Max Trescott Aviation Trends Aloft

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...

New Light Sport Terrafugia—Flying Car or Roadable Airplane?

I'm in New York City for a few days for a funeral, but was fortunate to be included in the quarterly tri-state area Master CFI teleconference organized by my friend David Dempsey. Carl Dietrich, CEO of Terrafugia, was on the call and he gave us a great rundown on the Transition, a new Light Sport Aircraft that can also be driven on the road. After the call, I started thinking about how much fun it would be to put down a deposit and own this vehicle; you may want to think about it too.

Much has been written in the last few weeks about the aircraft, since it had its first test flight in March. But not much has been made of whether it’s a Flying Car or a Roadable Airplane and I can now definitely tell you that...

ATC audio of Pilot Passenger that Lands King Air B200 in Florida after Pilot Dies

The pilot dies at the controls and the passenger lands the airplane. It’s every passenger’s nightmare, the subject of countless movie, but almost never really happens. But it happened for real on Easter Sunday over the skies of Florida. You can hear the 20 minute ATC conversation with the passenger/pilot that led to a successful landing at Ft. Myers, Florida.

I learned of the event shortly after it happened via...

Cessna Citation Crash--Downed by Pushing the Wrong Autopilot Button?

The 2007 crash of a Cessna Citation flying a University of Michigan medical team may have resulted from the wrong push of a button by the copilot. So says an article in yesterday’s Detroit Free Press. While the final NTSB report has not been issued, preliminary data points in several directions including the possibility that the copilot turned on the autopilot instead of the yaw damper shortly after takeoff. According to one source, “the two buttons are next to each other on the center console, and some aircraft manufacturers have redesigned cockpit controls in recent years to avoid such mistakes.” The plane crashed in the water a few minutes after takeoff from Milwaukee, WI.

The preliminary or factual NTSB report states:...

General Aviation Heroes Part V – Readers’ Top 16 Choices

Thanks to everyone who sent a suggestion via email, Twitter, Facebook or added a comment to the blog. Here are your General Aviation Hero choices, presented in no particular order.

#1 The 16-year old Kid. Ian Twombly of AOPA submitted my favorite suggestion “It's under the category of ‘general hero’ but I've always admired...

General Aviation Heroes Part IV– Dale and Alan Klapmeier of Cirrus Design

Part I of this series honored Clyde Cessna, Part II featured a group of people: Flight Instructors and Part III covered EAA founder Paul Poberezny. Tomorrow’s final article in the series will be based on reader suggestions. Tell us who you feel is a General Aviation hero by clicking on Comments at the bottom of this article.

When Harvard Professor Howard Gardner said "We can all learn from the islands of extraordinariness in our midst," he could easily have been talking about Dale and Alan Klapmeier. As the founders...

General Aviation Heroes Part III– Paul Poberezny

Part II of this series featured a group of people: Flight Instructors. In Part III, we honor an individual—Paul Poberezny, the founder of EAA. Ryan Keough, who writes a blog, contacted me through twitter.com and suggested Paul. If you’d like to make a suggestion for this series, click on Comments at the bottom of this article or send me an email.

EAA Founder and Chairman

Just last month, the Experimental Aircraft Association announced that Paul Poberezny, age 87, was...