If you’re a pilot, you’ve got goals. That’s just the way it is. Maybe it’s the fact that we have goals that lead us to this life where we have it so good. Just ask anyone you meet wandering around the mall. Everyone knows pilots are rich elitists with wads of cash stuffed into the […]
Opinion
What’s the proper mag timing for my engine?
Q: Hi Paul, you helped me out a few years back regarding a question on an O-290 D2B and I really value your advice and opinions, so now I’ll ask for your help once again. I’m new to a beautiful 1974 Piper Arrow, which still has the original IO-360 C1C installed. Total aircraft time is 3,395 […]
Are you dripping fuel? Do you know where your log books are?
When I sit back and look at the world, I find it a fascinating place. For me, the most interesting details relate to people. Specifically, their actions and reactions. If we slow down enough, there are a great many lessons to be learned from our fellow citizens of earth. Mark Howell is a pilot, mechanic, […]
All I want for Christmas, revisited
Since childhood I’ve experienced an onslaught of marketing messages that focus on a single, classic, opening to a sentence. “All I want for Christmas…” I suspect you’ve experienced something similar. At this slightly later stage of life (I tend to doubt any adolescents are reading this page) it might be time to revisit that idea. […]
Human Factors: Self-inflicted
Last year I gifted my readers with stories of men and women pilots who acted heroically, and lived to tell about it. This holiday season I’m going in a different direction. The Aviation Safety Reporting System reports I chose this time come from pilots who, in their own way, shot themselves in the proverbial foot. Failure […]
The importance of a good couch
In the back of my hangar sits the skeleton of a 1949 Piper PA-16 Clipper. It hasn’t flown in many years. That’s kind of sad. Hopefully, somebody will take on the task of restoring it to its former glory one day and it will become airborne again. I can only hope. In front of the […]
Tomahawk buyer plagued with engine contamination
Q: I bought a Tomahawk from someone I trusted. First oil change I discover very small needle-like pieces of aluminum in the filter, about a teaspoon worth. I ask the IA-rated seller about it. His reply: No big deal, still good compression. Nothing is on a strong magnet that is carefully passed along the flattened […]
Short, sweet, and oh so memorable
My wife and I were empty-nesters for a minute there. Our son is a great success, living in New York City with his own growing family. Our daughters had moved out and were sharing a house together. Then one daughter moved home. A few months later the other followed suit. We are empty-nesters no more. […]
Game-changing Fokkers served on both sides of the Atlantic
When Anthony Fokker’s team introduced the futuristic Fokker D.VII biplane fighter to Germany in 1918, its welded steel tube fuselage and wings with less external bracing and rigging were a game-changer. Clocking speeds as high as 124 miles an hour, the D.VII was bested in that regard by the contemporary British S.E.5 and French SPAD […]