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Howard Hughes

Written by R.S. Tripp, 1999-11-30 01:00:00

This past December 2004 marked the release of a new movie called The Aviator, which is directed by Martin Scorsese and based on the pre-1950s life of Howard Hughes. Although it’s an entertaining film, it probably raises more questions than answers for those interested in the reality of Howard Hughes’ life as an aviator.

All The Way To South America

Written by Lyn Freeman, 1999-11-30 01:00:00

Ladies and gentlemen, I am happy to inform you that in this river, there are no cocodrilos,” our guide smiled as he related the information to us. Just hearing the word made our adventure more exciting. Cocodrilos (a.k.a. crocodiles)—I said it over and over again, letting the syllables twist back and forth between the tip of my tongue and the roof of my mouth. “KO KO DREE YOSE,” I repeated, trying to perfect that Spanish rolling “r” that eludes most gringos. “There are, however, many jaguars,” the guide added.

Blimp My Ride

Written by Jessica Ambats, 1999-11-30 01:00:00

My foot pushes on the rudder pedal but nothing happens. I push harder. Still nothing. And so I stomp, hoping that the barn-door-sized rudder will finally budge. Like a large boat churning in open waters, the blimp enters a barely perceptible turn. It’s slow, but persistent, and so I step on the opposite rudder. Rather, I lift my body up and push with my entire weight on the opposite rudder. A long time passes before the blimp responds again.

Fabulous Fall Flying

1999-11-30 01:00:00

It’s no secret to pilots that fall is a great time of year to fly. The temperature is crisp, the air is clear, and there’s an overall decrease in convective activity. Summer travelers have returned home, and kids are back to school, which means that your favorite vacation spots can be enjoyed without the crowds.

Fly Chile

Written by Jessica Ambats, 1999-11-30 01:00:00

I squinted as I scanned the horizon from the Cessna 210’s window. “Just over there,” my guide Jaime Hernández pointed into the distance. “The lake at 10 o’clock is actually in Argentina.” My eyes scanned the Andes, but the snowy peaks and turquoise water blended together to form one massive, remarkable mountain range rather than two distinct countries. We continued at 9,500 feet over waterfalls, volcanoes, black-sand beaches and mile after endless mile of roadless, inaccessible terrain. Several low passes and steep turns thrilled the shutterbug in me, and Fleetwood Mac, playing through our headsets, seemed like an old friend. “Relax gringa,” Jaime said, “you’re in Chile.”

Logbook Love Affair

Written by Budd Davisson, 1999-11-30 01:00:00

You don’t have to have lived very long to realize that some moments stay with you forever. A few airplanes are like that: As with a first kiss, you replay those flights over and over in the theater of your mind. For instance, it seems as if only 15 minutes—not several decades—have elapsed since my first takeoff in a Grumman F8F Bearcat. I was researching a school article on warbird pilots—the Bearcat wasn’t on the list to be flown. The Vought Corsair that was on the list, however, blew a hydraulic line, so the owner, Jr. Burchinal, proprietor of the wildest flying school in history said, “Come on, fly the Bearcat.”

Cavanaugh’s Flight Through Time

1999-11-30 01:00:00

Jim Cavanaugh has a habit of starting small and building big. An integral part of his formula is his desire to share his passions with others so that, in the end, everyone wins.

It's Aerotrekking

Written by Lyn Freeman, 1999-11-30 01:00:00

Out the window, there’s not a hint of light on the horizon. Inside, the room is dark except for the glow of the computer screen on John McAfee’s face. “Winds aloft out of El Paso are from the northeast at 22,” he says with a crinkle of his nose that pushes his glasses a little higher on his head.

The Aviation Storyteller

1999-11-30 01:00:00

For Greg Herrick, collecting airplanes seems to be more of an addiction, less of a hobby. His eclectic assortment of more than 40 aircraft spans eight decades, with a focus on the period between World War I and World War II known as the Golden Age.

Ghosts

1999-11-30 01:00:00

Just a few years after the Wright Brothers took their groundbreaking first flight, war broke out in Europe. The scant supply of airplanes that were on hand when World War I began quickly evolved into military machines, and for the first time in history, battles took place in the sky.

Is General Aviation Losing The Popularity Contest?

