With a few days until space would be available to work on my plane, I went down to the Alaska Airmen's Association and volunteered for the organization of the annual trade show. I've been volunteering time as office staff off and on for five years now, but this was the first year I actually worked the show itself as a volunteer (the prior couple years running, I worked as a vendor).
This introvert is thoroughly peopled-out. But it was a great show, good times, good to see the thousands upon thousands of pilots, current, former, and future. It was also nice to see the public come - those who took time away from the annual bike blessing or the beer festival downtown to trek out to the FedEx Hangar. It's hard to foist the untrue illusion that airplane owners are rich guys with million-dollar airplanes upon the public when they're surrounded by a sea of guys in well-worn carhartts and work boots!
It was also disconcerting at how many people remembered me and knew I'd left my job - but good, I guess, that they all had good memories of me helping them, and the solutions we'd found for their equipment needs were all working very well, months to years later. You see, sales is not about selling things to people - it's about helping people accomplish what they truly want by providing goods, information, and service. It's gratifying to see that my old boss still thinks well of me, and so do my old customers!
The aileron cove's compound curves are still proving annoying to fabricate, but today I should be able to start on rechecking the trammeling and possibly nailing the ribs. And the front yard is almost snow-free!
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Friday, April 23, 2010
I'm Back
Just got back to Alaska. Ah, Home sweet no-longer-home with its two-foot drifts of dirty snow and roads where lanes are a community consensus due to studded tires. It's almost May, which means my friends who are graciously letting me crash in the guest room have windows full of seedlings straining toward the long daylight of breakup. Everybody is full of energy like pent-up floodwater behind a dam, waiting to burst into a hundred all-day-and-night projects of working hard and playing harder.
The next day, I woke up still stiff, groggy, jet-lagged, and wandered with a sheltie to the window. My sight wasn't that foggy - no, the houses and trees nearby were hard to see through the falling snow from the low gray sky.
I didn't miss winter.
Winter, it seems, didn't miss me either.
The next day, I woke up still stiff, groggy, jet-lagged, and wandered with a sheltie to the window. My sight wasn't that foggy - no, the houses and trees nearby were hard to see through the falling snow from the low gray sky.
I didn't miss winter.
Winter, it seems, didn't miss me either.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Plane budget
Once, as a student pilot, I walked out of the building with friends to find M standing by the flagpole, smoking. Another friend waved at him, and as we approached, he said "Man, how can you smoke those things?"
If you're expecting a self-righteous defense, or a long lecture about health, or any of the usual things, you're at the wrong place and time, wrong memory. R shook his head and continued. "I mean, they're what, like, a gallon of avgas a pack?" Everybody laughed, and M just grinned as he took another drag.
Years later, as I'm planning logistics, his crooked grin in response to the ribbing made me laugh as I catch myself laying out an exercise plan for gaining strength (sufficient to pull and push the airplane around when loaded in gravel) and losing weight... 'cause, you know, every six pounds I lose is one more gallon of avgas, or 20 minutes more flight reserve...
If you're expecting a self-righteous defense, or a long lecture about health, or any of the usual things, you're at the wrong place and time, wrong memory. R shook his head and continued. "I mean, they're what, like, a gallon of avgas a pack?" Everybody laughed, and M just grinned as he took another drag.
Years later, as I'm planning logistics, his crooked grin in response to the ribbing made me laugh as I catch myself laying out an exercise plan for gaining strength (sufficient to pull and push the airplane around when loaded in gravel) and losing weight... 'cause, you know, every six pounds I lose is one more gallon of avgas, or 20 minutes more flight reserve...
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Two by Two Together
Do you prefer to fly alone, or with someone? I've looked at ultralights before, but ultimately came to the conclusion that it's just not as fun without a friend along. Sure, sometimes I hop in the car, or rent an airplane, and head out of town by myself - but it's always that much more fun when I have someone along to chat with, to swap driving or flying so one of us can spend more time looking out the window or puzzling out the directions, or looking for moose and bear on the ground below.
Other folks I know fly to get away from people, and are never so contented as when their campfire is the only evidence of humanity in the mountain-hemmed horizon. They enjoy solitude, whether fishing on a creek or working on a cabin in the middle of nowhere. Me, I prefer to be in a group of folks, some friends, some acquaintances, rambling along and enjoying whatever comes.
Last night, talking to a friend who I haven't seen since he moved down to the western lower 48, I learned he has free time this summer, in enough quantity that a 3-day trip down the Alcan in an old airplane will be perfectly fine if it turns into a week waiting out weather - so I'll have company at least part of the way from Anchorage to my new home. This fills me with happiness like sunshine breaking out under the low cloud deck and painting the land gold at the end of a dreary gray day. A second person brings increased safety so I won't be a lone female in strange towns, help pushing back and pulling the airplane out of tiedowns, and another person to take the controls for a spell or help with maps and GPS. Better than all of those, though, is the company of a friend.
