Flight Safety Information June 6, 2013 - No. 113 In This Issue WWII glider pilots' D-Day contributions remain as silent as their wings TSA Drops Plan To Allow Small Knives On Plane United Baggage Fees Now Payable Through Yearly 'Subscription' Delta Air Lines Memphis Hub To Close Down After Summer Travel Season One Dead, Six Survive Float Plane Crash Near Petersburg Airlines expect third-most-profitable year since 2001 Annual SMS Audit Results Released Inside Microsoft Mogul Paul Allen's Multi-Million Dollar WWII Airplane Collection GRADUATE RESEARCH REQUEST WWII glider pilots' D-Day contributions remain as silent as their wings Americans will forever remember D-Day -- June 6, 1944 -- as the largest air, land and sea mission of its time. It was the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany at the cost of thousands of Allied lives. There would have been more bloodshed on the beaches of Normandy if not for the sacrifices of 1,000 glider pilots and co-pilots who risked their lives in engineless planes during Operation Overlord. In fact, many people haven't even heard of the CG-4A gliders, which were the stealth planes of World War II. They were an essential part of the Allied invasion because they transported soldiers, jeeps, trailers loaded with combat equipment, and 75 mm howitzers and 37 mm anti-tank guns for paratroopers to use. Troubled by the lack of recognition for glider pilots, Gary A. Best, a 73-year-old Glendora author, has devoted the past three years to researching and writing a book about some 5,500 trained glider pilots who flew unarmed planes with plywood wings wrapped in cotton fabric. "A lot of things about the Greatest Generation are hidden away," Best said. "They're stacks of letters in a flea market, an antique shop, a garage sale -- places where people are trying to get rid of things they consider junk. It seems a very cruel end to the story of someone who participated in these great events," he said in an uneven, forlorn voice. Next year is the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landing, and Best said he believes his U.K. publisher wants to print a bundle of books to commemorate the occasion. "I don't think they (people) ever knew about glider pilots," Best said. "If we don't preserve the stories that they (WWII veterans) have, then those stories are lost forever. We as a people, as a nation, lose a part of the collective experience that defines us." His three-part book will chronicle the gliders used by the U.S., Britain, Germany and Japan; will include first- person perspectives from pilots; and will discuss the United States' eight missions in places such as Germany, Burma and Normandy. 'Story was not told' Best's efforts are timely because people are increasingly intrigued with World War II since "it's almost over," said George Theis, a former glider pilot, referring to his aging fellow World War II veterans. "Quite often I'm asked the question: Glider? What in the world were you doing flying a glider into combat?" said Theis, who lives in Texas and is treasurer of the National WWII Glider Pilots Association. "They thought I was flying a sailplane used for acrobatic sports. They had no comprehension of a glider big enough to carry a jeep. Our story was not told." The stories are many. James P. Townsend, who was drafted into the Army on Feb. 1, 1942, got tired of typing up documents in the Great Salt Lake Desert, so he joined the glider pilot effort. "The primary criteria for the glider program was no critical thinking allowed," said Townsend, a 93-year-old Huntington Beach resident. These flyers bought a one-way ticket. Once released from C-47 transport planes, they had nowhere to go but down. They couldn't zig or zag to escape enemy fire and, many times, they didn't have a confirmed return trip, Townsend said. Standards for glider pilots were not as stringent as those for other pilots because most people wanted to fly bomber and fighter planes, Theis said. He had 20/40 eyesight; fighter and bomber pilots needed 20/20 vision. Rather than a maximum age of 26, glider pilots aged out at 32. "The glider pilots were a bunch of misfits," Theis said. "We were looked down upon as if we were not the caliber, but we were a band of brothers. We did our share. We were either too old or too blind or (were there) for other medical reasons. If a pilot had color blindness, he couldn't fly as a fighter pilot, but he could fly as a glider pilot." The people in this completely volunteer-based program wore silver wings with a "G," which "stands for 'glider,'" Theis said. "But when you ask a glider about it, the 'G' stands for 'guts!'" Theis added with a hearty laugh. These pilots spearheaded major airborne invasions in the Philippines, China, Burma, India