Remarks

One of the battlefields for continued airport existence is the use or misuse of hangars by the airport residents. A common argument cited by airports to justify their existence is the airports economic benefit. To document that economic benefit, airport tenants are shown to provide both direct (rent, fuel, taxes, etc.) and indirect (promoting business, transportation hub, etc.) revenue. If tenants simply store stuff in their hangars, neither of those purposes is served very well. To compound that problem, federal funds to build those hangars are predicated on aviation use to promote, you know, flying.

Recently, I witnessed a ground collision between an airliner and a baggage tug. While I tend to be rather stoic in such matters, in retrospect this incident left me surprisingly rattled.As Ive previously mentioned in these pages, by night Im editor of this magazine, but by day I wear the hat of an airline pilot.

I was having fun despite it being a slog on the airlines. Id spun a cancelation of my flight to La Guardia (due to a tropical storm shutting down the East Coast) into a direct flight home from Toronto to Portland. Circumstance even got me into an airport members-only lounge with cozy couches and free food while I got some work done on the laptop.

Ive come to believe that single-pilot IFR in a fully loaded, glass-cockpit-but without using an autopilot-can be the toughest IFR flying you can do. The past month has found me in the clouds with and without students in a couple different airframes that I hadnt recently flown. Thats important because I wasnt in the groove with known power settings and trim. Theres more load on the scan when the plane is less familiar and thats where glass shows its biggest weakness: Visual channel overload.

Technological advances in aviation are few, slow and occur in small increments. Aside from composite materials, airframes are essentially unchanged over the last 70 years. Engines? Well, there have been a few interesting attempts to modernize, but even the antiquated magneto spark remains dominant. So, the aviator seeking the latest advances has to focus on electronics, which, fortunately, are evolving at a remarkably fast pace.

Competition breeds innovation and lower prices. I think I read that a few decades ago in a business course. Sounds about right.

Last January, the FAA changed internal policy on reporting potential pilot deviations. The stated goal was to discover why adverse safety events happen and identify the risks. The real-world fallout of this is pilots are getting warning letters in the mail for events they would have blown off in the past.

My editorial on learning to fly after the kids are grown (Flight Begins at 40, or Maybe 50, March 2012 IFR) struck a chord and earned several responses. The story was consistent: Im 50 (or 60 or 70) and just learned to fly. Youre right, we need older people acting as advocates to get more people with the means and the long-dormant wanting to make the leap.

My home recently came under the attack of two adopted, seven-month-old kittens. Watch these pint-sized entropy enhancers for five minutes and youll know why they say cats have nine lives. Climbing the curtains sure seemed like a good idea at the time. Now hanging in space by 10 front claws and slipping, diverting to a Plan B might be in order. Then superior engineering borne of millennia of evolution kicks in, and dropping 15 times their own height ends with a perfect landing and a surprise attack on the lamp cord.

Today I’m daydreaming about sneaking into a boardroom where avionics execs are brainstorming the next generation of avionics. The more time I spend with the latest avionics, the more I figure these guys could use some help. Besides, it’s likely there’s free coffee and donuts. Freelance CFI habits die hard. While they’re talking features and […]