Rocket propulsion elements: an introduction to the engineering of This new edition concentrates on the subject of rocket propulsion, its basic. Rocket Propulsion Elements. Ninth Edition. GEORGE P. SUTTON. Acknowledged expert on rocket propulsion. Formerly Executive Director of Engineering at. Rocket Propulsion Elements. Eighth Edition. GEORGE P. SUTTON. Consultant. Formerly Laboratory Associate. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and.
Students can download ebook of Rocket Propulsion Elements from this page. Available in PDF Liquid Propellant Rocket Engine Fundamentals. Rocket Propulsion Elements (PDF) - MIT Certificate Error Unfu_k_Yourself__ Unfu*k Yourself: Get out. Rocket Propulsion Elements remains the definitive guide to the field, providing a comprehensive introduction to essential concepts and applications. Led by.
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one of the Apollo 11 astronauts who planted that flag, Buzz Aldrin. Thank you, Buzz. This year, American astronauts will go back to space in American rockets.". Pdf download Rocket Propulsion Elements Along with the complete set of lecture notes the following readings were assigned in the class. Prev · Earth-Moon Fire Pole. My son (5y) asked me today: If there were a kind of a fireman's pole from the Moon down to the Earth, how long would it take to slide.
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Plane crash into multi-family home in New Hampshire kills two people on board, officials say
(Courtesy of New Hampshire State Police)
A plane crash in New Hampshire last night with two women and three children aboard is believed to have been caused by pilot error and there are reports of two people injured, officials said.
The Piper Saratoga, a two-seater with the registration number N42Y, was taking off from the State-owned White Pond Airport in Concord at 9:52 p.m. on Wednesday for a trip to the Bahamas, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said. One of the five people on board, described as a 41-year-old female, 42-year-old female and three children ages 5, 12 and 13, died in the crash. The plane was carrying a total of 18 passengers.
“This was an apparent mid-air accident after the plane flew into a multi-family house which caught fire,” FAA spokesman Ian Gregor said in a statement.
The Saratoga had a “probable loss of hydraulic pressure” which has been attributed to “multiple factors and/or contributing factors in the crash,” the FAA said.
Local police first received calls about the crash at 9:58 p.m. The Saratoga was found at the intersection of U.S. 302 and Whitefield Highway. Fire crews on scene immediately put out the blaze but could not save the victims or the plane.
There were no reports of other victims.
The FAA said the plane likely crashed while trying to land in the steep terrain of the White Pond area but didn’t immediately know if it was going to be a landing or take-off. Gregor said it wouldn’t be determined if the plane ran out of fuel before it crashed until further investigation was completed.
In a statement, State Police said the plane went down at the intersection of U.S. 302 and Whitefield Highway.
“Both of the occupants on board and the passengers and three children in the home that was also struck by two other airplanes are confirmed to have suffered serious injuries,” the statement said. “The occupants of the home were in the process of evacuation. No injuries have been reported at the home.”
“The occupants are cooperating with the family,” the statement continued. “An investigation is in the process to better understand this incident.”


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The special effects are out of this world in director Anthony Hoffman’s gripping Aussie-made 2001 sci-fi thriller, which provides an entertaining visual treat with its splendidly realised vision of Mars in the future.
Mission commander Kate Bowman (Carrie-Anne Moss) is the pilot of the most important mission of the 21st century, heading to Mars to save the human race. It’s 2050, Earth is dying and colonising Mars is the only alternative to obliteration. But what happens when Bowman and her crew get there is far more terrifying than anyone would have guessed.
A crash landing leaves them without scientific, communication or escape equipment, and causes their military mapping and exploration robot to malfunction into a deadly enemy. But as the landing team (Val Kilmer, Tom Sizemore, Simon Baker, Benjamin Bratt) explores the harsh new planet, they have the most terrifying discovery of all. Mars may be barren, but it’s also inhabited.
The downside is a very talky and boring opening section before the Mars sequences, too many nods to other, better sci-fi films, especially 2001: A Space Odyssey, a rotten, unconvincing performance by Terence Stamp as Chantilas, and a rather ordinary group-jeopardy story that proceeds incoherently in stops and starts, and leaves evidence of belated cutting.
The upside is a genuinely brilliant recreation of life on Mars, the great visual effects, a taut, eerie, downbeat atmosphere, decent performances by Kilmer, Sizemore and Moss, good monsters in the robot and scary bugs, and some sequences of real tension and excitement.
The story and screenplay are by Chuck Pfarrer, with Jonathan Lemkin.
© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 707 derekwinnert.com
Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com


"They essentially hold on to the side of the asteroid for dear life as it screams through the solar system."
Mitch Hunter-Scullion is describing a six-legged robot called Scar-e, the Space Capable Asteroid Robotic Explorer, which he aims to send to an asteroid to drill for precious metals such as iron, nickel and platinum.
As well as being increasingly essential for phones, laptops and cars, some metal-rich minerals like platinum will also be needed to help produce hydrogen as we transition to greener energy.
With only a finite supply of them on earth - people are increasingly looking to space to meet this increased demand.
That's where Scar-e comes in. Its powerful claw, designed in partnership with Tohoku University in Japan, should grip on to an asteroid in space to stop it from floating away.


Here on Earth, when a flame burns, it heats the surrounding atmosphere, causing the air to expand and become less dense. The pull of gravity draws colder, denser air down to the base of the flame, displacing the hot air, which rises. This convection process feeds fresh oxygen to the fire, which burns until it runs out of fuel. The upward flow of air is what gives a flame its teardrop shape and causes it to flicker.
But odd things happen in space, where gravity loses its grip on solids, liquids and gases. Without gravity, hot air expands but doesn’t move upward. The flame persists because of the diffusion of oxygen, with random oxygen molecules drifting into the fire. Absent the upward flow of hot air, fires in microgravity are dome-shaped or spherical—and sluggish, thanks to meager oxygen flow. “If you ignite a piece of paper in microgravity, the fire will just slowly creep along from one end to the other,” says Dietrich. “Astronauts are all very excited to do our experiments because space fires really do look quite alien.”


Ngā waka karetao me ngā UAV e āhei tō whakatopa i ngā wāhi tūmatanui, tūmataiti rānei
Drones and UAVs you can fly in public or private property
What you can fly in public areas
You can fly drones and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in most public areas and parks without a permit.
Types of drones you can fly in public areas
- Electric-powered, remote-controlled drones capable of vertical take-off and landing
- Remote-controlled fixed-wing model aircraft with a wingspan under 2m
- Electric fan jet-powered models, weighing less than 1.5kg
- Bungee or winch-launched aircraft with a tow line 15m or under.
Where to fly your drone or UAV.
What you can fly on private property
You can fly drones and UAVs on private property, officially recognised public flying sites, or sites controlled by an approved operator.
Types of drones you can fly on private property
- Fixed-wing, electric-powered model aircraft with wing spans above 2m
- Jet-powered models, weighing more than 1.5kg
- Fixed-wing model aircraft or single-rotor helicopters with an internal combustion engine (i.e. petrol-powered)
- Bungee or winch-launched aircraft with a tow line longer than 15m
- Electric-powered, single-rotor helicopters weighing more than 1.5kg, or with a rotor span greater than 0.5m.
|Check if you need a permit to use a UAV for filming purposes||https://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/parks-recreation/get-outdoors/drones-unmanned-aerial-vehicles/Pages/check-need-permit-to-use-uav-for-filming-purposes.aspx||Check if you need a permit to use a UAV for filming purposes||Find out when you need to get a permit to film with a UAV.||aspx|
|Code of conduct for use of drones and UAVs||https://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/parks-recreation/get-outdoors/drones-unmanned-aerial-vehicles/Pages/code-of-conduct-use-drones-uavs.aspx||Code of conduct for use of drones and UAVs||Find out the rules and regulations for flying a UAV or drone. ||aspx|
|Make a complaint about UAVs and UAV operators||https://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/parks-recreation/get-outdoors/drones-unmanned-aerial-vehicles/Pages/make-complaint-about-uavs-uav-operators.aspx||Make a complaint about UAVs and UAV operators||Find out what to do if a drone is flying over your property or poses a safety risk. ||aspx|
|Where you can fly your drone or UAV||https://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/parks-recreation/get-outdoors/drones-unmanned-aerial-vehicles/Pages/where-you-can-fly-your-drone-uav.aspx||Where you can fly your drone or UAV||Find out where you can fly your drone, and if you need a permission.||aspx|
|Find a park or beach||https://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/parks-recreation/Pages/find-park-beach.aspx||Find a park or beach||Find a park or beach to enjoy a BBQ, play sports, or take the kids to a playground.||aspx||Parks|
|Find where and when you can walk your dog||https://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/dogs-animals/where-walk-dog||Find where and when you can walk your dog||Find out where you can walk your dog and which dog exercise rules apply to your area.||aspx||Animals
Dog walking area|
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To ask for help or report a problem with our services or facilities, contact us.


