Dave Sclair was co-publisher of General Aviation News from 1970-2000 and is the co-founder of Living With Your Plane Recently I received an interesting note from an individual in Europe. He had watched an EAA-sponsored webinar on residential airparks and was really wanting to find one in the U.S. to which he could move. He […]
Opinion
Is E15 dead on arrival?
The GAfuels Blog is written by two private pilots concerned about the future availability of fuels for piston-engine aircraft: Dean Billing, Sisters, Ore., an expert on autogas and ethanol, and Kent Misegades, Cary, N.C., an aerospace engineer and aviation journalist. Despite the EPA’s recent approval of E15 for vehicles built since 2007, numerous roadblocks stand […]
Quixotical Questions at the Atlanta FSDO
First, a permit is issued and then, as a condition of the permit, the inspection is made and a log book entry completed. Then flight can occur. That’s how it works. Except in Atlanta.
Flying Time
Deb McFarland is the proud owner of Lester, a 1948 Luscombe 8E, and part of the “Front Porch Gang” at Pickens County Airport in Georgia. It’s October in the South and it’s flying time. There are more fly-ins, air shows, gatherings, events, happenings and visitations than you can shake a stick at, and we’re trying […]
Ekolot Topaz makes first U.S. appearance
Dan Johnson, president of the Light Aircraft Manufacturers Association, is an expert on Light Sport Aircraft. Just when you thought the LSA industry was running out of models (109 presently show on our SLSA List), here comes one of the sharpest examples I’ve seen. NIU Group used the Midwest LSA Expo as the venue to […]
Controller errors up 51%
Errors by air traffic controllers increased a record 51% this past fiscal year, according to a report in The Washington Post. The newspaper said this increase represents only a portion of the errors, as not all mistakes are recorded. For three years the FAA has encouraged controllers to voluntarily report errors and be shielded from […]
A puzzling compression problem
Paul McBride, an expert on engines, retired after almost 40 years with Lycoming. Q: My engine, which now has 300 hours on it, is an O-290-D2B which had a new-limits field overhaul. It has settled-in as a nice smooth-running, economical and reliable powerplant with plenty of power. It gets about 7-8 hours per qt. (Aeroshell […]
Boaters unite to oppose ethanol; where are aviation’s leaders?
The GAfuels Blog is written by two private pilots concerned about the future availability of fuels for piston-engine aircraft: Dean Billing, Sisters, Ore., an expert on autogas and ethanol, and Kent Misegades, Cary, N.C., an aerospace engineer and aviation journalist. As word of the EPA’s approval last week of E15 spreads across America, those who […]
Change is constant, progress is not
Jamie Beckett is a CFI and A&P mechanic who stepped into the political arena in an effort to promote and protect GA at his local airport. You can reach him at [email protected]. The suggestion that aviation has changed over the past several decades will surprise no one. It obviously has. However, the disparity between the […]