Well folks, it’s summer and the airshow season is in full swing. The oil crunch has been unkind to quite a few shows out there, causing cancellations for some and scale-backs for others — but thanks to loyal fans, airshows still stand as tip-top entertainment.

I was supposed to be at my hometown airshow this weekend in Geneseo, NY — appropriately named “The Geneseo Airshow – The Greatest Show on Turf.” It’s one of the few grass-field shows left out there, and is something like a field of dreams for many aviation enthusiasts. Unfortunately the gas crunch hit me hard and made the trek of 2600 miles from AZ to NY impossible, so I am here soothing my sorrow for not being there with a blog post.

I will admit, I am not a die hard airshow fan like some — I rarely go to large shows with multiple jet teams and huge crowds. I prefer smaller, more intimate venues. I like the kind of shows where you can do a little talking with the crews and pilots and get hooked up with some behind-the-scenes access that the public can’t get usually. I like being an airshow insider.

But being an airshow insider is way more than the exclusive access and whatnot — it’s about getting more out of the show than just what’s happening in the air.  It’s about finding new ways to enjoy the event, or even just survive the harsh environment that they sometimes present to allow yourself to enjoy a show without feeling pain.

So based on that, I came up with ten ways to become the “Airshow Insider” — or ways to get the most out of your airshow experience.

Read the rest of this entry »

For Skyraider owner Eric Downing… I know how much you love them!

Can you tell I like www.mymotivatr.com yet?

Now, I will have to be the first to admit that I haven’t followed the Sport Pilot and LSA trend as much as I should have. As I am already a private pilot, the entire concept of the sport pilot certificate really didn’t immediately apply to me and because I don’t even have even enough to plop down as a down payment on a run-out Cessna 120, a new plane, no matter how small and simple, didn’t really entice me.

And why should I have been enticed?  I mean, most of the LSAs out there look like dinky versions of Cubs, Cessna 152s made from fiberglass, or generic low wing things. For me, yeah, I’d fly anything if given the chance, but the LSA / Sport push really isn’t aimed at “converting” me… but rather to get new pilot starts.

No aircraft currently being offered was really standing out to me as something that could take a non-pilot and make them go, “whoa! I want to fly that!”  Yeah, the Skycatcher has some potential (but what a stupid name), but it still follows the regular pattern of “make it look like our other high-wings and slap some glass instrumentation in there to up sell and let’s go.”

So needless to say, I’ve been disappointed. Until today that is.

I read Scott Spangler’s post today at JetWhine and was really interested with the feature… a little LSA amphibian called the ICON A5.  Yeah, it looks a lot like some of the homebuilt amphibs I’ve seem out there for years, but the thing that caught my eye was the cockpit. It was so… cool looking… and it has only a little bit of glass on a Bendix King moving map GPS.

Read the rest of this entry »

 
Thanks to Twitter friend Dan Sleezer, I was made aware of a fantastic set of photos from Lost America on Flickr featuring an abandoned terminal set for demolition at San Francisco International Airport.  Check out the set here.

For those of you who know me, abandoned airfields are a particular passion of mine. I have always been intrigued with structures of the past that become disused, abandoned, and eventually gone for good. I frequent Paul Freemans "Abandoned and Little-Known Airfields" site and even contributed significantly to the listing there for Woodward Field in Le Roy, NY, near where I grew up.

I was quite possibly one of the few people that regularly visited the site of the former Nathaniel Hawthorne College in Antrim, NH.  Hawthorne was something of a "sister" school to my alma mater Daniel Webster College and closed in the late 90′s.  It was created around the same time in the 60′s as DWC. It had a flight program similar to DWC and was about the same size.  Even their administration building looked very much like Daniel Webster Hall.

All that’s left of the college now are some of the buildings reused as a meditation school — while other buildings are merely foundations.  In the case of the great library, it sits abandoned and completely gutted — ceiling falling in and windows broken. To me, the sight of the college in its current state gave me particular passion to make sure my college, Daniel Webster, would never succumb to a similar fate.

See a video tribute to Hawthorne here.

It may be sad to see abandoned places, but I seem to find a certain purpose in it. It reminds me that all things on the earth, including us, have limited time here.  We need to appreciate things while they are here and get the most out of that time we are here while we still can.