A small plane has crashed in southern Wisconsin, killing four people — a 17-year-old girl, a 13-year-old boy and their mother and grandmother.
The Green County Sheriff’s Office says the crash happened just after noon on Sunday about a mile north of the Monroe Municipal Airport.
Sheriff Mark Rohloff says the single-engine Cessna 182T went down in a grassy meadow.
Rohloff says the plane was within sight of the airport’s runway when it crashed.
He says the pilot and three passengers died at the scene. They were related — flying to Monroe for a family event.
The grandmother had previous experience landing at the airport and the family had been tracking their flight and contacted the sheriff’s office when they lost contact, Rohloff said at a news conference.
The plane had taken off from Kenosha, Rohloff said.
Multiple people called the sheriff’s office around noon Sunday to report seeing a plane in the sky lose altitude and crash, according to the release.
Rohloff said authorities are assuming there were mechanical problems with the plane before the crash.
The crash is under investigation by the sheriff’s office, Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board. The final outcome from the investigation may take more than a month.
Rohloff said during the news conference that there was a large amount of debris at the scene. (NAN)


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SpaceX, Elon Musk’s spaceflight firm, launched its Starship rocket from the coast of South Texas on Saturday, a mammoth car that would alter the way forward for area transportation and assist NASA return astronauts to the moon.
Saturday’s flight of Starship, a strong car designed to hold NASA astronauts to the moon, was not a whole success. SpaceX didn’t obtain the take a look at launch’s final goal — a partial journey world wide ending in a splashdown within the Pacific Ocean.
However the take a look at flight, the car’s second, did present that the corporate had fastened key points that arose through the earlier take a look at operation in April. All 33 engines within the car’s decrease booster stage fired, and the rocket made it by means of stage separation — when the booster falls away and the six engines of the higher stage gentle as much as carry the car to area.
“Simply lovely,” John Insprucker, a SpaceX engineer and stay launch commentator, mentioned on the SpaceX webcast.
Against this, the primary Starship launch badly broken the launch website; a number of engines on the booster failed, fires knocked out the steering of the rocket and the flight termination system took too lengthy to blow up.
Based on SpaceX’s “fail quick, be taught sooner” strategy towards rocket design, efficiently avoiding a repeat of previous failures counts as main progress.
Nonetheless, the second flight revealed new challenges that Mr. Musk’s engineers should overcome.
Quickly after stage separation, the booster exploded — a “fast unscheduled disassembly,” within the jargon of rocket engineers. The upper-stage Starship spacecraft continued heading towards orbit for a number of extra minutes, reaching an altitude of greater than 90 miles, however then SpaceX misplaced contact with it after the flight termination system detonated.
In an announcement, the Federal Aviation Administration mentioned no accidents or property injury had been reported. It is going to conduct a mishap investigation, which is commonplace any time one thing goes unsuitable with a business rocket.
Engineers will now need to decipher what went unsuitable on each the booster and the upper-stage spacecraft, make fixes after which attempt once more.
Starship is the largest and strongest rocket ever to fly. SpaceX goals to make each components of the car absolutely and quickly reusable. That provides it the potential to launch greater and heavier payloads to area and to considerably drive down the price of lofting satellites, area telescopes, individuals and the issues they should stay into area.
The take a look at journey’s end result was the newest split-screen second within the profession of Mr. Musk, a serial entrepreneur who beforehand reworked digital funds with PayPal and electrical automobiles with Tesla. As SpaceX ready for the flight on Friday, Disney and Apple paused their ad spending with one other one among his firms, the social community X, previously often known as Twitter, after Mr. Musk’s endorsement of an antisemitic post on Wednesday.
Many outdoors observers are optimistic that SpaceX will get Starship to work absolutely.
“They’ve fastened points recognized of their first flight and received additional than ever earlier than with one of these car,” mentioned Phil Larson, who served as a White Home area adviser throughout President Barack Obama’s administration and later labored on communication efforts at SpaceX. “The magic of engineering is that it’s all about studying, iterating the design, and reflying once more quickly.”
Daniel L. Dumbacher, the manager director of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, agreed. “This can be a massive launch system,” he mentioned. “It’s going to take some work to get it to the place it must go. I’ve little question that the SpaceX group will be capable to determine the right way to get the launch car working.”
A few hours earlier than dawn on Saturday, liquid oxygen and liquid methane began flowing into the Starship. There was some fog close to the bottom however the skies above had been clear, save for just a few wisps of cirrus clouds.
The countdown proceeded easily, stopping at a deliberate maintain with 40 seconds left on the countdown clock. Then the maintain was lifted, the ultimate seconds ticked away and, shortly after 7 a.m. Central time, the 400-foot-tall rocket slowly rose into the sky. A brand new water deluge system seems to have protected the launchpad, avoiding the cloud of dust and debris that rose up in April.
Just a few seconds later, the percussive roar buffeted spectators watching on South Padre Island, about 5 miles north of the launch website.
At 2 minutes, 48 seconds after liftoff, there was a flash as Starship efficiently carried out what had been anticipated to be the trickiest a part of the flight — “sizzling staging,” when the six engines of the higher stage ignited earlier than the booster dropped away. Loud cheers resonated from the SpaceX webcast, which was streaming from the corporate’s headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif.
Half a minute later, there was a much bigger flash when the booster — which was to splash within the Gulf of Mexico and sink — exploded. The higher stage continued onward unscathed. However then a couple of minutes later, the webcast fell into an uncomfortable silence when contact was misplaced with the Starship car.
Most of the 1000’s of people that wakened early to soak up the launch on South Padre Island mentioned they’d loved the spectacle. By 4:30 a.m., a protracted line of automobiles had been ready in darkness to enter Isla Blanca Park on the south finish of the South Padre. Others walked from their inns to keep away from the site visitors. Boats filled with watchers floated simply to the south, outdoors of the exclusion zone to the east.
The launch was skilled not simply by these watching alongside the coast, but in addition these farther afield.
Emma Guevara, a resident of Brownsville, the city in South Texas that is west of the SpaceX launch website, mentioned the occasion had made her home shake.
“It was means sooner than all of us anticipated, so it woke everybody up,” mentioned Ms. Guevara, who’s a Sierra Membership organizer and has protested operations on the firm’s base.
Prime NASA officers supplied congratulations to SpaceX.
“Every take a look at represents a step nearer to placing the primary lady on the Moon with the #Artemis III Starship human touchdown system.,” Jim Free, NASA’s affiliate administrator for exploration programs improvement, wrote on X. “Wanting ahead to seeing what might be discovered from this take a look at that strikes us nearer to the subsequent milestone.”
How shortly SpaceX solves the Starship points may decide how quickly NASA astronauts return to the moon.
The area company has employed SpaceX to adapt Starship as a lunar lander to take two astronauts to the moon’s south polar areas. Even earlier than the newest Starship take a look at flight, the primary touchdown, presently scheduled for late 2025, had already been thought-about more likely to slip to 2026. SpaceX can be underneath contract to supply a Starship lander for the second crewed touchdown, scheduled for 2028.
For the moon touchdown, SpaceX would wish not only one Starship however almost 20 launches of the spacecraft, as a result of a Starship headed to the moon must refill its propellant tanks earlier than leaving Earth’s orbit.
For that, SpaceX is planning two different Starship variants.
One will primarily be an orbital gasoline station in area — a propellant depot within the language of area enterprise. The opposite can be a tanker model to hold methane and liquid oxygen to the gasoline station. A sequence of tanker flights can be wanted to fill the gasoline station. A Starship headed to the moon or Mars will launch and dock on the propellant depot and refill its tanks. However nobody has but tried pumping tons of propellants in a zero-gravity surroundings.
As a depot orbits Earth, it passes out and in of daylight, and the surface of the depot will repeatedly heat and funky. Sustaining the propellants at regular, ultracold temperatures contained in the depot can be a problem.
At a gathering of a NASA Advisory Council committee on Friday, Lakiesha Hawkins, an assistant deputy affiliate administrator at NASA, mentioned that the variety of Starship launches can be within the “excessive teenagers.”
The Starships would launch “on a six-day rotation” from each the Kennedy House Heart in Florida and the present Starship launch website in Texas, Ms. Hawkins mentioned.
NASA does have a backup. This yr, it chosen a second lunar lander design from Blue Origin — the rocket firm primarily based in Kent, Wash., began by Jeff Bezos, the founding father of Amazon. That design is smaller and is deliberate to be used within the third lunar touchdown, which is able to happen no sooner than 2029.
Ryan Mac and Katrina Miller contributed reporting.


5880 S. Hospital Drive | Globe, Arizona 85501
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Native Air AmbulanceNative Air Ambulance was founded in 1994. Since that time, Native Air has grown to be on of the largest air ambulance providers in Arizona.
Native air presently operates a total of (9) nine helicopters and (5) five turbo prop airplanes and (1) one Citation XL Jet.
In July of 1998, Native Air and Cobre Valley Regional Medical Center signed a contract for Native Air to provide emergency air transport services to the hospital.
Currently, Native Air provides transport to critical patients as requested by the hospital and EMS providers.
Native Air has become an important component of the first rate emergency department services that the Cobre Valley Regional Medical Center provides to the entire Southern Gila County region. Personnel at Native Air are always quick to lend a helping hand in the Emergency Department when requested as well as provide continuing education for our local emergency services providers.
Native Air retains quarters on the campus of the hospital and is available 24 hours per day.