and Sicily, delivering about 30,000 American airborne troops into combat. And they did this in "flimsy, noisy, unarmed, fabric- covered gliders at about 130 miles per hour at the end of a 300-foot nylon rope in air made turbulent by the (C-47) tow planes," reported the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force. The missions On D-Day in 1944, Townsend went on his first glider operation. Before takeoff, some 925 C-47s dispatched more than 13,000 paratroopers around the Cotentin Peninsula under the cover of night, according to the Army's website. About five hours later, 500 gliders carrying an additional 4,000 men came with reinforcements. But Townsend wasn't pleased with the night mission. "That was a disaster," Townsend said recalling his crash landing 69 years ago when he delivered a jeep and artillery gear along with nine soldiers. "Can you imagine flying a glider -- there is no engine, now. They take you 500 feet into the air and release you into the vicinity where you're supposed to land. Total blackness; you can't imagine anything darker. Gliders crashing into each other, and (many of) the pilots died." Glider pilots had a relatively high mortality rate. Theis remembered his mission in Germany on March 24, 1945: Operation Varsity. About 1,300 gliders were in the air that day, including British ones, Theis said. Although his landing was "almost textbook" and "very uneventful," Theis said others were not as lucky. "Some exploded. Some crashed into each other," he said. "When you land in a field with a lot of gliders, in some cases, there was not a spot to land, so you land on top of another glider. There was a lot of people killed." Unlike Theis, Townsend's D-Day landing was not as blessed. He crash-landed in an orchard. "The equipment came through in good shape, but there wasn't much left of the glider," Townsend said. "Plowing through an orchard at 80 miles per hour, hitting trees all over the place was an uncomfortable way to land a glider. Everyone and everything got out of the damn glider (safely), but there was practically nothing left of the glider but the body." Townsend's group spent an hour or two untangling the plane and getting everyone and everything out. Then, messengers led the pilots back to headquarters because glider pilots weren't expected to go into battle. The pilots dug foxholes that protected them when the Germans started shelling around daylight, Townsend said. "The artillery we brought in was set up and ready, so when the Germans started shelling, we started reacting," Townsend said, referring to the U.S. forces. "The Germans didn't like that, so it quit pretty quick." Then Townsend and other glider pilots had to find their own way home. They walked around until they found a boat heading back to England, found a telephone when the boat docked and called headquarters so they could be taken back to their base. Townsend and Theis are two of the about 237 surviving pilots who are part of the National WWII Glider Pilots Association. Although gliders became obsolete because of the advent of helicopters, Best said their stories should not go extinct. "I think it's important whenever you come across someone who was in battle -- the men and women of the Greatest Generation -- you need to preserve it. (Otherwise) once those people die, (their stories) will be lost forever." http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/news/ci_23398745/wwii-glider-pilots-d-day-contributions-remain-silent Back to Top TSA Drops Plan To Allow Small Knives On Planes WASHINGTON - The Transportation Security Administration is abandoning a plan to allow passengers to carry small knives, souvenir bats, golf clubs and other sports equipment onto planes in the face of fierce congressional and industry opposition, the head of the agency said Wednesday. By scuttling the plan to drop the knives and sports equipment from TSA's list of prohibited items, the agency can focus its attention on other priorities, including expanding its Pre-Check program to identify ahead of time travelers who don't pose a security risk, TSA Administrator John Pistole told The Associated Press. Pistole had unveiled the proposal to loosen the rules for carry-ons in March, saying the knives and other items can't enable terrorists to cause a plane to crash. He said intercepting them takes time that would be better used searching for explosives and other more serious threats. TSA screeners confiscate over 2,000 of the small folding knives a day from passengers. Skeptical lawmakers, airlines, labor unions and some law enforcement groups complained that the knives and other items in the hands of the wrong passengers could be used to injure or even kill passengers and crew. Last