Sponsor of the day
4
Wednesday, July 27, 2016
60 Conventions!
6
RV-6 Celebrates 30th
39
THE OFFICIAL DAILY NEWSPAPER OF EAA AIRVENTURE OSHKOSH
Full List of Today’s Events
www.EAA.org/airventure
NTSB Shares EAA Safety Goals BY JAMES WYNBRANDT
W Warbird Flier
Wood has logged nearly 20,000 hours as a pilot. She flies 747s internationally for United Airlines. At home and in aerobatic shows and competitions, she flies a Pitts S-2B, a Piper Cub, and a Cessna 195. No one in her family was a pilot, but she became interested in flying when a seaplane landed on a Minnesota lake where she loved to water ski. Only 13 at the time, she remembers looking up the phone number for the local airport in the Yellow Pages, and calling them to inquire about lessons. “They told me to call back when I was 15,” she said. She started flying lessons at 15, soloed at 16, and earned her private pilot certificate at 17. By that time, she had already started working on her commercial certificate.
ith accident rates holding steady, general aviation has reached a safety “plateau” whose path to improvement lies in collaborative efforts to enhance the collection, analysis, dissemination and utilization of data, NTSB Chairman Christopher Hart told attendees at the Meet the Chairman forum Tuesday at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2016. “I would submit, general aviation has the opportunity to figure how to get off the plateau by working together,” said Hart. Added fellow panelist and NTSB Board Member Dr. Earl Weener, “Focus on where the problem is. It’s [found] in the data. A little bit of data will destroy a whole bunch of opinions.” Joining the pair on the dais were Sean Elliott, EAA vice president, advocacy and safety; and former astronaut and homebuilder Charlie Precourt, EAA vice chairman and chair of the EAA Safety Committee. The NTSB’s “Most Wanted List” of safety goals for 2016 includes reducing Loss of Control (LOC) accidents in general aviation, and the expanded use of installed recording devices. Hart noted the EAA’s Founders Innovation Award for LOC solutions was inspired at the Meet the Chairman forum at last year’s fly-in.
SEE B-25 ON PAGE 3
SEE SAFETY GOALS ON PAGE 3
PHOTO BY ANDREW ZABACK
Julia Wood in the B-25H Barbie III BY BARBARA A. SCHMITZ
J
ulia Wood said the ultimate way to learn history is to immerse yourself in it. She’s doing just that as the first female pilot at the Cavanaugh Flight Museum in Addison, Texas. Wood flew into EAA Oshkosh AirVenture 2016 Monday morning in Cavanaugh’s B-25H Barbie III, the only B-25H model flying today. Cavanaugh also flew in two Douglas Skyraiders. “As I was coming into Oshkosh in the B-25 I remembered all those guys taking off from their aircraft carrier and headed to Tokyo, wondering what it was going to be like and knowing that it probably would not end well,” she said. “I never really thought about that perspective until yesterday.” World War II veterans are always supportive when they see her fly the B-25, she said. But one of her favorite memories is flying Cavanaugh’s Fair-
child PT-19 to the Women Airforce Service Pilots reunion in Sweetwater, Texas, three years ago. Those female pilots trained at Avenger Field in the 1940s. WASP Mary Helen Chapman flew the PT-19 during WWII, and Wood took her up for a flight. “She hopped in that plane like it had been only a year since she did it last,” Wood said. “It was a very special time to fly with a WASP, one of the ladies who made it possible for me and other women to fly. She was an inspiration.” Wood said flying a warbird is both enjoyable and interesting. “It’s wonderful to learn about the different systems of the older airplanes,” she said. “They can be both complicated and yet simple, and they require a lot more thought to fly than modern airplanes. You need to listen to the airplane more to be in tune.”