WH779 with 360 Sqn.
This PR.7 was ready for collection in March 1954, taken on to RAF charge and delivered brand new to 542 Sqn at RAF Wyton. ex-Crew Chief Tony Reagan, was the Engine man for WH779 when it first joined 542 Sqn in 1954. And the Airframe man was Joe Chamberlin, pilot was Andy Heyns (a South African) and navigator was Jock McFarlane.) WH779 soon moved on being transferred to 13 Sqn, then 80 Sqn and finally 31 Sqn. Eventually this PR.7 was allocated a Ground Instructional number (8129M) at RAFG Bruggen for G/I at RAFG Wildenrath in March 1971.
Moved to storage at St Athan, it was later given an overhaul at 19 MU, and reinstated with its old number of WH779. Issued again to 13 Sqn it soon moved onto Holding Flight before being transferred to 100 Sqn in 1982 where it was given the squadron code of "CK". It was transferred again to 1 PRU in 1992 and moved with them when they took their PR.9s to RAF Marham. She was also with 360 Sqn around that time and was given the Sqn code of BP until the dispandment of 360 Sqn in 1994. After that she returned to RAF Marham and I don't think it flew again but was used for ready spares.
mid-fifty's, in-service photo showing WH799 in all-over silver with 542 Sqn (denoted by the black diagonal bars on white painted nose wheel doors).
WH779 was broken down at RAF Marham in 2004 with the front fuselage (transportation joint forwards) and the starboard wing being shipped to DERA at Boscombe Down. The structure was to be used as part of a 'structural teardown' programme to assist in ensuring that the structural integrity of the Canberra can be maintained safely for some years into the future. The remainder of the airframe going to NDT development, inspection training, etc.
with the front fuselage and the starboard wing being shipped to DERA at Boscombe Down, while the rear fuselage was eventually scrapped on the 12th October 2005 at RAF Shawbury.
The cockpit section was purchased by Darren Green on the 19th May 2006 and was moved from the Boscombe Down Aviation Collection to the East Midlands Aeropark.
I moved WH779 from the Aeropark to Newark Air Museum on the 7th Nov 2010 her New home.
Photo of WH779 on her way to the Aeropark.
WH779 Winner of the visitors
The BBMF's Lancaster doing a flypast at Cockpit-Fest 2011
779 & 887
The Canberra Disco 2011


The Student Space Technology Association is an independent, student-led
engineering team with a faculty advisor, Dr. Lyne of the MABE Department. Our
projects have included several different designs for an atmospheric science high
altitude balloon, rockets made from off the shelf parts, active in-flight rocket
stabilization, and most recently several static tests of a hybrid rocket as we
prepare it to carry payloads this coming fall/spring.
The SSTA is the largest group of UT students seeking employment in the U.S. Aerospace and Defense
sector, the world’s leading innovator and producer of technologically advanced aircraft, space and
defense systems [that] supports one of the largest high-skill and high-wage workforces in the nation
Many of our members have attended NASA or other aerospace-related internships. We also host
industry speakers in person and over skype each semester.
We welcome everyone regardless of previous experience or lack thereof. In fact, our main recruitment demographic consists of primarily
freshmen and sophomores while our regular member base consists of sophomores through graduate
students. We are here to learn together by working on projects meaningful to our professional interests.
Space Advocacy and Outreach
The SSTA and UTARC contacted the international space station as a host of the NASA-Sponsored
Amateur Radio on the International Space Station event. We have worked with the Planetary Society
and Students for the Exploration and Development of Space to host space advocacy events. We are
bringing space a little closer to Knoxville.
The gears of any engineering project are lubricated by the sweet, sweet oil of the USD. Projects and
budgets are proposed by members, voted on by members, and funded by the Student Space Technology
Association. There are several projects that run concurrently throughout a semester and members break
into smaller teams to work on the projects after a quick meeting.


Video by Senior Airman Robert Harnden 2nd Combat Camera SquadronMembers of the 191st Air Refueling Squadron, 151st Air Refueling Wing, from the Utah Air National Guard maintain proficiency. The crew members of the KC-135R Stratotanker aircraft, from the Ohio Air National Guard, refuel an EC-130H Compass Call aircraft of the 755th Operational Support Squadron from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona.
The EC-130H Compass Call is an airborne tactical weapon system using a heavily modified version of the C-130 Hercules airframe. The system disrupts enemy command and control communications and limits adversary coordination essential for enemy force management. The Compass Call system employs the offensive counterinformation and electronic attack or EA capabilities in support of U.S. and Coalition tactical air, surface, and special operations forces. Programmed upgrades will expand its mission by procuring a secondary EA capability against early warning and acquisition radars.
The EC-130H aircraft carries a combat crew of 13 people. Four members are responsible for aircraft flight and navigation (aircraft commander, co-pilot, navigator and flight engineer), while nine members operate and employ the EA mission equipment permanently integrated in the cargo/mission compartment. The mission crew includes the mission crew commander (electronic warfare officer), weapon system officer (electronic warfare officer), mission crew supervisor (an experienced cryptologic linguist), four analysis operators (linguists), one acquisition operator and an airborne maintenance technician.
The EC-130H fleet is composed of a mix of Block 20, Block 30 and state-of-the-art Block 35 aircraft, which has achieved initial operational capability. All aircraft will transition to the Block 35 baseline configuration by fiscal 2011.
The Block 30 EC-130H upgrade achieved a major redesign of the mission compartment and operating system software of the Block 20 aircraft. Its primary focus was to provide a reprogrammable capability against target C2 systems.
The Block 35 EC-130H upgrade provides the Air Force with additional capabilities to jam communication, Early Warning/Acquisition radar and navigation systems through higher effective radiated power, extended frequency range and insertion of digital signal processing. Block 35s will have the flexibility to keep pace with adversary use of technology. It is highly reconfigurable and permits incorporation of clip-ins with less crew impact. It promotes enhanced crew proficiency, maintenance and sustainment with a common fleet configuration, new operator interface, increased reliability and better fault detection.
The Compass Call integrates into tactical air operations at any level. The versatile and flexible nature of the aircraft and its crew enable the power of electronic combat to be brought to bear in virtually any combat situation.
Airborne electronic warfare consists of three major players forming a triad of capability. The EC-130H Compass Call, EA-6B Prowler and F-16CJ Fighting Falcons suppress enemy air defenses while jamming communications, radar and command and control targets. Compass Call is in demand with all unified commands, and therefore, subject to worldwide deployment in support of operations on very short notice.
The Compass Call was delivered to the Air Force in 1982, and had its first flight in 1981. The aircraft has demonstrated a powerful effect on enemy command and control networks in multiple military operations including Kosovo, Haiti, Panama, Iraq, Serbia and Afghanistan.
All Compass Call aircraft are assigned to Air Combat Command. The EC-130H Compass Call is operated by the 55 Electronic Combat Group (41st, 42nd and 43d Electronic Combat Squadrons) at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz.
Although located at Davis-Monthan, the group reports to the 55th Wing at Offutt AFB, Neb.
Primary Function: Electronic warfare, suppression of enemy air defenses and offensive counter information
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With its long history of providing safe, thrilling and inspirational aerial demonstrations, Skydiving Innovations is the only commercial demonstration parachute team permitted to perform jumps onto the USS Midway Aircraft Carrier Museum. Under an exclusive agreement, The USS Midway looks to Skydiving Innovations to provide unique parachuting, rappelling and other aerial entertainment options to its hundreds of special event clients each year. This includes landing our helicopters on the Midway’s flight deck as part of the show. The skydivers lift off from the very location they will land under parachute just minutes later.
To date, Skydiving Innovations has performed more than 60 skydiving shows for USS Midway special event clients.
The Perfect Livestream Venue!
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the USS Midway is also an ideal backdrop location for filming and livestream events that do not incorporate on-site audiences. Contact us today to find out how we can make your USS Midway event or project even more special!


Students take flight with USU's
By Jamie Urruty
December 10, 2008 | The Professional Pilot Program
at Utah State University is nationally ranked and draws
students from all over the world, yet it is less expensive
than almost anywhere else.
Logan and Cache Valley provide students diverse weather
conditions and learning environments needed to succeed
in the field.
With nearly 200 students currently enrolled in the
program, Nolan Clifford, the director of aviation at
USU, says the aspect of the program he is most proud
of is these students.
"There is a pride and professionalism in them
that is unequalled anywhere else," said Clifford.
To earn a degree in Aviation Technology, students
are required to get six flight ratings, starting with
a Private Pilot Certificate. To complete these ratings,
the cost is around $46,000, not including tuition. All
flight training is done at the Logan/Cache airport,
where USU has an aviation campus. Students must log
a minimum of 230 hours in the air and depending on the
specific area the student choosing to pursue, more hours
may be necessary. Some of the different areas include
commercial airlines, fire fighting, and cargo.
The learning facilities are one aspect that sets USU's
program apart. "We have the most modern training fleet
in the U.S. and our curriculum is complete, yet without
fluff," said Clifford. On the aviation campus at the
airport, classrooms are set up, flight instructor's
offices are located, a flight simulator room is available
and aircrafts are on location. Two flight simulators
are available; one a generic twin-engine aircraft and
the other a commercial airliner. Having advantages like
these available saves students money on flight fees
and provides hands-on experience.
USU manages to gives students a great education and
experience, yet is less expensive than just about anywhere
else. But since the students pay for flight ratings
on top of tuition bills, student flight loans are available.
Clifford said most aviation students finance their education
by working while going to school and some have parental
Since the events of 9/11 and the chaos after, aviation
programs across the nation were left to wonder if and
how enrollment rates would change. But at USU, enrollment
rates are actually higher than they were before 9/11.
"At first, we were spooked by it, but it did not take
long to realize that the airlines had become a common
carrier and the world depended on them," said Clifford.
Current aviation student, Mark Urruty, thinks the
best part of the program is its dedicated teachers.
"The instructors are really easy going and well-educated
which creates a great learning atmosphere for everyone,"
Urruty said. Urruty, like most students, plans to become
a flight instructor to build the hours required to get
a better job before moving onto the airlines.
The hard economic times and high cost of the program
should not scare future students looking for a career
in aviation. "The program prepares you for an eventual
lucrative career and there will always be a need for
qualified pilots," Clifford said. The future of aviation
is unpredictable, but is here to stay. Clifford thinks
"aviation will continue to serve the traveling public
and make the speed of life even faster."
To get a real-life experience of the Professional
Pilot Program, Discovery Flights are available. Certified
Flight Instructors will take you on a flight around
Cache Valley, and even turn the controls over to you.
To schedule, call (435) 753-4289.
For more information on the program and its requirements,
log on to http://www.usu.edu/aviation.


