Airborne Unlimited For the Week of 08.28.20

Coming up on this week's Airborne Unlimited podcast edition.

The Deland Airport is hit with storm damage.

Lyft Aircraft demonstrates their HEXA aircraft to the Air Force,

and an aircraft theft results in an accident.

Herlock.

This past week, Deland, Florida was hit by both a tornado,

which caused around $7.4 million in damage, and then later by severe storms,

which damaged aircraft and hangars at the Deland Municipal Airport.

At around 6.35 p.m. last Thursday,

the storm, which produced gusts of wind up to 72 miles per hour,

flipped one airplane upside down and severely damaged two others.

Several other airplanes sustained minor damage from flying debris.

Three T-hangers at the airport had doors pushed in,

and the doors of other hangars were lifted up off their tracks.

Damage, however, was minimal,

and city facility crews had mostly repaired all of the buildings by mid-morning Friday.

City crews also canvassed the surrounding area for any additional damage,

but mostly found fallen tree limbs.

Stick around, because we've got around the patch

coming up right after these messages.

Swift Fuels proudly introduces the Forever Avgas STC.

One simple upfront purchase entitles the Forever STC certificate holder

to receive all current and future Avgas STCs that the FAA issues to Swift Fuels.

The best part?

It's priced today at only $100, and the prepaid certificate never expires.

Get your Forever Avgas STC today at swiftfuelsavgas.com.

Affordable and economical,

Pipistrel is proud to present the Alpha Trainer.

Offering excellent fuel efficiency and a durable composite design,

the Alpha Trainer can be operated from virtually anywhere.

Whether you're a first-time aircraft owner,

assembling a fleet, or running a flight school,

the LightSport Alpha Trainer from Pipistrel is a dynamic option.

Learn more about what the Pipistrel Alpha Trainer can do for you

at pipistrel-usa.com.

Welcome back. It's time for today's trip around the patch.

Stallion 51 is partnering with Mercy Flight Southeast

to raffle off a chance to take control of their P-51 Mustang Crazy Horse

while helping sick children and adults receive the medical care they need.

The raffle prize includes round-trip airfare of up to $500 to Orlando

and a half-day P-51 orientation experience

at Stallion 51's headquarters at the Kissimmee Gateway Airport.

The raffle winner will be chosen on September 21st,

and you can buy your tickets for $20,

each on Mercy Flight Southeast's website.

Flycom Technologies of Slovenia has taken delivery

of a DA-42 MPP GeoSAR special mission aircraft.

The aircraft is configured to carry various Regal LiDAR sensors,

as well as medium-format camera payloads,

all mounted in the dedicated nose pod

using the German IGI flight management system.

Flycom offers a wide range of airborne remote sensing services.

The DA-42 will allow for longer and faster missions

with possible combinations of ortho,

oblique, or LiDAR data acquisitions

in the typical two-man crew-pilot operator configuration

using the latest equipment.

Radiant Technology introduced its new Universal Airspeed Indicator,

which provides the ability to see speed trends,

a huge digital display,

and user-selectable units of 100, 160, and 200

with either knots or miles per hour.

Users may calibrate the exact ranges to their aircraft specification,

including green, yellow, red line, and flap speed.

The unit provides additional,

optional notification for permissible flap extension,

along with an overspeed indicator.

The first of 16 new H-125 helicopters,

uniquely configured for U.S. Customs and Border Protection air and marine operations,

has been delivered.

AMO collaborated with Airbus as part of a long-term fleet upgrade initiative,

and the resulting configuration has led to one of the most advanced

high-tech law enforcement helicopters ever developed.

The first helicopter for the new configuration was tested and delivered

from Airbus Helicopters Facility in Grand Prairie, Texas.

We'll be right back with more of that.

We'll be right back with the rest of the news.

If it looks good, it usually flies good.

The Bristell series of aircraft is proof of that.

Furthering their legacy of safety and efficiency,

Bristell is proud to feature the Rotax 915 IS Turbo

in the current lineup of aircraft.

The 915 IS Turbo power plant offers more power

than ever before in a light sport aircraft.

Learn more about Bristell at www.sportflyingus.com.

Well, hello fellow pilot, I'm John King.

And I'm Martha King.

You know, we've all had our flying lives disrupted lately.

Well, King Schools is here to help you stay up to date with courses

that you can access on your desktop, iPad, or iPhone.

If you'd like a refresher or just want to expand your aviation horizons,

we have a course for you.

So head over to kingschools.com,

Slant Rusty, today for details.

Last Thursday, exactly 112 years after the Wright brothers delivered their first military aircraft,

top Air Force leaders, Texas National Guard hosts,

and AFWERX personnel gathered at Camp Mabry to watch Lyft aircraft fly their Hexa

in the first Agility Prime Orb flight demonstration.

Agility Prime, recently launched by the Air Force,

is a non-traditional program seeking to accelerate the commercial market

for advanced air mobility vehicles.

Orb is a term coined by Air Force strategy officer,

to describe an aircraft that has distributed electric propulsion,

an electric power source, can vertically take off and land,

is modular, hovers on rotors with some use of wings,

and is commercially available off the shelf.

An orb is not an airplane, drone, or helicopter.

However, they could support similar missions,

aiding in medevac, firefighting, disaster relief and search and rescue.

The program brings together industry, investor, and government communities

to establish safety and security standards, with a race to certification series

to drive government programs to the top.

The program is set to launch in September 2023,

with the government procurement of operational capability by 2023.

Texas-based Lyft Aircraft was one of the first companies of its size

to join the Agility Prime Air Race to Certification.

During the demonstration, Matthew Chazen, CEO of Lyft Aircraft,

piloted the Hexa over the Camp Mabry Parade Ground,

just a few miles from downtown Austin.

The Agility Prime program currently has over 15 leading aircraft manufacturers

from around the world, applying to partner with Agility Prime,

many of which are already on contract.

A Cessna 150 sold from Jefferson, Texas, is the largest aircraft manufacturer in the

United States.

The aircraft is currently being sold at Jefferson County International Airport.

In Port Townsend, Washington, Tuesday night was later found crashed near the coast of

Washington around 150 miles away.

The suspected thief, identified as 59-year-old Richard Jortle, was found inside the aircraft

seriously injured and had to be airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

Jortle allegedly approached aircraft owner Todd Hansen at the airport earlier in the

evening and asked if he would be willing to fly him to Astoria, Oregon.

When Hansen refused, Jortle then attempted to rent a Cessna 150 from Tailspin Tommy's

located at the airport, but was turned away when he refused to produce a pilot's certificate

or insurance.

Meanwhile, Hansen, who said Jortle's way of communication set off several red flags

for him, called the Jefferson County Police to report suspicious activity.

Security cameras later caught Jortle sneaking into the office at Tailspin Tommy's, taking

the keys to the airplane, and investigators believe the C-150 was stolen at around 9 p.m.

About an hour or two later, locals reported hearing a crash in a wooded area near Third

Beach at Quillette Indian Reservation, within a few miles of Quillette Airport.

The investigation into the theft is still ongoing.

Jortle had been banned from all port-a-port towns and facilities, which includes the airport,

since 2017 following a series of outbursts and aggressive behavior.

And that wraps up this week's episode.

Thanks for tuning in.

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To get the latest aviation and aerospace news any time of the week head over to arrow-news.net.

I'll see you next time.

Thanks for watching.