Not long after Mark Baker joined the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) as president, I was at a breakfast the AOPA Foundation hosted at SUN ‘n FUN. Following a briefing from Mark, he called for questions. “What’s your opinion of the pilot shortage we’re starting to hear so much about?” asked a fellow attendee. Mark’s […]
Retiring airline pilot returns to his roots
An email from John Wade recently plopped into my inbox. It begins, “I recall enjoying an article you did about taking airline and military pilots flying in General Aviation aircraft and it resonated with me.” John has a good memory because that article was from August 2016 after I took a friend of mine, both […]
Air Scan cuts the sound of silence
I’m fortunate. I work from home and I enjoy that benefit. If there’s a downside, it would be the noise or lack thereof. It can be energizing to have the subtle din of fellow workers sending emails, making calls, thinking out loud. You know…working. As I sit in my shop, by myself, too often I’ve […]
A dose of FAA revenue reality
I was recently poking around the FAA website when I came across the Airport and Airway Trust Fund Fact Sheet for fiscal year 2016. It was like re-reading a section of the FARs after too many years. The trust fund was created in 1970 to fund aviation programs with aviation-related excise taxes on passengers, cargo, […]
Video: Controlling an airport from 80 miles away
“London City Airport’s getting a new control tower, but it’s just going to be a large mast with 14 high-definition cameras on it,” says YouTuber Tom Scott. “The actual tower will be 80 miles away, in the headquarters of NATS near Swanwick. It feels questionable, but is it?” Watch Tom’s video on YouTube or below.
Alaska aircraft registration proposal is a tangled web in the making
“Oh, what a tangle web we weave when first we practice to deceive.” To be honest, I have no idea if this line from Walter Scott’s poem “Marmion” is apropos to the proposed aircraft registration discussion currently taking place in Alaska. But it was the first thing that popped into my head after reading through […]
How will you be found?
Can you still use a 121.5 MHz ELT? The vast majority of Emergency Locator Transmitters (ELT) in operation today are based on 1950s technology. Back in February 2009, satellite monitoring of 121.5 and 243 MHz ELT signals was terminated. What does that mean for you? To help answer those questions – and more — WINGsReality EDU […]
No more zero days
New year, new calendar, clean slate. Turning over a calendar seems to create in many of us the desire to do — and be — better. Sadly, all too soon, we fall back into our regular ruts and habits. But this year will be different, I hope. A friend of mine sent me a link […]
Video: A look at 2017 from the perspective of one Zenith STOL CH 701
John Marzulli must take video and pictures every time he launches skyward. His retrospective of 2017 sums up his year nicely. Enjoy.