Search Results for: flying w airport

The first “glass” cockpit airplane that I flew was a Falcon 10 or 100, well over 20 years ago. At that time the nomenclature was EFIS (for electronic flight instrumentation system), the equipment was from Collins radio and basically it replicated the mechanical flight instruments. I recall that the depiction was not particularly crisp and […]

When the first satellite weather receiver was installed in my Baron several years ago the local FAA inspectors insisted that the radio shop put a placard near the display commanding that “Satellite Weather Information Not To Be Used For IFR Navigation” before they would approve the system. I thought that was about the stupidest placard […]

An insurance company executive mentioned to me the other day that the pilot who worries him most is the one who buys a general aviation piston airplane with the idea he can use it to replace his airline travel. I knew immediately what he meant. The accident record shows thatpiston airplane pilots have very few […]

I recently signed up for Social Security and had to dig out my DD214, the military service record that summed up my two years in uniform. Reading through the form, I was reminded that I’d actually earned the Good Conduct Medal. No big deal, really, it just meant that I’d toed the line and curbed […]

Two pilots left South Jersey Regional Airport in a Piper Arrow at about five o’clock on an April afternoon for some instrument flying practice. The left seat pilot, with 334 hours, had single engine land and sea and instrument ratings; she had logged 100 hours of simulated and nine hours of actual instrument time, as […]

When I first started writing about small airplane shared ownership options back in 1998, there weren’t a lot of choices available. OurPlane had been doing business for a while and had locations (and an airplane or two) at several airports in the United States and Canada. Down in Atlanta, another company, AirShares Elite, was just […]

Four of the last five airplanes that I bought were new. The one that wasn’t new had but 500 hours on it. That was years ago, the last being in 1979. Still, I know the real thrill that comes from getting a brand-new airplane and being the only person, other than the test pilot, who […]

As we ate breakfast at the kitchen counter, Carol and I fixated on the TV in the corner. CNN was reporting, ad nauseam, on the foiled terrorist plot in the UK. An innovative plan for mass murder on commercial airliners had become part of terrorist ingenuity. For those of you who are familiar with Bomb […]

The sight was breathtakingly sad. A middle-aged woman wearing a bright red blazer scurried across the tarmac to her waiting NetJets Cessna Encore. I sat on a bench just outside the entrance to our FBO, transfixed, wondering why she was hurrying. I had seen her before. A few minutes earlier I had watched as she […]

In many ways, my AirVenture experience at Oshkosh this year was one of my best. On the day before the official opening of the show, I won a Garmin 496. It was during Garmin’s press conference where the new top-of-the-line GPSMAP was introduced. The contest was to guess closest to the number of handheld aviation […]