Amy Laboda

Use all of your tools to spot nearby traffic.

I’m old, I’m cranky. Why do I keep air-camping? There are so many reasons.

After a long hiatus, a cross-country trip reawakens a pilot’s skills, flight planning techniques, and her love of flight.

So you’ve started flight training, but it’s just not working the way you expected. You’ve got a sinking feeling that you and your flight instructor just aren’t communicating like you should—or you have a downright distaste for spending any time at all with this person who is serving as a primary mentor in your aviation […]

I’ve always been partial to simplicity when attempting to solve life’s biggest challenges, and for me, learning a new language has been one of the toughest I’ve ever undertaken. What I didn’t realize when I learned to fly was that I was also taking on a new language, “aviation speak,” as well. I was young […]

Let’s get this straight from the beginning: The Van’s Aircraft RV-14A is not an off-the-shelf airplane. Every one of them out in the wild is custom-built. Even its recommended 210 hp Lycoming Thunderbolt XIO-390 engine is hand-assembled, polished and ported by a select team of Lycoming employees. And the “A” denotes a nosewheel version, with […]

I live in the Deep South, and I emerge from summer begging for a massive cold front to clear the Florida/Georgia state line and bring some ­much-needed relief from the blistering heat and stifling humidity. Come the end of September, I am aching for sight of high cirrus, introducing a phalanx of low cumulus, chased […]

The first Ninety-Nines China Section International Conference, held November 7 to 9 in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China, set the bar high for Asian aviation gatherings, focusing on growing general aviation in 21st century China. The country lists more than 230 airports that support GA activities, from flight training and private flying to emergency medical flights, […]

When I was growing up, the glamour of an aviation job was all wrapped up in the thrill of traveling the world. Little did I know that more than half the careers in aviation involve staying in one place. Aviation maintenance used to be one of those careers, but the industry is changing for a […]

What supports the manufacturing world of “just-in-time” inventory? Who do you call when you’ve absolutely got to have “it” the next day? Cargo airlines. And what makes the air-cargo industry go? Pilots — lots of them! Best of all, cargo operations are hiring. If you’re a freight pilot, your next route could be an exotic […]