month 145 House members signed a letter to Pistole asking him to keep in place the current policy prohibiting passengers from including the knives and other items in their carry-on bags. Flight attendant unions organized protests in Washington and at airports across the country. And Airlines for America, which represents major U.S. airlines, as well as top executives from some of the nation's largest airlines, came out against the plan. "After getting the input from all these different constituents, I realized there was not across-the-board support that would serve us well in moving forward," Pistole said. By dispensing with the controversial proposal, he said the agency can focus on programs to identify the greatest security threats. "It is a recognition that, yes, these items could be used as weapons, but I want our folks to focus on those things that, again, are the most concern given the current intelligence," he said. The TSA announced the change on the very day the House debated the agency's budget, poised to vote on reversing the policy. And in fact, just a few hours later, the House gave unanimous voice vote approval to an amendment to the Homeland Security Department's budget bill to reverse the proposed regulations on knives and other potentially dangerous objects. Some opponents changed their position in recent weeks as Pistole explained his reasoning to Congress and in meetings with interest groups. Among those who initially criticized the TSA plan was Debra Burlingame, whose brother Charles was the pilot of the plane that hit the Pentagon in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. "They laid out a case for this that I thought made a lot of sense, and I really changed my mind," she said in an interview. "The TSA is so overwhelmed with the screening process and what they are trying to keep off airplanes, that I think to lessen that difficult task or mitigate it can be a good thing," Burlingame said. "There is a safety issue. But there is a difference between safety onboard an aircraft and security aboard an aircraft." The proposal would have permitted folding knives with blades that are 2.36 inches (6 centimeters) or less in length and are less than 1/2 inch (1 centimeter) wide. The aim was to allow passengers to carry pen knives, corkscrews with small blades and other knives. Passengers also would also have been be allowed to bring onboard novelty-sized baseball bats less than 24 inches long, toy plastic bats, billiard cues, ski poles, hockey sticks, lacrosse sticks and two golf clubs. It's unlikely in these days of hardened cockpit doors, armed off-duty pilots traveling on planes and other preventive measures that the small folding knives could be used by terrorists to take over a plane, Pistole told Congress at a March hearing. But in late April, three days before the proposal was scheduled to go into effect, the TSA announced it was being temporarily delayed in order to accommodate feedback from an advisory committee made up of aviation industry, consumer and law enforcement officials. The proposal would have brought U.S. security rules more in line with international rules. There has been a gradual easing by the U.S. of some of the security measures applied to passengers after 9/11. In 2005, the TSA changed its policies to allow passengers to carry on small scissors, knitting needles, tweezers, nail clippers and up to four books of matches. The move came as the agency turned its focus toward keeping explosives off planes, because intelligence officials believed that was the greatest threat to commercial aviation. And in September 2011, the TSA no longer required children 12 years old and under to remove their shoes at airport checkpoints. The agency recently issued new guidelines for travelers 75 and older so they can avoid removing shoes and light jackets when they go through airport security checkpoints. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/05/knives-on-planes-plan-dropped_n_3391761.html Back to Top United Baggage Fees Now Payable Through Yearly 'Subscription' In a bid to reduce the ill will passengers undoubtedly feel every time they fork over cash for baggage fees, United Airlines has adopted a new approach: charge passengers for bags, but only do it once a year. United refers to them as "annual subscriptions," and per a company release, for $349 each year, passengers can "pre-pay" baggage charges, thus allowing flyers to check bags "for free." "The Economy Plus and checked baggage subscriptions offer our customers more of the comfort and convenience they value year round," Scott Wilson, United's vice president of merchandising and e-commerce, said in a release. "We are pleased that, as we launch these services, we are