In other good news, I am happy to report that I have accepted a summer internship as a financial analyst with AVITAS in Chantilly, Virginia. AVITAS is well known in the niche market of commercial aircraft finance and is relied upon by many airlines, banks, and leasing companies to establish the value of commercial aircraft. They also providing consulting services for fleet planning, industry forecasting, valuation modeling as well as aircraft management for banks and leasing companies. AVITAS is a great fit for me and I am really looking forward to working with them this summer. As a bonus my old college roommate, Jon, and a buddy from time in the Army, are both living in the DC area now, so I'll get to catch up with them.
--Chris
I was excited to read that EAA has announced that two F-22 raptors will appear at Airventure this year. I'm excited to get the chance to see these marvels in person at a venue where I can get uncannily close to them on the flight line.
I'm planning on being by the runway when they are schedule to arrive so I can get some shots.
--Chris
Oshkosh, 2006
Elizabeth has been taking all of our rolls of 35mm film to get developed and coming home with some surprises, including this roll that I took at EAA Airventure last summer. This shot exemplifies why I love Airventure so much: you get to walk around and active flight line and can get very close to the active runway. It's not very often a civilian can get this close to a B-1B as it takes off. And yes, it is loud.
Unfortunately, I forgot to put the polarizing filter on that day, so all the shots are pretty washed out. Also, the images on Smugmug is from the photo CD that Walgreen's produces, which is of pretty dissappointing resolution considering it was made from the negatives. I'd say I'd stop getting my film developed there, but we hardly use 35mm any more anyway.
--Chris
I've been looking for a good reason to use this picture of brass balls. Mike Silva is certainly deserving. The news copter pilot and Vietnam vet is heading back to war.
Blue skies to you, Mr. Silva. (or dark skies with just enough illum for ops under NODs, if you prefer)
--Chris
Gear up landings are always an expensive proposition, but I believe this takes the cake (click the picture for the full story and more pictures):
It turns out that this is nothing short of pilot error. As a taxpayer, you would like to think that the pros in the USAF are infallable, but as a pilot with only about 100 hours, I take from this the lesson that no pilot is ever too good or too experienced to make mistakes. I believe that all pilots will, at one time or another, make a mistake. You just have to hope that the mistake that you'll inevitably make is neither deadly nor expensive.
--Chris
Legendary test pilot Scott Crossfield died Thursday, April 20th, 2006, at the controls of his Cessna 210A. He crashed in a forest about 50 miles northwest of Atlanta during a thunderstorm but the cause of the accident is not immediately known. He is survived by Alice, his wife of 60 years, 6 children, and 2 grandchildren. He was 84 years old.
If you aren't familiar with him, he is best known for piloting the X-15 to Mach 2.97. He's just an aviation legend. You can read more about him on NASA's website
As sad as it it to lose such a legend, I think a lotof pilots, an I'm sure his family and friends, take solice in the fact that he has "gone west" at the controls of his airplane. He died doing what pilots do, and for that to happen at the age of 84, well, I hope I'm so lucky.
Mr. Crossfield had an excellent reputation and was well liked in the community. Actualy, my understandings is that he was flying back from giving a talk about his experience as a test pilot to a group at an Air Force when he crashed.
Godspeed, Scott Crossfield.
The guessing games are now over as Microsoft has officially announced the release of their next version of their Flight Simulator software, currently on version 9. The announcement was made at the Computer and Electronics Show in Las Vegas.