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Fly by Wire by Stephen Pope

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About Stephen Pope

Stephen Pope is a longtime aviation journalist and pilot. He grew up in northern New Jersey, where he started taking flying lessons at the age of 15 at small grass strip in a Piper J-3 Cub. While in high school he worked as a line boy at the East 60th Street Heliport in New York City and First Aviation Services at New Jersey's Teterboro Airport, as well as a stringer writing for several local community newspapers. Read full bio >
FAA, FBI Step Up Laser Incident Enforcement
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Warn the neighbors and anybody else who will listen: The FAA and FBI are cracking down on people who intentionally point laser lights at aircraft in flight, launching dozens of investigations and charging nearly 30 alleged perpetrators since stepping up enforcement last summer. A new law enacted in February makes doing so a federal crime punishable by up to five years in prison.

Worried About Fuel Costs? Buy a Refinery!
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A few months ago I wrote a feature story that took an in-depth look at the future of aviation biofuel, an area of scientific research that is still very much in its infancy but appears poised for major breakthroughs. In the article, I noted that oil price instability is the chief worry of most every airline CFO around the world, and a big reason why Boeing, Airbus and the Pentagon strongly back biofuel production investment.

When Should a Pilot Lawyer Up?
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I attended a meeting last night at Morristown Municipal Airport (MMU) in New Jersey, where officials from the tower and the FAA were on hand to discuss with local pilots the new Mandatory Occurrence Reporting (MOR) system that many have likened to an ATC snitching program.

The Wandering Hearts of Pilots
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I’ve been lucky to have flown a lot of airplanes over the past 20 years, almost all of them belonging to other people. Some were high wings; some were low. Some were taildraggers; some were nose pushers. Some were brand new; some were downright decrepit. Some were fast; some were painfully slow. Some were pleasantly roomy; others were tiny. Some were technologically advanced; others were technologically challenged.

Language Lessons
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I recently spent a week on a sailboat as a guest of an experienced captain and his first mate – in this case, literally so because she is also his wife. This was my first real exposure to sailing on the open sea, of which past experiences have been confined to the occaisional summer afternoon, usually in calm weather. Throughout the trip I couldn’t help but compare sailing in a boat with flying in an airplane. This was a fun and satisfying exercise.

What Will It Take To Rebuild Bendix/King?
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It takes years to build a successful brand, but only a few bad decisions, or in some cases a run of bad luck, to ruin one. That’s what makes the planned revitalization of the storied Bendix/King brand name so intriguing. For the past 15 years, Bendix/King has more or less been a victim of neglect as the weeds were allowed to grow up all around it. In short, the brand suffered from the sort of parental abandonment that would have done in lesser names.

Celebrating the RV-1
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Sun ‘n Fun in Lakeland, Florida, marks the start of a very special journey for the airplane that spawned a homebuilding revolution.

When Numbers Lie
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If there’s anything that the FAA’s latest aviation industry forecast proves, it’s that you can make the numbers paint just about any picture you want them to, especially when you’re guessing using assumptions about what might happen 20 years from now.

Finding Work, a World Away
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A few weeks ago we reported on an upcoming job fair being put together by Wasinc International, China's largest pilot placement firm, and hosted by Pan Am International Flight Academy at its training centers in Miami and Las Vegas. What was unusual about the event was the airlines being represented. There were 12 Chinese carriers in attendance, all of them desperate to fill pilot seats in the fastest growing economy in the world. How did it go?

Leave the Logbook at Home
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I got an e-mail the other day from a reader with a heart-wrenching story that should serve as a cautionary tale for all pilots. He told me about a good friend of his who was killed, along with the friend's wife and kids, in an airplane crash last summer in Idaho. Because the two were so close, the pilot had made the friend the executor of his will. He was writing to me seeking advice about what had escalated into a contentious legal battle with the pilot’s insurance company.

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