The first airshow at the Grand Palais in Paris, September 30, 1909, as photographed in Autochrome Lumière by Leon Gimpel. Autochrome Lumière was the principal color photography process in use before the introduction of subtractive color film in the 1930s.
FAA NEWS
A step in the right direction
Proposed rule will streamline GA aircraft certification
By Elizabeth A. Tennyson
The FAA has proposed a rule that could make it easier, faster, and less expensive to get modern safety equipment into general aviation aircraft. The notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) would replace today’s highly prescriptive design requirements with performance- and risk-based standards for aircraft certification under Part 23.
“This NPRM includes much needed and long overdue reforms to the aircraft certification process,” said AOPA President Mark Baker. “AOPA has worked diligently with the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, other industry stakeholders, and the FAA to promote a shift to standards that maintain safety while making it easier and more affordable to bring innovative technology into GA aircraft. This proposed rule is a critical step in that direction.”
According to the FAA, the NPRM adds new certification standards to address GA loss-of-control accidents and in-flight icing conditions. The proposal establishes performance- and risk-based divisions for airplanes with a maximum seating capacity of 19 passengers and a maximum gross takeoff weight of 19,000 pounds.
While the proposal focuses on design and certification of new aircraft, changes are still needed to make it easier and more affordable for the owners of legacy aircraft to put modern safety equipment in their airplanes.
“We hope that this NPRM, along with policy changes already in place to support the installation of safety-enhancing equipment in GA aircraft, signals a new approach to regulation and certification,” said Baker. “One size does not fit all when it comes to aircraft equipment. We must make it easier to upgrade legacy aircraft with a wide range of innovative safety technology.”
The proposal acknowledges that “the current Part 23 airworthiness standards are largely prescriptive, meaning that they describe detailed design requirements, and are based on airplane designs from the 1950s and 1960s.” This means that applicants seeking to incorporate new or innovative technology are subjected to costly procedures and requirements that “act as barriers to certification, and discourage innovation.”
The public has until May 13 to file formal comments on the proposal. AOPA will review the draft proposal and file comments ahead of the deadline.
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Ready, set, shoot
Enter AOPA’s 2016 photo contest
It’s easy to participate. To give us your best shot, simply go online and upload your photo (please make sure you actually took the photo or own the rights to it). Submissions are being accepted from now until May 15, 2016, in three categories. A panel of judges in a smoky back room will pick three finalists in each category. Those finalists will be voted on to pick a winner in each of the categories—people, places, and aircraft.
In addition to the respect of the judges and the entire flying public, winners will win a new Faro headset and a new bag from the AOPA Store. Finalists will win an AOPA shirt and hat from the store. And all the finalists and winners will be published in a future issue of AOPA Pilot. Visit the website (www.aopa.org/photocontest) and upload your photo today.
Sponsored by Faro aviation
Endeavor Awards moves to Denver
The premier celebration for volunteer pilots has moved from Los Angeles to Denver. The awards will be presented during the Air Care Alliance Summit May 20 and 21 at the Denver JW Marriot. The award ceremony takes place May 21 at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. Recipients are:
• Retired U.S. Air Force Col. Richard Iverson, Veterans Airlift Command
• Jim Platz, Patient AirLift Services
• Dianna Stanger, Angel Flight South Central
This month in aviation
May 7, 1992
Endeavour, NASA's fifth and final space shuttle, started its first mission May 7, 1992, and its final mission May 16, 2011. It replaced space shuttle Challenger, which broke up in flight in 1986. Remarkably, after its retirement, Endeavour was towed through the streets of Los Angeles to its current home at the California Science Center. NASA astronaut Mike Fincke said:
“You ask any kid from 1970 on to draw a picture of what a spaceship should look like, and they all look like space shuttles. So it definitely resonates within human hearts.”
Milestones
CAP begins 75th anniversary celebration
Organization founded in December 1941
By David Tulis
The Civil Air Patrol began its seventy-fifth anniversary celebration by doing what it does best: working behind the scenes to support scores of mentors and cadets keeping a fleet of 550 aircraft in the sky for its 56,000 volunteers.
The anniversary kickoff reception in Crystal City, Virginia, saw about 300 Civil Air Patrol members, leaders, and volunteers. The continuing celebration will honor CAP’s evolving roles since the its inception on December 1, 1941. President Harry S. Truman signed a measure incorporating the unit in 1946, and that’s when the organization officially became the civilian auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force.
Since then, the Civil Air Patrol has helped conduct countless searches, rescues, and training missions while building up an enthusiasm for flight and an understanding of aviation for its male and female cadet participants.
The organization’s national commander, Maj. Gen. Joe Vazquez, said the patrol was one of the first military arms to accept men and women equally into its ranks. In 1947 the patrol worked closely with the U.S. Army Air Forces to recruit 17-year-old men into the highly successful Air Corps Enlisted reserve; they would be called to duty after reaching 18. “Female cadets, in turn, were recruited into the Women’s Army Corps,” reads the organization’s historical archive.
Vazquez said that although the patrol’s mission has indeed evolved over the years, it has never strayed far from its original roots.
“We’ve got the largest number of Cessnas in the world in any one organization that controls a fleet [of airplanes], and we have it on purpose. We use the skills of our volunteer pilots and volunteer air crews to serve America with disaster relief flying, search and rescue, and other assistance missions to our Air Force partners and various relief agencies,” Vazquez said.
He said the cadet program is one of the Civil Air Patrol’s mainstays. “The cadets are styled in a similar fashion to Junior ROTCs but the difference is our cadets volunteer to be CAP members—it’s not [offered] in the schools. They have to seek us out so we have highly motivated youth.” Cadets typically meet at airports after school one evening per week to delve into aviation concepts and on weekends they participate in flying during search training missions.
Vazquez counts the total immersion into an aviation environment as one of the main benefits cadets receive from their participation. “Each cadet gets orientation rides and we have a school each year where most of the cadets successfully solo a Cessna.”
Vazquez said education was—and still is—one of the original missions of the Civil Air Patrol, “but it wasn’t called aerospace education back then, it was called aero-mindedness.”
The point, he said, was to make sure the American population was more educated about aviation and the future of aviation, and now that has extended into aerospace. “We’ve continued that tradition for 75 years and we’re going to continue to do that into the future.”
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USAF helps fund CAP encampment programs
The U.S. Air Force will continue to help fund the Civil Air Patrol’s popular weeklong encampment program for aviation-minded high school students. Nearly 7,200 cadet campers participated in the 2015 program, including about 1,000 cadets who were eligible for the economic assistance grants that helped cadets with tuition and uniforms.
“The experiences the cadets had at the encampments—developing leadership skills, investigating aerospace sciences and career options, and solidifying their moral character—were life-altering events for these young Americans,” said Gen. Mark A. Welsh III, U.S. Air Force chief of staff.
Welsh said the program supports the Air Force’s goals of inspiring character; diversity; fitness; and science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) development.
Maj. Gen. Joe Vazquez, the patrol’s national commander, said cadets who attended encampments achieved more and advanced further in the Civil Air Patrol Cadet Program. “This learning experience is very important for the cadets, their families, their communities, CAP, and, in years down the line, for America,” he said. –DT