able to provide new options for customers to tailor their travel experiences." Perhaps unsurprisingly, the subscriptions are riddled with hidden costs. Flyers seeking to check two bags will have to pay $50 more each year. Want to fly globally? That's an additional $450. There's also a one-time "initiation fee" of $50, which, for the time being, United has waived. Despite the extra costs, for heavy travelers, the subscription model could very well be worthwhile. Given United's typical baggage fee of about $25 per flight, frequent flyers could pay off the yearly $349 fee in seven round-trip flights. United has also applied the subscription model to several of their other services, including a $499 "Economy Plus" annual fee for travelers who would like more legroom and a "United Club" membership for $500 that grants access to United's club lounges. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/05/united-baggage-fee-yearly- subscription_n_3391382.html?ref=topbar Back to Top Delta Air Lines Memphis Hub To Close Down After Summer Travel Season MINNEAPOLIS -- Delta Air Lines said Tuesday that it will drop its money-losing hub in Memphis, Tenn., this fall, slashing flights there and eliminating 230 jobs. The cuts begin Sept. 3, right after Labor Day weekend and the end of the busy summer travel season. It's the outcome that was feared in small hubs like Memphis, Cincinnati, and Salt Lake City when the wave of airline mergers began five years ago with Delta's purchase of Northwest Airlines. Northwest had used Memphis as a hub, meaning it funneled passengers through there on their way to other destinations such as New York or Florida. For travelers, flying from a hub city means fewer layovers and a bigger choice of destinations. Delta flew as many as 240 flights per day out of Memphis in June 2009, including a flight to Amsterdam. It has been ratcheting that number down ever since. It offers about 96 flights per day now, and will drop to 60 in the fall. When it bought Northwest in 2008, Delta executives said repeatedly that no hubs would be closed because of the merger. The possibility of hub closures was a major topic of Congressional hearings into the deal. At the time, Northwest executives said their Memphis flights made money. But Memphis was widely believed to be on borrowed time as a Delta hub. Atlanta sits just 370 miles to the east, and Atlanta-based Delta has turned that city's Hartsfield-Jackson International into the world's busiest airport, reducing its need for Memphis. Demand has fallen and fuel prices are persistently high, making the Memphis hub unprofitable, Delta spokesman Anthony Black said on Tuesday. There's only enough demand for 50-seat regional jets on most routes, and Delta is phasing those planes out, he said. Asked whether other Delta hubs are likely to be cut, Black said, "Delta continually reviews the viability of all markets and there are no other significant changes planned at this time." Other airports have suffered after losing hub status over the past decade. St. Louis was once a base for Trans- World Airlines. When American bought TWA out of bankruptcy it had more than 500 daily flights there. By 2009 that was down to 36. Terminals at Pittsburgh International Airport were abandoned after US Airways began winding down its hub there in the mid-2000s. The wave of airline mergers has raised questions about the future of Delta in Cincinnati as well as United Continental Holdings Inc.'s hub in Cleveland. "The only thing we hear from Delta is that they think we're right-sized at this point," said Brian Gregg, a spokesman for Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport, another small Delta hub. In the 1990s it had 670 flights in and out; that's down to about 170 now. Larry Cox, the president and CEO of the Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority, said Delta's reductions give the airport a chance to recruit other airlines. He said that Southwest is expanding there in the fall. "We're looking on the bright side," he said. Delta's Memphis job cuts are focused on customer service and cargo workers. They were laid out in a memo from Delta executives to workers on Tuesday. The memo said Delta would offer buyouts to some workers, and that there are other jobs available for those who remain. U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, a Tennessee Democrat, blasted Delta's decision. Cohen noted that Delta CEO Richard Anderson told Congress in 2008 that the merger of Delta and Northwest would not impact flights in and out of Memphis and had even hinted at the addition of a Paris flight. "He said that the merger was about addition, not subtraction," Cohen said. Cohen said in a statement that he has reached out to the Justice Department "to discuss the growing evidence that Delta is violating the promises made to the Department when seeking antitrust immunity for their merger." Shares of Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines Inc. rose 28 cents to close at $18.09. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/05/delta-airlines-memphis-hub-closing_n_3389541.html?ref=topbar Back to Top One Dead, Six Survive Float Plane Crash Near Petersburg One person is dead and six were rescued from a floatplane crash Tuesday on the mainland near Petersburg. The plane was a deHavilland Beaver, a fixed-wing, single-engine aircraft owned by Pacific Wings of Petersburg with capacity for one pilot and six passengers. It was reported overdue Tuesday afternoon prompting a search by three commercial helicopters and a Coast Guard helicopter from Air Station Sitka. Coast Guard spokesperson Grant DeVuyst said the crashed airplane was discovered Tuesday evening. "The plane which had seven passengers on board, we were able to locate them when the Coast Guard MH60 Jayhawk helicopter crew spotted one of the survivors," DeVuyst said. "We were able to hoist all six of the surviving passengers. Unfortunately one of the passengers was deceased. Of course our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of the deceased passenger. Thankfully we were able to get the other six back to Petersburg, back to medical attention." The plane crashed on the mountainside near LeConte Bay, a glacial fjord on the mainland east of Petersburg. Due to the steep terrain and late hour, rescuers did not recover the body of the person killed in the crash Tuesday. The Coast Guard is working with the Alaska State Troopers to come up with a recovery plan. DeVuyst cited the plane's emergency beacon in aiding the rescue. "Fortunately this plane did have a working emergency locator transmitter on board," DeVuyst said. "That's the only reason that we knew there was trouble and that's the only reason we were able to really get on scene and find them, the six survivors." No word yet on the identity of the person killed in the crash. The survivors were taken to Petersburg Medical Center Tuesday night. Pacific Wings is owned by Sunrise Aviation of Wrangell and offers flightseeing and air- taxi services around central Southeast. http://www.alaskapublic.org/2013/06/05/one-dead-six-survive-float-plane-crash-near-petersburg/ Back to Top Airlines expect third-most-profitable year since 2001 Packed planes should help the world's airlines earn $12.7 billion this year, as travel demand accelerates faster than the airlines add seats, according to a new prediction from a trade group. The estimate represents a 67% increase over the airlines' $7.6 billion in profits last year. The new estimate is a 20% jump over IATA's estimate just three months ago. IATA said that if its forecast holds, the global airline industry will have its third strongest year since 2001. The biggest factor is full planes. Airline occupancy will rise to a record 80.3% this year, from an estimated 79.2% last year, the group said. Passenger traffic will rise 5.3%, but the number of seats to carry them will rise just 4.3%, the group said. This will be the second year in a row that airlines have added fewer seats than passengers. Airlines have become increasingly sophisticated about predicting demand for each flight, allowing them to match supply and demand more closely by putting the right-sized plane on each route. U.S. and European airlines in particular also have become more cautious about adding new planes because of the recession in Europe and uncertainty about the recovery in the USA. Profits also will be helped by slightly lower oil prices. Jet fuel is one of the biggest expenses for airlines. The group said airlines have been adapting to tough economic conditions by cutting costs and charging for add-ons such as food and checked baggage. Commerce is one of the biggest drivers of airline traffic, and it's booming on routes linked to emerging economies, IATA said, even though trade among developed economies is in the doldrums because of uncertainty in Europe. "This is a very tough business. The day-to-day challenges of keeping revenues ahead of costs remain monumental," said Tony Tyler, IATA's director general and CEO. He said most airlines earn about $4 for every passenger carried. Profit margins are expected to be 3.4% worldwide, the highest level since 2010. The biggest margins are expected for Asia-Pacific airlines at 5%, followed by 4.2% for airlines in North America, and 1.3% for those in Europe. The group said freight revenue would rise 1.5%, after falling for the last two years. It expects freight yields to fall 2% this year after dropping 6.3% last