Pilot Proficiency

The age of space tourism has already begun. In this video Robert Mason of Baltimore, Maryland, shares his flight to the edge of space in a Russian MiG-29 at the Sokol Airbase in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. While the video has no sound, you can watch as the skies darken and the curvature of the earth […]

(December 2011) For the past week I have been driving a Chevy Volt. The Volt, as you are undoubtedly aware, is a plug-in hybrid — GM’s, and I believe America’s, first mass-produced car of this type. I was staying at Truro, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod, and it was fun to make a 25-mile round trip […]

In our FBO Spotlight series, we’re highlighting FBOs around the country that have received rave reviews from our readers. This latest Spotlight is brought to you by Gregg Erikson, who recently refueled at J.A. Air Center (KARR) after giving Young Eagle flights in a Grumman Tiger. Here’s what he has to say about the FBO’s […]

Loss of control has consistently been the leading factor causing landing accidents, according to the annual Nall Report, published by AOPA’s Air Safety Institute. One way to prevent loss of directional control is to learn to consistently stay aligned with the centerline of the runway during the landing phase. Some tricycle landing gear equipped airplanes […]

There’s been a lot of hand-wringing in Washington after that super-secret American spy drone fell into Iranian hands last week. Tehran claims it shot down the UAV, which analysts have identified as an RQ-170 Sentinel. The White House has asked for it back. The Iranian government has responded with the diplomatic equivalent of, “In your […]

(December 2011) It is ungodly hot. Sweat cascades off of me; rivulets of perspiration form at the temple, and when I look down, they coalesce into drops that drip into my glasses. I am raining myself into a pair of bifocals. As an unhappy result, I can’t see, much less organize, the flight management system […]

Carol and I met Nick after accidentally parking our Cherokee Six in his spot. The spot was reserved for Key West Seaplane’s amphibian Cessna 206. It was Christmas Day. Because the FBO was closed, the ramp had become a semichaotic aluminum mess. After we adjusted a few airplane positions, Nick and I exchanged business cards […]

In our FBO Spotlight series, we’re highlighting FBOs around the country that have received rave reviews from our readers. This latest Spotlight is brought to you by Rick Steele, who recently flew into KRVS in a Mooney M20J. Here’s what he has to say about the great service at one of the airport’s FBOs, Riverside […]

Anybody can submit an online petition to the White House on any topic they choose — and that’s just what somebody has done in the wake of FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt’s abrupt departure from the agency this week, in an attempt to build public support for an intriguing potential replacement: Capt. Chesley Sullenberger, known better […]

The grass strip where I learned to fly in a Piper J-3 Cub in the late 1980s served as an ideal training environment for a new pilot — for about nine months out of the year, that is. In winter, the 1,900-foot turf runway would usually be covered in snow, ice, mud or sometimes a […]