviation Hall of Fame,
the King's received the award for 40 years
of aviation instruction, in those 40 years
they have reached over half a million pilots
the award presentation took place at
Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum
in Denver, Colorado.
So congratulations to John and Martha.
Absolutely, congratulations.
The site of the Hall of Fame induction this year
was at Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum.
You probably know that as a museum
in metropolitan Denver,
but the organization now has a new campus
being developed at Centennial Airport,
I got to visit a few weeks ago.
The Boeing Blue Sky Aviation Gallery
is the first phase of a campus being developed
at the airport.
Well officially Wings Over the Rockies
it's one organization two locations,
so this the second location,
the other one is at Lowry Air Force Base,
since 1994, but this is meant to be the present and future.
The Blue Sky Gallery is meant to highlight aviation
and provide an introduction to the world
of opportunities that exist in the field.
They get to see, smell, touch here
aviation every day, what better way to do it,
then just have that experience as we go along here.
It's a working hangar
and leads out to the airport
but inside there's plenty of hands-on experiences
for visitors.
This is meant to be the experience
so we have everything from the physiology,
to the air dynamic sections, with wind tunnel,
you know we got, everything from drones to be flown
and virtual reality, we have first class simulators,
we have a workshop right over here,
where we are building a RV 12,
the students are building a RV 12.
The students are not always in the hangar
there's a charter school being built on the campus,
right now they are on the portal buildings
while the school is being constructed,
and the day we visited, city officials were
on hand to provide the occupancy permits for the portal
so they could move in.
So was fascinating what they got going on out there
it's just amazing, the facilities they are building
and they are not done yet, in addition to the school
that's just on the way, they are also working
on this black sky gallery, which is basically sort of
a space, you know, the current balling facility
is about aviation, and the black sky gallery,
it's going to be about space, it's like a
Disney World Experience, I've seen some videos
about how they're gonna do it,
and it's a walk through kind of thing
where you gonna feel like you're actually in space.
Oh, that's sound exciting.
If it's anything like the museum out there
it will be world-class.
Yeah, they did, they do a great job.
Can't wait to see it.
Now to some news from the drone world,
and I guess you could call this
the world's smallest airline - literally.
UPS has just received FAA Part 135 certification
to operate a drone airline, and that's a first.
The so called airline is flying on the
Wake Medical Campus in North Carolina,
taking specimens from one building to another.
The drones are also approved to operate
beyond visual line of sight, another first.
The part 135 approval also permits the drone
and cargo to exceed 55 pounds
and fly at night, those were previous restrictions
governing earlier UPS flights.
And now to the USPS, the U.S. Postal Service too,
wants to get into to the drone deliver business
and they have some other ideas for drones as well,
Mr. Zip, and if you get that reference,
you are older than we are, is asking for proposal
for drones to deliver mail and packages
to difficult areas like down long driveways
or remote homes, they're also looking at
Uber style app so you can order a drone
to come and get a package from you.
The Postal Service is also is looking at this drones
to collect Geo spacial and visual images
to develop detailed maps for autonomous vehicles.
And the University of Michigan is out to show
that drones can do useful work.
This drone is armed with a nail gun
and programmed to place roofing nails
a university researcher says that
the drones are ideal for dull, dirty and dangerous work,
right now the flying nail gun isn't as fast
as a professional roofer and it doesn't place
the shingles but they are working on it.
But there are some places where drones shouldn't go,
the FAA just issued a TFR and created a no drone zone
around the Albuquerque International Balloon Festival,
the TRF prohibits drones within a four nautical
mile radius of Balloon Fiesta Park,
up to 2700 feet AGL, 30 thousand dollar fine
if you are caught.
And moving out to a much bigger
multi rotor craft, more and more companies
are playing with the idea of an Uber air taxi.
Airbus has the Vahana and the Cityairbus in development
and now they are rolling out the other part of the equation
the app, at the moment, Voom is the Uber
for just helicopters and only in San Francisco,
Mexico City and São Paulo,
but works just like a ride sharing app,
book a seat and fly point to point,
you can see where this is going.
Well drone versus balloon, it's obviously not good
but how about Cessna versus Piper?
Garmin Pilot versus ForeFlight?
Bose versus Lightspeed? There are always discussions
among pilots about the best products are for flying
AOPA editor large Dave Hirschman compares the
Garmin VIRB Ultra to the GoPro HERO7,
to see which is the best for capturing
your flying adventurous.
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Small, light weight point of view cameras
allow pilots to record and share highlights
from their flights, but which of the many cameras
in a crowded field is best for aviation?
GoPro and Garmin are market leaders
and I recently flew with both of their
top of the line products, I used the same airplane
the same camera settings and the same physical mounts
for both flights. The Garmin VIRB Ultra 30 and the
GoPro HERO7 were about the same size
and they are close to the same cost
but the difference in image quality
and stability are obvious.
The GoPro video is sharper, richer in color,
and far less prone to vibration.
It's not perfect, abroad maneuvers tend to confuse it
but even when maned in turbulent air bellow the tail
and pointed straight to the setting sun,
the GoPro HERO7 produces
remarkably stable, eye quality images.
The Garmin VIRB Ultra 30 is shaky by comparison
the VIRB has a lot going for it,
particularly its built-in GPS and free editing program.
I also found the VIRB to be easier to program
and simpler to use,
but if your only consideration is image quality,
the GoPro HERO7 is a clear winner.
Dave Hirschman AOPA Live.
So pros and cons to both, if you are someone like me
and you need free editing software
and being intuitive that's what my go to is
more than the actual picture quality,
they're both good.
Yeah, and the great thing it's you've got a choice
and they are both good choices
and like anything else there are pros and cons of each.
Exactly.
And finally, it ain't easy being a chicken
just ask Zeke Przygocki,
Captain Peeps as he calls himself,
spent the weekend as target
for rubber chickens thrown out of airplanes.
It was all part of Easton Airport Day in Maryland,
it's a corky story and sorry we didn't get any video,
but it's a great read on our website.
Captain Peps.
Got do something on the weekends, right?
Exactly, why not?
That's another one in the can.
Let us know what you think about the show
mesh that like button or leave us a comment
and send us an email.
And we hope you join us here next Thursday
for another edition of AOPA Live this week.
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