What can we learn from a fatal crash at a STOL competition?
Opinion
Challenge accepted
Most of us did not become pilots to expand the limits of science or technology. We took that leap in an effort to expand our own horizons. To learn new skills, adapt to new information, and accept the challenge of taking fate for a walk around the block to see if we could perform at a level few ever attempt.
Unleaded fuels and exhaust valve recession
What needs to happen to move forward towards an unleaded future for general aviation?
An intellectual wandering
Because of its incredible pace of improvement, aviation is perhaps the best example of how the impossible becomes possible.
The library is now open
All issues from our print archives dating back to 1959 — except one — are now available digitally on our website.
Plane Panels Part Two
Here’s another installment in “Can you pick a panel for a plane?” in which our Of Wings & Things columnist pairs some grand old Air Force cockpit photos with examples of the aircraft depicted, including the exotic German Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter.
Notes from an unknown veteran
I look at these snapshots from World War II and I wonder how their owner’s life went in peacetime. Did he pass me on the street, unseen, unrecognized? Did he ever get thanks for his efforts in the war?
Jumping for joy
Flying still fills me with a sense of awe. Even after all these years I have never become blasé about the moment the wheels get light and the wings take the load uphill. I’m acutely aware that I am nothing more than an average human being, well out of my element. On my own I have no business being thousands of feet in the air, cruising along at speeds my ground-bound counterparts can only dream of as they sit in traffic.
Questions from the Cockpit: Old(er) vs. new(er)
Adam, a private pilot in Georgia, writes: I’m tired of the hassles of renting to feed my passion. It’s time to pony up and become an airplane owner. I’ve read up on everything and think I know what I’m in for. But I do have one item that I’m getting differing opinions on, so I’d like your wisdom: Should I go for a good deal on an older airplane and have some money left over to make it nice, or should I go for something newer, basically buying all the airplane that I can afford? My budget is more in car-buying territory than in house-buying territory.