Aviation World USA

By Pierre A. Kandorfer

Mojave - As Mojave Air & Space Port’s new corporate brochure points out, this place offers a series of strategic
advantages virtually no other airport can compete with.

First of all, Mojave is world’s first civilian Air & Space Port. “This really put us on the map worldwide,” airport’s General Manager Stuart Witt points out, “but this is not the first time we made aerospace history.”

For decades, Mojave is considered America’s premiere civilian aerospace research, development and test center. Dozens of high-end aerospace companies are located here, and several of them made aviation history.

Scaled Composite’s SpaceShip One, designed, tested and launched in Mojave, was the first commercial rocket ship to fly to the edge of space. Designed by the aerospace legend BurtRutan and first piloted by Mike Melville, is worldwide considered the biggest milestone in commercial exploration of space.

Another revolutionary design by Burt Rutan, the voyager, is the first aircraft in aviation history to fly around the world without refueling. Voyager was flown by Burt’s brother Dick and JeannaYaeger.

The EZ Rocket, a tiny experimental plane equipped with two rocket engines and developed by XCOR Aerospace of Mojave, also made aviation history. “Mojave is for aerospace R&D what Silicon Valley used to be for the computer industry,”XCOR president Jeff Grierson says.

As Mojave’s Business Director Tom Weil explains, Mojave offers an exceptionally business friendly
regulatory environment. “With our perfect aviation weather and other advantages, we are an ideal
location for aerospace businesses,” Tom Weil says.

With less than 100 miles North of Los Angeles, Mojave is close to most major suppliers. Additionally, Mojave offers a large pool of a skilled local labor force.

Mojave is located in the middle of a huge desert and mountainous airspace outside of metropolitan areas. “This is vital for flight testing and aerospace development,” Bob Rice says, airport’s Director of Operations.

For all defense oriented companies, the direct proximity to Edwards AFB, NASA Dryden, China Lake Naval Weapon Center, and Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale is very important also.

Furthermore, Mojave’s unique and academically accredited National Test Pilot School offers experienced test pilots locally. The NTPS operates about forty different airplanes and trains test pilots from all over the world.

Mojave’s is a large Class D airport with fuel service, restaurant and major & minor airplane modification
and repair. What visitors from other countries also admire is Mojave’s runway infrastructure. Three runways with six takeoff and landing directions. With 12,500 feet, Mojave offers one of the longest runways in the region, allowing takeoffs and landing of heaviest cargo planes – such as a maximum takeoff weight Boeing 747-400 at 100° F heat.

Airline companies from the US and abroad discovered decades ago, that Mojave also is a perfect desert
place for aircraft storage. Dozens of airliners are parked here, waiting for the next flight.

Mojave’s strategic inter-modal center with a huge warehousing capacity, direct rail connection and own
freeway on-ramp at the crossing of the Highways 58 and 14, is virtually unbeatable. “Mojave is well
known as a business friendly community with endless growth potential,” Tom Weil says.

“What we are all about is that we are an established aerospace think tank promoting inspiration and
imagination around the clock,” General Manger Stuart Witt emphasizes. “Dozens of Mojave’s cutting
edge aerospace research and design companies are the best proof that we are on the right track.” For more information visitMojaveAirport.com

Pierre@WestAirways.com

By Pierre A. Kandorfer

Mojave. He is a former TWA captain, a local businessman, and definitely a Mojave original: Michael Potter, owner of P & M Aircraft at the Mojave airport.

With barely twenty, he became the youngest copilot flying for a major US airline. And just three years later, with twenty three, he advanced to a captain. At that time, he was the youngest airline transportation pilot (ATP) to command a passenger plane in US history.

“That’s a long time ago”, captain Potter – as he likes to be called – says. Then, after twenty years at TWA commander seat, everything became to a halt. Michael Potter got diabetes, and could not maintain his medical certificate anymore. His dream career gone!

