Dale Krebbs sent in these photo of the B-29 “Doc,” taken Saturday, May 12, 2018, at Doc’s Open House in Wichita.
Dale reports it took 80,000 volunteer hours to restored this beautiful B-29 — only one of 2 that are still flying.
Included in the photos he sent was one from Doc’s first flight after the restoration.
“I took it less than 30 seconds after Doc’s very first time it lifted off the runway following restoration,” he reports. [Read more…]
The fifth annual Los Angeles County Airshow marked my season opener this year, taking place March 24-25 in the high desert locale of Lancaster, California, where I was joined by tens of thousands of airshow fans at General William J. Fox Airfield, commonly known as Fox Field.
This region is intimately linked to aviation history and aeronautical achievement, with Edwards AFB next door, the legendary Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale down the road, and Mojave Airport with Scaled Composites just up the highway.
The Skunk Works marked its 75th anniversary this year and the theme “First, Fastest, Farthest” was echoed throughout the airshow. [Read more…]
Any P-38 Lightning fighter of World War II is a crowd-pleaser. The Lightning called “Glacier Girl” amped that enthusiasm even higher at SUN ‘n FUN 2018.
“Glacier Girl” was literally frozen in time from 1942 to 1992. Part of a flight of six brand-new P-38s and two B-17s heading to Europe to bolster American forces, the then-anonymous future “Glacier Girl” and her compatriots were forced down on the Greenland ice on July 15, 1942. The crews were rescued, but the warplanes had to be abandoned in that remote and inhospitable scene.
Bob Cardin was central to efforts to recover and restore “Glacier Girl,” and he talked about that daunting project during a Victory’s Arsenal Theater session on the corner of the Warbird ramp during this year’s SUN ‘n FUN. [Read more…]
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has launched a pilot program allowing seaplane pilots to clear U.S. Customs remotely at two locations in Minnesota, using an app downloaded to a cell phone or tablet.
According to a story by Dan Namowitz of the Aircraft Pilots and Owners Association, pilots can use the Reporting Offsite Arrival-Mobile (ROAM) app to clear U.S. Customs by video conference at Scott’s Seaplane Base on Crane Lake, and at the Shagawa Lake Seaplane base in Ely. [Read more…]
A new fact sheet has been released by the FAA covering Best Glide Speed.
The General Aviation Joint Steering Committee determined that a significant number of general aviation fatalities could be avoided if pilots were better informed and trained in determining and flying their aircraft at the best glide speed while maneuvering to complete a forced landing.
The Fact Sheet — just two pages — covers everything from What is Best Glide Speed? How Far Can I Glide? and tips for forced landings. You can download the Fact Sheet at FAA.gov.
Garmin has added several new features to the Garmin Pilot application for Apple mobile devices.
Garmin Pilot 9.3 incorporates several new weather enhancements that aid in identifying storm cell movement and icing levels, as well as airspace alerting.
With the latest version for iOS, pilots can also view improvements made to the display of traffic, runway extended centerlines, and more, Garmin officials said. [Read more…]
After completing an aerial application flight, the commercial pilot was returning to the base airport over 15 nautical miles away when the Air Tractor AT-502 hit terrain near West, Texas, and was consumed by a post-impact fire. The pilot died in the crash. [Read more…]
Jeff Kimball sent in this photo for Picture of the Day, calling it “Waiting for takeoff.”
It was taken at Gillespie Field near San Diego, May 11, 2018, during a Stearman Fly-In. [Read more…]
Necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention.
That is certainly the case for Pete and Shiley Nelson from Challis, Idaho. The husband and wife have owned and operated Middle Fork Aviation in the backcountry of Idaho for more than two decades. [Read more…]
WEST LAFAYETTE, Indiana — A silver medalist from the Rio Paralympics and an aspiring astronaut are just two of the people selected to take part in this year’s Able Flight program at Purdue University.
Students in this year’s Able Flight program arrived on campus on Tuesday, May 15, and went through orientation in Hangar 6 at the Purdue University Airport. [Read more…]
