Search Results for: general aviation inc

In recent years, the general aviation community has complained our activity has grown too complicated and, as a result, applicants for the private pilot certificate now average about 70 or so hours before passing a checkride. Yes, aviation has gotten more complicated, but we should question the notion it takes that many hours in an airplane to become a competent private pilot. A corollary is that existing practices also can be improved to benefit existing pilots and enhance their recurrent training experience.

A veteran airshow pilot says an unleaded biofuel gasoline undergoing testing in his Sukhoi Su-26M is providing power similar to conventional 100LL aviation fuel while greatly boosting his range. It is the latest sign that an alternative to leaded avgas may be within reach. Rick Volker of Rick Volker Air Shows in Niagara Falls, New […]

LightSquared, the company that is rolling out a nationwide broadband network operating in frequencies very near those of GPS, claims it is closing in on final approvals from the Federal Communications Commission after the successful completion of the latest round of interference testing. The company said it believes the FCC will make a decision on […]

May you live in interesting times” is often referred to as a Chinese curse, though its provenance isn’t clear. Unfortunately, the times have become increasingly “interesting” at the FAA. Most recently, Administrator Randy Babbitt’s resignation in the aftermath of his DUI arrest will leave the agency rudderless. Babbitt’s deputy, Michael Huerta, was named acting administrator but given next year’s looming general election, it’s likely Congress will refuse to even consider confirming a full-time replacement until at least January 2013.

Though perhaps unintended, the results of Tom Turner’s survey of 100 CFIs concerning slips in the December 2011 issue (“Slips…Who Needs ‘Em?”) further reinforce my experience that instructors—and by extension, the pilots they train—generally lack a solid understanding of slip dynamics. For example, the listed advantages of slipping focused mostly on stock answers: losing altitude, canceling crosswind drift. One respondent commented about fire. But what about the utility of slips and slipping turns for split flaps, jammed ailerons or a jammed rudder? Or asymmetric thrust events in twins?

The grass strip where I learned to fly in a Piper J-3 Cub in the late 1980s served as an ideal training environment for a new pilot — for about nine months out of the year, that is. In winter, the 1,900-foot turf runway would usually be covered in snow, ice, mud or sometimes a […]

Randy Babbitt resigned late Tuesday as FAA Administrator two days after he was arrested in Fairfax, Virginia, for alleged drunk driving. Fairfax police said that the administrator was driving on the wrong side of the road. It is the policy of Fairfax police to release the names of public officials they arrest and to not […]

Nearly eight years after Mayor Richard M. Daley ordered the demolition of the runway at Meigs Field near downtown Chicago, very little has been done to implement the plans set forth for the manmade Northerly Island. What had been a flourishing airport since the late 1940s was to be redeveloped into a lush park and […]

When I read about the lack of progress at the Northern Island redevelopment near downtown Chicago in political columnist Greg Hinz’s blog last week, I felt a familiar sense of nausea. It was the feeling I got when I first saw a picture of the large Xs carved into one of the most incredible aviation […]

When was the last time you flew a slip? Are slips a necessary maneuver belonging in every pilot’s skill set? Or are they an aerial anachronism, a holdover from earlier flying days, with little application to the modern world? Slips originated in aviation’s early days, when most, if not all, airplanes lacked wing flaps. They were and are used to increase the angle of descent on approach, and to get the airplane’s nose out of the way of the pilot (who often sat well aft) to better see the runway ahead when landing. Given the genesis of the art of slipping, should we still be expected to master it?