Yet if you think $65,000-95,000 is still too much, I can identify several aircraft that sell brand-new, ready-to-fly for less than $49,000, but that will be an article for another time …
Opinion
Withdrawing from the luck bucket
By IVY McIVER. “I’m OK! Are you OK?” As I hung upside down, shoulder harnesses digging into my collarbones, I tried to make sense of the broken glass, bent metal and wet sand that surrounded me. Just 60 seconds prior, I had been rolling down a beautiful grass strip in the Cascades. I watched the […]
The evolution of Flight Service
By JEB BURNSIDE. Even though little remains of the FAA’s Flight Service function, some of us still remember the old-fashioned ways. Up front, I’ll admit I’m old school, but only to an extent. I prefer steam to glass, and a stick to an automatic transmission, for example, but I’d rather use metric than SAE. Go […]
General aviation has a place at the table
The year was 1606. King James of England (and Scotland) boldly authorized a group of entrepreneurial types to cross the Atlantic in a leaky wooden boat in search of gold, timber, and a route across the New World to the Pacific, by water. The party consisted of 104 brave souls, all bent on bettering their […]
What’s causing high oil consumption?
Q: We have a 1981 Cessna 182 with the Lycoming O540 L3C5D engine, which has the Cessna-installed turbo system. Lately, we’ve been experiencing some pretty high oil consumption with quite a bit of oil on the belly. A compression check shows high compressions with the exception of #6, which has gone from 75/80 to 60 […]
A year of epic flights
Prior to 1927, many well-informed people — as well as the general public — continued to think of aviation as a stunt to be marveled at or an amusement, but not something of concrete accomplishment. These attitudes changed during 1927 with many epic flights that proved the capability of modern aircraft and powerplants — flights that saw […]
An impressive return on investment
Something interesting is happening in General Aviation. It’s largely being driven at the grass root level, and frankly these developments fascinate and encourage me. The industry has noted a loss of participation in past decades, with fewer active pilots taking to the skies. We’ve bemoaned this reality for years. While some point a finger at […]
NOTAM like the present
Pilots and air traffic controllers think that they’re so different from each other, but they’re not. They’re really two branches of the same aviation family. And judging from the research I did for this month’s column, they all agree that they hate the NOTAM system in its present state. Notices to Airmen (NOTAMs) are the […]
Salem airspace do-over: Care to comment?
The FAA posted a notice of proposed rule making (NPRM) regarding Salem, Oregon’s McNary Field (KSLE) Class D and E airspace to the Federal Register on May 1, 2015. On Aug. 20, the proposed rule became final. No one noticed. This happens all too often. I’d hazard a guess that most of the time, it […]