Flight Safety Information February 3, 2014 - No. 024 In This Issue NH city ignores FAA, uses drone for video 'Re-investigate M'lore plane crash incident' Light aircraft crash kills three at South African airport Save the Date: 6th Annual Aviation Human Factors and SMS Seminar - Dallas, TX U.S. airlines facing pilot shortage ULM's drone program could meet growing demand in agriculture FAA Demands BWI & Other Airports Make Safety Improvements PRISM SMS Attention fliers: Canada's electronic spy agency is following you American Airlines to offer veteran flight attendants $40,000 to deplane The Improbable Pedal-Powered Flying Machines Possibly the world's most impressive paper plane NH city ignores FAA, uses drone for video Nashua, NH, is using a video featuring aerial views to promote the community. The problem is that it was shot by a company using a civilian drone without a special certificate from the Federal Aviation Authority, and that's not legal. The video features startling views of the state's second largest city, including a close-up of the golden eagle on top of City Hall. It's posted on the Nashua Dares website, where it is being used as part of the city's branding program. According to an FAA website, the use of drones for commercial purposes is strictly limited, citing safety concerns. A special certificate is required, and as very few are granted, more and more drones are taking to the air legally or not. The video was shot by New Sky Productions under a contract to produce two short videos about the city, at a cost of $7,000, according to an article in the Nashua Telegraph. The company was hired because of its ability to shoot drone videos. "What sets the firm apart is their new technology, in particular, camera-mounted drones," according to a memo from Thomas Galligani, the city's Economic Development Director, as reported in the Telegraph story. "No other Nashua-area has these ground and air capabilities." Company co-founder Grant Morris of Nashua said it is time that the FAA update its policies to reflect the growing civilian use of drones, such a filming high-end real estate properties for sale and wedding videos. "We're merely testing the waters on this. I understand why it's a hot-button issue. Safety should be everyone's No. 1 priority here," Morris said. "But (drones are) being used all over the place today; a lot of companies are using them even though the FAA hasn't issued a ruling on it. They need to start licensing it." http://www.digitaljournal.com/biz/business/nh-city-ignores-faa-uses-drone-for-video/article/368596 Back to Top 'Re-investigate M'lore plane crash incident' The 812 Foundation which was formed post Mangalore plane crash incident of 2010, has demanded a re- investigation into the incident as the Court of Inquiry (COI) findings on the same were highly 'massaged' and did not reveal the right reasons. Speaking to press persons here on Saturday, Foundation President Yeshwanth Shenoy alleged that the CoI report by Air Marshal Bhushan Nilkanth Gokhale did not reveal the right reasons either due to incompetence or could be an intentional cover up. The report covered up the flaws of Airport Authority of India (AAI), both in having an illegal structure at the end of runway and the inability of the fire and rescue teams to reach the spot quickly. He was also critical of the approach of judiciary in the matter pointing the courts never entertained any petition which was filed earlier to the incident inviting its attention on the lack of adequate safety measures at Mangalore airport. Shenoy contended that if all safety norms were adhered to, only a few lives could have been lost, but not the catastrophic figure of 158. "According to rule, the radar at the airport should be built only by a frangible object with the objective that if in case any plane hits the radar, it easily breaks down thus causing no damage to the plane. But in Mangalore, it was mounted on a concrete platform which was illegal. And within Runway Safety Area (RASA) which is 180 metre for Mangalore, no non-frangible construction is allowed. But the said concrete construction was inside RASA and after the tragedy, the permissible distance was cut short to 175 metre with a motive to exonerate AAI of the homicide charges as the plane caught fire after its wings hit the concrete platform." Alert since 1997 The 812 Foundation President said that since 1997 the impending safety threats pertaining to Mangalore airport were brought to the notice of officials and courts, but to no avail. A local resident, Arthur Pereira in 1997 had filed a writ petition in Karnataka High Court alerting that in case of an aircraft undershoots or over-runs the runway, there is no required space and the plane would crash down the hillside. The petition was dismissed in 1997 and in 2003. When Pereira filed the same as a special leave petition in Supreme Court, the same was dismissed again. A letter petition in this regard by a trainee pilot, Captain Anthony Keyter to the Chief Justice of