Keith Smith recruits students for the Central Florida Aerospace Academy on the SUN ‘n FUN campus at Lakeland-Linder Regional Airport in Florida with an unusual opening question: “I ask what are you going to be doing when you’re 26 years old?” According to Smith, the chief administrator at CFAA, that question provokes a lot of […]
High school kids build Redbird sim
The Lakeland Aero Club on the campus of SUN ‘n FUN at Lakeland-Linder Regional Airport (KLAL) has added a Redbird FMX full motion flight simulator to its fleet. This installation will be different from the norm as club members will perform the installation themselves. Two of the club’s student leaders, Katie Esker, a sophomore, and […]
I might not be able to walk, but I can fly
For North Carolina pilot Justin Falls, flying an airplane represents a freedom denied him on the ground. Falls, 28, overcame a devastating spinal cord injury as a student and has rebuilt his life to include completing college, earning a pharmacy degree and, most recently, passing his sport pilot check ride. Falls, who suffered a broken […]
Engineering a special A36 Bonanza
Veteran aviator Doug Decker approaches most flying matters with an engineer’s critical eye for detail. Things need to be exact. The numbers have to tally. Logic holds ascendency over emotion. But describing his aircraft, N998PL, a brilliant yellow 1996 A36 Bonanza, Decker sounds a lot like a pilot speaking straight from the heart. “I don’t […]
An Alaska Logbook: Excursions to Chena Hot Springs and Talkeetna
Last summer, while on a flying trip to Alaska, I visited two popular tourist destinations in the backcountry. One of them, Chena Hot Springs, was half an hour by air from our home base at Chena Marina Airport (AK28) in Fairbanks. The other, 184 air miles south, was the historic town of Talkeetna, aerial gateway […]
Warbirds dazzle at the Carolinas Aviation Museum
I went to the Carolinas Aviation Museum in Charlotte earlier this month to see the Miracle on the Hudson airliner. And the big jet was certainly impressive. But my lasting memories from the trip are about the warbirds on display. The museum centerpiece is the A320-214 Airbus that Capt. Chesley Sullenberger and First Officer Jeff […]
Tracking a classic Cessna 180
“I’m going to keep it as original as possible,” she said. “Again, keeping it as lightweight as possible. And then the next big program will be next year to polish it and repaint it in the original scheme.”
Pristine Waco 10 stuns SUN ‘n FUN crowds
In the beginning, Waco 10 owners Dave and Jeanne Allen had a 1930 Waco 10 data plate, some paperwork and a mountain of dreams. Now, 28 years later, they fly NC662Y, a pristine, vintage flyer that draws a crowd at nearly every airport they land. Dave, a retired U.S. Air Force pilot who later flew […]
Flying a Fairchild
Fun and history wrapped in a classic design Florida architect Ed Hoffman acquired his love of aviation quite traditionally: He grew up around aircraft, many of them designed by his father. Today he flies a Fairchild 24W, a classic that endures from the time of the Great Depression. “My dad, Edward Hoffman the second, designed and […]