Defense, aerospace continue to be keys to state’s economy
30 Nov 2018
The defense and aerospace industries may be the key to leading Connecticut out of its job-growth doldrums, according to a Fitch Ratings review of the 2019 Defense Authorization Act.
The 2019 defense budget includes several billion dollars for projects that will impact Connecticut, including $10.6 billion to purchase 77 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters. Connecticut-based Pratt & Whitney, a subsidiary of United Technologies, is part of the partnership that makes the fighters.


Montana State University Sends Kids Artwork to Space
The Montana State University currently conducts a study on the development of better computers for NASA, and part of their outreach program is launching into space the logo artwork done by second grade students from the Morning Star Elementary School in Bozeman.
The logo was sent on July 17, 2016 for a six month-long stay at the International Space Station (ISS).
Cheri Jakovac had her class create a mission patch logo for the NASA’s Radiation Tolerant computer Mission on the International Space Station (RTcMISS, which is pronounced “Artemis”)..
Stickers of the mission patch, which contains a rocket, a space station, a parachute, and the Montana University logo, will be placed aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 resupply rocket.
It was sent into outer space last Sunday, and can be watched on SpaceX webcast.
MSU has been performing studies and projects in an effort to develop more radiation-tolerant computers.
For over ten years, Dr. Brock LaMeres, an associate professor at the Montana State University’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the College of Engineering, has been looking into the future of technology aimed specifically for NASA purposes.
LaMeres said that future space missions will require better and faster computers, but the radiation is making that near impossible for technology from Earth.
MSU has been trying to come up with solutions, but it’s difficult to conduct exact experiments.
MSU does their testing through a radiation chamber.
The computers researchers have developed are put on high altitude balloons, and are placed in rockets that reach near outer space.
The latest project the university is planning involves sending and putting their computers into space and unto the ISS.
According to LaMeres, this will be the most “rigorous test yet” and is bound to set the threshold for the next upcoming projects.
After this test, which will hopefully bear positive results, LaMeres and his team are planning to use the computers in an actual space environment for a long period of time.
The next project will be done this fall, when the MSU-developed computer will be sent to the International Space Station.
Astronauts on ISS will install it in an experiment locker provided by NanoRacks, a company that provides and markets hardware to space stations.
NASA allows ISS researchers the chance to fly some things to the station and be returned as keepsakes, so NanoRacks reached out to LaMeres about sending a memorabilia related to the MSU project.
LaMeres contacted his daughter’s teacher, Cheri Jakovac, and asked to have the class design a logo for their project.
LaMeres said this was an important opportunity to engage kids in an exciting project related to a STEM career.
He hoped that this would make the children eager or curious to know about or work for a STEM job in the future.
The MSU professor works closely with Connor Julien, a graduate student, Daniel Mills, an electrical engineering senior, and Brandon Klise, a computer engineering second year student.
The three of them visited Jakovac’s class last February to explain the mission.
They showed students examples of mission logos and had them create their own.
Using the common elements from the students’ logos, the researchers came up with the final design.
The logo artwork now contains the acronyms of the Montana Space Grant Consortium, the university’s College of Engineering and Space Science and Engineering Laboratory, and NASA EPSCoR.