India also was not represented. The recent downgrading of India's aviation safety from category 1 to 2 by US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is a testimony to our poor adherence to the safety norms, he maintained. Shenoy urged the authorities to strictly comply with the rules and regulations in aviation sector and also to bring to book those responsible for Mangalore plane tragedy. http://www.deccanherald.com/content/384064/039re-investigate-m039lore-plane-crash.html Back to Top Light aircraft crash kills three at South African airport: official (Reuters) - Three people were killed after a twin propeller airplane crashed trying to land at South Africa's Lanseria airport on Monday morning, the airport chief executive said. The plane, a Beechcraft King Air 90, was carrying one passenger and two crew members when it crashed while attempting to land at around 0000 Hrs (0500 GMT), Gavin Sayce, chief of executive of Lanseria International Airport, told Reuters. He could not say whether the heavy rain that has been pounding the Johannesburg area since the early morning played a role in the crash. Lanseria spokeswoman Claudette Vianello said the light aircraft was registered as ZS-CLT. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/03/us-safrica-crash-idUSBREA1206720140203 Back to Top Back to Top U.S. airlines facing pilot shortage A storm is brewing in the cockpit of U.S. airlines: a pilot shortage. Thousands of pilots are nearing the mandatory retirement age of 65, just as it is becoming harder to be a commercial airline pilot. New federal pilot-rest rules and tougher qualification standards requiring new pilots to have 1,500 hours of flight experience - up from 250 - have come at the same time that throngs of senior pilots will be retiring. The new mandates were implemented in the last six months, in response to the Colgan Air crash near Buffalo on Feb. 12, 2009, that killed all 49 aboard the plane and one man on the ground. National Transportation Safety Board hearings focused on whether the plane's two pilots were properly trained and whether factors such as fatigue may have affected their performance. Although job prospects for commercial pilots are bright, and regional airlines are scooping up newly minted aviators with signing bonuses, fewer young people are choosing aviation careers. The reason: the cost of training and low entry-level pay - $20,000 to $25,000 a year. New Jersey native Christopher Machado, 20, a junior at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla., has wanted to be a pilot since he was a boy, watching the planes overhead at Newark airport, not far from his home. At 17, he had a private pilot's license - before he drove a car alone. Machado said the cost of his education and flight training will be about $250,000 before he can sit in the first officer's seat of a regional airline, where commercial pilots usually start to build experience. Machado said he's lucky that his parents in Colonia, Woodbridge Township, support his dream, and are paying for it. "I know a lot of people who would be pilots, but for the money." Peter Doroba, 35, a captain for Spirit Airlines, grew up in Manayunk and after high school worked as an automobile technician while attending Montgomery County Community College at night. Along the way, he earned a private pilot's certificate at Wings Field. He transferred to Embry-Riddle in Florida in his senior year, graduated and stayed on as a fight instructor and then a flight team manager, before being hired by Spirit in 2008. Doroba said he finished college with $105,000 in loan debt - more than the mortgage on his house. "For years, people have talked about pilot shortages. I hope this one is real," he said. "They are not going to have any pilots, if they keep the wages down at poverty levels." In 2012, Boeing projected that 498,000 new commercial pilots would be needed over the next two decades. "There is a pilot shortage. We're just starting to see the effects," said Capt. James Ray, spokesman for the US Airline Pilots Association, which represents US Airways pilots. US Airways and American Airlines, which merged in December, combined have 14,000 to 15,000 pilots. "We're going to lose almost half to attrition in the next 10 years - about 7,000 retirements," Ray said. American announced in September it would recruit 1,500 pilots over the next five years. Delta Air Lines is currently hiring 300 pilots. Regional airlines fly short-haul or "express" flights for major airlines and operate half the nation's scheduled flights and serve three-quarters of the commercial airports. In Philadelphia, 283 of 425 daily US Airways departing flights are operated by regional airlines. "When the majors need a pilot, they'll go down to the regional and grab that regional pilot," said Tim Brady, dean of the College of Aviation at Embry-Riddle's Daytona Beach campus. "So the regionals then have to train somebody to fill that role." Regional airlines will feel the impact first, but the "real impact" will