General Aviation News

A spaced-out Ercoupe adventure

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Dispatch from Restricted Area 5111B: This is it. I key my mike, and in my most professional pilot voice, broadcast: “Good morning Spaceport America, Erco, flight of 22, 10 miles south for landing.”

I turn to my son Rio and smile ear to ear. A year and a half of hard work has finally paid off. He gives me a thumbs up. Then the radio crackles in my headset and I hear, “Good morning Erco Zero-Two-Two. Wind three-three-zero at seven.”

I deflate. I know it didn’t sound like much, but I’d actually spent a lot of time planning what to say on that radio call announcing the arrival of our fleet of Ercoupes at America’s first purpose-built Spaceport. [Read more…]

Air Racing from the Sidelines: The rest of the (engine) story

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Dispatch from Jose’s Bar and Grill on Route 66: Iconic radio broadcaster Paul Harvey was famous for his “The Rest of the Story” reports, which dug deeper into headline stories or found little known and forgotten gems of modern history.

He liked to end the broadcast segment, which reached 24 million people on 1,200 radio stations, with, “and now you know… the rest of the story.”

Recently, people are asking me for the rest of the story.

Oh, not for Paul Harvey’s story. Everyone knows he was an avid aviator, a 50-year-plus member of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), major fan of EAA AirVenture Oshkosh, and early investor in Cirrus Aircraft.

The story everyone is asking me about is the rest of my engine story. [Read more…]

Air Racing’s Royal Flush

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Some people say air racing is dead. I say those folks aren’t playing with a full deck.

Not only is the game of air racing alive and well, this year I was dealt a royal flush, and won a huge pot of fun. [Read more…]

Red Bull in style

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Dispatch from the Brickyard, Indianapolis, Indiana: I’m trying to decide if the 2014 California Avalon Cabernet or the 2017 Columbia Valley 14 Hands Merlot will go better with my goat cheese, pear, and micro arugula beet cup. Well, what the hell, it’s an open bar… I’ll start with the Cab and follow it up with the Merlot when I sample the braised beef en croute.

I pass the elegantly printed menu to my wife and lean back on the richly padded white leather sofa. To my left is one of the three bars in the Sky Lounge. Above it, the largest TV outside of Times Square. To my right, tastefully arranged seating groups of couches are interspaced with bar-height tables decked out with crisp linen, fresh flowers, sparkling wine glasses, and polished flatware.

Wearing black ties, waiters and waitresses circulate among the race fans, carrying trays of hors d’oeuvres. Doormen open the double glass doors of the lounge as a shuttle van deposits another half dozen fans at the end of the red carpet for the finals of the 2017 Red Bull Air Race season. Now this is the way to enjoy an air race.

It’s just too bad there’s no racing going on. [Read more…]

Air Racing from the Cockpit: Engine epilogue

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Dispatch from KSAF, Santa Fe, N.M.: My chief mechanic and I are standing in his hangar, glumly staring at Race 53. Her engine is missing.

Forward of the firewall, black fuel lines, orange air hoses, and white sensor wires dangle in mid air. Her new exhaust stack angles downward at a crazy angle. Her tails are held off the floor by two bags of Quikrete, balanced on a board stretched between her upper engine mounts — ballast to compensate for the missing engine.

I mentally count off the months I’ve been planeless. Most of July. All of August. All of September. Now, it’s clear I won’t have Race 53 back in October. And maybe not even in November.

I take off my hat and run my fingers through my hair. I don’t know what to say. The way this whole thing has unfolded is absolutely unbelievable… [Read more…]

The best way to watch the Reno Air Races

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Wow. What a package. Catered meals. Open bar. A private sound system. An exclusive hangar set up for dining and socializing with guests from around the world. Noteworthy lunchtime speakers daily. Reserved close-in parking with exclusive shuttle service to the front door.

A members-only sky view grandstand with individual bucket seats. Executive climate-controlled restrooms. Exclusive merchandise not available to the general public. Complementary coat and bag check. Air Race admission and Pit Pass included for all five days of the National Championship Air Races. [Read more…]

Air Racing from the Cockpit: The final chapter

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This is the second part of a two-part series. Read the first story here.

Dispatch from an oil-soaked tarmac at KSAF, Santa Fe, New Mexico: My chief mechanic, sitting in Race 53’s cockpit, slowly inches the throttle forward. The dull thrum of the engine changes in tempo, becoming an angry snarl. Then the snarl shifts into a throaty baritone.

Race 53 shakes and bucks, fighting her brakes. I can see the metal skin on the underside of her wings rippling in the prop wash blasting back from the propeller, now dissolved into a pale grey disc of motion.

My other mechanic, standing to my right on the tarmac, catches my eye. He points to the plane, points to his ear, then flexes his bicep: The engine sounds strong.

It does. [Read more…]

A dangerous flight

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Dispatch from KSAF, Santa Fe, New Mexico: By dawn’s early light I can see the silver fins of the stroker engine through the air intakes in the nose bowl, the front cylinders a pair of griffins in twin caves, ready to leap from their lairs and devour slower prey.

The new engine is ready to fly.

But Race 53 still isn’t ready to race. One important task remains: The engine break-in. [Read more…]

Air Racing from the Cockpit: Downtime

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Dispatch from my living room couch: I impatiently email my mechanic: “Is the engine back on the airplane yet or is it still on the crane?”

The reply doesn’t come until the next day: “It is still on the crane as we mount sensors and things on the firewall.”

Clearly, I won’t be flying — much less racing — any time soon. It’s now been 48 days, 11 hours, 27 minutes, and six seconds since I last flew Race 53. [Read more…]

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