I came over the fence at 100 mph in the Cessna 172. Even the traffic reporter sitting to my right knew I was way too fast. I saw her hands tighten around her seatbelt harness, her knuckles whiten. Halfway down the 3,000-foot runway, I’d only bled off 20 mph. Normally I’d have firewalled the throttle […]
Opinion
Donald Shimoda is my co-pilot
In the mid-1980s I was a professional musician. I lived in in the Greenwich Village section of New York City with my best friend and musical collaborator, Michael Mazzarella. Our apartment sat on Bleecker Street, just around the corner from MacDougal. We walked on sidewalks Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, and Paul Simon had walked. We […]
Pilot, humble thyself
As you might imagine of a guy who writes for an aviation publication with the reputation enjoyed by General Aviation News, I’ve been flying for quite a while. You might also get the impression I pretty much know what I’m doing. That’s not necessarily true. Sure, I can get an airplane into the air and […]
Is the O-435 a tough engine?
With regard to the overall reliability of any engine, it’s simply a matter of operating and maintaining it in accordance with Lycoming’s manuals using the old philosophy — you take care of it and it’ll take care of you!
Nat Browne’s attempted Tokyo flight
Aviator Nat Browne had a plan he figured would enable his single-engine Fokker Universal to fly from Seattle to Tokyo before anyone else could do it. Browne’s Universal was modified to remove steel tube wing struts and part of the landing gear, using flying wires and simplified gear struts instead. It was the end of […]
From hooves to helicopters
By Alexa Paprosky. The only thing I had ever piloted before my intro flight had four legs, a mane and a tail. I was type rated in thoroughbreds and had only soloed airframes with hooves and brains. I walked into the hangar expecting to see a Clydesdale of a machine, but instead was faced with […]
Aviation, with an absence of pressure
There is a very human trait that compels us to share the things we love with others that populate our lives. This is especially true of family members, and of particular concern with children. How often have you heard someone sigh, and with a shrug of resignation say something to the effect of, “My father […]
Bigger than both of us
One of my first memories is of being a 3 year old standing in the doorway of the master bedroom of my parent’s home in East Hartford, Connecticut. My newborn sister, Suzann, was in my mother’s arms. My dad stood by the closet, sliding his impossibly slender, 6 foot 4 inch frame into a flight suit festooned with […]
$600K today or $900K tomorrow?
What sounds better to you? $637,000 today or $900,000 in the near future? But first some back story before you answer: Way back in 2015, Washington state’s HB 1526 became law. The legislation reallocated 100% of the aircraft excise tax to the “Washington State Department of Transportation aviation airport aid grant program.” Previously, just 10% […]