Sky Writing 2.0 — Flight Tracks in the Sky

Almost every year at AirVenture Oshkosh, some pilot or team of pilots performs some sky writing, that is, trailing smoke while flying precisely enough that you can read what they are writing from the ground.

The slow script building of the letters captivates the attention from tens of thousands on the ground; of course, many are pilots who are compelled by their interest to watch any airplane gyrations. I also enjoy these aerial penmanship exercises. However, in the 21st Century and with the looming 10th anniversary of the iPhone, perhaps it’s about time aviation caught up to the tech wave.

In this story two Light-Sport Aircraft went aloft for a whole different sort of sky writing, call it Sky Writing 2.0. In this exercise the scale is vastly larger and the challenge is perhaps greater as the letters cannot be seen, not from the air or on the ground or by the pilot. However, they can be seen on the GPS track displayed on various devices. Websites and apps come into play, in this case FlightRadar24.

First up, Remos Aircraft offered a Christmas greeting, though to keep the flight a bit shorter, they used a common (if somewhat bothersome to evangelical Christians) abbreviation of “Xmas.”

In announcing this aerial ballet, Remos said, “2016 was a very exciting year for the entire Remos team. In April we introduced the new Remos GXiS at Aero Friedrichshafen, and in summer we brought our new airplane to the EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh.”

I had a chance to fly this bird with an old friend Patrick Holland-Moritz, now involved with marketing for Remos. GXiS a beauty. Read about that flight here.

“[Since then] we flew many hours without any issues,” reported Remos. “We expect the certification both as German Ultralight Aircraft and U.S. SLSA very soon and are good on track for the European certification as LSA.”

As the German company looks forward to a fresh year year with new ideas and projects, they added, “We would like to thank all our customers and partners for their support. We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a happy new year.”

A related story appearing on CNN Online continues the theme with the other holiday celebration… New Years.

I don’t know if the British pilot saw the work of the Remos pilots but I could not resist this double story.

As CNN reported, Ben Davis, a recreational pilot from Buckingham, England accepted a challenge of delivering an aerial message to the screen in your hand, laptop, or on your desk.

Ben took his Evektor EV97 (similar to the Sportstar though clearly an earlier model) on a cross country flight but he flew in straight lines only part of the time. His goal wasn’t to get somewhere, but to spell “Happy NY” on Flightradar24 as that website tracks flights all around the globe.

“Flying enthusiasts also use the website to log their [non-commercial] flights,” wrote CNN reporter Alex Leininger. The message he was able to spell by his flight path can be seen on a map accompanying the flight details (nearby photo).

“Seeing as it was going to take over two hours to complete, I didn’t fancy flying far away to try,” Davis said. “The trick was to make it one continuous line, starting and stopping the radar track log back on the runway.” To my eyes, Ben appeared to have succeeded handily.

Ben reported his “sky writing” trip took two hours and 23 minutes and covered 215 miles between the towns of Royal Leamington Spa and Milton Keynes.

“It’s my first-ever attempt and I’m pleased with it,” Ben said. “If I’d made a mistake when almost done, I’d have had to scrap it and start over.”

In the USA, Evektor is represented by Dreams Come True.