This may mean, though, I'll have to ship more stuff down, as I won't be able to fill the second seat with assorted junk, like a college kid's car. Hmm. In the meantime, it's a fine beautiful sunny day. I think I need to drag my husband out for a road trip!
Other folks I know fly to get away from people, and are never so contented as when their campfire is the only evidence of humanity in the mountain-hemmed horizon. They enjoy solitude, whether fishing on a creek or working on a cabin in the middle of nowhere. Me, I prefer to be in a group of folks, some friends, some acquaintances, rambling along and enjoying whatever comes.
Last night, talking to a friend who I haven't seen since he moved down to the western lower 48, I learned he has free time this summer, in enough quantity that a 3-day trip down the Alcan in an old airplane will be perfectly fine if it turns into a week waiting out weather - so I'll have company at least part of the way from Anchorage to my new home. This fills me with happiness like sunshine breaking out under the low cloud deck and painting the land gold at the end of a dreary gray day. A second person brings increased safety so I won't be a lone female in strange towns, help pushing back and pulling the airplane out of tiedowns, and another person to take the controls for a spell or help with maps and GPS. Better than all of those, though, is the company of a friend.
This may mean, though, I'll have to ship more stuff down, as I won't be able to fill the second seat with assorted junk, like a college kid's car. Hmm. In the meantime, it's a fine beautiful sunny day. I think I need to drag my husband out for a road trip!
Saturday, February 27, 2010
FAA Statistics - Pilot version:
FAA Statistics - Pilot version.
How many pilots are there total? Well, it depends. The FAA gives a very precise number of 613,746 active pilots, but precise is not the same thing as accurate. (See the mars lander, with its precisely calculated flyby that turned into a kablooey because it wasn't accurate.) Let's look at the footnotes, and see how the calculations have changed over time.
To start, let's look at the home of the FAA on the web. Oh, stop making wards against evil - they actually have improved their site design to the point that you no longer need google or a direct link to find information. The statistics are at: http://www.faa.gov/data_research/aviation_data_statistics/civil_airmen_statistics/
Active pilot population is counted by counting the number of active medical certificates - for any powered airship (except, now, sport pilot), a pilot must have a current and valid medical to fly. Since medicals used to expire every 0.5 to 3 years, this used to neatly seperate those maintaining the ability from those who've hung up their wings. However, comparing past numbers to recent numbers doesn't account for the way they've changed the rules of the game and moved the measurements in the meantime.
The FAA has always skewed its numbers by including student pilots in total pilots. This is akin to including every pre-med student as a practicing doctor when looking at the total medical profession. Only 30% of students slog through the FAA-imposed requirements to get their license.
In 1995, the FAA changed classification of pilots from counting them by their airplane certificate to counting by the highest certificate. So, if the pilot had a private airplane and a commercial helicopter, he went from being counted as a private to a commercial pilot. This isn't a bad thing, per se, but it does permanently skew the pre-95 and post-95 numbers so comparisons are as apples to oranges, not apples to apples.
In 2002, they blatantly made the true numbers harder to track, by stating that any pilot who'd ever gotten a glider rating, would now be counted among the Glider (only) pilots in perpetuity after their medical lapsed. In 2001, there were 8,473 glider-only pilots, and the population had been steadily declining for years. In 2002, the FAA stated there were 21,826 glider-only pilots. Given that flying gliders as a past time did not suddenly jump in popularity sufficient to see the number of glider pilots out flying more than double, this is clearly an attempt to camouflage huge losses in pilot population following 9/11/01.
Worse, because we know the glider population was steadily declining, we now know that all the number from following years are off - but not by how much. The best we can do is either assume the percentage of decline held steady, or use the last known good figure. Neither is very attractive, or useful for extracting the true numbers.
In 2005, the FAA created a new certificate and category of airplane, stifling the highly popular ultralight industry by claiming all of its trainers, the so-called "fat ultralights", now were sport-pilot category planes, and that the self-regulated industry must now submit to FAA micromanagement. The process for getting a license went from a quick industry-group course to a confusing maze of signoffs to get anywhere in the airspace system - and there was a deathly lack of infrastructure, including examiners to give the checkrides for the new certificate. Those who played along in order to stay legal boosted the pilot statistics - and as they do not require a medical, the only way to remove them from the "active pilot population" statistics is by notification of death.
In 2008, the FAA extended the time third-class medicals are valid for people under 40 from three to five years. Given the average age for licensed pilots, by category, ranges from 44 to 53 years old (except students), this was not highly useful to the majority of the pilot population. However, student certificates are one and the same as medicals - and this was retroactively applied, such that every pilot whose medical lapsed in the last two years was now current and able to be counted as active again. Despite the number of issued ratings, hours flown, and aircraft built, shipped, or flown actively, the statistical total jumped from a declining 590,349 pilots in 2007 to 613,746 in 2008.
