AOPA Summit 2009

I made the trek down to Tampa last week to attend the first-ever AOPA Summit. While I've been to plenty of conferences for work before, this was the first time I've ever ventured off to one for fun. Just about everyone would probably agree that it's no Oshkosh but I still had a great time soaking up all things aviation for three days. There were plenty of highlights and I'm going to do my best to share them below in a somewhat organized fashion. But before I do that, a few general thoughts.

Downtown Tampa

There really is something special about the pilot community as a whole, even if you can't put your finger on any specific thing. I feel privledged to be a part of it and have enjoyed meeting so many great people over the past few years. As many of you know - or know me from - I spend a decent amount of time on the AOPA Forums. In spending time on any online community like that, you come to know people even if you've never met face to face. So it's great to attend an event like this where many of these folks come together. I had the opportunity to spend some time with MartyB again (I flew up to Wapakoneta for BBQ with him last month) along with meeting Dr. Bruce, Cap'n Ron, and Lou Betti for the first time. In addition, one of Ron's former students ran into us when we were out having a beer and I ended up going out to dinner with him and his friend and talking plenty of flying.

Every modern aviator knows John and Martha!

I was also fortunate to spend a couple minutes talking to John & Martha King (if you fly, you know who they are) after their seminar on Saturday. Having seen them on video I don't know how many times, I can say that they're exactly the same in person - helpful, great educators, and passionate about aviation. On top of that, I ran into Rod Machado later that day and had a nice five minute conversation with him about his Private Pilot Handbook (which I used and highly recommend, it's a great training resource) and my own experience flying. He was just as kind and funny as I would have expected and it was an honor to be able to tell him in person just how much I've enjoyed his work.

Looking out over the water from the Convention Center

Sunset on Thursday evening

As far as the event itself was concerned, the Tampa Convention Center was a pretty good location. Easy to get to (I stayed by the airport and took a local bus in every day - saved a TON of money buy doing it that way) and a very clean, nice facility. The only negative was their obscene food prices - I realize you get overcharged in any place like that, but it was insane. An apple danish and a bottle of Vitamin Water cost me $8.50! Needless to say, that's the only time I ate in there. Peter O. Knight Airport was a good choice for a local airport to hold the Airportfest part of the Summit. It would have been nice if the GA parking for folks that flew in was accessible from the static display area; other than that, there was ample space and lots to see. Without further adieu, here's the nitty gritty...

Thursday

• Max Trescott, Night Flying - This was the first seminar I attended and Max provided lots of good tips for flying at night. I don't do much flying past sunset since I can't land back at Stewart solo (airport rule, and a logical one since it's unlit) so I'm always trying to learn more about it on the ground. Max is also a fellow blogger whose site I frequent so I was glad to be able to introduce myself and spend a couple minutes talking with him after the presentation.
• Doug Ritter, 406 MHz ELTs & PLBs - Lots of great knowledge here by one of the foremost experts in survival. He explained the technology behind today's digital PLBs (Personal Locator Beacons) and ELTs (Emergency Locator Transmitters) and also gave in-depth information about the models currently available. Oh, and I won an ELT worth around $1K (per the MSRP) as a door prize so that was nice! ;-) Seeing as I don't own an airplane, I now have a brand-new EBC 406AP available if anyone's interested.
• Beyond the $100 Hamburger: Public Benefit Flying - Another great seminar about all the ways pilots can take part in volunteer work. From organizations like Pilots N Paws and Veterans Airlift Command to discussions about offering to take local news reporters and politicians up in the air, I gathered a lot of useful information. I really would love to get more involved in these sort of things so hopefully I can act on some of the ideas and figure out ways to start volunteering.
• Eat Well, Fly Well with Montel Williams - I never had known Montel's story before, just knew him from the tv show like most of us. Turns out he achieved many significant firsts (one of 4 out of 100 original cadets, if I recall correctly) early on in his life. He has nearly graduated into service as a fighter pilot before him and 100 other cadets accidentally received a 50x dose of the polio vaccination and he went blind in one eye. It was a very inspiring talk about how we can remain in control of who we want to be and maintain a healthy lifestyle.
  

