bod dl TAMPA Maybe, just maybe, we’ll be flying over I-4 and Malfunction Junction before too long, rather than fuming in the traffic jams below.

The so-called “fly-in community” became something of a fad in the 1970s and early ‘80s: a small hangar by every house and a shared landing strip in the middle of the subdivision.

A few dozen such residents commuted by air to Tampa to work - from Sarasota, Charlotte or Pasco counties - when weather permitted. It was said then to be the wave of the future.

But Mark Moberg, the fixed-base operator of Vandenberg Airport, near the Florida State Fairgrounds, said he knew of lots of people who flew into town in their own airplanes to do business, but only one doctor who truly “commutes” into town regularly.

Peter O. Knight’s operator, Dericcq Dymerski, said much the same thing, but knew of no true commuters.

“It just hasn’t happened,” he said. “We were all supposed to have one of those Jetsons cars, too.”

The two business owners cited aviation fuel costs, the necessity for ground transportation at both ends of the “commute,” and the fact those early air commuters - several of whom were commercial pilots - have likely kept their homes and planes, and retired.

But Dymerski believes the “air commute” could again be in our future, and maybe as soon as 2015 if the promise of a concerted public-private partnership led by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is realized.

It’s called SATS, for Small Aircraft Transportation System, and it relies on a host of new technologies - almost all of which exist or are in the final stages of development - and the existing network of 5,400 small local airports around the country.

The elements of the system are: almost “all-weather” light aircraft with easy-to-use (and learn) controls, with real-time weather and air traffic information onboard. The use of smaller airports will bypass the 30 largest, congested airports and all the ground delays and hassles they’ve come to represent.

Another key is a new generation of simplified onboard instrumentation.

“They call it the “glass cockpit,’ “ Dymerski said. “It’s a whole series of computer screens, with live, real-time weather and GPS maps.” Peter O. Knight already has one Cessna 172 Skyhawk in its 10-plane training and lease fleet equipped with the new equipment.

New air-traffic control technology will soon bring automated separation and sequencing of landing aircraft to small airports without towers or air traffic control, Dymerski said, enabling them to handle greatly increased traffic.

“This will really change the face of commuting,” he said, “and lower costs, putting it in the hands of [a lot more] people.”

Five years of federal funding for SATS ended this summer, but a strong group of private industry partners are working together to advance the technology and coordination among those with a stake in its development.
The SATS movement is also giving birth to a new generation of “air taxi” services, one of which - called POGO - has registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission to serve the Northeast with the new generation of very light jets, so-called “VLJs,” serving 700 airports within 500 miles of New York City.

Another, called SATSair, headquartered in Greenville, S.C., uses single-engine piston planes for short runs. It was recently acquired by aircraft manufacturer Cirrus Industries of Duluth, Minn., which will add another 100 of Cirrus” lightweight, all-weather planes to SATSair’s 30-plane fleet to serve much of the Southeast.

SATSair’s air-taxi rates have brought costs down to as low as $135 per passenger for a one-way flight of less than an hour, no reservation necessary.

And Dymerski says that good small planes may be purchased used for as little as $15,000, and can readily be retrofitted with state-of-the art electronics, although doing that can easily run as much as $10,000.

“One of our line employees here did just that,” Dymerski said, “and he really thinks it’s worth it. It’s like a new airplane.”