In the political arena opinions are rampant. Facts are often scarce, and statistics are often tweaked until reduced to little more than useless gibberish designed to support an otherwise unsupportable argument. This is true in every town, every state, and every country. It’s a human trait, not a failing of the left or the right, […]
Opinion
VFR sectional? There’s more to know
One way to avoid mid-air surprises is to know where likely traffic is coming from. That’s easier said than done outside your local area. It’s really tough for new pilots still learning the ropes. When I was a student in the mid-1960s, I already knew the FAA said to watch out around VORs, where traffic […]
GA issues stalled until after election
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congress is now on its summer recess. Members will reconvene Sept. 8 for a session of just two weeks and two days. Once it adjourns Sept. 23, the Congress won’t meet again until after the November election. This is a short time for a quarreling legislative body to accomplish much of what it was […]
Transitions and trade-offs
Go with me on this. It’s a good story. Annie was a 15-year-old mutt who came to us through the local pound. She was past her date for euthanization when we found her. Somehow her paperwork had been lost, buying her an extra day or two. Thank goodness. When my wife and I walked into […]
Presence of mind
The first time I took the aircraft controls away from a copilot, it was from a Marine Corps aircraft commander. He’d flown in Iraq. He’d balanced his Sikorsky CH-46 Sea Knight transport helicopter — a twin-rotored behemoth — off the edge of a San Francisco high-rise while troops “on exercises” stormed out the back. Me? […]
Our contradictory spectacle
It was an epiphany. Not to the extent of Archimedes jumping from the tub and running through the streets naked. For one thing, I was having lunch, not a bath. For another, I was not naked at any point during this story. And as many will attest, my running days are far behind me. Still, […]
China to have effect on GA manufacturing
WASHINGTON, D.C. — China will have a greater effect on the manufacture of general aviation aircraft than it will on commercial airliners, a Senate committee was told Thursday at a Congressional hearing discussing. domestic challenges and global competition in aviation manufacturing. Although most discussion during the hearing centered on manufacturing of large aircraft, production of general aviation […]
What’d you say?
Several years ago I had the great pleasure of being a restoration specialist at Tom Reilly’s Warbird Museum in Kissimmee, Florida. It was there I got to put my Airframe and Powerplant certificate to work rebuilding a B-17, maintaining a trio of B-25s, beginning the restoration of a P-40, and generally fiddling with some really […]
Why hasn’t FAA acted on ADS-B loan guarantee for GA?
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Why has the FAA not taken action on implementing a loan guarantee program for general aviation to prepare for the mandate for ADS-B equipment three years after Congress passed a law approving it? That is a question Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.), who chairs the Committee on Small Business, asked in a recent […]