SAB’s Vulcan isn’t entirely new. The design has existed in Europe and arrived in the USA more than two years ago, but stealthily avoided our radar as a Special Light-Sport Aircraft until the 2012 Midwest LSA Expo at the Mt. Vernon, Illinois airport. The secret is out now and Vulcan C-100 has been added to […]
Opinion
Don’t reinvent the wheel
In the great pantheon of mottos there may be none more pertinent than this: Don’t reinvent the wheel. It’s short. It’s pithy. It’s easy to remember. Maybe best of all, it’s true. So with that in mind, I will make this suggestion: If you are a fan of general aviation, if you believe human beings […]
Bowling alone
The new flying club proposal from the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association is news, but the association has tried it before. Moreover, Americans generally (pilots in particular) are individualists – even more so recently, says a unique thesis titled “Bowling Alone.” But now GA’s survival is at issue, or at least the ability of “average […]
Happenstance — Go get some
I was having lunch last week with a woman who works in the tourism industry. Here in Florida, tourism is a big deal, and so we have folks in the private sector, and the public sector, who are dedicated to making sure travelers know there is plenty to do when they get here. The list […]
Aviation spreads its wings
Among the many things taken for granted today is long-distance travel by jet airliners. So common is long-distance air travel that there have even been around-the-world races for general aviation aircraft. One forgets that regularly scheduled intercontinental commercial air travel only came into being after World War II. The roots of long-distance flight lie in […]
By the numbers
We all have a lot of numbers thrown at us every day. A few numbers I’ve heard in the last few weeks are worrying, but I’ve also heard some numbers that give me hope. From Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association President Craig Fuller at the Southeast Aviation Expo in Greenville, S.C., last month: Over the […]
The other husband
“It’s funny how things evolve. If you’ve ever noticed, change is seldom abrupt. Instead, it comes like spring, in small, barely perceptible stages, until one day you look around and realize your world is green again. That’s the way it was with Boonie. One day, Charles Watson Darnell, known about town simply as Boonie, was […]
Experiences in other nations raise concerns about proposed user fee
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congress and the president have big taxation problems to resolve before the end of this year, so there will no doubt be a lot of discussion about aviation user fees. On Dec. 31, all the “Bush” tax cuts will expire, the debt limit will need to be increased, and payroll tax cuts […]
Join the club
The subject of flying clubs and their relative merit has taken up space in this column before. I’m a believer. The idea of spreading the cost of ownership across eight or 10 or 12 partners in a flying club makes sense. And that’s to say nothing of the social aspects that can be so beneficial […]