Search Results for: j c aircraft engine

In Harry Met Sally, Meg Ryan is described as “high maintenance,” meaning that satisfying her needs is never simple or straightforward; keeping her happy requires constant attention. Anyone who owns an airplane is familiar with “high maintenance.” But maintaining an airplane so it meets the FAA’s basic airworthiness requirements isn’t as much about the expense […]

The wreckage of a Grob G115D, a German-built, all-composite, aerobatic two-seat trainer, was spread out over an area nearly half a mile long and 400 feet wide-this despite the fact the airplane was sighted shortly before the accident by a witness on the ground who estimated its height, in level flight, as only 500 feet. […]

||| |—|—| | | | At first glance, I don’t even recognize him. Nine years ago, Hank Potter was a vibrant, jolly soul, full of laughter, fire and stories of being Jimmy Doolittle’s navigator on the famous B-25 raid of Tokyo in 1942. Today, he and the 11 other “Doolittle Raiders” who were able to […]

||| |—|—| | | | The pilot was really excited. After taking out a second mortgage on his house and forgoing the purchase of a new car, he finally had his new IFR-certified, panel-mounted GPS with all the bells and whistles. Shortly after the installation was complete and approved he headed off on a flight […]

I’m sick of the term “pilot error.” A true pilot error is a rare event. But what is so often labeled a pilot error is actually a pilot decision that didn’t result in the outcome expected by the pilot, the regulators or the public. Real pilot errors can only occur in transport-category airplanes that are […]

It was a Saturday in June, in the middle of the afternoon, a clear day, in open country-a most perilous time and place. Three sport airplanes-a Pitts S-1, an Acro Sport and an RV-6-were on their way from an airshow at the Longmont Airport, on the north side of Denver, to Centennial Airport at Englewood, […]

The equatorial sun is just rising over an acacia tree beyond the thatched roof aircraft shelter at Lewa Downs’ Wilderness Trails airstrip as I stow my gear and climb into the right seat of Will Craig’s Piper Saratoga. “There’s nothing like seeing this land early in the morning,” he says with a smile as he […]

A private pilot and his father-in-law made a 300-mile trip to visit a friend. It was winter. They arrived in late morning. They reported that they had encountered instrument conditions but had been able to drop down below the overcast and continue to the destination, an uncontrolled airport. This must have required some fairly low […]

CAE’s full-flight simulators create an illusion of reality that can fool even the most cynical pilots. A web-based distance-learning program is under development. At least the oxygen masks didn’t drop down,” I said defensively as I bounced the Airbus A320 during a hard landing. It was a short field carved into a hillside on the […]