However, this setback did not slow him down. About twenty five years ago, he started P & M Aircraft at the Mojave airport. Main business focus: Recycling old airplane parts by disassembling them for reuse. He has two full-time employees and several part timers, most of them working primarily at Edwards. Two of his workers are FAA certified mechanics, enabling them do legally identify, clean, tag, assign the parts, and provide them with the appropriate serial and part number. Potter: ”We only deal with aircraft no accident of any kind. Our recycled parts are as good as used parts can be….”

Even though Potter is not an “A&P” , aircraft and power plant mechanic, he has a family history of aircraft maintenance. His father used to own an aviation service company at the Burbank airport, and Potter grew up with airplanes.

Dozens of old-timers are piling up at his plant yard, just waiting to be taken apart. All Boeing models, from 707 to 747, are present – as well as DC9’s, DC10’s – and even an old Airbus 310. Potter: ”Contrary to the common believe, the airplane parts are not scrap metal but a valuable commodity on the used aviation part market.”

His clients come from all-over the states. They are all “old referrals”. No advertising, no marketing, no sales pitch needed. As Mike says, “in the aviation business, trusting people and their reliability is everything. You cannot gamble with aviation parts.”

Therefore, most of his clients are repeat customers. They come again and again. Mike Potter is as busy as always. “We have enough work until late into next year….”

The captain points out, that he “flew and delivered” the first airliners for long-term storage to Mojave in 1983 which established a new business line for the High Desert airport. Years ago, he operated also a fresh fish import from abroad.

Additionally, Mike is a seasoned technical advisor the movie industry. He worked on a series of big Hollywood movies, wrote or co-wrote a number of aviation scenes in movies such as Air Force One, Executive Decision, Pushing Tin, US Marshals, and more.

Even more business dropped in “automatically” after September 11 when airplane marshals needed old planes for their training and explosion tests. He is expecting another training and test session on his 747 soon. Among other things, they intend to blow out the plane doors.

What is the secret of his success? “There is no real secret”, he says. “In our business, you just need total commitment, reliability and honesty. If you deliver that, the customers will return automatically….”

And they do. With 62 and somehow handicapped with his diabetes, there is no way for him to retire anytime soon. In a couple of weeks, he expects another thirteen DC9 airplanes from Mexico for recycling. Almost more work that he can handle. A real business success story….

By Pierre A. Kandorfer

California City. For about fifty years, skydiving is a “way of life” in California City. More than gliding or off-roading ever were. Van Pray, old-time California City resident, commercial pilot and business owner, still remembers the day when he for the first time flew skydivers over the skies of California City for the purpose of parachuting in 1965.

Today, he owns two airplanes, employs a dozen of people, and serves as one of the major skydiving operators in Southern California.

When President George Bush 41 turned eighty last year, he parachuted out of a plane for his birthday thrill. For the last time, he demonstrated to the world his affection for his favorite hobby – and he focused attention of millions of people to skydiving. An action sports discipline many people consider extremely dangerous, while parachuting aficionados get “the kick of their lifetime” out of it.

Liz Mack from West Hollywood emphasized after her first jump last weekend in California City:” It is so much fun! I want to do it again and again.” Liz celebrated her 30th birthday at the California City Drop Zone with her boyfriend who gave her a skydiving gift certificate. “At first, I was quite cautious”, she said, “but now I am in and I love it….”

Araz Megerdichian, a nursing student from Glendale College, intends to become a “serious skydiver.” She is taking lessons at Howard Smith who works as a full-time skydiving instructor for the Airforce during the week – and as a part-time instructor for Van Pray on weekends.

Van and his wife Roberta started their business in October 1975 when he was Cal City’s airport manager at the same time. His skydiving business was so successful that he gave up his airport manager job in 1976 and focused on his own company only.

Why California City? “It’s an ideal place”, he says. “It has a wide open space, a very favorable restricted airspace area by the Edwards AFB to the South – and over three hundred sunny days per year.”

The California City drop zone conducts about 25,000 jumps per year, about 1,500 first time jumpers. With about 25,000 square foot facility, swimming pool, and 120 acres of land, this is one of the largest skydiving operations in the state of California.

