Quantcast

General Aviation News

Hypoxia, Part 1

by 5 Comments

El Paso to Phoenix, 11:30 p.m., cruising at 12,000, we could barely hear the radio calls from all the laughter in the cockpit. It was the second leg of three, after taking delivery of our newly acquired Twin Comanche in Dallas. The winds aloft were warmer than normal.

We were positively giddy that neither the heater nor jackets were needed. That wasn’t the only thing we found funny. The infinitely black night sky. The hilarious way the Milky Way flung itself across the night, like a Jackson Pollock brush stroke. The way “Pollock” sounded almost like “polyp.”

We spent another 20 minutes unable to contain ourselves over our sudden and persistent farting attacks. When radio calls did manage to pierce our howling good time, imagining what the person connected to the disembodied voice looked like just incited more eye-watering, belly rolls of laughter. Just two guys in the cockpit acting ridiculous. Or was it? [Read more…]

People and planes… that’s why

by 3 Comments

When I think about why we produce General Aviation News, it boils down to two things: People and planes. It’s really that simple.

Sure, it can get more complex from time to time, but strip away all the doo-dads and it quickly returns to a simple state: People and planes.

In keeping with that theme, I caught up with Katie Pribyl under the wing of her 1956 Cessna 180 — Buck — at the recent Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) Fly-In at Bremerton, Wash.

As an AOPA staffer and fly-in host, she was busy. But I hadn’t seen Katie since SUN ‘n FUN and was excited to see both her and the plane Bill Walker profiled in the July 28, 2016 edition of General Aviation News. [Read more…]

Big dreams can come true

by 2 Comments

With enough imagination, dedication, perseverance, and help it’s possible to do almost anything. If you doubt me, consider that human beings designed, built, tested, refined, rebuilt, and flew rockets that landed us on the moon – and we did all that in an amazingly tight timespan of only nine years.

As I said, you can do anything you put your mind to, provided you’re willing to work with others and stay on task until you achieve success.

This is true of aerospace, but it’s also true of every other phase of life.

Let me share a recent example from my own experience. Perhaps it will inspire you, or at least give you a sense of what’s possible. [Read more…]

Oil filters: Are they necessary or just nice?

by 2 Comments

I’ve received several questions recently about oil filters. Specifically, if you own an aircraft that came from the factory without an oil filter, should you install an aftermarket filter?

The questions were usually divided into two parts. First, will the installation of an oil filter pay for itself? And will an oil filter increase the life or increase the chance of reaching TBO on an aircraft engine? [Read more…]

For the love of pie…

by 6 Comments

As I perused the Body Mass Index chart recently, I was aghast to find that I have slid just over the line that separated the overweight from the obese category.

Yikes! Sure, I can log 25 miles on my bicycle without undue discomfort. Even at my advanced age I can still do a dozen pushups without great difficulty. Heck, I continue to climb in and out of a J3 Cub without the support of a step ladder, a personal assistant, or a complicated winching mechanism.

I had no idea I was such a mess.

To console myself following this traumatic discovery, I stopped by the supermarket on the way home to pick up a few essentials…and a small pie.

It’s my firm belief that pie is the ultimate food. [Read more…]

Quirky

by 1 Comment

It’s ironic that pilots are supposed to do everything the same way each time while the airplanes we’re flying are all different.

One supposed characteristic of aviation is its consistency. Performing the same tasks in the same way when dealing with a complicated mechanical device is just good common sense, and pilots who are serious about doing it right spend a lot of time training to achieve a high standardization level.

Learning to repeatedly perform cockpit tasks in a specific way is not what first attracted many pilots like me to aviation, however. Aviation’s dynamic nature may have been the initial attraction for us, but many of us stay for the consistency. [Read more…]

It’s beyond understanding, I tell ya

by 8 Comments

Imagine the plight of the first ancient mariner to point toward the horizon and say, “No more hugging the coastline for me, I’m going direct.” I think his name was Harpolos. For the purposes of this column, let’s say it was.

The townsfolk must have thought Harpolos was mad. Crazy as a loon. The rational man, the reasonable man, would think to himself, “What possible good can come from tempting fate? We hug the coastline because there are no monsters there. We know this to be true. No one but a lunatic would venture into the deepest waters to disappear over the horizon, very possibly to never return.”

And so it goes with discovery. There is always someone willing to give it a try, and there are always legions of nay-sayers who believe to their socks (or sandals) that the boldest among us are just plain nuts.

Robert Goddard may be the father of modern rocketry, but that didn’t stop the dunderheads at the New York Times from publicly mocking him in 1920. [Read more…]

Still a long way to go

by 3 Comments

The August 2016 issue of Seattle Business magazine has two feature stories regarding commercial aviation in the greater Puget Sound in Washington state.

Why do I care? Because “small aircraft” are a part of the story — and not in a good way. [Read more…]

Godspeed Tom Wathen

by 2 Comments

I open all the mail General Aviation News receives. From time-to-time, a subscriber will write a note on their renewal notice. Most often the note is words of encouragement or appreciation. On occasion it is a complaint. We can’t please everyone.

But when I read a note on Tom Wathen’s renewal notice, I was taken aback. “Mr. Wathen is deceased.”

Simple, understated and to the point. But I had a hard time believing it. A quick Google search turned up his obituary notice in the Santa Barbara News-Press. He died peacefully on June 20, 2016, his wife Carol by his side. [Read more…]