be on communities whose air service will be reduced, said Roger Cohen, president of the Regional Airline Association, a trade group. "Flights are going to get grounded and canceled; airplanes are going to be parked." The pilot supply has been "essentially flat" since 2000, Cowen & Co. airline analyst Helane Becker said in a client note. If major airlines continue to hire pilots away from the regional operators, the pilot pool "would dry up in 10 years." The military, traditionally a source of pilots, is keeping its pilots longer with wage increases and bonuses. Foreign airlines are luring well-trained U.S. aviators with hefty salaries. After the crash near Buffalo, Congress looked at training programs and qualifications of airline pilots and "found that it took very little experience to be in the right seat of one of these regional airlines, so they changed the rules," Ray said. "They've raised the minimum qualifications - that's a good thing. The bad news: It's not helping these young pilots." "A young person has to be far-sighted and look way out in the future to see the return on their investment," Ray said. "Down the road, this is a lucrative profession. People in the top of this field make $200,000 to $300,000 a year." Over a lifetime, a commercial pilot will earn more than an aeronautical engineer - $5.8 million and $4.6 million, respectively, according to data analyzed by Embry-Riddle. Aviation experts and pilots praise the new rules allowing more rest for pilots. But critics contend mandating 1,500 hours of prior flight experience (1,000 hours for graduates of four-year approved colleges and 750 hours for military aviators) is excessive. They note that both pilots on the doomed Continental Connection Flight 3407, operated by Colgan, had more than 2,000 hours. The new training regulations require high-altitude training, including weather-induced conditions such as icing, and more demanding scenarios during simulator flights. On the Colgan flight, Capt. Marvin Renslow and first officer Rebecca Shaw were idly chatting as they neared Buffalo. They talked about the ice forming on the wings. "I've never seen icing conditions," Shaw said. She went on to say she wouldn't mind spending a winter in the Northeast before upgrading to captain. Otherwise, she said, "You know I'd have freaked out. I'd have seen this much ice and thought . . . oh my gosh, we were going to crash." http://articles.philly.com/2014-02-02/business/46927543_1_us-airline-pilots-association-commercial- pilots-two-pilots Back to Top ULM's drone program could meet growing demand in agriculture Paul Karlowitz has spent more than 40 years flying airplanes or teaching people to fly them, first as a U.S. Air Force pilot and now as a professor of aviation at the University of Louisiana at Monroe. But today, Karlowitz is spending less time in an airplane cockpit and more time on the ground leading ULM's new drone program, a concentration within the aviation department. ULM, the only Louisiana university to offer such a concentration, also offers a post-baccalaureate certificate. "It's really a coming thing," Karlowitz said of unmanned aircraft technology. And although Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos grabbed headlines late last year when he said his company is testing package delivery using drones, Karlowitz believes the biggest opportunities in Louisiana will come in agriculture. "There are near-infrared cameras for drones that are specially designed for analyzing crops," Karlowitz said. "It can analyze the health of the crop - detect problems before the farmer can even see them with his eyes. "It provides a chance to identify and treat problems before any damage is done." A study commissioned last year for the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International forecast the total economic impact of drone integration in the U.S. from 2015-17 to be $13.7 billion with more than 70,000 jobs created. The same study forecast a total economic impact in Louisiana of $213 million during the same time with more than 1,000 jobs created. "We can't guarantee students a job, but we believe there won't be enough people with the necessary education and skills to meet the new industry's demand," Karlowitz said. The study's target date began in 2015 because the Federal Aviation Administration is expected to issue its first rules for the integration of unmanned aircraft systems sometime this year. Until those rules are issued, commercial use of drones is illegal. "The very first class of drones the FAA will address are ours, the smaller ones," Karlowitz said. "That's why we're so excited." East Carroll Parish producer Tap Parker said he's already researching how drone technology can help him on his farms. "It's definitely one of the hot topic for new technology in agriculture," Parker said. "I can already think of a lot of applications, especially pinpointing specific problems." Louisiana Agriculture Commissioner Mike Strain called drone technology "one more tool that