Search Results for: aero lycoming coming more light sport aircraft

On April 3 there was a short e-mail from Dick Rutan to “All.” It said: Just a note … had a going away lunch at the Voyager Cafe Mojave with Burt and Tonya; after lunch they got in the car and are driving to the new home in Idaho as I write. So they are […]

(June 2011) There are good reasons that the Piper Archer is an airplane commonly found in flight school fleets. Its stable flight characteristics and simple design make it an excellent trainer. And with enough speed to get you where you want to go, but not too much to get you in trouble, as well as […]

(May 2011) DID WE ACTUALLY MAKE a better pilot out of anybody, save any lives or keep any bent airplanes from littering the landscape? Who knows, but we sure had a good time putting on Wings Weekend at Hogan Field or, more properly, Butler County Regional Airport in Hamilton, Ohio. It started with me (and […]

Fly cross-country, land off-airport, and splash into lakes—all in a kit aircraft you can build in just two weeks.

(February 2011) — It has been seldom in the history of aviation that a single technology has revolutionized the way we fly by addressing multiple problems facing the industry and solving them all. The most important such event was the widescale adoption of the turbine engine in the 1940s. Turbines, as you know, remedied (and […]

(January 2011) — Our industry is at an en route intersection. One airway leads to continued reduction in student starts, lack of retention of students and pilots, decline in flight activity and security-based encroachments on our privileges. On the other airway we might be able to sustain healthy growth and an expansion of the utility […]

WHAT IF YOU COULD bring back the magic of the golden age of aviation without the hassle of oil leaks, crummy brakes, no electrical system and short-lived fabric covering? Wouldn’t that be heaven for a pilot? Well, that’s exactly what Waco Classic Aircraft does. It builds brand-new sport biplanes right out of the 1930s but […]

Self-service avgas at my home airport is now $5.65 a gallon. And it promises to go higher with the next delivery from the fuel supplier. Suddenly, the cost of fuel is a much larger portion of my operating costs. I’ve been running lean of peak so the Lycoming IO-360 in my Cessna Cardinal runs at […]

**** It’s been almost 10 years since Austrian manufacturer Diamond Aircraft launched its all-composite four-seater, the DA40 Diamond Star, as a follow-on to its successful but payload-limited Katana two-seat trainer. I went to the Diamond factory in Austria back then to fly and photograph the Diamond Star, though I have to admit that based on […]

The year 1979 was the last big year of aircraft shipments. Almost 18,000 were sold that year. About 3,000 of those airplanes were piston twins. Today, any single that sells 534 units a year is red hot. In 1979, that’s how many Seneca twins Piper sold. If the piston single business looks lethargic when compared […]