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 […]
Opinion
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 […]
Is the glass half empty or half full?
I finally got to the U.S. Sport Aviation Expo in Sebring, Florida, this year. I had two distinct impressions of the event — known by most as the Sebring LSA Expo — and, by extension, the state of the LSA industry. Perhaps it was because I hung out with two very different friends over two […]
Lure them with pancakes, hook them with adventure
EAA Chapter 1067 is based in Naples, Florida. There are worse places to be in February, I can tell you. But there are few better. What attracted me is what attracts so many to the back corner of the T-hangars at Naples, directly across from the shade hangars, right along the fence line where EAA […]
1,000 pilots x $20 = 3 new pilots
We don’t need to attract every kid, just the next kid… or three. Seventeen-year-old Ella, 16-year-old Jonathan and 15-year-old Benjamin Robbins are passionate about aviation. The homeschooled trio from Ferndale, Wash., have been designing and building their own radio-controlled aircraft for several years. A family friend took each of the kids for a ride in […]
A new adventure
By IVY McIVER. Three years ago, I relocated from Salt Lake City, Utah, to Seattle, Wash. Though I had a lot of experience flying in a variety of weather conditions and in mountainous terrain, I didn’t have a lot of hard IFR flight time. I viewed this not as problem, but as an opportunity to hone […]
Rules of the road
At the close of 1927, 1,572 pilots had been licensed and 2,573 others had applied for licenses. Additionally, 681 aircraft had been licensed for interstate commerce, and 908 aircraft had been assigned identification numbers. There were also 2,218 applications for license and identification of aircraft awaiting action. It was at this time that the Department […]
The conundrum of general aviation
It will come as no surprise to you, a general aviation enthusiast, that the United States contains a considerable number of airports. Even so, the actual number of airports may be higher than you imagine. Higher by quite a bit, frankly. Our non-aviation enthusiast counterparts may feel differently, however. They may learn that in 2004 […]