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United States Pilots Association |
Those of you awaiting the final results of the refurbishment of my new Hawk XP II will have to wait one more month for the end product. Although the plane was flown to Tunica for the last USPA meeting, we are still in the process of installing modern radios in the bird. I promise to follow up next month with photos and a complete description of what has been done. You will be surprised. By the way, I am thinking of naming the plane Miss E-Bay in honor of my primary parts supplier.
Thursday's 4/20/06 Staten Island Advance (New York City) ran an article titled "FAA rejects call by Molinaro for airspace hearing.” This tempest in a teapot resulted from the FAA refusing to change the departure routes from Newark Airport, which presently fly over the North shore of Staten Island. This is essentially a noise abatement issue, and I believe this time the FAA got it right. If they did agree to change the routes, the airliners would still have to fly over heavily populated areas, causing complaints from those residents. Mr. Molinaro, the Borough President of Staten Island, could not muster any turnout for meetings held in several communities in his borough. Having flown into Linden, NJ, airport several times, I am aware that currently the approach course into Newark from the South overflys the West shore of Staten Island. When going into Linden, you are constantly looking for airliner traffic in front of you. If the Feds were to restablish new routes for departure, then the approach paths into Newark would also have to change. Essentially this is/was a case of NIMBY (Not In My Backyard), and I think the good guys won.
Next on my list of airspace attacks concerns Central New Mexico. The New Mexico Pilots Association has advised us that the F-117 Stealth fighters currently based at Holloman AFB in Alamogordo, NM, will be phased out of service. They are being replaced by the new F-22 supersonic stealth fighter now beginning to enter service. The AF believes that more SUA (read that as MOAs) are necessary because of the speed and altitude requirements of the new aircraft. Hence we have just finished three "Scope" meetings concerning the environmental impact these planes will have operating in the new airspace. I believe it is inevitable that once approved the AF will look to expand the requested airspace into almost duplicating the former request to create a JDAMS bombing range across the East/Central part of the state. I will not belabor all of the deficiencies
enumerated in our protest of the Cannon AFB F-16 JDAMS proposal. Suffice it to say USPA will be watching these developments closely, and we will be entering comments to the proper individual. If any of you have concerns, please request more information from Ms. Linda DeVine HQ ACC/ATZP c/o SAIC, 22 Enterprise Parkway, Suite #200, Hampton, VA 23666.
Many of you may be aware that the next generation aircraft, the F-35 known as a joint strikefighter is presently undergoing evaluation and funding. This bird is designed to meet the needs of both the AF and the Navy and will be operated from land bases and aircraft carriers. Maybe the Navy will install an aircraft carrier in Elephant Butte Lake in NM just to keep all of the operations under the same airspace. Currently the primary airspace proposed for the F-22 is the White Sands Missile Range which is already off limits for all aviation traffic.
Fuel Prices. Today oil hit $72 a barrel, and the investing community is going bonkers. I have no solution to the fear-driven rise in gasoline and avgas prices, except this. Oil is a commodity and thus has supply and demand driven pricing. Currently supplies are adequate and demand is increasing. Countries such as China, Japan and India are consuming much more of the world's reserves every day. One way to counter the excessive pricing is to reduce demand. If our supplies are not being consumed and lay stagnant in the storage tanks, we should expect a reduction in prices. I for one have cut back my usage of both the airplane and vehicles. If all of us practice selective consumption, reducing our volume of fuels used, hopefully a reduction in prices will occur.
Parts prices. I have noticed a huge increase in parts’ pricing for aircraft in the past few years. Non-mechanical parts are a particular gripe of mine. When Cessna charges three times the price that an aftermarket supplier does for the same strut fairing or brake cover, I have to wonder. I am considering adding a data base to the USPA website to give members and readers the names and contact points of various suppliers that offer an alternative to the aircraft manufacturers’ high prices. Two suppliers that come to mind are Wag-Aero and Texas Aeroplastics. There are numerous others I have used over the years that give excellent service and reasonable pricing. If the idea of a USPA database accessible to all interests you, please contact USPA at jan@uspilots.org. If you have found or used an aftermarket supplier and were very satisfied with their product or service, please let us know that as well.
Fly safe!
Steve Uslan, President
United States Pilots Association