Written by Marc C. Lee, 1999-11-30 01:00:00

You remember, don’t you, when you first fell in love with aviation? Perhaps it was a warm, sunny day with a jeweled, blue morning sky beckoning you to the airport on your trusty Schwinn Sting-Ray bicycle. Maybe you crouched in the tall, brown grass by the run-up area, the stiff propeller wash blowing your hair. You blocked the sun with your hand and gazed up in wonder.

See Italy By Seaplane

Written by Lyn Freeman, 1999-11-30 01:00:00

Cesare Baj dropped the first notch of flaps on the Lake Buccaneer as we circled Castelli di Cannero, a castle from the 13th century. The amazingly intact structure was built on a rocky outcrop in the middle of a lake 600 to 700 years ago as a means of discouraging unwanted visitors. That philosophy can be evidenced today as this late-medieval castle remains virtually inaccessible to almost all tourists who visit Italy.

Racing Bobby Unser

1999-11-30 01:00:00

There were surprises. It only took one question to kick off a discussion that took nearly three utterly fascinating hours to unravel. And some of the statements he made were truly outside the image and expectations I had brought to the interview.

Flying In Europe

1999-11-30 01:00:00

When the chance came to fly a Cirrus across Europe, it would be an understatement to call it a chance of a lifetime. For years, it had always seemed to me that Europe was the perfect place to have a small, personal airplane. You can fly from almost anywhere to anywhere else in western Europe on a single tank of gas.

60 Years After

1999-11-30 01:00:00

Paul Tibbets joined the Army Air Corps at Fort Thomas, Ky., in 1937. In 1942, Tibbets joined the 97th Bomb Group in the Bolero Mission, ferrying B-17s, P-38s and C-47s from Bangor, Maine, across Greenland and Iceland to the European Theatre. He flew the B-17 Flying Fortress with the 340th Bomb Squadron Bombardment Group in Europe and later flew missions to support the Allied invasion of North Africa.

Burt Rutan

Written by Tom Cunneff, 1999-11-30 01:00:00

Before pilot Brian Binnie soared and flew right into world history aboard SpaceShipOne on October 4, 2004, team leader Burt Rutan had a little advice for his old golfing buddy. Just after 6 a.m. inside a hanger at Mojave Airport in California, Burt leaned into the bug-like spacecraft’s cockpit and said, “Use the driver. Keep your head down and swing smooth.”

Escorted Adventures

Written by Lyn Freeman, 1999-11-30 01:00:00

Bob and Jill Blettner flew from Wisconsin down to Key West, Fla., in their Cessna Centurion to meet Thierry Pouille for the first time. Jimmy and Diane Jones came from Georgia in their C-206. Don and Arlene Stoppe flew their Seneca from New Hampshire. Philippe Harsch arrived from Paris, and Marc Cotte from Johannesburg, South Africa. All came for a single reason: to join in a fast-growing activity in general aviation—escorted adventures with Thierry Pouille and his company, Air Journey.

A New Kind Of Air Racing

1999-11-30 01:00:00

Reno 2004: The single red and blue airplane comes screaming downhill from 1,000 feet toward the twin pylons, passes through the center of the short gap between them and starts the race. Then, inexplicably, the airplane does an 8 G pull up to vertical, rolls past a wingover to inverted and dives straight back down toward the ground. It’s called the Red Bull Air Race, and it’s a type of competition no one in the U.S. has seen before.

The Men Behind The Lens

Written by James Lawrence, 1999-11-30 01:00:00

There it sits, waiting, a latency of brooding power. It’s like the unprocessed image on a digital memory chip. Family: American warbird. Genus: Lockheed Stealth Fighter. Species: F/A-22 Raptor. You can feel the deadly purpose rise from its gold-tinted canopy and cool, gray skin, like the heat waves that shimmer the Vegas Strip in the distance.

The Leeward Air Ranch

1999-11-30 01:00:00

Jimmy Leeward really never had much of a chance. His parents eloped in an Aeronca C-3. The couple settled down on a grass strip outside of Tarentum, Pa., and as soon as Jimmy could walk, he was at the airport, cleaning and eventually working on many airplanes. Of course, he, too, would become a pilot.

The Search For Amelia

Written by Katherine Diaz, 1999-11-30 01:00:00

Lady Lindy always knew how to captivate a crowd. And today was no different. She, famed aviatrix Amelia Earhart—nicknamed for her comparable achievements to another celebrated aviator, Charles Lindbergh—stood in front of her airplane amidst a throng of people who were eager to witness her attempt at yet another record-breaking flight—to become the first person to fly around the world at its widest route, near the equator.

