There are certain flights every aviator has on his or her bucket list and flying across the United States in an open cockpit biplane has to be one of them. Summer Martell, a pilot from Port Townsend, Wash., can check that one off her list. In August, Martell and two friends made the journey from […]
Renegade Light Sport developing acro engine for LSA
Last year the Hansen Air Group of Kennesaw, Ga., captured the attention of both the Light-Sport and aerobatics communities with the introduction of an aerobatics capable LSA. In January the Hansens made arrangements to import the sporty two-place biplane from Germany. Even without the wings on it, the Fk Comet attracted a lot of attention […]
Father of the Cherokee
The year was 1961. John F. Kennedy succeeded Dwight Eisenhower as the 35th President of the United States of America. Alan Shepard becomes the first American in space aboard Mercury-Redstone 3 and Piper Aircraft Co. introduced the world to its first low-wing single-engine airplane, the Piper Cherokee. Karl Bergey, who led the Cherokee design team […]
Expecting the Stork, selling the Koala
Parents make all sorts of sacrifices for their children. One of the greatest — at least in the aviation world — is selling an airplane because a baby is on the way. Earlier this year, when I ran into Eric Adams from Lakeland, Fla., at Sun ’n Fun, he was carefully placing FOR SALE signs […]
How to save your airport: Lessons from Oceano Airport
If you want to protect your airport from the threat of closure, you need to show the community how valuable it is. That’s the message from Jolie Lucas and Mitch Latting. The husband and wife team are the founders of the Mooney Ambassadors group and members of Friends of Oceano Airport (L52). The pair are […]
Time machine: David Marco’s Lockheed 12A
“Have you seen that beautiful twin?” This phrase was repeated numerous times at this summer’s AirVenture and you can be sure the airplane in question belonged to David Marco of Atlantic Beach, Fla. Marco’s Lockheed 12A occupied a place of honor off ConocoPhillips Square next to the ConocoPhillips display tent. The airplane, also known as […]
Something uncommon in the air: A tailwheel Aerobat
“What is that?” one of my students asked as we stood in front of a tailwheel-equipped red, white and blue two-place Cessna at this summer’s Arlington Fly-in in Washington state. It wasn’t a Cessna 120. It wasn’t a 140. Did Cessna make other two-place tailwheel designs? “It looks like a Cessna 150 — did they […]
Flying the Skycatcher: The CFI’s perspective
Cessna’s Skycatcher was designed for the Light Sport Aircraft category, as well as to lower the cost of entry into aviation. It was also designed to be a teaching platform that could ostensibly replace the Cessna 150 series in flight schools. I have more than 300 hours in Cessna 150-series aircraft, of which a little […]
In the pink: Judie Betz’s one-of-a-kind RV-12
I was shooting photos of a vintage airplane at AirVenture when a man came up to me and asked if I was the owner of the RV-12 in homebuilt parking. “What makes you ask if it is mine?” I asked, thinking it was one of the stranger questions I have been asked at AirVenture. “Because […]