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Theodore Robert Wright III, a young serial entrepreneur and pilot who gained notoriety for chronicling his larger-than-life flying exploits in photos on Facebook and Instagram, now faces the prospect of spending much of the rest of his life in prison after federal law enforcement officials charged the 32-year-old with multiple counts of insurance fraud. Federal […]

The Paris Air Show opened in June with the usual displays of military hardware and the latest passenger jets, but new and emerging technologies also attracted a lot of attention. Volocopter, a German company that has been developing a two-seat electric VTOL, announced it will work with the government of Dubai to test fly semi-autonomous air taxis by the end of this year. Boom unveiled the final design for a subscale prototype of its supersonic airliner, and said it will fly next year, with three GE engines. Airbus said its working on a new helicopter with a box-wing design that will cruise at 215 knots while maximizing efficiency. The Racer demonstrator will fly in 2020, Airbus said.

It was scary. We were more than a mile from the short runway, skimming the treetops in a Chinese-made Socata Trinidad look-alike. We were so low we couldn’t even see the runway. It took me a little while to figure out what was going on. This was the pilot’s idea of how to make a […]

Relevant Discussion: (FAR 71.41, 91.117, 91.126, 91.127, 91.129, 91.130, 91.131, 91.155, 91.215, AIM 3-2-1, 3-2-3) Class B Airspace: Surface to 7,000 feet msl (e.g., in Miami) or up to as high as 12,500 feet msl (e.g., Atlanta) surrounding the busiest airports. (The illustration above is an example only.) Individually tailored upside-down wedding cakes — and […]

The Pilatus PC-24, the “super versatile jet” from the Swiss manufacturer that is designed to bring many of the PC-12 turboprop’s unique capabilities to the bizjet market, is closing in on FAA and EASA certification as the test program continues to track on schedule. PC-24 production has started at Pilatus Aircraft’s headquarters in Stans, Switzerland, […]

TOMATO FLAMES? Are you kidding? I’m sitting with my friend and CFI Paul Sallach in the restaurant at the Inn at Furnace Creek in Death Valley, California, nibbling on a turkey BLT while doing the ground portion of my flight review, what people used to call a biannual flight review. All is well thus far. […]

Continuing to expand its market presence in the business jet world, Garmin announced a head-up display system to supplement its integrated flight decks. The Garmin Head-up Display (GHD 2100) delivers a 30-degree wide-angle view of pertinent flight information right in front of the pilot’s head, minimizing the time spent looking down and easing the transition […]

While on the base leg for his private grass airstrip, the pilot noticed he was high, so he added flaps to increase his descent rate. On final, the airspeed was a little fast and during the landing, he flared the airplane a little high. After touchdown, the pilot applied the brakes, but the airplane did not respond, so he applied a little more brake. The airplane nosed over and came to rest inverted, sustaining substantial damage to both wings and the empennage. The pilot reported he should have performed a go-around instead of attempting to salvage the landing.

I was motoring home from New Orleans a couple of months ago, sliding eastbound along the shoreline, IFR at 9000 feet. After a controller gave me a frequency change for the next controller, I switched over and listened, which I always do when coming onto a new frequency. The first transmission I heard was a pilot saying something like …and we have four hours of fuel aboard. Hmmm. In my experience, its rare for anyone to talk about their fuel availability on an ATC frequency unless theres an emergency in progress and ATC wants to know souls and endurance.

Each of us, or maybe just most of us, has a parental figure who looms large in our day-to-day lives. I know I do. My tall, imposing father held us kids to high standards, and for the most part we benefited mightily from these great expectations. As I grew up, I would project onto other […]