General

From an NTSB preliminary report on an accident involving a Piper PA-46-500TP (Meridian turboprop single): “An eyewitness, a retired Navy instructor pilot, located about one half-mile northwest of the accident site, reported observing the accident airplane descending through the overcast about 1227. The airplane leveled off about 300 feet above ground level (agl) and turned […]

With all of the talk in the financial media about a housing bubble, or a credit bubble — and we all remember the tech bubble — I have been wondering if there was an airplane bubble? I suppose there is a specific definition of a financial bubble somewhere in academia, but I would define a […]

It was a dark and stormy night in late October. George, one of five partners in our Warrior, and I were completing the last leg of a three-segment flight. Our purpose, other than practice and fun, was to test out our brand-new yoke-mounted Trimble GPS that we had just acquired. The GPS was replacing a […]

Traditionally, a master class is given by a recognized expert in a field — usually music, but also painting, drama or any of the arts — to students who are themselves advanced practitioners of the art, but who, for professional reasons, are anxious to improve their own capability. The ‘masters’ provide advice and often examples […]

I didn’t sleep very well. I kept going over the DUAT weather briefing in my mind trying to make it read better than I knew it did. I was scheduled to fly the short flight over to Exxel Avionics at Hartford (Connecticut)-Brainard Airport (KHFD) to have the biennial IFR certification performed on my Cardinal. In […]

The most common questions I am asked by pilot friends is which airplane I plan to buy next, and which airplane do I think they should buy next. Clearly it is a topic every pilot thinks about a lot, and it remains a hot topic because there isn’t any clear-cut answer. For many years the […]

Each month, Flying answers questions about the new Sport Pilot/Light Sport Aircraft Rule with assistance from the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA), the authority on the opportunities available within the category commonly known as “Sport Pilot”. Q: Help! I missed the January 31 deadline for submitting an application to convert my two-place ultralight to the Light […]

Last Halloween my homebuilt, Melmoth 2, celebrated its fifth birthday-if age be counted not from conception (in which case it would not be five but 26) but from first flight, and if being an inanimate object parked in a hangar be called celebrating. _Melmoth_2 was not really finished in 2002, but what original-design homebuilt ever […]

I have flown the Beech King Air 200 many times in the last 32 years here at the magazine but I still needed help to get the big turboprop off the ramp. Starting the engines was easy and totally familiar, I knew the systems and could operate them correctly with a few seconds to locate […]

There are a number of reasons why around 700 people die each year in aircraft operating under Part 91 and Part 135, while Part 121 operations sometimes go an entire year without any fatalities. Airlines have stricter regulations, and operations manuals spell out every nuance of how a flight and the entire airline will be […]