General

||| |—|—| | | | It was hot in the shop. It was after six on a summer Friday night and we’d driven to Lakeland, Florida, to talk to Mike about a new interior for the Cheyenne. Our interior was original and we liked the seats, but the carpet and drapes were well past their […]

||| |—|—| | | | Consider the following scenarios: …You are on final approach to a major airport when your airplane unexpectedly hits wake turbulence, which turns it upside down. …As you initiate your takeoff roll, the gust front from an approaching storm blows you into the air at a low airspeed and high angle […]

If, as hoary nautical tradition holds, it’s bad luck to rename a ship, then the poor old SS Sea Breeze was damned and damned again. The midsize (606 feet) cruise ship began life in 1958 as the Federico C, designed for service out of Genoa for immigrants heading to new lives in Buenos Aires and […]

||| |—|—| | | | Since it consists of little more than a stick at one end and a couple of ailerons at the other, I thought that hooking up the roll control system of my homebuilt would not have been much of a problem. But then you wouldn’t think anything would be much of […]

||| |—|—| | | | It seemed such an innocuous decision at the time. Life had gotten a bit much, I was behind schedule, the late August weather patterns looked bad, and I needed to get home to California for some meetings. “Well,” I thought. “I’ll just leave the airplane in New York for now […]

||| |—|—| | | | Student pilots, worried they don’t have the right stuff, often ask me, “What makes a good pilot?” They’re usually surprised when I don’t cite physical coordination and natural ability. No, if I had to identify one personality trait that makes for a good (read safe) pilot, I’d have to say […]

I never thought I would live to see the day that all civil aviation in this country was grounded. But it happened on September 11. It was spooky as my wife, Stancie, and I walked our dogs in the early evening in the Connecticut suburbs just northeast of New York City. Normally the air is […]

||| |—|—| | | | I’m not in my airplane. I’m sitting in my office. The sun is shining and there’s a gentle breeze caressing the leaves outside my window. Now. It didn’t start out to be a good day. The plan was to fly Judith to Ithaca, New York, to spend a weekend with […]

||| |—|—| | | | At first, I was decidedly bummed at the timing. I’d agreed to fly my Cheetah to Peterborough, Canada, east of Toronto, to give a talk there on the 7th of July. It seemed a good excuse to take the Cheetah on an adventure and see parts of the country, and […]

Superior Air Parts will market a pair of aero diesel engines manufactured by Thielert (pronounced “tea-lert”). The TAE 110 and TAE 125 engines produce 110 and 125 horsepower, respectively. The 110 has already won JAA certification; the 125 is said to be close, and FAA approval for both is expected to follow soon. Initial U.S. […]