Landing on water with your wheels down is a confirmed aviation no-no. Land planes that try it often get flipped over and upside down, when escaping the cabin becomes a real concern. Every seaplane pilot I know has a mantra he or she repeats, “I’m landing on water so the wheels must be up.” Most […]
Opinion
Transportation Safety Board overrules staff to put VFR flight as cause of mid-air over Hudson River
After a five hour public meeting to discuss the mid-air collision between a Piper and a helicopter over the Hudson River, the National Transportation Safety Board overruled the recommendations of its staff and cited “inherent limitations of the see-and-avoid concept” and inattention of an air traffic controller as the probable cause of the accident, which […]
An aerial adventure
A decade after the Army’s pioneering flight to Alaska, two adventurous young men embarked on a month-long, 12,000-mile journey to Alaska in a de Havilland Gipsy Moth named “Flit,” a small two-seat biplane with open cockpits and a 90-hp, four-cylinder engine. The pilots were on their summer vacation and wanted to see if they could […]
The fallout from sonic booms
Recently the Seattle-Tacoma region in Washington state where I live was hit by a pair of sonic booms. They were caused by the flight of two Oregon Air National Guard F-15s sent to intercept a floatplane that had violated a TFR established when President Obama visited Seattle. The floatplane’s pilot claimed he was returning from […]
Working together pays off
WASHINGTON, D.C. — After years of operating in the shadows, general aviation is gaining, at last, some of the recognition it deserves through a new spirit of cooperation among many groups, organizations, businesses, elected officials, and charitable organizations. For years some GA leaders focused more on their own particular issues than on the common good. […]
Finding the grass in Mount Dora
It had to be here somewhere. I was hunting a small grass strip south of pretty Mount Dora, Florida, as my search for a retirement town continued. Aside from its growing reputation as a new Florida “cultural capital” and great weekend outing from Orlando, Mount Dora had two or three grass airstrips on its map. […]
LSA sales continue…slowly
While most of the LSA industry — as with most of aviation — endures unprecedented slow sales in 2010, at least two companies are showing reasonably good performances. Washington-based CubCrafters is the clear market leader for the first seven months of 2010, with 27 new registrations. (We repeat, as always, that FAA registrations do not […]
Airport security: It’s in your court now
The news is bad. When two of the nicest, friendliest, most competent people on the planet (and yes, I speak of John and Martha King) find themselves victimized by law enforcement based on sloppy investigative practices, you have no choice but to ask, “Who is safe from this sort of short-sighted, narrow-minded, over-zealous security that […]
Go (mid)West, young man
Summer is about to flow into fall, which is often a beautiful time of year to aviate for recreation. Temperatures moderate from summer’s heat, yet winter’s icing and other hazards are still well off in the distance. That big celebration of flight, AirVenture, is history and now Light-Sport enthusiasts turn their attention to the Midwest […]