SEBRING, Florida —The ninth annual U.S. Sport Aviation Expo wrapped up a successful weekend of activities supporting general aviation and the Light-Sport Aircraft industry Sunday, Jan. 20. Expo officials estimate the weekend’s attendance will exceed last year’s record attendance of 16,000. Mike Willingham, Executive Director of the Sebring Regional Airport, said, “The weather wasn’t as […]
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Props for the prop
This time of year I find myself doing a lot of intro flights. The first question people ask is, “is it safe?” I reply that I’m more concerned about my safety driving to the airport than I am in the airplane. Over the years I’ve learned that there is a fine line between making sure […]
Briefly, a showroom of Cubs
Imagine yourself in a dealership filled with new Cubs! That was the scene at Florida’s Spruce Creek Fly-In community recently. For a moment, the FBO morphed into a gleaming showroom of Cubs, both Legend and legendary. Stick-and-Rudder City! Paraphrasing that ‘70s pop song, there were big ones and tall ones and fat ones and small […]
Corkey Fornof: Flying with Fury
“I’ve known your name forever,” I told Corkey Fornof, star attraction of the “First Saturday” breakfast last month at LoPresti Speed Merchants in Sebastian, Florida. “Me too!” laughed the stunt pilot legend, showing off the long-awaited LoPresti Fury (nee SwiftFury) these days at airshows. The man is having fun. And can he fly! Everyone’s first […]
Time warp
By DAVID NIXON Many of us in aviation today are guilty of the sin of “the way it used to be-itis.” I’m a second-generation general aviation pilot who spent many a Saturday and Sunday out at the airport in the 1970s with my folks and their friends. The airport was a busy place on weekends […]
American Angel
Angels have been part of aviation myths since the early days of flight — so much so that two successful Hollywood movies, “A Guy Named Joe” and the 1989 remake “Always,” were centered on a pilot turned angel who comes to the rescue of fellow pilots. John and Patti Stahr from Eugene, Ore., enthusiastically embraced […]
Respect for the seldom celebrated man
The odds are good you’ve never heard of Lon Cooper. There’s no reason you would have, really. But you should have. We all should have. At least we should have if life is fair, which it is not. So working on the theory that being late is better than nothing, allow me to make the […]
Pilots Without Pants returns for 2013
With all the talk at year’s end about the fiscal cliff, the potential of user fees, and the end of the world — at least according to some Mayan calendar theory — there was definitely a need for some levity among the general aviation community. So, sticking with the calendar theme, take a moment to […]
More than a pretty face
I should hate Tia Robertson. She’s tall, blonde, slim, beautiful and a professional pilot. Her family also owns a Cessna 195, a Cessna 170, and a Taylorcraft, all meticulously restored, all beautiful. My envy knows no bounds. When I found out she was a few years older than me but looked 20 years younger, it […]