By IVY McIVER. Formation flight has intrigued me for as long as I can remember. Seeing the Blue Angels for the first time as a child, I remember thinking not just about how cool they looked, but how disciplined and precise the pilots must be, and how well they worked together as a team. It […]
Opinion
Flight training the Wright way
The Wright brothers are well known as scientists, inventors, builders and flyers — and they became international celebrities in 1909 with record-setting flights in Europe and America. Less well known were their efforts as flight instructors and flight school creators. They began flight instruction in Europe. Later back home, they trained aviators for their exhibition team, […]
One engine, many questions
Q: I have a Cessna 172N with the Lycoming O-320-H2AD 76 series engine, serial number L-3406-76. I’m trying to sell it, and I’m getting all kinds of questions regarding the “A” suffix, the “T” mod, and others that are way too far out there to even mention. As an A&P/IA, I’m fairly familiar with the […]
New friends, old friends, and cherished memories
Later this week I’ll be flying from Lakeland, Florida to Lowcountry Regional Airport in South Carolina. I’m flying there in a shiny, nearly new, totally rebuilt Cessna 152. As hard as it may be to believe, I’ll be meeting a new friend who will be flying an almost identical airplane in from the frozen north. […]
Baby, it’s cold outside
If you live in the eastern half of the United States, you may have noticed that nature has turned a bit nippy lately. Even in the deep south they’ve felt the brisk embrace of winter’s furious freeze. There’s no getting around it. It’s some kind of cold out there, and frankly, I don’t care for […]
Good intentions
Before I could qualify for my helicopter private pilot license in the Robinson R-22, I had to watch an R-22 fall out of the sky. It was part of Special Federal Aviation Regulation (SFAR 73) training. The training also involved viewing a video of the wreckage close-up. In it, I could plainly see a pair […]
Some big questions about RPAs, including the big one: Insurance
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In 2014 there were 2,294 national airspace violations. That would be an average of more than six every day. In most of these incidents the persons involved were licensed pilots. What do these abstract figures mean? Perhaps very little unless you were involved in one of the incidents. Or, unless you are […]
Riding out of town on a rail
The plan was simple: I was going to hop into the trusty Cessna 152, point it to the north, and fly for just shy of 1,000 miles into the wintery wonderland known as Maryland. That was what I said I was going to do anyway. What I actually did was drive less than two miles to […]
Half empty or half full? Part 2
Saturday at the U.S. Sport Aviation Expo in Sebing, Florida, dawned sunny and warmer. The show itself seemed sunnier with a weekend crowd. I can’t understand why organizers scheduled so many weekdays and omitted the Sunday of a three-day holiday weekend. The trade show element (industry meetings, et. al.) can surely be done on Thursday […]