Archive for Sport Flying
The New LSA Piper Video
Posted by: | CommentsSky’s the limit with Nacro flying scheme
Posted by: | CommentsSkys the limit with Nacro flying scheme
A highly ambitious approach to the problem of youth re-offending has given a new twist to the concept of pilot projects
Squadron Leader Chris Heames, chief flying instructor at RAF Syerston, teaches Chris Kay (in cockpit) and Michael Freeman how to fly gliders. Photograph: Fabio De Paola
The sky over RAF Syerston in the flatlands of east Nottinghamshire is the colour of a spreading bruise, and the white gulls flapping across it look like the only ones that will be flying this afternoon. Young pilots in flying jackets are drinking tea in the mess and flipping through magazines, under a framed photo Bomber Command in 1943. The scene would be reminiscent of the film Reach for the Sky were it not for the electronic gadgetry bringing in-depth weather forecasts to a large screen.
Scanning it more closely than most are two teenagers desperate to get into a glider again and relive the most memorable experiences of their short, troubled lives.
Michael Freeman, 17, and Chris Kay, 16, have travelled across the East Midlands from their home town of Derby with Thom Young, a training organiser from Nacro, the crime reduction charity. Neither youth has a qualification – but then they both had prolonged absences from school, albeit for different reasons.
via Sky’s the limit with Nacro flying scheme | Society | The Guardian.
Aviation pioneer visits Minden-Tahoe Airport | RecordCourier.com
Posted by: | CommentsAfter 60 years out of the cockpit, 93-year-old Joe Szep stepped into the pilot's seat of a glider at Minden-Tahoe Airport on Tuesday.
With copilot Mike Moore of Soar Minden sitting behind him, Szep was towed by a plane up into the Valley’s wide, shimmering-blue sky.
“I’ve never been in a glider,” he said before take-off. “I’m sure it will be a different experience all together.”
It’s hard to imagine Szep lacks any kind of experience when it comes to flying. The Morgan Hill, Calif., resident worked as an aeronautical engineer and designer for Lockheed in Southern California for 35 years. In the late 1930s, he became part of the original Skunk Works program, the secretive group of engineers who produced the P-38 Lightning fighter plane used in World War II, the XP-80 Shooting Star, America’s first operational fighter jet, and later the U-2 spy plane used in the Cold War.
“My favorite was probably the XP-80, mainly because of the set up,” Szep said. “There were 25 of us in one room with no air conditioning in the summertime in Burbank, and we had canvas walls around us. They called us into the room and said they just got back from Dayton, Ohio, and had a contract from the Army Air Corps to design and build the plane in 150 days. In 143 days, we had it from pencil and paper ready to fly. It was never in actual operations in World War II, but became the primary fighter in the Air Force after that.”
The XP-80 prototype the engineers built, called “Lulu Belle,” now sits in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
Szep, still sharp as a propeller, now tours the country with family members giving lectures and introducing to the next generation the history of aeronautics.
via Aviation pioneer visits Minden-Tahoe Airport | RecordCourier.com.
LSA in the spotlight at AOPA | General Aviation News
Posted by: | CommentsLSA in the spotlight at AOPA
Posted by GAN Staff · November 22, 2009
By DAN JOHNSON
PlaneIn its first year as the AOPA Aviation Summit (versus Expo), the 70-year-old, 415,000-member organization made lots of changes, large and small. Among the most notable under capable new president Craig Fuller was much greater attention to LSA.
Here’s the fast-read update: AOPA announced its 2010 Sweepstakes airplane is a Remos GX (pictured above, with yours truly on the left, Remos’s Corvin Huber in the middle and AOPA’s Craig Fuller on the right); the company had multiple displays and aircraft. Cessna brought a SkyCatcher for selected reporters to fly. Fuller had Icon A5 developer Kirk Hawkins on the center-hall stage. EAA’s Earl Lawrence led a LSA panel of FAA and industry experts (including yours truly). The Light Aircraft Manufacturers Association (LAMA) operated an LSA Mall area and had fruitful discussions with AOPA to advance goals of the LSA industry. SeaMax USA showed off its simulator seaplane running on MS Flight Sim. Tecnam North America, with several aircraft on display, announced new service centers for the popular Italian line of aircraft it now represents. Flight Design announced three new Pilot Centers. Dynon showed off its new SkyView in 7-inch and 10-inch screens. And, Garmin showed its new new “aera” touch-screen GPS.
via LSA in the spotlight at AOPA | General Aviation News.
