In his delightful, often bitingly witty novel, “Tom Sawyer,” Mark Twain used the term “news of no news” to describe the kind of reporting that says, in effect, there’s nothing new to tell you but I’m compelled to tell you something. Although little of real substance has turned up among engine manufacturers so far this […]
Air Force pilots return to their training grounds: Texas Fly-In hosts a mini-reunion
Thousands of U.S. Air Force pilots earned their wings at Hondo Field in Texas when it was a major training base in the 1940s and 1950s. Any graduate of the rigorous program will tell you that the year spent learning to fly “the Air Force way” was a special time in their lives. Paul Kalisch […]
The fight of thier lives… Is DUAT an endangered species?
Every day, pilots — lots of pilots — go online to check weather and file flight plans through the two FAA-approved DUAT providers. In fact, in one month alone, CSC DUAT provides 2.5 million weather briefings. “We run giant numbers,” says Leon Thomas, DUAT program manager at Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC). And those numbers have gone […]
Talk about your early birds! Woodpecker Tiger Moth arrives months, yes months, before the big show
When you fly a light vintage airplane, you have to factor in lots of extra time when you want to be some place. For Sun ‘n Fun fly-in attendees Tom Dietrich and Steve Gray of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, that extra time meant leaving home several months in advance. You read that right: Months. “We tried […]
A different kind of hangar dance
What do you get when you supply local celebrities with dance lessons and invite them to a hangar dance? You get an aviation museum fund raiser, of course. For the second year in a row, the Pearson Air Museum in Vancouver, Wash., is holding its Dancing with the Stars fund raiser. “We did it last […]
Relocation of Florida’s Panama City Airport moves forward: State and federal grants so far total more than $139 million
The FAA has awarded a $72 million grant for the relocation of Panama City-Bay County International Airport (PFN) in Florida. Those funds will be added to $67 million in grants from the Florida Department of Transportation for the airport relocation project, which has been in the works since 1995, when a study indicated that the […]
Baffles essential to your engine’s performance
If necessity is the mother of invention, then experience is the father. Lee Budde, the owner of Airframes Inc. in Big Lake, Alaska, learned first-hand about the importance of engine baffles when the engine of his floatplane overheated during a takeoff. “It was a hot day and the aircraft I was flying had a rebuilt […]
WASP airport beacon saved from dumpster
Rotating airport beacons have to be large so they can be seen from the air at a distance. “But you don’t realize how large they are until you get right up close to them. They are HUGE!” said Rich Davidson, co-owner of Lee Bottom Flying Field (64I) in Hanover, Ind. Davidson learned this when he […]
A good flying airplane: Raised around Stinsons, Don Baggett finally gets one of his own
When you ask the owner of a vintage aircraft why he or she picked that particular model, you’ll likely hear about a family connection. For Don Baggett of Okeechobee, Fla., it was that familial connection that made him chose to become part owner of a Stinson V-77. The other owner is Bill Watkins, but it […]