Flying The Yukon Quest

Written by Lyn Freeman, 1999-11-30 01:00:00

The sun isn’t up yet and Gary Chamberlain is already on the phone, talking to flight service. The news isn’t good. Circle City, a small checkpoint along the sled-dog race route based on the banks of the Yukon River, is reporting 20 to 30 knots of crosswind with blowing snow, the ceilings are low, and the temperature is stuck at 57 degrees F—below zero.

The Bears Of Kamchatka

1999-11-30 01:00:00

For Charlie Russell and Maureen Enns, it had been a mostly sleepless night. Straight winds of more than 100 miles an hour were not uncommon in remote southeast Russia, and the storms that came with them could last for days. Their tiny homebuilt cabin perched on the tundra was barely a refuge from gusts of air that found their way through the tiny imperfections in the walls, the roof and even the floor, bringing with them deposits of snow, dust or rain. At first light, their worst fears were confirmed: The wind had put their airplane on its back.

Tuskegee Tradition

1999-11-30 01:00:00

Their legacy is one of courage in the face of a variety of adversaries—fierce anti-aircraft artillery fire, swarms of enemy fighters, some of the worst weather in Europe and constant derision and discrimination from many of their own comrades in arms during World War II.

Flying Vintners

1999-11-30 01:00:00

John Trefethen, whose name graces one of Napa Valley’s premier wineries, is standing inside an oak barrel room of his historic winery on his 600-acre vineyard. Neatly dressed in jeans and a mustard-yellow silk shirt, Trefethen is regaling his listeners with some hangar talk about a crop-duster that used to land on the one-lane entrance road when the winery started in the early ’70s. In those days, Trefethen was flying his Cessna 182 out of the Napa Valley Airport 10 miles away, causing the crop-dusting pilot to scratch his head.

Through The Looking Glass

1999-11-30 01:00:00

At first, it might seem a bit odd. In a control room in NASA’s JPL laboratory, scientists and engineers sit, waiting for the next data stream from the world’s most advanced space-imaging telescope, Spitzer. Instead of lofty conversations about the bits and bytes beaming back to Earth to decipher the mysteries of the cosmos, the conversation could likely be about airplanes.

Crewing For Red Bull, Down Under

1999-11-30 01:00:00

At the closing ceremonies of each Red Bull Air Race, there’s always a jubilant atmosphere. Pilots douse each other in champagne, confetti fills the air, everyone cheers and countless autographs are signed. The racers have worked hard and deserve such a moment. But away from the fanfare, crew members have just as much reason to celebrate. Mechanics, ferry pilots and managers have given their all to help the pilots succeed and have also earned the right to be proud. “Our pilots represent us,” says Lance Winter, mechanic for the 2006 series winner, Kirby Chambliss. “If they do well, we have done well.”

Gathering Of Mustangs

Written by Bill Cox, 2008-02-26 01:00:00

It’s perhaps the most iconic military airplane in the history of aviation. Regardless of its real talents (and they’re considerable), the North American P-51 Mustang has achieved a status among fighters unmatched by any other aircraft. It may not have been the fastest, best armored, most maneuverable or longest ranged when it was in service in both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters, but it’s still generally regarded as the world’s best, all-around piston fighter.

LightHawk: The Truth From Above

Written by Rick Durden, 1999-11-30 01:00:00

Among the earliest things we learned during our initial flying lessons, just after we sorted out the challenge of flying both straight and level at the same time, was that the view of our planet from an aircraft was utterly captivating and that the world was laid open in a fashion we had never imagined. The stunning sights we saw from aloft were the first things we described to our nonflying friends in our excitement at learning to fly.

Backcountry Bash

Written by James Lawrence, 1999-11-30 01:00:00

No way, José. Through the rear side window of the hard-banked Aviat Husky, I’m staring goggle-eyed down at a gnat-sized strip of straw and dirt far below. I wonder aloud over the comm: Am I looking at the wrong area? Nope, says pilot Tom Bryant.

Sun 'N Fun

Written by James Lawrence, 1999-11-30 01:00:00

Newly certified in the States, the Toxo Sportster is the first Spanish-built LSA in America. The all-metal FPNA A22 Valor offers an open cockpit and 360-degree visibility. The Brazilian SeaMax is an LSA amphib with a retractable water rudder and short takeoff and landing distances.