can be used by farmers and crop consultants," he said. "Farmers can use the data for early detection of disease and variability of overall growth, then modify inputs to maximize production and yield," Strain said. But there are concerns from some within the agriculture industry, specifically from crop-duster pilots. "They could be a real hazard for us," said Drew Keahey of Caldwell Parish, who operates a crop-dusting service and farms. "If I pull up over a tree line and that drone is not bigger than a hawk, I'm not going to see it. If it hits my turbine, that's an automatic takedown. That drone isn't looking out for me." Still, there seems to be little doubt that the drones will soon be sharing the skies with crop-dusters, and interest in ULM's program continues to grow. Karlowitz said the first class last fall drew seven students without any promotion or recruiting. "This semester, we have 22 students in one of the classes," he said. "We believe this concentration will continue to grow, especially when people begin to see the demand for these students." http://www.thenewsstar.com/article/20140201/NEWS01/302010037/ Back to Top FAA Demands BWI & Other Airports Make Safety Improvements LINTHICUM, Md. (WJZ) - The FAA forces BWI and other airports to make changes to improve safety. As Mike Schuh reports, this comes after five near misses at similar airports last year. About 1,000 times a day, a plane will take off or land at BWI-and do so safely. But five times in recent years, at other airports with runways that cross, planes have nearly collided when one has had to declare an emergency and circle around to land. If the incidents happened at other airports, why is BWI affected? One thing in common: the airports that have to make the changes all have intersecting runways. Here's an overhead look at BWI's runways. Right now, when planes are landing and taking off on intersecting runways, air traffic controllers accountfor the collision possibility and create a space so the two never intersect. But when a planes have had emergencies and had to circle around, controllers have lost control. Near misses have happened when planes suddenly butt in line to land. Now, the procedures at BWI and 11 other airports are changing. Controllers are being trained to stagger cross runway operations even more. So now if there is an emergency, other planes won't be in danger, no matter what route the diverted plane takes to get back to a runway. The FAA is slowly rolling in the changes as controllers are trained. Everything has to be in place by February. This summer, up to 30 more airports will have to abide by the new safety rules. http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2014/02/01/faa-demands-bwi-other-airports-make-safety-improvements/ Back to Top Back to Top Attention fliers: Canada's electronic spy agency is following you - new Snowden leaks Documents released by US whistleblower Edward Snowden show the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC) used airport Wi-Fi to track passengers from around the world. Travelers passing through a major Canadian airport were potentially caught up in a vast electronic surveillance net, which allowed the nation's electronic spy agency to track the wireless devices of thousands of airline passengers - even for days after they had departed the terminal, a document obtained by CBC News revealed. The document shows the spy agency was then able to track travelers for a week or more as the unwitting passengers, together with their wireless devices, visited other Wi-Fi "hot spots" in locations across Canada, and across the border at American airports. The CBS report said any place that offered Wi-Fi internet access, including "airports, hotels, coffee shops and restaurants, libraries, ground transportation hubs" was vulnerable to the surveillance operation. After reviewing details of the leaked information, one of Canada's leading authorities on internet security says the secret operation was almost certainly illegal. "I can't see any circumstance in which this would not be unlawful, under current Canadian law, under our Charter, under CSEC's mandates," Professor Ronald Deibert, an internet security expert at the University of Toronto, told CBC News. It remains unclear from the leaked data how CSEC was able to infiltrate so many wireless devices to see who was using them, both on Canadian territory and beyond. Deibert said the intelligence agency must have gained direct access "to at least some of the country's main telephone and internet pipelines," thereby gaining access to an enormous amount of emails and phone calls placed by Canadians. Meanwhile, for those who are comforted by the thought that the spy agency was only collecting the metadata on Canadian wireless devices, which excludes the personal content of communications, Deibert had some sobering news. Metadata is "way more powerful that the content of communications. You can tell a lot more about people, their habits, their relationships, their friendships, even