In addition to the regular skydiving business, Van conducts military testing and training, parachute testing for the aerospace industry, as well as aviation movie work. Several movie and commercial productions have been shot here.

In California City, there is a number of world-class skydiving experts. At the top, Judy Celaya, co-owner of California City Skydive and one of the leading international skydiving judges. She just returned from Thailand where she acted as one of the judges on the world largest formation free-fall record with no less than 400 skydivers at the same time.

Judy will be travelling to Japan, Germany, and Russia later this year for World Championship competitions. She already has been assigned also as the “Chief Judge” for the US National championship in Arizona this fall.

Her husband and co-owner of the business, Bob Celaya, is a leading instructor-examiner and training advisor for the United States Parachute Association (USPA).He also works as a FAA designated parachute rigger examiner certifying senior and master parachute riggers all over California. Bob: ”I am also certified to teach skydiving teachers.”

Bob and Judy offer three types of skydiving instructions. The beginner program, called “progressive course”, is the training to start with. Popular also is the “tandem” dive. In this type of training the student is “strapped” to the instructor which gives the beginner an additional feeling of safety. The ultimate kick for the most challenge-seeking clients is the actual “free-fall”.

Bob increasingly focuses on parachute rigging services for aerobatics glider and fighter jet pilots who are required to wear a parachute at all times.

Bob and Judy downsized their business last year to a part-time but still full-service operation. Unless by appointment, they are working mostly on weekends. How do they describe their role in the skydiving business? “The difference between large operators and us is like the difference between a Ford factory assembly line and a hands-on Rolls Royce factory”, Judy points out. Bob: “We focus on individuals and small groups at a very reasonable cost.”

The two skydiving operators in California City can be reached by phone. Van Pray’s Skydive California City at 1-888-373-4007, and Bob & Judy Celaya’s California City Skydive at 760-373-4826.

By Pierre A. Kandorfer

Edwards, CA – Here at Edwards Air Force Base, flying airplanes is a way of life. Many of Airforce’s and NASA’s top pilots fly here day and night, 365 days a year– for living. However, there are people at Edwards who love to fly just for fun, their personal fun. The Edwards Aero Club gives them the opportunity to do just that. Conveniently and inexpensively.

As the club manager Doug Botbyl explains, they have currently about one hundred sixty active members, all of them somehow affiliated with the military. In order to be eligible in the Aero Club, you must be either on active duty or retired from it. Airforce Reserve members, however, as well as civilian defense employees and contractors and their families are eligible also. Interestingly, more and more female pilots and students are joining the club. Why? Nobody really knows.

Why joining an Aero Club within the base instead of buying an own little plane or renting one commercially in Lancaster? First of all, for many club members it is much more convenient to have the opportunity to fly “next door” to the place where they work. And secondly, the club offers excellent, late-model airplanes at a very competitive price. This despite the modest thirty dollars initiation fee and twenty five bucks monthly charge.

The organization is an “official Edwards Aero Club and Flight Training Center” but uses not tax dollars at all. The club must earn all the operational budget to spend, including salaries for two full-time employees and contractors.

Specially attractive is this program for all people who are interested in learning to fly. With six flight instructors, two of them full-time contractors, the club is larger than most smaller type of flight schools. Steve Barron of Lancaster retired from the Air Force and uses the club for his initial flight training to become a “private pilot”.

One club member, who is on active Air Force duty and does not want to be named, but wants to add the fact being a pilot to his resume. “It is a good career credential and let’s me understand the aviation much better.”

The program starts with a state-of-the art, computer-based and FAA approved ground school. No more one on one teaching, no more traditional “class room”. Just a comprehensive, very elaborate audio-visual program on a dozens of CD’s you can take with you home and learn at your convenience. Your learning progress is being documented, and the flight instructor only has to evaluate the progress, answer questions, and sign-off the student for the next step. Price tag for the ground school: 299 dollars.

