Jason McDowell

When researching various aircraft types for Flying, I encounter a wide variety of owners with an even wider variety of stories. Most recently, I met with the owner of a taildragger who agreed to take me up for a demonstration flight to help me evaluate the type for an article I was writing. As he […]

Back in the early ‘90s, Honda ran an ad for its redesigned Prelude. It showed a bright red model against a city skyline with the caption “You’ll never have your pizza delivered again.” The implication was that with a fun enough vehicle, we will look for any excuse to get out and enjoy it. As […]

I didn’t know who McPherson was, but I knew I hated him. There, scrawled into the schedule, smack dab in the middle of the weekend I had planned for a flying vacation, was a two-hour block of time during which he had reserved the flying club’s Cessna 172. I thought I had planned far enough […]

For many of us, the initial steps toward aircraft ownership begin at an early age. Sitting in a stuffy grade-school classroom and being presented with the finer points of the New Deal, the parallelogram, and mitochondria, our eyes wandered to a sliver of blue sky visible in a window, and our minds followed. Perhaps our […]

Have a look at the various aircraft types parked on the ramp of a busy general aviation airport, and the mission of each quickly becomes evident. Lancairs and Mooneys utilize their sleek lines to achieve speed and efficiency. Well-worn flight school aircraft spend their days enduring all the various lessons learned by the steady stream […]

In the early 1960s, general aviation was experiencing tremendous growth, and Beechcraft wanted a bigger slice of the pie. The competition’s ever-expanding product offerings were not going unnoticed, and Beechcraft decided to expand into new market segments. It developed a new, lower-cost training-and-touring airplane that provided stable comfort for long trips, the sturdiness necessary for […]

On the spectrum of popularity, various aircraft types ebb and flow from decade to decade, and the most sought-after models become easy to spot. Cessna 170s and Carbon Cubs are currently among the most desirable types, and while their popularity and reputation are not necessarily undeserved, the resulting prices often stretch out of reach for […]

Whether in tricycle or tailwheel configuration, this economical cruiser shows its value.

The hierarchy of personal general aviation aircraft types has, over the years, come to be defined by certain mainstays. The Cessna 150-152 and light taildraggers have been the stalwarts of basic, entry-level aviation. The Skyhawk and Cherokee families have long served as the go-to solution for economical four-place aircraft—and more-powerful, complex machines like those from […]