Search Results for: lone star jet

It would be tough for anyone even remotely close to the aviation industry not to realize there is a shortage of well-qualified pilots here in the United States. The effects of the age-65 retirement adjustment in 2009 really began grabbing airline pilots out of the cockpit the past few years. Adding to the problem is […]

I’m hanging out with photo­grapher Jeff Berlin and Quest’s chief demo pilot Mark Brown beside the stunning Green River, which through the millennia has carved a deep gorge flanked by dramatic red rock cliff walls through Canyonlands National Park in Utah. The river begins at the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming and feeds into the […]

Spend even a few minutes comparing the operation of an avgas-powered engine to a diesel—also known as a compression-ignition engine or a jet-A power plant—and a number of diesel benefits jump right out. Diesel engines don’t have spark plugs, and demand no magnetos. Jet-A-burning piston engines are water-cooled too, meaning they’re less susceptible to overheating […]

When people tell you they’ve watched their lives pass before their eyes, it’s usually in reaction to some kind of near-death trauma. Seeing much of my own life come back to me last week though, was actually centered around something good, even if it was a bit overwhelming. Last Wednesday night I was presented with […]

I have never thought of myself as much of a warbird guy — at least until I went back in time to the summer I was unsuspectingly infected with a love for old military airplanes. It was during a summer volunteer job at the EAA Airshow in Rockford, Illinois, the precursor to AirVenture. I worked […]

The sun is shining and the fish are calling, but it’s online catch-up day on Windbird. We spent the past week at beautiful, isolated Conception Island, Bahamas: No people, no internet — it was heaven on earth. The news headlines that greeted Dawn and me upon our return made us wish we’d stayed a little […]

There was nobody to marshal us in as we wheeled into the parking spot. After we shut the old Navajo down and started looking around to see where to go after we got out, a man ran up to the pilot side of the airplane. I opened the little side window and expectantly bent an […]

Most general aviation pilots dream at some point about owning an airplane. There are no substitutes for the ability to jump into your own airplane and take off wherever, whenever, without any scheduling, time restrictions and costly minimum daily requirements. Or are there? If you’re not flying at least 100 hours per year, full ownership […]

The market for new Part 23 and Part 25 general aviation airplanes has yet to see a return to the brisk sales levels recorded before the 2008 financial crisis, but slow deliveries can be blamed at least in part on the encouraging fact that many buyers say they are merely waiting for certification of new […]

Walking into the FBO in Charlottesville, Virginia, I hear, “I don’t like your stuff. I used to like you, but I don’t anymore. You are drinking way too much Kool-Aid.” I am a little taken aback by this tirade. I look up to see a NetJets captain. “You make this sound way better than it is,” […]