Model Airplanes

A 2012 plane crash that killed six members of a prominent Kansas family probably was caused by the inexperience of the pilot, Ronald Bramlage, according to a new report.

The National Transportation Safety Board said earlier this week that Bramlage purchased the turboprop plane about five weeks before the crash that killed him, his wife and their four children. The plane went down June 7, 2012, in Florida as the family was returning home to Junction City from a trip to the Bahamas.

A statement of probable cause from the National Transportation Safety Board found that the crash near Lake Wales, Fla., occurred after the plane’s autopilot disengaged and Bramlage could not maintain control of the aircraft.

The report said Bramlage had completed ground and simulator training for the aircraft and had logged about 14 hours of flight time as pilot-in-command of the plane.

“Although the pilot likely met the minimum qualification standards to act as pilot-in-command by federal aviation regulations, his lack of experience in the make and model airplane was evidenced by the fact that he did not maintain control of the airplane after the autopilot disengaged,” the report stated.

Bramlage had been a pilot since 1994 and obtained his instrument rating in 1997. But the NTSB report said that prior to purchasing the 2006 single-engine Pilatus PC-12/47 aircraft, he had not logged any time as pilot-in-command of a turbo-propeller plane. He had not logged any instrument flight time for more than seven years, the report said.

During its descent from more than 25,000

Article source: http://www.kansascity.com/news/state/kansas/article4172498.html

The first thing founders of the tech and teaching group MakeICT did a couple of years ago was spend their own pocket money to teach art, tech and innovation.

The Knight Foundation just gave them a grant of $100,000.

They plan to spend that money to teach art, tech and innovation.

“Our mission is pretty clear to us,” said Dominic Canare, the Wichita State University student and instructor who leads MakeICT as president. “Everyone in the group has a clear idea of what they want MakeICT to be already, so this grant will help us just travel further.”

They are looking for a new work space larger than their digs on Douglas Avenue in the Delano neighborhood. They will likely buy more high-performance tools, Canare said.

What they are is a loosely organized group of innovators in art, tech, computers and education.

What they do is teach and give ideas away to hobbyists, WSU engineering students and artists. “We are not just a few people with nothing better to do on Monday nights,” Canare said.

They teach people how to make and run 3D printers, for example. How to make or innovate circuit boards. How to make large model airplanes that fly.

Their reach goes beyond tech or engineering, and several are multi-talented. Canare is a computer programmer working on a Ph.D in the psychology department; he is also an instructor of engineering 101, and introduction to Engineering. One founder, John Harrison, not only was a longtime lab instructor at WSU’s College of

Article source: http://www.kansas.com/news/local/article4167320.html

Felice (Phil) Sarnella, 2013Family photo 

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Felice (Phil) Sarnella, 84, of Eltingville, a retired mason whose devotion to his faith was matched by his love for his family, died Monday in Staten Island University Hospital, Ocean Breeze.

Born in Brooklyn, he moved to Sarno, Italy, with his family and lived there for two years as a small child. Returning there, he lived primarily in Bensonhurst and graduated from Brooklyn Automotive High School.

Mr. Sarnella served in the U.S. Army in the early 1950s, during the Korean War era, and was stationed stateside.

He and a friend were at a dance in Brooklyn when they spotted a lovely young woman, Natalie Patitucci. Both wanted to ask her to dance, so they flipped a coin, and Mr. Sarnella won. She became the love of his life, and he never looked at anyone else, family said.

Mr. Sarnella worked as a mason for the former city Board of Education and retired in 1995. But his skills were not limited to masonry. He could fix or build anything, including designing and building his two homes, and his children affectionately called him “Mr. Fix-it.”

Although his schooling was automotive, his passion was aeronautics. He loved flying and airplanes and anything to do with them. He designed and built model airplanes of all kinds, and being a perfectionist, won many awards for them, family said.

Mr. Sarnella was a member and former vice president of the Richmond Model Flying Club.

He was a great

Article source: http://www.silive.com/obituaries/index.ssf/2014/11/felice_phil_sarnella_84.html

Civilian drones are flying so close to airplanes so frequently that the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is receiving almost one incident report a day.

The FAA logged 193 cases of safety incidents involving unmanned aircraft from Feb. 22 through Nov. 11, according to data released by the agency Wednesday. The incidents include drones that got too close to traditional aircraft or to people at public events.

“The FAA currently receives about 25 reports per month from pilots who have seen unmanned aircraft or model aircraft operating near their aircraft,” the agency said in a statement.

In a few cases, pilots have had to take evasive action to avoid the drones, the agency said. The data offer a glimpse into the Wild West atmosphere the FAA is trying to bring order to as the affordability and availability of small, unmanned aircraft creates a new breed of drone operators who haven’t been schooled in aviation safety.

The FAA’s legal authority to regulate civilian unmanned flights was upheld on Nov. 18 by the National Transportation Safety Board, overturning a decision by an administrative judge to throw out the agency’s first attempt to fine a drone operator.

                                      Operators Contacted

The agency has been contacting drone operators, sometimes after being notified by U.S. and local law enforcement agencies, “to educate them about how they can operate safely under current regulations and laws,” the agency said.

While most of the cases of near mid-air collisions reported by the FAA involve smaller private aircraft, incidents involving airliners are also growing.

The agency and the

Article source: http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2014/11/with_drone_flight_rules_still.html