Doug Botbyl: ”With this program, you are able to show your family on a DVD exactly what you are doing in a plane and how to cope with specific situations. This reduces the far of flying some people have tremendously….”

The Aero Club is an official “Cessna Center”, and it shows. The study material is excellent! No more theoretical explanations of flying techniques, no more boring two-dimensional graphics to demonstrate specific piloting procedures. Excellent DVD-type of video presentations instead, showing every single step or move you have to do – before you even enter the plane for the first time.

The club owns seven singe-engine planes. As a main work horse, they are using the most widely build plane of all times, the Cessna 172. Four of them. Additionally, they own a high-performance Cessna 182 with a retractable gear to be used for the more advanced training such as a commercial or ATP (airline transport) license. A Socata TB200 and the legendary T-34 Air Force trainer are available too.

The maintenance of the planes is above the average also. The club owns a hangar with a well-equipped maintenance shop. Glenn Eppich from California City, a private pilot himself and a FAA licensed “airframe and power plant” mechanic, runs the shop. An additional technician helps him out.

The club enjoys lots of tarmac space at the historical “South Base” place. The best of all, it is able to use its “virtually own” runway, the very same one Chuck Yeager used for his supersonic flight many decades ago. This “little runway” 24/06 is now outdated and much too small for the general Edwards air traffic, but a perfect solution for a flight club and school.

The facilities consist of a very roomy trailer with office space, class room type of arrangement and other necessary facilities needed for a flight school and club – and a sizeable hangar. Here, the maintenance shop, storage room, a computerized FAA-Test Center and additional office is located. In front of these buildings, there is more tie-down space for airplanes they can ever utilize.

The Club is open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. The only “problem” is how and when to fly in a totally restricted military air space such as Edwards AFB. First of all, all participants are somehow directly or indirectly connected with the DOD and have the necessary security clearance. Secondly, the club is using specific arrival and departure procedures in and out of the restricted airspace, mostly at a specific altitude and predefined pattern.

It helps dramatically to be able to use a different runway than the big Airforce guys. The club planes use the same kind of civilian registration numbers, beginning with the letter “N”, but the Air Traffic Control knows automatically that these numbers are actually registered to the Air Force.

For most of the club members, flying at the 300,000 acres huge Edwards AFB is a very special thing. Here, big portions of America’s aerospace history has been and is still being made. From the very first rocket-powered flights – to countless world records broken and still being held at the very same place. Flying at and over Edwards just for sake of the own, personal fun – you can’t beat that….

Mojave - The worldwide skyrocketing gas price is effecting everybody – including aviation. In the “Aerospace Valley”, flying is bread and butter business, but the operational cost of any airplane increased dramatically. Is this trend killing our local airports?

Bob Rice, the Operational Manager of the Mojave Spaceport, signals a significant drop in their fuel sales: “At least twenty five percent per month, sometimes even fifty percent. We sell a lot less than we used to do….”

Of course, next to land leases, fuel sale is one of the major revenue sources for airports such as Mojave. Bob Rice: “Our commercial operators such as the National Test Pilot School still fly as much as necessary, but high fuel price is eating up their profits.”

Whoever you meet at the fuel pump, everybody is complaining. Some private pilots cut down their flying hours from fifty to one hundred hours per year to not more than ten to twenty hours per year. Especially owners of bigger planes, they can barely afford fifteen to twenty five gallons fuel per hour to fly for a lunch to Santa Barbara. “There is no more ‘one hundred dollar hamburger’, as pilots used to joke, they cost maybe two hundred dollars if you consider the fuel price increase”, a private pilot at the Fox Airport stated.

When you land at the California City Airport, the first sign you spot at the Terminal Building is “California City – Aviation Fuel Price Leader”. Cal City always wanted to attract aircraft business with cheap fuel. But fuel that is not cheap anymore - even not at the Cal City airport.

The field shows it. Just a few local planes, mostly gliders. Not much traffic anymore, despite the still “relatively cheap” airplane fuel. There are still recreational pilots coming to Cal City from Van Nuys, Lancaster or Santa Barbara – just to buy fuel at $3.79 per gallon. Why? Because at their location, the fuel price is even higher. In Santa Barbara $5.50 per gallon by far.

