Model Airplanes

PALM HARBOR — On Oct. 6, 1962, a high school lad infatuated with such things as slot cars and train sets opened a hobby store on Fort Harrison Street in Clearwater. He managed to do so with no outside financial help.

In an era when many kids enjoyed handcrafts, his timing was good. Parents often joined in as well to help sons and daughters glue together plastic parts of model airplane kits or fashion pirate ships out of balsa wood.

The store prospered. Bob Kotimaki soon married and his wife, Barbara — initially smitten with Bob and eventually with the hobby business, too — ran a second store in New Port Richey for 32 years. Years later they closed them both to open the current House of Hobbies at a larger space in Palm Harbor.

“It’s a family operation,” said Barbara Kotimaki, who said they’re celebrating their 53rd year in business this October. “Our daughter Jen also works here. After more than a half-century in business, we have generations of customers, some of which we first met at the Clearwater store. But now they’re dropping by with their grandchildren.”

Bob Kotimaki’s broad experience with most types of hobbies became apparent when a customer recently came into the

Article source: http://www.suncoastnews.com/su/list/news-suncoast-pinellas/happy-hobbyists-flock-to-palm-harbor-shop-20150819/

The use of drones—both recreationally and commercially—is on the rise, offering a boost to a booming drone industry expected to create billions of dollars worth of economic activity in the U.S. over the next decade. But significant uptick in close encounters between drones and manned aircraft—a quadrupling, in fact—is pushing many to call for increased regulation and better enforcement of the regulations that are in place.

One of the more prominent voices bringing attention to the heightened risk of a drone-on-aircraft collision is Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger. Sullenberger, most readers will recall, is the now-retired US Airways pilot that in 2009 managed to safely land his Airbus A320 passenger jet in the Hudson River, saving all 155 persons aboard.

On a recent appearance on Face the Nation, Sullenberger—now an aviation safety expert—told host John Dickerson in no uncertain terms just how bad a collision between a passenger aircraft and a drone could get. “We have seen what a six-pound or an eight- pound bird can do to bring down an airplane,” Sullenberger said. “Imagine what a device containing hard parts like batteries and motors can do that might weigh 25 or possibly up to 55 pounds to bring down an airplane. It is not a matter of if it will happen. It is a matter of when it will happen.”

Data on drone sightings by pilots released this week by the FAA would seem to support that assessment. In all of 2014

Article source: http://fortune.com/2015/08/17/captain-sully-drones/

The morons are aloft again. This time they took flight in the Okanagan.

Last weekend, some fool grounded the entire fleet of eight helicopters and one tanker plane fighting wildfires near Oliver by flying a drone within the fleet’s area of operation. (I had a more emphatic word in mind other than “fool�, but it would never fly by my editors.)

This is the second time in a month that a drone has grounded firefighters. The first incident took place in Kelowna at the beginning of August.

You have to wonder at the level of intelligence of somebody who would do this. Wait … no, you don’t. Whoever was flying the drone was either a child, a ghoul of the ilk of motorist who stops to rubberneck at bad accidents, or that weird, gleefully destructive species of animal who keys cars and points laser pens at pilots’ eyes. Whatever the type, there is a vacuum where a brain should be.

Why are these things being sold to the public? Why can any aspiring vandal, would-be Peeping Tom or — the day will come — terrorist be allowed to buy these drones without a licence, without instruction and without severe limitation on when and where they can be flown? Why are they built with capacities that can easily take them high enough to interfere with commercial airline flights? Who’s in charge here?

As it turns out, no one.

Since 2014, U.S. commercial airline pilots reported 25 near-strikes of drones, including an Air Canada flight landing in Phoenix.

Article source: http://www.vancouversun.com/Pete+McMartin+Drone+strike/11297121/story.html

Aug. 17–MANTEO, N.C. — Dare County’s new medical helicopter can fly in tropical storm winds and guide itself through fog and darkness, pitting the latest in flight technology against the tough Outer Banks environment.

The H145 Airbus is set to begin its service next month, said chief pilot Chad Jones.

The current medical helicopter responds to an average of 300 calls annually in Dare County — the largest in North Carolina with 1,500 square miles. Roughly 75 percent of that is water.

The chopper responds primarily to cases of strokes, severe heart attacks and trauma.

The beaches from Hatteras Village to Duck stretch for 80 miles, hosting some 300,000 additional people on a given summer day. Many are elderly or have health problems. Saturday traffic hinders emergency vehicles when beach house residents change for the week. Storms often breach N.C. 12. The Bonner Bridge is routinely shut down for maintenance. It closed for nearly two weeks in 2013 for emergency repairs.

Funding for the $9.4 million Airbus, which can last up to 30 years with software upgrades, was first budgeted in 2012. The cost will be spread over 12 years.

The old helicopter is expected to sell for $1 million when its service ends next month.

The Airbus sat in its hangar Thursday in Manteo as a Federal Aviation Administration official and a mechanic tested parts and systems.

The new helicopter carries the identification N401MF in honor of the badge number of C.C. Duvall, the Dare County medical pilot who crashed in 1989 when he hit a

Article source: http://www.aviationpros.com/news/12103573/94-million-chopper-to-serve-emergencies-on-outer-banks

The use of drones—both recreationally and commercially—is on the rise, offering a boost to a booming drone industry expected to create billions of dollars worth of economic activity in the U.S. over the next decade. But significant uptick in close encounters between drones and manned aircraft—a quadrupling, in fact—is pushing many to call for increased regulation and better enforcement of the regulations that are in place.

One of the more prominent voices bringing attention to the heightened risk of a drone-on-aircraft collision is Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger. Sullenberger, most readers will recall, is the now-retired US Airways pilot that in 2009 managed to safely land his Airbus A320 passenger jet in the Hudson River, saving all 155 persons aboard.

On a recent appearance on Face the Nation, Sullenberger—now an aviation safety expert—told host John Dickerson in no uncertain terms just how bad a collision between a passenger aircraft and a drone could get. “We have seen what a six-pound or an eight- pound bird can do to bring down an airplane,” Sullenberger said. “Imagine what a device containing hard parts like batteries and motors can do that might weigh 25 or possibly up to 55 pounds to bring down an airplane. It is not a matter of if it will happen. It is a matter of when it will happen.”

Data on drone sightings by pilots released this week by the FAA would seem to support that assessment. In all of 2014

Article source: http://fortune.com/2015/08/17/captain-sully-drones/