Cessna to Offer High Speed Internet on Large Citations. As the internet becomes accessible (and seemingly a necessity) in more and more places, Cessna has recently announced that wireless broadband internet will soon be available for the Citation XLS+, Citation Sovereign and Citation X. The service will give internet connectivity for passenger laptops, tablet PCs or PDA devices at altitudes greater than 10,000 feet over the continental United States and will become available in 2010. Thus, it will only be a matter of time before high speed internet access becomes completely ubiquitous everywhere – even in the skies.
The Gulfstream G250 a Step Closer to Reality. Meanwhile, Gulfstream has recently announced the wing join, power on and engine mount for the Gulfstream G250 – its newest mid-cabin jet. Certification is still expected by 2011. To learn more about the aircraft, Flying Magazine had an excellent article discussing it in detail back in January.
Useful Online Tools for Flight Preparation. On a useful note, Vincent of Plastic Pilot has posted an entry detailing several online tools that he believes to be very useful for flight preparation. General online tools he notes include Google Earth, YouTube, airliners.net, and liveatc.net while other categories of websites he mentions (along with links to some specific ones) include official AIP websites, websites managed by aviation enthusiasts, flight plan filing websites, and websites containing aircraft manuals and checklists. The post is well worth a read and Vincent invites readers to submit websites they find to be useful (and a number of readers have already obliged).
How to Read PIREPS or Pilot Reports. On another useful note, Jason of MzeroA.com has a short entry explaining how to read PIREPs – a bit of a tedious subject to re-explain here and as usual, Jason does an excellent job of explaining it.
Crash Video. Meanwhile, My Flying Blog has posted a video of de Havilland Beaver plane crashing while attempting a take off from Lake Hood (the plane came very close to hitting the person taking the video). Although there is no mention of whether or not anyone was seriously injured in the crash (the plane appears to be a total lost), from watching the video it appears that the plane may have either been overloaded or it simply didn’t have enough space to take off from (of course another explanation could be mechanical failure).
Pilot Death While Flying. And finally on a sad note, a Continental Airlines pilot who was said to have been in perfect health passed way while piloting a trans-Atlantic flight. The two-copilots took control of the plane and the flight continued as scheduled without the passengers knowing what had happened until after the plane had safely landed. According to the pilot’s wife, flying “was his life” and “he died doing what made him happiest."
This is the second recent incident to receive wide media coverage involving a pilot passing away while flying (the previous incident involved a student pilot taking the controls of a King Air to safely land the aircraft after a his flight instructor passed away during the flight). However, at least the media is noting that such incidents are very rare and commercial aircraft usually have additional crew members who can take control of the aircraft should the pilot become incapacitated. Nevertheless, regular recreational pilots should take a moment to think about how such a situation (becoming incapacitated at the controls of an aircraft) would be handled in the unlikely event such an incident should occur on a future flight.
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