The event takes place in the Seattle area September 28 starting at the Museum of Flight located at King County International Airport/Boeing Field (KBFI). Additional events and celebrations are planned for Magnuson Park, the location of the former Sand Point Naval Air Station, where the four highly modified Douglas World Cruisers took off on April 6, 1924.

Each of the four aircraft was named for a U.S. city—the Chicago, New Orleans, Seattle, and Boston—and each was manned by two U.S. Army Air Service aviators. Since aircraft lacked modern day avionics, navigation was done by pilotage and dead reckoning.

The Chicago and the New Orleans were the only aircraft to complete the itinerary, landing at Sand Point Naval Air Station on September 28, 1924. The crew was awarded the National Aeronautic Association’s Mackay Trophy.

Celebrating the Centennial

Weather permitting Saturday, aircraft will launch from KBFI around 2 p.m. PST, heading east to overfly Magnuson Park. In the 1940s the property was known as Sand Point Naval Air Station and utilized as a training and supply facility until it was decommissioned in 1970. The runways and several buildings were demolished.

In 1975 a large portion of the property was given to the city of Seattle and named for U.S. Senator Warren Magnuson, a former naval officer from Seattle. When overflying the park, outlines of the runways are still visible.

Although it is no longer an airport, a celebration of the world flight centennial is also scheduled  Saturday at Magnuson Park. 

Participating Aircraft

The majority of the aircraft taking part in the flyover celebration have also completed around-the-world flights, said Museum of Flight spokesperson Ted Huetter. Those aircraft include:

• Gulfstream Turbo Commander 900, piloted by Robert DeLaurentis, who in 2020 flew pole-to-pole around the world. On September 29 there will be a screening of Peace Pilot, a documentary about DeLaurentis’ journey, with the aviator on hand to answer questions.
• Bonanza P35 V-tail, flown by Adrian Eichhorn, who made the trip around the world flying eastbound and performed a solo flight over the North Pole.
• Homebuilt Lancair IV flown by Bill Harrelson, who set a speed record in class C-1/D, a world record for distance 8,114 sm, solo circumnavigated over the North and South poles, and flew westbound around the world.
• Lancair Columbia 300, piloted by Harry Anderson, who has flown around the world twice —once heading west, once heading eastbound—and flown solo over the North Pole as well as to all seven continents.
• Homebuilt Long E-Z of Patrick Elliot and Linda Walker. The pair have flown to six continents.
• Mooney M20J flown by CarolAnn Garratt and Carol Foy, who have made the around-the-world flight three times and set a speed record for this class of airplane.
• Homebuilder RV-9A flown by John Koehler, who made the trip around the world eastbound.
• Cessna 210 Centurion flown by Ed Galkin, who has made the journey around the world four times.

A fair amount of vintage aircraft will be taking part in the flyover. They include:

• Bellanca CH-400 Skyrocket Miss Veedol flown by Tim Moomaw and Greg Brizendine. In 1931, pilot Clyde Pangborn and copilot Hugh Herndon were the first to cross the Pacific nonstop. The pair flew the Miss Veedol from Misawa, Japan, to Wenatchee, Washington.
• Cessna 180, like the one used by Jerrie Mack in 1964 when she became the first woman to fly around in the world.
• Piper Apache. In 1964,  Joan Merriam Smith flew a Piper Twin equatorially, and solo, around the world.
• Piper PA-12 Super Cruiser. In 1947, pilots Clifford Evans and Geroge Truman circled the earth twice in their Piper Super Cruisers, covering 22,436 miles and becoming the first pilots of light aircraft to make the journey.

The Commemorative Air Force B-29, FIFI, which is one of two airworthy Superfortresses left in the world, will also be participating in the flyover. The large bomber has been visiting Seattle this week.

It is a homecoming of sorts for this particular B-29 as it rolled out of the Boeing factory in Renton, Washington—justy over the hill from Boeing Field—in 1945.

The post Around-the-World Flight Centennial Celebrations Planned appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The first two occurred in the predawn hours Thursday and involved two JetBlue aircraft. Both were reportedly struck by green lasers while on approach to land at Logan International Airport (KBOS).

According to the FAA, the first incident was reported by the crew of JetBlue flight 494 from Denver. The second was flight 972 from San Jose, California. The flights landed at KBOS at 5:50 a.m. EDT and 5:54 a.m., respectively. There were no reports of injuries.

• READ MORE: GAO to FAA: Do More To Fight Aircraft Laser Strikes

The third incident was around 8 p.m. when a Coast Guard helicopter conducting a training flight was struck by a green laser while landing at a Boston-area hospital. Again there were no injuries reported from the event.

Federal Crime

According to the FAA, pilots have reported more than 7,400 laser hazard incidents so far this year. Last year, pilots reported nearly 9,500 to the agency.

“Laser pointers may seem like a toy, office tool, or game,” FAA said. “Pointed to the sky, lasers are a serious threat. A laser can incapacitate pilots, putting thousands of passengers at risk every year.”

Pointing a laser at an aircraft is a federal crime. People who do so face FAA fines of up to $11,000 per violation and up to $30,800 for multiple laser incidents.

The FAA issued $120,000 in fines for laser strikes in 2021. 

Most often the laser strikes occur near airports often while the aircraft is on approach. When the laser floods the cockpit, the pilots are blinded, which aviation officials note is very dangerous when an aircraft is close to the ground as it is during the landing sequence.