Drone, sometimes known as Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, is one of the most popular and must-have technologies for travelers all over the world. It assists you in capturing your vacation memories from a variety of perspectives. Undoubtedly, flying a drone is one of the best things to do in Nepal. Many tourists and trekkers use this gadget to create stunning trip blogs and vlogs while visiting Nepal.
Because Nepal is a mountainous nation, flying a drone will provide fantastic photos of the landscapes, mountains, hills, and the view of rivers from various angles. Many people think that flying a drone in Nepal is illegal; it is not the entire truth. Only flying a drone without a permit in Nepal is illegal and punishable.
Registration of drones with the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) in Nepal is mandatory. Those who fly without permission will be arrested or punished. Thus, we recommend you not to operate a drone without a permit.
Note: Due to the high demand, we are providing drone permit acquisition services ONLY to our customers.
- Things to consider before packing drone while traveling
- Best Time and Places for videography via Drones in Nepal
- Drone Rules and Laws in Nepal
- What are the procedures to register a drone in Nepal?
- What are the procedures to get a drone permit in Nepal?
- How to get a drone permit for Everest Base Camp Trek?
- Illegal use of camera drones
- Some most popular places you shouldn’t fly a drone
- Tips for flying drones in Nepal
Things to consider before packing drone while traveling
- Firstly, evaluate if your drone meets the security standards of the airline or the airport in your nation.
- Secondly, check whether your drone is equipped with any dangerous materials that do not meet transport requirements. (such as high volt batteries that might need additional clarification during airport security checks)
- Thirdly, search and examine the particular regulations of your airline on drone travel.
- Finally, make sure you are aware of drone legislation in both your take-off and destination locations.
However, flying a drone in Nepal is not a child’s play. There are certain factors one should know before carrying a drone. Practicing is the main key to being a professional drone operator. Moreover, you need to have proper idea about the drone laws and rules in Nepal, procedures for its registration and permit for a drone in Nepal, and likewise. You can take a quick exam to ensure that you understand the rules. Besides, plan your trip during the favorable season if you are planning to fly a drone in Nepal.
Best Time and Places for videography via Drones in Nepal
In the Himalayas, a good weather is must to obtain optimal footage. So it is recommended that you travel during spring (March-May) and fall (September-November) which are the best time to visit Nepal. During spring and fall, the weather is stable and perfect for videography with a Drone in the Himalayas.
Since getting a Drone permit is rather a lengthy process in Nepal, we suggest you make the most out of it by planning your trips smartly. However, if you do not want to go through the hassles of planning, we have perfect customizable itineraries that will take you to the best places to fly Drones in Nepal:
- Sleeping at Everest Base Camp Trek
- Everest Base Camp Short Trek
- Gokyo Lakes and Gokyo Ri Trek
- Annapurna Base Camp Trek
- Manaslu Circuit Trek
- Upper Mustang Trek
- Nepal Experience Tour
Apart from recording scenery and action videos, drones emerge as a guide to travel Nepal, probes route conditions while trekking in Nepal, and assist in many rescues.
Drone Rules and Laws in Nepal
Although unauthorized usage of drones existed in Nepal before 2015, the massive earthquake of April 2015 resulted in the growth of drones and brought them into the limelight. Journalists and humanitarian responders flew an unusual number of tiny and lightweight UAVs over heavily damaged areas and heritage sites to aid in the urgent rescue. However, the Nepalese government realized the threats posed to national security because of the uncontrolled and unplanned flying of drones. The government then recognized the importance of a strong policy addressing drone controls and drafted the rules and regulations.
According to Nepal’s national aviation authority, the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), flying a drone with a permit is legal in Nepal; however, we recommend staying informed and complying with the drone rules and laws mentioned below:
- Tourists who wish to fly a drone during their visit to Nepal must first acquire authorization from the Ministry of Home Affairs, Department of Tourism, and Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal. However, it is not crucial if a drone is less than 2kg and below 200ft. from the ground.
- Prior authorization from the department relating to the specific subject matter of study, Ministry of Home Affairs, and Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal is required to fly a drone (more than 2kg) for research and educational purposes.
- Tourists who wish to fly a drone in the national parks and conservation areas of Nepal need to acquire authorization from the concerned Conservation Area/ National Parks, Ministry of Home Affairs, Department of Tourism, and Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal.
- Drones weighing less than 2kg (4.5 pounds) do not require CAAN authorization if flown over private land and at a height, not more than 200 feet.
- Drone pilots should have skills in flight and a basic understanding of drone operation rules and laws in Nepal.
- Do not fly a drone in a way that endangers the safety of the aircraft flying in the area.
- Use a UAV only within the extent of your authorization.
- Flying a drone without a permit is forbidden and will result in a penalty in conformity with civil aviation laws.
- Flying an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle in a public place for recreational purposes necessitates authorization from the local security agency.
- The person operating a drone is solely responsible for any injury to individuals or damage to property caused by the operation of the drone.
- Don’t fly a drone higher than 120m (394ft) and further than 500m (1,640ft).
- Avoid flying a drone carelessly and don’t use it to kill animals or insects.
- Flying within 50 meters (164 feet) of any ship, transport, or construction is prohibited.
- Controllers must retain the unhindered visual sight of the drones at all times.
- Airport zones should be clean from all the drone activities.
The drone rules and laws in Nepal are quite lengthy. For this reason, it is best to consult with an adventure and travel company. Himalayan Glacier, which has several years of experience in helping to get drone permits for the traveler, is a leading local adventure travel company that will help you obtain drone permits in a hassle-free manner.
What are the procedures to register a drone in Nepal?
Drones’ registration with the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) is mandatory for valid and legal operation. Flying a drone without registration is a violation of the local laws and might result in grave consequences. The government of Nepal has classified drones into four categories as mentioned below:
|Weight||Up to 250gm||250gm-2kg||2kg-25kg||Above 25kg|
|Risk||Very Low Risk||Low Risk||Moderate Risk||Very High Risk|
As per the prevailing law, registration of all categories of drones is must to have flight permission. The procedure to register a drone in Nepal is listed below:
- Visit the Flight Safety Standard Department situated at Sinamangal, Kathmandu, with the following documents:
- Filled form as per instruction
- Copy of Citizenship Certificate, Valid Passport, or Certificate of Company Registration
- A copy of the manual
specification of the drone.
- Picture of the drone with its clear color, brand, and serial number
- Introduction to the uses of Drones
- Copy of the retailer’s VAT bill (For those purchased in Nepal)
- Copy of the Customs Clearance Certificate (For imported drones)
- After all the required documents, the concerned authority will analyze them closely. If registration is successful, a certificate, which includes a Unique Identification Number (UIN) will be issued in 2-3 working days as a confirmation of being registered. This certificate will be valid for a period of one year.
What are the procedures to get a drone permit in Nepal?
In Nepal, obtaining a permit to fly a drone is not difficult. It is, however, a common procedure that takes a little time. First and foremost, you should register your drone by following the above procedures. You can further move to acquire a permit for drones in Nepal only after obtaining the unique identification number. To get the permit, you need to complete the following procedures:
Please keep in mind that if your drone has a bandwidth greater than 2.4 MHz, you must seek clearance from the Information Department. A recommendation letter from the local government will be useful at every stage of the license application process.
- Take approval from the respective authority
- If your drone weighs less than 2 kg, you must contact the District Administration Office to obtain permission. In case of drones weighing more than 2kg, you must contact the Information Department Office and the Ministry of Home Affairs.
- In case of foreigners, they need to obtain valid permission from the Ministry of Home Affairs, Department of Tourism, Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, and Concerned Conservation Area/ National Parks
- Submit the following documents (similar for all three cases mentioned above)
- Filled form as per instruction
- Registration certificate of drone
- Flight information (start date, end date, purpose, and location map)
- Letter of authorization (only for a foreigner or a foreign company)
- Foreigners and foreign companies need the authorization letter from the following authorities:
- Letter from Ministry of Tourism, Home Ministry, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Defense, and Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration
- Letter from a specific trekking agency and local guide who is handling the trip
- Copy of citizenship certificate, valid passport, valid visa (only for foreigners), and biodata of the drone pilot
- Letter of commitment from the drone pilot to work in with the regulations
- The Concerned authority will go through your documents. In case all the documents are true, they will provide you a permit to fly a drone in Nepal.
The granted authorization is valid only for three months. It can be renewed for another three months if the cause for the extension is genuine.
Capture your precious memories of Nepal with a drone
Himalayan Glacier will assist in obtaining drone permissions for all treks in Nepal, including Everest Base Camp Trek, ABC Trek, Upper Mustang Treks,, and other excursions for our customers.
How to get a drone permit for Everest Base Camp Trek?
Flying a drone on the Everest trek is a dream of many people. It allows trekkers to record the beautiful vista of the Himalayan region, including Mt. Everest, as well as the cultural variety and culture of the Sherpa people. This is why drones are considered crucial in the packing list for Everest Base Camp Trek. However, flying a drone in Everest Base Camp Trek is not easy and even considered illegal if it’s done without obtaining a drone permit for Everest Trek.
For flexibility and lightweight, the Mavic Pro drone is considered best for Everest Trek. So, flying a drone on Everest safely requires a drone of a good brand, a series of permits, and an excellent team with the required knowledge about all legal matters. The list of special permits required for flying a drone in the Everest trek are:
- Sagarmatha National Park
- TIMS (Tourist Information Management System)
- NMA (Approval from Nepal Mountaineering Association)
- General Travel Permits
The procedure to obtain the drone permit for Everest Base Camp is somehow similar to other destinations, which is listed below:
- You must get permission from the Defence Ministry, the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Culture, Tourism, and Civil Aviation, and the Ministry of Information and Communication.
- You should provide the biodata of the pilot with drone functioning proficiency.
- A map of the Everest region where you will fly a drone, itinerary of the trip, as well as the site coordinates and date of flying a drone, must be submitted.
- You must obtain extra licenses from the department of wildlife reserves, conservation areas, or national parks to get access to Sagarmatha National Park.
Take your Drone to the Everest Base Camp
From the glimmer before the sunlight to the starry nights after sunset, do not miss any moment. Rather than taking regular itineraries to the Everest Base Camp which have tight schedules, get an opportunity to spend two nights under the starlit sky at the Everest Base Camp and enjoy the epic journey with our Sleeping at Everest Base Camp Trek.
Because the Everest region is a part of the Sagarmatha National Park, you will also require special permission from the park. This needs permission from the Ministry of Information and Communication, as well as permission from the National Park Service.
Illegal use of camera drones
Camera drone capabilities vary but can include features such as video cameras, microphones, GPS, and powerful zoom lenses. The growing usage of camera drones has raised concerns about both confidentiality and protection. These unmanned aerial vehicles, like any other technology, may represent a serious hazard if they fall into wrong hands. Some of the illegal uses of camera drones are:
Any infringement of the Ministry of Information and Communication and CAAN’s laws and rules while flying a drone may result in severe legal consequences.
1. Effective Spies
Drones may be extremely effective spies. Their ability to approach nearly any location where private data is kept (for example, an office room) without even being observed makes them the ideal spy.
Cybercriminals can utilize drones to get their harmful tools near their target destination without struggling to overcome physical hurdles that the possible victim may have in place (security guards, access control systems, biometric sensors, and surveillance cameras).
3. Hide Security Attacks
A drone might conceal a jammer, a malicious hotspot, or a gadget that launches assaults through Bluetooth or NFC. The possibilities for using these airborne gadgets to spy on people and steal private information are nearly limitless.
4. Invasion of Privacy
Drones might help to capture identifiable private data (such as vehicles identification numbers) or personal data (such as pictures) of individuals without their knowledge, which is a serious privacy problem. It is crucial to understand that if a commercial drone operator obtains PfCO, they can sell any film or photos captured with their drone.
Some most popular places you shouldn’t fly a drone
The new drone operating regulation has designated the following areas as restricted areas to fly a drone:
- The Airport zone (up to 5km) should be free from all drone operations.
- The international frontier is within a 5-kilometer horizontal distance.
- Religious, historic, and holy places within a one-kilometer radius such as Maitighar Mandala, Swayambhunath, Pashupatinath, Boudhanath, Budhanilkantha, Durbar Square (Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, and Patan), and so on.
- Residence area of the President, Vice-President, Prime Minister, VVIP office, and Singha Durar within 1 km aerial radius.
- Military and security offices (up to 1 kilometer), while other safety agencies up to 500 meters.
- Conservation areas, National Parks, and wildlife reserves
- Conflict and war-torn areas
- Other restrictions imposed by local or regional governments
The air may be quite thin in Nepal because of the high altitude. At this altitude, not all drones can fly. We recommend that you check whether or not your drone can fly in these areas, before going to Nepal.
Tips for flying drones in Nepal
- While flying drones, be considerate of others’ privacy.
- Fly at or below 400 feet and keep a safe distance from nearby objects
- Keep an eye on your drone.
- Never fly too close to other planes, particularly near airports.
- Flying above a crowd of people is never a good idea.
- Never fly above sporting events or stadiums.
- Never fly near fires or other disaster areas.
- Flying under the influence of drugs or alcohol is never a good idea.
- Avoid flying over mist, haze, or smoke.
- Consider flying a drone only during the day.
- Recognize the limits and regulations that apply to airspace.
To summarize, flying drones is an adventure in itself, and it may be much more so if you can fly over the Nepal Himalayas. Flying a drone without permission, on the other hand, is prohibited. To get the most out of this activity, it is important to realize that getting drone permission in Nepal and knowing about the country’s rules and regulations are both required. Furthermore, if you don’t have experience in the art of flying drones, you must first ensure that your flight does not threaten anyone’s life or liberty.
It is quite a problematic and time-consuming process to obtain a permit for drones in Nepal. So, it is always best to consult with a local adventure travel company in Nepal to obtain a permit in a hassle-free manner. Himalayan Glacier has assisted lots of trekkers in the past to obtain the permit for drones in Nepal. If you are visiting Nepal with a drone and planning to book a trip with us then we are more than happy to help you in obtaining the permit. You can contact us anytime if you want to know further about drone permits in Nepal.


