QUESTION: First, let me say thanks for your excellent column. It’s always one of the first things I flip to when GANews arrives. In my 1947 PA-12 (I’m new to the plane, purchased after complete restoration), I have an O290-D2B with about 18 hours on a new limits field overhaul, including new exhaust valves, seats, […]
Synthetic oils and leaded fuel: Not a good combination
I received an interesting letter from Karl Sieg concerning my article on synthetic oil in the March 11 issue (Synthetic oil: Is it right for your plane?). Several years ago, Karl’s cousin had run synthetic oil in his 1946 T-craft and “”the engine ran so well he had to retune it.”” Karl then tried some […]
Bizjets forecast to double at Easton Airport
By 2023, business jet operations at Easton Airport (ESN) in Maryland will nearly double what they are today, according to a forecast released recently by Delta Airport Consultants. Annual business operations are projected to go from today’s 8,600 to 16,800 over the next 20 years. The number of business jets based at Easton will nearly […]
Texas-sized celebration set for May
The Southwest Regional EAA Fly-In, known as the Texas Fly-In, is more than just an air show. Organizers are billing it as a “Texas-sized celebration of an American privilege: The freedom to build your very own airplane.” A wide variety of airplanes will be on display — and flying — during the event, slated for […]
An impossible task
Name the best BBQ in the country (The Best of the South, Our readers weigh in on the best eating, including the best BBQ, March issue)? C’mon gang, that is an impossible task. I know, every, and I mean every, establishment and person in the world has to have one superlative claim to fame. But […]
Great BBQ and Garth Brooks
I believe the best BBQ in the South is a place called Swadley’s Bar-B-Que in Bethany, Okla. Swadley’s is a mile or two south of Wiley Post (PWA) Airport in Bethany. Wiley Post is 6 nm north of Will Rogers World Airport and offers the best alternative services for GA pilots in the OKC metro. […]
‘An American Trilogy’
I enjoyed your article in the March issue (To save the South). In 1972, my friend and mentor, the late songwriter Mickey Newbury, recorded a song that he called “An American Trilogy.” He had taken a few lines from “Dixie,” “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” and an old Stephen Foster song “All My Trials” […]
What’s wrong with GA
The letter to the editor in the March 2005 edition of The Southern Aviator (The two don’t add up) in which Bill Howard objects to Joel Elman’s article in a previous edition and calls it “irresponsible” was, to me, indicative of what is wrong with general aviation today.Yes, there are high fuel prices, insurance, tie-down/hangar […]
Camping under the wing
Winter’s end found me suffering from a very Victorian condition — a maudlin mood. Had I lived in that grand age, my condition would have been more grandiose, more pronounced, more eloquent, with tomes of Edgar Allen Poe and pots of tea lying about to help sustain me. Instead, the only indication of my condition […]