With Reno just days away, here’s a way for every pilot to get involved in sport air racing… Looking for away to practice your airmanship but tired of the $100 hamburger? Maybe it’s time to enter the world of sport air racing. You don’t need to have a lot of money, a highly modified airplane, […]
Green with envy?
No matter where he goes, Tim Fox’s green Ercoupe draws a crowd “The first time I saw it, I thought, ‘my God, that is green!’” says Tim Fox, of Fort Wayne, Ind., describing the first time he laid eyes on his Ercoupe. “Green” does not even come close to describing Fox’s 1946-C model. At last […]
DuraCharts: Sturdier sectionals for the VFR pilot
The paper VFR sectional is probably the hardest working — and most abused — piece of equipment in the airplane. They get handled extensively, unfolded, folded, crumpled up, tossed in the back of the airplane, written on, erased, stuffed into gear bags and, in my house, they are apt to be chewed on by a […]
Honoring the WASP
Michael Porter’s restored Stearman helps tell the women’s story “Is that what I think it is?” There’s something special about seeing a military aviator reunited with an airplane that he or, in this case, she flew during the war. It can be an emotional moment, like watching the reunion of long-lost family members. During this […]
Reach for the Sky
Richard Epton has always had a fascination for military airplanes. He grew up on a dairy farm on the east coast of England and his father told him stories about all the airplanes, both English and German, that battled it out in the skies during World War II. “My father told me stories of what […]
The Map of My Dead Pilots: The Dangerous Game of Flying in Alaska
There are some books about aviation that are so spot-on, so gritty, that you are compelled to hide them from the aviation squeamish. “The Map of My Dead Pilots: The Dangerous Game of Flying in Alaska” is one of these books. The book was written by Colleen Mondor, who drew upon her four years of […]
Remember your first?
Do you remember the first airplane you flew? For many people, this event is right up there with your first kiss. And some aviators are lucky enough to find their first and make it their own many years later. Randall Patterson of Palm Coast, Fla., is one of those lucky people. He owns the very […]
Smokejumpers honored in Oregon
The parachute was originally developed as an emergency measure for getting out of an aircraft. But in the 1940s, the parachute was repurposed for another use: Getting wildland firefighters known as smokejumpers into remote locations. The Siskiyou Smoke Jumper Base in Cave Junction, Ore., is the oldest surviving smokejumper facility. On June 23, the southern […]
The Spivey family flying station wagon
There are many men who will tell you that buying an airplane very nearly resulted in divorce because their wives were dead-set against its purchase. Kenneth Spivey Jr., from Vestavia, Ala., says he had a completely different experience: “My wife actually MADE me go buy this airplane!” he said, gesturing to his 1952 Cessna 170B. […]