Unfortunately, no matter how the statistics can be plumped, tucked, and presented, the reality of the pilot population is dire - and now, we have no way to sort out the truth behind the carefully presented numbers, and no way to tell if any changes actually have an effect, whether positive or negative.
I fear the FAA will make the skies safe, and the TSA make the skies secure, at the cost of freedom of travel and freedom of flight to the common citizen. Alles in ordnung!
How many pilots are there total? Well, it depends. The FAA gives a very precise number of 613,746 active pilots, but precise is not the same thing as accurate. (See the mars lander, with its precisely calculated flyby that turned into a kablooey because it wasn't accurate.) Let's look at the footnotes, and see how the calculations have changed over time.
To start, let's look at the home of the FAA on the web. Oh, stop making wards against evil - they actually have improved their site design to the point that you no longer need google or a direct link to find information. The statistics are at: http://www.faa.gov/data_research/aviation_data_statistics/civil_airmen_statistics/
Active pilot population is counted by counting the number of active medical certificates - for any powered airship (except, now, sport pilot), a pilot must have a current and valid medical to fly. Since medicals used to expire every 0.5 to 3 years, this used to neatly seperate those maintaining the ability from those who've hung up their wings. However, comparing past numbers to recent numbers doesn't account for the way they've changed the rules of the game and moved the measurements in the meantime.
The FAA has always skewed its numbers by including student pilots in total pilots. This is akin to including every pre-med student as a practicing doctor when looking at the total medical profession. Only 30% of students slog through the FAA-imposed requirements to get their license.
In 1995, the FAA changed classification of pilots from counting them by their airplane certificate to counting by the highest certificate. So, if the pilot had a private airplane and a commercial helicopter, he went from being counted as a private to a commercial pilot. This isn't a bad thing, per se, but it does permanently skew the pre-95 and post-95 numbers so comparisons are as apples to oranges, not apples to apples.
In 2002, they blatantly made the true numbers harder to track, by stating that any pilot who'd ever gotten a glider rating, would now be counted among the Glider (only) pilots in perpetuity after their medical lapsed. In 2001, there were 8,473 glider-only pilots, and the population had been steadily declining for years. In 2002, the FAA stated there were 21,826 glider-only pilots. Given that flying gliders as a past time did not suddenly jump in popularity sufficient to see the number of glider pilots out flying more than double, this is clearly an attempt to camouflage huge losses in pilot population following 9/11/01.
Worse, because we know the glider population was steadily declining, we now know that all the number from following years are off - but not by how much. The best we can do is either assume the percentage of decline held steady, or use the last known good figure. Neither is very attractive, or useful for extracting the true numbers.
In 2005, the FAA created a new certificate and category of airplane, stifling the highly popular ultralight industry by claiming all of its trainers, the so-called "fat ultralights", now were sport-pilot category planes, and that the self-regulated industry must now submit to FAA micromanagement. The process for getting a license went from a quick industry-group course to a confusing maze of signoffs to get anywhere in the airspace system - and there was a deathly lack of infrastructure, including examiners to give the checkrides for the new certificate. Those who played along in order to stay legal boosted the pilot statistics - and as they do not require a medical, the only way to remove them from the "active pilot population" statistics is by notification of death.
In 2008, the FAA extended the time third-class medicals are valid for people under 40 from three to five years. Given the average age for licensed pilots, by category, ranges from 44 to 53 years old (except students), this was not highly useful to the majority of the pilot population. However, student certificates are one and the same as medicals - and this was retroactively applied, such that every pilot whose medical lapsed in the last two years was now current and able to be counted as active again. Despite the number of issued ratings, hours flown, and aircraft built, shipped, or flown actively, the statistical total jumped from a declining 590,349 pilots in 2007 to 613,746 in 2008.
Unfortunately, no matter how the statistics can be plumped, tucked, and presented, the reality of the pilot population is dire - and now, we have no way to sort out the truth behind the carefully presented numbers, and no way to tell if any changes actually have an effect, whether positive or negative.
I fear the FAA will make the skies safe, and the TSA make the skies secure, at the cost of freedom of travel and freedom of flight to the common citizen. Alles in ordnung!
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
New Blogroll Addition
While I'm trying to catch my muse while stumbling through paperwork, let me guide your eyes to the newest blogroll Addition - Matt Keller of Blue Ice Aviation's blog. http://blueiceaviation.posterous.com/
I have no problems with saying that he is a better pilot than I am - and even better for you, he takes lots of pictures, and the occasional video of landing on a glacier! Also, he's still up in Alaska, and taking pictures of that great land. Go enjoy his real content, and I'll get some of my own up soon.
I have no problems with saying that he is a better pilot than I am - and even better for you, he takes lots of pictures, and the occasional video of landing on a glacier! Also, he's still up in Alaska, and taking pictures of that great land. Go enjoy his real content, and I'll get some of my own up soon.
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