their political preferences, based on that type of metadata," he told CBC News. The CSEC is specifically tasked with gathering foreign intelligence by intercepting overseas phone and internet traffic, and is forbidden by law from collecting information on Canadians - or foreigners in Canada - without a court warrant. As CSEC Chief John Forster recently stated: "I can tell you that we do not target Canadians at home or abroad in our foreign intelligence activities, nor do we target anyone in Canada. "In fact, it's prohibited by law. Protecting the privacy of Canadians is our most important principle." However analysts who were privy to the document say that airline passengers in a Canadian airport were clearly on the territory of Canada. CSEC spokesperson Lauri Sullivan told the Star, an online Canadian news outlet, that the "classified document in question is a technical presentation between specialists exploring mathematical models built on everyday scenarios to identify and locate foreign terrorist threats." Disclosure of the program puts those techniques at risk, she said. Teaming up with NSA Early assessment of the leaked information indicates the passenger tracking operation was a trial run of a powerful new software program CSEC was developing with help from its American partner, the National Security Agency. The technology was to be shared with the so-called 'Five Eyes' surveillance bloc composed of Canada, the United States, Britain, New Zealand and Australia. In the document, CSEC described the new spy technology as "game-changing," saying it could be used for powerful surveillance on "any target that makes occasional forays into other cities/regions." Sources told CBC News the "technologies tested on Canadians in 2012 have since become fully operational." CSEC claims "no Canadian or foreign travelers' movements were 'tracked,'" although CBC News questioned in its report why the comment "put the word "tracked" in quotation marks." Canada's two largest airports - Toronto and Vancouver - both say they have never supplied CSEC or other federal intelligence agency with information on airport passengers' Wi-Fi communications. Alana Lawrence, a spokesperson for the Vancouver Airport Authority, was quoted as saying it provides free Wi-Fi access at the facility, but does "not in any way store any personal data associated with it," not has it ever received a request from a spy agency for the data. US-based company, Boingo, the largest private supplier of Wi-Fi services at Canadian airports, says it has not cooperated with Canada's intelligence agency's on any surveillance operations. "To the best of our knowledge, [Boingo] has not provided any information about any of our users to the Canadian government, law enforcement or intelligence agencies," spokesperson Katie O'Neill told CBC News. Ontario's privacy commissioner Ann Cavoukian admitted she is "blown away" by news of the secret operation. "It is really unbelievable that CSEC would engage in that kind of surveillance of Canadians," Cavoukian told the Canadian news agency. "This resembles the activities of a totalitarian state, not a free and open society." http://rt.com/news/canada-snowden-spying-nsa-airport-442/ Back to Top Back to Top The Improbable Pedal-Powered Flying Machines "Dad! Hold the tail down!" David Barford shouts to his 73-year-old father, Paul, who shuffles along the grass while supporting a slender spar that connects the rear stabilizers to the cockpit and wings of Betterfly, a fragile aircraft that balances on two inline wheels. David's 20-year-old daughter, Charlotte, supports the starboard-wing spar with his best friend, Paul Wales. David's 17-year-old son, Chris, marches alongside the port wing, while David, 44, coordinates the action from the nose of the plane. Team Betterfly's sense of urgency grows as the summer daylight fades and the sky west of Sywell Aerodrome, a rural airstrip 75 miles north of London, darkens prematurely with thunderclouds. It's the second day of the weeklong Icarus Cup, the world's most challenging human-powered-aircraft competition, and Barford wants to make a first attempt at the speed-course event. Two dozen spectators also anxiously monitor the weather, hoping the threatening rain doesn't ground the pilots. The team gently sets Betterfly on the centerline at the end of Sywell's lone paved runway. To shed weight, Barford strips down to his underwear and bike shoes, and then eases into a red fabric pilot's seat made from two aluminum folding chairs. The only controls in the transparent cockpit are bike pedals and a handle for the rudder. Barford calls out, "Three, two, one-rolling!" and begins to pedal furiously. The front-mounted propeller claws the air, and Betterfly starts gathering speed as it rolls down the runway. The crew supporting the aircraft walk, then jog, then sprint as the wings rise from their hands. Betterfly floats off the runway, 1 foot, 2 feet, a yard. Barford's legs churn. "Go, go!" Wales shouts. The nose dips precariously, sinking