Special guest "Pilot Rinker" Buck, aviation author and journalist, joins the Hangar Flying with Pilot Dan, Pilot Kent and Pilot Mike.

• Pilot Kent is on the road, joining by cell phone
• The Pilotcast is (occasionally) in the top ten podcasts in the iTunes Music Store under the Transportation category!

• The Pilotcast hosts a fun and informative hangar flying conversation with "Pilot Rinker" Buck.
• Rinker's books
• Flight of Passage: A Memoir
• Rinker's father "Tex" Buck was a great pilot and well-known aviator and barnstormer 
• The Buck Family has 11 children.
• Rinker accompanied his 17 year old brother Kern on a cross country flight to California in a Piper J3 Cub
• It was a record for the youngest pilot ever to make a flight of that distance.
• The "Passage" in the story is not only the trip but the life passage of the brothers.
• "If We Had Wings: The Enduring Dream of Flight" is a fun, informative, and colorful "coffee table book" with a celebration of aviation and it's history..
• "Shane Comes Home" is the story of the first U.S. soldier killed in Iraq, a Marine who had made great achievements and stood up for principles in the academy.
• First Job is Rinker's biography with details of how he became a journalist
• Rinker's gives his take on:
• Modern aircraft
• Modern aircraft systems
• New pilots
• Can flying be "safe" now?
• Rinker on how the news media covers aviation
• Editors see little need to have aviation experts.
• There are very few journalists who are pilots.
• Some reporters called him when he wrote about the J.F.K., Jr. crash

In the news:

• The Global Flyer set a new record for distance flown non-stop in an aircraft.
• http://www.virginatlanticglobalflyer.com
• Chicago Sun-Times columnist Neal Steinberg thinks he's a World's Record Show-off
• Did he have it easy because he's rich and had modern systems and resources?  
• Would YOU try it?

Song: "Flying Away" by Empyrion from the State of Washington.
Music on the Pilotcast is from the Podshow Podsafe Music Network. Check it out at http://music.podshow.com

Pilotcast show notes are at http://www.pilotcast.com

If you are going to watch that Bugs Bunny cartoon, also check out this classic Betty Boop cartoon with Cab Calloway's "Minnie the Moocher" on "The Cult of UHF" also viewable from the Internet Archive.

Note how the "ghost walrus" completely duplicates the dance moves of Cab Calloway at the beginning. This was hand drawn, folks. There was no motion capture, unless maybe they traced the film.

Pilot Dan's report on the Kappa KP-5 Light Sport aircraft. Hangar Flying with Pilot Dan, Pilot Kent, and Pilot Mike.

Pilot Kent is on the road and is joining by cell phone.

The Kappa KP-5 Light Sport Aircraft

Click on a picture to see a larger version
More pictures are at http://kappaaircraft.com/gallery.asp

• The Kappa Aircraft Company web site: http://www.kappaaircraft.com 
• Greg MacArthur, Manager of Sales and Marketing
• Would this make a good training aircraft?
• How does it fly?
• Edwin R. Miller, President, E.R. Miller Enterprises dba Kappa Aircraft
• Jihlavan company:   http://www.jihlavan.cz/gb/index.htm
• Jihlavan Aircraft Company: http://www.ultralight.cz/
• Metal construction.
• The Rotax engine is water cooled.
• Runs at a High RPM. The prop is geared.
• It starts and stops instantly like a motorcycle engine.
• The seats and controls are staggered about 8 inches for comfort.
• Has a hand brake.
• Has electric trim only.
• It has large fowler flaps with a manual flap lever.
• Has GREAT visibility from the cockpit.
• Very responsive.
• The trim is touchy.
• Has minimal avionics with a moving map GPS display.
• Drawbacks: The cost could easily reach $100,000.
• Fuel burn rate is 4.4 GPH
• 5:1 engine to prop ratio, the engine runs at 5100 RPM!
• It has a 1500 hour TTOH.
• There are 85 or 100 HP versions of the Rotax engine.
• FADEC? It has no mixture control.
• The engine has a great reputation.
• The company seems "on the ball."
• They are located at Pocono Mountain airport.
• Dan's club has to decide whether they want an SUV or a Hybrid.
• Reviews of the Kappa KP-5
• Review of the KP-5 in EAA Sport Pilot magazine.
• AOPA review of Sport Aircraft including the KP-5

Pilotcast feedback and follow ups:

• "CFI Ron" and "Pilot Brian" got in touch and figured out that the "VFR corridor" Ron mentioned between Dulles and the ADIZ is inside the Dulles Class B airspace.
• "Pilot Jim" says that it is Airbus who needs to be able to land at Las Vegas as the alternate airport to LAX.

In the news:

• AOPA awarded the 2005 Sweepstakes Commander to a pilot in Colorado.  The secret almost got out ahead of time.  If you won a $300,000 aircraft could you keep it?
• Pilot Steve Fossett will launch for the longest flight around the world in the GlobalFlyer jet. http://www.virginatlanticglobalflyer.com
• From the AvWeb Newswire http://www.avweb.com: 
• In Elkhorn, Nebraska, a prisoner who cannot drive because he was convicted of vehicular homicide can solo a plane as part of his rehabilitation.
• In Alabama wing tip found from crashed Saratoga is said to contain bullet holes.
• In Tennessee, a teen aged non-pilot steals a plane and buzzes his girlfriend's house for revenge.
• A pair of Shorts cargo planes from the same freight company collide in mid-air over Wisconsin. One is lost. http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/ap/2006/02/07/ap2504843.html

Coming up on The Pilotcast:

• Author and journalist Rinker Buck, author  of "Flight of Passage"
• A Civil Air Patrol officer
• "Ask the AME (Aviation Medical Examiner). Send your medical questions to the Pilotcast by email, on the blog, or by voicemail.

• Check out the great flying and WWII era jokes by Bugs Bunny in "Falling Hare" from The Vintage Tooncast!  http://www.vintagetooncast.com or from the, source ,the Internet Archive.
• Kent does NDB approach practice.

Song: "Fly Away" by Paula Toledo from Vancouver, BC, Canada. Paula's web site is http://www.paulatoledo.com
Music on the Pilotcast is from the Podshow Podsafe Music Network. Check it out at http://music.podshow.com

Pilotcast show notes are at http://www.pilotcast.com

The Conveyor Belt Runway "controversy" just made "The Straight Dope."

"The bottom line: "Cecil Adams" agrees with Rick Durden and us that the plane will take off.

Why didn't you know that?

-- Pilot Mike