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Durham Flight Centre
Established in 1997, Durham Flight Centre or DFC has been training aspiring pilots since for more than 15 years. Located in the Enterprise Airlines hanger building on the grounds of Oshawa Municipal Airport, DFC has earned the reputation of being a top notch flight school that charges fair prices for ground training, instructor time and plane rentals. The great thing about learning to fly is that you actually get to fly throughout your training. You don’t have to wait until the very end to enjoy time in the sky.
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Air France flight 447: A disaster waiting in the wings
When an Air France jet came down in a gigantic storm over the Atlantic in June, killing all 228 on board, the Schnabl family was split in half. But new evidence suggests the tragedy could have been avoided
The Sunday Times Magazine, 15 November 2009
When Fernando Schnabl kissed his wife, Christine, and their five-year-old son, Philipe, goodbye in Rio de Janeiro on the evening of May 31 this year, he expected to see them the next morning in Paris. He never did. Four hours out of Rio, Air France flight 447, which Christine and Philipe were on, flew into a ferocious storm above the Atlantic. A series of signals warned that several electrical systems had broken down before the plane fell out of the sky at 10,000ft a minute.
So began one of the most catastrophic and troubling air disasters of modern times, a crash that killed 228 people from 32 nations. Five British people were killed. The wreckage and post-mortems on the 51 bodies recovered, which included Christine’s but not their son, Philipe’s (his body has never been found), suggest the plane struck the water on its belly at high speed and broke into hundreds of pieces on impact. Most of the passengers suffered broken pelvises and fractured femurs, classic signs of such a high-speed impact. They were not wearing their life vests, so the catastrophe had not been anticipated. Experts say it was all over in about three minutes.
“If there had been a rapid decompression early on, the passengers and the crew would have been unconscious within 10 seconds,” said one expert. “But if not, it’s entirely possible that they realised the plane was crashing and remained conscious until the very last moment of impact. It’s a terrible thing for their relatives to come to terms with.”
Fernando, travelling to Paris with Celine, his three-year-old daughter, on a different plane, which left a few hours after AF447, was unaware that tragedy had already overtaken his wife. By 11.45pm, when they took off from Galeao airport in Rio, everyone on the Air France flight had been dead for nearly two hours.
Christine and Fernando, a successful businessman in advertising, had been married for 10 years and were going on holiday to Europe with their children. It was an annual event, usually taking in a visit to Sweden, where Christine grew up. This was the first time they had not flown together. Using accumulated airline “points” would save money, but it meant travelling separately. When Fernando landed at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris the next morning, he was looking forward to seeing his wife and son again. But, as the Brazilian TAM plane taxied towards its stand, a passenger in the next seat who had switched on his mobile phone turned to him and said that a flight from Rio was missing. “Then he said it was Air France and I was very scared,” Schnabl said.
“When the crew called my name and asked me to come forward, I knew something really bad had happened. The way they treated me with so much concern but not wanting to tell me anything left me with no hope at all.” Staff led Schnabl and his daughter to an airport lounge where other distraught relatives were gathered. Christine’s father met Schnabl there and they comforted each other.
Hampering the search was the fact that nobody knew the precise spot where the jet had crashed. It had left Brazilian airspace but had not yet radioed its position to Dakar in west Africa, the next reporting station on its long flight across the Atlantic, and was out of range of any radar. In the hours and days after the crash, officials at Air France began to study a series of error messages sent by the plane’s automatic communications system via satellite to the airline, which indicated to them that it had experienced “multiple technical failures” in its last minutes in the air.
A few minutes earlier, the pilot had sent a manual signal saying that the jet was flying through a storm and high winds. The flood of error messages that followed conjured up a harrowing image of two pilots, one experienced, the other less so, in a cockpit filled with a multitude of audio and visual alarms but losing important information on their flying displays, desperately fighting a losing battle to control the aircraft and keep it in the air as it was buffeted by a gigantic thunderstorm.
The messages showed a litany of failures. The systems measuring speed broke down, the autopilot and auto-throttle became disengaged, the flying controls stopped working normally, the instrument display screens went blank, and the flight-control computers failed. Vital chunks of the plane’s “brains” had shut down. These failures, combined with severe turbulence at night, meant the pilots found themselves having to fly the aircraft manually in appalling weather while relying on faulty information about what the plane was doing.
As early investigations were taking place, Fernando contemplated the devastating effect of the crash on his family. Unable to face going home, he spent the next three months with Christine’s parents in Sweden. Christine was their only child and they were also trying to cope with their grief. The Schnabls were a brilliant couple in their thirties, he a young, sensitive Brazilian, she a beautiful, talented Swedish woman, fluent in four languages, who worked for a Norwegian organisation promoting the country’s business interests in South America. She had met Fernando on holiday and moved to Rio 10 years earlier to marry him. “I always thought she was too much for me, too beautiful,” Schnabl said. “It wasn’t even the middle of my life with Christine, just the beginning. She was the one with whom I decided to share everything — my success, my sadness, my frustrations. I lost my son, our first child, too. To talk about him is very hard. He was everything I could wish for in a boy.”
Fernando is preparing an album of pictures and cuttings that he will give Celine when she is old enough to understand. For now, he tells her that her mother and brother have gone to a “good place in the sky”. As heaven and sky in Portuguese are the same word, ceu, it is a concept the little girl can relate to. Others have been similarly devastated. Bianca Machado Cotta, a doctor, and Carlos Eduardo de Melo Macario, a lawyer, had married only the day before. After a wedding reception in a Rio nightclub, they caught a few hours’ sleep and boarded AF447 for their honeymoon in Paris.
Aisling Butler, 26, Jane Deasy, 27, and Eithne Walls, 29, doctors who had studied together at Trinity College, Dublin, had been on holiday in Brazil. Walls, a native of Belfast, had also danced in the famous show Riverdance. There were two British oil workers, Graham Gardner and Arthur Coakley, who left devastated families, and Alexander Bjoroy, 11, who was flying back to preparatory school in Bristol after spending his half-term holiday with his parents in Rio. The crash of the Airbus A330-200, registration number F-GZCP, is the worst disaster in the 75-year history of Air France. Five months on, it continues to haunt the airline and the aircraft’s manufacturer, Airbus, as well as the families. Without the all-important black-box flight data and voice recorders, now lost 5,000 metres down at the bottom of the Atlantic, it may never be possible to establish a clear cause for the crash. But The Sunday Times has been privy to disturbing evidence that it was an avoidable accident, although Air France and Airbus will dispute this.
We are seeing the beginnings of a vicious blame game that will be played out in the international courts. Many families have turned to Stewarts Law, a London firm of aviation legal experts, to make sense of the crash and secure compensation. There is at least €3 billion insurance cover for the accident, €1 billion of which, Stewarts Law suggested, should be put in a trust to be shared by the families of the dead. Sixteen families have filed a lawsuit in the US against Airbus and many aerospace suppliers, claiming the crashed A330 was “defective and unreasonably dangerous”. Last month, the firm and its expert witness, Captain John Mahon, a training captain and pilot experienced on Airbus and Boeing aircraft, conducted an independent technical investigation into the cause of the crash on behalf of the families. They shared the results with us.
When they recreated the flight in an Airbus simulator on the basis of known data from the flight’s fault messages, the results pointed to a preventable accident caused by four distinct errors: flight into bad weather; faulty air-sensor tubes; failure of the system that provides data for the flight-control system; and the pilots’ response to these problems and to the bad weather. James Healy-Pratt of Stewarts Law, the aviation-accident lawyer heading the team assisting the families, and himself a pilot, recently gave a presentation to a gathering of relatives in Paris.
“No one else has given them a chance to talk. What is upsetting is that if you take any one of these errors out, you haven’t got the tragedy. We believe AF447 was an avoidable accident,” he said. The pilots in the simulator were able to save the aircraft. But they knew the faults and how to respond. Not like the real thing, at 35,000ft over the Atlantic in a violent storm. Two scenarios were considered. In the first, the aircraft’s nose pitched up suddenly, as a result either of a sudden updraft or of pilot action. Pitching up reduces airspeed, and eventually the aircraft will stall and fall out of the sky. The pitots, a vital part of the system measuring airspeed, had failed and would have been registering increasing airspeed while speed was in fact falling. The pilots’ response to increased airspeed would have been to pitch the nose further up, making the problem worse. The simulator showed that it would have taken only six seconds for the A330 to stall, at which point the real aircraft would have plummeted out of the sky.
The second scenario — the less likely one, given that the plane hit the water intact — was the reverse. A sudden downdraft would have pitched the nose down and made the aircraft accelerate. Because of the pitot failure, the instruments would have displayed decreasing airspeed when in fact the plane was accelerating. The pilots’ response would have been to pitch the nose down, aggravating the problem until, some 15 seconds later, the plane reached speeds at which it started to break up.
How could this loss of control occur? To understand more, we need to look at the nature of this Airbus, the most complex airliner in the world, and the pilots’ response to the challenging situation they found themselves in. The A330 is one of the most widely flown passenger airliners made. The large-capacity jet is designed to fly more than 11m hours in its lifespan. The particular plane on which the Schnabls lost their lives had racked up only 18,800 flying hours in the four years since Air France took delivery. In April, it was passed as “totally airworthy”, Air France said.
Many airlines use the $150m Airbus as the ultimate workhorse, flying millions of long-haul passengers across the Atlantic every year. The 660 A330s in service worldwide have flown tens of millions of miles and enjoyed an impeccable safety record; this was the first fatal crash on a commercial flight since its maiden flight in 1992.
Airbus was the first to develop fully fly-by-wire airliners that manage everything digitally, rather than manually. The aim is to eliminate human error, the most common cause of air accidents. It has done that very effectively, but the inevitable result is to remove pilots from direct control. “The aircraft is too clever for its own good,” said one experienced aviator. “If something goes wrong, as well as dealing with the situation, the pilot has the stress of working out what the computers are doing. In an emergency, you’re lucky if there’s enough time to do all this.”
In a 2005 report on the safety of technically advanced aircraft, Bruce Landsberg, president of the AOPA Air Safety Foundation (a charity set up by aircraft owners and pilots), noted: “The most common statement in the advanced avionics cockpit, according to airline and corporate pilots, is, ‘What’s it doing now?’ This refers to the avionics doing something that the crew didn’t expect.”So it was already well known that technically advanced aircraft brought their own challenges. Flight AF447 has also shown that even the best computer systems can fail. And this raises a critical question: could the crew possibly have had the capacity to deal with the high-altitude chain of events the pilots of flight AF447 experienced?
Inadequacies in Airbus training were highlighted recently by Captain Jacques Drappier, the Airbus vice-president for training. He warned that Airbuses may be being flown by pilots with insufficient training. Long-haul pilots, he said, were typically logging 800-900 flying hours a year, but this might include “less than three hours of stick time”, most of it spent manually flying an airliner on its final approach and landing. “We put people into our training today who have forgotten how to fly, basically,” he said. “This is an issue that needs to be addressed by the industry.” AF447 was nevertheless in excellent hands. Captain Marc Dubois, 58, had been flying jets for Air France for 20 years and had 11,000 hours’ flying with the airline, 1,700 of them on A330s. After taking off from Rio at 5.03pm, Dubois set the Airbus on a northeasterly course, heading up the coast of Brazil and out over the Atlantic. There is a suggestion that with the plane at its cruising altitude of 35,000ft he took “flight-rest”, leaving the experienced first officer, David Robert, 37,in charge in the co-pilot’s seat.
Robert was assisted by the junior first officer, Pierre-Cédric Bonin, 32, whose wife, Isabelle, was a passenger on the flight. Bonin qualified to fly the Airbus A330 in June 2008 and so was relatively inexperienced. With Dubois in the crew’s rest area, he now found himself in the seat usually occupied by the captain. The aircraft has dual display panels, but as the various systems failed, they went blank and the only set of instruments able to be restored was the one in front of him. Those before the more experienced Robert had shut down. AF447 made its last radar contact as normal at 8.33pm Brazil time, with the island of Fernando de Noronha, 221 miles off the mainland. Until then, the flight had proceeded as normal, though disaster was now only 40 minutes away.
Airliners rely heavily on the weather radar bolted on the nose of the plane to avoid thunderstorms, but once in them they have no choice but to fly through them, as AF447 did. At 35,000ft and heavily laden, it was flying close to what pilots call “coffin corner”, at the limit of its capabilities, where the margins for error are much smaller. The combination of weight and thinner air at high altitude means that engines are operating at maximum power and can stall easily. Pilots routinely fly near or in the “corner” because at high altitude they get more mileage out of their fuel. This is safe so long as the weather is benign and the jet’s sensors, avionics and computers work properly — not the case with flight AF447. It had certainly sent a message saying there was bad weather ahead. Unlike other aircraft, which diverted round the storm, having picked it up on their weather radar, AF447 flew on, even though at 35,000ft at night the crew would have seen flashes of lightning illuminating the towering walls of cumulonimbus storm clouds 60 or 70 miles ahead.
Weather radar is a good safety device but not all pilots understand its intricacies. A particularly heavy first layer of storm “cells” could have masked others behind it. We know now from satellite imagery captured at the time of the crash that there were more cells behind the first line. Once through the first layer, the plane may have found itself boxed in by more storms with no alternative but to plough on. We know from the wreckage that turbulence did not tear AF447 apart, as was initially suggested; it hit the water pretty much intact. These planes are also designed to withstand lightning strikes — numerous safety features protect the electrical systems — although lightning cannot be ruled out here.
But as the aircraft flew into the eye of the storm, the pitots failed. The A330 has three of these small but critical tubes. About 8in long, they are fitted to the underbelly, to measure airspeed. The exact part they played in the crash cannot be known without the black boxes. But from the error messages AF447 transmitted in the minutes before it crashed, it is known that at about 2am GMT, as the Airbus flew into the storm, the pitots malfunctioned and gave faulty speed readings. They were either waterlogged by heavy rain or frozen up, and their failure triggered events that doomed the plane. Pitot problems are not unusual, and pilots are trained to deal with them. In isolation they are not necessarily critical, but in the case of AF477, they were part of a chain of errors.
All Air France’s A330s were fitted by Airbus with AA-type pitots made by the French company Thales. These were known at least two years before the crash to be less reliable than other types in severe weather. But neither the companies nor the European Air Safety Authority considered the problem serious enough to affect airworthiness. By the end of March 2009, two months before the crash, Air France had recorded nine incidents involving faulty pitots and speed readings, eight on A340 long-haul jets and one on an A330. By the time of the crash, the airline had decided to update all pitots as soon as Thales could supply replacements. It was starting to change them on its entire A330 fleet on the day of the crash;11 days later, they had all been replaced.
Were the dangers posed by the pitots underestimated until it was too late? Michael Barr, who teaches aviation safety at the University of Southern California, said it seemed Airbus had recognised the problem needed fixing but did not make it a priority — until the crash. “What they hoped was that the perfect storm wouldn’t come before they got it fixed,” he said. “They were in the process of doing that when this plane hit that perfect storm over the ocean.” Meanwhile, Air France has to face the fact that the pilots had not been trained in how to manage a high-altitude pitot-tube malfunction of the type they experienced. Another factor was the failure of a vital part of the Airbus’s “brains”, its Air Data Inertial Reference Unit (Adiru). The three Adirus on an Airbus collect raw data on essential flight parameters such as airspeed, altitude and angle of attack, and feed them to the flying-control computers. The computers are meant to filter out bad data and have built-in systems so that, no matter what the pilots do, the aircraft can’t exceed its structural and performance limitations. We know two of AF447’s Adirus failed and that there were faults in its computers.
The pilots would have been dealing with a stream of warnings. Even if they had time to interpret them, they could not have known whether to trust the aircraft’s instruments. Meanwhile, the faulty flying-control computers may have been overriding pilots’ commands on the basis of erroneous data provided by the Adirus. An incident in 2008 involving a Qantas A330 over Australia is sobering. An Adiru malfunctioned, sending wrong information to the flight computer, which acted on the false data instead of deferring to the data supplied by the two working Adirus, and pitched the plane into two terrifying nosedives. Many passengers were injured and the plane made an emergency landing. Airbus has dismissed comparisons. But information on the AF447’s systems transmitted just before the crash shows a number of similarities. The difference is that the Qantas pilots were able to recover their aircraft from nosedives, while AF447’s lost control.
This brings us to perhaps the final contributing factor: human error. “This was an aircraft that literally fell out of the sky,” said Healy-Pratt, “either because the pilots stalled or they oversped it and couldn’t get control.” That is not to say that the pilots should be blamed for the disaster. Healy-Pratt noted that “they were flying in bad weather, they had unreliable airspeed and they had Adiru problems. Our view is that they were given a very high workload they probably couldn’t cope with”. With no single factor as the cause, the question that bereaved families and the airline industry are grappling with is how to apportion responsibility. This month bereaved families gathered in Rio for a memorial service. All are still struggling to come to terms with their loss and are in a horrible limbo. They want to know what caused the crash and bring those responsible to account. The official French investigation, by the Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses, will take another year to complete. Its job, in any case, is not to apportion blame. The courts in France have opened a criminal investigation that could lead to manslaughter charges, but that will be an arduous legal trek.
Air France’s insurers have hired lawyers round the world at a cost of $40-$45m to settle as many compensation claims as they can as quickly as possible. In Healy-Pratt’s experience of aviation disasters, 80% of the families he has dealt with are not solely interested in the money. But he believes maximising compensation could help prevent future crashes. It would force aviation insurers to charge Air France more, and the industry would in turn be forced to change its practices. There is another way this crash could lead to greater safety. Unlocking the mystery of the crash would not be a problem if AF447 had been live-streaming flight data back to a central control as it flew. The technology exists for jets to live-stream data, but airlines have been deterred by the satellite communications costs of $3m a year. Many experts believe it is time to reconsider the matter.
In Rio, Fernando Schnabl is trying to rebuild his life. “I know official investigators don’t want to give any final findings,” he said. Without a proper explanation as to why his wife and son died, he has no hook on which to hang his grief. “It’s hard to think about compensation because it cannot bring them back. But I want to know why, and I do not want other families to have to go through what we are suffering.”
The five Britons who lost their lives:
Alexander Bjoroy, 11
One of seven children on the flight, Alexander was returning to Clifton College prep school in Bristol after spending half-term with his parents and sister. He had lived all over the world with his father, Robin, an oil worker from Norway, and his mother, Jane, from south Wales. He loved travel and sport and was learning to surf in Brazil.
Graham Gardner, 52
Gardner, from Inverclyde, was flying home to join his wife, Joyce, in Scotland. Friends since childhood, they had married in 2001. The master of a pipe-laying and construction vessel for the oil industry, he had worked in Rio for four years and spent alternate months in Brazil and Scotland. His body was one of the few recovered.
Eithne Walls, 29
A doctor and former star in the famous show Riverdance, Walls was born in Ballygowan, Northern Ireland. She died with her friends Jane Deasy and Aisling Butler as they returned from a holiday in Brazil. The trio had met while studying medicine at Trinity College, Dublin, and were inseparable friends.
Neil Warrior, 49
A PR director for Mazda, Warrior, who was single and lived in Cologne, was on his way back from a holiday in South America. ‘He was a perfect English gentleman,’ said Graeme Fudge, a colleague, ‘well liked, well respected and a very good operator.’
Arthur Coakley, 61
A structural engineerin the oil industry, Coakley, from Whitby, North Yorkshire, had been on a business trip to Brazil. He spoke on the telephone to Patricia, his wife of 34 years, just before boarding. His one ambition was to sail the ocean with his family. His body was also recovered.


