Ironic: A member of Congress lecturing the FAA Administrator on financial stewardship. From Tuesday’s (July 5) edition of The [Tacoma, WA] News Tribune: “We need to see a realistic strategy for funding NextGen,” she [Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.] told FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt at a May hearing. “To date, the FAA has filled its budget […]
Touch & Go
The route to real training reform
GUEST EDITORIAL By RADEK WYRZYKOWSKI, founder, IMC Club Success can be measured in many different ways. When it comes to the recent and very timely Society of Aviation and Flight Educators (SAFE) Pilot Training Reform Symposium, I confess to having mixed feelings about what was achieved. I do need to start with a sincere thank […]
Who expected a tornado?
I’ve been going to Sun ’n Fun every year since 2002, which has caused me a lot of grief in the past. That’s because my son’s birthday is April 8, which fell right in the middle of the festivities many years. But this year, no grief from that quarter. That’s because, for the first time, […]
Trimming trees
GUEST EDITORIAL By Matthew Kiener “Any new ideas regarding the trees?” someone asked. A group had gathered to discuss, among other things, the trees at the end of several New Jersey runways, forcing the implementation of displaced thresholds. These trees are on adjacent properties and oftentimes the land owners are less than receptive to our […]
Damn tornadoes
But the damage brings out the best in people Tornadoes take on many forms, and are different beasts to different people. At the recent Sun ’n Fun Fly-In in Lakeland, Fla., the tornado was called an EF1. If you are John Burton, president of Sun ’n Fun, the tornado that hit LAL on March 31 […]
Lack of sleep = bad decisions
Meg Godlewski is GAN’s staff reporter and a Master CFI. Americans are sleep deprived. We work too much. We watch too much television. We spend too much time playing computer games and engaging in social media. It cuts into the time we allot for sleep. And we pay for it. Lately, control tower operators who […]
Over-the-top FAA oversight
I was reading Charlie Spence’s Capital Comments column recently and I became intrigued by the numbers he was quoting from the FAA’s annual forecast. This annual study, which predicts aviation activities over the next 20 years, is used by the FAA to plan for the effects of expected growth. The forecast predicted a rate of […]
Supply and demand
Ben Sclair is publisher of General Aviation News. Would you fly more if fuel cost less? I bet you would. What do you think the general aviation marketplace would look like in five years if a majority of the GA fleet could enjoy a 30% reduction in their per gallon fuel bill? Oh, if only […]
A tale of two airparks
Dave Sclair was co-publisher from 1970-2000. He also is co-founder of Living With Your Plane and a renowned expert on airpark living. I’m an optimist by nature. It’s a good thing I am, considering having spent the last 40 years not only in the aviation business but the aviation publishing business. During this major slice […]