Search Results for: general aviation inc

The short-field approach and landing is something we all learned as student pilots. Commercial students get to show some additional expertise. However, both the private and even commercial requirements are a bit relaxed and dont really prepare us for that maximum performance, white-knuckle experience of putting the airplane down on that postage stamp some joker sadistically calls a runway. When we say “short-field approach and landing,” were really talking about two entirely different situations with different techniques. Obstacles at the approach end of the runway determine how we will make the approach-whether we can “drag it in” a few feet off the ground, or if we have to make a steep descent to clear the FAAs standard-issue 50-foot tree right at the runway threshold.

It’s funny, the things that stick. Every day, people make comments to me. Whole conversations ensue. Years and years of words, sentences, stories and dissertations pile up in the mental “in” box. Yet out of all those words, only a few lines, jokes, pieces of advice or phrases actually imprint clearly enough on the internal […]

The new automatic flight control systems in airplanes ranging from fixed-gear singles to business jets are just amazing. I never imagined I would see such capability except in multimillion dollar jets, but it’s there in a Skyhawk. The big flat-glass displays get all of the attention, but it is the flight guidance computer at the […]

For many years airplanes have been the only transportation vehicles still allowed to use leaded fuel in the United States. Even NASCAR transitioned to unleaded gasoline for its stock car races a couple years ago in a symbolic move of going green. In aviation we have had a solid defense for leaded fuel because there […]

Last Week, the House passed its appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) 2010 budget. As part of the bill, the DHS would require the resubmission of a new notice of proposed rulemaking by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to replace the so-called Large Aircraft Security Program or LASP. Another provision of the […]

His FJ44 and FJ33 series engines spawned an entire class of light jets, and his ambition was to promote a generation of even smaller turbofans for four- to six-place aircraft. Dr. Sam Williams died Monday at the age of 88. His son Gregg, the current president, will now assume the added role of Chairman at […]

Looks like you guys will just have to put those type rating dreams on hold for a while. My “sure-thing” deal to buy the DC-3 from a museum imploding with internal conflicts, unpayable bills and looming bankruptcy kind of evaporated. Maybe they found an angel to pay off the loan or maybe somebody made a […]

Deborah Hersman has been named as the nominee for chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board. She would replace Mark Rosenker, who has been serving as interim chairman since his term expired last August. Hersman has been a member of the NTSB since 2004 and has led the investigations of many high-profile business aviation accidents, […]

The pulse of general aviation activity continues to show signs of life. Aviation research firm ARG/US compiles flight activity data through its TRAQPak program. The data represents serial-number-specific aircraft arrival and departure information for all IFR flights, including Hawaii and Alaska. In the ‘it’s not getting worse’ category, activity for May 2009 was down 15.5 […]

In the mid-60s I was posted to Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, home of Headquarters Strategic Air Command. I was not in the HQ, however, but in the Operations Squadron of Offutt’s Air Base Wing. The ABW ran all the base’s goods and services, we in the ops squadron provided support for all the aviators […]