Caught a nice, shiny Cirrus arriving at Peter O. Knight

Friday

• Rod Machado, Aviation Humor - Aside from his textbooks, Rod's well-known for his funny aviation writing and talks. I've seen videos online before but this was the first time I saw him in person and he certainly didn't disappoint. Sure, it only makes sense to us pilots, but had the whole room in tears a few times as he recounted some hilarious stories.
• GA at the Movies luncheon - This was a separate event from the Summit and required an extra ticket, but I think it was worth it. We had a delicious three-course lunch and I ended up meeting some other pilots at my table (one from North Dakota, another from the Netherlands) and take part in the requisite hangar flying. The program included a short speech from Rep. Vernon Ehlers, one of the founders of the General Aviation Caucus in the House, along with clips and discussion with people involved in two aviation movies - A Pilot's Story and Amelia. It really was an enjoyable time and I learned a few new things to boot.
• Brian Shul, Speed of Life - This was downright incredible, honestly worth the trip to Tampa in and of itself. Brian's a former SR-71 pilot who has, in his own words, lived two lives - the second beginning after he was badly burned and nearly died following a T-28 crash in the 70s. In later years, he wrote what is considered to be the best book ever written about the magnificent spyplane - Sled Driver. He gave one of the most inspiring talks I've ever had the pleasure to attend and his rare collection of Blackbird photographs (the world's largest set) shown on the screen was just icing on the cake. If you ever have the opportunity to see Brian speak, don't let it pass you by!
• Tips from Controllers - More useful piloting information, especially for a lowly VFR guy like myself. I love learning everything I can about ATC and sessions like these - where all sorts of questions are posed by other pilots in the audience - provide so much value and insight into that side of the microphone.

The Lockheed Electra used in the filming of the movie Amelia

This might be my favorite shot of all...

What a beautiful aircraft - need I say more?

Now that's a nice 182 on floats

Saturday

• John & Martha King, Risk Management - So as I said above, pretty much every pilot knows the Kings. Their status as aviation educators is legendary and you either love or hate their corny humor. For the record, I'm in the love camp. Anyway, this was an excellent seminar about how we can all work to manage risks every flight since failure in doing so is the cause of most aircraft accidents. They capped the hour off with a story about a terrifying flight many years ago where they almost lost their own lives due to not managing risks properly. I won't give it away for those who haven't heard them tell the story, but this is another one of those things I highly recommend you attend if you ever have the opportunity.
  

The next three sections go into detail about some of the other things I managed to do at the Summit. I spent about 4 hours total at Airportfest, looking at the aircraft on display and talking with the manufacturers. I'll also talk about the vendors I spent some in-depth time with as well as the ones I missed. Same goes for the seminars I wasn't able to attend; often times two or more seminars I was interested in were scheduled at exactly the same time.

There were upwards of 100 aircraft on static display

This little 3/4 scale Mustang was very cool

There's the Piper Jet in the middle

Airportfest

• Cessna 162 Skycatcher - Not going to lie, I'm not a big fan. I didn't give it a thorough evaluation but in peering inside and around the outside the whole thing just felt a little cheap to me. It just didn't have the look and feel of something I can imagine spending $112,000 on. For that kind of money, there's lots of other LSAa (Light Sport Aircraft) out there.
  
• Remos Aircraft - Speaking of other LSAs, they have some very well-built aircraft that are hard not to like. Again, I didn't fly in one or actually sit inside, but man was the fit and finish top-notch. Seeing as how one is the AOPA Sweepstakes plane for 2010, maybe I'll get the chance to have my own soon? :)
• Velocity Aircraft - It's got a canard, it's got a big engine, it cruises at 270 knots. Well outside the range of anything I'll likely ever be able to own but wow, what an aircraft.
• American Legend & Cubcrafters - The taildragger pilot in me gets way too excited when I see things of beauty like their Cubs. Sure, it's hard to imagine dropping over $100K for a Cub and I doubt I'll ever be able to... but man were these amazing machines. Ok, so the panel-mounted Garmin 696 felt a bit sacrilegious to me as well.

