When George Christie was 16 years old, aviation was in its Golden Age. Armed with a $5 Kodak camera, the young aviation buff had plenty of opportunities to take photos of his favorite thing — airplanes — and the personalities who flew them. Some of his favorites include shots of the Boeing Clipper at Lake […]
Hooray for Hollywood
Since the earliest days of moviemaking, airplanes have been stars on the big screen — often pushing credibility to the limits. Take “”International House,”” a 1933 movie that was, ostensibly, about the invention of television. Packed with stars of the day, including Rudy Vallee, George Burns, Gracie Allen and Cab Calloway, the film is dominated […]
Lasers: A serious issues that’s nothing new
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The news of pointing lasers at aircraft in recent weeks has focused primarily on scheduled airline incidents, but with general aviation aircraft outnumbering commercial planes more than 25 to 1, the danger to individual flights is obvious. Laser pointing at aircraft is not new. It began about 1990 in the Los Angeles […]
Mixture lever positioning after idle cutoff
QUESTION: I operate a IO-540C4-B5 in an experimental. I am wondering about the correct position of the mixture lever after idle cutoff has been selected. Should I leave the lever in that position, or should I advance it (after the ignition is switched off) to full rich? Is there any benefit to the internals of […]
Supply and demand drives engine choice
QUESTION: Paul, I have a Lycoming 0-235C1B installed in a Piper Colt. What are your feelings about an STC to install either an 0-290 or 0-320 engine in this aircraft? The 0-235 needs a top-end now, so I’m considering selling the engine as a core and installing one of the other engines. Mark Casillas Memphis, […]
How often should oil be changed on aerobatic aircraft?
That was the question from Bryan Gore, who flies a Citabria with an IO-320 engine equipped with an oil inverted system. It does not have an oil filter. That was the question from Bryan Gore, who flies a Citabria with an IO-320 engine equipped with an oil inverted system. It does not have an oil […]
Reach out and touch — your airplane
You live in the South, so icing isn’t a problem, right? Wrong, as this winter’s Arctic blasts demonstrate. Wing icing has been in the news a lot, lately, and pilots should be paying attention regardless of where they live. On Dec. 29, the National Transportation Safety Board issued an Alert to Pilots concerning ice accumulation […]
WASP Marianne Beard Nutt dies at 84
Marianne Beard Nutt, a member of the WASP class of 1943, died Jan. 16. Nutt developed a passion for aviation when she was 7, after seeing Amelia Earhart. She did not have the money for flying lessons and was told girls could not be pilots. Nevertheless, she learned to fly, working odd jobs at an […]
Pilots say it’s time for a tower at Frederick
The time has come for a control tower at Frederick Municipal Airport (FDK), say airport manager Charles Abell and a lot of pilots at one of Maryland’s busiest airports. The tower proposal isn’t the only thing on Abell’s wish list. Public meetings about updating the airport’s master plan have elicited discussions of additional hangars, improved […]