Like many pilots, flying got Morgan Freeman into trouble when he was in high school. “I started flying at my desk in school,” the award-winning actor said during a visit to AirVenture this year. “My English teacher would see me ‘flying’ an F-86 Sabrejet at my desk and ask, ‘Morgan, what are you doing?’” Like […]
COWS AND AIRPLANES DON’T MIX
I was feeling pretty good, so I decided to fly my 1946 Luscombe 8A about an hour before dark. I put in five gallons. I had maybe two or three gallons in it already. I figured I would be in the air only about 30 minutes, so I reasoned I was good for about one […]
‘ZERO GRAVITY’ DEBATE CONTINUES
No airplane is ever in zero gravity! Physicist spend their time thinking about black holes, dark matter, dark energy, string theory and time. They do not think about why they are weightless in orbit or why they are weightless in an airplane named “Zero Gravity.” Physicist deny that there is a centrifugal force! Therefore, I […]
KERSHNER’S FAMILY PROUD OF WHAT HE ADDED TO AVIATION
Ace Aerobatic School, founded by William K. Kershner, closed on the day of his death, Jan. 8, 2007. Catherine Cavagnaro, highly thought of by my father as a pilot and aerobatic instructor, has her own school, Sewanee Aerobatic School. I was honored to deliver my father’s Aerobat, N7557L, to the National Air and Space Museum. […]
CROSSFIELD’S DAUGHTER EXPRESSES GRATITUTDE
To Tom Norton: I am Sally, Scott’s daughter, child number five of six. Now that I am done crying, may I say how very grateful I am to you for writing that article (“NTSB: Lack of weather update killed Crossfield; Final report cites ATC failure to advise, Crossfield failure to ask,” Oct. 19, 2007 issue). […]
Get a (second) life
Can’t get enough of airplanes in the real world? Now you can have aircraft hanging in the air all around you as real-time aviation data are displayed in the virtual world, thanks to a new visualization from Daden Limited and aircraft tracking specialists FBOWeb.com. The visualization takes FBOWeb.com’s near-live data of aircraft locations around LAX […]
A new twist on a fish tale…
Flying fish were the inspiration for an unmanned seaplane developed at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. The autonomous craft is believed to be the first seaplane that can initiate and perform its own takeoffs and landings on water. The project is funded by the Department of Defense as part of the federal government’s […]
Will going green cost pilots a lot of green?
WASHINGTON, D.C — Pilots and aircraft owners might find that efforts to go green will cost them a lot of green. Planning over where, when and how to build wind turbine farms is little known among many general aviation users, but can have a major direct effect. Federal agencies are wrestling over development of wind […]
Is a factory rebuilt engine reliable?
I probably will buy a C-172 with a new — actually rebuilt — O-310-H2AD engine. Do you know if this engine is reliable? Does it meet the latest factory changes? The seller is asking a lot for this aircraft, but it has a “”new”” engine. MICHEL de LEEUW The Netherlands From the information you provided […]