Search Results for: DC-3

That year winter arrived on the heels of a cold front that marked the end of an interminably long and hot Ohio Valley summer, one that lasted nearly to Thanksgiving. Arriving at the ‘drome for a flight check I got a brutal reminder that airports are the coldest places on the planet. Back to the […]

Every once in a while life intrudes on this love affair I have with airplanes, and I feel like that bewildered soldier at Little Big Horn: “Mr. Custer, what are we doing here?” How often did I gaze out the window of some FAA office (when they were still on airports), angry, frustrated or scared […]

I Shivered a little that September morning at Nashua Airport, on a ladder with my finger in the left tank of the Cessna 180 taildragger. Good, the 100LL was puddling over the flaps. Topping these tanks was kind of funky because the airplane had rubber bladders and stiffly hinged flappers under the caps … new […]

From almost our very first flying lesson, pilots are taught what to do in the event a single-engine airplanes lone powerplant fails. As with too many concepts at that early stage of our training, we basically accept what were taught without many questions. Later, as we gain experience, we begin to think more about those early lessons and try to apply to them what our experience has taught us. In turn, many questions can arise. If your airplane ever becomes a glider, you would suddenly become very interested in its new aerodynamics. How promptly and accurately you can remember to make the most of the variables at your disposal would play a large part in determining where and how softly you land. Lets take a look at those variables and how they can affect your emergency glide.

The old saying about gear-up landings-“There are those who have and those who will”-applies to all of us flying retractables. Perhaps a fatalistic outlook, its also an admonition to perform those pre-landing checklists at least once each flight. Beyond that, the saying also admits few, if any, have died or were even seriously injured in a gear-up landing. Depending on the circumstances of such misfortune, the airplane might be only minimally damaged. While few of us fly DC-3s, that airplane and others like it are quite capable of landing without the gear extended, likely damaging only the props. Check the engines, hang new props, jack the airplane and its good to go.

The Catalina was born on the frigid shores of Lake Erie in 1928 when Consolidated Aircraft Corporation, then located in Buffalo, assembled the XPY-1 prototype of a long-range flying patrol boat for the U.S. Navy. It’s ironic that the airplane that would become a symbol of World War II in the South Pacific couldn’t even […]

“I always use flaps for climb. I get more lift that way.” Some would call this statement perfectly logical, because flaps do increase lift and increased lift certainly ought to make an airplane climb faster. Others would say that the reasoning is fallacious, and that flaps, by increasing drag, reduce rate of climb rather than […]

It wasn’t until one of the very last stops and the very last day of my visit at Oshkosh that I really understood that I still lead a sheltered airline life. The revelation didn’t sink in until my jaw went slack after catching a surprised glimpse of Larry Neal’s flying motorcycle exhibited in the Ultralight […]

It has been 50 years since Safe Flight Instrument Company developed the first practical autothrottle system but only a small minority of pilots have been able to fly this most useful and safety enhancing equipment. But that is starting to change. Safe Flight is now offering its AutoPower system in midsize business jets, when before […]

I know nothing about art or photography. Nothing. Can’t tell a Rauschenberg from a Rosenquist; a Diane Arbus from an Airbus. I do, though, have some favorite images that I store in my mind and, when I have the money and the wall space, in my home or office. Of course, most of these images […]