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Writing for a major aviation publication like Plane & Pilot feels sometimes like being a time traveller.
When the space shuttle reenters the earth’s atmosphere, it becomes nothing more than a huge glider—with a pretty awful glide ratio—and the shuttle commander gets just one chance to land.
I’m one fortunate aviator. My professional career has coincided with the 30-year flight history of the Space Shuttle program.
Behold the home of the $100 hamburger, the remnants of a life gone by, when linen-covered, nitrate-doped biplanes landed in potato fields and took small-town kids for rides on balmy summer days.
I’ve always admired—and envied—bush pilots.
What’s the next big leap in aviation? I think about this stuff all the time.
Recently, a gentleman e-mailed me who had invested a ways back in an LSA company, not because he expected to become the next Piper, Flight Design, Rans or Legend Cub, but because, in his own words, “I just love airplanes.” A lifelong financial professional, he wasn’t after a fortune—except maybe the proverbial small one from a big one. He just loved airplanes.
Early in September of 1977, a fellow Alaska registered guide asked me to fly some avgas to a hunting camp he operated on the west side of the Alaska Range.
“Athlete” isn’t a word that’s often equated with pilots, but Red Bull Air Race pilots are athletes in every way.
June gloom is here—a time for low ceilings and low visibility due to fog and mist.
Aviation and flying have been an important part of my life for as long as I can remember.
First Titanic, then Avatar. Now the Horsemen. Renowned composer James Horner has taken his musical talents from Hollywood’s big screen to the world of aviation.
A few weeks ago, I came within a second or two of a head-on mid-air collision.
About a year ago, I asked Mike Adams, Avemco Insurance Company’s VP of underwriting, to use his crystal ball (FAA and Avemco accident and claim statistics) to divine trends in LSA flying.
The last time we visited with John and Martha King, they were flying the new Cessna Skycatcher for a series of light-sport instructional DVDs. Recently, we caught up with them in something on the other end of the speed spectrum—their Dassault Falcon 10 jet.
Partway through the year, as the economy continues to show signs of recovery, I wanted to look down the road and ask someone who keeps a keen eye on the LSA industry if there were significant trends to track for the rest of 2010.
I loved Choose Your Own Adventure “gamebooks” when I was young.
“Why would anyone want to go there?” is what a few pilots on the ramp asked when we told them where we were off to.