Forcasting future trends is difficult in any business, but predicting the direction aviation will move has been particularly inaccurate over the past many decades. Part of the problem is that aviation is fundamentally cyclical, both in the manufacture of airplanes and in their use. Changes in the economy appear to have more to do with […]
April 1, 2006, Hudson, Colo.
Rans S-7 Experimental
At 1625 Mountain time, the aircraft was substantially damaged when it impacted an oil tank while landing. Visual conditions prevailed; the Airline Transport pilot and pilot-rated passenger sustained serious injuries. The pilot subsequently stated they were attempting to land on Runway 15 when the airplane impacted the oil tank on the left side of the runway. The right wing separated, and the right horizontal stabilizer was bent up and wrinkled. The closest official weather observation at the time of the accident included winds from 340 degrees at 21 knots, gusting to 27 knots. A peak wind recorded at 29 minutes past the hou…
Ferrying a Cessna Pressurized Centurion to its new home should not have been a great challenge. So why did two pilots manage to run it out of gas?
Way back in the early ’70s, when I was writing the “Student Pilot” column for Flying I wrote one titled, “I’d Rather Do It Myself.” In it I recounted my discomfort when approaching and landing at an airport that had no control tower. Airports without towers go by several names: uncontrolled, non-towered and perhaps most […]
A mantra in pilot training is that you should train the way you fly, and then fly the way you train. Thanks to its enormous fleet of Level C and D full-flight simulators, FlightSafety International has been providing absolute realism in flight training for many years, except in one area-high altitude physiology. Until now, the […]
It seemed like a simple exercise. With a masters degree in drama with a minor in film and television and post graduate work at the New York University institute of film and television, I thought I was qualified for the assignment to make a list of the best and worst aviation movies. My first thought […]
March 1, 2006, Manhattan, Kan.
Piper PA-32RT-300T
At approximately 1140 Central time, the airplane was substantially damaged when it struck several runway lights and a taxiway sign during a forced landing. Visual conditions prevailed; the Private pilot and his passenger were not injured. The cross-country flight was originating at the time of the accident. The pilot later said the engine began to surge as the airplane lifted off Runway 03. As the pilot executed a slow left turn towards Runway 13, the engine lost power. He managed to land on Runway 13, near its intersection with the departure runway, but the airplane was not aligned with the centerline. It went off the side…
In April, 2003, a Beech B200 King Air on approach to Fitchburg, Massachusetts, crashed about a mile from the airport. It had made a normal approach before overflying the runway, making a couple of steep turns and then diving into a single-story industrial building, penetrating the wall just below the roof. Of the King Air’s […]
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