Max Trescott Aviation Trends Aloft

Medevac Helicopters—Helping People But Killing Crews

There's a dirty little secret in the helicopter emergency medical services (EMS) industry: management pressure to fly in bad conditions is raking in profits while killing crews. Medicare reimbursement rules and lax regulation that fueled the industry’s growth over the last two decades also provide an incentive to fly substandard helicopters in poor weather conditions. Pat Shaub, an author, speaker and former EMS helicopter pilot who provides Decision Making and IFR Refresher training programs for EMS companies, emailed me earlier this year about these issues. Now everyone can learn about the deadly problem in a series of investigative reports published this past weekend by the Washington Post.

The series turns a bright spotlight on...

New York Hudson River Plane Crash Video Shows Mid Air Collision

For better or worse, modern technology assures there’s a video camera trained on virtually every event that occurs. Not surprising, NBC has released video shot by a tourist of the actual moment of a mid air collision over the Hudson River between a Piper Saratoga airplane and a Eurocopter 350 helicopter. While the video will undoubtedly provide vital clues in the NTSB crash investigation, it is graphic in nature and not everyone will want to watch.

The crash video shows...

Innovation at the Airlines: Cheaper Tickets in the Standing section?

Would you be willing to pay less for your next airline ticket in exchange for flying in the “Standing Section” of the aircraft? Note that today in not April Fools Day and this is not part of a funny MAD TV skit. It’s a real proposal and, if Ryanair has their way, you’ll get to save money soon by standing on one of their flights.

Ryanair is of course the discount airline in the U.K. that earlier floated the idea of pay toilets on their airliners. Then two weeks ago, they proposed that...

Video Virals and Viral Marketing: How the Hudson River Video went Viral

Video virals are the rage. It’s easy to find a viral video definition; it’s much harder to figure out how to get onto the list of viral videos of the year. But a blog posting today tells how one company made the now famous reconstruction of the “Miracle on the Hudson” water landing join the list of video virals. If you love viral marketing and aspire to see your video join a list of viral videos of the year, this is a must read article.

First, here's a viral video definition from...

Flying Car, Flying Motorcycle, or Flying Boat Survey—Which Airplane would you Buy?

Last year, my imagination was captured by the ICON A5 trailerable seaplane. Last week I talked with Carl Deitrich and wrote about his Terrafugia Transition roadable airplane (think flying car). Just before I published the article on the Terrafugia, I found in my pile of press releases one from Samson Motorworks with an update on their SkyBike (pictured here), which they’ve described as a flying motorcycle. So which you would prefer to own? Take this survey now to tell us.

The first two aircraft are...

FAA Proposing To Keep Bird Strike Data Secret

Ever since Sully Sullenberger successfully ditched US Airways flight 1549 in the Hudson River following bird strikes that killed both engines, public awareness and interest in bird strikes has been on the rise. The FAA has a database of 100,000 bird strikes reported since 1990 and it presumably sheds some light on a problem which, according to Bird Strike Committee USA, has led to over 200 deaths--of people, not birds--since 1988.

But in what amounts to a public relations gaffe, the FAA has...

The State of General Aviation

Over the last 2 days, I’ve been in touch with a number of flight school owners and other people in GA related businesses. The overall picture is mixed. Here are some snippets of what I’m hearing.

Some flight schools are down as much as 40% over the last 2 years and a few have gone out of business. Others are managing to keep sales relatively constant. Some of this is a function of local market conditions. But a key factor seems to be...

Join My Electronic World

The world is becoming ever more tightly connected each day. The reverberations between Wall Street and my version of Main Street—the general aviation world—are becoming more intense. Just in the last 24 hours, I’ve come across a couple of surprises which I’ll share in a moment. First, if you haven’t already downloaded my Free “Learn to Fly” eBook, please do it now and send it to any friends who you think might want to learn. Let's all do our part to keep General Aviation healthy.

Electronic communication is also becoming pervasive and I’d like to invite you to sign up and join me in several ways. Want to be the first to know when my new...

Clever Marketing 101—From Air Force to Zeppelins

I've always been a fan of clever marketing. You can instantly recognize great marketing when you see it since it is always creative, effective at generating attention and often fun in the process. Sadly, it’s far from a daily occurrence, but it’s fun to sit back and grin when you see it. I worked for a large high tech firm for 16 years in marketing and later 9 years in sales and I saw a lot of ho-hum marketing with occasional flashes of brilliance. This is the norm in most industries.

A lot of people confuse marketing with...

FIKI—One more reason to consider a Cirrus SR22T

If you didn’t already have enough reasons to consider buying a SR22T, Cirrus has given you one more with their announcement that they can now equip your new SR22T Perspective with FIKI—Flight into Known Icing. Perspective is the G1000-type glass cockpit that Cirrus announced in May 2008. To learn what you need to know to fly the Perspective avionics, consider taking this four-hour online VFR Perspective course.

Recently, we awarded Cirrus Design the 2008 GAMMY award for Design Innovation. Here in Silicon Valley where innovation is everywhere, some companies have concluded that...