Model Airplanes

Father Tony Robbins will offer airplane rides for donations to St. Joseph Church

Published: April 6, 2017
  
  
  

By Aprille Hanson
Associate Editor

CONWAY — Father Tony Robbins has some unique views of St. Joseph Church in Conway — walking in the front door to greet parishioners, consecrating the bread and wine at the altar and looking down on the parish from more than 1,000 feet overhead.

Since getting his private pilot’s license March 3 through Fly Now Aviation with instructor Blake Eremea at the Dennis F. Cantrell Field Conway Municipal Airport, Father Robbins has taken eight people for a ride, including a reporter from Arkansas Catholic March 28.

“We’re going to have fun,” Father Robbins smiled as he guided the four-seat Cessna 172. The next 30 minutes were spent flying over Conway, eager to show St. Joseph Church and the construction work being done for the capital campaign from a whole new perspective.

“I like taking people up and showing them their home,” he said. “It’s really neat. You feel close to God,” in the air.

But like a good pastor, Father Robbins knows the “pre-flight” work with both parishioners and airplanes parallel. 

Just like the care he takes with the souls of parishioners as pastor of St. Joseph, his pre-flight checks are done with patience and concern, making sure there’s no water in the engine, that there’s gas in the tank — “One thing you don’t want is your engine

Article source: http://www.arkansas-catholic.org/news/article/5092/Flying-priest-ready-to-share-his-hobby-with-parishioners

The Business of the Inland Empire, Southern California. (#Riverside and #SanBernardino Counties)

Article source: https://inlandempire.us/soaring-southern-california-subject-next-inland-empire-aviation-roundtable/

There are very few dull moments at the HUB Sports Center.

The Liberty Lake sports facility is a hoppin’ place on just about any day, all day long.

“Maybe on Thanksgiving and on Christmas Day,” office manager Cassie Atwood laughed. “We’re dark those days, but no one is around here to complain because we’re home with our families. Other than that, there’s something fun going on here just about every single day.”

On some days, she admits, it’s tough to get the day-to-day work done because what’s happening on the courts is so much fun.

“The last two weekends we’ve had the Pacific Northwest Qualifier volleyball tournament here,” Atwood said. “They started on Friday and Saturday at 7 a.m. and played matches until 9:30 or 10 p.m. On Sunday they started at 7 a.m. and played until 5 p.m. All eight of our volleyball courts are going, match after match, all day long with just an hour break during the day.

“It’s hard to get any work done on those days because it’s so much fun to watch.”

The 66,000-square-foot HUB Sports Center has about 180,000 people using its sports facility every year. The Spokane Sports Commission estimates that it brings in around $6 million to the surrounding community.

Events like the PNQ are especially lucrative, bringing in an estimated 8,000 athletes, 12,000 spectators and something in the neighborhood of 15,000 overnight stays over the two packed weekends.

“We have a high school summer volleyball league and we have a number of basketball

Article source: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2017/apr/05/liberty-lakes-hub-hosts-all-kinds-of-sports/

Elon Musk often says he thinks all transportation will go electric, with the exception of rocket ships. Will it one day be commonplace to take electric airline flights?

A startup called Zunum Aero hopes so. On Wednesday the company — founded in 2013 and based in Kirkland, Washington — is talking about its plans for the first time. The company has a goal to build an electric hybrid aircraft in the early 2020s, and its first prototype within the next two years.

Co-founder and CEO Ashish Kumar says electric air transportation is a potential “economic disruption.” Why? Because the costs of the batteries that could propel planes is quickly dropping, while regional airliners are spending large sums on using jet fuel to fly short-range trips.

Zunum Aero wants to target those shorter hauls, like Silicon Valley to Los Angeles, or Boston to Washington, D.C., with its battery-powered planes. Kumar thinks the hybrid electric planes will eventually be able to make those types of trips with 40 percent to 80 percent lower operating costs and in half the time.

It’s an aggressive goal, especially for a young company still in the design phase of building an aircraft. The company has fewer than 10 full-time staff members currently, but plans to triple that amount in the coming years.

Kumar has a background working at tech companies, while his co-founders, Matt Knapp and Kiruba Haran, have had careers in the aerospace

Article source: https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/this-startup-is-building-an-electric-airplane