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My cockpit is full of switches that can get me into trouble. For example, if I activate the fuel crossfeed switch without monitoring fuel levels, I can cause a lateral imbalance. If I forget to engage the LNAV after selecting a direct intercept to a waypoint, the airplane will navigate itself off course. But nothing […]

You can’t go to a party in Florida where I live and escape a conversation about real estate or hurricanes. There’s no doubt that the state is still adding to its population base and the interaction between the growth, the weather and the price of real estate makes for an underlying hum of concern. One […]

As I start the engine, close the door and steer away from the shore, navigating gingerly around a submerged tree trunk and the last log in the rugged breakwater a few yards away, the butterflies in my stomach advance from a jittery dance of anticipation into something more akin to a whirling dervish frenzy. It’s […]

Japan has been a marginal, but potentially formidable, presence in American aviation since the late 1960s. Fuji Heavy Industries, which had previously manufactured both two- and four-seat versions of the Beech T-34 Mentor for domestic military forces, produced almost 300 of the FA200 Aero Subaru, which looked the way a 172 would if you replaced […]

What pilot doesn’t like to play the “dream plane” game? If money were no object (or at least a lot less of an object than it normally is), what jaw-droppingly cool airplane would you stick in your hangar? I know, it’s hard to pick just one. So we pilots tend to get greedy when playing […]

If you had the choice between buying a real J-3 or an LSA knockoff of a J-3, wouldn’t you pick the real McCoy? I used to think it was a no brainer. I’m not so sure any more. I stopped by the home of the American Legend Aircraft Company in Sulphur Springs, Texas, located about […]

What do the Wright Flyer, the Spirit of St. Louis, the Bell X-1 and the Apollo 11 Lunar Module have in common? Somehow, each of these flying machines managed to attain an honored place in aerospace history despite having small landing gear tires or none at all. This is a paradox of sorts, considering the […]

This is a story about a dog and an airplane. The dog is Ubu, a 14-year-old lab-shepherd mix, color black. The airplane is a 1980 Cheyenne I, color white with a brown stripe. The two met just after my wife, Cathy, and I acquired the Cheyenne about five years ago. Ubu had developed a love […]

I told our son on the phone that I was going to fly a new 206. He asked if that wasn’t the airplane we flew to Alabama on his first birthday. It was. He will be 41 in August. The 206 has been around for a long time. The biggest change over time, up until […]