to within inches of the asphalt before slowly rising to an altitude of 6 feet; Barford then flutters down the runway at an airspeed of 18 mph. "The experience is quite odd," he says later. "You feel like you're just pedaling a bike, and then everything goes quiet because you're no longer in contact with the ground." When Betterfly settles back onto the asphalt, the crew race up to support the wings, trailed by spectators on foot and bicycles. Barford has completed the 656-foot course in 42 seconds. He also earns duration points for remaining aloft a total of 62 seconds. With 1438 points, he's risen to second place, a mere 30 points behind the leader flying Betterfly's nemesis, Airglow. Human-powered flight, dreamed of since the days of the ancient Greeks, was long considered to be impossible. Aeronautical engineers assumed that no airplane could be light enough to fly on such a limited power source-a pair of legs-and still be sturdy enough to carry a pilot. Then in 1977, American aeronautical engineer Paul MacCready, capitalizing on breakthroughs in strong, lightweight materials, built a human-powered plane called the Gossamer Condor. After takeoff MacCready's pilot cleared an altitude of 10 feet, then flew a figure-eight pattern around pylons a half-mile apart in Shafter, Calif. The feat earned MacCready the £50,000 Kremer Prize, established in 1959 by British industrialist Henry Kremer. In 1979 MacCready's Gossamer Albatross, which used carbon fiber instead of aluminum, flew 22 miles across the English Channel in 2 hours 49 minutes. After those accomplishments, the public lost interest in this esoteric corner of aviation. But David Barford did not. As a boy growing up in the town of Northampton, just 20 miles southwest of Sywell Aerodrome, he built model Gossamer Albatrosses out of cellophane and drinking straws. He left school at 15 to become an apprentice machinist at a race-engine-manufacturing company but never lost his fascination with human-powered aircraft. "They are a pure challenge," he says. "They demonstrate what can be done with so little power and the human mind." With encouragement from other enthusiasts and support from his family, Barford decided to build his own pedal-powered airplane. He milled aluminum parts in the garage of his suburban home and made rib assemblies out of balsa and Depron foam in his living room, sheathing them with Dacron and Mylar. He cannibalized the chain and bearings from a mountain bike and the wheels from his daughter's childhood bicycle. It took nearly eight years and $12,500 to complete the 88-pound Betterfly, which can fly on just 300 watts of power, compared with the 400 watts required by most human-powered aircraft-a power-to-weight ratio well-suited to the middle-aged, 5-foot 8-inch Barford, who holds no pilot's license. "I wanted to build it," he says, "purely so I could fly." As Barford was completing his plane, another enthusiast, Bill Brooks, chairman of Britain's Human Powered Aircraft Group of the Royal Aeronautical Society, was organizing a competition to showcase the country's pedal-powered fleet. He named it the Icarus Cup, after the Greek mythological figure who plunged into the sea after flying too close to the sun and melting his man-made wings. Brooks devised arcanely scored events to demonstrate the strengths of different designs: speed on straightaways, endurance on long hauls, and maneuverability on a tricky triangular course. His real goal was to demonstrate that flying human-powered aircraft competitively could become an international sport. "I don't see that we'll all be flying to work in the mornings by pedal power," he says. "But what's wrong with a fascinating and interesting new sport? We hope to be in the Olympics one day." The first Icarus Cup was held in 2012 at the home of the Lasham Gliding Society, 55 miles southwest of London, with five aircraft in competition: Betterfly, two craft built by universities, a plane built by professional aircraft designer John Edgley, and Airglow. Multiple pilots flew each plane; the pilot with the most cumulative points earned £2000 ($3100) and a small silver cup. Clearly, glory, not fortune, was the motivation. Although Airglow flew four times as far as Betterfly and topped the field, Barford had proved he could compete. His 500-yard flights were 10 times farther than he had expected. This second edition of the Icarus Cup has been sanctioned by the International Air Sports Federation, and federation officials are mulling over the creation of a world championship in 2015. If that occurs, Brooks will have achieved his ambitious goal in a remarkably short time. Meanwhile, back among Sywell's patchwork of wheat fields, hedgerows, and sheep meadows, Barford may be the hometown favorite, but the odds are against him. The same professional glider pilots who triumphed in Airglow at Lasham are keen to repeat last year's victory-Robin Kraike, who has 1000 hours in microlight aircraft, and Mike Truelove, who is a flight instructor. Both are in