After canceling a flight I’d planned due to weather, a friend commented to me as I tucked my airplane back into the hangar, “A lot of pilots have been buried on a sunny day because they flew when they shouldn’t have.”
Opinion
Human Factors: Certified, not qualified
As it becomes harder to find a CFI, pilots may find they are waiting quite a while for flight training. But a long wait is much better than watching a brand-new airplane broken to pieces right in front of your eyes before you’ve even made the first payment.
Disappointment along the way
Setbacks are going to happen. A lot, unfortunately. How we handle the challenges we face is a big part of what defines us as individuals. And as anyone involved in aviation on any level knows, delays are part of the deal. Eventually we manage to get where we’re going anyway.
Fees for thee, but not for me?
A Montana state bill, if signed into law, will establish a line of who can, and can’t, be charged airport usage fees generated using ADS-B.
Albin Longren: The aviation pioneer you don’t know
Longren did not have any formal education as an aeronautical designer and engineer. He also lacked any flight training. Neither stopped him from achieving success with his original biplane, the Longren Topeka.
Michael Jordan on the diamond
I often talk to men and women who tell me how badly they’d wanted to learn to fly, but they never did. And now, they tell me, it’s too late. They’re pushing 40, or perhaps they’re even older. That ship has sailed, they moan. The opportunity is gone for good. What a load of horse hockey.
A little learning is a dangerous thing
What we have here is someone making an instructional video that has very little learning and, in fact, is very dangerous to pilots who tend to believe anything they see on the Internet.
Questions from the Cockpit: Recycle, replace, or retrofit?
Tom, an airplane owner in Georgia, writes: How do you re-web an airplane seatbelt?
Ask Paul: What should I do with an engine that hasn’t been flown in years?
Question for Paul McBride, the General Aviation News engines expert: I bought an airplane in the summer of 2022 and have not been able to pick it up yet due to a lot of work and a rusty pilot situation. I plan on picking up the aircraft, which has been sitting outside in New Hampshire, in May.