Flying Staff

Brad Hayden comes from an aviation family. His father and uncle had avionics shops, and he confesses to flying so much as a kid that he “kind of got sick of it.” Of course, that might also have been due to the airsickness he and his five siblings battled on all those hot summer flights […]

“Okay, push her forward. That’s it, a little more forward pressure.” I do as instructed. The runway appears to be coming up at an alarming rate, filling the windshield inches from my eyes. Since this is a takeoff, shouldn’t the runway be disappearing? I feel as if I’m nosing her over onto the frantically oscillating […]

The turmoil that has consumed the world’s economy has certainly spread to aviation. And like investors, pilots are all looking for an airplane that can carry them through the unpredictable months and years ahead. The so-called flight to quality that sends money flowing into the most reliable and conservative investments also applies to pilots, and […]

Take a look inside the Quest Kodiak factory.

The crack of thunder was ear splitting and air clearing; you could smell the electricity. Though the rain had diminished from its torrential pace, there was little doubt that this thunderstorm was directly above us. Not one second of interval between flash of lightning and thwack of thunder was detectable. How pleased I was that […]

The Piaggio P.180 Avanti II is one of the most unusual, even exotic, looking airplanes in production today. When you look at the airplane and wonder “why did they do that,” the answer is always the same — to fly the biggest cabin the fastest for the least fuel. Efficiency drove every decision Piaggio engineers […]