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Guest Speaker

Air Shows As GA Rallying Point

Working together to benefit general aviation

As much of the aviation industry suffered through the effects of the historic economic downturn during the last year, the air show industry experienced double-digit growth and, in some markets, record attendance.

My Secret

How teamwork makes for the best job in the sky

I have a secret that I’m going to let fly with the aviation community.

Reflections On Inner & Outer Flight

Reaching beyond self-imposed limitations

Why are we so fascinated by flight? What draws us to it? What makes flight so special?

Bringing The “Sport” Back To Flying (Kirk Hawkins)

Appealing to the emotional rather than the practical may be the key to revitalizing GA

In 2004, the FAA passed what has been called the “biggest change in aviation in 50 years”—it created the LSA category and sport pilot license. “So what?” you ask. You’ve already got your private, commercial, instrument, CFI and MEI ratings, and your Eagle Scout Badge.

Weather-Smart With Scenario-Based Training

Improving the learning process

Recently, a VFR pilot flying a Cessna 172 departed after dark in VMC and flew into IMC. Shortly after takeoff, the pilot reported an electrical failure to ATC, but continued into a thickening blanket of fog.

Smoke On!

Pushing my Edge to the edge over the Danube

It’s hot in this race plane…even at 1,000 feet…or is it just me? My mouth is dry and my heart is racing as I watch the competitor before me twisting his way through the track.

Protecting Kenya’s National Parks

Training the Kenya Wildlife Service Airwing

I often wear a little leather choker with two bronze elephant tusks. I picked it up a few years ago in a Nairobi gallery called Matt Bronze, and it reminds me of the wild things that still live in Kenya.

Personal Aviation At A Crossroads

Looking back and moving forward

Five years ago, the first special light-sport aircraft (S-LSA) received its airworthiness certificate, opening up a new chapter in the regulation of simple personal flight. More than 1,000 of these factory-built aircraft and more than 8,000 former ultralights (experimental light-sport aircraft, E-LSA) are now flying under the sport pilot and LSA category.

Gaining Your Pilot’s License

An opportunity to see the world from a different perspective

Leonardo da Vinci once said, “For once you have tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return.” There are more than 600,000 registered pilots in the United States, and each of them can relate to this quote.