Flying Staff

When I earned my first jet type rating more than 25 years ago it was just assumed that I knew how to fly and could pass the course. If I couldn’t, the check ride would find my shortcomings, and I would be out the door. The training was one size fits all, sink or swim, […]

The FAA has awarded an initial contract to purchase ADS-B ground-based equipment, and set a bunch of dates for implementation of the system, but what is this new air traffic control technology, and what will it mean for airplane owners and pilots? A place to start is with the letters that make up the abbreviation, […]

Happily, the days of a dealer tossing the keys to a new owner and wishing him luck are gone, at least for most of the industry. The delivery process today, even for light airplanes, is extremely involved. Before a new owner leaves the factory with his brand-new, shiny flying machine, he’ll have to sit down […]

The year 1979 was the last big year of aircraft shipments. Almost 18,000 were sold that year. About 3,000 of those airplanes were piston twins. Today, any single that sells 534 units a year is red hot. In 1979, that’s how many Seneca twins Piper sold. If the piston single business looks lethargic when compared […]

“Three things in life are overrated,” I was told in medical school. “Home cooking, out of town sex and the Johns Hopkins Hospital.” Envy was surely at work. When I became an intern in the great Midwest, the saying was similar, but regionalized. “Three things in life are overrated: (HC, OOTS) and the Mayo Clinic.” […]

It’s a pretty picture, that’s for sure. Tooling along at Flight Level 280, truing out at 260 knots in pressurized comfort, a pair of powerplants humming away as the miles slip behind you. If you hadn’t already read the title, you’d probably be thinking “turboprop” right now. Unless you already fly an Aerostar. Then you’d […]

In late July when Cessna announced at AirVenture that it would offer a BRS whole-airplane parachute for its emerging light-sport aircraft, the SkyCatcher, no one was very surprised. Chutes have become pretty standard fare in LSAs, so Cessna was just following suit. But BRS, the company that makes the chute for the SkyCatcher, as well […]

It seems that every bit of new aviation technology is initially made much more complicated and confusing for pilots to use than is necessary. For example, when GPS navigators first became available, every instructional course from the FAA or others would start out describing the constellation of GPS satellites, their orbital altitude and so on. […]