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 […]
Seeing stars
OK, I’ll admit it. When I heard country music star Aaron Tippin was going to be in concert at Sun ‘n Fun, I was excited. Not just because I’m a fan, but because I knew I’d get a chance to sit down and interview him. That’s one of the perks of my job. I get […]
Greg Turton found a way to beat the heat – and started a new company: Artic Air takes off as poilots clamor for poratble air conditioners
Necessity is the mother of invention. Just ask Greg Turton, an Atlanta businessman who owns a Cirrus. Often spending 30 minutes or more waiting to take off in the crowded Atlanta airspace, he realized he needed air conditioning, but at $25,000 to $30,000, it was just too expensive. “I wouldn’t pay that much for it,” […]
Do-it-yourself publishing: Have a burning pasion to tell a story of flight?
Publication of aviation books has been something of a “cottage industry” almost from the beginning of manned flight. No less a figure than Benjamin Franklin self-published one of the first accounts of manned balloon flights, which he witnessed from the streets of Philadelphia. While not exactly a book – pamphlet might come closer – it […]
Doctors pressured to ‘go along’ on Horace Williams closure: University continues push to shut down the North Carolina airport
Doctors at the University of North Carolina’s Area Health Education Center (AHEC) say they have been pressured to go along with the university’s controversial plan to close Horace Williams Airport (IGX) in Chapel Hill. The on-campus field allows doctors to fly to far-flung areas of the state quickly and efficiently. The university wants to close […]
Flying the Adam A500
I freely admit it. From the time Burt Rutan, at the behest of George “Rick” Adam, designed and built the Carbon Aero M-309, which later evolved into the Adam A500, I always had an interest in flying the plane, particularly after seeing it featured in the recent movie “Miami Vice” where it aggressively pursued the […]
Whale of a ride
Who would be willing to pay $84,000 for an airplane trip from Chicago to Tacoma, Wash.? The folks at the Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma would, when the passenger is a beluga whale calf. The whale was flown aboard a chartered Air Force DC-8. “The animal was in a cradle made of fiberglass and reinforced […]
Why airplanes are better than women
You may have heard the jokes about “Why airplanes are better than women.” George Artigas from Pembroke Pines, Fla., has a shirt that outlines the argument and what better place to wear it than at an air show like Sun ‘n Fun? According to Artigas, the shirt does generate chuckles from some people, but caused […]
The fight of thier lives… Is DUAT an endangered species?
Every day, pilots — lots of pilots — go online to check weather and file flight plans through the two FAA-approved DUAT providers. In fact, in one month alone, CSC DUAT provides 2.5 million weather briefings. “We run giant numbers,” says Leon Thomas, DUAT program manager at Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC). And those numbers have gone […]