When you sell airplanes for a living, life has its ups and downs…literally. Like many of the other air shows — and many other sales people — Gobosh salesman Tony Settember gave demonstration rides all day long during the Copperstate Fly-In held earlier this fall in Arizona. The high-wing LSA, which made its debut at […]
The first time…
The circus-like paint scheme of this Kitfox IV provides a backdrop for a family portrait of the McGrath men. Ron (far left) is a pilot and was at the Copperstate Fly-In with his son, Mike, and grandson Ryan, 3-1/2. “We wanted to bring him to his first air show,” Mike explained as Ryan, noticing the […]
Epps family celebrates a century of flight
This year the state of Georgia is celebrating its centennial of powered flight. Celebrating along with the rest of the state is the Epps family, for it was Ben Epps who started it all and his descendents have played major roles in Georgia aviation from that day to this. In 1907, only four years after […]
Patriots, heroes and wars
The Gathering of Mustangs and Legends, held at the end of September at Columbus, Ohio, was an inspiring lesson in history and patriotism. I have been telling everyone who would stand still long enough that it was certainly the best-organized, most thrilling, most moving air show I’ve attended in some 60 years of attending them. […]
Music to the ears
Is the sound of an airplane’s engine music to your ears? Do conversations with Air Traffic Control have a certain lyrical quality for you? If so, then you will enjoy Belgian composer Bruno Misonne’s newest CD, titled “Aviation Music.” Misonne has made the airplane an instrument in his music. Vocals are sound bites of air […]
Excel-Jet sues FAA for Sport-Jet crash
Excel-Jet Ltd. has filed suit against the FAA over the crash of the company’s Sport-Jet prototype last June at the Colorado Springs Municipal Airport. In its filing, the Colorado Springs-based company claims air traffic controllers caused the June 22, 2006, crash when the plane was cleared for takeoff behind a de Havilland Dash-8-200 in violation […]
Sturgell nominated as FAA administrator
Robert “Bobby” Sturgell has been nominated by the Bush administration to replace Marion Blakey as FAA administrator. He has been serving as acting administrator since Blakey’s departure and was deputy administrator prior to that appointment. None of the general aviation alphabet groups has shown any marked enthusiasm for Sturgell, who is a supporter of user […]
TFR-busters off the hook
Some of the pilots heading for the annual Hagerstown Fly-In in Maryland in antique airplanes, most without radios, found themselves in unexpected trouble Oct. 7. A dozen flew into airspace they didn’t know had been restricted for a visit by President Bush to a nearby memorial service for firefighters, according to the FAA. Four were […]
Flying Tiger ‘Tex’ Hill dies
Brig. Gen. David Lee “Tex” Hill was exactly the sort of man we describe as a living legend. He died Oct. 11 at the age of 92, very much a legend in his own time and, doubtless, for a long time to come. He was affable, candid, endowed of a great sense of humor, a […]