I'd kill to own one of these Cubs - FUNtastic, indeed

This is EAA's new sweepstakes plane - look at those tundra tires!

They had some really cool cars at Airportfest on Saturday...

...so I couldn't help but take a few photos

Vendors

• DTC DUAT - I use their service all the time for weather briefings (including on my cell phone, a feature I love) and filing the occasional flight plan and spent some time looking through new features they've implemented. They've got some great new graphical forecast products available now and it sounds like a few other new things are in the works. I also learned about a few things I've clicked past a hundred times but never knew were in there.
• Frasca - Ok, so this was interesting... they had a Cirrus simulator there that was quite realistic, from the wrap-around 180 degree screen to the full cockpit with instrumentation and controls - you could even pop the BRS! Needless to say, I waited in line and when it was my turn I had only one thing I wanted to try, spins! Well, come to find out from the instructor sitting there controlling the thing, due to legal reasons the thing's programmed so that it can't spin! Apparently they don't want people trying spins in a sim, then later suing Cirrus for saying it can't recover from a spin because they were able to in the simulator. Or something like that. Not that I didn't try anyway! :) At the stall break I kicked in full rudder and the plane sort of flipped inverted like during an incipient spin, but the second I moved any control it righted itself. Clearly some funky software stuff going on there. Lame, I say!
• Goodyear Aviation - Nothing much to report except they had a replica of the new moon tire they designed for future moon landings in a glass case, and it was pretty sweet looking.
• Jeppesen - Another brief report, as the only thing I picked up was a free little airplane that lights up and spins its prop when you plug it into a USB port. Need I even tell you that it will be on my desk at work shortly?
  
• Brightline Bags - You may recall I got one last Christmas and reviewed it on here earlier this year. Well, they've made a couple minor tweaks that I spoke with the owner about along with thanking him for such a great product. The updated bag has been enlarged slightly so foreign charts will fit inside, one of the front main pockets has additional fabric sewn to the sides so it won't flip open and let the contents spill out, and the zipper pulls have been changed to a much more solid plastic. I still love my bag and highly recommend anyone looking for a flight bag at least take a look over at the Brightline website.

Things I Missed

• Seminars - Ditching and Water Survival, Buying Your First Airplane, Reducing the Cost of Aircraft Ownership, Mastering Takeoffs and Landings
• Vendors - VirtualHUD (incredible technology - I'm still kicking myself for forgetting to go check it out) and Pilot Getaways Magazine
  

It was a bit windy, but at least it was right down the runway

Well there you have it, my overly detailed report on the AOPA Summit. I honestly didn't even realize just how much I crammed into three days until I sat down to quickly write this recap and have now spent three or four hours organizing my thoughts into something I feel fit to post. For those of you I saw down there, it was great to see/meet you in person! For those who didn't get the chance to go, I hope this gives you a good idea of the various things that were available. Finally, for everyone reading this, best wishes for clear skies and tailwinds!

Heading to Tampa

Sorry for the recent lack of updates on here - I haven't flown in a couple weeks for a multitude of reasons. The weather hasn't been great, I've been out of town on the weekends, and now this past week and a half I've been working obscene hours due to a critical project. Needless to say, it's been a perfect storm that's kept me on the ground. I do at least have a 150 reserved this coming Sunday so I hope the weather cooperates!

Anyway, I just wanted to give a quick update since I'm headed down to Tampa tomorrow for the AOPA Summit. I've really been looking forward to it for months now, mainly to attend a bunch of the seminars and meet up with fellow pilots. For those of you I know through the blog or the AOPA Forums, let me know if you'll be at the Summit! Send me an email (steve [dot] dilullo [at] gmail [dot] com) or call me on my cell and hopefully we're able to meet up at some point. I'll be in town for the whole event, Thursday thru Saturday.

