Eight years ago, events occurred which changed the face of the world. This post is my personal way to show my respect to the victims and their relatives. My thoughts today go to all those who still suffer from this tragedy, those who lost someone, those whose lives were dramatically impacted.

Like most of us, I remember where I was, what I was doing when I heard about these events for the first time What for a disbelief my first reaction we.. We’ll never forget this day, and continue to live with it. Such events shall not stop us to living our lives.

Never Forget.

On the 11th of September 2001, the world changed abruptly when airliners were used as weapons, killing thousands, impacting the life of millions, and shaking the whole flying world. Passed the first shock, many things remained. Airport and airline security entered a new age – the way passengers and staff are screened when accessing “sensitive” area have nothing more in common with what we knew before. Do you remember the time where pilots were greeting the passengers themselves during boarding ? Nowadays, pilots remain locked in their cockpits, behing a shielded door. Some of them are carrying guns. Before the attacks, it was easy and possible for light aircraft pilots to climb to the tower, and visit the controllers. Don’t even think of it nowadays.

On some airports where the tower is located above the terminals, the air traffic controllers and other staff have to go through the waiting areas on the way to their workplace. Some special passages reserved to staff existed, to allow for a quick passage. These “quick” channels still exist, but they now includes metal detectors, x-ray screenings, and “full macarena” body search if deemed necessary by the security staff. Crew have to go through the same kind of screenings, just as the ground staff managing boarding, the employees of the duty free shops, bars, cleaners – no exceptions, we are all suspects.

The life of general aviation pilot also got more complex. Accessing tarmac is now like a hurdles race. Shall one of your passengers forget to bring an identity document, he’ll have to remain on ground. My projects included getting a US license, to be able to rent N registered aircraft in Europe. This is postponed – if not cancelled – because such conversions is no longer possible without going in the States in person. Training and flight examination is still possible, but identity checks by the TSA is no longer possible outsite the USA…

Another important change can be seen on the VFR en-route charts. Restricted and prohibited areas appeared everywhere. Nuclear sites, city centers, symbolic places, politically sensible spots, they all got VFR traffic restrictions. Some of them existed before September 11th, but their size and number grown continuously since then.

Did all these changes improved the global security ? Was the aviation world too naive ? Is the actual level of security controls too high ? I’m not really in a position to judge that, and I don’t want to start an argument today – the victims and their relatives do deserve a moment of consideration, respect, and silence.

It’s with great sadness that I got informed of the death of Shaun Lunt. Shaun was representing a different breed of pilots, flying SuperCubs over Alaska, and reporting on the beauty of this region on his blog. Shaun was as gifted for aviation as for photography, both domains lost a talented person.

Shaun got killed in the crash of his SuperCub, south of Quinhagak. I did not knew him personally, but I immensely appreciated his work. Shaun’s flying is probably as far as possible from the kind of flying I do, showing how varied aviation is.

My thoughts go to Shaun’s friends and relatives, particularly to Loni Habersetzer who was flying together with Shaun in his own SuperCub. Seeing a friend going down is probably the hardest thing a pilot can have to face up with.

Shaun left us, and flew west, beyond fog, but we will never forget him, nor what he teached us.

This post is kind of a sensitive topic model post, which is hard to write and probably not so pleasant to read, because what I will say here is not easy to say, but anyone probably knows it has to be said. I thought of writing it for a while, and I decided to give it a go after NTSB published a preliminary information about Steve Fosset’s aircraft stating 1 fatal casualty.

Steve Fossett has been reported missing on the 3rd of September, 18 days ago now, and searches are still going on, even if Civil Air Patrol stopped its effort. According to Fossett’s website, Army, National Guard and private efforts are going on, together with privately operated search operations. The sattelite search via Amazon is continuing as well, and always helped to locate six other wreckages, some old of decades.

I’m obviously supporting these efforts, and expressing all my personal sympathy to the family, friends, colleagues and fans of Steve Fossett, who is certainly a great pilot and adventurer, to mention only two of his numerous qualities.

