I’ve been working on a book about my newspaper career. A major portion of my time in the business — more than 50 years in total — has been spent in the world of aviation. As I ventured into different aspects of my life in aviation, I tried to recall what airplanes I had flown […]
Opinion
Another temporary extension for FAA
Once again the Senate and House could not agree on reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration and the House passed a one-month extension of funding and taxing authority to keep the FAA operating through July. The FAA has been without long-term authority since Sept. 30, 2007. It has been operating on a series of three-month […]
Commercial aviation tries its wings
The development of commercial air operations in the United States after the armistice that ended the First World War was a period of optimism founded on widespread public curiosity, thousands of newly trained pilots, and easy availability of surplus aircraft. Financing was provided based on the assumption that public interest would force the development of […]
Pistole confirmed as TSA administrator
After 17 months without an administrator and two failed nominations, the Transportation Security Administration finally has a leader. John Pistole was confirmed for the post Friday, June 25, by the full Senate. As administrator of TSA, he also is assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Pistole was deputy director of the FBI, promoted […]
Jabiru Jamboree
Folks have seen that plenty of Rotax seminars are offered in addition to video lectures, but they’ve seen less of such offerings for Jabiru, the second most common brand on LSAs. The truth is, the easygoing folks at Jabiru USA regularly hold engine seminars. The upcoming editions of these training sessions occurs Sept. 10-12 and […]
Coalition works to meet 100LL challenges
A coalition of aviation alphabet groups and petroleum industry associations is striving to meet the challenges created for general aviation by recent government decisions to phase out 100 low-lead avgas. Elimination of 100LL was brought about by a petition from the Friends of the Earth to the Environmental Protection Agency in 2006. This led to […]
An appropriate address
Arguably the most successful light aircraft seaplane producer is Progressive Aerodyne and its SeaRey amphibian. How successful? In January, it delivered SeaRey kit #500 to an owner in Belgium. That impressive number doesn’t tell the whole story, which centers around the tight community of SeaRey builders who often help each other — and not solely […]
Sharing the sky with unmanned aircraft
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Interest is increasing to use more unmanned aerial vehicles for security, law enforcement, weather studies, and other dangerous or dull jobs and this is posing big challenges for the FAA and pilots. These vehicles — called Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) by the FAA — have proved themselves valuable where they have been […]
Who will survive in LSA world?
One of the oft-repeated questions about this new thing called LSA is: “When will the shakeout occur? When will some of these 75 companies disappear… and which ones will fail?” First, my ability to see the future is no better than anyone else. We’ve lost a few suppliers (Taylorcraft, Urban Air, Spain’s CAG, Higher Class). […]