I also should mention that the Indianapolis ARTCC Town Hall I attended a couple weeks ago was a great session. Not only did I pick up some useful tidbits of information, I also had a great discussion with a controller after the formal program ended. You all should take advantage of the opportunity to meet and interact with ATC folks if there are sessions in your area. Check out FAASafety.gov for event listings near you.

One last thing and that's a comment and question to you readers about the state of the blog in general. First I want to mention that I've got some posts in mind for the upcoming months when I'll likely be on the ground more often. My plan is to write about books/courses/materials I've used and recommend, review some more items I've picked up over the past year, and create a section for new readers. Second is an open call to all of you who read the blog... is there anything you want me to write about? Do you have any general comments, questions, or concerns? Please send in everything and anything that comes to mind - either as a comment to this post or via email. Thanks in advance for the feedback, I appreciate every bit of it!

AOPA Summit, seminars, and the like

In lieu of actual flying tales, this is a quick post with some information I've been meaning to share for a while. As I've mentioned many times before on here, one of the greatest things about the blog is all the people and pilots it's enabled me to meet from across the world. Sometimes our only correspondence is via email or Facebook but I've also been fortunate to meet some of you in person - from as far away as Australia! So it should be without any surprise that I wanted to share some upcoming plans and extend my hand in hopes I'll be able to say hello to a few more of you over the next couple of months.

AOPA Summit (Tampa, FL)

What used to be known as the annual AOPA Expo has been badged the AOPA Summit this year. This will be a first-time trip for me; in fact, it will be my first trip to any large-scale aviation gathering not counting airshows. Yes, I know I really need to get to Oshkosh still - planning on next summer, but I digress.

Anyway, I'll be in town from November 4th all the way through the end of the Summit on November 7th. Personally, it's all the seminars that I'm looking forward to - they're honestly the main reason I'm headed down to Tampa. There's quite a few folks from the AOPA Forums that I know are attending and I'm really excited not only to meet them, but also for all the things the Summit has to offer.

Operation Rain Check (ARTCC Tours)

What appears to be a nationwide education program hosted by our Air Route Traffic Control Centers is, at the very least, up and running around this area. I'm planning on attending events at both Indianapolis Center (ZID) and Cleveland Center (ZOB) in October and November. The events in Cleveland include a tour, simulation lab, and live monitoring session. Indy's is a different approach, more of a town-hall (not at the actual ARTCC facility) discussion with controllers and experts.

One of the things I've wanted to do since I first started ground school back in 2007 was visit an Air Traffic Control facility. Needless to say, I'm really excited about the opportunity to tour Cleveland. Similarly, any time you can learn from controllers helps build confidence in radio use and procedures so I expect the Indy event to be just as educational. I'll be in Cleveland on November 19th and over at Indy on October 22nd. By clicking the links in that last sentence, you can access the registration pages for each event.

ASF "What Went Wrong?" Seminar

The AOPA Air Safety Foundation hosts countless seminars throughout the country every year. Looking at my events page on the FAASafety site, there's probably five of these seminars in various locations between now and December. They're all set up to discuss accidents with investigators so that we can all learn from past mistakes. Sure sounds like a smart thing to learn more about to me. The closest event from my house is in Columbus on October 7th so that's where you'll find me. If you'd like more information (no registration is required) click either here or here.

Update 10/7 - I'm not going to be able to make it this evening. Thankfully the ASF schedules these fairly regularly, so I hope to make it to another one nearby soon.

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If you'd like any more information on the WINGS Program, check out the end of my last blog entry. There's a bunch of useful links if you want to join or learn more about it. Both the ARTCC events and the ASF seminar are eligible for WINGS credit so be sure you are enrolled in the program if you'll be attending.

As far as actual flying goes, a few things are in the pipeline. This coming Thursday I'm planning on making the short hop up to Wapakoneta to visit Marty, who I happen to know from the aforementioned AOPA Forums, and enjoy a BBQ dinner. Then there's a decent chance Gina and I will fly up to the Akron area to visit family and/or to Kalamazoo for some WMU football (Go Broncos!) during what I hope to be beautiful October weekends. It's a wonderful time of year to be flying!