Tanda Tula Safari Camp’s closest airport is Hoedspruit (East Gate Airport), which is a 45 minute drive from our camp. Currently, SA Express fly into Hoedspruit from Cape Town and Johannesburg (OR Tambo International). Travel time from Cape Town to Hoedspruit is approximately 2 hours 40 minutes and from Johannesburg flight time is 1 hour.
There are two flights daily from Johannesburg and three per week from Cape Town into Hoedspruit (Tuesdays, Thursday and Sundays). Alternatively, guests can fly to Nelspruit Airport (Kruger Mpumalanga International) and then take a road transfer to the camp. The majority of airlines fly to Nelspruit Airport from a variety of Southern African airports. Please be advised, the road transfer from Nelspruit to Tanda Tula Safari Camp is approximately 3 hours.
Should guests wish to fly with SA Express from Cape Town or Johannesburg into Hoedspruit, flights can be booked and paid for directly on the SA Express website, www.flyexpress.aero. Alternatively, you can contact Dina at the Hoedspruit office on email@example.com.
A further option is to to fly directly into the Timbavati reserve and land at Rockfig Airstrip, a private airstrip a few kilometres away from Tanda Tula Safari Camp (ten minute drive). Federal Air operates two flights daily from OR Tambo International Airport (ORT) and Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport (KMIA). Should you wish to enquire about such flights please contact Lyndall Herbst at Federal Air on firstname.lastname@example.org.
If you require more information please feel free to contact our reservations on email@example.com or +27 (0)15 793 3191.