What makes the topic sensitive is that the kind of efforts deployed to search after him are quite unusual. Part of the work is fund by private organisations and this certainly helps. If the plane had been flown by any anonymous pilot (like me…), how large would have the effort been ? Would even Army and National Guard take part of searches for a John Doe, or would such a case given “only” to CAP ?This is certainly not a pleasant question to ask, nor to answer, because it forces us to realise that rules are not the same for all of us, and that it’s better to be rich and famous than a standard guy. The best example of it is has been reported by various medias (CBS news report here), it is about someone who lost his father in 1964 in the same region. The plane has never been found, and may be one of the crash sites identified while searching for Fossett could bring some answers to this family.

It is true that the technical means that were available to search this particular aircraft in 1964 had nothing in common to what is available today. But why did we not use those modern means systematically when they became availalbe ? Sattelite imagery and thermal scanners have not been invented after Fossett was reported missing. We could have used them for years, trying to locate planes that have been missing for a while. So what ?

At this time, you’re probably looking away, and I’m sorry if I make you feel embarrassed, but the truth is here. We did not started such global searches because of money. We have to ask ourselves if we want our tax money to go in search operations for wreckages which are potentially several decades old ?Is that worth ? Or shall such searches been fund privately ?

In the Google Earth era, shall we not start a global search for crash sites ? Searching for Fossett shown that this is technically possible. If part of Steve Fossett’s personal wealth could help to start such a thing, I’m sure he would be proud of it. If anyone else (Sir Richard Branson or Mr. Bertrand Piccard may be ?) feels like creating a fundation with this purpose, I’m ready to help !

6 years ago, the world and the life of millions of people changed abruptly, violently, and deeply. As many of us, I can remind very clearly what I was doing, how I felt, and what my reactions to these terrible events were.

As an aviation community member and blogger, I can’t escape this sad topic today. I won’t recall any particular story or detail, they are of no significance compared to what all the victims suffered, and continue to suffer. My wish today is only to express a deep respect to all those who have been affected by this tragedy, be it directly or indirectly, being victims, relatives, rescue team members, or simple spectators of these terrible events.

Please take a minute of your time to remember, and have a thought for all these victims.

Bill Piper Jr., the last member of the Piper family to head up the firm, died on the 24th of August, at age 96. In these hard days, I want to address all my sympathy and support to the Piper family, and all of his relatives and friends.

Bill Piper Jr. was the son of Piper’s founder, Bill Piper Sr, and he’s been president of the company until the family lost control of it in the late 70’s. Bill was still active in the Piper foundation, and was a member of the Piper Aviation Museum’s board of directors. For more details, you can find a detailed biography and personal info in a paper from “The Express“.

On a more personal tone, I consider myself as kind of a Piper guy… Most of my privately flown hours have been logged in the PA28 and PA32 families. However this sad event is also marking a bit more of the changes going on in general aviation since a few years.

Piper, Cessna, Beechcraft and Mooney have been around for decades, but for a few years, other competitors popped up, like Columbia, Cirrus and Diamond, amongst other. These recent companies bring a new way of building aircrafts. It is not the place or time to discuss which is good or bad, but this death could mark the end of an era.

Bill Piper Jr. left us for his last trip, and once again, all my thoughts go to his family and all those of us who are so deeply touched and affected by this loss for all the aviation community.

I’ve never been a fan of military aviation, but today I want to express all my sympathy and compassion to the family, friends, and colleagues of French Pilot, Commander Caroline Aigle, who died on Tuesday, the 21st of August 2007, from a rapidly evolving form of cancer, at age 32.

Commander Caroline Aigle was one of the people who helped modern aviation to progress, as she was the first female fighter pilot in the French Air Force. She got her chase pilot license in 1999.

One of the reasons for which I admire them is that she also combined her very demanding military career with being mother of two children. This certainly deserves high respect from all of us.

The swiss pilot Hans Georg Schmid got killed today, in the crash of its experimental aircraft after take-off from Basel (LFSB), on a flight to Oshkosh (KOSH). This was an attempt to re-create part of the original Atlantic Ocean crossing by Charles Lindbergh in 1927.

Hans Georg Schmid used to work as an airline captain for swissair, but he also held several aviation speed records, including speed around the world. More information about him on his website.

He was a major supporter and actor of all flying activities, and his death is an enormous loss for all the community.

All my thougts go to his familly and relatives on this sad day.

PS: once again, only investigation report will contain reliable facts, all what media will report in betwee will be speculation only, disregard it.