The post Pilots Report Numerous Laser Strike Incidents in Boston appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

In March, the company—an on-demand private charter and scheduled shuttle operator headquartered in Connecticut that operates predominantly in North America and the Caribbean—announced it was adding 20 new PC-12 NGX turboprops to its fleet in a deal that would make the company one of the largest Pilatus aircraft operators in the world. 

This expansion represents the growth the U.S. charter market has experienced in the last year. Many people expanded, then seemingly shifted their flying preference to private travel altogether. More airplanes also mean that operators have been hiring pilots amid a pilot shortage. 

The pandemic seemed to have made it worse. More broadly, sustainability has come more sharply into focus. Companies have had to take tangible steps to reduce their carbon footprint to please regulators and consumers. On top of that, the business aviation environment has never been more competitive as new players face a low barrier to entry. 

Putting all this together, it turns out that running an air transport business is no small task and requires relentless execution.

To make sense of all this, FLYING spoke with Tradewind’s co-founder and president, Eric Zipkin, about his company’s recent announcement and his perspective on how they’re preparing for what looks to be a busy summer season.

Fleet Expansion with Pilatus

“The last few years have been very good for us,” Zipkin shared over a Zoom call from his office in Connecticut. “This Pilatus order that we just announced was in the making well before COVID.”

Zipkin said the deal was first on the table for November 2019, but, sensing no pressure at the time, the company decided to wait until after that holiday season and planned to do it in the first quarter of 2020 instead.

“Lo and behold,” Zipkin said, “COVID hit.” With the Northeastern states being some of the ones hit the hardest at the initial stages of the pandemic, which came with immovable travel restrictions, it would seem that this could’ve been the beginning of the end for charter companies, especially with lighter aircraft types. 

“Fortunately, the world improved significantly,” Zipkin said.

Zipkin couldn’t predict the shift in customer demand that would take place and that, to get away, people would increasingly tap the charter market for options. The shift in work culture, from office-based to remote, also changed the way people used the service.

“We found that people, instead of traveling Friday and Monday, they’re going out on Thursday afternoon and coming back on Mondays,” Zipkin said.

For Tradewind, the company has spread out demand, whereas pre-pandemic travel consolidated around the weekend. So, instead of a simple fleet update, Zipkin said it was also time to expand.

“Originally, it was a fleet refresh deal. As we’ve seen the popularity of our services grow, it’s gone well beyond that,” Zipkin said. “It’s now a fleet growth deal.”

Dealing With The Pilot Shortage

With growth came the other challenge that no one company has completely figured out—a lack of pilots in “high demand.” Moreover, it’s the gap in the ability of small operators with outsourced training departments to get their pilots up to speed.

“It’s actually our biggest challenge right now—qualifying pilots. Due to the pandemic, there’s still a very big backlog in training pipelines and largely training simulators,” Zipkin explained. “We can’t put enough people through our training provider’s sim, FlightSafety, because FlightSafety is limited.”

Fortunately, the Tradewind’s partnership with JetBlue (NASDAQ: JBLU) came in the nick of time. In February 2022, Tradewind announced it joined JetBlue Gateways as a partner airline. The mutually beneficial partnership allows the following:

• Qualified pilot applicants from JetBlue’s career development program could fly with Tradewind to gain valuable experience preparing for careers as line pilots with the major mainline carrier.

• Existing Tradewind pilots now also had a clear path to JetBlue. 

• With the growth of private aviation, Tradewind could now stay on top of the heightened demand, with the average tenure of its pilots expected to increase by 20 percent and the number of new pilots in its pipeline expected to increase by 30 percent.

Zipkin spoke passionately about the need for the industry to address the pilot shortage to ease some of the burdens pilots have to carry. Otherwise, people might not find the career appealing. To do this, Zipkin suggested more effective local outreach programs, more straightforward training-to-jobs pipelines, and significant industry-wide investments in training.

“In the past, as an industry, we were relying on chance, that sooner or later, in roughly 5,000 hours, as a pilot, you would’ve seen multiple things”—like wind shear, air traffic delays, mechanical problems, or even interpersonal challenges in the flight deck. Now, he explained, “pilots don’t have the time,” presumably because of the pilot shortage, which has actually made it easier for pilots to make progress in their careers. So how do you ensure that pilots still have enough experience?

“We as an industry have to make much greater investments in training by building that sort of learning into more formalized processes.”

An Eye on Sustainability

Finally, with sustainability in focus, Tradewind announced an elevated carbon offset program in January of this year. For one, the PC-12 is already one of the most fuel-efficient aircraft on the market. However, the new program is actually an upgrade from its initial format. 

This new version sees the company automatically adding carbon offsets to all Tradewind-operated flights throughout North America and the Caribbean. Furthermore, the company said that all funds raised through the offset would continue to go to TerraPass, a social enterprise based in San Francisco that uses proceeds from partner companies to fund various greenhouse gas reduction projects.

“It’s part of our commitment and realization that alternative energy sources need to be part of our world going forward. It will allow us to give back specifically to communities that we serve in the Northeast and the Caribbean.”

He also said the company wants to be targeted in its approach to ensure that the funding goes to projects that have a tangible impact.

“What we’re working towards is going beyond is buying faceless carbon credits, but funding a specific project.”

The post Northeastern Charter Company Combines Forethought and Good Fortune to Achieve Growth appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

FLYING Travel Editor Jonathan Welsh had to give it a try.

Read More: Are Seaplanes the Fastest Way From New York to Boston?

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