Don’t you love the TSA’s 3-1-1 rule? Have we taken this security business too far? After all, what harm could possibly come from that Coke bottle that security agents eagerly confiscate from your grandmother’s luggage?

Apparently quite a lot.

National Geographic’s docudrama, The Liquid Bomb Plot, reveals the events leading up to the capture of a home-grown terrorists on the verge of blowing up 10 airplanes and killing over 2000 citizens using hydrogen peroxide injected soda bottles.

The show promises to play out like an intense spy thriller and the preview is both sobering and a little bit frightening.

The Liquid Bomb Plot airs at 9:00PM ET/PT on National Geographic.

Be sure to listen to this week’s episode of Airplane Geeks where I made a guest appearance. We discussed this week’s aviation news, the history and state of AviationChatter.com and my latest project, the Hold Here iPhone / iPad app.

Airplane Geeks is one of the best aviation podcasts on the web. It’s a smart and witty conversation amongst industry pundits and I’m honored to have been a part of it.

You can listen to the show at AirplaneGeeks.com and find them on twitter: @AirplaneGeeks

As Atlantis streaked across the Earth’s atmosphere for a final time, an astronaut onboard the International Space Station snapped this photograph of it’s fiery plasma trail. Atlantis landed safely in Florida on July 21, 2011. Space Shuttle Atlantis will be put on display at the Kennedy Space Center.

I’ve written about how to find your holding pattern entry and we’ve talked about bugout times before. But sometimes a pilot is so task-saturated flying the airplane that even the easiest tasks are too much to handle. Thankfully holding patterns won’t vex you anymore because there’s an app for that! I’m very pleased to announce the release of my first iPhone App – Hold Here.

Finding the right holding pattern entry with Hold Here

Hold Here computes holding pattern entries with ease. With an interface inspired by the E6-B like calculators available in Sportys, Hold Here’s pattern entry calculator is familiar to pilots. You simply use two fingers to rotate the holding pattern to the desired inbound / outbound radial. Next, tap the heading button and rotate the airplane to your heading.

The app displays the FAA recommended holding pattern entry by name at the top and clearly depicts the entry as a bold red line.

Hold Here really shines with the bugout time calculator. I kept things very simple to make it quick and easy to use in the cockpit. Just enter some basic information about your flight plan – speed, distances and fuel – and the the app displays how long you can hold in minutes.

The easiest way to find out how long you can hold

I made sure that this app will work for a variety of airplanes – from light singles all the way up to heavy airliners. If you fly an old Piper or Cessna and track your fuel in terms of hours and minutes, just punch those numbers in. And if you are in a more complex airplane with accurate fuel and fuel flow readings, you can enter those numbers in units of gallons or pounds.

What determines bugout time? For safety, I’m defining bugout time as the moment where you have just enough fuel to fly from the holding fix to the destination, then proceed to the alternate airport with your 45 minute IFR fuel reserve untouched. I do not account for any time spent shooting approaches, so it’s important to keep that in mind and apply a little fudge-factor depending on your airplane and experience.

Go download Hold Here and leave a comment – tell me what you think.

For the first time in 25 years, a fleet of blimps darted across the Manhattan skyline in the Great Blimp Race of 2011. Perhaps darted is too strong – maybe floated or wobbled would be more appropriate. DirectTV, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield and Hangar One Vodka’s blimps participated in the race from the Statue of Liberty all the way to Midtown Manhattan. As I write this, official results have not been published, but from my Brooklyn vantage point it looked as though DirecTV had a definite lead with Hangar One trailing just behind the Horizon Blimp.

Check out my photos and please comment and link to your own if you were there!

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While visiting Wichita, I was given a sneak peak at the Cessna Citation Ten, a souped up sequel to the fastest business jet in the world. Although I didn’t get to see the actual prototype, I did get to climb into the mock-up and play with the touch-screen Garmin G5000!

Citation Ten's clean and simplified flight deck centered around the Garmin G5000

As a pilot, the most obvious change is how the flight deck has been completely redesigned. All the blocky panels are gone, replaced by a sleek molded plastic that makes the cockpit feel more like a sports car than a complicated jet.

The first thing that grabbed my attention was the lack of switches. Cessna has simplified the airplane to the point where there is no need for pilots to do complicated flows with lots of switch throwing. Everything is clearly labeled and well positioned, except for a few switches hidden behind the control column.

Sporting a brand new Garmin G5000 touch screen avionics suite, flying the Citation Ten is going to feel like piloting something from Star Trek. Words just cannot describe how simple and intuitive this thing is. Think back to the first time you used an iPhone. Remember how everything just made sense? That’s what it’s like to work with the G5000.

Speaking of Garmin, the Citation Ten will feature a pretty snazzy WiFi enabled Garmin Diagnostics system. It records all sorts of systems and flight monitoring information that your maintenance tech can download from his office when the airplane is nearby.

A cutaway of the Rolls Royce / Allison AE3007 C2 engines

Under the hood, Cessna is installing two Rolls Royce / Allison AE3007 C2 engines. These engines are planned to provide more thrust than the old C1′s (up to a 9% increase in climb) and up to 1.4% savings in fuel efficiency. But the thing that I’m ooh-ing and ahh-ing over is the full flight regime auto throttles. If you’re task saturated, the airplane can manage the throttles from takeoff to touchdown. Believe me, that’s a nice feature when it’s a nasty flying day.