their 40s, lean, athletic, and a head taller than Barford. "I felt on top of the world," Kraike says. "That's what we came here to do, to win." The previous day, while Kraike and Truelove were racking up points for precise takeoffs, Barford was replacing adhesive tape and foam that mice had gnawed off his aircraft while it was stored in its travel trailer. http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/aviation/diy-flying/the-improbable-pedal-powered-flying- machines-16441824 Back to Top Possibly the world's most impressive paper plane (CNN) -- All that's missing are the fussy flight attendants and the smell of irradiated food. Oh, and maybe some nerve-jangling turbulence. And reassuring pilots. Twenty-two-year-old San Franciscan Luca Iaconi-Stewart has done what any self-respecting airplane fanatic would do. He's got his own. Unlike, say, John Travolta, however, who owns and flies five planes including a Boeing 707-138, Iaconi- Stewart's craft is more befitting his age and status. It's four feet long. And made of cardboard. And he built it himself. Plane crazy? A plane made out of cardboard? Sounds like something that might end up, sadly askew, in the corner of the room the morning after a bored frat boys' night before. Not this 1:60 scale, painstakingly detailed replica of an Air India Boeing 777 made entirely out of manila folders -- and a little glue -- and currently parked in a mini-hanger somewhere whose location Iaconi- Stewart understandably declines to disclose. In case it gets hijacked, or whatever the paper-plane equivalent is, and the 10,000 hours he estimates he's devoted to the project over the past five-and-a-half years, off and on, go to waste. Not to mention squandering enough manila folders -- he reckons around 400 -- to give your average stationery manager apoplexy. It's hard to believe when you look at the fantastically precise rendering of the twinjet craft -- from the undercarriage tire tread, through the gorgeous undulation of the engine-fan blades and the class-conscious carving of economy, business and first class seats to the chunky font of the airplane livery -- but Iaconi- Stewart is entirely untrained as a model maker, aside from the odd architecture class at school. Mundane material It's equally incredible that his Lilliputian creation is made from something as mundane as manila folders. But that's what he liked about them -- that they're "a really unassuming material [and] readily available," Iaconi-Stewart tells CNN. Formally untrained he might be, but one qualification he surely does possess is an unusual temerity and focus. Each economy class seat, for instance, took 20 minutes of cutting, folding, fiddling and gluing -- and those of us who fly economy know there are a lot of seats. The fold-out wombs of business class devoured up to six hours of Iaconi-Stewart's labor each. First class "suites" -- hey, there's a reason people shell out for them -- took eight hours a go: an average working day. Drawing from scratch Progress on the plane was especially "tricky" in the beginning, Iaconi-Stewart says, because "there were no publicly available [assembly] drawings. "I spent a lot of time making drawings from pictures. "Then I got hold of a maintenance manual for people who maintain airplanes. "It contains plenty of detail, which is useful for specific parts, but you're still having to draw everything from scratch. "It consumes a lot of time," he says a little wistfully, some of which, you hope, he's also devoting to dating and perhaps even enjoying his new-found freedom to buy a beer. Winging it Iaconi-Stewart's only got the wings to go now -- they'll make the plane 3.5 feet across from tip to tip. He's hoping to be done by the summer but, given that the engines took almost half a year from planning to completion, this last stage probably won't be a doddle. Then -- obvious question -- will it fly? No -- idiot! -- "it's a static model. "In theory, it could fly if I designed it properly but it'd have to be a lot lighter and with more moving parts." Terrorist evil genius? Another obvious question these days: has he been tackled to the sidewalk by an FBI agent as a suspected evil genius terrorist in training? "No -- although I do get asked that a lot." And what next? A helicopter made out of blancmange? Well, turns out it wasn't just aviation enthusiasm that made Iaconi-Stewart shrink a plane. It was "aesthetic choice," he says. Nice proportions They may sometimes be hell to ride in but we forget that a jetliner is a beautiful, streamlined thing. "They have nice proportions," the model maker says. "Choosing a plane was a visual decision for me. "An impulse." But it's "not something I would dive back into. Not that I don't enjoy it but it can be isolating at times and frustrating. "I want to do something more normal." Find out more about Luca Iaconi-Stewart's Boeing 777 project at his Flickr page and on his YouTube channel. http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/03/travel/manila-airplane/ Curt Lewis