Search Results for: general aviation inc

Just a couple of years ago they were about to close the doors on the facility that makes the ATR line of turboprop regional airliners. Total orders for the ATR 42 and 72 made by the European consortium had dropped to six, and no new customers were on the horizon. The regional jets (RJs) had […]

I have been flying my homebuilt for more than four years now, and have been recording performance points on almost every flight while looking for ways to reduce drag. The homebuilding community is full of stories about huge successes in drag reduction, but I think those guys must be starting with Wilgas. It turns out […]

When you get right down to it-the ground, that is-precise knowledge of local weather is the single critical factor determining whether your three-hour instrument flight is going to have a happy ending. Youll either get an easy peek at your flight-storys last page or itll become a cliffhanger at decision height, followed by a missed approach. Naturally, weather has a significant effect on the critical few minutes of an instrument approach (even a VFR approach), as well as our decision-making process.

Autopilots are a fabulous workload management tool. In a busy, single-pilot cockpit they quite literally can be a lifesaver. Weve come to accept their precision and dependability. Theres a growing viewpoint that a functioning autopilot is an essential requirement for all instrument flight-many pilots I know say they would not contemplate IFR without an autopilot.

Establishing someones basic medical fitness for flight has long been a prerequisite for pilot certification. Before even going far beyond initial lessons, primary students should have obtained at least a Class III FAA medical certificate, which is a requirement before their first solo.

The modern piston-engine airplane is really a technological marvel. For not that much more in fuel than a large SUV, one can operate an airplane in and through most weather conditions, over long distances and with navigational accuracy unheard of just a few years ago. At our fingertips are all kinds of aeronautical data and weather graphics. We have airborne sensors alerting us to thunderstorms and nearby airplanes. With the right equipment, we can send e-mail or make telephone calls, all from the comfort of our left seat.

Slamming the FAA over its made-for-airlines user fee scheme is quite fashionable right now among the various general aviation alphabet soup organizations. Although nothing on the horizon could do as much damage to general aviation, its important to understand an underlying reason the FAA gives for its user-fee proposal is to fund the Next Generation Air Transportation System, or NGATS.

Our long national nightmare-winter-is mostly over as I write this. Daylight Savings Time has arrived to those locales embracing it and engine pre-heaters are getting a well-deserved rest. As spring arrives, along comes a list of real and potential changes with which we all may need to contend.

I continue to be surprised about pilots having accidents while doing maneuvers close to the ground. This list includes airmen from a wide variety of backgrounds, including airshow performers, flight instructors, military pilots and general aviation pilots. It seems to me that some of us have forgotten or misplaced the early-learned information concerning the relationship between Gs and wing stall speed.

The number of our landings must always equal our takeoffs, or so goes the old adage. But sometimes the safest way to ensure equality is to do neither. Unlike birds possessing the gift of flight and whose skills are instinctive, we have the hard-won gift of thought. We earn our skills through repetition and reason.