What is a glider?
A glider or sailplane is a high performance aircraft which has been designed to have a very flat glide angle. The glide angle is expressed as a ratio. For example, some modern gliders have a glide ratio of 60:1. This means that when the glider travels 60 metres forward through the air it loses 1 metre of altitude. Light powered aircraft have a glide ratio of about 10:1 with the engine off. Most club gliders in Australia have a glide ratio of 30:1 to 45:1.
How much control do you have in a glider?
A glider has conventional directional controls just like every aircraft and the pilot has complete control over the glider. The only difference is that gliders do not have engines. Gliders use gravity as their power source. Gliding is a bit like riding a bicycle down a hill, except that the pilot can control the steepness of the hill. If the pilot wants to go faster, the nose of the glider is lowered and the glider increases its speed. If the pilot wants to go slower, the nose of the glider is raised and the glider decreases its speed.
How does the glider stay up without an engine?
Initially, the glider is towed up to about 2000 ft by a powered plane, called a "tug" or launched by a ground based winch. When the desired height is reached the glider pilot pulls a knob, and the rope is disconnected from the glider. Now the really skilled part begins. The glider pilot must start to search for a thermal or other forms of lift. A thermal is a rising column of air, which has been warmed by contact with the ground that has been heated by the sun. An instrument known as a variometer helps to show the pilot when the glider is in a thermal, and the pilot circles within it and gains altitude. Remember that the nose of the glider is always pointing slightly down, and that it is always descending within the mass of air that surrounds it. However, if that mass of air is going up away from the ground at a faster rate than the glider is going down within it, the end result will be that the glider gains altitude relative to the earth below. This gain of altitude can be as much as 1000 ft per min. or more, depending on conditions. It's great fun and challenging!
The glider gains altitude by using a thermal, then sets off in the desired direction. In doing so it will slowly lose altitude. Before too much height is lost, the pilot will seek another thermal, gain height in it, then set off on course yet again. So it is by a combination of thermalling and straight flight that long distances can be covered.
Are gliders very strong?
Gliders are constructed to very stringent strength standards and are also maintained to the highest standards specified by the Commonwealth Aviation Safety Authority. Structural failure is virtually non-existent in a properly maintained glider. In fact, gliders can perform manoeuvres that are totally forbidden in the average powered plane, for fear that the plane would be over-stressed.
How fast can a glider go?
Some modern gliders have a top speed of up to about 250 km/h. A normal thermalling speed is about 70 - 90 km/h.
How high can a glider go?
Thermals can go as high as 10,000 ft or more. Above 10,000 ft it is compulsory to use oxygen. In certain conditions, known as wave flying, heights of 30,000 ft., or more, are achieved. The record is 14,938 metres. (48,400 ft).
How far can a glider fly?
In the summer, flights of 300 km are commonplace. Keen pilots frequently make flights of 500 - 700 km The longest recorded flight is 2,050 km. (1,275 miles).
How long can a glider stay up?
On a really good day during summer, flights of around 8 hours are possible, provided you have the skill and patience.
How safe is gliding ? Is it a dangerous sport?
Most pilots will tell you that they feel safer "up there" than driving on our roads. There is the occasional mishap, but statistically, gliding has been shown to be about as safe as normal airline flying. A glider can quite easily be landed in a smallish farming paddock, and all pilots routinely practice such landings as part of their continuing training.
Is gliding scary?
Not really! Even people who have a funny feeling when looking down from a tall building, do not have the same feeling in a glider or light power plane. Of course, gliding can be a hair-raising experience if you are stupid enough. So can motoring! Normally gliding is a delightfully serene experience, as any pilot will tell.
How hard is it to learn gliding?
Most people can learn gliding if they really want to. The main requirement is to be in good health and to have normally good reflexes.
How old do I have to be to learn?
The lower age limit to solo is fifteen (you are able to start to learn to fly at a younger age), and there is no upper limit, as long as you are in good health. There are hundreds of pilots well into their sixties, and some well over seventy.
How much will it cost to learn?
This will depend upon how long you take. The quickest way is to enrol in a course. Many people go solo at the end of the course although there is no guarantee. If you cannot spare time to take an intensive course, you may learn over a longer period in the Club's weekend operations, in the time you have available. This allows some flexibility, but will probably mean that the cost will be somewhat higher, as you will take more hours overall. After reaching solo stage, there are many more goals attainable to keep you interested and challenged.
How can I get started?
Glider flights in a dual seat training glider are available. Once you are convinced gliding is for you, membership of the club entitles you to receive free training. You will be taken through an approved course covering all facets of glider flight to solo standard. From there further training is available to develop cross country, competition, instructional and aircraft maintenance skills as your interests and aptitude allows.
What are the requirements for an existing power pilot to become a glider tug pilot?
The Gliding Federation of Australia requirements for existing power pilots to become glider tug pilots are that pilots must have an understanding of glider flight. It's highly desirable that tug pilots be a solo standard glider pilots. We conduct a glider conversion course (ten glider flights over 2 - 3 consecutive days). The cost is $575 plus membership fees. We have two tow planes; Piper Pawnee ex crop dusters, which requires a tail dragger endorsement. The club can give you the endorsement for the Pawnee. It is a simple aircraft, extremely practical and a delight to fly with excellent visibility. Once achieving glider solo status, you have a few tows dual in a suitable aircraft to "get the feel" and then formally undertake training with one of our CASA approved club testing officers, who will carry out the necessary briefing and appropriate training. Training is done during normal club operations (with glider on tow) so costs are minimal. Any type conversion and type endorsements costs are the responsibility of the pilot.


February 20th was the Fiftieth Anniversary of John Glenn’s 1962 orbital flight. Glenn was one of seven original astronauts recruited by NASA starting in 1959. It is one of the great recruiting stories of all time.
The work was dangerous. In the years leading up to the recruiting process, US rockets had shown a dismaying tendency to blow up. Not only that, scientists were not sure what effect space travel would have on the human body.
The requirements were strict. Astronauts had to be less than six feet tall because of the size of the space capsules, and weigh 180 pounds, tops. They needed to be “superb physical specimens,” test pilots, under age 40, and with a college degree.
Despite that, the program drew more than five hundred applications. At the end of the process, seven “original astronauts” were selected. John Glenn was one of them.
Glenn had superb pilot credentials. He flew over a hundred combat missions and served as a test pilot, where he made the first transcontinental jet flight. But he was also the one who was different.
He was the only Marine. Among the hard drinking, fast driving test pilot crowd, Glenn was the straight arrow. Glenn competed on the TV game show, “Name that Tune” where he and child star Eddie Hodges split their $25,000 prize. He was also the only astronaut without a college degree.
Glenn was the oldest astronaut. In fact he became the oldest human in space twice. The first time was at age 40 in 1962. The second was when he returned to space in 1998 at age 77.
Would John Glenn have made the cut today? Or would an automated program ignore his pilot record and eliminate him for want of a degree? Would someone decide that “you know he could be over the maximum age when we send him up” and eliminate him for that reason? Or would someone else decide that he didn’t fit the “fighter pilot culture” and therefore he would create problems?
The talent gems are often the ones who don’t quite fit the specs.
The more we rely on strict specifications and automated screening, the less likely we are to find the John Glenns.