Hans Cathcart’s Homepage

A really well produced 3D simulation of the ditching of US Airways 1549 into the Hudson River.  The air traffic control tapes are playing in the background and you can see what Sully and Skiles say to each other during their descent towards the Hudson.

2010 Update:
I just finished reading Captain Sullenberger’s book Highest Duty.  What a fantastic and inspiring book.  My favorite line is a quote from his wife: “Sully, life is not a checklist.”

After seven grueling months of training — actually it was really fun and educational, I am now officially a Docent at the Smithsonian’s National Air & Space Museum.  Lee Boyd was an exceptional mentor, and Larisa Epatko really helped me out as I was polishing up my tours.  I’m now qualified to give tours at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles Airport and to “commemorate [the artifacts], educate and inspire [the visitors]”.  The museum is really fantastic, and I’m quite proud to be associated with such a prestigious institution, and a great team of volunteers.

Well, I’m at least a good half year away from going on my Flight Instructor check-ride, but now that I’m volunteering at the Air & Space Museum I’m getting my first taste of what it’s like to teach someone how to fly an airplane. Last Friday, I was checked-out in the Cessna 150 interactive exhibit at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. For most of the day I was helping control the crowd waiting to get into the one airplane that visitors can actually get into at the museum, where I was mostly showing little kids what the different control surfaces on an airplane do.

Towards the end of the day as we were closing up the exhibit I helped our last visitor, a young girl who was maybe twelve or thirteen get into the Cessna. Since her Mom didn’t want to sit in the plane I let the aspiring pilot sit in the right seat as I climbed in and sat in the left. I showed her what all the controls do and simulated a short little flight from takeoff to landing. I let her fly the airplane and let her pretend to use the radio to make position reports. I’m not quite sure how inspiring it was for her, but it really reaffirmed my desire to be an instructor. Here I was giving a wide-eyed aviation enthusiast her first “flight” lesson, what an incredible privilege. Hopefully some day she’ll realize her dream, earn her wings and fly a fighter jet, a commercial airliner, or maybe even be one of the first astronauts to land on Mars. Hehe, her first “instructor” has high hopes for her.

Being back in the Bay Area is fun, because I’m getting to see all my friends and family.  Of course, I’m also doing a ‘bit’ of flying.  Today, Fiid and I went with my instructor Bill Hightower on my mountain checkout flight to Lake Tahoe.  What a fantastic flight.  Fiid took a bunch of pictures and I did the flying.  The Spot track is reversed, so number 1 is the last track point.  We flew IFR from San Carlos (KSQL) to Lake Tahoe and flew the GPS approach into South Lake Tahoe (KTVL) airport.  Then we flew to Alpine Co. (M45) and then back to the Bay Area VFR.  I’m now all set to fly the Cessna 182 to Vegas. Yeah!

The BBC is producing a fascinating series called “Britain from Above” that combines GPS tracking, data collection and sophisticated computer visualizations to give viewers a view of the UK that no one has ever seen.  It’s absolutely captivating to watch the planes entering and exiting British airspace, or seeing the nation’s telephone network come to life.  The Daily Mail wrote an article about the series that includes some images.

Let it be said that 2008 will be the last year that I don’t got to AirVenture in Oshkosh.  For the uninitiated, it’s the Mecca of Aviation every year.  Now that I’m an EAA member, with an instrument rating I really have no excuse not to go any more.  This year they announced the Icon, the SPOT Messenger was apparently a big hit (I just ordered one to document my flights), and an all-electric airplane flew.  Two of my friends (Lisa and Adam) were there, and apparently Esther Dyson was there.  I did not know she was into aviation.

Today I made my first contribution edit to this page on Wikipedia.  I was actually able to add some relevant content, information about the FAA’s decision to extend the expiration dates on first and third class medical certificates for pilots under 40.  Quite amazingly, looking at the history of the page I discovered an old friend of mine who, it turns out, is a flight instructor.  Small world.

This week could be one for the Space history books…

Atlantis (STS-122) is scheduled to land on Wednesday. There are four possible landing opportunities, two at Kennedy (preferred) and two at Edwards AFB. As you may know NASA likes to avoid landing the Shuttle at Edwards because then they have to load up the orbiter onto the specially-equipped Boeing 747 and haul it back to Kennedy, which looks cool, but delays the next scheduled mission for that Shuttle. Now, typically if the weather at both these locations is unfavorable due to storms or high-winds then NASA will delay the landing and try again the next day. They have enough oxygen and fuel to make it to early Friday if necessary. But, here’s the catch…

Last week President Bush authorized the DoD to attempt to destroy a doomed super-secret spy satellite, designated USA 193, that is expected to tumble uncontrolled from orbit within the next few weeks. The U.S. Navy will try to destroy the satellite prior to its reentry by slamming a ship-fired SM-3 into it.

from Sky and Telescope:
“Apparently, DoD computer models have shown that, if left alone, more than half of USA 193’s roughly 5,000-pound mass would survive the atmospheric plunge and reach the ground. In particular, there’s a 20-inch diameter tank containing about a half ton of the highly toxic propellant hydrazine. So the decision was made to break up the satellite if possible.”

The DoD has determined that Thursday is the first possible day to start letting the Navy begin ‘target-practice’ and let SM-3 ‘meet’ USA 193. And this brings up the interesting question of, do you really want to be launching a kinetic warhead into space to break-up a spy satellite into thousands of little bits the same day 7 relatively un-armed Astronauts are attempting to guide a rather fragile glider back to Earth. Now, admittedly the Earth’s atmosphere and Space are pretty big, but if something were to happen it would look rather… what’s the word… stupid.

NASA is remaining surprisingly mum about the conflict, but I bet NASA really, really, really wants to get out-of-the-way and land Atlantis on Wednesday. And that brings up the interesting possibility of the fifth landing opportunity on Wednesday. That’s right, the fifth. If the weather at both Kennedy and Edwards is unfavorable, then Atlantis can also land at White Sands, NM. The last and only time the Shuttle has landed at White Sands was in 1982 when Columbia (STS-3) landed there during an R&D flight. But as it stands White Sands is now prepping for a possible landing.

Admittedly, this landing of Atlantis is not going to be as exciting as Jerry Bruckheimer could make it, and it will not end in Bruce Willis sacrificing himself to blow up an asteroid, but bringing in a Space Shuttle for a combat landing just before you start shooting at an out-of-control toxic spy satellite is about as exciting as it gets.

Principal photography has begun on my ADIZ video project. This weekend Justin and I flew up to Frederick and Martinsburg and took the video footage we wanted for the project. Justin also took some great photographs of the trip which he’s posted on Flickr. At one point we flew over Harpers Ferry National Park, which has definitely sparked my interest in visiting it from the ground some day.

Update: May 2008, I have finally posted our documentary on YouTube ( Part 1 | Part 2 )

A few days ago I received the “The Best of Rod Machado Live on 14 Audio CDs” and I haven’t been able to stop listening. I’m on the sixth CD now and I’m still laughing at how he starts his speeches. Now listen to me! If you’ve ever taken any of the flight training lessons in Microsoft Flight Simulator, Rod was your instructor.