Rich Stowell recently logged his “10,000th hour of total flight time.” For those who haven’t heard of Rich, he’s a flight instructor from Cascade, Idaho. He’s written a trio of books focused on stall/spin awareness and emergency maneuver training. I found out about Rich’s milestone via Facebook. He wrote it took “almost 34 years to the […]
Opinion
Flying Clubs and FBOs: A match made in heaven
Not long ago Hurricane Hermine blew through Florida. This was a Category 1 hurricane. A relative pip-squeak on the spectrum of deadly storms. Relative in that it did result in a fatality, but for most of those affected it caused little more than an occasional tree blocking a road, stray limbs littering the yard, and […]
First-Timers
By JEB BURNSIDE. If you’re lucky, you may get a chance to give someone their first airplane ride. In fact, flying passengers can be one of the real highlights of becoming a pilot. (And I’m thinking of pure passengers, the kind who have no clue how to do what you’re doing in the cockpit. Pilot-rated […]
Rumors
By DEAN BILLING. There is a classic quote: “Rumors of my demise are greatly exaggerated.” Although this blog is weeks after Oshkosh, any rumor that I wasn’t in attendance is greatly exaggerated. Granted, I drove from Oregon to Wisconsin, but I did actually attend and I can put a couple of rumors to rest. When I arrived […]
Let’s not go flying
I came to flying later than many. In part because I was sort of a hippie kid more attracted to the idea of playing guitar professionally than suiting up as a member of the military. And while those two paths might not seem mutually exclusive today, in the Viet Nam era they were often thought […]
LSA celebrates 12-year anniversary
A dozen years ago, at the beginning of September 2004, FAA’s newest regulation became “effective” as the agency terms it. That regulation gave birth to Sport Pilot and Light-Sport Aircraft. The former is a new pilot certificate and the latter is a fresh breed of aircraft that gained acceptance in a completely new way. How […]
Hypoxia, Part 1
El Paso to Phoenix, 11:30 p.m., cruising at 12,000, we could barely hear the radio calls from all the laughter in the cockpit. It was the second leg of three, after taking delivery of our newly acquired Twin Comanche in Dallas. The winds aloft were warmer than normal. We were positively giddy that neither the […]
People and planes… that’s why
When I think about why we produce General Aviation News, it boils down to two things: People and planes. It’s really that simple. Sure, it can get more complex from time to time, but strip away all the doo-dads and it quickly returns to a simple state: People and planes. In keeping with that theme, I […]
Big dreams can come true
With enough imagination, dedication, perseverance, and help it’s possible to do almost anything. If you doubt me, consider that human beings designed, built, tested, refined, rebuilt, and flew rockets that landed us on the moon – and we did all that in an amazingly tight timespan of only nine years. As I said, you can do […]