On May 12, the Solar Impulse 2 (Si2) took off from Phoenix Goodyear Airport (KGYR/GYR) in Arizona for Tulsa International Airport (KTUL/TUL) in Oklahoma. This was the eleventh leg of the round-the-world flight for the solar-powered aircraft and its crew. Swiss aviator, Bertrand Piccard touched down at 23:00 local time in Tulsa after a 17-hour, 50-minute flight – roughly one hour past the estimated time of arrival.
The trickiest part of the trek from Phoenix to Tulsa was overflying the Rocky Mountains east of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Piccard needed the winds to cooperate at their fullest in order to pull off this leg safely. The plan was straightforward: to ascend roughly 24,000 feet (7,300 meters) during the early morning hours before cloud build-up posed serious problems and to ride across the tops of the clouds.
Now, the push is on to get to New York City as soon as possible, according to a statement released by the Si2 team the day before leaving Phoenix. With bad weather expected in Tulsa, however, the crew anticipated the layover after arrival.
On May 21, the aircraft set out on the twelfth leg – an estimated 17-18 hours to traverse the 692 miles (1,110 km) from Tulsa to Dayton, Ohio – the birthplace of aviation legends, Orville and Wilbur Wright. With Swiss businessman and pilot Andre Borschberg at the controls, the flight path followed a carefully charted, good-weather route provided by the flight team at Monaco Mission Control Center. The single-seat aircraft touched down at Dayton International Airport (KDAY/DAY) after 16 hours and 34 minutes of constant flying.
The speculation is that the team may make one more stopover in Pennsylvania before heading to New York City. From there, it will fly eastward across the Atlantic Ocean toward its final destination in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, where the journey began in March 2015.
Te UAS Blog will have latest developments on this flight. For more information see www.solarimpulse.com
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The Click2Clear customs entry and departure program for private flights in the Bahamas has been postponed.Click2Clear was due to be implemented for charter aviation on May 30, but Bahamas authorities have announced that they will delay the rollout of the program in order to take care of some technical issues and ensure the online process is as easily understandable as possible.
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Marketing Team UAS International Trip Support | - 07/02/2017
Mitch Launius
Instructor Pilot for 30 West IP
Mitch is the CEO of 30 West IP where he is also an instructor providing pilot training on international procedures. With an illustrious career of over 34 years in the cockpit, Mitch has acquired over 13,000 hours of flight time flying worldwide, with over 9,000 hours of this in Challenger and Gulfstream aircraft. He is an experienced safety officer and was also an IS-BAO project manager for a fortune 500 flight department. He has presented on Safety and Operations topics at the NBAA International Operators Conference and the Canadian Business Aviation Association Convention and is currently on the NBAA International Operators Committee and serves as the North Atlantic Regional Lead. Mitch is also a member of an FAA working group on General Aviation International Authorizations and Tabletop Exercises (GIATE). He was recently selected to represent IBAC as a member of the ICAO Personal Training and Licensing Panel (PTLP) and was also recently named as a 2020 recipient of the NBAA Tony Kern Professionalism in Aviation Award for his contribution to the business aviation community.
Henry ‘Duke’ LeDuc
Director Of Operations, Americas, UAS International Trip Support
Duke has been a dearly respected member of UAS Americas team and the UAS global family for more than five years. A safety-oriented, FAA-licensed aircraft dispatcher, he oversees all of the operations of the elite UAS Operations Team. With twenty-five years of experience in aviation overall with more than fifteen years of experience in international flight planning and VVIP trip coordination, he is responsible for the development of the dispatch training program and involved in the strategic development of UAS Americas. With a myriad of rich aviation experience behind him, he has extensive experience in worldwide operations with both corporate and charter environments, including seven years as Operations/Dispatch Manager in an industry-leading, Fortune 500, IS-BAO Stage III Certified corporate flight department. Duke is frequently asked shares his knowledge at major industry events and is currently serving on the NBAA’s International Operators Conference (IOC) Planning Committee.
Dudley King
President and Founder, FlightBridge
Dudley is the Founder and President of FlightBridge, which he established in 2011 and has been focused on technology solutions for the private aviation industry since 2006. Since he graduated from Dartmouth in 1988, he has worked with an array of companies listed anywhere from VentureWire to the Fortune 100. A rare blend of executive, entrepreneur, and consultant, Dudley’s executive roles have included acting CIO positions for several companies and tech advisory services to CEOs trying to rebuild their technology organizations or looking for an external, professional point of view. Highly skilled at deeply understanding his customer’s business challenges and drawing from a long and varied experience in information technology services, Dudley excels at designing technology solutions to solve their problems.
Dr. Paulo Alves
Global Medical Director, Aviation Health, Medaire
Paulo has extensive experience in medical advisory in the aviation industry. As a cardiologist, he provides technical guidance and analysis for MedAire’s MedLink medical advisory service and is MedAire’s liaison with civil aviation regulators and industry associations. Paulo worked with Varig Brazilian Airlines for 23 years, 10 of which were spent as General Medical Manager. A member of the MedAire Medical Advisory Board, Paulo is also President of the Ibero-American Aerospace Medical Association, a member of the International Academy of Aerospace Medicine, a member of the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) Safety Committee, a Fellow of the Aerospace Medical Association (AsMA), and a Fellow of the Civil Aviation Medical Association. Throughout his illustrious career, Paulo has held industry leadership roles including Chairperson of the AsMA’s Air Transport Medicine Committee, President of the Airlines Medical Directors Association, President of the Brazilian Society of Aerospace Medicine and was a member of the IATA Medical Advisory Group from 2002 to 2006.
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