“My plan is not to plan.”
These are the words and advice that Colin Hales offers to would-be adventurers who are toying with the idea of flying their airplane around the world.
“Just get in your airplane and go — figure it out along the way,” he adds. [Read more…]
If there is a Light-Sport Aircraft that can be put in the “best kept secret” category, it might be the Trail, designed and manufactured by Groppo Avio of Italy.
The high-wing, tailwheel airplane with the foldable wings is still somewhat unknown in the United States, said Steve Bensinger of Lone Palm Aero in Bushnell, Fla., the southeast distributor for the Trail.
During this year’s SUN ‘n FUN, Bensinger was on duty next to the orange and white taildragger and eager to answer questions about the airplane, which he describes as the evolution of a European microlight design by Nando Groppo. [Read more…]
Most people spend their teenage years planning their future. But Dillon Barron, who just turned 20 in June, spent a good portion of his teen years with an eye to the past as he restored a 1950’s-era Cessna 170B to fresh-from-the-factory condition. [Read more…]
How do you improve on a popular backcountry aircraft design? If you are the folks at Just Aircraft, you make it larger and with the ability to support a more powerful engine.
That best describes Just Aircraft’s SuperSTOL Stretch XL. The red high-wing, tailwheel-equipped airplane mounted on tundra tires stole the show when it debuted at this year’s SUN ‘n FUN. [Read more…]
Can you imagine ordering an aircraft off the Internet, then learning to fly it by trial and error without knowledge of physics, weather or airspace?
That’s what’s happening when people buy Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA), also referred to as drones or unmanned aerial systems (UAS). These non-commercial RPAs can range in size from under five pounds and about the dimensions as a six pack of soda to ones that weigh more than 50 pounds and are larger than a medium-sized suitcase.
And they are sharing the airspace with full-sized aircraft, often because the owners don’t realize they are breaking the rules. [Read more…]
The student pilot reported that he was flying the Piper Cherokee from Oklahoma to California in pursuit of employment opportunities. During that trip, he attempted a night landing at an unattended airport in Cottonwood, Ariz., in order to refuel. [Read more…]
Score one for Solberg-Hunterdon Airport (KN51), the embattled privately owned, public use airport in Readington Township, New Jersey. On May 4, Superior Court Judge Paul W. Armstrong dismissed the township’s lawsuit to acquire the development rights to the airport through eminent domain. [Read more…]
The private pilot had logged 175.7 hours, including18.1 hours in the Cessna 182 prior to the crash. He obtained an abbreviated weather briefing, filed an IFR flight plan and took off on a cross-country flight to Fredericksburg, Texas.
The pilot was accompanied by his wife. The purpose of the flight was to celebrate their wedding anniversary. While en route, an air traffic controller queried the pilot if he had the current weather information for his destination airport. [Read more…]
The private pilot of the Cessna 170, 59, had logged 476.2 total flight hours, including 432.1 hours in the Cessna 170, including 3.75 hours in the previous 90 days.
A friend of the pilot said he saw the Cessna 170 enter the traffic pattern at the airport in Auburn, Calif., but didn’t watch the full approach and landing because he was busy putting his airplane back into his hangar. [Read more…]
The instructor pilot and a student were flying in the Piper J3-Cub near Selma N.C., when the CFI attempted to make a landing on a grass strip. [Read more…]