year. http://www.usatoday.com/story/todayinthesky/2013/06/04/airlines-expect-third-most-profitable-year-since- 2001/2387639/ Back to Top Back to Top Inside Microsoft Mogul Paul Allen's Multi-Million Dollar WWII Airplane Collection PAUL ALLEN IS STARING UP AT THE BARREL of an enormous gun-more like a cannon and more than twice his height. In the newly opened second hangar of his Flying Heritage Collection, the billionaire Microsoft cofounder points at an 88mm Flak 37, Nazi Germany's most feared piece of artillery during World War II. Allen owns three of the estimated two dozen left in the world, and his are all in full working order. "The 88s were the first thing we got, right?" Allen asks Adrian Hunt, the curator of his museum, a half-hour drive from Seattle. "When my father came under fire in World War II, that was actually the thing that fired at him." Allen's late father, Kenneth, landed in Normandy the day after D-Day. In 1945 he and his fellow infantrymen of the 501st Quartermaster Railhead Company were bombarded near Remagen, Germany by Nazi soldiers firing 88s loaded with 20-pound shells. Kenneth Allen survived. He returned from overseas more taciturn than when he left, with a Bronze Star and haunting memories of comrades who would never come home. As Allen walks past his collection of perfectly preserved World War II planes, weapons and tanks, one of the best in the world, the 60-year-old reels off from memory stories of each relic's chance discovery. "This one, this Messerschmitt, was on a beach in France buried in a sand dune," he says, pointing at a monoplane with a swastika on its tail. He stops next at the Ilyushin IL-2M3 Sturmovik, a Soviet war bird nicknamed Black Death by the Germans. "This one was pieced together from four wrecks in northwest Russia," he says. As he gestures at its meticulously restored fuselage, a turquoise-and-silver ring the size of his knuckle gleams from his right hand. It belonged to his father. He rarely takes it off. Allen has been slowly building his 31-piece collection since the 1990s. In 2004, he opened it up for public viewing and four years later moved it to Paine Field in the tech-rich Seattle suburb of Everett, Washington. This spring he opened a second hangar, adding 19 new machines. Each is in full working order, the result of reconstruction efforts that can cost millions per plane and take years to complete. His aim, he says, is to make these artifacts come to life. Allen's generally stiff demeanor dissolves when he describes the inner workings of each plane, like the Royal Canadian Air Force B-25 bomber sitting in the center of Hangar One. "An interesting thing here is you can press the bomb-drop button, and then the release mechanisms click," he says with boyish glee, making joystick motions with his hand. "Click, click, click." Allen traces his enthusiasm for aviation back to his father's postwar gig. Kenneth graduated from the University of Washington in 1951 and started work at the campus reference library that same year. His classmate-turned-wife, Faye-an avid reader and book collector-worked alongside him. She went on to become a schoolteacher. Kenneth was eventually appointed the associate director of the college's libraries in 1960, when Paul was 7 years old. "I would go in the university stacks and pull out books like Jane's Fighting Aircraft of World War II when I was 12 or something, and I'd spend hours reading about the engines in some of those planes," Allen recalls. "I was trying to understand how things worked-how things were put together, everything from airplane engines to rockets and nuclear power plants. I was just intrigued by the complexity and the power and the grace of these things flying." The 53rd-richest person on Earth, with an estimated fortune of $15 billion, Allen manages various businesses, enthusiasms and philanthropic ventures under his company, Vulcan. He also owns the NFL's Seattle Seahawks and the NBA's Portland Trail Blazers. But he puts a huge effort into giving the public hands-on history lessons. In a Frank Gehry-designed building in the shadow of Seattle's Space Needle, Allen funds the Experience Music Project Museum. Exhibits include a retrospective on local legends Nirvana, complete with 200 musical instruments from the grunge era. A few minutes' drive to the south of the city, Allen and his team have assembled a collection of restored vintage computers at his Living Computer Museum. Early computers from the 1960s as big as cars have been painstakingly brought back to life, their lights flickering and their fans belching hot air. The evening before our airplane tour, Allen threw a party there. Bill Gates, his friend since high school, was in attendance. At one point, the two men gamely