News

A specially painted Lear Jet helped the Make-A-Wish Foundation celebrate 25 years of service and brought a smile to the faces of some 30 kids last month. The model 35A jet, owned by International Jet Aviation of Englewood, Colo., was due to be repainted. The company’s employees wanted to do something special for the kids […]

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University will host the 2006 National Training Aircraft Symposium March 22-24. The meeting will spotlight new training equipment, the impact of VLJs, sport aircraft and new training methods for technically advanced aircraft.

Building your own airplane can be a very fulfilling experience. It can also be very challenging and consuming. Don’t let promises of it being a “quick build kit” and “less expensive than a factory-built aircraft” fool you. No matter what kind of aircraft you choose, understand that you will be investing a lot of time […]

Although Meigs Field is gone, at least part of the property will be returned to aviation use. The city of Chicago plans to open a heliport for emergency services on the site of the former lakeside airport. The heliport will not be open to the public, but intended for use by private contractors only. The […]

When an airplane flies by and someone asks, “What is that?” they are usually talking about the airframe. When Roger Ryon and Martin Kosina fly by in their Piper Apache, it’s not the airframe that people remark on — it’s the paint job. They fly an airplane that looks like a mythological creature come to […]

Jay Carter’s innovative CarterGyro “personal air vehicle” will be introduced at Sun ‘n Fun, following a demonstration at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Sun ‘n Fun, slated for April 4-10, will be the last stop on a flight called FutureFlight I. The CarterGyro is based on an earlier personal air vehicle built under a NASA […]

Ralph Nelson, one of the founding members of the National Association of Flight Instructors (NAFI) and a major influence in the development of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association’s Air Safety Foundation, died Feb. 22 at the age of 71. Nelson worked his way through the University of Illinois as a flight instructor. In 1958 […]

Ilovene Potter, a distinguished Washington State pilot, died Feb. 14 at the age of 87. Potter learned to fly in the 1940s at the urging of her husband, Leslie, who was a pilot. She and her husband made their living in the aviation industry. She was the first woman in Washington State to earn a […]

Victor Wokal of Glasgow, Mont., died Jan. 15. Known to a broad range of pilots simply as Vic, he started Wokal Flying Service at his native Bowman, N.D., in 1944 and bought the FBO at Glasgow in 1962, later moving there. He was a Cessna dealer at both airports, Glasgow’s airport manager for many years, […]