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General Aviation News

On the borderline

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A summer job working the line at the local airport can be a great thing for an aspiring pilot, but perhaps not for the airplanes.

One of my first real jobs was pumping car gas, back in the days when drivers didn’t do it themselves. I was what we would call today a service station attendant. I had just started taking flying lessons, too, so I was in the right place at the right time when one of the line boys at the local airport quit for one reason or another.

With my vast six months or so of gas-pumping experience and the strong recommendation from a neighborhood friend who worked the afternoon shift, I got the job and maybe 30 minutes of training, most of which involved servicing the two fuel trucks.

Yes, in addition to getting up close and personal with all kinds of airplanes, the job came with heavy equipment. What more could a teenager want? [Read more…]

AOPA gets serious about flying clubs

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Believing in a concept can be a noble thing. Seeing the benefits, sharing ideas, and gathering information to prove your point are all valuable steps that most of us take at one time or another, on some topic.

Actually doing something is an altogether different thing. The point at which a belief transitions from a thought to an action is often the disconnect where great ideas fall by the wayside. Without direction or drive, the idea founders, weakens, and ultimately dies.

That’s not what’s happening here. This is a success story. Better yet, it’s a success story that’s still in the early stages, and growing in scope on a daily basis.

Several years ago, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) quietly dipped a toe into the flying club pool to test the temperature of the water. [Read more…]

Say again?

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I once was the instructor for a high fashion student. Her day-trading job had recently netted her a lot of money. Her hard work paid out handsomely and she wanted everyone to know it. If that meant stepping out of the pilot’s seat of her own airplane in stylish high heels, so be it.

Her determination to train in haute couture stressed out more than a few flight instructors at the FBO where I worked. They were frustrated by her lack of progress — the result of poor rudder control — and her dismissal of the many other dangers of flying in heels.

The first time she and I went flying, I complimented her on her looks and her awesome outfit. Then I asked her to jump into the left seat and close the door. She did, while I backed away from the fuselage a little bit. [Read more…]

A long trip to a big impact

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After playing around at a handful of local flight schools, FBO run operations, and with a plethora of flight instructors, some of whom were good, some not so much, I made the decision to commit to a more structured arrangement with a big-time flight school. That was in 1990, two years into my flight training experience.

I’d flown with outfits in three states, logging dozens of hours in the process. But I still didn’t have my private pilot certificate.

Maybe I wasn’t as serious as I should have been. Certainly, the majority of my instructors weren’t. As I wandered through the door to Comair Aviation Academy on my first day, the entire certification process was still a mystery to me. [Read more…]

The No. 1 rule about an air-oil separator

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In one of my recent columns, I wrote about the importance of getting your oil temperature up to around 180°F so that your engine would boil off the moisture in your crankcase. This is critical for all engines, but for engines with air-oil separators, that may not be enough.

An air-oil separator is a useful piece of equipment, but must be installed correctly. [Read more…]

A little rain must fall

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Precipitation is on my mind, as my friends in Texas, Louisiana, and yes, even California have recently been dealing with moisture from the sky. Some of them have been struggling with rain coming down in large quantities.

It happens, thank goodness. After all, rain gives life.

But rain also causes calamity and mayhem. Like so much of life, it’s all down to a matter of degrees. A little rain is good. A bit more is acceptable. A lot can lead to major problems. [Read more…]

Authentically, actually you

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Because I often deal with the non-flying public in venues where my affection for aviation becomes a topic of conversation, I’ve become fascinated by the limits people put on themselves. I often talk to people who profess to want to fly. They wish they could. They dream they can. They imagine the wonder of it all. But they don’t actually fly. [Read more…]

Ask Paul: SI creates confusion about exhaust valve

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Q: I recently purchased a high hour O-320-A1A in an RV-3. The rocker arms were out of limits and I had them rebushed and sized.

The description for the exhaust valve is confusing on Lycoming Service Instruction No. 1451A. Under the cautionary note, the exhaust valve is “identified by the oil drain hole located under the valve end.”

However, the hole that I see is located under the push rod end.

I know I removed the rocker arm with the hole from the exhaust valve, but I do not see how the oil from this hole will lubricate the valve.

This is all probably moot since the engine has been running for 2,200 hours.

Mark Albert

[Read more…]

Birds do it, but they have a learning curve, too

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A variety of sources detailing the Wright brothers’ research methods and conclusions prior to the successful first powered flight note their study of birds.

From that study, they observed and identified the ways soaring birds changed their wings’ shape to control the flight path. That data led to conceiving and implementing wing warping, mimicking the birds they observed.

Never mind that wing warping isn’t as efficient or mechanically simple as ailerons, flaps, and other devices humans now use to change a fixed wing’s shape. The important part is the Wrights observed how birds established and maintained control, and transferred that knowledge to a mechanical object. [Read more…]