Icon Aircraft’s Kirk Hawkins would be proud. While in a Tacoma-area Apple Store this past weekend to buy a graduation gift, I struck up a conversation with one of the store employees. When I told him I published General Aviation News, in response to his asking what I did for a living, he immediately asked, “Have […]
Touch & Go
Flying in Alaska
I regularly attend aviation events all over the country and have been doing so for around 40 years. I always enjoy seeing the numbers and variety of aircraft at these events, whether the event is primarily for sport aviation enthusiasts or features high-end business aircraft. Oshkosh and Sun ‘n Fun always amaze me by the […]
Sporty’s course update impressive
I just watched the Advanced IFR DVD from the Sporty’s Instrument Rating Course. The quality of the video and interactivity made me wish this series had been around, in this format, when I was in flight training back in the, gulp, late 1980s. This isn’t a typical “ground school” video. Its use of high-end graphics […]
Commemorating 1,000 hours
One of the more frustrating aspects of being a flight instructor is that you get stood up sometimes. People don’t show because they oversleep, they forget, or they would really rather not be there. I remarked to a coworker that I was getting stood up so much I ought to start coming to work in […]
LSAs bring back memories of 1980s ultralight craze
Reading issues of The Pulse of General Aviation and Dan Johnson’s SPLOG column on Light Sport Aircraft (LSA) in the latest issue of General Aviation News put my memory on overload the other day. It also sent me digging into my files of far too many unfiled and poorly organized slides. Do you remember slides? […]
More memories from ‘Nine Lives’
Recently I’ve been reading a book by Malvern (Mal) Gross titled “Nine Lives – Adventures of a Lucky Pilot.” (See the first part of the review here.) Gross started his career as a CPA and during his many years he set world records in his Cessna 210, headed up a couple of national and international […]
Book review creates flood of memories
Every now and then I get a call from the office and the conversation usually goes something like this: Ben: Hi dad, what’s going on? Me: Nothing much just watching the Olympics or working on some Rotary stuff but nothing critical … what have you got in mind? Ben: How about coming into the office. […]
‘Washington, we have a problem’
GUEST EDITORIAL By DAVE HOOK Each time I read of a new security proposal that will impact general aviation, I feel like keying the mic button and saying, “Washington, we have a problem.” You know, just to see if anybody’s listening. That’s because our freedom to fly is at risk. Risk — now that’s a […]
Good riddance 2009!
Happy New Year! I’ve been waiting to say that for about six months now. While there is no guarantee 2010 will be any better than 2009, it always feels good to flip the calendar to a clean sheet, full of possibilities. That said, looking forward I find loads of challenges (or opportunities if you prefer […]