David Evans, a local CPA and Realtor who flies a popular Cessna 182RG:”I am cutting on my personal flights drastically. Just imagine, eighty gallons in my tank at five dollars or more per gallon!”

However, a quite different story with his business flying. He has clients in Reno, Las Vagas, and the Bay Area. The conservatively calculated operational cost of his plane jumped from about $150 per hour just a year ago – to over $200 today. Evans:” I must forward the additional fuel cost to my clients. They have no choice but to accept it….”

Similar situation at local flight schools such as Barness Aviation in Lancaster. Their business actually did not suffer under the high fuel price. As Andy Ma, Director of Operations, says: ”We add a fuel surcharge of two to three dollars per hour to all small airplane rentals.” Since the AV economy is running strong, most customers accept this surcharge freely.

Lancaster’s Airport Café “Foxy’s Landings” does not see much of an business impact also – for a completely different reason, the business owner Joudi Alsaady says. “Despite being at the airport, we do not depend very much on the fly-in customers as expected.” Their main customer base are locals who do not need to fly in order to visit the café.

Steve Irving, Fox Airport manager, confirms that the recreational flying in and out of the airport has slowed substantially. Irving:”The aviation fuel price has doubled in less than four years. This has an effect on our airports.” For most of personal “just for fun flights”, this means less flying. $4.10 for a gallon is harsh.

Lancaster’s airport manager points out some of the additional dangers for the aviation resulting from the aviation fuel market. What most people don’t know is that there is just a couple of gas companies involved in AVGAS. For them it is not very profitable to produce this specialized fuel because they don’t have any specialized plants to do that. Irving”: They must close their refinery and clean all lines – before they produce aviation fuel. There is no continuous production of aviation fuel in the US at all….”

One more danger: There is only one company specialized in manufacturing the lead for AVGAS – and this company is located in the UK. Not really comfortable for the market….

Interestingly, there is one commercial operator who is not surprised about the skyrocketing avgas price: Van Pray, owner of two planes and the largest skydiving company in the area. Van: “I bought my house in the sixties for $16,000, today can I sell it for $250,000. The fuel price increase is much less than the gain in the real estate market….”

However, the operational expenses of an airplane aren’t usually paid through real estate profits but depend on the monthly income, and the salaries did not keep up it’s pace with the real estate or fuel markets.

Some pilots are coping with the problem by sharing a plane. “This is the only way for us to continue flying”, says Rod Bronson who came from Santa Paula to Rosamond with a Cessna 205, his friend, and a tent. They save on a hotel by camping overnight at small airports. Rod shares his 1964 six-seater with four of his friends. An additional effect of skyrocketing fuel prices.

A relief in sight? “Not really”, Bob Rice thinks. There will be many different effects on the general aviation soon to take effect: Higher operational expenses, less flying, and more light, small and cheaper to operate planes such as the latest FAA category called “LSA” (light sport airplane). Cutting corner to keep flying.

By Pierre A. Kandorfer

California City – “I am afraid of flying, especially in a small plane….” Who did not hear such a statement yet? This is a two-part problem. Of course, there are people who ride eighty miles per hour on a wet and slippery freeway in the middle of the night, but they would never fly in any kind of a plane. And, there is a question Michelle Nolting of California City used to have for years: Is flying really so dangerous? Even more dangerous than other means of transportation?

There is an interesting analogy many professional pilots and flight instructors like Eli Lamers of Lancaster love to tell to anybody questioning the “safety” of an airplane ride. Let’s assume you travel with your car just about ten miles to the next airport, Fox Field as an example. There, you enter a plane, and fly across the continent - and fly back to Lancaster. Five thousand miles approximately. Fact is that that the chance to be involved in an accident on your five miles car trip to and from the airport is ten times higher than to experience an airplane accident while flying round-trip across America….