posed for a photo re-creating an iconic shot of the then boy wonders taken at Microsoft in 1981. While Allen is primarily associated with computers and music, his passion for World War II planes holds a special place for him. He has company: Kermit Weeks, an oil heir with two Florida war bird museums, and German-born millionaire Jerry Yagen, who funds Virginia's Military Aviation Museum. Both started collecting decades before Allen got into the game. But the Microsoft mogul's home team believes he does a better job sorting the wheat from the chaff. "The quality, the breadth-they have many more planes, but they're not as rare, they're not as exquisitely put together," says Hunt. Allen wouldn't disclose the value of his collection. Industry experts say it's tough to place a price on each artifact, mainly because of the costs incurred during location, recovery and restoration efforts. "There's the political process of moving ex-military airplanes, and it requires the approval of foreign governments," says Mark Clark, the war bird industry's go-to dealer, who runs Courtesy Aircraft Sales in Rockford, Illinois. That process can be frustrating, especially in WWII plane graveyards like Papua New Guinea. "It can take years, and you've got these Japanese and American planes corroding away in the jungle," he says. After getting through the red tape, the expenses snowball: There's the physical shipping of a plane to a restoration facility, then between 2 and 12 years of rebuilding, depending on an aircraft's condition. Sometimes, spare parts have to be manufactured from scratch, requiring a hunt for the original blueprints. "It's tough to put a price on all that," says Clark. "Certainly millions would get you started. Whatever the price, it has an 'm' in front of it." Allen's team has had some luck finding some of the rare, exotic planes on their wish list in Russia. "Russia's a great place for finding aircraft for several reasons," says Hunt. "One, there was a huge amount of warfare in Russia, with a lot of planes flying overhead. Two, there are vast amounts of nothingness, so planes could come down and never be found and turned into scrap. Then, the extreme cold of most of northern Russia means that they're preserved beautifully, from the leather to the metal and everything else." In Hangar One, Allen gestures at one of these Russian discoveries, the Focke-Wulf 190, a German dogfighter known for its speed and strength. This particular plane crashed in 1943 while attacking a Soviet supply train. The pilot was taken to a Russian prison, but his plane was perfectly preserved by layers of marshland and growing saplings. It was discovered intact by a vintage-plane hunter 25 years ago and airlifted out by helicopter, later undergoing years of restoration in England and the U.S. "Everything still worked when we powered it up after 40 years in the forest in Siberia," says Allen, surveying the long, neat row of shiny war birds. "It's amazing to bring it back to life." http://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2013/06/04/inside-microsoft-mogul-paul-allens-multi-million-dollar- wwii-airplane-collection/ Back to Top GRADUATE RESEARCH REQUEST A fellow aviator of 40 years is conducting a doctoral research study on pilot decision-making. The study - which examines why otherwise competent and certified pilots make mistakes that result in check-ride failures - will be the first qualitative research study to generate emergent new theory based on the erring pilot's perspective. Although many quantitative studies have looked at what pilots do wrong, researchers have not previously sought pilot input on why the erring pilots made substandard mistakes. Pilot volunteers interested in participating must have had to repeat a recurrent training simulator proficiency check ride. Pilot volunteers must also hold a current Federal Aviation Administration medical certificate and must be currently qualified and in an active flying bid status. All pilot interviews are confidential, and pilot participants will have an opportunity to review a draft of the study before results are submitted to the dissertation committee. The study has the support of both organized labor and the commercial aviation flight departments. The research is being conducted across the United States. Professional pilots are loath to discuss performance shortcoming, however the importance of pilot perspective must not be left in the closet. Help us help the profession - please participate. Click here for more information or email the researcher directly at PHDpilotstudy@conflictcounts.com With deepest appreciation! Captain Gary Boettcher PhD Candidate Sullivan University PHDpilotStudy@conflictcounts.com 540-287-7817 M Curt Lewis