Nashville Airport To Conduct Full-scale Disaster Exercise April 21

Nashville International Airport (BNA) will conduct a full-scale disaster exercise Tuesday, April 21, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. BNA advises members of the public that the aircraft, emergency vehicles and other equipment on Runway 13-31, which is visible from I-40 and the Briley Parkway interchange, will be for staging a simulation of an aircraft disaster and will not be associated with an actual emergency situation.

Federal Aviation Administration regulations mandate airports to conduct full-scale emergency exercises every three years, with annual tabletop exercises in the off years. A team of mutual-aid agencies developed a scenario that includes components related to environmental mitigation, safety, security, casualties, injuries, mental health, communications and incident management. The exercise will test the effectiveness of the response plans and procedures of the airport and participating agencies.

In addition to 200 community volunteers, numerous agencies and companies will participate in or observe the drill. For more details, click on the following link: http://flynashville.com/cfpress/press/MNAA_420_04082009.pdf

Fly like a Sky Gypsy

By Dennis Wagner, USA TODAY

RODEO, N.M. — At sunrise, John McAfee guides his kite-winged aircraft between granite spires in the Chiricahua Mountains of southeast Arizona, then yells to his back-seat passenger: "Hang on now, and don't panic."

The winged tricycle dives into a slalom run through Cave Creek Canyon, skirting the tips of giant Ponderosa pines and dodging rock formations at 85 mph as it reaches the desert floor.

This is aerotrekking, an evolving new sport that brings human aviators almost down to earth, but not quite. The idea is to follow terrain, skimming a few feet above the ground, visiting wild and beautiful places that could never be reached on foot or by car.

To the chagrin of some environmentalists and neighbors, McAfee, founder of McAfee Software, has spent $12 million completing an airfield near Rodeo — midway between Tucson and El Paso — and is developing an 1,100-mile circuit of six more aerotrekking ports in isolated parts of Arizona and New Mexico.

"It's what Icarus dreamed of," McAfee, 62, says after landing. "This is really human flight. You are attached to the wing, and you feel every sensation, every movement, every breath of air that goes by."

Read the rest of this story in the USA Today

Visit the official website of the Sky Gypsies