Surprised? You shouldn’t be! First of all, the aviation safety in the US is and remains weigh above the average in the rest of the world. This is true for airliners, military planes, and general aviation flyers.

Secondly, the aviation safety has dramatically increased since Wright brothers first attempts of a real human flight. All early planes were not safe at all, airplane crashes and accidents of all kind were more a routine than an exception. Since that time, almost everything changed. New, non-burning materials replaced the wooden planes. Extremely reliable engines were used instead of fragile, dangerously overheating old power plants. While generations of early planes used close to no instruments of any kind at all, modern “flying machines” offer almost anything aircraft owners can buy: From the best basic flight attitude instruments - to super accurate communication and navigation devices, including state-of-the-art aviation GPS units, almost eliminating the problem of “getting lost” in the thin air.

Furthermore, most people don’t know that the aviation safety regulations belong to the most stringent anywhere. You may drive your car as long as you want without any inspection, service, or repair (with the exception of a smog test) – as long as the car still moves. Then, a red light shows up in the dash board, and we call a towing service to haul us to the next repair show. The rest is up to them and your pocket book.

Not so in the aviation! Even the smallest general aviation production one-seater must be put through an “annual inspection” every twelve months whether you use the plane or not. And this is not just a “check” whether the engine is still running okay and whether all controls still work. Pilot Ron Steele (Rosamond):”It’s expensive and a pain in a neck but necessary for my and my passengers safety…”

The “annual inspection” on an airplane is the most thorough inspection you can imagine. Everything must be checked. Everything. For example, even the latest model best running airplane engine must undergo a brutal compression test. Every bolt, every screw, every little knob must be checked, tested and found “airworthy”. This cannot be done by the pilot, the aircraft owner, or any “mechanic”. This must be done by a FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) certified aircraft mechanic who must log everything in the log books of each plane. Of course, this is not a cheap thing to do but it’s worth the price. In the aviation safety, there are no short-cuts.

What most people can’t image is that you can find thousands of fifty years or even older planes in a pristine, like-new condition. This is the result of the FAA regulation that all not perfectly functioning plane parts, especially wear-and-tear items, must be replaced at specific intervals. Most small plane engines must be replaced or totally overhauled between one and two thousand running hours.

Talking about inspections? You can’t just get into a plane, start the engine and fly. A thorough “preflight inspection” must be done first. Up to fifty or more items in, on and around the plane must be checked carefully before you may taxi to the runway. Here, the so-called “pre-takeoff inspection” begins. Dozens of items to be checked again. The engine function, instruments, flight controls - just to name a few.

Now, you may take off and enjoy the flight if you checked the weather, made a decent route or flight plan, have all the necessary information about the flight, including the length of the runway you want to use for landing, an “alternate airport” if you can’t continue the flight as intended, etc. The list goes on and on….

Of course, not to mention the actual flight training you need just to get your license. There is a minimum of fifty to one hundred hours of “cockpit time” for a private pilot, thousands of hours for a commercial pilot.

The biggest myth of small planes is that “big planes are safer than small planes…”. Of course, this topic is extremely complex, and you cannot easily compare apples and oranges. However, there is one example which impresses most people: What happens if there is a total power loss in a big airliner? Let’s assume that the extensive restart procedures by the pilot do not work. Result: The plane is “gliding” down and losing altitude very fast.

In the vicinity of a big airport or not, the emergency landing must be made at a very high speed. Mostly between one and two hundred miles per hour. At this speed, the chances of crashing without any substantial plane damage are extremely slim. Of course, a power-off landing on a big enough airport runway decreases the chances of crashing the plane.

In a small plane, let’s assume in a Cessna 150, this is a very different situation. With flaps extended, the pilot can slow the approach speed down to about forty miles per hour. Assuming all the emergency procedures have been done, and there are not major obstacles for the plane “landing” in the field, most small plane emergency landings can be managed without major harm to passengers and the plane! Considering such an scenario, flying a small plane is safer than flying – or better - emergency landing a Jumbo jet….