General

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”: In a recent magazine article I read about amateur-built light-sport aircraft, E-LSA Certification requires that an emergency locator transmitter (ELT) […]

Illustrated by Chris Gall It was the summer of 1989, and the Midwest was sweating through an endless stretch of hot and humid days, cloudless but wrapped in a thick layer of haze. Weather forecasts were so boringly predictable that calling for a VFR briefing was pointless; the vis would come up to three miles […]

“Always have an out.” That’s what my roommate and more experienced pilot buddy warned me about flying in instrument meteorological conditions (IMC). It was sage advice when this story took place, 24 years ago. I had arrived in Pontiac, Michigan, from the Deep South in January to begin a “dream job” of flying on-demand cargo […]

A debate simmered in certain obscure quarters a couple of years ago over the relative merits of the Newton and Bernoulli explanations of lift, even though they’re just two sides of the same coin. An airplane produces many kinds of disturbances in the air as it passes by, and you can argue all day about […]

A full page ad in the morning paper invited readers to a showing and reception for one of the new small jets (VLJs) at Million Air Cincinnati on the following Tuesday evening. It sounded like fun so I called the 800 number for an invitation. The young salesman was cordial but seemed intent on establishing […]

“After reading Dick Karl’s article ‘The Practiced Art of Airline Safety’ in the October issue, it becomes obvious that the best way to instantly improve the safety of flying and the medical profession is to ban Dick Karl from practicing either of them. I would not want him performing surgery on my open chest or […]

Just a couple of years ago they were about to close the doors on the facility that makes the ATR line of turboprop regional airliners. Total orders for the ATR 42 and 72 made by the European consortium had dropped to six, and no new customers were on the horizon. The regional jets (RJs) had […]

“Always be ready for the unexpected.” That is what Donnie Underwood, my friend and flight instructor (private through instrument), always told me. Be aware of what is going on around you and be ready to respond accordingly. This is good advice. On one particular flight, we would experience a good example of what he was […]

When I wrote “Hazardous Duty” (Flying, May 2005), I was learning about missionary aviation but had never actually been to the mission field. Everything I wrote came from descriptions and accident reports written by others. That has all changed. Last month I had a chance to travel to Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Papua, Indonesia, […]

The first “glass” cockpit airplane that I flew was a Falcon 10 or 100, well over 20 years ago. At that time the nomenclature was EFIS (for electronic flight instrumentation system), the equipment was from Collins radio and basically it replicated the mechanical flight instruments. I recall that the depiction was not particularly crisp and […]