“You don’t take chances when you are flying in the ADIZ,” says Kent Larson, owner of Aerial Photographers LLC, based in Vienna, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C. Larson flies a 1972 Cessna Cardinal with two transponders on it – one more than the FAA requires, “Just in case one gives out,” he explained. The aircraft […]
Eclipse flies single-engine Concept Jet to Oshkosh
Eclipse Aviation pulled off the most dramatic surprise at this year’s EAA AirVenture, introducing its v-tail, single-engine Concept Jet which, until that moment, had been a carefully-guarded secret. As the company’s Chief Operating Officer, Peg Bilson, introduced the Concept, a curtain dropped revealing a cloud of mist, flashing lights and a mockup. The press corps […]
Sometime Senate GA boosters now call for user fees
Senators John Rockefeller (D-W. Va.), and Trent Lott (R-Miss.), both long-time supporters of general aviation, now say they are determined that GA will pay more in fees to support modernization of the air traffic control system. During recent Senate Finance Committee hearings on the FAA reauthorization bill, Rockefeller threatened to restrict GA access to congested […]
Delaware’s private airports scrutinized: Fatal accident draws attention of state regulators
Two years after an airplane struck a passing sport utility vehicle while landing at a private airstrip near Georgetown, Delaware, state officials have begun to scrutinize the state’s non-public airfields. The accident killed a man and his daughter, who were driving past the runway’s end at the time. The threshold is only about 18 feet […]
In the beginning…
If you can use it in an airplane or to enhance your aviation experience, chances are good that you can find it at Sporty’s Pilot Shop. Indeed, there are those who say that ordering something from the world-famous pilot supply store is a rite of passage in aviation. Sporty’s got its start when owner and […]
Why do we call an ace and ace?: It was all a mistake in translation
Have you ever wondered why the more successful fighter pilots are called aces? It’s an odd story, which begins with a popular Frenchman of pre-World War I vintage. Roland Garros was a Parisian bon vivant who became entranced by flying in 1909, after seeing Alberto Santos-Dumont skimming madly among the city’s chimney pots aboard a […]
Super-fast builder assistance for RV owners: John Nys averages less than three months each
Nys Aircraft works strictly to the FAA’s 51% rule, under which a kit airplane builder must do 51% of the work as defined by the FAA.
How time – and memories – fly
It got very little mention, either in the general or aviation news media, but May 20-21 was the 80th anniversary of Charles Lindbergh’s historic flight from New York to Paris. In May of 1927, and for decades afterward, Lindbergh was mobbed wherever he went and anniversaries of his flight were celebrated, quite literally, in song […]
The new baby
You know you’re hard core into aviation when you send pictures of your wife and the new engine for your homebuilt aircraft to your friends. Marty Bryant of Covington, Wash., (left) hugs the LOM M462-RF that she and husband Neil intend to hang on the front of their Comp Air, which they are building as […]