The new engines together with curved winglets (they were available as an aftermarket add on to the X) give the Citation Ten greater range, payload and speed. This gives the airplane much greater operational flexibility than its predecessor.

Comparing Citation X performance to the Citation Ten

Cessna also made a number of improvements to the cabin area. They stretched the fuselage by 15 inches which really opens up the passenger cabin. Passenger seating was completely re-imagined and some very high tech features have been added to the back, including onboard WiFi and some very clever displays. But I’ll be writing more on that later.

I’m pleased with what the Cessna Citation Ten has to offer and am envious of all you corporate pilots who will get to fly it. If you’re interested in this airplane, keep an eye on AviationChatter.com, we’ll have an aviation geek treat for you very soon.

Find out more about the Ten at TheTenArrives.com

California flight instructors and flight schools are on the verge of bankruptcy. The reason: California A.B. 48, a state law that, if passed, will levy heavy fees on Part 61 and Part 141 flight schools and flight instructors.

According to the new law, flight instructors will be charged a $5000 application fee followed by $3500 renewal fees every three years. Even better, CFI’s who teach at multiple locations will be required to fork over $1000 for a second location. Furthermore, flight instructors will have to pay an operation fee of 0.75% of the CFI’s income. All of this in addition to the enormous expenses incurred to become an FAA certificated flight instructor. Does the term “nickel and dimed” come to mind?

What I find most concerning is the fact that most CFI’s struggle to make a living as it is. They are among the hardest working and lowest paid pilots in aviation – even more so than regional airline pilots. And now they are going to lose five grand before they fly with a single student. If I were a Californian CFI, I’d be looking very closely at jobs in neighboring states.

What Can You Do?

But there is still time to make a change, and Max Trescott – 2008 CFI of the year, and a Californian flight instructor himself, is asking pilots to help. From MaxTrescott.com:

If you can attend the public hearing in Sacramento on June 7, please go and express your concerns. You’ll find details here: http://www.bppe.ca.gov/lawsregs/propregs_notice.pdf
Writing Your Letter
Individual letters are more effective than form letters. Please write as little as a few sentences but not more than 1 page of comments telling your personal story and how these regulations will affect you. Explain the impact that complying with the new rules will have on you.

If you know a Member or staff aide, say so at the start of your letter and state if you live in the member’s district. Be courteous, constructive, and not negative. If the regulations seem to be the wrong solution to a problem, propose constructive alternatives. Staffs are severely overloaded, so confine your comments to one typewritten page and address only one topic: implementation of A.B. 48.
Contact Information
Please contact the following:
1.Joanne Wenzel Staff Services Manager III
Bureau of Postsecondary Education
1625 N. Market Blvd., Suite S 202
Sacramento, California 95834
Phone: (916) 574-7784
Fax: (916) 574-8652
Email: Joanne_Wenzel@dca.ca.gov
2. Your California state assemblyman and state senator. To get contact information for your California state assembly and senate representatives, go to
http://www.assembly.ca.gov/defaulttext.asp and click on “Find My District” in the left column .
3. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: 916-445-2841
Fax: 916-558-3160
Email: fill in form at http://gov.ca.gov/interact#email

Cessna delivered the first Cessna 162 Skycatcher today. The aircraft was delivered during a ceremony at Yingling Aircraft in Wichita, Kansas – Cessna’s corporate headquarters. The first aircraft was delivered to Rose Pelton, the wife of Cessna CEO Jack Pelton.

The Skycatcher marks Cessna’s first foray into the new Light Sport Aircraft category which defines LSA’s as an aircraft with a maximum gross weight of 1,320 pounds and a top speed of 120 knots. Like all modern Cessna aircraft, the 162 features a fully integrated glass cockpit.

Cessna launched its Skycatcher program at EAA Airventure 2007 and has since amassed more than 1,000 orders for the light sport aircraft.

With rising fuel prices and falling profits, the airline industry is constantly searching for bold new ways to pinch a penny and boost efficiency. Most airlines have already cut back on planned cruise speeds to conserve fuel. But you can only slow down so far before induced drag begins to eat away at aircraft fuel efficiency. Stanford’s Dr. Ilan Kroo has a radical new solution: fly in formation.

Kroo’s research is nothing new. According to an article in The Economist, scientists have known that birds flying in formation expend less energy. Much like airplanes, vortices form at the wingtips of birds which curl upwards  – a phenomenon known as upwash. Birds flying in the upwash experience a notable reduction in drag, and require less thrust to maintain speed.

Could this be the future of air travel?

Dr. Kroo and his team applied these results to see what would happen if three airliners took off from three separate airports, rendezvoused over Utah, then continued in formation to London. They found  the jets would consume 15% less fuel under ideal conditions.

There are still a few issues to be resolved, most notably in the area of safety. Even with the proposed two to three miles of separation in formation, aircraft would still be uncomfortably close to one another – especially in instrument meteorological conditions and turbulence. Then there is the difficulty of scheduling flights to rendezvous on time.

This one’s been circulating around the web for a week now. On May 31, a piston twin ran off the 2,100 foot runway in St. Barthelemy Airport (SBH) in the Carribean. What makes this video so interesting, aside from the surfer-dude commentary, is that the pilot opted not to go around even after floating for nearly three fourths of the runway.

When should you execute a go around? As one of my first flight instructors said: go missed anytime the approach does not look perfect. Seriously now, increase power and go around if there is any doubt in your mind as to the safety of your upcoming landing. Continue on to the video.